Invenite 2020 Issue 4

ACADEMIC PORTRAIT Polly Macpherson on the joy of ‘making’ and sharing it with a national audience.

The

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT Cave diver Josh Bratchley MBE recalls the remarkable rescue of a trapped football team in Thailand

UNDER THE MICROSCOPE Plymouth academics exploring the scientific and artistic boundaries of Dartmoor.

Al um n i & Fr i en d s m a g a z i n e INVENITE i ssu e 4

Invenite COVER STORY The Queen’s Anniversary Prize awarded to the University of Plymouth for pioneering research on marine micro-plastics pollution and its impact on the environment and changing behaviour.

THE BIG INTERVIEW Professor Deborah Greaves OBE reveals the power and irresistible lure of the sea.

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WE LCOME

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The Queen’s Anniversary Prizes For Higher and Further Education

2019

Welcome to this special edition of Invenite.

In February, I, along with our Chancellor and a number of colleagues and students from the University, had the great privilege of receiving the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher Education in a special ceremony at Buckingham Palace. This award recognises nearly two decades of worldleading research and policy impact relating to microplastics and marine litter.

This is the highest prize that can be bestowed upon a UK university or college; and it is the third time that the University has been awarded it, and the second to reflect our excellence in marine and maritime research.

Many University colleagues, past and present, have made an invaluable contribution to this remarkable body of work. Indeed, Professor Richard Thompson and his team first defined the term microplastics as far back as 2004, and have remained at the forefront of a now global research field, influencing legislation both here and in Canada, and keeping the issue in the public eye through tireless public and industry engagement.

Marine and maritime research is an intrinsic element of the University’s heritage, its identity and its strategy and future. In this issue, you will find other examples of our people leading the way in their respective fields and contributing to this agenda, whether through offshore renewable energy or understanding the socioeconomic and human challenges facing coastal communities.

It is also a significant element of the Mayflower 400 commemorations across the city, in which we are a key partner.

We are, of course, a University that is equally fortunate to be located so close to Dartmoor, a site of such significant scientific, environmental, archaeological and geological interest. As you will also discover in these pages, our scientists and our artists have harnessed it as a key inspiration for our research and practice.

Professor Judith Petts CBE Vice-Chancellor, University of Plymouth

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Research by the University discovered that some cosmetic products contained up to 2.8 million microbeads.

This was crucial scientific evidence used by the government in passing legislation prohibiting their use.

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Plymouth Pioneers launched on billboards across the capital – Professor Gerd Masselink, Professor

“Our ongoing campaign reframes Deborah Greaves OBE, Professor that heritage as a modern-day story Alison Raby, Professor Richard of how the University of Plymouth Thompson OBE, Professor Kevin established itself as an international Jones, and Professor Mat Upton – the pioneer in research, teaching and inaugural academics who have led sustainability practices,” says Professor pioneering research into coastal processes, coastal engineering, marine Jerry Roberts, Deputy Vice-Chancellor – Research and Enterprise. “It charts and biology, maritime cybersecurity and celebrates our quest to understand medical microbiology between them. the challenges faced by the As part of the campaign, a range of environment, our passion to advance videos and written content are being thinking on issues of vital importance produced that focuses upon the work such as climate change and renewable of the academics, with more to be energies, and our pioneering spirit profiled later in the year. in seeking novel approaches to remedying them.”

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Plymouth is renowned for its historical connection to pioneers of the past.

From Drake to Darwin, Cook to Chichester, the city’s coastal location has provided a maritime gateway for many expeditions and voyages of discovery. The University has paid tribute to that heritage through a new and ongoing campaign that celebrates some of the academics that have helped to establish its international reputation.

Professor Kevin Jones

Professor Alison Raby

Professor Deborah Greaves, OBE

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Professor Gerd Masselink

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Dr Michael Jarvis, Associate Professor (Reader) in Virology and Immunology

The University’s intellectual property partner Frontier IP has supported TVG, Fieldwork Robotics and several other successful University spinouts, along with the Research and Innovation team.

University sets course for maritime cyber-security excellence Research into the issue of cybersecurity in the shipping industry is an area of expertise for the University – and one that has been boosted by two major funding successes. Firstly, the University is to establish a £3 million CyberSHIP Lab, supported by investment from Research England, which will bring together a host of connected maritime systems currently found on an actual ship’s bridge.

The Lab will complement the The University’s Ship Simulator University’s existing maritime facilities, including its ship simulator, and is being developed and delivered in partnership with key industry sectors including equipment manufacturers, solution developers, shipping and port operators, ship builders, classification agencies and insurance companies. It will feature cutting-edge maritime technology such as radar equipment, voyage data recorders (VDR), Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDIS), automatic identification systems (AIS) and communications devices.

Plymouth is also the only UK institution to have been invited to join the €7million, eight-country, Cyber-MAR project, which over the next three years will work to develop greater awareness of the cyber threats facing the global shipping fleet and the most effective ways of countering them.

Professor Kevin Jones, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering, and the University’s lead for both projects, said: “Cyber-attacks are a Tier1 National UK threat, so these are very timely developments both for our University and the interests of our national shipping industry. The creation of the Cyber-SHIP Lab is a transformational step towards developing a national centre for research into maritime cyber-security, and through Cyber-MAR, Plymouth can create training programmes that will prepare future workforces for the threats they might encounter and how to tackle them.”

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The Vaccine Group, launched to commercialise the work of Dr Michael Jarvis, Associate Professor (Reader) in Virology and Immunology, has raised £680,000 in funding to enhance its research into novel vaccine technologies targeting zoonotic diseases – those which jump from animals to humans. These include Ebola, bird flus and SARs as well as those that impact economically important livestock, such as bovine tuberculosis.

Meanwhile, Fieldwork Robotics, which advances the robotics expertise of Dr Martin Stoelen, has raised almost £300,000 through an initial equity funding round. This will accelerate and scale up the development of its novel robotics technology for harvesting soft fruit and vegetables, including a raspberry-picking version that has successfully completed two field trials with one of the UK’s leading fruit growers.

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Two innovative businesses that have commercially ‘spun out’ from University research have raised almost £1 million in equity funding this year to advance their groundbreaking endeavours.

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SPINOUT COMPANIES RAISE £1 MILLION IN EQUITY FUNDING

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Pages 14–23

The Big Interview Professor Deborah Greaves OBE From the Marine Building to Wembury Beach, Professor Deborah Greaves OBE reveals how the power of the sea has defined her career and shaped her life.

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The University receives a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for its world-leading research on microplastics and marine litter.

How transport defines the places in which we live.

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Opinion

Professor Jon Shaw

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Academic Portrait

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Opinion

Polly Macpherson On the joy of making things with our own hands and inspiring people to connect with their creative self.

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UK’s first National Marine Park

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Under the Microscope

Guest Feature

Dartmoor

Harry Perrin

The magnificent moor on our doorstep has been the subject of significant research from University academics across the sciences and arts.

Reflections upon the value of quiet corners and the space to think.

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Pages 54–55

Alumni Spotlight

Students George Modica-Cliff and Rebekkah Duff are pursuing their goals in engineering and medicine thanks to the generosity of donors.

The award-winning cave rescue diver, and Ocean Science with Meteorology graduate, reveals how his university experience took his love of adrenaline sports deep underground.

Fundraising

Josh Bratchley MBE

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Pages 56–65

Mayflower 400

In Conversation

The University is playing a key role in the year of commemoration for the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower crossing.

Business Studies alumni A 40th anniversary reunion, nostalgic reflection, and a look at how the University has changed and developed.

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Social diary and events A look back at some of the key alumni gatherings, and a round up of forthcoming events.

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University awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for microplastics and marine litter research

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Standfirst: From a beach in the north of England to a Royal reception at Buckingham Palace: Plymouth’s pioneering research on microplastics pollution in the oceans and its impact on the environment and changing behaviour has been recognised with the most prestigious honour in higher education.

OR MORE THAN 20 YEARS, the University of Plymouth has been at the forefront of research into plastic marine litter. Arguably, Professor Richard Thompson OBE and his team have done more than most to define it.

was recognised for 150 years of marine research and education in its second QAP, HRH The Prince of Wales and HRH The Duchess of Cornwall presented the medal and certificate to ViceChancellor Professor Judith Petts CBE and Professor Thompson.

From the moment they published their seminal paper, Lost at Sea: Where is all the Plastic, in 2004, in which they characterised for the first time ‘microplastics’, they’ve been thought-leaders and standard-bearers, not just for the scientific research, but public and policy engagement as well.

Members of the International Marine Litter Research Unit have been repeatedly called upon to provide evidence and expert testimony to governmental panels, to address international conferences, and to engage with industry groups to look at how we might move towards a more circular economy.

It’s been a consistently collaborative approach that has generated genuine impact, from legislation prohibiting the use of microbeads in cosmetics, to inspiring schoolchildren around the world to write letters of support for their work.

“The award of our third Queen’s Anniversary Prize is a huge honour for the University and recognises the pioneering role that it has played in not only defining a global environmental issue, but working to find solutions to it,” Professor Petts said. “Challenges on this scale require a coordinated response at a societal level, and what really sets the institution apart is its willingness to engage with all parties in a bid to stimulate change. Richard Thompson and his team’s work in microplastics, indeed defining the very problem itself, is part of the University’s wider and globally renowned marine and maritime research, which, through a wide range of disciplines, addresses some of the world’s most pressing issues.”

At Buckingham Palace in February, that legacy and influence was honoured with the coveted Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education.

Eight years after the University

Following the presentation, Professor Petts and Professor Thompson joined other members of the International Marine Litter Research Unit, student representatives, and the University’s Chancellor, The Lord Jonathan Kestenbaum, for a reception hosted by HRH The Prince of Wales.

Lord Kestenbaum said: “I am immensely proud of this University, and it was a great privilege to be with Judith, Richard and some of the many staff and students who have made such an important contribution to our knowledge and understanding of this issue. Excellence in marine research and education is a defining characteristic of the University, and I hope that this award will serve to inspire future generations to join Plymouth and continue this pioneering approach.”

AS HE RECOUNTED in issue 2’s Big Interview, Professor Richard Thompson first became aware of the issue of marine litter during his undergraduate days in Newcastle. And it was while undertaking his PhD in Liverpool that he further developed an appreciation not only of the scale of the issue, but also the absence from the data capture sheets of the most abundant types of plastic – the smaller fragments.

“In hindsight, the question was right under our noses – ’What was the smallest piece of plastic on the beach?’” says Professor Thompson says. “Everything was geared towards recording big ticket items – tyres, fishing gear, crate – and we were overlooking the smaller pieces that were prevalent on all of our beaches.”

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“The award of our third Queen’s Anniversary Prize is a huge honour for the University and recognises the pioneering role that it has played in not only defining a global environmental issue, but working to find solutions to it.”

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HRH The Prince of Wales and HRH The Duchess of Cornwall presenting the QAP medal and certificate to Vice-Chancellor Professor Judith Petts CBE and Professor Thompson at Buckingham Palace.

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hat seminal 2004 paper in Science answered the important question as to why, despite exponential increases in plastic production, monitoring data from the environment did not show a clear increase in plastic debris. It revealed categorically that there had been rising levels of microscopic plastic debris evident in the plankton record since the 1960s. In the years since, Richard has led further fundamental research projects, showing: the global distribution of microplastics; their ingestion by fish and other commercially important marine life; the role that textiles and wastewater play in their source and transmission; and the presence of plastic microbeads in some cosmetic products.

who helped take the University’s research on marine litter into more interdisciplinary waters, leading to the development of new lines of enquiry in the areas of human behaviour and risk perception of the plastic pollution. Sabine was one of the leads for the first-ever Europe-wide study of public and stakeholder attitudes towards marine litter, and working with Professor Thompson and others conducted a series of funded research projects including: how marine litter undermines the psychological benefits of exposure to the marine environment; how beach cleans can have benefits to a person’s wellbeing; and how children and adults respond to experiential hands-on activities about plastic pollution and microplastics.

influence we can wield with manufacturers and legislators.”

