Compressed air off
There will be disruption to the compressed air supply to the Physics building for a brief period on Tuesday 14th June to enable essential service.
Shonah Ion
Vangelis
Dear friends and colleagues
I am compelled to write a few words for the great Greek music composer Vagelis Papathanasiou, or simply Vangelis, who died from Covid-19 in Paris on the 17th of May and had his funeral last Friday.
Vangelis, was mostly known to the world for his Oscar winning music in “Chariots of Fire” and also from the music of “Blade Runner”. However, I am not going to summarise his rich biography. Whoever is interested, can take a look at his Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vangelis
I discovered him from the seminal documentary series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage by Carl Sagan in 1980, which used Vangelis’ music for its main theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxmimFscpjQ
This series played no small part in motivating me (and I am sure many others) to undertake my career in Physics and Cosmology.
Vangelis collaborated with NASA and ESA on music projects Mythodea (Μυθωδεία, song of mythos) (NASA Mission: 2001 Mars Odyssey), Rosetta (dedicated to the Rosetta space probe mission, launched in 2004) and Juno to Jupiter (Juno is a NASA space probe orbiting the planet Jupiter), which was his 23rd and last solo studio album in 2021. NASA conferred their Public Service Medal to Vangelis in 2003. The award is the highest honour the space agency presents to an individual not involved with the American government. However, his fascination with space predated all these, stemming from his classic album “Albedo 0.39” (1976).
In 2018, Vangelis composed an original score for Stephen Hawking’s memorial. While Hawking’s ashes were interred at Westminster Abbey, the music which backed Hawking’s words was beamed by the ESA to the nearest black hole to Earth. In 1995, Vangelis had a minor planet (asteroid) named after him (6354 Vangelis) by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center (MPC) at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.
ESA Astronaut André Kuipers wrote:
“My dear friend Vangelis passed away. Ever since TV-series Cosmos, albums like Albedo 0.39, Spiral, China, Antarctica and movies like Blade Runner, he enriched many space related moments, travels through majestic landscapes and the time in space for me with his magical music. Head filled with colourful memories after Vangelis passing. Like our contact from ISS (International Space Station), playing live while showing him our planet, to the warm, joyful dinners in his Paris residence, composing between his paintings, talking about the beauty and wonders of life, music and the universe.”
Farewell
Kostas Dimopoulos
Coaching Skills for Managers – dates to sign up
Please find below links to sign up for a date for the Coaching Skills for Managers for use in upcoming PDR meetings with staff members in our teams.
21th June: https://lancaster-uk.libcal.com/event/3893179
30th June: https://lancaster-uk.libcal.com/event/3892827
6th July: https://lancaster-uk.libcal.com/event/3892828
11th July: https://lancaster-uk.libcal.com/event/3892829
12th July: https://lancaster-uk.libcal.com/event/3892830
Philip Simpson – From Bitten Brigham
Title TBC
Online
Monday 13 June 2022
3:00pm to 4:00pm
Astrophysics seminar
Speaker: Prof. Kirsten Knudsen (Chalmers University of Technology)
Izzy Garland
MSI Lunchtime Seminar
Bowland North Seminar Room 10
Wednesday 15 June 2022
1:00pm to 2:00pm
Joined by Dr Michael Thompson, Beth Murdock and Jade Li, the MSI will be hosting a blended seminar 1pm-2pm on Wed 15th Jun.
Rachel Lyon
CEDARS (Culture, Employment and Development in Academic Research Survey)
Lancaster has launched the CEDARS 2022. It is important that all researchers and those who manage researchers, take this opportunity to help create a rewarding and supportive research culture at Lancaster.
Feedback received in 2020 had direct input into the activities within the HR EiR action plan for 2021/2023, ensuring that focus is maintained on a strong researcher voice, improving policies and procedures with an emphasis on equity and consistency.
At a practical level, new development programmes have been introduced specifically aimed at researchers and academics, including Project Management for researchers and Mentoring for academic development, a career development package and a range of other initiatives.
To have your say please complete the CEDARS 2022. Closing date for the survey has been extended to 12th June.
Philip Simpson
Works in ULT corridor
There will be works on going in the corridor outside the low temperature labs in the early part of June. These are associated with works being undertaken in the spine ducting that runs under the building. Operatives will be transiting from the spine duct and exiting the building along this corridor which may have to be closed at times. Further details will be publicised as they become available.
Shonah Ion
Scaffolding on roof of liquefier area
The re certification of the large helium storage vessels on the liquefier roof will require the erection of protection scaffolding. No date as yet set for the start of these works but some disruption and inconvenience should be expected.
