Beautiful Biochemistry Educating the workers - Department of ...

Blueprint 

Staff News for the University of Oxford • January 2009 

▸ Beautiful 

Biochemistry 

▸ Educating 

the workers

Topfoto/John Timbers iStockphoto/Filo 

Phil Sayer 

news in brief 

Cover: Biochemistry’s 

spectacular new home (pp6–7) 

sports coloured glass fins of 

different widths, giving the 

building a curve and moving 

dimension that alters as you 

pass from east to west or 

west to east, and a different 

feel by day or night. 

Photo credit: Greg Smolonski 

▸▸Two new spin-out companies based on Oxford research 

have been announced by Isis Innovation, the University’s 

technology transfer company. Intelligent Sustainable Energy 

(ISE) has received funding from Navetas Energy Management to 

develop a smart metering technology that will allow households 

to monitor which individual appliances are consuming 

electricity in real-time. OrganOx Ltd is developing a device 

for sustaining organs outside the body using blood at normal 

body temperatures. It will be used to improve and prolong 

preservation and transportation of livers before transplantation. 

▸▸More than 400,000 free audio and video downloads have 

been made from the University’s iTunes U site since its October 

launch. In the past month, new material has been added 

including the first of a new series of podcasts about the credit 

crunch and global recession; the alumni weekend video; the 

Romanes Lecture by Nobel Laureate winner Muhammad Yunus; 

ex-President of Brazil Fernando Henrique Cardoso speaking 

at St Anthony’s College; and Tony Benn speaking at Wolfson 

College. See http://itunes.ox.ac.uk. 

▸▸Bees created a buzz across the University last month 

as they landed two prizes. On BBC Radio 4, zoologist Dr 

George McGavin won the studio audience vote in a debate 

at the Earthwatch Institute to identify ‘the most valuable 

species of them all’. Arguing the case for bees, he saw off 

spirited defences for primates, bats, fungi and plankton to 

win a cheque towards bee conservation. An Oxford team of 

graduate students meanwhile won the £1,000 first prize in 

the Environment Young Entrepreneurs Scheme competition 

with their idea for a business that could save threatened bee 

populations by developing a unique feed supplement. 

▸▸Hundreds of schoolchildren visited the University Museum of 

Natural History last month to discover the best tactics to survive 

on a game show, learn how to make chemistry experiments 

go with a bang, or to hear tales of filming TV natural history 

programmes. The 13- and 14-year-old students from schools 

in Oxfordshire, Milton Keynes and Buckinghamshire were taking 

part in the University’s annual Christmas science lectures, where 

University researchers aim to entertain and inspire the teenagers 

with their insights into science. 

▸ ▸The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography has this month 

added 215 new entries on noteworthy people who died in 

2005. Biographies of Oxford alumni include former Prime 

Minister Sir Edward Heath, Dame Cicely Saunders (creator 

of the modern hospice movement) and author John Fowles. 

Other well known additions include former Prime Minister 

James Callaghan, actor Sir John Mills, footballer George Best, 

entertainer Ronnie Barker and politician Mo Mowlam. The 

material can be reached via www.oxforddnb.com. 

▸▸A student from Wolfson College won a £1,000 prize after 

taking part in the International Student Barometer survey. The 

survey, which is independently administered by the company 

I-graduate, helps institutions track expectations of international 

students against their experience. As a gesture of appreciation 

for participation, I-graduate offer a randomly chosen student the 

opportunity to win a cash prize or donate the money to charity. 

This summer, over 33,000 students at 93 UK universities 

responded. Lily Soucy, who is studying for an MLitt in Social 

and Cultural Anthropology at Wolfson College, was awarded 

the prize and donated the money to UNICEF. 

‘Blue Pages’ on 

the horizon 

A project that will facilitate efficient 

sharing of research management data 

throughout the University has been 

launched. Although large quantities 

of data about researchers and their 

projects are already gathered, these 

are currently held in numerous forms 

and locations, making it difficult to find 

people working on particular topics and 

creating inefficiencies for academics, 

research support staff and others. 

The BRII project (Building the 

Research Information Infrastructure), 

a collaboration between Oxford 

University Research Archive staff and the 

Medical Sciences Division web manager, 

will use semantic web technologies to 

develop data objects such as people, 

research groups, funding agencies, 

publications and research themes, and 

will forge connections between them. 

It will then provide web-based services 

to disseminate and reuse this information 

in new contexts. 

The first output will be a University 

‘Blue Pages’ which will enable easy 

discovery of researchers, research 

activities and topics across the 

University. The infrastructure is designed 

to use existing systems and will be 

developed in close collaboration 

with relevant staff, initially in a small 

number of academic and administrative 

departments. 

The project, which runs until March 

2010, is being funded by the Joint 

Information Systems Committee 

(JISC). The project website is under 

development at http://brii.medsci.ox. 

ac.uk/. 