Much of the recent headlinemaking research, particularly around microbeads and washing machines, has been led by Dr Imogen Napper. The inspirational young scientist selffunded her PhD, and produced seven published papers that were all rated in the top 5% of publications according to their Altmetrics. Imogen has delivered a number of key presentations to meetings at both national and international level, and she has also found time to join the eXXpedition North Pacific project that conducted scientific experiments and outreach work in British Columbia, as well as become one of three scholars with Sky Ocean Rescue and National Geographic.

“The behavioural issue is so important because we as consumers and members of the public can help drive change through the choices we make.”

“The work we have done at the University has had a really major role in raising awareness of the topic, acting as a tipping point for the academic community, as well as for industry, policy and the general public,” Richard said. “Many people, past and present at the University, nationally and internationally, have made an invaluable contribution to the work we have done over nearly 20 years, and the Queen’s Anniversary Prize is reward for our endeavours, achievements and commitment.”

If Richard has been the figurehead for microplastics research, the contribution from colleagues in both natural and social sciences has been truly profound. At the outset, the now retired Professor Steve Rowland and his team provided not only the geochemistry expertise that underpinned those foundational science papers, but also academic advice and mentorship in developing the International Marine Litter Unit.

It was Professor Sabine Pahl, from the School of Psychology,

Such has been her influence that Professor Pahl became the first social scientist to be appointed as a vice-chair on one of SAPEA’s (Science Advice for Policy by European Academies) working groups – the one on microplastics, understandably.

Based on the SAPEA work she was then invited to represent both the UK and the EU at a G7 workshop on microplastics in 2019 and is currently leading a global stocktake on plastic pollution interventions for UNEP. “I approached Richard about working together at a time when very few, if any, universities had linked natural and social sciences in this field,” Professor Pahl said. “The behavioural issue is so important because we as consumers and members of the public can help drive change through the choices we make and the

“It’s been an incredible couple of years – both in the context of the work the University has done and also for me as an early career researcher,” said Imogen, who has recently completed important research into biodegradable plastic shopping bags. “The world has woken up to the issue of plastics in the marine environment, and the evidence is that our younger generations are so much more engaged. We need to keep this momentum going. Looking at the whole problem can be quite overwhelming, but if we work on our own little part of the jigsaw, I know that people around the world are doing the same. This is very encouraging.”

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Winners are chosen after an extended review process involving experts, specialists and organisations in the public and nongovernmental sector, before a shortlist is drawn up for consideration by the Arts Council of the Royal Anniversary Trust. Finally, a list is presented to The Queen for approval on the Prime Minister’s advice.

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Winning institutions receive a Prize Medal in silver-gilt, designed by the late Gerald Benney, one of the leading British silversmiths of the twentieth century, and a Prize Certificate signed

by The Queen.

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Awarded by HRH The Queen on a biennial basis, the QAP is the highest national honour that can be awarded to a further or higher education institution. They recognise outstanding work that combines quality and innovation with tangible benefit and impact on the wider world and public through education and training.

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Deborah Greaves OBE

The guns of HMS Cambridge may have fallen silent nearly 20 years ago but there is a remarkable roar in the air at Wembury Point this autumnal day.

A stiff south-westerly is leading the charge of waves onto the beach, pounding it flat in percussive beats. Overhead, the huge clouds that have unloaded intermittent heavy rain in the preceding hours have temporarily been scoured from the sky, a fragile truce of brilliant blue holding for now.

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love the power of the sea,” says Deborah Greaves OBE, Professor of Ocean Engineering, looking out towards Great Mewstone, the small island standing half a mile off-shore. “You can really feel its energy standing here, the way the waves crash onto the rocks.”

We’re standing on Langdon beach, a small stony shore beneath Wembury Point. The land was once home to a gunnery school, which closed at the turn of the millennium, the victim of spending cuts and technological progress. Much of it is now owned by the National Trust, who are returning it to a wild state, save for a small radar facility still operated by the Ministry of Defence. On the shoreline in front of us you can just about discern the outline of an old swimming pool, one whose holiday camp heyday of the 1920s has long been swept away by time and tide.

“I grew up here, and when I was a child we would spend a lot of time on this beach and swimming in the sea,” Deborah recalls. “We would head out onto the Mewstone in a rowing boat and explore. And on Thursdays, a plane would fly over the water, trailing a target, and the cadets at HMS Cambridge would fire the guns at it. It was incredibly loud.”

Nowadays, the ‘rush hour’ of cars going to and from the base has been replaced by dog-walkers and their companions strolling along the coast path. Deborah’s own dog, a Labrador-Springer called Freya, barrels into the surf to fetch a briny branch before returning to shore to begin its enthusiastic deconstruction.

“It’s been lovely to be able to come back here and share this with my family,” says Deborah, who returned to South Devon in 2008 when she joined the University. “I left home at 18 for my degree, and lived in Bristol, London and Bath. But I always missed the sea. When you’ve been brought up somewhere like here where you can always hear the sea, even at night, it draws you back. We were fortunate enough to be able to buy the house next door to where I grew up, and my mum is still living there now!”

A good deal had changed during those intervening years, not least the closure of HMS Cambridge. And those waves of Deborah’s childhood have now taken on added significance – they have become her professional focus.

Despite hailing from a family of the arts and humanities, Deborah – Head of the University’s School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics, and Director of the Coastal, Ocean and Sediment Transport Laboratory – excelled at mathematics and sciences at school. By the age of 13, she had already set her heart and mind on becoming a civil engineer, and as a pupil of Coombe Dean (where she was a classmate of another future engineering professor – and colleague – Alison Raby) and then Plymouth College, she was not afraid to walk onto a construction site and ask for work experience.

“I liked the idea of working outside,” Deborah says. “And I was also attracted by the fact that you’re building something that is permanent and helps improve people’s lives.”

Deborah enrolled on the BEng (Hons) in Civil Engineering in Bristol, and after graduating

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Looking out to sea on a day like today, when the wind and tide create a confusing, ever-shifting landscape, you struggle to comprehend how a computer could even begin to predict its behaviour and characteristics. But for Deborah, physical and numerical modelling are complementary disciplines that inform and bring insight to one another.

“I enjoy working with computers and coding – everything can be perfect and idealised in the computer, which of course is not the case in the real world,” she says. “Being able to calculate using equations and visualise onscreen the beautiful patterns and shapes you get in wave structure interaction has always fascinated me. It is important to understand those elements, but to do so in conjunction with physical modelling. You obtain insight from the model, but you need the experiment to tie it to reality.”

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Building” Deborah says, “When I arrived, my first strategic project was to create a plan for new wave tanks designed for the marine renewable energy sector – that would ultimately lead to the creation of the COAST Lab. For the first time I was able to bring the two disciplines together, running physical experiments in the tank and then creating a numerical mirror on the computer.”

With Deborah’s arrival, the University accelerated its entry into the field of marine renewable energy research, the most embryonic of the elemental green energy forms. In 2011, it launched the country’s first MSc devoted to the subject, and the following year it opened the Marine Building, with its state of the art wave tanks and flumes designed to be used by students, researchers and industry.

Major research successes followed, funded by the likes of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Horizon 2020 and Innovate UK. They included the £2 million, 10-partner European project called SOWFIA, which examined how wave farms could operate within EU directives for environmental conservation.

Soon, the University was invited to become a member of the Supergen consortium devoted to marine energy, led since its inception from the University of Edinburgh, and it then hosted its first annual assembly to be held south of the border. Deborah also became the founding Chair for PRIMaRE (the Partnership for Research in Marine Renewable Energy), a network of marine energy experts based in the region including universities, research laboratories, and industry conduits such as the South West Marine Energy Park.

But despite the best endeavours of Deborah’s first academic post was at government, industry and research partners University College London, lecturing such as the University, marine renewables, in mechanical engineering and naval whether generated by waves or tides, have architecture, before she moved on to the proven to be a brutally difficult endeavour.

University of Bath in 2000. She had spent On a day like to today, it is not hard to see why. eight years there working in civil engineering and hydrodynamics of offshore structures, “What is very apparent when you come to a when a role came up at Plymouth that focused beach on a windy day is the immense power upon marine renewable energy. And with a of the sea,” says Deborah. “And it does not family of three, and a chance to move into a stop; it is not just one impact, but it keeps on new area of research, it was an opportunity going and going. I have come to this beach she seized with relish. for many years and the shape of the cliffs is “The University had a good reputation in coastal engineering, a long track record, built using the 20 wave flume in the Brunel

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But when Deborah got to Oxford, there were no wave tanks or facilities to undertake physical research. Instead, she developed a new skill, in computational fluid dynamics and wave modelling on computers, one that would influence the rest of her career.

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“I took a year out to travel around Australia and the world, and when I came back, I enrolled on a DPhil at Oxford,” she says.

“I still had that desire to do something that was related to the sea and to the waves.”

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in 1988, started her career at a design office in London, where she had the opportunity to gain experience on a number of projects including the development of the Jubilee Line Extension. After four years, however, she was looking for a new challenge, and so she decided to make a change.

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can not merely survive but perform reliably is an immense challenge. There are no half measures to survive in this environment.”

It is just seven miles from Wembury Point to the University campus, but the surroundings – and conditions – could hardly be more contrasting.

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We’re standing beside the large wavegenerating pistons of the Ocean Basin, the magnificent swimming pool-sized facility at the heart of the Marine Building. Looming above us are several wooden structures that are to be used in the installation of wind

power in the COAST Lab – the facility that coordinates the research and development work at the heart of the University’s mission to support marine renewables.

But the object of our attention is not the Ocean Basin, nor the smaller coastal tank elevated above it. Instead, it’s the relatively diminutive, snooker table-sized portable tank, one that Deborah is operating via a Perspex wedge. Pumping it up and down, she sends a cascade of small waves through the tank, lighting up LCDs as different wave energy devices are triggered.

The range of devices on display speaks volumes for one of the key issues in the marine renewable energy sector today – namely, the lack of convergence around an agreed standard or design.

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“With wave energy, you are under so much pressure to prove straight away that your concept works.”

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“With wave energy, you are under so much pressure to prove straight away that your concept works,” Deborah continues. “And there is no such thing as a ‘small sea’. Even if the conditions are relatively benign or you create a nursery area, every now and then a storm is going to come along. You have to contend with all of this while at the same time developing a new technology that has to compete with the cost pressures that the success of wind has created.”

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“The challenges with wave energy conversion Deborah says that a more incremental are clear,” Deborah says. “Devices such approach is needed, like the one being as Pelamis (which had previously tested in trialled by Wave Energy Scotland, where the COAST Lab) and Oyster reached full developers are encouraged to move from the demonstration on the sea, but neither was wave tank to the sea and back again. And she successful enough to become commercially also believes that a little more patience and viable. And one of the contributing factors perspective are required. was the way they were funded, where they “Wave energy gets a hard time,” she says. were under pressure to go to large scale “If you think about how wind power developed, demonstration too soon. It’s very expensive it was initially through small, domestic to demonstrate something at sea and very scale sites on-shore, and it was then able to public when it fails, and to some extent the incrementally increase in size. Now you have wave energy sector is still processing these convergence of technology, price reduction, two high profile failures.” economies of scale, and large players involved in manufacturing and running the offshore wind farms.”

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In 2018, the government unified the three device, and very accessible to young children, hubs supporting offshore wind, wave and who just love to make waves, get the wave tidal power with the creation of Supergen energy devices working, and see the lights ORE (offshore renewable energy). Deborah come on. But you can actually talk about was appointed as its lead – capping a some quite complicated processes going on remarkable 24 hours during which she was in here, and seeing them relate that to what also made Head of School. With a £9 million they have learned in the classroom about project fund, and the support of industry electricity and energy was very exciting. and a range of universities, Supergen is If you are talking to a young girl of ten about now working to facilitate the sharing of this, it can open up the idea of a career in knowledge and expertise between the sectors. engineering. And what’s equally revealing is seeing the reaction of the parents.”

