GTC in the Media
New fostering research centre
Oxford Mail (in brief), p. 22, 15/05/12
Oxford University has created a new centre to conduct research into improving outcomes for foster children and those in care. GTC Senior Visiting Research Fellow Professor Judy Sebba said: "It will play a vital role in understanding and shaping foster care practice and educational outcomes for children in care more generally".
How we start getting fat just three hours after a big meal
Daily Mail -Main-, 14/05/2012, p.3, Fiona Macrae
Researchers from Oxford University have discovered how quickly the fat in a meal is converted into fatty tissue around our bodies. They found that the average person can add the equivalent of 2-3 teaspoons of fat to their waist within hours of eating. With a high fat meal, the quantity of fat deposited can be greater, especially if the food is consumed earlier in the day - such as with a fried breakfast. It has long been thought that fatty meals led to weight gain, but it was believed that the process was gradual. However, research by Professor Fredrik Karpe and GTC Emeritus Fellow Professor Keith Frayn suggests a far more complex picture. 'The process is very fast,' Fredrik Karpe, professor of metabolic medicine, said. 'The cells in the adipose tissue around the waist catch the fat droplets as the blood carries them and incorporates them into the cells for storage.'
Also in:
A fry-up on the lips... and 3 hours later fat's on the hips
Metro -Main-, 14/05/2012, p.16, Hannah Crown
Waisting little time
New York Post online (USA), (via Sunday Times), 13/05/2012, Unattributed
British scientists discover that high fat foods hit the waistline three hours after being eaten
Daily Telegraph online (Australia) (via Daily Mail), 14/05/2012, Unattributed
Food can turn into body fat in hours
The Australian online, (via Sunday Times), 14/05/2012, Unattributed
Fall in deaths following withdrawal of pain killer
HealthCanal.com, Unattributed, 09/05/12
There has been a major reduction in deaths involving the pain-relief drug co-proxamol since it was withdrawn in the UK in 2005, an Oxford University-led study has found. The findings of the study by Professor Keith Hawton of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford and colleagues show that the withdrawal of co-proxamol has not seen an increase in deaths involving other pain killers. Professor Hawton and colleagues assessed the impact of co-proxamol withdrawal in England and Wales by comparing data on pain relief prescribing and suicide rates collected between 1998 and 2004 with data collected between 2005 and 2010. They found that on average, from 2008 to 2010, there were 20 deaths related to co-proxamol per year, including suicides and accidental poisonings. It was more than 250 per year during the 1990s.
Read the HealthCanal.com article
April 'was Oxford's wettest since records began'
BBC News online, 04/05/2012
According to staff at the Radcliffe Meteorological Station, which is situated in the gardens of Green Templeton College - the city has experienced the wettest April since records began.
Read the BBC online news article
The story also featured in:
April deluge sets new record for university centre
Oxford Mail,10/05/2012, Andrew Ffrench
April was the wettest in Oxford since records began
Oxford Mail, 05/05/2012, Unattributed
Wettest April in UK since 1767 according to longest rainfall dataset
PhysOrg.com, 07/05/2012, Unattributed
Aspirin Really Is Kind of a Wonder Drug, Studies Continue to Show
The Atlantic online (USA), Alice Walton, 30/04/12
Three new studies by the same research team at the University of Oxford have shown that aspirin over the long term can reduce the risk of cancer - and its spread through the body. The team's earlier work had shown that daily aspirin could reduce cancer risk over the next 20 years. Now, GTC Senior Research Fellow and Professor of Clinical Neurology Peter Rothwell and his team have expanded on their original findings. In one large scale review of 51 earlier studies, people who took less than 300 mg of aspirin every day had a 25 percent reduced risk of developing any type of cancer after three years. It reduced the risk of death from cancer by about 15 percent. The longer people took aspirin, the better: after five years, the risk of death was reduced by 37 percent in aspirin-takers. Another study determined how aspirin affected the spread of cancer once it had developed, and a third study was a confirmation of aspirin's effects on metastasis.
Read the Atlantic online article
New self-cleaning glass could help prevent fogging and glare
NewsTrack India (via ANI), Unattributed, 30/04/12
Article about a new self-cleaning glass that is able to resist fogging and glare effects invented by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology includes comment from Andrew Parker, a senior visiting research fellow at GTC.
Read the NewsTrack India article online
Comments by Andrew Parker also in:
Amazing new glass not only self-cleans but avoids glare and fogging
MSNBC online, Technolog blog (via Future of Tech), Unattributed, 27/04/12
MIT Glass Innovation Is Self-Cleaning, Resists Glare (VIDEO)
Huffington Post (USA) (via Innovation News Daily), Unattributed, 26/04/12
Revolutionary Glare-Free Glass Could be in Your Smartphone in the Future
International Business Times online (Australia), Ranina Sanglap, 30/04/12
Anti-fog glass is glare-free and self-cleaning
TG Daily, Emma Woollacott, 30/04/12
Researchers create anti-fogging, self-cleaning, glare-free glass
GMA News online (Philippines), Unattributed, 30/04/12
My stupid, sexist mistake
Red Online (UK), Saskia Graville, 25/04/12
Comment piece mentions a lecture on women and economics by GTC Fellow Professor Linda Scott at Oxford University's Saïd Business School.
Radio: Beyond Belief, BBC Radio 4
23/04/2012, 16:30
Dr John Lennox, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, is one of those debating whether modern physics leaves any room for the existence of God.
