Celebrate Our Staff – December 2018
Here we celebrate our colleagues’ achievements across the University this past month.
Professor Piers Forster, Director of the Priestley International Centre for Climate and Professor of Physical Climate Change, has been appointed to the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) by the Minister for Energy and Clean Growth, Claire Perry MP, and the devolved administrations. He will help shape environmental legislation and policy and advise the Government on climate change.
Professor Forster said: “I am thrilled to be taking up this post on the 10th anniversary of the UK’s Climate Change Act.”
Read more about Professor Forster’s appointment.
The Edge has won ‘Education
Facility of The Year’ at the National Fitness Awards 2018.
Judges scored The Edge highly based on the range of equipment and group classes
available, their ability to support a range of sports clubs and elite athletes,
and how the facility enhances the experience of those living and working
on campus.
Suzanne Glavin, Head of Sport and Physical Activity (SPA), said: “I’m delighted for the whole team, which works tirelessly to provide a great experience for all our users. It’s especially pleasing that the award recognises not just the range of our facilities but how we engage students, staff and the community and how we are successfully spreading the word about health and fitness.”
Professor Les Firbank, from the School of Biology, has been selected to chair the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) ‘Gene Drive’ working group. Building on his experience of environmental risk assessment, he will look at the regulation of insects that have been genetically engineered to reduce their numbers in the wild. The technique is being developed to control malaria-carrying mosquitoes and insect pests of crops.
Professor Firbank said: “This is a really exciting opportunity to help shape how policy should respond to the new opportunities being opened up by modern genetics.”
Professor Anna Lawson, Director of the Centre for Disability Studies and professor of Law, has been appointed as the first patron of the National Association of Disabled Staff Networks (NADSN). This roll will see her promoting the aims of NADSN, providing credibility to their cause, raising awareness of the Association and offering guidance to the Chair and the Steering Committee.
Read more about Professor Lawson’s appointment.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust’s Spondyloarthritis (SpA) Team has been awarded the Best Ankylosing Spondylitis Team at the 2018 National Ankylosing Spondylitis Society (NASS) Patients’ Choice Awards in Westminster on 3 December.
Members of Team SpA in attendance at the Houses of Parliament included Lead Clinician of the Spondyloarthritis Service, Dr Helena Marzo-Ortega; consultant colleagues, Dr Jane Freeston, Dr Claire Vandevelde, Dr Andrew Barr and Dr Sayam Dubash; AS specialist nurses, Charlie Davis and Jason Ward, and AS specialist physiotherapist, Liz Feber, who runs the NASS AS exercise branch in Leeds.
Dr Marzo-Ortega said: “We are delighted to have won this award, especially as it is voted for by the patients.”
Professor Philip Helliwell and Dr Laura Coates, from the Leeds Institute of Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Medicine, have won the Duncan A. Gordon Award from the Journal of Rheumatology for their article entitled Defining Low Disease Activity States in Psoriatic Arthritis using Novel Composite Disease Instruments. The award acknowledges highly influential research articles published in the Journal based on their impact and originality, and their potential to advance treatment and alter clinical practice.
Professor Helliwell said: “We are honoured to receive this prestigious award. The development of appropriate outcome measures in psoriatic arthritis is an important step in comprehensive disease assessment and in achievement of treatment goals. Both Laura and I have developed several tools for use in this area and it is gratifying to see our work recognised in this way.”
Please contact Internal Communications if you or one of your colleagues would like to appear in this monthly feature. This is open to all staff – professional and academic.
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