Congratulations to Ross Hunter

Congratulations to Ross who successfully defended his PhD entitled “Enhancing air quality in Wales: Relating pollutant interactions to management approaches for Nitrogen Dioxide.” More information on his research can be found here: http://www.uwe.ac.uk/aqm/ross.html. Well done Ross!!

 

POST Note on Engergy Use Behaviour Change

The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology has just published a briefing note on ‘Energy Use Behaviour Change’ http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/research/briefing-papers/POST-PN-417.  The note was informed by the report on multi-model approaches to energy behaviour that Tim wrote for DECC during his Fellowship (http://www.decc.gov.uk/assets/decc/11/about-us/economics-social-research/3887-intro-thinking-energy-behaviours.pdf), and he also provided additional support in reviewing the note as part of his Fellowship Follow-On Funding.

 

 

Eleven Member States exceed air emissions limits under LRTAP Convention

Emissions of most air pollutants have fallen over the last two decades in Europe. But many Member States have exceeded internationally-agreed pollutant limits set to protect human health and the environment, according to a new report from the European Environment Agency (EEA). Road transport, households, power plants, agricultural activities and certain industry sectors continue to emit significant amounts of air pollution.

Read more...

Jo travels to Malta

Jo travels to Malta this weekend for a contract initiation meeting with the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA). AQMRC have been contracted by MEPA to undertake air quality consultancy work in relation to Delimara Power Station. Jo will visit the plant and monitoring sites and discuss the project methodology with the Monitoring Committee. 

And the Dr Nurul Leksmono Memorial Prize goes to... Mo!

Dr Mofoluso Fagbeja was awarded with the Dr Nurul Leksmono Memorial Prize at yesterday's Graduation Ceremony in Bristol Cathedral. The award, which was devised to celebrate the life of our much-loved colleague, is awarded to the UWE Postgraduate International student whose PhD or MSc thesis on the subject of air quality, carbon management or environmental management can be considered the best in the graduating year. Congratualtions, Mo!

Dr Mofoluso Fagbeja

PhD Graduation ceremony

Mofolosu Fagbeja, Simon Baldwin and Rose Bailey were yesterday (26th July 2012) awarded their Doctor of Philosophy degrees at the UWE Graduation Ceremony held at Bristol Cathedral. Their supervisors and AQMRC colleagues were delighted to help them celebrate their well-earned successes and wish them all the best in their future endeavours.

Drs Mofoluso Fagbeja, Rose Bailey and Simon Baldwin

Tim at Caberet of Ideas

On Saturday 21st July Tim will be part of The Cabaret of Ideas event at IF: Milton Keynes International Festival 2012. 
For two hours Tim will participate with a range of other nominated experts in what has been described as a 'live Wikipedia type event'
20+12 (in other numbers 32) people from a wide range of fields will gather in the Festival's Spiegeltent to share their passions, thoughts, insights and revelations with member of the public.
 
The event will take place on Saturday 21st July at 11.30am, at the Spiegeltent, Campbell Park MK9 4AD (MK)
 
More details on the festival website http://www.ifmiltonkeynes.org/2012-festival-programme/2012/07/21/the-cabaret-of-ideas.html

Enda interviewed for article on the concept of a sustainable 'Aerotropolis'

Enda was interviewed for an article in the South African urban design magazine, Urban Green File, on the concept of a sustainable aerotropolis (airport city). The article questions if an aerotropolis could be sustainable through efficient waste management? This follows on from a project last year, which Enda led, that delivered a Framework for Sustainability for the development of a Dube Aerotropolis in the vicinity of King Shaka International Airport, Durban.

The article can be found here: http://www.myvirtualpaper.com/doc/brookepattrick/urban_green_file_june_2012_ebook/2012060701/#36

 

Award for Best Poster at Doctoral Exchanges

On 2nd July the Faculty of Environment and Technology held its annual Doctoral Exchange conference. David Williams’ poster: A Social Perspective on Travel, won the best poster presentation award.