Oxford Blueprint is published monthly 

(except August and September) for 

the staff of the University of Oxford 

by the Public Affairs Directorate 

Editor: Sally Croft 

Contributors: Ruth Collier, Maria 

Coyle, Wendy Fuggles, Lawrence 

Goldman, Lisa Glanville, Jenny Lunnon, 

Katie Samuel, Pete Wilton, Jonathan 

Wood, Clare Woodcock 

Designers: Laëtitia Velia 

Picture research: Janet Avison 

Editorial support: Nicola Sweetnam 

Suggestions and items for 

possible inclusion in Blueprint are 

welcome and should be sent to 

blueprint@admin.ox.ac.uk 

For the latest news about the 

University, see www.ox.ac.uk/media 

For Blueprint advertisement 

information, see p11 

2 

Blueprint January 2009

New psychotherapy treats most eating disorders 

A new form of psychotherapy American Journal of Psychiatry, 

has the potential to treat more Professor Fairburn and his 

than eight out of ten cases of colleagues have now shown that 

eating disorders in adults, an CBT-E is not only more potent 

Oxford University-led study has than the earlier treatment, but it 

shown. 

can be used to treat both bulimia 

The eating disorders anorexia nervosa and the atypical eating 

nervosa and bulimia nervosa disorders. This makes it suitable 

are well known; the remainder for over 80% of cases of eating 

are classed as ‘atypical eating disorders. 

disorders’. All are a major cause Two versions of CBT-E were 

of physical and psychosocial compared in the study, which 

impairment in young women, treated 154 people via 20 

affecting at least one in twenty weekly 50-minute outpatient 

women between the ages of appointments. A simple version 

18 and 30. They also occur focused solely on the eating 

in young men but are less disorder and a second, more 

common. 

complex version simultaneously 

The new treatment, an addressed commonly 

‘enhanced’ form of cognitive associated problems such as 

behavioural therapy (CBT-E), low self-esteem and extreme 

derives from an earlier form perfectionism. 

of CBT that was designed 

The researchers found that 

exclusively for patients with most patients responded 

bulimia nervosa. Both were well and rapidly to the two 

developed by Professor 

forms of CBT-E and that the 

Christopher Fairburn in the changes were sustained over 

Department of Psychiatry. the following year (the time at 

In a study published in the which relapse is most likely to 

Eating disorders affect around 5% of young women 

occur). Around two-thirds of to the more complex treatment 

those who completed treatment and vice versa. 

made a complete and lasting ‘Eating disorders are serious 

response with many of the mental health problems and 

remainder showing substantial can be very distressing for both 

improvement. Patients with patients and their families,’ says 

bulimia nervosa or an atypical Professor Fairburn. ‘Now, for 

eating disorder responded the first time, we have a single 

equally well, though a planned treatment which can be effective 

sub-analysis showed that at treating the majority of cases 

patients with particularly complex without the need for patients to 

clinical features responded better be admitted into hospital.’ 

iStockphoto/Aldo MurilloSdominick 

news 

Two malaria treatments for children show promise 

Clinical trials of a new malaria 

vaccine have shown it provides 

both infants and young children 

with substantial protection 

against malaria. The results are 

published in the New England 

Journal of Medicine. 

Studies of the RTS,S vaccine 

candidate developed by 

GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals 

were conducted in Kenya and 

Tanzania as part of a global 

effort led by The PATH Malaria 

Vaccine Initiative (MVI). Oxford 

University scientists led the work 

in Kilifi, Kenya. 

In children aged 5–17 months, 

the vaccine candidate was 

found to be 56% effective in 

preventing clinical disease. 

The findings support efforts 

to launch large-scale trials of 

the vaccine starting in 2009 

across Africa. 

Other research, reported in 

The Lancet, has shown that a 

simple treatment saves lives by 

buying the time necessary for 

children with severe malaria in 

rural areas of Asia and Africa to 

get to a clinic for full treatment. 

Professor Nick White of 

Oxford’s Centre for Tropical 

Medicine and the Faculty of 

Tropical Medicine, Mahidol 

University, Thailand says: 

‘We’ve shown that children 

with severe malaria who are 

hours from a health clinic 

and are too ill to take their 

medicine by mouth can 

be given a single, simple 

suppository. This knocks down 

the malaria parasites in the 

blood and buys life-saving time 

to get the children to a clinic 

for proper diagnosis and full 

treatment.’ 

Blueprint January 2009 3

news 

4 

Harry Harrington 

Mink control vital to save 

water voles 

Can water voles make a splash or will the mink sink their 

chances? 

Keeping water vole and mink 

populations apart is vital if efforts 

to reintroduce water voles, one 

of Britain’s most endangered 

mammals, are to be successful. 

The finding was one of 

many made by the University’s 

Wildlife Conservation Research 

Unit (the WildCRU) reported 

in this year’s State of Britain’s 

Mammals report, co-authored 

by the WildCRU’s Professor 

David Macdonald and Dr Dawn 

Burnham. 

They also found that the 

quantity of streamside vegetation 

had a big impact on the survival 

and growth of reintroduced 

water vole populations. Water 

vole numbers have been in 

decline for over 20 years due 

to more intensive agricultural 

practices, infrastructure 

development and predation 

by the American mink. In April 

2008 the water vole received 

additional legal protection to 

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Blueprint January 2009 

Central Oxford 

Telephone: 01865 558482 

boost its chances of survival. 