“We need to think about where we have to get to,” Deborah says. “If we are to meet our Inspiring women to enter into engineering targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is a motivational cause for Deborah. As the to net zero by 2050, then we need a diverse head of a male-dominated school, she is energy mix. That means both on and offvery conscious that many of the initiatives shore wind, but also to encourage greater solar, tidal stream and participation in STEM wave energy. You can’t subjects have simply not simply rely on one translated into a more because environmental diverse mix in the average factors will dictate when undergraduate cohort. they’re available.”

So she is working to create a more inclusive To demonstrate, Deborah environment, including reduces the frequency through the introduction with which she operates of new objectives for the the tank, creating a leadership team. On a longer form of wave. national level, through the Now, a different device Supergen ORE hub, she is sparked into life, an also has a specific remit to oscillating water column that reacts to the oversee efforts to provide research leadership changes in air pressure caused by the waves and to be a beacon for equality, diversity and passing beneath its tube. inclusion.

“Many people do not understand the differences between wave and tidal stream energy,” she says. “But both are rooted in the basic concept of water movement being converted into electricity – and that is something we can demonstrate and communicate to people.”

“When I did engineering at school, I benefited from being part of the WISE (Women into Science and Engineering) programme, and a push at that time to get more women into STEM subjects,” she recalls. “But the proportion of girls on undergraduate programmes just hasn’t changed. It’s a really big challenge to get girls to be more And that brings us to the raison d’etre for engaged with engineering and think of it the tank – outreach and communication. as a career.

I think the way we talk about Designed by technician Kieran Monk, engineering traditionally in the general the tank has been used for a number of public is very narrow. We do not understand events, including the renowned Green Man the different opportunities, aspects, skills Festival in the Brecon Beacons, Wales, last and characteristics needed in engineering in summer. Kieran, Deborah, Supergen’s Kirsty order to come up with those very important Henderson, and a team of PhD students took their place in the marquee in ‘Einstein’s Field’ solutions for society, going through the green industrial revolution or combating climate as part of the science outreach programme, and had 1,200 people pass through, including change.” families, teachers and political lobbyists.

“We had lots of activities that the young children could get hands-on with, and seeing them become inspired was fantastic,” says Deborah. “This is obviously a very visual

It’s beyond a simple gender issue, says Deborah. Engineering must draw upon a much broader section of society if it is to include all of the voices and ideas needed to engineer solutions for the future.

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“We’re following the same vision as the COAST Lab,” Deborah says, “in that we’re bringing together everything that we need to be successful – teaching, research, and collaborating with industry. The facility will draw in those industries who will employ our students, and whose influence will keep our teaching relevant and up-to-date. And it will enable co-location of activities and multi-disciplinary collaboration; along with our new School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics, it will help create a convergence of the digital revolution with the environmental.”

The engineer of the future, Deborah says, will be better for understanding how big data might lead to improved bridges or wind farms. And that confluence of skills might also help to redress the gender imbalance of engineers in the UK. Deborah’s eyes sweep around the COAST Lab, as if to remind herself of how far things have come, and of the path that lies ahead.

“Whenever you build something on this scale, there is an element of uncertainty as to whether it will be a success,” she says. “In fact, it is often pretty terrifying along the way. But the difference you can make is phenomenal, transformational. And that is what we hope to achieve with the new Engineering and Design Facility.”

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For Deborah, the author of more than 180 research papers, with £20 million in research funding on her CV, and a litany of awards including an Officer of the British Empire in 2018, and a prestigious Fellowship from the Institution of Civil Engineers, it is the future that is energising her most of all. The announcement in June 2019 that the University is to build an Engineering and Design Facility on the western edge of the campus signifies the beginning of a new cycle of evolution.

With 10,000 square metres of research space for the University’s School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics – and the School of Art, Design and Architecture – it’s a project that heralds a genuinely interdisciplinary approach to the subject area.

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What kind of place do you want to live in?

There are many answers to this question, depending upon the preferences of the person who’s asked. Some people like to live in densely packed cities, with lots going on. Others prefer exactly the opposite, enjoying the tranquillity of the countryside in a small village.

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But another important project, Millbay Boulevard, has a rather different purpose. Certainly it will still provide a link – in this case from the city centre to the docks. But the Boulevard is primarily designed as ‘a highly attractive walking and cycling route’ with a new public square to be flanked by new houses, shops and restaurants, in effect, creating a new leisure and residential quarter for the city. So in this case, the Council is using a transport scheme to improve the public realm, taking a road – primarily designed for cars to move along on their way to other places – and turning it into a street – somewhere people can amble and interact without worrying about encountering cars and the adverse environmental impact they can create.

This idea of turning roads into streets is not new.

Jane Jacobs famously wrote about the loss of local community spaces because of redevelopment designed among other things to accommodate more cars, in her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities.

Closer to home, the city of Copenhagen has been transformed in recent decades, from somewhere that relied heavily on cars – and had traffic-choked roads as a result – to a much more ‘liveable’ city characterised by extremely high quality public realm serviced by equally good public transport and cycling facilities.

And anyone travelling to Nice over the last few years will have noticed a fundamental recasting of the city, again from one dominated by the car to one whose urban core has been radically repurposed to put the

As colleagues and I argue in our new book, Transport Matters, high quality and efficient transport in fact underpins all manner of public policy goals. While the car is of course important, it needn’t be the default means of getting around for most people (especially in our cities). Investing in better bus, cycle and pedestrian facilities frees up road space, which with creative planning and investment can be used to make better public places that encourage public interaction, the rebuilding of community spirit and economic revitalisation. In all but a very small number of cases, pedestrianisation is good news for local businesses. Such investment can also be good for people’s health and wellbeing since it plays an important preventative role in the national battle against obesity. Environmentally, local air pollution causes health difficulties for many people, and transport – primarily the car – is now the country’s biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.

Millbay Boulevard is one small example of how we can take a different path. Bigger prizes and much more liveable places await those cities bold enough to follow in the footsteps of Copenhagen and Nice.

Jon Shaw is Professor of Transport Geography and Associate Head of the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences.

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In Britain we have tended to be much more cautious about using transport to make places, instead tending to view it more as a means of getting between places.

Beyond some pedestrianisation in town centres, we’ve been coy about talking away road space from cars for fear of upsetting motorists. In Plymouth, for example, we have long passed over the opportunity of making Royal Parade bus-only, despite the significant urban realm improvements this would bring about, in addition to making the whole of the bus network much more reliable. Bus lanes elsewhere in the city would make the network more reliable still, and the more that people use public transport (and walk and cycle), the less need there is for city centre roads and the more streets we can create. The same could be said about other important areas in need of revitalisation such as Mutley Plain. Vibrant, liveable streets in which people can fulfil a whole raft of different social and economic transactions are all the more important given the potential for online shopping to lead to more and more shops closing in traditional retail areas.

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Let’s consider our home city of Plymouth.

A number of transport schemes are underway at the moment or have recently been completed: the Charles Cross junction improvement; the Eastern Corridor improvement; the Northern Corridor improvement; and the new Forder Valley link road to provide better access to Derriford from the A38. All of these schemes are about making it easier for people – motorists, bus users and cyclists, mainly – to get around more easily.

pedestrian first. This has all been possible through the construction of two new tramlines that have enabled people to get around the city without using their cars.

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Generally speaking, wherever people live, they like to think they’ll have relatively easy access to the things that are important to them – shops, leisure facilities, their place of work, the hospital etc. So the transport network is often an important factor in dictating where we live, because we need to know we’ll be able to move around the city, town or village, as well as reach places outside of it, whether in the region, country or increasingly, around the world.

What’s perhaps less acknowledged is quite how important that transport network is to making and shaping the characteristics of that place we choose to live in. It is as integral as the buildings, facilities, planning regimes, services, people, natural landscape and weather, to name but a few, and we overlook it at our peril.

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Plymouth and Britain’s coastal community

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Already branded as ‘Britain’s Ocean City’, and with its maritime status further enhanced by the Mayflower 400 anniversary, Plymouth’s strategy of focusing upon its most marketable selling point makes clear sense. This is a city facing endemic challenges – a peripheral location and high incidence of deprivation in some of its areas, according to the latest Indices of Multiple Deprivation released in October 2019, among them.

By turning its gaze out to the sea, the city is looking to the blue economy to provide a solution as to how it might improve socio-economic outcomes and engender civic pride.

In many respects, Plymouth is ahead of the curve when it comes to the national issue of our ‘seaside towns’. From Brighton to Blackpool, Morecombe to Margate, these locations are intrinsic to the British iconography, with a cultural contribution arguably as important as their economic impact via industries such as fishing and tourism.

But research conducted since the turn of the millennium has painted a less than postcard perfect picture of the health of these communities.

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Despite a number of regional and intra-regional variations, social scientists have found evidence of increased deprivation in the majority of seaside towns across the three economic domains of income, employment, and education, skills and training. This can be manifested in a number of ways, such as a weak job market with high levels of seasonal employment and unemployment, high levels of sickness, and low levels of aspiration – which in turn can lead to an unbalanced housing market, transience and in-migration of vulnerable households, and localised multiple deprivation.

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IN ES SENC E , W HAT SOCI AL S C I E N C E H AS R E V E AL E D I S THAT A TOW N’S E CONOMI C P E R FO R M AN C E I S MU LTI-DIME NSI ONA L A ND W I LL B E H E AV I LY I N F LU E N C E D B Y THE IN TE RPL AY OF T H R E E D I F F E R E N T FACTO R S – ECO N OMIC , H U M A N A ND E N V I R O N M E N TAL C AP I TAL .

The first, economic capital, refers to things that can be invested in or mobilised in pursuit of profit (or indeed, broader economic improvement).

Inevitably, productivity is heavily contingent on transport infrastructure, telecommunications, and high-quality business space – all tangible assets that we’re familiar with. Arguably, it is why superfast broadband has been of great benefit to the South West in overcoming issues relating to peripherality and facilitating a thriving tertiary sector to flourish, and the lack of investment in our fragile railway has not. It is therefore of no surprise that the digital economy is one of the five pillars of Plymouth’s local economic strategy.

Human capital comes next, and presents a compelling association between the presence of highly qualified, enterprising and skilled people, and economic success. The theory is that educated, skilled residents are better equipped to adapt to changing economic circumstances, and more capable of taking advantage of economic capital to develop and nurture new industries. It’s why the University’s support for widening participation in general, and the creative economy in Plymouth in particular, is a key focus for the institution and the city. It’s also one of the underpinning differences why a Falmouth or

a Brighton has a very different outlook to a Skegness or a Bridlington.

The third strand, environmental capital, has a special significance for seaside towns, for it is the coast itself that provides the unique selling point. Penzance has its promenade and art deco lido set to the backdrop of Mount’s Bay; Newquay has its sandy beaches and surf culture; Sidmouth, its red cliffs, pebbled shoreline and genteel streets. By the same token, the environment can be a constraint, stymying ambition and development, particularly for those towns in inaccessible locations.

What is fascinating about the proposed Plymouth Sound National Marine Park is the way it seeks to capitalise on the city’s environmental capital, and to bring about changes to economic and human capital. So, engaging new audiences with marine and maritime issues is laudable in and of itself, but it becomes a very powerful approach if it can inspire education, research, and the development of relevant skills. Similarly, if health and well-being

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metrics can be improved through increased engagement with the blue environment, it can stimulate improvements in economic output.

But the Marine Park also presents challenges for our civic leaders, not least because of the difficulties of managing the competing demands of its numerous stakeholders. For example, how will the ambition to promote the Navy be progressed alongside the desire to improve fishing infrastructure, the drive to expand the marine leisure industry, the wish to generate community benefits, and the need for conservation and environmental protection within Plymouth Sound’s natural amphitheatre?

