University News

Durham University News

Durham appoints new Vice-Chancellor and Warden

Professor O’Brien will be our 25th Vice-Chancellor and will join us on 4 January 2022. She will succeed Professor Stuart Corbridge, who will retire on 31 July 2021. Between 1 August 2021 and 3 January 2022, Professor Antony Long, currently Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost, will serve as Interim Vice-Chancellor and Warden.

For the last five years, Professor O’Brien has led the Humanities Division at the University of Oxford with great success. As a member of the University Council, she has been jointly responsible for the financial oversight, research strategy and equalities and access priorities of the University.

The Dogs that can sniff out COVID-19

A recent study in collaboration between the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), Medical Detection Dogs and Durham University has found that COVID-19 as a distinctive odour, that dogs can detect with up to 94 per cent accuracy.

The study, which is not yet peer-reviewed, is the most extensive of its kind to date using over 3,500 odour samples donated by the public and NHS staff. distinguish between infected and uninfected people alongside odour analysis and modelling.

The dogs were able to detect odour from individuals with Covid-19 regardless of whether they had symptoms or not, as well as those with two different strains, and with both high and low viral loads.

This research offers future opportunities for rapid mass testing, and the College was delighted to welcome Professor Steve Lindsay, Department of Biosciences, to speak as part of a Dimensions Public Lecture.

The Lecture can be viewed on the College’s YouTube Channel.

Durham moves up in QS World University Rankings

Durham University has once again been named in the world’s top 100 universities. In the QS World University Rankings 2022, which rank 1,300 institutions across the globe, we’ve moved up by four places to 82nd position.

In the UK, the Complete University Guide 2022, places Durham University in 6th place.

This step up in the rankings reflects our strength in world-class research and the extraordinary standard of our teaching and learning. international league table.

As part of the new rankings, the University placed 54th globally by the world’s leading employers for the quality of our education and our graduates, reflecting the high employability prospects for our students.

Astronomers apply their skills to cancer research

Experts in Astronomy and Astrophysics in the University’s Department of Physics are currently working with the NHS, healthcare researchers and biotech experts on the £1million CUP-COMP project to improve outcomes for people with cancer of unknown primary (CUP).

Scientists will use statistical methods normally used to understand the evolution of the universe to help model the success of cancer therapies across a range of datasets.

They hope the modelling can show how different therapies affect different cancers so future treatments can be tailored to individual patients.

By sharing knowledge with experts in healthcare about the analysis of huge datasets our researchers also hope to apply what they’ve learnt to better analyse images of galaxies.

Source: Durham University News