Elsewhere in the report 

WildCRU researchers examined 

the best way of controlling 

the American mink, which is 

having a significant impact on 

populations of native British 

birds and water voles. Their work 

suggests that only constant 

monitoring and targeted trapping 

of the animals and the creation 

of ‘mink-free zones’ will enable 

native species to recover. 

The WildCRU team also 

discussed in the report how 

feral cat populations could 

be managed to ensure that 

the 400-strong population 

of Scottish wildcats does 

not disappear and how the 

extinct Eurasian lynx might be 

reintroduced in Scotland and 

northern England. 

The State of Britain’s 

Mammals 2008 is published 

by the People’s Trust for 

Endangered Species. 

‘Tetris’ may help reduce 

traumatic flashbacks 

Playing the puzzle video game 

‘Tetris’ after traumatic events 

could reduce the flashbacks 

experienced in post-traumatic 

stress disorder (PTSD), 

preliminary research by Oxford 

psychologists suggests. 

The researchers report in 

PLoS ONE that for healthy 

volunteers, playing Tetris soon 

after viewing traumatic material 

in the laboratory can reduce the 

number of flashbacks to those 

scenes in the following week. 

The approach relies on 

three elements. First, the mind 

is considered to have two 

separate channels of thought: 

one is sensory while the other is 

conceptual and draws meaning 

from our experiences. Second, 

there appear to be limits to 

our abilities in each stream 

and third, there is a short time 

after an event in which it is 

possible to interfere with the 

way memories are retained in 

the brain. 

The Oxford team reasoned 

that moving the coloured 

building blocks around in Tetris 

soon after seeing traumatic 

events should compete with 

the visions of trauma to be 

retained in the sensory part of 

the brain. The narrative and 

meaning of the events should 

be unaffected. 

‘We wanted to find a way 

to dampen down flashbacks 

– that is, the raw sensory 

images of trauma that are 

over-represented in the 

memories of those with PTSD,’ 

says Dr Holmes. ‘Tetris may 

work by competing for the 

brain’s resources for sensory 

information. We suggest it 

specifically interferes with the 

way sensory memories are laid 

down in the period after trauma 

and thus reduces the number of 

flashbacks that are experienced 

afterwards.’ 

Factfile 

On the 

tourist trail 

▸▸Some nine million tourists visit Oxford each year, 

making it the seventh most visited city in the UK by 

overseas visitors, ahead of Cambridge, Bath and York. 

Many of Oxford’s top tourist attractions belong to the 

collegiate University, including the Bodleian Library, the 

four University museums and the Botanic Garden. 

▸▸The University is responsible for the greatest 

concentration of grade I listed buildings in the country. 

The city contains 1,551 listed buildings and has 

more than twice the national average of grade I (‘of 

exceptional interest’) and II* (‘particularly important 

buildings of more than special interest’) buildings. 

▸▸One such listed building, Christ Church Cathedral, 

is the only church in the world to be both a college 

chapel (for Christ Church) and a cathedral (for the 

Diocese of Oxford). 

Illustration: David Mostyn iStockphoto/Osuleo

RAE results reflect Oxford’s 

breadth and depth 

Oxford was judged to have the 

largest submission of worldleading 

research (4* rated) in 

the UK in the 2008 Research 

Assessment Exercise (RAE), the 

results of which were released 

in December by the Higher 

Education Funding Council for 

England (HEFCE). The University 

also had the largest submission 

of world-leading or internationally 

excellent research (4* or 3* rated) 

in the UK. 

‘This is a reflection of the 

breadth and depth of Oxford’s 

research activity and is 

testament to the enormous talent 

The University has won funding 

for two new centres to train the 

next generation of scientists 

and engineers, the Engineering 

and Physical Sciences Research 

Council has announced. Two 

existing centres have been 

renewed. 

The initiative will create a 

new Industrial Doctorate Centre 

and a new Oxford Centre for 

Doctoral Training in Biomedical 

Viewfinder found 

This firedog (p12) and its matching mate are 

on either side of the firebasket in the dining 

room fireplace at Christ Church. They bear a 

marked resemblance to Lewis Carroll’s original 

illustration for Alice in Wonderland (left), when 

Alice begins to elongate after nibbling the 

‘EAT ME’ cake. The College Librarian would 

welcome information on whether the firedog 

inspired the author’s drawing or vice versa. 

and commitment of Oxford’s 

academics,’ said the Vice- 

Chancellor, Dr John Hood. ‘The 

RAE results reflect our strength 

in all subject areas and across all 

types of researcher, from those 

at early stages in their career to 

established professors.’ 

The RAE produces quality 

ratings for every research activity 

submitted by a higher education 

institution to its assessment 

panels. HEFCE will use these 

quality profiles to determine 

the level of research grants 

each institution receives from 

2009–10. 

Doctoral training gets green light 

Engineering at the Translational 

Interface of Next Generation 

Healthcare. Oxford helped to 

pioneer the new approach 

to doctoral training with the 

original Life Sciences Interface 

Doctoral Training Centre and 

the Doctoral Training Centre 

in Systems Biology. Oxford’s 

four centres will represent a 

combined investment of around 

£25m–30m. 

Earthquake activity may 

trigger volcanoes 

There she blows – the Osorno volcano in Chile erupted in 

1837 following a very large earthquake 

New evidence showing that very 

large earthquakes can trigger 

an increase in activity at nearby 

volcanoes has been uncovered 

by Oxford researchers. 

