TOP STORIES

OBE Joy for Professor Sian Ellard

We're delighted for Professor Sian Ellard, who was awarded an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours. Sian was recognised for her pioneering work in diagnostic genetic testing and the genetic sub types of diabetes. Read more here.

New Mireille Gillings Fellowships in Health Innovation

The University are creating two new Mireille Gillings Professorial Fellowships, to help develop the next generation of leaders that excel in medicine, science, leadership and business. They have been funded from a £10 million donation from the Dennis and Mireille Gillings Foundation – the largest single gift ever made to the University. Read more here.

Graduation and all-staff summer party

You may be aware that we'll be holding a pre-graduation event at St Luke’s on 17 July from 9.30-11.30, to mark the first cohort of our Medicine students graduating. We'd like to encourage staff who work with undergraduate students in any capacity, or who were involved in the setup of the Medical School, to attend too. Please RSVP by registering via this Eventbrite link by Friday July 6 at the latest.

We’d also like to remind all staff of the family-friendly party, taking place on the St Luke’s quad from 5-8pm on 17 July. We hope you’ll join us for drinks and hog roast (veggie options available). Please RSVP via this Eventbrite page by Friday July 6 to register you and family members.

Congratulations

Congratulations to:

Research Administrator Maddy Geen, who won Apprentice of the Year at the Professional Services Recognition Awards. Maddy was recognised for her outstanding teamwork and professionalism.

Dr Hanieh Yaghootkar on winning BioBank's Young Researcher of the Year competition! Hanieh's research looks at using genetics to unravel the aetiology of cardiometabolic diseases such as diabetes.

Professor Rob Anderson, Rebecca Hardwick and Simon Briscoe who between them are co-authors of two chapters of Doing Realist Research, a book published on 30th June. The book is a guide to putting realist methodologies into practice, bringing together expertise from leading theorists, researchers and policy makers.

Professor Willie Hamilton on being appointed Early Diagnosis Lead for the new National Institute of Health Research Policy Research Unit in Cancer Awareness, Screening and Early Diagnosis. Read more here.

Postgraduate research successes:

Congratulations to the following:

PhD student Roberta Torregrossa won "Best presentation" at the 5th World Congress on Hydrogen Sulfide in Biology and Medicine in Toronto this June and was awarded a certificate and cash prize. Roberta is supervised by Dr Mark Wood and researches synthetic organic chemistry, co-inventing and patenting compounds for therapeutic use.

PhD student Afi Leslie of the Islet Biology team, who has been invited to attend the Commonwealth Youth Forum, which aims to encourage young people to work together to generate ideas about the Commonwealth they would love to see in 2040. Afi was one of just 120 students to be invited to attend the event.

New roles

Congratulations to the following on their new roles:

Professor Louise Allan - Professor (Clinical)
James Rowberry - Knowledge Exchange Officer
Bianca Wiering - Postdoctoral Research Associate
Dr Richard Killick - Senior Research Fellow
Dr Yasaman Malekizadeh - Postdoctoral Research Associate
Dr Rebecca Wyatt - Postdoctoral Research Associate
Alice Garood - Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dr Rachael Quinn - Lecturer (E&S)

STAFF NEWS

Professor boosts dementia expertise at Exeter

We're delighted to welcome Professor Louise Allan to the Medical School. Louise has an outstanding track record in research on neurology and psychiatry of old age. The Professor of Geriatric Medicine joins Exeter from Newcastle University. Read more here.

QUEX Collaboration

This week Professor Vicki Goodwin has co-led a three-day event with Dr Anna Hatton of the University of Queensland as part of the international QUEX collaboration, following their success with an QUEX initiator grant. This focused on building collaboration and refining research around healthy ageing, with particular focus on retrofit living environments.

Food bank success

Thank you to everyone who donated food to the Exeter Food Bank at the Staff Festival. We collected an amazing 650kg of food thanks to the generosity of colleagues across the University!

In the news

Medical School research has made headlines this month, including:

Research from Honorary Graduate Sir Denis Pereira Gray and Associate Professor Phil Evans which found that seeing the same doctor over time is linked to reduced deaths, featured in the Guardian,  the Times and BBC News.

Research led by Dr Beverley Shields which found that he rapid decline in insulin production that causes Type 1 diabetes continues to fall over seven years and then stabilises, featured in the Express.

Research led by Dr Elizabeth Shephard and Professor Willie Hamilton which identified the highest risk symptoms that can indicate testicular cancer, in research that aims to improve diagnosis, featured in the Independent and the Express.