Professor Sheela Agarwal is a researcher and lecturer in the School of Business, with a particular expertise in how structural change impacts and influences nations, regions, and locations.

These are questions that will be answered in time, and should not be addressed in isolation of other key developments and challenges facing the city.

From the Industrial Strategy to the legacy benefits of Mayflower, Plymouth’s ability to redefine itself and will demand a truly multi-faceted response allied to a singular sense of purpose.

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Associate Professor of Design; Associate Head of School – Enterprise – School of Art, Design and Architecture It was at the age of ten that Polly Macpherson first remembers demonstrating the art and act of ‘making’. A piece of clay – a material defined by its mess and malleability – transformed by her hands into a ‘thrown pot’.

That joy, and sense of purpose that Polly understood from her formative school days – “I was very fortunate to be in a school that had a ceramics tutor” – has been at the heart of her 30-year-career as an artist, maker and an academic. It’s one she has passed on to scores of graduates, including renowned artist Barnaby Barford, and sustainable surfboard entrepreneur James Otter. And, via the medium of television, it has now been shared with millions of viewers in their own homes.

Airing in July, last year, Channel 4’s Kirstie’s Celebrity Craft Masters brought Polly to the small-screen as an expert judge alongside print designer Piyush Suri. Over 15 episodes, a variety of celebrities including Natasha Kaplinsky and Tanny Grey Thompson were pitched against one another – and their own comfort zones. This made for an interesting dynamic for Polly, whose role was to deliver constructive feedback whether they wanted to hear it or not.

Polly was approached by the producers at the start of 2019 off the back of a number of recent public profile raising engagements, including delivering the keynote at the first Craft Week in Hangzhou, China, and being a judge on the Woman’s Hour Craft Prize. The experience of filming a programme provided her with the opportunity to observe not only a new form of ‘making’, but also reflect upon the importance of creativity, especially at a time when technology has become so omnipresent.

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things, whether potting a plant, mowing the lawn or making a physical object,” Polly continues.

“We are so involved with technology – which is a good thing, as there is lots of learning there – but we are physical beings, we want to be engaged with things.”

Born in England, but raised in Scotland, Polly attended school in Edinburgh, and by her own admission ‘just didn’t fit in’ with the demanding academic model and expectations placed upon the pupils. Art proved to be her outlet, but even so, the experience initially steered her away from university. While many of her classmates headed off to Oxbridge, Polly worked for two years in Hertfordshire and only then felt ready to resume her studies. She enrolled on a traditional Art & Design foundation course for one year, and then a Bachelor of Arts that was delivered by both the University of Wolverhampton and California State University.

Polly then moved on to a Masters at the University of Wales.

“There is an importance in being able to make something, to touch something and say ‘I did that’, whatever it may be,”

Polly said: “It was challenging because we had these very long days, sometimes filming up to three episodes, and we were dealing with people who we didn’t know – and whose knowledge of art, creating and designing we

“I think programmes like these can be hugely important,” she said. “Of course, there are different schools of thought here, whether you’re a high-end maker, or a sitting-room craftsman. My attitude is that you have to start somewhere. Often people don’t have the opportunity to make things in schools – it’s deemed too dangerous or they don’t have kilns, for example. But if they can see their favourite celebrities having a go at crafts that they themselves can do in their home, then that can only be a good thing. And if you find that spark and that passion, it is so celebratory and exciting.

“And I do think that what we’re seeing is that people want to make things or be physically doing

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“What this experience taught me was that once I really get my teeth into a project or idea, I thrive,” she says. “However, it sometimes takes me a while to do this.”

Polly trained in ceramics and confesses to having a “love/hate relationship with clay” due to its physical and temperamental properties. And for 17 years she was based at a studio in Exeter, where she undertook commissioned work for galleries and private buyers, as well as collaborative projects funded by Arts Council England.

“I used to struggle with having a gallerist come into the studio and suggesting how I could do things,” she says. “It felt like being a lab rat.

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“There is an importance in being able to make something, to touch something and say ‘I did that’, whatever it may be,” she says.

“There is a really strong element of satisfaction and achievement.

I still have that pot to this day.”

didn’t know either. Mix in their need to ‘present’ themselves in a certain way, and their readiness to receive constructive criticism, and it was a very different experience to anything I had done before.”

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It’s quite pressurised and you have to spread yourself a little thin. You have to keep the money coming in, but still be creative and I admire people who can juggle those things, and remain so focused.

But I want to do lots of different things. And I think that is what has drawn me to higher education.

Here you have a degree structure around you, but there are other opportunities around that.”

Polly joined the University when the Faculty was based in Exeter, and she has embraced both the opportunities within the institution and in the community. She’s Associate Head of School for Enterprise and sits on a number of faculty and institution-level groups.

She’s held roles on regional and national bodies, including as a trustee of the Devon Guild of Craftsmen and acting as South West coordinator for the Crafts Council’s national Hothouse 3 initiative. And she has also worked to develop a number of student and research initiatives, facilitating opportunities within the creative industries and working with organisations including Hole & Corner, London Craft Week and the Port Eliot Festival.

One of Polly’s latest projects casts her gaze even further into the region, as an Automation Fellow, part of the South West Creative Technology Network run in conjunction with Falmouth, UWE, and Bath. She will be researching how the region is incorporating automation into its making processes – and what the impact of that might be.

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Polly with fellow Kirstie’s Celebrity Craft Masters, judge, Piyush Suri and presenter Kirstie Allsopp.

The South West has always been known for wellbeing – people would come to take the waters or clear their heads, while others would set up making workshops.

“The South West has always been known for wellbeing – people would come to take the waters or clear their heads, while others would set up making workshops,” she says. “There is less of this happening now, and so my research project is about exploring how automation developments are affecting the skills, creative ideas and processes of Designer Maker / Craft Practitioners in the South West. I want to explore how automation tools can be used to develop new sense and sensemaking creative objects and artefacts, and then ways of sharing the new knowledge both in an educational setting and beyond.”

Creation. Collaboration. Education.

Key themes that distinguish her work like grain through wood. With students, graduates, stakeholders, colleagues, celebrities, she is inspiring and empowering them to experiment, take chances, and find the joy of making things.

“I tell everyone ‘find your passion, and if you don’t know, have a go!’’” she says finally. “It may be you have an idea, but you have to change materials, and that’s fine. You don’t have to be specialists in every single material. It is my heart-felt desire to be able to show people how to do things well and even better. So many people are in jobs and working on things they are not passionate about and they’re not living their best lives.”

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Dartmoor It spans an area more than 950 square kilometres, and reaches up 620 metres at its highest point. From Tavistock in the east to Bovey Tracey in the west, and between its southerly and northerly points of Ivybridge and Okehampton, Dartmoor dominates the county of Devon.

A designated Special Area of Conservation, it consists of four distinct habitats and has a bedrock of granite dating back to the Carboniferous period, 350 million years ago.

With such environmental and geological importance, it stands to reason that Dartmoor should be a locus of research for the University.

But it is also a source of inspiration.

Here are just some of its stories.

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Dr Paul Lunt

From the ‘commoners’ who graze animals on the moor, to the companies such as South West Water, who are literally invested in Dartmoor’s natural systems, Paul’s work has reached out across the national park, and alighted upon a variety of issues, including wilding; restoring and rewetting the peatland; investigating the environmental role of the resident ponies; and encouraging the spread of native oak trees.

“When I first came here, I was impressed that the moor was in a much better condition than other areas I had monitored,” said Paul, who had previously worked as a consultant for water companies in the Peak District and Pennines National Parks. “On Dartmoor there is an ecosystems services approach, which is a paradigm shift from micro-managing our natural environments. So with something like wilding, you are to some extent throwing away the script. You’re not quite sure what you’ll get – but you know it will be of value to people and wildlife!”

One such project has involved Paul working with the Dartmoor Pony Heritage Trust on researching the impact that the ponies have upon purple moor grass, a plant that is turning many areas of the uplands into a monoculture.

“We used salt licks to lure the ponies to areas of excessive purple moor grass,” Paul says. “And within 18 months, they had grazed and trampled down the tussocks, and there was evidence that heather, pushed out by the grass, had begun to regenerate.”

Dartmoor also has the UK’s longest running record of upland temperature and rainfall, something that Paul has used to conduct research that could be used to refine current climate change predictions. Searching through data going back to the 1870s, Paul and his research team discovered that while it supported the Met Office’s UK Climate Projections for increased precipitation in spring, winter and autumn, it did not align with the assessment that summers are becoming uniformly drier on the uplands.

“The study, which we published in Climate Research, highlights the complex challenges facing those trying to predict the effects of climate change,” Paul says. “Upland areas are among the most important UK regions in terms of biodiversity and carbon sequestration, but they are also the most vulnerable to increased precipitation. So the work we are doing here has national and international implications.”

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The ponies have roamed the moor for thousands of years, and are semiwild – they are owned by some of the 300 ‘commoners’, but not covered by stewardship payments.

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“Dartmoor is about the people,” says Dr Paul Lunt, Associate Professor of Environmental Science, and one of the region’s most respected experts on the ecology of the uplands. “There are many people who are deeply invested in the moor because it belongs to everyone – much more so than other notable uplands in the UK. And it is a great test-bed for change.”

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The Moor

“Yes, the setting (Dartmoor) is a worthy one. If the devil did desire to have a hand in the affairs of men.”

Arthur Conan Doyle

Picture this: a vast canvas of desolate moorland beneath ominous grey skies. In the distance there rises a conical clay mound. Strain your eyes hard enough and you might just make out the tiny figure standing on its summit.

“Dartmoor interests me when it is bleak, when the mist comes down and the visibility drops to zero – it’s otherworldly,” says Robert Darch, Associate Lecturer in Photography, and author of the striking photobook, The Moor. “And then what happens when you start putting people in this landscape?! You begin to tap into that classic mythology, like the escaped convict on the moor.”

Robert has been ‘putting people on Dartmoor’ since he enrolled on the University’s Photography and the Book Masters degree in 2013. The programme tasks students with developing a photobook, and Robert – who spent many a childhood holiday in Devon – initially envisaged a somewhat traditional, pastoral exploration of Dartmoor people and their way of life.

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“I started to do lots of research, and what I kept coming back to was how Dartmoor made me feel,” Robert says. “It was not about places like Princetown or Moretonhampstead but that feeling of being on the moor on a winter’s day in 80mph winds and with no visibility.”

Robert would spend hours walking on the moor with the subjects of his pictures, the shots arising organically through the process of exploration and experimentation.

Turn the pages of the book and you’ll find an Army reservist fading into the mist of a no-man’s land across a series of three stills; a man lying on his side in the dark, blowing gently into a fire, its flames reaching out to caress his face; and a lone figure disappearing into a towering wood, the darkness closing around them like the final scene of a grim folk tale.

For Robert, there is a dystopian quality to the collection of photos that emerged, of ghosts and myths too, and a pervading sense of loneliness and isolation, something he attributes to him ‘losing a decade’ in his 20s to chronic fatigue syndrome.

Four years after its completion, The Moor was picked up by a publisher and its release has resulted in new interest in Robert’s work, particularly from his contemporaries. Indeed, it has proven such a positive experience that he’s planning to self-publish his next book, Vale, and future projects.

“The Vale is like the counterpart to The Moor – the summer to the winter,” Robert says. “It’s centred on the valley outside of Exeter, although the sense of location is much vaguer. I effectively lost my 20s, and this is an imagining of those summers, a sense of the bucolic and of beautiful people – but there’s still a tension there.”

Robert has not finished with Dartmoor (and neither, you suspect, is Dartmoor finished with him). He has for the past three years documented the Ten Tors Challenge, and occasionally has had to put down his camera and pick up a compass to help navigate teenagers to their next checkpoint. Using a 5x4 format, he’s found the ratio that works best for him in centring on that experience of place, sometimes claustrophobic, always cinematic.