An analysis of records in 

southern Chile has shown that 

up to four times as many volcanic 

eruptions occur during the year 

following very large earthquakes 

than in other years. This ‘volcanic 

surge’ can affect volcanoes up 

to at least 500 km away from 

an earthquake’s epicentre, as 

described in work published in 

Earth and Planetary Science 

Letters. 

Scientists had previously 

identified a few cases where 

volcanic eruptions follow very 

large earthquakes, but it had 

been difficult to show statistically 

that this was not just coincidence. 

‘The most unexpected 

part of this discovery was the 

considerable distance from 

the earthquake rupture where 

these eruptions took place, and 

the length of time for which we 

saw increased volcanic activity,’ 

says Sebastian Watt, a DPhil 

student in the Department of 

Earth Sciences, who analysed 

records covering 150 years. ‘This 

suggests that seismic waves, 

radiating from the earthquake 

rupture, may trigger an eruption 

by stirring or shaking the molten 

rock beneath volcanoes. The 

disturbances that result from this 

lead to eruption but, because 

of the time it takes for pressure 

to build up inside a volcano and 

for magma to move towards the 

surface, an eruption may not 

occur until some months after the 

earthquake.’ 

These findings could help 

governments and aid agencies 

in parts of the world affected by 

such phenomena by highlighting 

the need for increased awareness 

of volcanic activity after large 

earthquakes. 

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The New Biochemistry Building fuses science and art to create an 

Greg Smolonski 

Biochemistry raises the bar 

‘The great thing about this building is that collaboration, something that is especially 

you don’t need email any longer,’ said Kim important in a subject as interdisciplinary 

Nasmyth, Head of Department and Whitley in nature as biochemistry at Oxford, 

Professor of Biochemistry, quoting one of his encompassing as it does bioinformatics, 

students at the opening of the University’s chromosome biology, genetics, molecular 

new Biochemistry Building on 3 December biophysics and biochemistry. 

2008. The observation neatly sums up what ‘The thing that has really impressed me is 

makes the building special: an exceptionally how well this idea of creating a space that will 

imaginative design that not only provides encourage and increase interactions between 

spacious, modern laboratories and writing-up people on the different floors has actually 

areas, but also maximises the opportunities for worked,’ says Neil Brockdorff, Wellcome Trust 

face-to-face interaction between the 35 Principal Fellow and Professor of Biochemistry, 

academics and 300-plus researchers and who works on developmental epigenetics. 

postgraduate students who work there. Since moving in, in early November, he 

These chance meetings – dozens of which has regularly found himself bumping into 

occur every day in the light-filled atrium colleagues and sitting down to talk things 

and inviting open-plan seating areas that over, and is trying out different spots to eat 

surround it on five levels, on the walkways his sandwiches at lunchtime: ‘The building’s 

and staircases, in the café and in the garden just got that feeling…you want to explore it.’ 

on the roof – lead on very naturally to 

This productive new working environment 

scientists sharing their results and ideas. They replaces Biochemistry’s two oldest buildings. 

significantly increase the likelihood of fruitful Dating from 1892 and 1930, these were 

no longer fit for purpose and were a drain 

on resources because of high maintenance 

costs. Their warren-like layout offered few 

opportunities for colleagues to meet and 

discuss their work. 

The Department set up a Project Sponsor 

Group to address the challenge under the 

co-chairmanship of David Sherratt, Iveagh 

Professor of Microbiology, and Jonathan 

Hodgkin, Professor of Genetics. Rather 

than trying to ‘make do’ by updating these 

buildings or infilling around them, the group 

took the bold decision to demolish them 

and start again. This strategic approach and 

refusal to compromise underpins a project 

that has raised the bar for the design of new 

university buildings at Oxford and beyond. 

Architects Hawkins\Brown, who won the 

contract by competition, had never worked on 

a science laboratory before. Although some 

of their original ideas were impracticable, their 

lack of preconceptions and fresh approach 

proved invaluable. The resulting building fuses 

the white-painted, wipe-clean, right-angled 

requirements of science labs with the curving, 

organic forms more commonly associated 

with iconic modern cultural institutions 

such as the Sydney Opera House or Bilbao 

Guggenheim. It is both beautiful and practical. 

For example, offices built around atriums can 

be noisy, but here the use of wooden panels 

as sound-proofing on the stairs and walkways, 

and prior acoustic testing using a model, 

has ensured that noise levels remain at an 

acceptable low hum. 

Environmental issues have been considered 

too. The toilets are flushed with water from 

a large rainwater collection tank, and some 

electricity is provided by photovoltaic cells 

on the glass atrium roof. Natural ventilation is 

used in the central atrium. 

The building’s combination of daylight, 

filtered and dappled through the richly 

coloured glass fins of its façade, and carefully 

designed artificial lighting, is worlds away 

from the dark corridors and neon-lit 

laboratories it replaces, and make it a 

cheerful and healthy workplace. Professor 

Judy Armitage, Director of the Oxford Centre 

for Integrative Systems Biology, reflects: 

‘Having spent my university career in crumbly 

buildings…to come into a building like this, 

you actually feel wanted!’ 