 

The poster can be found at the following location:

http://www.disruptionproject.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Poster-Disruption-UWE2-Social-Practices-and-Travel.pdf

 

 

FET Doctoral Exchange

On 2nd July the Faculty of Environment and Technology held its annual Doctoral Exchange conference. Three AQMRC PhD students presented their work at the conference.

Rose Bailey's  presentation summarised her completed doctoral research, Jo Barnes presentation reported on her progress approximately half way through  her PhD whilst David Williams' poster presentation set out the context and preliminary results from his  work.

Many congratulations to David, Jo and Rose on their excellent contributions to the Doctoral Exchange Conference.

PhD Successes

AQMRC is delighted to announce that Rose Bailey, Simon Baldwin and Mofoluso Fagbeja will be awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the UWE Graduation Ceremony to be held in Bristol Cathedral on the 26th of July.

Very many congratulations to Rose, Simon and Mo on this deserved success.

Look out for the photographs from the graduation ceremony which  we will post at the end of the month.

Tim Quoted in Guardian

We have just found out that part of Tim’s contribution to the House of Lords’ enquiry into ‘Behaviour Change’ has been quoted by the Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/19/nudge-is-not-enough-behaviour-change

AQMRC win Welsh Government contract to assist in Port Talbot

AQMRC has been successful in winning a prestigious 3 year contract with the Welsh Government to provide independent peer-review of a programme of work to be delivered by the Port Talbot PM10 Data Team (a technical working group). The Data Team are tasked with providing a robust evidence base upon which action can be taken to improve PM10 concentrations in Port Talbot. AQMRC will act as external, independent reviewers to ensure that this programme of work remains focussed on its objective to provide a fit-for-purpose and robust evidence base, and that it is making the best use of scientific data and methodologies.

This project follows on from our 2009 study in which we delivered a comprehensive independent review of PM10 in the vicinity of the Port Talbot Steelworks. (http://www.uwe.ac.uk/aqm/projects.html#An_Independent_Review_of_Monitoring_Measures_Undertaken_in_Neath_Port_Talbot_in_Respect_of_Particulate_Matter_(PM10)_(2009)

Air Pollution 2013 - Call for Papers from the Wessex Institute

UWE is delighted to collaborate with the Wessex Institute of Technology and the University of Siena to organise Air Pollution 2013. This will be the 21st meeting in this important and influential series. The call for papers is now open. Please see the details below.

Organised by: Wessex Institute of Technology, UK                        University of the West of England, UK                        University of Siena, Italy Sponsored by: WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment; International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning To learn more about the Wessex Institute of Technology please click here. View full details about the conference objectives, topics and submission requirements online at: http://www.wessex.ac.uk/air2013rem1.html

Benefits of Attending ·         Conference Books Papers are published in paper and digital format and widely distributed throughout the world.  Delegates will receive a copy of the book in digital format at the time of registration. Papers are also archived at http://library.witpress.com ·         Open Access Authors have the option to make their work available in Open Access format for wider dissemination. ·         Journal Papers Presenters will be invited to submit a paper to one of the six International Scientific Journals edited by the Wessex Institute. ·         Networking Participants can present their research and interact with experts from around the world, becoming part of a unique community.

Abstract Submission

Submit an abstract online at: http://www.wessex.ac.uk/air2013rem1.html or contact the Conference Secretariat below.

Conference Topics

Air pollution modelling Monitoring and measuring Air quality management Indoor air pollution Aerosols and particles Emission studies Air pollution chemistry Source identification Global and regional studies Exposure and health effects Economics of air pollution control Policy and legislation Case studies Innovative technologies

Conference Secretariat

Irene Moreno Millan Wessex Institute of Technology, Ashurst Lodge, Ashurst, Southampton, SO40 7AA Telephone: 44 (0) 238 029 3223      Fax: 44 (0) 238 029 2853 Email: imoreno@wessex.ac.uk Please circulate this announcement to colleagues who may be interested in this conference. They can subscribe by emailing enquiries@wessex.ac.uk with 'Subscribe - Air Pollution 2013' as the subject line. Follow us on:  Facebook Twitter Blogger