“It’s impossible to capture how epic a landscape Dartmoor is,” he concludes. “That scale, taking it all in, you just can’t replicate the human eye’s near 180-degree field of vision. So what I have attempted to do is put the viewer in that space, one which is imbued with so much unease and tension! And when I have people tell me that they feel nostalgia for Dartmoor, even though they have never been there, then I know that it has been successful.”

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A link from pollen to the past The jutting granite monoliths of Dartmoor’s tors write a geological record of the landscape’s history for scientists to study. But it is a more diminutive substance that has helped archaeologists develop an understanding of how man has used the land over space and time.

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For academics such as Professor Ralph Fyfe, it is pollen that has proven to be a “portal to the past”, revealing historic ecological and ecosystem changes that can have a major influence on present and future park management.

“I work at the interface of archaeology and geography, looking at how humans have transformed their world over the last 6,000 years,” says Professor Fyfe. “We know that agriculture started six millennia ago and I’m interested in how it impacted upon environmental systems. Through studying the pollen record, we have been able to show that Dartmoor was already being transformed by the communities that lived there as far back as 3,500BC, initiating both local and far reaching impacts on ecosystems and even our broader climate system.”

The pollen locked away within the soil and peat of the moor can, through microscope analysis, be identified, and with it an understanding developed of the crops and plants that were present at a particular age.

“The pollen record can tell us how changes in land use lead to changes in biodiversity,” Professor Fyfe says. “So through it, we can reconstruct patterns of land use over space and time.”

Professor Fyfe first stepped foot on Dartmoor in 2003, having previously completed his PhD on one of the South West’s other iconic landscapes, Exmoor. And during the course of his interdisciplinary research – which brings together not just archaeology and ecology, but also conservation management and climate science – he has ventured across much of its acreage and uncovered a number of archaeological firsts.

At Cut Hill, for example, one of the remotest areas of the moor (and highest areas in southern England), Professor Fyfe was able to carbon date a stone row to 4,000 years BC – 800 years older than similar granite structures.

While at Whitehorse Hill, at an unearthed burial cist, he helped excavate the fragile contents to find artefacts unique in British and European prehistory. They included composite textiles, the oldest turned wood in Britain, and a bracelet and necklace, all wrapped in a bear pelt – all supposedly ahead of their time.

“Dartmoor, in and of itself, is a landscape of great interest,” Professor Fyfe concludes. “But it is also part of a much bigger story of the transformation of Europe, which in turn feeds into global change. It is an iconic landscape in understanding the changes that have taken place across human history.”

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Professor Ralph Fyfe

“Dartmoor, in and of itself, is a landscape of great interest but it is also part of a much bigger story of the transformation of Europe, which in turn feeds into global change.

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The feel of a landscape “There is a great difference between driving to a landscape and walking in it,” says Jessica Lennan, Lecturer in Photography, on the challenge of capturing a location on camera. “To walk is to experience, and that is something I try to impress upon my students when they are doing project work on Dartmoor.”

This quality of experiencing a landscape has had a huge impact upon Jessica’s creative practice. A photographer of cities and people, Jessica moved to Plymouth in 2010 for her Masters having lived in – and photographed – Berlin, Istanbul and Paris. And it is has been to Dartmoor that she has been increasingly drawn, most recently as the coorganiser of the Dartmoor Summer School of Photography.

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“We take Dartmoor for granted because it is on our doorstep,” Jessica says. “But from my experiences with the summer school, and from teaching our students, it is clear that it’s a huge attraction for a variety of artistic disciplines.”

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It was at last summer’s event that an historian, Dr Tom Greeves, talked to the participants about cup marked stones – man-made markings in granite rocks, most commonly found in the north, but also in evidence on Dartmoor.

Theories abound that they might serve as territorial markings, star maps, or even be connected to music – but their precise purpose is lost in prehistory. This mystery fascinated Jessica, and inspired her to launch a new project.

Using a 10x8 camera, she took a paper negative of a cupmarked stone near Princetown, and from that developed stunning black and white images. Next, she produced five plaster moulds of the marks, and using clay and an ash glaze – all sourced from Dartmoor – she created a set of cups.

It was, Jessica says, a moment of reflection for her entire artistic process.

“My professional practice is based on material, and I think I had lost touch with that. But working with clay and print has brought back that tactility. This project is about returning to materials; everything here is from the soil. And in the same way that you create images from a negative, filling in these stones is like creating a positive from the negative.”

The final outcome of the project is still taking shape, but Jessica is supplying the pictures to some of the artists that attended the summer school in the hope that they might stimulate other works. She is then planning to bring together the pictures, the pottery, and any other resulting pieces into a book celebrating the materials and the art of making. And as important as the project is, the process itself has had a profound impact up her.

“I am not a conventional landscape photographer; you can take a picture and there is still so much that is invisible in the landscape,” Jessica concludes. “This project, however, offered me ways to respond to the landscape both visually and physically. I need to have a focus upon something tangible, and this is why I love the stones. Dr Tom Greeves’ history talk for me really opened up other ways of thinking about the landscape – it has helped me to make the invisible, visible.”

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Dartmoor’s peat Of the four habitats found on Dartmoor - wet heaths, dry heaths, peat mire, and oak woodland – the peatland has become a source of great debate and discussion.

One of the major projects that Dr Lunt – and colleagues in the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences – have been involved with is looking at the role of peatland in carbon sequestration. Dartmoor has 8,000 hectares of peatland, and analysis by academics has shown that when in optimum condition each hectare can remove up to 10 tonnes of carbon each year.

Working in particular at Fox Tor Mire and Red Lake Mire, south east of Princetown, they have found that the peat is deepening, which makes it a very cost effective method of reducing greenhouse gases. With areas of Dartmoor (and Exmoor) being rewetted through the raising of the water table, there is the growing possibility that landowners could turn to carbon farming to supplement falling farming incomes. And this has dovetailed with a citizen science project led by the University, where farmers have been taken to a restored site in an effort to dispel misconceptions about the work.

“Climate scientists agree that peatlands have had an important role in past global cooling and have the potential to make greater contributions in the future,” says Dr Lunt. “However, as well as the environmental considerations, there are local challenges to overcome, in terms of convincing those living and working on Dartmoor of the benefits of peatland restoration.

Our research suggests that if that can happen, the moors could be a key environment in mitigating against future climate change.”

“Climate scientists agree that peatlands have had an important role in past global cooling and have the potential to make greater contributions in the future,” For Professor Fyfe, the peatland issue raises interesting questions more broadly around our natural environment and how we manage it.

“There is a big drive to restore the natural ecosystem of Dartmoor – but how do you define ‘natural’?” he says. “How far back do you go? Twenty years? Fifty?

Currently there is a great deal of value placed upon peat conservation because it sequesters carbon, stops flooding and keeps the water clear. But we know that 6,000 years ago there was no peat – it developed as a consequence of cutting down trees and climactic changes. So if we want to create more peat, then we should recognise that as engineering an ecosystem rather than restoring it. We have to recognise the consequences and legacies of what we are doing.”

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Before I became a lawyer, I worked in art galleries. Before that, I studied History of Art. And before that, I found direction and inspiration in the quiet contemplative spaces of the art galleries of St Ives – galleries like the Tate, one of whose architects (along with Eldred Evans), David Shalev, died in January 2018.

It was as a law student some years later that I first set foot in another of Shalev’s and Evans’ buildings: the Truro law courts.

Again, waiting and watching. Waiting for the usher to call the case, for the judge to make a decision. Waiting my turn.

I watched cases from the public gallery as a student, from behind counsel as a trainee lawyer and, during a period of work experience with a judge, known as marshalling, from the bench. As a second-year trainee, and then as a junior solicitor, I became more involved in the cases myself, both as part of a team (with the client, the barrister, the senior solicitor) and latterly on my own.

I observed throughout this time that it was in the more muted spaces of the building – the airy lobby, the labyrinthine courtyard, the numerous side-rooms – that real progress was made: we reached decisions, we improvised solutions, we struck deals. In this age of bluster and show, it was incredibly valuable to work in a building which steers you towards its quiet spots; to the conclusion that the meat of the work could be done in contemplation, reflection, thoughtful conversation.

It was an important lesson for a junior lawyer, but it was one I’d first learned as an arts student, back in the Tate.

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I’ve moved slowly and contentedly through its geometric spaces without feeling any pressing inclination to learn more about its architects or study their other buildings. I did a stint of work experience in the gallery’s education department as an undergraduate but found the job – which included running beach art workshops for children – too busy, too noisy for my aptitude. The highlights of my days there were when I was timetabled to invigilate in the galleries, a job which essentially entails looking after the art and the visitors. I spent large stretches sitting among the sculptures and paintings of the towering figures of British modernism, people-watching. I had a handful of other invigilating jobs during my degree and after graduation. I found they combined well with study or other jobs as they were low in stress and rich in thinking time.

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Do we need to include his title in the heading?

Course and graduation year?

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Josh Bratchley MBE selects a diving canister and half lifts, half drags it into the doorway of the equipment room. He selects a gauge from a shelf and spins it into place, noting the pressure of the compressed gas inside. There is a precision to his every action, one that belies the fact that today he’s merely going through the motions for the attendant photographer.

It’s a telling trait of someone so well-versed in handling equipment upon which a life could depend.

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Few understand this better than Josh, a Met Office meteorologist, graduate of the University, and a cave diver whose name is synonymous with the remarkable rescue of a junior football team from a flooded cave in Thailand in 2018. While the world held its breath, 13 divers, including Josh, held their nerve, transporting the children one at a time through the system of submerged passageways.

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“It’s so hard to describe,” he says when he’s asked to put into words that subterranean scene.

“We were in deep canals with steep muddy sides – there was a lot of brown! We had to try to dig shelves in the banks so that we had somewhere to rest and a means of pulling the children out of the water if we needed to change tanks or administer more sedative. The only light was from our torches, and everything felt very remote. There may have been millions of people watching, and thousands gathered outside, but there was only 13 of us beyond the flooded section who had the power to do anything.”

Today, Josh has returned to his University, and the city of his birth, seeing for himself how the dive centre where he undertook some of his recreational training has transformed into a new, multi-purpose Marine Station. He takes time to chat to members of staff, fondly recalling trips to Bovisand with instructors past and present.

“It’s great to see that the University values diving so highly,” he says. “Few if any have this kind of facility.”

Josh’s path to the University of Plymouth was a slightly circuitous and serendipitous one.

A former pupil of Callington Community College, Josh had become a first-class ‘fixerupper’ during his teenage years and spent much of his free-time with his dad in the family garage working on cars. It was, he believed, his calling.

“Although I was into the sciences at school, I had this feeling that I was done with learning by the time I finished my A Levels,” he says.

“So I joined the Fire Service as a technicianmechanic and started a training scheme with them. I very much enjoyed it at first, but after a year I realised that the mechanical side was not as in depth as I had thought. It was more a case of servicing vehicles and that wasn’t what I wanted to do.”

Finding himself at something of an early career crossroads, Josh took inspiration from the sky as to what he should do next.

“I’d been learning to skydive,” he says, “and that meant that I was becoming increasingly interested in the weather. I began to think that maybe I should study it at university.

I spoke to some friends and then attended an Open Day where I met Tim O’Hare, the course leader. That conversation was instrumental in my decision to come to Plymouth.”

By that stage, Josh had missed the application deadline, but through Clearing he secured a place on the BSc (hons) Ocean Science with Meteorology degree. He handed in his notice at the Fire Service and within one week had moved into a student house in Muttley.

It’s fair to say that Josh threw body and soul into university life, sometimes with spectacular and painful results – none more so than when he crashed while mountain boarding with the Students’ Union club and seriously damaged his shoulder. He soon bounced back, however, and signed up for the Adventure and Expedition Club, through which he would make a lifechanging discovery.

“It was February 2011, and we went on this trip to the Mendip Hills in Somerset,” he says.