There was a further reason for choosing 

a transparent building, explains Jonathan 

Hodgkin, relating to transparency in its 

metaphorical sense. The design challenges 

public preconceptions about the insularity and 

secretive nature of science: ‘We’re happy for 

6 


innovative research environment 

people to look at what we’re doing. We have 

nothing to hide, and a good many things to 

show.’ 

Another innovative aspect of the project 

has been the involvement of a group of 

contemporary artists in the interior design, 

through an initiative called Salt Bridges. 

During residencies where they worked closely 

with biochemists, the artists each gained 

inspiration which has led them to produce 

a series of installations and other works that 

complement the building. Lead artist Nicky 

Hirst has created a screen-printed design for 

the external glass that has both a practical 

solar shading function and an artistic one. 

A repeated visual motif based on the 

Rorschach inkblot test raises questions about 

the nature of perception and order, symmetry 

and opposition. 

The atrium is fitted with a bespoke carpet 

with a bold pattern that is neither entirely 

uniform nor random, the work of digital 

artist Tim Head, who is interested in the 

visual representation of abstract concepts 

and ideas, as are the scientists working in 

structural bioinformatics and computational 

biochemistry with whom he undertook his 

residency. There is a portfolio of intriguing, 

multi-textural photographs, taken throughout 

the demolition and construction work by Peter 

Fraser, and Annie Cattrell’s striking mobile 

sculpture for the atrium evokes both the 

movement of plasma and the relationships 

between a flock of birds. 

What has recently opened is in fact just 

half a building. A second section, linked to 

the first on the other side of the atrium, 

is planned and will be added when the 

necessary funds have been raised. This 

second phase, which will involve the 

demolition of Biochemistry’s 1960s tower 

block, will house up to 500 more scientists 

working in areas related to biochemistry, and 

provide further facilities for researchers and 

graduate students. 

The construction of Phase I of the building 

has cost £49m and has been funded by 

HEFCE (the Higher Education Funding Council 

for England), The Wolfson Foundation, the 

Wellcome Trust and individual benefactors. 

At the opening ceremony, Professor 

Nasmyth paid tribute to the harmonious 

collaboration there has been between 

Biochemistry, the University’s Estates 

Directorate, architects Hawkins\Brown, and 

builders Laing O’Rourke: ‘Everyone realised 

right from the start that it was a rather special 

project,’ he said. 

Many people have expressed the hope 

that this pioneering building will inspire and 

encourage all those responsible for future 

University building projects to take a strategic 

and innovative approach. 

Looking back on nearly ten years of hard 

work by hundreds of people, departmental 

administrator Denis O’Driscoll says: ‘We 

wanted a “wow” building, something different 

from just a functional building that provided 

people with 1.5 metres of bench space. We 

have aspirations for this place: we want to 

make it easier for people to do their jobs… 

and to be as good as they possibly can.’ 

Take a look! 

You can see a 360 degree interactive view of the inside 

of the building at www.chem.ox.ac.uk:80/oxfordtour/ 

biochemistry/ 

For more information see The Building Project at www. 

bioch.ox.ac.uk/buildingproject.asp and The Salt 

Bridges Art Programme at http://saltbridges.bioch. 

ox.ac.uk/ 

Karl Harrison 

Around the atrium: (left) two works by Tim Head – the 

Open Field carpet and Light Cycle light installation – 

explore the delicate balance between predetermined 

patterns and randomness found in biomolecular 

systems; (below) Annie Cattrell’s 0 to 10,000,000 

‘artist’s chandelier’ is inspired by the formation of a 

plasma and the interaction of a flock of birds in flight; 

(top right) view from the first floor; (bottom right) the 

atrium downstairs, with Light Cycle on the left 

Greg Smolonski Greg Smolonski 


university life 

arrivals board 

Director, ESRC Centre on Migration, Policy and Society 

Professor Michael Keith has taken up the position of Director of the ESRC 

Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS). 

Formerly Professor of Sociology at Goldsmiths College, University of London, 

and Director of the Centre for Urban and Community Research, he has also 

been a politician in the East End of London for 20 years . At various times he has 

served as leader of the Council in Tower Hamlets, chair of the Thames Gateway 

London Partnership (2000–6) and Commissioner on the National Commission on 

Integration and Cohesion (2006–7). His research interests focus on the interface between culture, 

urbanism and migration and he is currently researching the politics of multiculturalism in relation to 

changes in contemporary China. 

BT Professor of Major Programme Management 

Bent Flyvbjerg, Professor of Planning at the Department of Development and 

Planning at Aalborg University, Denmark, and Chair in Infrastructure Policy and 

Planning at Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, has been appointed 

to this post with effect from 1 April. He will also become a Fellow of St Anne’s 

College. 

Professor Flyvbjerg holds higher doctorates in engineering and in science from 

Aalborg University and a PhD in Urban Geography and Planning from Aarhus 

University, Denmark. He has twice visited the US as a Fulbright Scholar, working at UCLA, Berkeley 

and Harvard. His main research interest is major programme management and planning, especially 

causes and cures for the many problems that bedevil major programmes, for instance cost 

overruns and benefit shortfalls. He also researches the philosophy of social science, where he has 

pioneered a research methodology known as phronetic social science. He has worked as a policy 

advisor to more than 40 public and private organisations including the EU, the UN, government, 

auditors general, major banks and private corporations. His work covers both developed and 

developing nations. 

