Dear colleague,
As we enter the last few days of our assessment period, and approach the four day Platinum Jubilee bank holiday weekend, I hope this e-mail finds you well. I was delighted to hear that so many of you have booked tickets for our Jubilee weekend funfair on Saturday 4 June and I look forward to seeing you there.
Graduation ceremonies
We also look forward to the next graduation ceremonies, which are being held on 10 and 11 June. I hope these will be as special and joyous as the ceremonies earlier this month on 6 and 7 May, where many of our graduates from 2020 and 2021 and their guests were able to celebrate their achievements at Bath Abbey. I am deeply grateful to everyone who is working so hard to make these events a success.
Award wins at NEON
My sincere congratulations to Ciara Sherlock, Management student, Gold scholar, and Outreach Ambassador who won the NEON Student of the Year award earlier this month. There was success too for our Widening Access & Participation Team’s partnership with Angmering School, which won the NEON School or College Widening Access Award. It was also heartening to see our Pathway to Bath scheme commended at the NEON awards. Very well done to all involved on this richly deserved achievement.
Research grant success
In an important and exciting development, the first Green Hydrogen manufacturing plant in the UK’s South West is set to be built at IAAPS, following a successful £2.5M bid to the UK Research Partnership Innovation Fund (RPIF) as part of its Net Zero pilot funding scheme. My congratulations to the IAAPS team and to Professor Chris Brace.
Congratulations also to Professor Chris Chuck and colleagues for the £2.5 million funding award through UKRI, as part of the Transforming UK Food Systems Strategic Priorities Fund programme. Research here at Bath, in partnership with Harper Adams University, will be helping to create low-carbon meat and dairy substitutes using grass.
It is superb to see members of our community securing funding for such important projects, that will have major impacts in the area of sustainability.
Staff Recognition Awards
A reminder that the deadline to nominate a colleague in professional and support services for these awards is fast approaching. You have until 5pm on Wednesday 1 June to nominate a colleague in any of the four categories and we’ve heard from previous winners just how much it means to be recognised in this way.
I was humbled earlier this week to be invited to the memorial service at Bath Abbey for Dr Mateusz (Matteo) Zatoński, a Research Fellow in the Tobacco Control Research Group, who died of a very rare cancer on 17 January 2022, following a short period of illness. It was deeply touching to hear tributes to this remarkable person from those closest to him, and also to hear that on the same day in Brussels, he had been posthumously awarded a prestigious World No Tobacco Day Medal by the World Health Organisation for his outstanding work in the field. It was clear that he will be much missed but that the impact of his work will live on. My thoughts and condolences remain very much with his family.
With best wishes,
Professor Ian White
Vice-Chancellor and President
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