“I’d joined the club to do climbing, but on this occasion I tried caving – and it was amazing!

I barely missed a trip from that day on. In fact, within four months, I was organising them myself every Wednesday and weekend.”

By Josh’s own admission, caving (or potholing as it is also known) is something of an acquired taste. Recognised as a sport from the middle of the 18th century, caving in the UK usually involves squeezing through small spaces and getting your hands in the “scrotty stuff ”. For those more fearful of heights than claustrophobic crawl spaces, there are plenty of vertiginous voids that require navigating. It begs the question, why would anyone do it?

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Josh and his friend went to Jamaica to obtain the PADI open water qualification and then joined the Cave Diving Group, where they had a maximum of five years to develop the skills needed to become a Qualified CDG Diver. This ‘apprenticeship’ involved repeated diving, mainly in Britain and France, and Josh also joined the University BSAC-affiliated open water club to gain further experience.

It is, we suggest, remarkable that he managed to find the time for University work (he had also joined the Devon Cave Rescue Organisation). Not a bit of it, Josh retorts, evidencing his high 2:1 average across his three years.

Indeed, he reflects with some pride upon the balance achieved and his approach to university life in general.

“Obviously I would have liked to have earned a First, but that would have meant pulling back on the extracurricular activities,” he says with a knowing smile.

“I was at university for more than just a degree – I wanted to make friends, do new things in life and learn new skills. So many people do nothing at all related to their degree in their world of work, and I was happy with the path I took.”

Josh’s career has most definitely followed on from his academic study. After graduating in 2013, he secured a place on the Met Office’s training programme, and though his start date was delayed by 18 months due to an injury he sustained to his hand in a car crash, he joined the organisation in April 2015. Twelve months later, he had qualified as an Operational Meteorologist, and is now based at RAF Valley in Anglesey.

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“My role concerns flight safety for trainee fast jet pilots,” he says. “It’s an intricate part of the operation of the base. I am expected to deliver detailed briefings each day to the pilots, and the forecast will be to the nearest few hundred feet or metres and is far more detailed than you’d get in a domestic setting.”

Using satellite technology and information obtained from local stations, Josh has to predict the weather patterns, which can often prove challenging due to the base’s location next to the Irish Sea. His role also takes him to remote locations around the country and overseas, such as acting as a consultant on offshore structures owned by oil and gas companies.

Josh says: “It is very challenging because you might be in a situation where you’re the sole forecaster on board, and that entire 200,000 tonne vessel and its crew are relying upon you 24 hours per day. And no day is ever the same – the British weather usually sees to that.”

That theme of reliance leads us inexorably to Thailand – to the very heart of Josh’s story – and to Tham Luang Nang Cave in Chiang Rai Province. On Saturday 23 June, 2018, twelve boys aged 11—16 from the Wild Boars junior football team entered into the cave with their 25-year-old assistant coach. Heavy and continuous rainfalls pushed the party deeper into the system, and before they realised the danger they were in, they became trapped by rising floodwaters.

When the story broke, Josh was on a ‘via Ferrata’ holiday with friends in the Italian Dolomites – navigating rugged terrain using pre-placed wires to assist with the climbing. As he and his party made their way from hut-to-hut along the route, Josh monitored developments and began to realise that there was a chance he’d receive a call from the British Cave Rescue Council. When attempts to pump the water from the cave ended in failure, that call duly arrived.

“They needed me to be on a flight from London to Thailand at midday the following day with all of my dive kit,” he recalls. “I had a quick think and said ‘yes’.

I went down the mountain, drove to the airport and flew to Gatwick.”

Arriving at 11pm, Josh was met by a member of the South East Cave Rescue team who drove him through the night to his home on Anglesey. Josh grabbed his gear and was then given a lift back to London by the North Wales Cave Rescue Team, where he met yet another colleague from South Wales, who had been dispatched with a police escort to bring him some specialist equipment. When he landed in Bangkok, Josh was greeted by the Thai military and government officials, who escorted him alone off the plane and to a transferring flight north to Chiang Rai.

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“On many occasions, I had been going through a cave and when I got to the end there was water,” he says.

“I knew that there was more cave to explore beyond that point and it didn’t seem such a huge obstacle to overcome. But clearly I didn’t have the skills to negotiate it.”

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Initially it was cave photography that interested Josh and he succeeded in getting a number of his pictures published in print and online media, including the Daily Mail and The Telegraph. Then he and a caving friend began to talk about the possibility of learning to become cave divers – and from that moment, a whole new frontier opened up.

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“Yes, it is dark, often cold and you have to deal with tight spaces,” Josh concedes. “It can be uncomfortable and some people never get used to it. But I like the sense of unknown that you get with caving. You can’t fly a drone over a cave, or look at it from a satellite.

The only way to see it is to go in there and I enjoy that exploratory aspect. I like to go to places that few others have been to.”

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“We had dry passages, flooded passages, canals… it had never been attempted before. It was very nerve-wracking and stressful, and obviously the whole world was watching” “It was all very surreal,” he says. “Looking back, I’m so grateful to those volunteers who did the overnight driving, and to the British Cave Rescue Council who arranged all of the travel. I let myself be taken, which helped me to conserve energy. I could also begin to mentally prepare for what I was about to do. And on the day I flew out, we heard that a Thai Navy Seal had drowned and suddenly it was all very real.”

Due to the complexity of the rescue mission, and the relatively small size of the cave in which the boys were located, just four experienced British divers – John Volanthen, Richard Stanton, Jason Mallinson and Chris Jewell – were assigned as the leads. They were then supported by Josh and eight others, who would help to relay the boys through different sections of the route.

“It was effectively a shuttle run with cave divers staged throughout,” he says. “The transporting of the child was the primary concern – they had not done anything like this before, and we had to ensure that they did not panic. We also needed to ensure that they were easy to transport, and that is where our CDG training came in, because we learn to transport ‘packages’ and that is exactly how we had to view the children.”

Each child was sedated with ketamine by anaesthesiologist Dr Richard Harris in the cave, and put into a wetsuit with a full face-mask. Their hands and feet were secured, and they had an oxygen tank and buoyancy bag.

“The initial double dose of ketamine would last for about an hour, and then every 30 minutes they had to be re-dosed,” says Josh. “We received training on how to administer it, and so we were diving with ketamine syringes. It was all very involved and intensive, lots to think about, lots of multi-tasking.”

It took six hours to pass each child out through the system and Josh and his dive partner would spend 30 minutes at a time with them before the lead diver and child would reach the next team.

“It was all rather insane from a diving perspective,” says Josh. “We had dry passages, flooded passages, canals… it had never been attempted before. It was very nerve-wracking and stressful, and obviously the whole world was watching, but the team worked really smoothly and fortunately it was successful.”

After three days the rescue was completed, and the divers emerged into not so much daylight, as a global spotlight. Josh says: “It’s hard to state how incredible it was coming out of the cave into those celebrations.

Everyone was on the same team, and there were so many volunteers supporting the 13 people who were beyond the sump. I couldn’t come to terms with what we had achieved until a long time later. We were all tired, mentally and physically.”

Pride of Britain, BBC Sports Personality of the Year, Downing Street, Buckingham Palace were all stops on a dizzying publicity tour for Josh when he returned, with the highlight being the award of an MBE in the 2019 New Year’s Honours List. But with this acclaim came something unexpected, though not unfamiliar to a diver. Pressure.

“For some of the divers, this all came much later in their cave diving career,” he reflects. “I on the other hand had only been cave diving for seven years before Thailand and though I had gained a huge amount of experience, I was very aware that there was still so much for me to learn and develop upon. In the media, we were continually referred to as “the world’s best cave divers” and Connor (Josh’s dive partner in Thailand) and I would say “how can we be the world’s best?!” I began to feel this sense of pressure to set an example, and that all came to a head in Tennessee.”

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“It reinforces that idea that I can’t afford to make a mistake. Caving is now more likely to hit the headlines, and that is something that is alien for much of the community.”

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In April, last year, Josh had been with a party of friends and fellow divers on a three-week expedition of the Mountain Eye cave system in Tennessee. Over successive dives, they pushed out to the edges of the network, running guide lines to help map out the terrain. All was going to plan until on a dive in Mill Pond Cave, Josh lost his line and became separated from his dive partner.

It would be 28 hours later before Josh saw another person, and when he did, it came in the welcome form of Floridian cave specialist Edd Sorenson, from the Chattanooga Hamilton Rescue Service.

“He would not have known whether he was going to find me alive or dead,” Josh says. “So I am so incredibly thankful for the job he did, and all of the teams and my friends outside who helped to coordinate things and keep my family informed.”

Benefitting from improved visibility, the pair were able to swim out of the cave together. Josh thankfully required no medical treatment – merely some replacement calories – but there was to be no escape from the scrutiny of the media.

“Tennessee would have been local news had it not been for Thailand,” he says ruefully. “Everyone makes mistakes and there is always the potential for things to go wrong.”

For a second time in his life, Josh had become part of an international news story, only this time, the narrative was inverted.

“I had to come to terms with it,” he says. “It reinforces that idea that I can’t afford to make a mistake. Caving is now more likely to hit the headlines, and that is something that is alien for much of the community.”

Despite this new reality, Josh’s thirst for underwater adventure is happily unslaked. A trip to France, he says, is just days away and there are countless other destinations calling to him. It’s just a matter of time and money.

Before he leaves, Josh takes one final view out over Plymouth Sound. Is he forecasting the weather or imagining diving down beneath the waves? It matters not; whether above or below, he’s a man at ease with the elements.

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So with remarkable clarity of mind, Josh hauled out into an air pocket above him, removed his gear, and waited for assistance in near total darkness.

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He recalls: “It was actually quite a British-style cave – a small area with little visibility. There was so much silt, particularly with all of the diving activity, that it was extremely difficult to find the line. My dive partner made several unsuccessful attempts to reestablish connection, and there came a point where I realised that my air reserves were beginning to run low and if I kept looking then I wouldn’t have enough to get out of the cave.”

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Fundraising and donations

Thank you The generosity of donors has a profound impact upon the student experience at the University of Plymouth. For many, a bursary or scholarship can make all the difference when making a decision over whether to undertake higher education or not. Donations change lives – from fundraising for research into brain tumours to helping care leavers or other high priority groups take their first steps towards a new future.

Here we meet a couple of students whose university experience has been transformed by opportunities afforded to them by our donors.

Engineering a greener tomorrow “My career ambition is to work with energy or manufacturing in a sustainable way,” says George Modica-Cliff, a secondyear student on the MEng(Hons) Mechanical Engineering with Composites degree. “I would love to create a solution to the world’s dependence on fossil fuels, one that is affordable and accessible to everyone.”

It’s an ambition that is being supported by the Tamar

Engineering Project, a national-first mentoring and scholarship programme that is aiming to nurture talent in a critically important discipline for the country. Developed in partnership with engineering alumnus Stephen Ball, former CEO of Lockheed Martin UK, TEP covers 29 degree courses across engineering, computing and robotics and offers successful applicants a course fee waiver, a contribution to living costs, and personal mentoring from a senior figure in industry. And it is primarily aimed at those who come from key widening participation backgrounds, such as those who are first generation university applicants or in need of financial assistance.

George was one of just three students to qualify for the TEP in the last academic year, after he enrolled at the University from UTC (University Technical College) Plymouth. “I was very excited, proud and it confirmed that my decision to do a degree at Plymouth was the right one,” he says. “I felt lucky, as well as more confident and it boosted my self-esteem.”

George has been placed with Iain Priest, National Engineering Manager – Energy Recovery Facilities (ERF) at Viridor. And it was the chance to learn from just such a senior figure that inspired him to apply for the TEP in the first place.