New Year 

Honours 

Four Oxford University 

academics were recognised 

in the New Year Honours, 

announced on 31 December. 

Duncan Gallie, Professor of 

Sociology and Official Fellow 

of Nuffield 

College, 

was made 

a CBE for 

services 

to social 

science. 

Tony Venables, BP Professor 

of Economics, Director of the 

Oxford Centre for the Analysis 

of Resource Rich Economies 

and Fellow of 

New College, 

was also 

made a CBE. 

He is the 

former Chief 

Economist at 

the Department for International 

Development. 

8 

Professor of Botany and Sherardian Professor-elect 

Liam Dolan, Project Leader in Cellular Development and Evolution in Plants, at 

the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, John Innes Centre, Norwich, 

and Honorary Professor of Biology, University of East Anglia, has been appointed 

Professor of Botany with effect from 1 September. On the retirement of Professor 

HG Dickinson, he will assume the Sherardian Professorship of Botany. He will 

also be a Fellow of Magdalen College. 

Following degrees in Botany at University College, Dublin, Liam Dolan gained 

a PhD and undertook postgraduate research at the University of Pennsylvania, USA. In 1991 he 

joined the John Innes Centre where his research has focused on deciphering the genetic basis of cell 

differentiation in plants. This work has identified the evolutionary mechanisms that have moulded the 

bodies of land plants since they first appeared on the planet 460 million years ago. 

Professor Dolan’s work has made a major contribution to our understanding of how developmental 

mechanisms operate in plants and in 2001 he was awarded the President’s Medal of the Society of 

Experimental Biology. He is currently a visiting professor at both Comenius University in the Slovak 

Republic and University College, Dublin. 

ECI Director to advise US government 

Professor Diana Liverman, 

Director of the Environmental 

Change Institute, has been 

advise the US government on 

responses to climate change. 

The committee will bring 

will coordinate four panels to 

study global climate change, 

including the science and 

appointed to the new committee together 21 distinguished technology challenges involved 

on ‘America’s Climate Choices’ 

convened 

by the US 

National 

Academies at 

scientists, political, civic and 

business leaders to examine 

the challenges of climate 

change and provide advice on 

the most effective steps and 

in reducing emissions and 

adapting to climate change. 

Professor Liverman will be 

Vice-Chair of the panel on 

‘Informing effective decisions 

Phil Sayer 


the request of most promising strategies that and actions related to climate 

Congress to can be taken to respond. It change’. 

Mrs Rosemary Thorp, Reader 

Emeritus in the Economics of 

Latin America and Emeritus 

Fellow of 

St Antony’s 

College, is 

also made 

a CBE. Mrs 

Thorp was 

Director of 

Queen Elizabeth House, the 

University’s Department of 

International Development, in 

2003–4. 

Professor Arthur Stockwin, 

the founding Director of the 

Nissan Institute for Japanese 

Studies, received an OBE for 

services to 

academic 

excellence 

and the 

promotion 

of UK– 

Japanese 

understanding. He is an 

Emeritus Fellow of St Antony’s 

College.

Lifetime achievement award 

Vernon Bogdanor, Professor of A Fellow of Brasenose 

Politics and Government in the College, Professor Bogdanor 

Department has written and edited many 

of Politics books on the British constitution, 

and 

exploring themes such as party 

International politics, the monarchy and 

Relations, devolution. He is a Fellow of 

has been the British Academy and was 

presented awarded a CBE for contributions 

with 

to constitutional history. He is 

the Sir Isaiah Berlin Prize also an Honorary Fellow of the 

for Lifetime Contribution to Society for Advanced Legal 

Political Studies by the Political Studies. 

Studies Association (PSA), the Professor Bogdanor is a 

professional organisation for frequent political commentator in 

political scientists in Britain. the newspapers and broadcast 

Professor Bogdanor was media, was a member of the 

the unanimous choice of the Advisory Committee to the 

jurors for the prize. According Minister for Local Government 

to the citation, ‘Academic in 1997–9 and has been an 

jurors praised the forensic adviser to Select Committees 

intellect which had yielded a in both the Commons and 

plethora of seminal publications. the Lords. In addition, he has 

Professor Bogdanor’s work advised the governments of the 

p 07/01/2009 on constitutions 11:02 has been Page of 1 Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, 

incalculable academic and public Romania, Slovakia and Trinidad 

benefit.’ The judges also noted on constitutional matters, and 

his broader contribution to public was also a member of the 

life in the service of democracy, advisory team established by 

including advice to governments, the CSCE to draw up a charter 

work for the Hansard Society for minorities and a constitution 

and assistance to the ESRC. for Kosovo. 