Shonah Ion
Brampton 2 Zero Seminar
Brampton 2 Zero is a local grassroots project with the ambitious aim to take the community of Brampton to net carbon zero, and to inspire similar projects nationwide. An initiative led by Phil Furneaux (Honorary Teaching Fellow in Physics), in only six months, B2Z has gained Community Interest Company status, taken on a Lancaster University intern, won a £22,000 grant for a feasibility study for a community energy scheme and has started fundraising for a shared heating scheme.
Brampton 2 Zero would like to invite Lancaster academics to contribute their expertise to collaborate in their net carbon zero community and increase their resilience to climate change. With what they learn, they intend to write a “Blueprint for a market town to transition to a zero carbon community “ in order to help other communities to reduce their carbon footprint.
Phil and colleagues will host a seminar on the 13th June at 4pm in LUMS to highlight their project and explain how academics at Lancaster could contribute. Anyone interested is invited to join the event.
https://brampton-2-zero-call-on-academics.eventbrite.co.uk
Monday 13th June at 16.00 in Mngt School LT19 WPB002
Manus Hayne & Philip Simpson
Calling all campus runners
The 43rd Physics Relay will take place this year on Thursday 23rd June.
The rules are unchanged since the year dot. For more information and to enter a team go to http://www.hep.lancs.ac.uk/relay/2022/. Same route as previously starting from the new sports centre and using the woodland walk.
This annual fun run is open to teams of four. The course consists of four unequal length legs making up a circuit of campus. It is open to all. There are four prizes on offer, Mens, Womens, Mixed and “Age Corrected”. Enter a team now!
Alex Finch, and Rob Henderson (aka The Physics Relay Committee)
Alex Finch
PLASTICS WASTE AND MICROPLASTIC RESEARCH EVENT
12th – 14th July 2022
The Storey, Lancaster
Invitation to register for the first plastic waste and microplastic research conference at Lancaster University.
To register please email Rachel Lyon (msi@lancaster.ac.uk). If your registration is successful, you will be required
to attend the event on all 3 days.
Plastic waste and microplastics are potentially the biggest global environmental challenge after climate change. (And the
two are not unlinked, with plastics in soil displacing carbon.) Beyond plastic waste, microplastics have infiltrated all parts of
the food chain and are now being found in (nearly) all human organs. Their potential to act as vectors for disease
transmission and the development of antimicrobial resistance is only now being recognised.
This workshop will bring together all the multi-facetted threads of plastic waste and micro-plastic research conducted at
Lancaster University in one workshop. International speakers will highlight global challenges and internal speakers will
highlight the quality and quantity of research conducted at Lancaster. The workshop provides a platform for Lancaster
researchers to connect with each other and to build further plastics activities.
Finally, the event provides a forum for our PhDs and early career researchers to present their research, providing for some
their first experience of the intellectual life, following two years of lockdown.
Tuesday 12th July
A presentation from keynote speaker Professor Meththika Vithanage followed by a ‘Question Time’ style Q&A about the future of plastics with a
panel of experts. This session will be facilitated by materials scientist and story teller, Dr. Anna Ploszajski.
Wednesday 13th July
A presentation from keynote speaker Professor Gay Hawkins. After this, the students will be invited to give group presentations about their
research. The presentations will be separated by questions and discussion. This session will be facilitated by Dr. Neil McLatchie. In the evening,
the attendees will participate in a litter pick on Morecambe Bay followed by a dinner at the Midland Hotel.
Thursday 14th July
A session focussed on creating a plastics community at LU and a discussion leading to a list of actions for the community. This session will also be
facilitated by Dr. Neil McLatchie.
Grainne Wilkinson
Research Software Skills Workshops
After the success of these courses in the Michaelmas term, we are delighted to announce another programme of workshops aimed at skills development for Computationally Intensive research, courtesy of our new N8CIR Research Software Engineer Robin Long. All the workshops are designed to help researchers (PhD students and staff) with the skills, they need for using and developing software as part of their research. If you have any questions about these workshops, or if you are unsure whether they are the correct ones for your needs, please email Robin Long at rse@lancaster.ac.uk.
Week 29 (23/06/22): Git 2: Sharing your development with others using Github
This course will show you how to take your usage of Git and Github to the
next level by harnessing the power of GitHub for collaboration.
Have you ever been confused about how to start a Pull Request or how to fork
a repository and merge your changes back? Perhaps you know and want to gain
confidence in doing so? This course will teach you how to collaborate using
git, and give you an environment in which to practise.
https://lancaster-uk.libcal.com/calendar/dsi/rse-git-intermediate
Robin Long
Manus Hayne