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healthcare horizons

“I am aware of the importance of addressing global health issues in developing countries and the local community,” Rebekkah says. “Global Healthcare will lay the foundations for me to deliver safe, legal and ethical care in under-resourced and remote areas. I aspire to travel within Tackling health inequalities has my career, helping communities been a motivational force for and working with patients Rebekah ever since she enrolled and doctors from different on the Bachelor of Medicine backgrounds. This course will four years ago. Now, thanks to enhance my understanding of an Intercalating Bursary, she cultural differences, political is undertaking the MSc Global Health (Remote and Rural) during difficulties and health inequalities her fifth year of study, before she in various communities.” will resume her undergraduate Rebekkah hopes the experience degree in September 2020. will serve her in good stead Rebekkah Duff has been building to this moment for years – a chance to apply her medical skills and knowledge in a socioeconomic setting where equal access to healthcare cannot be taken for granted.

“The aim of me doing the course was to learn more about the ethics and logistics of global health projects and discover how I could become involved in the future,” Rebekah says.

for working in international consultancy or for the likes of the World Health Organisation, and bring her into contact with other like-minded medics.

from our donors “‘The Opportunity of a lifetime must be seized during the lifetime of the opportunity’. All possible good wishes on your great potential journey.” John “I absolutely loved my time at Plymouth – all those years ago. Wishing you the best of luck – keep learning.” Alexandra “It’s a wonderful life and your time at Plymouth will serve you well always.

Very best wishes for your future!” Stefan “I hope your university life will be the start of good times for you, with wonderful opportunities, lovely friends and lots of fun. Today is always the first day of the rest of your life! Good luck.” Rosamund To support students like Rebekkah and George, visit plymouth.ac.uk/campaign/ the-plymouth-fund

“The aim of me doing the course was to learn more about the ethics and logistics of global health projects and discover how I could become involved in the future.”

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The Intercalating Bursary provides funding to students to cover an extra year of study that will develop their skills in Citing the confidence the a particular way. For Rebekkah, mentoring has given him, and the the year enables her to build money that has enabled him to upon the voluntary work she concentrate on both his studies has undertaken in Plymouth and his extra-curricular activities, and New York over the course George was a member of the of recent summers, in particular Plymouth team that won the working with teenagers from Institute of Mechanical Engineers’ complex social backgrounds.

2019 Design Challenge in As part of the Masters, she is October, last year. He has also volunteering with an organisation undertaken some tutoring of maths students at the University. working with refugees dispersed across Plymouth, and has “I have really enjoyed my first attended a women’s group where year,” George adds. “The lectures participants have the chance to and laboratories have introduced act, sing and share their stories. me to academic practices as For her dissertation, Rebekah will well as engineering, and I feel interview a number of refugees that I have contributed in a about their experiences, as well small way to helping others.” as undertake a camping trip on Dartmoor for the remote and Expanding global rural element of the programme

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“I am interested in humanitarian medical work but have become inspired from my early experiences of the course to consider how I could make a greater impact in alternate ways while also focusing locally.”

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“Iain is a professional engineer, who understands the skills and competencies that are required for a career in engineering,” George says. “He is helping me to develop those skills and giving me insights into how employers think. Furthermore he is giving me opportunities to visit his workplace and practice presentation skills.”

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It is one of the biggest cultural programmes to have ever taken place in Plymouth: a year-long commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower. With the spotlight firmly on the city and its transatlantic links, the University has been playing a leading role in developing a range of events that reflect upon the historical legacies of the crossing undertaken by the passengers who came to be known as the ‘Pilgrim Fathers’. From musical drama to autonomous marine research vessels, we find out what Mayflower 400 has in store.

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“We had these three distinct areas – the festival vibe at Royal William Yard, a magical forest trail at Mount Edgcumbe, and a more contemplative art “gallery” in the backstreets of the Barbican.

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Illuminate It was with a dazzling festival of light that Mayflower 400 was officially launched in November – and it’ll be an even bigger one that brings down the curtain at the close of the programme. From its roots as a lantern parade in the Barbican, Illuminate has grown rapidly in just four years to become a literal and metaphorical beacon of creativity for the city.

“Wellington is roughly the same size as Plymouth, and with similar demographics and natural capital, the potential was immediately apparent,” he says. “In the same way that Vivid Sydney has created satellite points of interest which it then connects into a central festival, so Illuminate is growing and reaching out across the waterfront and into the Sound.”

A showcase of light installations, interactive performances, projection mapping, and workshops (not to mention food and drink), Illuminate has found a perfect venue in Royal William Yard, bringing vibrant colour and animation to its immutable Devon limestone granite architecture. It’s been developed by a project team from the University, the Real Ideas Organisation, Plymouth College of Art, and Urban Splash, and it has quickly cemented its place in the city’s calendar – a winter counterpart to the British Firework Championships.

For the 2019 event, Illuminate moved beyond the environs of Royal William Yard to create very different installations at Mount Edgcumbe and the Barbican. It’s an emerging theme as Chris confirms that Drake’s Island and the Plymouth Breakwater could well be included in the 2020 programme.

“The biggest success has been the way that the city has embraced the festival,” says Professor Chris Bennewith, Head of the School of Art, Design and Architecture, and the University’s lead for Illuminate. “There is a real sense of building social capital here, and people saying ‘this is ours; we have it, it’s not Exeter’s or Bristol’s. It’s about civic pride.”

Chris has seen first-hand the impact that a home-grown cultural entity can have upon the identity of a city. He was part of the team that created the LUX Light Festival in Wellington, New Zealand, which drew crowds in excess of 100,000 people over nine days. And when he moved to Plymouth in 2017, he immediately saw the potential for the city to do something similar.

“Last year was interesting because it marked the point at which you could no longer see all of Illuminate in one night,” Chris says.

“We had these three distinct areas – the festival vibe at Royal William Yard, a magical forest trail at Mount Edgcumbe, and a more contemplative art “gallery” in the backstreets of the Barbican. The idea is that we will keep building up without it ever feeling like it is spreading too thin.”

Student involvement has also been a key ingredient for the development of Illuminate, with undergraduate architects, 3D designers, art and fine art students from both the University and Plymouth College of Art rubbing shoulders with established international artists.

“It’s a nice mixture,” adds Chris. “Lots of festivals simply commission work, but Illuminate is bridging across into the wealth of talent we have in the city. It’s another reason why it has become such a key event for Plymouth.”

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“What I wanted to do was offer something to all of us that deals with not just the courageous Atlantic crossing of the Pilgrims, but elements that we can all learn from today,” says Dr Robert Taub, of his multimedia music drama Some Call It Home. “I wanted to take what happened in 1620 and cast it in a light that has direct relevance to our lives.”

The result – to be premiered at Theatre Royal Plymouth in March – is a Mayflower-inspired hard-hitting work of art about our relationship with the land, and the competing philosophies of Stewardship versus Dominion. Tracing a narrative through-line from the colonisation of North America to the current climate-change and geopolitics induced mass migration, Some Call It Home combines imagery, video, narration, song and a string orchestra over the course of its 75-minute run-time.

“The drama plays out over nine scenes, each framed around a pivotal figure or event,” Robert says. “For example, the third chapter, Arrival 1620, begins with a Libretto using a quote from William Bradford, the second governor of the Plymouth colony and most significant chronicler of the Mayflower narratives, which reads, “God has cleared a space for us in the wilderness”. This is the point where we see the dawn of this conflict of philosophies in relation to the land.”

Robert, an internationally-renowned concert pianist from New York, has been developing the piece since he took up his post at the University in April 2018. He initially worked with Kathryn Gray, Associate Professor of English, to create a ‘sweeping panorama’ of the Mayflower narrative, and then began an intense process of distilling it into a form that would make “an evening of drama”.

An alumnus of Princeton University and The Juilliard School, as well as a Visiting Professor at Princeton, Robert has been working with two composers – Jane O’Leary, from Galway, Ireland (whose ancestor Richard Warren 12 generations ago was on the Mayflower), and Jonathan Dawe, from New York – to develop the music. Randall Scarlata, a leading US baritone, and the Grammy Award-winning soprano Deborah York are the singers / narrators, and nine string members of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra will be the live music ensemble. And the visual component, which includes maps, photos, and video, is being created in collaboration with the production team at Theatre Royal Plymouth.

“I don’t think anything like this – regarding our home, our planet – has been done before involving live music and video and images,” Robert says. “And we’re hoping to share it with many people.”

And in that act of sharing, what does he hope the audience will take-away from Some Call It Home?

“My hope is that the audience is both moved and inspired,” Robert reflects. “This is not a romantic comedy. It’s taking a key historical event – something so intrinsic to American iconography – and imbuing it with life and relevance for a modern audience. I hope people will ask of themselves, ‘what can we learn from this conflict of philosophy?’ Well maybe we can learn to shepherd our home in a way that will preserve it for the future.”

Some Call It Home will play at TRP on 24 and 25 March.

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‘Mayflower 400: Legend and Legacy’ is seeking to change that. A national commemorative exhibition that will be in place when The Box opens in spring, it has been created in partnership with the Wampanoag Native American Advisory Committee. The collaboration has not only opened the doors to more than 100 museums, libraries and archives across the UK, US and the Netherlands, but it has also led to the commissioning of new work from Wampanoag artists.

Kathryn Gray, Associate Professor of English, specialising in early American literature, and Jo Loosemore, a BBC journalist and the curator of the exhibition, have worked together for the past two years to construct a narrative around Mayflower that is more nuanced and multi-layered than many traditional retellings of the story.

“We often see a particularly history become dominant over time,” says Kathryn, an expert in transatlantic literature and culture, who has researched and written about many of the key historical texts of the 17th and 18th Century.

“And for centuries, Native Americans have

This is particularly the case in a second exhibition in development – ‘Wampum: Stories and Shells from Native America’ – which will tour Lincoln, London and Southampton from April, arriving in Plymouth in September. This represents a first acknowledgement of the cultural connection to the Wampanoag people and will include the commissioning of a new wampum belt, and an opportunity for Wampanoag artists to record, interpret and explore one of the world’s largest collections of wampum belts at the British Museum.

“This project is about voice, and the story of the story,” says Jo Loosemore. “If we had only told that dominant, traditional one, we would have done our audience a disservice.

What we have is much richer and surprising, but also more troubling and difficult.”

“Many people have been brought up to think about the Mayflower sailing in a particular way,” adds Kathryn. “I hope that the legacy of Mayflower 400 is that we will never be able to tell the story again without accommodating the perspective of the Native people.”

The Mayflower 400 exhibition will be in residence for 18 months, and will include artefacts sourced from the National Museum of the Native American, Harvard, and the Leiden Archives.

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It is said that there are 25 million people in the world today who claim to be descendants of the Mayflower settlers. By contrast, there may be as few as 5,000 members of the Wampanoag left living in the United States today, the indigenous people who resided in Massachusetts when the colonists arrived.

It is a disparity that has helped to shape the dominant Mayflower narrative, which for many years has been framed within a narrow cultural perspective.

been lost in the Anglo-American story of the Mayflower. What we are doing is telling parallel and intersecting stories, which includes their experiences both before 1620 and in the intervening centuries.”

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Kathryn’s involvement with Mayflower 400 dates back to 2014 when the US Ambassador and his cultural attaché in 2014 visited the city, even attending Graduation. She has helped to create educational resources for the City Council and delivered training to the Mayflower Makers volunteer programme.

She launched a Mayflower Lecture Series in 2015, attracting renowned speakers such as American chef and historian Dr Lois Ellen Franck, and Mary Nolan, Professor of History at New York University. All of this has contributed to a deeper and broader understanding of Mayflower.

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“The original Mayflower voyage was all about exploration into a new world, and this project is to a large extent the same, it takes autonomous marine vessels to a new level and opens up countless scientific possibilities.”

Fredrik Soreide, ProMare Project Director.

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The project was first conceived in 2014, and is being led by ProMare, a non-profit corporation and public charity established to promote marine research and exploration throughout the world. The research element will be coordinated by the University, and Plymouthbased MSubs, which has more than 20 years’ experience in mechanical engineering, composites, electronic and software design, is constructing the vessel.