Principal-elect for St Edmund Hall 

Professor Keith Gull has funding agencies and charities 

been elected as Principal of St including the Wellcome Trust, 

Edmund the Leverhulme Trust, BBSRC 

Hall with and the Committee on Safety 

effect from of Medicines. He is a Trustee 

1 October of Cancer Research UK and 

2009. a former Chairman of the 

Professor Biochemical Society. He is 

Gull is a member of many learned 

currently societies and his prizes include 

Professor and Wellcome Trust the Marjory Stephenson Prize 

Principal Research Fellow at from the Society for General 

the William Dunn School of Microbiology. He has also been 

Pathology. He is an eminent Chairman of the Biochemical 

microbiologist whose groundbreaking 

work on Trypanosomes He has long held an interest 

Society . 

has led to new approaches in graduate education and the 

in tackling sleeping sickness careers of young scientists 

(Trypanosomiasis). His 

and was responsible in the 

research focuses on African early 1990s for setting up the 

trypanosomes, particularly Research and Graduate School 

the structural and molecular in Biological Sciences at 

mechanisms of pathogenesis Manchester University. In 2005 

and antigenic variation, and he produced the report Freedom 

he is especially interested in to Succeed on biomedical 

the molecular cytology of the research fellowship careers in 

flagellum (the structure that the UK. 

moves this parasite in the blood) Professor Gull is a Fellow of the 

and its roles in the host–parasite Academy of Medical Sciences, a 

and parasite–vector interaction. Fellow of the Royal Society and 

Professor Gull has served was awarded a CBE in 2004 for 

on numerous committees of services to microbiology. 

university life 

1 

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The e OxfO 

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Radcliffe e Observatory, O 

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from a watercolour by John Walsom 

PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 2008 

978-0-19-954307-6 | £18.99 

Available to purchase at the Oxford University Press 

Bookshop, 116 High Street, Oxford or at www.oup.com 


oxford interactions 

WEA 

How Oxford pioneered working-class education 

The Department for Continuing Education 

is well known locally for the many 

extramural classes it runs in Oxford and 

the surrounding area, but what is perhaps 

less well known is that the University, in 

the early years of the 20th century, led the 

movement to establish adult and workingclass 

education. 

The University’s early partnership with 

the Workers’ Educational Association 

(WEA) was celebrated recently at a 

conference marking the centenary of the 

first ‘tutorial classes’ launched by Oxford 

and the WEA together in the autumn of 

1908. These classes were designed to 

take worker-students through a high-level 

academic curriculum – comparable with 

studies at a university – in the towns and 

cities where they lived and worked. The 

first classes were held in Rochdale in 

Lancashire and in Longton in the Potteries 

of North Staffordshire. They were taught by 

RH Tawney, an Oxford alumnus who was to 

become one of the most notable historians 

and political thinkers of the 20th century. 

Today, the WEA is the UK’s largest 

voluntary provider of adult education and is 

a charity supported by government funding. 

It runs over 10,000 courses each year, 

providing education for more than 110,000 

adults from all walks of life. The organisation 

was founded in 1903 to support the 

educational needs of working men and 

women, the year that Tawney graduated 

from Balliol College. 

After leaving Oxford, Tawney went to live 

at Toynbee Hall in the East End of London, 

the Oxford University settlement founded in 

Top: The Rochdale industrial and 

economic history class, pictured in 

1908 with tutor RH Tawney seated in 

the centre of the front row. A painting 

of Tawney, dated 1951–2 (below), hangs 

in the WEA’s London headquarters 

WEA 

In a place where no university 

exists… 

1885 where Oxford students and graduates 

provided social and cultural leadership 

among the urban poor. Some WEA 

classes were held there and in 1908 

Tawney was engaged jointly by Oxford 

and the WEA as a peripatetic tutor for six 

years, the result of a joint determination by 

the two organisations to bring a university 

education within reach of working people. 

A meeting of representatives from the 

University and more than 200 workingclass 

organisations (including delegations 

from trade unions, cooperative societies 

and local educational groups) had been 

held in Oxford in August 2007 to begin 

planning for a ‘democratic education’. 

After the event, a joint committee 

representing Oxford and the WEA was 

established and its resulting report, Oxford 

and Working-Class Education, published 

in 1909, set down a model for adult 

education classes on which Tawney and 

others drew in subsequent years. 

Tawney’s first classes covered the 

‘Industrial and economic history of 

England in the 18th and 19th centuries’. 

Dr Lawrence Goldman of St Peter’s College 

and the Oxford Dictionary of National 

Biography, who is also a former president 

of the Thames and Solent District of the 

WEA, gave a paper at the recent centenary 

conference in Stoke-on-Trent. ‘The class 

in Longton, which met on Friday evenings, 

included potters, miners and mechanics as 

well as shop workers and school teachers,’ 

he says. ‘Fees, subsidised by the University, 

were 2s 6d for the year and students were 

expected to write a fortnightly paper to be 

set by the tutor. The youngest member 

of Tawney’s Rochdale class, Alfred 

Wadsworth, went on to become editor of 

the Manchester Guardian.’ 

Tawney went on to teach tutorial 

classes in several more locations including 

Chesterfield, Glossop, Littleborough and 

Wrexham. By 1914 Oxford was responsible 

for 18 classes and a total of 367 students. 

The model thus established spread to 

other places and also to other institutions 

so that within a few years many universities 

were in partnership with the WEA and 

thousands of mature students were in 

contact with higher education. In addition, 

the syllabuses developed for tutorial classes 

were influential at a formative stage in the 

development of the modern university in 

Britain: the teaching of subjects as diverse 

as English, Geography and Economic 

History to adult students at this time 

helped to form and shape these and other 

academic disciplines. 

