Staff Newsletter 22 December 2023
- Annabel Jackson (Deactivated)
Good morning everyone. A shorter-than-usual newsletter today as we end the year.
I hope that you have found our newsletters this year to be helpful, not only in keeping up to date with everyone's activities and achievements, but also in helping to build community in the Department 🙂 I really appreciate the positive feedback that I have received from many of you.
Wishing you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas 🎄 and all the best for 2024 🌟
Annabel Jackson - PA / Admin to EGLT
Rota for POV and Open Days now available
As you know we will soon switch to a fairer system for the staffing of Post-Offer Visit and Open days. The rota for 2023/24 is now complete. Please click on the link to plan ahead and make a note of your allocated slots in your diary/calendar.
The slots have been allocated by programme leaders based on preferences/constraints and the new policy. If you are happy with your slots you don't need to do anything else. If you are assigned a slot for which you are not available it is your responsibility (not the PL's) to swap it with someone else in your teaching group. You'll have until 24 January to arrange this as the rota will be fixed from that date.
Well-run POV and Open Days days are critical for successful recruitment of our future students, especially in the current financial climate. Many thanks for your help and support!
Prof. Roland Gehrels, Head of Department.
| 🧵 Crafty lunch is returning!! 🧵From Wednesday 17th January 2024, the crafty lunch will be returning. Come along to the Heartspace in the Environment Building between 1 - 2pm. Bring your current projects or get started with a new one. Supplies will be provided but donations of crafty bits are welcome. For more info email Jenny Pollard via jenny.pollard@york.ac.uk We hope to see you there |
Tackling Climate Change with the Social Sciences Workshop
Date/time: Thursday 25th January 2024 / 14:45 - 17:00
Location: B/T/005, John Currey Room, Biology Teaching Block
Join the Faculty of Social Sciences, the York Environmental Sustainability Institute (YESI) and the International Global Development Centre (IGDC) to explore new collaborations in social-science led research to tackle climate change.
This workshop will bring together researchers working in social science fields from across the University of York to meet colleagues with complementary research interests, make new connections and share their research interests and ideas, with a view to developing research project ideas driven by social science approaches and methods.
NERC CDT 2024 - Idea Sharing and Development Session
Date/time: Tuesday 30th January 2024 / 10.30 - 12.05
Location: Online only
Join the RIDT (Research Innovation and Development Team) and YESI (York Environmental Sustainability Institute) to share and discuss ideas for the forthcoming NERC challenge-led Centre for Doctoral Training 2024 call.
In February 2024 NERC, as part of its revised approach to doctoral training provision, will open a second open challenge-led CDT. CDTs can focus on a challenge in any area of the NERC remit, and the format will broadly follow that of the 2023 CDT Call. We expect that institutions will be limited to submitting a single outline proposal as lead.
To prepare for this opportunity, this session will bring together those interested in the NERC CDT 2024 to share and discuss their ideas with others ahead of the internal selection process (TBC when the call is released).
The first Semester of Sustainability Clinics received some fantastic feedback from project partners about our students and the success of the module overall. One of our partners said "The undergraduates' Sustainability Clinics were successful, many thanks. They came to give their presentations and the post-presentation discussion was a particularly strong aspect with both groups. They also expressed how pleased they were with the Sustainability Clinic programme and how it has helped define their career ambitions and adds worth to what they have learnt over the three years; "a testament more to your Department, I would say, than our offer of the two Clinic projects!" Huge thanks and congratulations to the central clinic team from ESAY, alongside the DEG staff (Laura Chapman, Naomi Holmes, Josh Kirshner, Darpan Das and Sohail Ahmad) and GTAs (Eugenia Obeng-Akrofi, Zoe MacKay, Sarah Foster, Isabel Navarro Law and Jake Spong).
Smriti Safaya was invited to moderate a panel about Critical Science Communication and Outreach for the Croucher Foundation Symposium in Hong Kong on 8th December, which was attended by 120 scholars working and studying in a range of scientific fields. She used an interactive approach to garner audience input to guide the discussions after the speakers gave short talks, and received very positive feedback from attendees about the practical tips and tricks for engaging with the public and media.
