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Director's Message
Dear Colleagues,
A chilly weekend indeed, but it was exciting to see some snow flurries in the suburbs.
The construction of Stage 1 is about to take a major step with the installation of a tower crane over 24th and 25th August. The diagram below illustrates the crane boom radius over the entire site. While the boom will transit neighbouring buildings, no loads will be carried over any occupied buildings. As erecting the crane is a highly specialised and hazardous process I ask that all staff and students avoid working in Oliphant or Cockcroft buildings over the weekend of 24th/25th.
As mentioned at Forum, the process for initiating the working parties who will detail our response to the School review will kick-off on 27th August with a lunchtime presentation by Emeritus Professor Lawrence Cram on university ranking metrics. Lawrence has published widely on this topic and has agreed to provide a survey of what each of the main rankings indicate, with a focus on physics. My hope is that this will seed the discussion the Research working party will coordinate in response not only to the Review, but also our VC’s challenge to see ourselves in the world’s top 25 Physics schools. The new Associate Director (Research) will lead this working party and one of their first tasks will be to invite interested people to constitute this group. Ahead of his presentation, Lawrence’s report will be sent to all academic staff via email this week.
If you have an interest in the AD(R) role please speak to your Head of Department. Applications close this Friday. I am very grateful to Professors Penny Brothers and Steve Eggins, Directors of RSC and RSES, respectively for joining me on the selection panel.
Have a good week and see you at Market Day,
Tim | 