Email Policy

We endeavour to email you information relevant to your field. However, if you are now specialising in another field and wish to receive news relevant to this area, or if you no longer wish to be included in this list please email: enquiries@wessex.ac.uk

Presentation at Behaviour, Energy and Climate Change

Tim has had a paper accepted for the prestigious Behaviour, Energy and Climate Change conference in Sacremento in November. The paper will be presenting the work that he has been doing with DECC on developing a multi-model approach to tackling 'Energy Behaviour'.

Tim gives keynote lecture at Trinity College, Dublin

Last week, Tim attended a high profile air quality workshop at Trinity College, Dublin. He gave a keynote presentation on "Air Quality, Climate Change and Energy in thenUK: Moving towards integrated management?"' as well as chairing a session. As well as presenters from Trinity itself, speakers included Dr Steen Jensen from Aarhus University in Denmark, Dr Prashant Kumar from Surrey University and Dr Francesco Calabrese from the IBM Smart Cities programme.

Jo presents at Care4Air conference

Jo attended the Care4Air Clearer Future conference "Air Quality in 2012" held at the Mansion House, Doncaster, yesterday. The one-day conference was well-attended and included presentations from ITN's Clare Nasir, talking about the Healthy Air Campaign, ClientEarth's Karla Hill, who spoke about taking the government to task for their failure to meet the EU Limt Values, and Defra's Robert Vaughan, who gave an update on UK air quality policy. Jo presented the findings from the local authority questionnaire survey, conducted by AQMRC and Air Quality Consultants, to voice Environmental Health Officers' concerns about Local Air Quality Management and to identify the barriers to local air quality action planning in the UK. The presentation was well-received and chimed with the earlier presentations from Karla and Robert.

Jim to serve on FCT Environment and Global Change Panel

Following a recommendation from the Portuguese Scientific Council for Natural & Environmental Sciences, the Board of Directors of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) have invited Professor Jim Longhurst to serve as a member of the Environment and Global Change panel. Jim will participate in the evaluation of research applications received under the 2012 call for proposals in the sub themes of Global Environmental Change, Sustainable Management of Resources, Environmental Technologies and Environmental Modelling and Assessment.

FCT is the public research-funding agency in Portugal which selects and distributes research funds for a wide range of scientific fields of research.

For further information about FCT visit http://www.fct.pt/

Rose's paper included in European Commission 'Science for Environmental Policy' news bulletin

Rose's recent paper published in the Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, entitled 'Exploring a city's potential low carbon futures using Delphi methods: some preliminary findings', was selected for inclusion in this week's 'Science for Environmental Policy' news alert.
Science for Environmental Policy is a free news and information service published by Directorate-General Environment, European Commission. It is designed to help the busy policymaker keep up-to-date with the latest environmental research findings needed to design, implement and regulate effective policies. 
More information on Rose's research can be found on her webpage.

Rose wins the 2012 John Rose Award from the Institution of Environmental Sciences

Rose has been announced as the 2012 winner of the John Rose Award from the Institution of Environmental Sciences, for her research exploring the low carbon futures for the Bristol region. The award aims to help exceptional research fulfil its potential by communicating it beyond the scientific community. A £1,000 grant is awarded to a project that demonstrates innovative, quality research in environmental sciences. The grant will be used for media training and the dissemination of the winner’s project, aiding in promoting the work as widely as possible and so maximise its value.

Rose intends to use the grant, with support from project partners Bristol City Council and in collaboration with the Create Centre, to produce an exhibition of her work, and hopes to collaborate with UWE's award winning animation department to produce an animation of life in 2050 low carbon Bristol!

More information on the award can be found here: http://www.ies-uk.org.uk/awards/awards.php

More information on Rose and her research can be found here: http://www.uwe.ac.uk/aqm/rose.html