“This voyage has the potential to be a real game-changer and cements Plymouth’s reputation as a world-leading hub of marine science,” says Professor Kevin Jones, Executive Dean of Science and Engineering at the University. “It gives us the genuine capability to explore new and innovative research opportunities that have not previously been possible. It also raises the bar in terms of autonomous vessels, a world first that could set the standard for others in the field to follow.”

The trimaran-style vessel will sail using renewable energy and will include three research pods packed with state-of-the-art monitoring equipment. These will include acoustic, nutrient and temperature sensors, along with water and air samplers, that can create a picture of ocean conditions and mammal behaviour right across the Atlantic.

The hull is being manufactured at a shipyard in Poland and will return to Plymouth this spring for its final outfitting and testing by ProMare and MSubs. And it has also been

iMayflower If Mayflower 400 has been a commemoration of an historic event, iMayflower is its legacy for the future. Thanks to a successful bid to the Cultural Development Fund, the city has been awarded £2.75 million (from a total package of £3.5 million) to develop new opportunities, creative spaces and skills for the creative industries.

For the University, this money will support a range of initiatives, including business support, leadership development and a knowledge exchange programmes for the creative sector.

There will be a particular focus on skills and learning through the use of the new immersive media and digital fabrication laboratories in the Roland Levinsky Building. And it will also include the launch of Ignite – A Festival of Creativity, which will bring together the traditional arts degree shows at both the University and Plymouth College of Art to create a month-long celebration and showcase of the city’s artistic talent, supplemented with events, activity, networking and debates.

“The Cultural Development Fund will enable the dynamic fusion of the region’s creative talent and excellent digital resources, with existing strengths in sectors such as healthcare, marine and tourism,” says Professor Chris Bennewith, who is leading the University’s work on iMayflower. “And through Ignite, iMayflower and our wider work to boost the creative economy, we are helping enable more and more of our graduates to remain in Plymouth and use their talents and energy to help the city realise its potential.”

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On 6 September, should all go to plan, an unmanned, fully autonomous ship will launch from the city to begin its own voyage towards a new frontier. The Mayflower Autonomous Ship will set off for Plymouth, Massachusetts, and on route will conduct a series of experiments, which, if successful, could redefine how marine research is pursued.

“The original Mayflower voyage was all about exploration into a new world, and this project is to a large extent the same,” adds Fredrik Soreide, ProMare Project Director. “It takes autonomous marine vessels to a new level and opens up countless scientific possibilities.” issu e

If Mayflower 400 is primarily a cultural and artistic meditation upon an iconic historical event, there is at least one remarkable project that is flying the flag for science.

confirmed that global technology giants IBM will provide the servers, Artificial Intelligence, and cloud-based technology that will help MAS navigate its way across The North Atlantic.

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Recently, a group of alumni from the Business Studies degree marked the 40th anniversary of their graduation with a tour of the campus.

Afterwards, some of them shared their memories and impressions of the campus past and present.

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Andy Gower (organiser of the day).

It was September 1975. We’d just had the first EU Referendum, and Harold Wilson was Prime Minister; ‘Sailing’ by Rod Stewart was number one in the charts and beer was around 33p a pint – the same as a packet of cigarettes.

Stephen Allen Although originally from Cornwall, I came to Plymouth Polytechnic from a local grammar school.

I thus knew the ‘Poly’ campus quite well, especially as I used to watch live bands on Friday/Saturday nights. This became a regular thing during my time at the poly as local promoters and the Students’ Union kept a thriving music scene running.

Andy Gower The Students’ Union was in a terraced house on North Hill! There was one hall of residence, which we called the Hoe and housed about 100 students, and there was a disco there on a Friday night, which was the sweatiest and most smoke-filled venue I have ever known.

Andy Gower The Students’ Union was in a terraced house on North Hill! There was one hall of residence, which we called the Hoe and housed about 100 students, and there was a disco there on a Friday night, which was the sweatiest and most smoke-filled venue I have ever known.

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Ian Lancaster When I arrived in September, accommodation was a bit of a problem. There were 1,100 students but only a few places in the Hoe Centre. So, most were farmed out into digs across the city. I stayed with friends out on Dartmoor for the first term, but realised that I was missing out on the social life, so found a large flat in Lipson Road and rounded up four other members of the course to share it. The flat was owned by a formidable, although kind, Yorkshire woman, who lived on the ground floor with her family. One of the rules was that when you came in you had to go up the stairs without leaving dirty footprints on her polished front step and hallway or make a noise – a difficult task at times when we were supporting each other home!

Trish Unwin The first person I spoke to was a lad from Kendal, which was strange as that is only about 30 miles from my home town, and we were both nearly 400 miles from home. There were not many students from north of Birmingham, so our accents stuck out somewhat in the town. In fact, I once asked for ‘four curries’ in the pub under the Money Centre, and somebody had to translate my request for the waitress!

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Trish Unwin I came all the way from Cumbria, and when I arrived in Plymouth for the Open Day and interview, it was pretty much ‘love at first sight’. I knew instinctively it was where I wanted to study. What is quite bizarre is that some 38 years later, my daughter had exactly the same reaction and studied criminology here.

She loved the city so much that she still lives here three years after graduation.

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Ian Lancaster My initial impressions were formed on a typical Atlantic-weather January day in 1975. A grey, wet city, with the granite darkened by the water and many houses painted in what appeared to be surplus battleship grey paint from the dockyard – fortunately I already knew that the city transformed itself outside of ‘monsoon season’.

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From left: Ian Lancaster, Mark Fox, Stephen Allen, Andy Gower, Keith Lewis, Trish Unwin, and Al Woodcock.

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Ian Lancaster Initially lectures and tutorials were scattered across the city because of a lack of facilities; apart from some in the Main Building, we also used Sherwell Church, the Hoe Centre and the lecturers’ rooms in Portland Place and Sherwell Lane, so we were regularly running across the city.

In our 2nd year the Students’ Union and Library were built, and in the 4th year, the Business Studies building was opened in our final two terms, so no more long walks between lectures.

Andy Gower I can’t remember the name of the business block – I’m not even sure it had a name – but it was the first ‘new’ building, I think, built in 1977-78. Looking at the map, the business building would become the Babbage Building, and the rest of the campus consisted of the Main Hall, Davy, where we had most of our lectures, Link, where the canteen was, Smeaton, where I think the library had been, and Fitzroy, the Maritime Studies block.

Stephen Allen The Main Hall building used to house the IBM mainframe computer then and a Computer programming module was offered to our course during our first year. This involved writing out tasks and problem solving routines longhand, having someone type/punch out cards, which were run and reviewed for errors (re-punched if necessary) until all was correct – whereupon miles of green computer print-outs were generated! Heady, cutting edge stuff!

Ian Lancaster If there was an error in your card punching you had to repeat, submit and wait another week – some never finished the module! We were only the second year of the BA (Hons) Business Studies course being run, and the Polytechnic was trying to build a reputation for its course, so we were pushed, with about three more weeks to our academic year than standard courses, and one of the highest numbers of lectures per week, in addition to our own study time. Many of the academic staff were not that much older than us, so we occasionally used to mix socially, or kick the stuffing out of each other playing football on ‘Heart Attack Hill’ at Ernesettle.

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Andy Gower I still have a photo of the football team from our course, taken in December 1978 before we played the lecturers in typical Plymouth weather.

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Stephen Allen The ‘Three years in, one out’ format of our course was attractive and the multi-subject content provided valuable experience, coupled with a good general overview of business life. The Law and Accounts subjects were most directly of use but the range gave you the ability to apply yourself to many aspects of work life, proving useful in the various jobs undertaken and leading to the title of “Wise owl” from one set of staff where I seemed expert in so much!

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Trish Unwin I look back on my time in Plymouth as a happy one in my life, relatively carefree (our fees were paid and my maintenance grant covered everything).

We worked hard at our studies but played hard too! I gained the confidence to go out into the world – I left with a 2:1 and that helped me into my first job and the start of a good career. Of course the important thing is the lasting friendships, and the memories we share, and it was so good to get together to relive some of our experiences.

Stephen Allen The expansion has been quite dramatic with many new buildings, halls of residences and satellite sites. The new has built upon the foundations of the old. The Babbage Building was our General Teaching Block re-clad in white; the Charles Seale Hayne library was our Learning Resources Centre; and the Students’ Union, although much extended, still seems to be centred on the bar that we all frequented!!! The expansion of courses and the international reputation of the university is impressive but it is good to see that life skills as well as academic qualifications are important still.

Ian Lancaster The City and the University has changed beyond recognition in the last 45 years; from a Polytechnic to a University, bomb sites have been filled in, terraces of houses have been knocked down and replaced, others have been refurbished, large areas have been pedestrianised, the working Barbican fish market has disappeared and there are no counter demonstrations against National Front rallies held outside the Poly. The skyline has gone up and many of the buildings that dominated at the time have merged into the background. But studying, meeting people with different experiences, attitudes and values, helping and challenging each other, making friends for life and discovering new interests: these are the things that have not changed for students who are following the same route to independence as their parents.

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Andy Gower We all really enjoyed the reunion, and it was fascinating to see the growth there has been in the last 40 years. It was great to spend the weekend reminiscing, and visiting the sites of old haunts.

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Trish Unwin We girls were far outnumbered by the boys, a ratio of about 1:5. But the overwhelming feeling was that they were happy to look out for us. The course was small enough to have a really good camaraderie between everybody, birthday celebrations usually saw us out en masse.

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Construction work underway on campus in 2006

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In 2019 the University celebrated the 50th anniversary of geography being taught as a degree subject at the institution. At a special event on campus in November, academics past and present, students, alumni and members of the public joined together to pay tribute to the achievements of one of the University’s most respected scholarly communities.

Launched in 1969, geography as a subject has flourished at Plymouth with more than 5,000 graduating in the years since, and has also developed a world-class research culture. To celebrate the anniversary, Dan Charman, formerly Professor of Physical Geography at the University of Plymouth and now Pro-Vice Chancellor at the University of Exeter, provided a special guest lecture, and there was an exhibition of materials from the last 50 years, curated by Tim Absalom and Jamie Quinn of the Geomapping Unit. And there was also the launch of a new book – Challenges, Changes and Achievements – celebrating 50 years of geography at the University of Plymouth – written by Mark Brayshay, Emeritus Professor.

More than 220 people attended the event, including the University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Judith Petts CBE.

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London Alumni Quiz The latest in the series of our London Network events, November saw the return of the popular Quiz Night, where around 40 alumni met at the Dickens Inn to test their knowledge of music, pictures and Plymouth. With the help of the London Alumni Committee, events are held in the capital three times a year, giving graduates based in the area an excellent opportunity to catch up with old friends and make new contacts.

Events The University runs hundreds of events each year that are open to alumni and guests, from showcasing our world-leading research to a wide-ranging public arts programme. Further details will be available at: plymouth.ac.uk/research/public-research-programme View our complete Events Calendar at: plymouth.ac.uk/events You can find out more and share your views on our social media channels:

 Follow us on Twitter @PlymUniAlum  facebook.com/plymouthunialumni  Join the Plymouth University Alumni Network on LinkedIn

University of Plymouth Drake Circus Plymouth Devon PL4 8AA To view this online: www.plymouth.ac.uk/invenite If you require this publication in an alternative format, please email: alumni@plymouth.ac.uk Managing Editor – Karen Mason Content Editor – Andrew Merrington Graphic Designers – Kate Sardella, Lee Mattock, Zachary Child, Lauren Porter, Tara McCulloch Digital Designer – Catherine Hemsley Photography – Lloyd Russell Proofreaders – Alice Li and Sarah Dunstall Head of Development and Alumni Engagement – Rachel Brown Alumni Engagement – Samantha Davis Print Production – Design and Print Centre, University of Plymouth Printer – Deltor Communications Ltd

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