Simon Thomas is a coauthor on a new paper describing a century of data from the Western Channel Observatory, a long-term sampling area in the Western English Channel.
Congratulations to Patrick Sharrocks, a Natural Sciences student, who has had a paper published based on his dissertation project, supervised by Jon Hill. The paper is published in the Journal of Quaternary Science and is titled "Evaluating the impact of the Storegga tsunami on Mesolithic communities in Northumberland."
Congratulations to Lindsay Stringer who is a co-author on a new paper published in Global Change Biology with colleagues in China: Ren Z, Li C, Fu, B, Wang S, Stringer LC. 2023. Effects of aridification on soil total carbon pools in China’s drylands. Global Change Biology.
Congratulations to Rob Marchant whose COP28 activity featured in German national media.
Rob Mills featured on Sky News piece on the Snaizeholme research, exploring how tree-planting will change soil ecology and help to prevent flooding.
Congratulations to Felicia Liu and Anne Monier (ESSEC Business School) who have had a paper accepted in Finance & Space - "Funding Climate Action but Financing Climate Destruction? An Exploration of Hybridity in Climate Philanthropy and Investments". This paper will form the theoretical basis for a developing research programme on the role of philanthropy in shaping sustainable finance agenda and practices.
Well done everyone on your fantastic achievements 👏
Follow-up workshop 'Arts, Humanities and Mental Health'
Following the successful research showcase in June, the Institute of Mental Health Research (IMRY) and the Humanities Research Centre (HRC) are holding a follow-up workshop on "Arts, Humanities, and Mental Health" on Monday 18 March 2024 in the Berrick Saul Treehouse. The aims of this event are (1) to identify and further develop thematic areas for collaborative research, and (2) to provide support for research projects and funding applications at all stages of development.
Researchers across the Arts and Humanities Faculty, at all career stages are encouraged to come and outline their research projects, share ideas, consolidate collaborations, and tell us where our support would be helpful. We also welcome colleagues from across the wider University who wish to come and contribute. The format will include 5-minute presentations, as well as plenary and small group discussions.
Please fill out this Google form by Monday 22nd January (2024) to register.
NERC CDT 2024 Idea Sharing and Discussions Session
You are invited to join the Research Innovation and Development Team and York Environmental Sustainability Institute to share and discuss ideas for the forthcoming NERC challenge-led Centre for Doctoral Training 2024 call. The session will take place on the 30th January, 10.30-12:00.
In February 2024 NERC, as part of its revised approach to doctoral training provision, will launch a second open, challenge-led CDT call. CDTs can focus on a challenge in any area of the NERC remit, and the format will broadly follow that of the 2023 CDT Call. We expect that institutions will be limited to submitting a single outline proposal as lead.
To prepare for this opportunity, this session will bring together those interested in the 2024 call to share and discuss their ideas with others ahead of submissions to the internal selection process (TBC when the call is released).
Please register via the event website - on completion of the google form you will receive a calendar invite to the event with zoom details.
If you cannot attend, but wish to share an idea, please fill out the form and decline the calendar invite. The responses and notes from the discussion in the meeting will be shared with all those who have responded to the google form.
Tackling Climate Change with the Social Sciences
Thursday 25th January, 2:45-5pm in D/L/036
Join the Faculty of Social Sciences, the York Environmental Sustainability Institute (YESI) and the International Global Development Centre (IGDC) to explore new collaborations in social-science led research to tackle climate change.
This workshop will bring together researchers working in social science fields from across the University of York to meet colleagues with complementary research interests, make new connections and share their research interests and ideas, with a view to developing research project ideas driven by social science approaches and methods.
Great! Please add it to the Research, Teaching, Outreach and Good News Spreadsheet. Please use the most relevant tab for the activity/news and ensure that the description details are written out in full as you would like it to be presented. If your item does not fit the spreadsheet, please email it to environment-pa@york.ac.uk by 12:00 on Thursday 4th January.
Thank you for your help in making the newsletter a great way to catch up on all of the Department's latest news and activities 🙂