EQUALITY & DIVERSITY

Pulse Survey

Thank you to all those who took part in the recent Pulse Survey on core hours. 203 of you responded to the survey, with 80% saying that having core hours helps you to achieve work-life balance, and 51% voting to retain the current core hours of 10am-4pm. As a reminder, core hours are the hours within which the Medical School aims to hold most of its strategic/committee/management meetings, in order to ensure they are as accessible as possible to all staff. Watch out for more Pulse Surveys over the coming months!

RESEARCH NEWS

Diabetes Week

To mark Diabetes Week, we had an active social media campaign on Twitter that celebrated #ExeterDiabetes discoveries that are changing lives worldwide. We hope you enjoyed learning more about our discoveries as much as we enjoyed sharing them with you! You can find the full list of diabetes insights here.

EDUCATION NEWS

Undergraduate Student Conference 2018

Students and staff from across the Medical School gathered for the Medical School's Undergraduate Student Conference on Saturday 9th June. The event, which took place at the Exeter Racecourse, included undergraduate students from across all programmes at the Medical School for the first time. Students had the opportunity to showcase their research, attend workshops, and present on various extra-curricular activities. A huge thank you to the student committee and Dr Vrinda Nayak for organising this event. Read more here.

Medicine students working at Reading

In 2013 Dr Ian Fussell, our Community Sub Dean in Truro, established a link with Festival Medical Services (FMS), the organisation that provides medical cover to Glastonbury and other outdoor festivals, giving the opportunity for Year 3 Medicine students to work there as First Responders.

Students complete a Level 3 First Responder Emergency Care (FREC) and have the opportunity to encounter emergency care in a very unusual setting, as well as enjoying the festival when not on a shift. 

Students attending this year are Matt Saint, Dan James, Hannah McAndrew, Juliet Sebastian, Cat Farrelly, Toby Charrge-Thornton, Olivia Eguiguren Wray, who'll be going to Reading festival (24th – 26th August). Students are invited to apply each year and contribute to the funding of their training for this role.

Medicine student wins Student Leader of the Year

Congratulations to third-year medicine student, Waheed-Ul-Rahman Ahmed, who won Student Leader of the Year at the Exeter Students' Guild Awards. The award recognises Waheed's outstanding leadership as Exeter Surgical Society's President. Read more here.

STAFF INFORMATION

NEW ePDR LAUNCHES

The Performance Development Review (PDR) cycle has begun. You can log into the new system here. Your PDR is a great opportunity for you and your line manager to take some time out to reflect on your past year, celebrate your successes and recognise how challenges have been met, as well as plan for the future.

If you are a reviewer, please remember that the PDR is an important part of a member of staff’s development and the should include a discussion about long term career goals and the support needed to get there, workload and wellbeing. You should have completed the appropriate PDR reviewer training within the last five years; the Medical School are running final bespoke sessions on Tuesday 10th, Friday 13th and Tuesday 24th July.  Please contact People Development if you would like to book one of these sessions.

We are keen to ensure that you all have meaningful and ongoing conversations about your performance and development, across the entire year. The new ePDR system will make ongoing conversations easier by providing a place to record feedback (including forms such as the Annual Review of Teaching or your 1:1 notes).  For academic colleagues, the ePDR form also links to the Exeter Academic, this is the opportunity for you and your line manager to identify and support your longer-term career plans and future progression.

Sit/stand desks

Please be aware that the management and allocation of sit/stand desks is managed centrally by UEMS Infrastructure. Sit/stand desks that become available must be returned to UEMS stock for re-allocation. Should you have any queries regarding these please contact UEMS Infrastructure.

EVENTS

APEx: 4th Barbara Starfield Lecture - Professor Jeannie Haggerty
Thu 5 July, 12.30 – 14.00 
3.06 South Cloisters, University of Exeter, St Luke’s Campus

Sharing experiences to help transform practice: Interdisciplinary education for our students – Dr Greta Bosch 
Fri 6 July, 13.30-14.30 
Northcote House Council Chamber, University of Exeter, Streatham Campus

Encountering Emotions in Academia
Fri 13 July, 10.00 - 17.00
Manchester Metropolitan University

Statistics Seminar: Methodological Advances in Evidence Synthesis - Orestis Efthimiou 
Fri 20 July, 14.30 - 15.30
2.13, South Cloisters, University of Exeter, St Luke’s Campus