Tawney himself continued to serve the 

WEA, as a member of its executive for over 

40 years and then as vice-president and 

president, alongside an academic career as 

a lecturer and then professor of economic 

history at the London School of Economics. 

A hundred years on, Oxford’s 

Department for Continuing Education 

continues to dispatch tutors to extramural 

classes and to collaborate with the WEA in 

providing what Tawney called ‘the nucleus 

of a university in a place where no university 

exists’. 

10 


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12 

▸▸Twenty years since the fall of the 

Berlin Wall, a generation has come to 

adulthood with the GDR (the former East 

Germany) as only an inherited memory. An 

interdisciplinary series of lectures aimed at a 

general audience will this term examine the 

changing representation and remembrance 

of the GDR since unification from the 

perspectives of culture, politics, philosophy, 

history and historiography, and memory and 

memorialisation. See www.mod-langs.ox.ac. 

uk/german/rememberthegdr. 

▸▸Need to undertake a large-scale 

simulation of physical processes or analyse 

huge experimental data sets? The Oxford 

Supercomputing Centre, which now 

charges under full economic costing for 

most types of usage, may be able to help. 

OSC staff can help you find the system 

which best suits your needs and advise on 

funding calculations and grant applications. 

Non-traditional users of supercomputing, 

particularly in the humanities and social 

sciences, are welcome. Details at www.oerc. 

ox.ac.uk/resources/osc or call Mark Hylton 

on 610640. 

▸▸A one-stop search and delivery system for 

quickly accessing the University’s main library 

information resources regardless of type, 

format or location is now available. The SOLO 

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Search results contain additional links and 

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Graham Topping 

Illustration: David Mostyn 

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▸▸Where would you find this friendly 

firedog? Answer on p5. 


Why am I 

here? 

Caroline Harding is Examinations 

Secretary in the Department of 

Engineering Sciences 

What does your job entail? 

Mostly nagging people! (I have, I understand, 

been described as ‘The department’s 

Rotweiller’!) More seriously, I am here to 

administer the exam process: from getting the 

questions set, right through to recording and 

reporting the candidates’ results. 

How many people does that involve? 

I only deal with our three Finals courses and 

our taught MSc, but between them it involves 

well over 300 candidates a year. I work closely 

with the Chairman of Examiners (usually in post 

for one year) and with the 12 or so examiners. 

I also liaise with the 60-plus assessors who 

draft questions for us, and with those in the 

Exam Schools, and in other departments 

involved in one of our joint schools. 

What do you most enjoy about it? 

I like Engineers! When I arrived in 1969, 

Professor Douglas Holder explained Oxford 

University to me. He told me that there were 

Arts dons – they were a dodgy lot, eccentric 

and difficult; then there were Science dons – 

they were OK; then there were Engineers – the 

cream of the cream. I believed him; I married 

one and have been here ever since. 

Any hairy or amusing moments? 

Oh yes – but I had probably better not tell you! 

When you were a child, what did you want 

to be when you grew up? 

A show jumper or an art teacher. 

And what actually was your first job? 

A riding instructor. 

What was life like when you joined the 

University? 

The atmosphere was very formal and polite, 

but that was normal in those days. There 

was much more emphasis on correct forms 

of address, and on spelling and grammar. 

Female staff were not allowed to wear 

trousers, though we did wear mini skirts! 

The men called each other by their surnames, 

we were called Mrs or Miss, and we had 

separate common rooms for different 

categories of staff. However, despite all that, 

this was always a friendly place to work. 

How has the technical side of your job 

changed? 

Things have improved beyond recognition! 

The secretary’s job was more skilled then 

as there were no computers and most 

academics couldn’t type. We had one 

photocopier in the whole department when I 

arrived, and you had to sign a form explaining 

why you needed a photocopy of something. 

Now I have a laser printer/scanner/copier 

on my desk. We used to have to make six 

carbon copies of some documents; there was 

very little scope for correction if you made a 

mistake and, unless it was a very small error, 

you simply had to start again. As soon as 

computers began to appear, I knew they 

were for me! 

What interests, hobbies or activities do 

you enjoy outside work? 

Playing with my grandchildren and/or my 

iphone (!), travelling and music. 

And what’s the most interesting thing 

you’ve learned online? 

That there’s practically nothing you cannot 

learn online! I’ve found recipes to fit ingredients 

I have available; I’ve found a CV for a Member 

of the South African Parliament we met at 

a wedding; and I’ve found out where in the 

world my son (who is a conductor) is this 

week. 

How did you get from there to here? 

I had an accident riding. I recovered fully and it 

wasn’t a big deal, but it made me think I didn’t 

want to be doing such physical work all my 

life. I trained to be a secretary and got the job What would your colleagues be most 

of Secretary to the Head of Department in the surprised to learn about you? 

Engineering Department and have been here, Probably that I was young and thin once… 

doing various jobs, ever since (with time off to 

have my three children). 

If you could go anywhere, do anything on 

your day off, what would it be? 

I’d love to go up in an air balloon – preferably 

over a mountainous region – and I’d take my 

husband (though I’m not sure it would be his 

idea of fun!).

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