Unpublished authors have been invited to submit their manuscripts to the Dundee International Book Prize 2016 for a chance to win £5,000 and a publishing deal!

Writers with a spellbinding, unpublished novel have until midnight on 19 February to enter the competition, which last year attracted more than 450 entries from across the globe. Read more.

The Health Service, Student Funding, Counselling Service, Disability Services and Occupational Health now make up the Support Hub, offering support to staff and students. Find them within the Old Technical Institute (OTI) Building, behind the Tower Building.

After listening to your feedback, UoD IT has simplified the method of changing your University password by allowing you to change your password 24 hours a day, on any device, online.

UoD IT has also altered the notification period of your password expiration messages. You will now be notified once per day, over the period of the 28 days prior to your password expiration date. This will give you sufficient time to change your password and avoid losing temporary access to your account - phew!

If you have students that you feel would benefit from one-to-one academic writing advice, you can recommend them to CASTLE (Centre for the Enhancement of Academic Skills, Teaching, Learning and Employability) by putting a sticker on their work. For a supply of stickers please contact CASTLE by email.

Mark Beaumont, the man who cycled the world, was named the new Rector of the University of Dundee last week. Read more.

Mark, who attended school in Dundee, was elected unopposed and succeeds the actor Brian Cox, who was elected to the position in 2010. Read the DUSA President's open letter of thanks to Brian.

Professor Stephen Greene, an internationally renowned figure in the field of Diabetes, has retired after a stellar academic and clinical career which saw him significantly further the medical profession’s knowledge of juvenile diabetes.

Qualifying from University College Hospital Medical School, London, Steve went on to specialise in Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes at hospitals including Great Ormond Street. In 1987, he was appointed as Consultant Paediatric Endocrinologist for Tayside and has worked in the School of Medicine since 1998. 

We wish Steve a very happy retirement!

Read more.

Last November, the University hosted 'Mary Shelley's Dundee: Re-animating a City' as part of the national Being Human 2015 Festival. Headed by Daniel Cook and Chris Murray, with the support of Jen Barnes, Phil Vaughan, Damon Herd, and a group of tireless students, the team sought to engage the wider public and University body in celebrating the works of Shelley.

Read Daniel's post-event blog on the UoD's Centre for Scottish Culture's website.

Congratulations are in order for Dr Alessio Ciulli (School of Life Sciences), who has been named the winner of a major award from the Royal Society of Chemistry in recognition of his work at Dundee on protein-protein interactions involved in disease.

Alessio is the joint winner of the Capps Green Zomaya Memorial Award, which recognises outstanding work in medicinal or computational medicinal chemistry and is given to `an individual judged to have made an important contribution to the discovery or development of new medicines’.

Read the full story.

The first Saturday Evening Lecture takes place on Saturday 13 February, featuring Ben Stewart (Head of Media for Greenpeace) who campaigned to bring home 30 Greenpeace activists who had been incarcerated in a Russian jail after protesting agains oil drilling in the Arctic. Don't Trust, Don't Fear, Don't Beg is a startling record of their experiences in jail. A book signing will follow the lecture. Book tickets.

Find out more about the event and future lectures on the brand new SELS website.

Safer Internet Day explores the role we all play in helping to create a safer online community - and the University of Dundee is joining in!

Stay tuned for an email from us on Safer Internet Day (9 Feb), which will explain how you can stay safe online with links to policies and YouTube videos. Why not get involved on social media using the hashtag?  #SID2016

If you think you've lost or released information you have a responsibility to report this to the Data Protection Officer immediately, so that we can manage (and hopefully fix) any such issues before they become problems. 

There's another opportunity to learn British Sign Language (BSL). The Sign Language Society is running classes every Tuesday, from 6pm until 7.15pm in 2S03 Dalhousie. The Society also organises social events and fundraisers as well as supporting the local deaf community. Join the Facebook group or email the President for more information.

There will be an ecumenical service for the Imposition of Ashes in the University Chapel on Wednesday 10 February at 5.15pm until 5.45pm. All welcome.

Calling all budding comedians! Are you interested in having a go at stand-up? Revealing Research offers training courses to all research staff and students as a new way of engaging your research with the public. To secure your free place email Revealing Research.

Lizzie Hannaford is an MSc Psychology of Mental Health student and would like participants for her research project looking at life events, mood and satisfaction among adults age 50 and above. The study involves filling in a quick online questionnaire. The survey can be found and completed online.

Rachel Nutt, a medical student at St Andrews is affiliated with the Social Dimensions of Health Institute (SDHI), a University of Dundee/St Andrews collaborative.

She would like participants for her PhD research project, aged between 18 and 65, who have had a heart attack in the last five years. If this is you and you'd like to take part in a one-off interview, please email Rachel Nutt.