Message from the Vice-President and Dean
04 Apr 2025
This week, Fiona reflects on the University’s Medal of Honour awards, the launch of an important low-carbon living research centre, and updates on some recent colleague and student achievements.
Dear All
With the clocks going forward and the lovely, sunny weather looking like it will continue well into next week, I hope you have the chance to enjoy the lighter evenings as we approach the Easter break.
Medal of Honour presentations
I was privileged to be a guest last month at the presentation of the University’s Medal of Honour to two outstanding people, one of whom is a Faculty colleague. The medal is one of the University’s highest accolades, recognising the exceptional and long-standing contribution by an individual to the work of the University, to Manchester or to the north-west of England.
Professor Michael Schmidt received the medal in acknowledgment of his career as a celebrated poet, novelist, literary historian and publisher. As a member of the Centre for New Writing, Michael was presented with his medal by Centre Director Professor John McAuliffe. The second Medal of Honour recipient was Yakub Patel, co-founder of the Cohens nationwide chemist chain and educational and community philanthropist.
Masood Enterprise Centre Eli and Britt Harari Graphene Enterprise Award
I was delighted to attend the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre’s Eli and Britt Harari Graphene Enterprise Award grand final, where four finalists pitched their ideas for turning cutting-edge research into viable businesses. The award is a fantastic example of the transformative support MEC provides students, postgraduates and recent alumni from across the University in helping them realise their commercial ambitions. This year’s finalists showcased innovative applications of graphene and 2D materials to an expert panel before an awards ceremony in front of an in-person and global online audience.
The £50,000 first prize was awarded to Jorge A Servert from the School of Biological Sciences, who leads Sensium, which is revolutionising molecular diagnostics. The technology achieves 90-95% accuracy in detecting various medical conditions in less than five minutes at just $1 per test. Patrick Johansen Sarsfield from the School of Natural Sciences received the £20,000 second prize for Graphene Thermal, a company creating efficient graphene heated floor panels that use 50% less power than equivalent products.
JUST Centre launch
I am always impressed by the formidable impact our research activity is making in addressing some of the crucial challenges facing our communities. At the launch of the Joined-up Sustainability Transformations (JUST) Centre hosted at the People’s History Museum, I joined more than 120 people in hearing directly from community groups, who discussed the benefits of grassroots low-carbon living initiatives with researchers and policymakers.
Vice-President for Social Responsibility, Professor Nalin Thakkar, opened the event, while JUST Centre Director, Professor Sherilyn MacGregor, and Deputy Director, Professor Matthew Paterson, launched the ESRC-funded centre’s vision of putting justice at the heart of research and action in the transition to net zero. It was an inspiring event demonstrating the difference we can make in helping address political and social inequalities.
Colleague appointments, elections and achievements
Sherilyn and Matthew are also two of an unprecedented five Faculty academics who have been recognised for their excellence, research impact and advancement of their subject areas for the public good by being named as Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences. Joining them are Professor Stefan Bouzarovski, Professor Toni Haastrup and Professor Sophie Woodward.
Congratulations to Professor Cecilia Wong on becoming a member of the ESRC Council. It is a well-deserved recognition of her prominent work in policy communities and her research expertise in areas including strategic planning, spatial analysis and urban and regional development.
And well done to Professor Hannah Cobb on her election to the University Senate and Dr Stephen Mossman on his re-election. Both will be Senate members for three-year terms from 1 September 2025 until 31 August 2028.
We have had some fantastic recent success with research grants and awards. Professor Melanie Giles has secured £615,000 of £1.25m from the AHRC for the ‘Chariots and Cynefin’ project. In partnership with Amgueddfa Cymru-Museum Wales, Melanie will investigate the internationally important discovery of a charioteer burial in Pembrokeshire and how the chariot can reveal the impact of Roman colonisation through craft skill, technology and funerary rites.
Dr Upasak Das and Dr Mehebub Sahana have been awarded approximately £32,000 by the British Council for the ‘Exploring Policy Mobility for Local Solutions and Community Resilience through Natural Flood Management: A Comparative Study of Mersey River Basin, England, and Shilabati River Basin, India’ project. A collaborative knowledge exchange initiative with academic and non-academic stakeholders in the UK, India and Japan, the study will aim to enhance flood resilience and community-based flood management practices.
Dr Jonathan Tweedie's ‘On the non-production of an accounting standard: Climate change, emissions trading and legitimacy maintenance’ project has received a British Academy grant of nearly £10,000. The research will investigate the work carried out by the International Accounting Board on financial accounting for emissions allowances related to the lack of a standard for how to account for these allowances and what it means for global attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through trading schemes.
Teaching and learning updates
Work on the introduction of Canvas is progressing well. The Faculty’s Adopting Canvas SharePoint microsite has a huge range of useful and important information available, including details of a series of online and in-person drop-in sessions being delivered by our eLearning team. Covering a range of themes, such as migrating content to and working in Canvas, and some School-specific sessions, they run until Thursday, 17 April.
There is also still time to book onto the next Canvas online open meeting, which will be taking place on Monday, 7 April from 12-1pm. The project team and a panel of University leaders will discuss the latest Canvas developments and actions to take, and answer your questions.
On the Teaching Sustainability project, we’ve been meeting heads of academic departments individually to gain a deeper understanding of the many disciplines across our Schools. Colleagues have also met with Faculty and School Students’ Union reps to give an overview of the project and hear their thoughts on how we can further improve the learning experience for current and future undergraduate and postgraduate-taught students.
The next significant phase of the project in June will see our Schools presenting their portfolio visions to the Teaching Sustainability Taskforce. I am looking forward to our discussions on some innovative programme plans.
Manchester 2035 Ideas Lab
Phase 2 of Manchester 2035 is now very much up and running with the launch of the in-person and digital Ideas Lab. The lab is your chance to explore ‘leap’ proposals developed from phase 1 and give your insights and opinions to help the University prioritise and select the final ideas to best meet our vision.
The in-person Ideas Lab is an interactive, pop-up exhibition open in the Nancy Rothwell building from 10am-4pm daily until Friday, 11 April. You can drop in or book a team visit. The online Digital Ideas Lab features the same interactive content and will allow you access further information before posting your comments. It is live until Friday, 18 April.
Please get involved!
Your Voice Matters
Another important way in which we are listening to colleagues is through the colleague engagement survey. If you have not done so already, please complete the survey so we can understand more about what you enjoy and value most about working at the University and where improvements can be made. It takes less than 10 minutes. The survey closes on Tuesday, 22 April.
Finally, I was saddened to hear of the death of Professor Stanley Metcalfe, a highly valued member of AMBS’s Division of Innovation, Management and Policy. ‘Stan’ was a part of our University community for many decades, graduating with a BA in Economics at the Victoria University of Manchester 1967, followed by an MSc in 1968 in the forerunner of the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research. He held a number of senior University positions, including Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences between 1992 and 1995, and wider higher education sector roles. He made a huge contribution to his discipline and the University and he will be very much missed.
Regards Fiona
Professor Fiona Devine, Vice-President and Dean, Faculty of Humanities