Jim and Simon go to Westminster

Jim and Simon were invited to the Great Western Research (GWR) event 'Innovation through Collaboration', Portcullis House, Westminster on 29th June. The event celebrated the achievements of the Great Western Research project to date and called for further funding to maintain momentum. Jim gave an enthusiastic presentation on his experiences as a research supervisor on Simon's PhD - made possible through the GWR initiative – and Simon presented an academic poster on his research. The event was well attended by GWR, Students, Fellows, Supervisors and Business Partners and joined by senior academics from across the South West and representatives of the SW-RDA, HEFCE, Research Councils, and the Technology Strategy Board. The event was sponsored by Phil Willis MP Chair of the Commons Select Committee responsible for science and technology. Go to Simon's webpage to see the poster and find out more about his research.

Jo presents at EPUK East Midlands Division AGM, Buxton

Jo Barnes gave a presentation on the 2009 LAQM Technical Guidance to the EPUK East Midlands Division AGM at the Tarmac Lime and Cement plant at Tunstead Quarry, in Buxton, Derbyshire last Thursday, 25th June. Malcolm Brown and Rhonda Newsham (British Geological Survey) also gave a very interesting talk on the use of GIS in assessing assessment of contaminated land exposure and Peter Grosvenor and Frank Emerson (Tarmac) spoke about the operations at the quarry and gave us a fascinating tour of the works. The presentations and tour were well-received by the audience of Environmental Protection Officers and Councillors from the region. [Photographed L-R Jo Barnes (UWE), Peter Grosvenor and Frank Emerson (Tarmac), Malcolm Brown and Rhonda Newsham (British Geological Survey.]

And the winner is...

...Rose Bailey from the AQMRC!

Rose was awarded a cash prize for her presentation at the Faculty of Environment and Technology Postgraduate Research Conference last Monday (15th June). Her talk on "Managing carbon emissions at the city scale: opportunities and challenges" outshone all of the other presentations from Bristol Institute of Technology (BIT) and Built and Natural Environment (BNE) postgrad students. Visit Rose's research webpage to read all about her research.

Well done, Rose!

The John Rose Award and Non-Exhaust Emissions - calling all postgrads - applications welcome

Atmospheric particle pollution has been linked to a number of health issues and is thought to be directly responsible for a reduction in the life expectancy of a person living in the UK by an average of 7-8 months. Road transport is a major source of atmospheric particle emissions, particularly within urban areas. Current legislation has only focused on reducing emissions from the exhaust pipe of vehicles. New studies have shown that other unregulated vehicle-related emissions, such as non-exhaust emissions, can equal or surpass exhaust contributions.

The winner of the John Rose Award 2008 from the Institution of Environmental Sciences (IES) was Samantha Lawrence, for her PhD research on non-exhaust particles. Samantha Lawrence has used the £1000 grant to publicise her work on non-exhaust emissions and to launch a campaign to encourage the Government to create appropriate legislation to control non-exhaust emissions. As part of this campaign, a Government e-petition has been created. You can add your name to the petition at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/non-exhaust/.

In collaboration with the IES, Samantha has also created an exciting new website with information on her research, interactive features and learning resources. Please visit www.ies-uk.org.uk/non-exhaust.

The IES hosts the John Rose Award every year to reward outstanding pieces of environmental post-graduate research, which have the potential to motivate people and facilitate environmental improvement. The £1000 grant is used to publicise the results of the work to the general public.

We are pleased to announce that applications for the 2009 John Rose Award are now welcome. The applicant must have completed, or be in the writing-up stages of a postgraduate piece of work that can contribute to positive environmental change. Upon winning the Award, applicants will receive £1000 to promote their research to the public, along with the chance to speak at the prestigous Burntwood Lecture to an audience of scientists and environmental professionals. The Award will be officially presented by Paul Leinster, Chief Executive of the Environment Agency at the 2009 Burntwood Lecture on 11th November at the Royal Society in London.

Please visit http://www.ies-uk.org.uk/awards/awards.php for more information and to apply. The closing date for applications is 2nd October 2009.