Bottom of the pyramid selling
The Economist online, 19/04/12
Article on a study by GTC Fellows Professor Linda Scott and Dr Catherine Dolan - both based at the Saïd Business School - into a rural sales programme run by an NGO that employs struggling Bangladeshi women. GTC student Mary Johnstone-Louis (DPhil Management Studies) was also a member of the research team.
Read the Economist article online
Mobile stroke unit roughly halves time to diagnosis and treatment of patients with suspected stroke
Medical Xpress, 11/04/2012
Article on a German study examining the benefits of specialised ambulances or mobile stroke units for assessing patients suspected of having a stroke quotes from a commentary by Professors Peter Rothwell, GTC Fellow, and Alastair Buchan of Oxford University.
Read the Medical Xpress article online
College puts in new pavilion plan
Oxford Mail, p14, 11/04/12
A sports pavilion look set to be built for Oxford University's youngest college. Green Templeton College, off Woodstock Road, has submitted a planning application to contract a pavilion which will be used for a maximum of 10 years. It will replace the college's gym, which has space for just one rowing machine and one treadmill.
Read the Oxford Mail article online
The insider's guide to cancer prevention
The Guardian, Oliver Laughland, 07/04/2012
Feature article looks at how some cancer experts and clinicians have taken steps to change their lifestyles. Peter Rothwell, GTC Senior Research Fellow and professor of clinical neurology at the University of Oxford, explains how he started taking a daily low-dose aspirin around three years ago after his research into the effects of aspirin on cancer prevention 'really started getting interesting'.
Read the Guardian article online
Resetting the compass
Times Higher Education, Professor Sir David Watson, 04/04/2012
GTC Principal Sir David writes about the Emerging Markets Symposium hosted by GTC, which this year focused on tertiary education, and the personal conclusions he took away from the intensive three-day meeting. These include the necessity of balancing the individual and social returns on participation and success in higher-level education and training, and how best to deploy private sector investment for public purposes.
Women's height linked to ovarian cancer
BBC News online, Helen Briggs, 03/04/2012
Taller women have a slightly higher risk of ovarian cancer, according to a review of studies. Obesity is also a risk factor among women who have never taken HRT, say international researchers. Previous studies have suggested a link, but there has been conflicting evidence. Lead researcher Professor Valerie Beral of Oxford University's Cancer Epidemiology Unit and a GTC Fellow told the BBC: 'By bringing together the worldwide evidence, it became clear that height is a risk factor.' She said there was also a clear relationship between obesity and ovarian cancer in women who had never taken HRT. 'Ovarian cancer can clearly be added to the list [of cancers linked to obesity],' she added.
Read the BBC News online article
Time for economists to eat humble pie ... again
Financial Times, p. 13, Stein Ringen, 28/03/12
Article by Stein Ringen, Professor of Sociology at Green Templeton College, Oxford University, on Angela Merkel's handling of the Eurozone crisis.
Read the FT article online
Guide for the hard-knock office
Financial Times, p. 14, Alanna Petroff, 27/03/12
A piece looking at bullying in the workplace and how to deal with it includes comment from GTC Visiting Reseacrh Fellow Nancy Puccinelli, a professor and psychologist at the University of Oxford's Saïd Business School. Alanna Petroff, the author of the article, is a GTC alumna who graduated in 2011 with an MBA.
Read the FT article online
Daily dose of aspirin can cut cancer risk and stop its spread, says report
The Guardian, p. 5, Sarah Boseley, 21/03/12
Taking a low dose of aspirin each day may prevent cancer and stop it spreading, according to three papers to be published in leading medical journals on Wednesday. It could also possibly have a use as a treatment for the disease. GTC Senior Research Fellow Professor Peter Rothwell and colleagues at the University and the John Radcliffe hospital, the authors of the studies in the Lancet and Lancet Oncology, have previously shown that long-term daily aspirin, for 10 years or so, reduces the risk of colorectal (bowel) cancer and other common cancers. The new studies reinforce aspirin's claim to be a weapon against cancer. They show that taking daily low-dose pills for just three years can reduce your risk of cancer by about a quarter - 23% for men and 25% for women. The risk of dying of cancer is cut by 15% - and by 37% for those who take aspirin for longer than five years. Rothwell said the effect of aspirin on the spread of cancer was unique and might be useful in treatment. "Previously, no drug has ever been shown to reduce metastasis as a specific effect," he said. "It opens up a completely new therapeutic area."
Read the Guardian online article
Other coverage of Professor Rothwell's research:
Quarter of aspirin daily 'beats cancer'
The Daily Telegraph, front page, Stephen Adams, 21/03/12
Read the Daily Telegraph article online
Daily aspirin 'prevents and possibly treats cancer'
BBC News online, Michelle Roberts, 21/03/12
Read the BBC news online article
Original Style
Hilary Term 2012, Oxford Today Magazine
The Letters' page includes a letter from GTC Principal Professor Sir David Watson about the GTC Common Room and its plans to mark the Tranist of venus in June 2012.
Read the Oxford Today letter online
Radio: John Lennox, BBC Radio 4
18/03/12, 5:45am and 2:45pm
A lecture in the BBC's "Lent Talks," a scientific take on the Easter Message, which discusses science and the things and people that do not fit in.
Listen to the interview
World-Class vs. Mass Education
Inside Higher Education online, Doug Lederman, 09/03/2012
Should developing nations expend their money and energy trying to build 'world-class' universities that conduct job-creating research and educate the nation's elite, or focus on building more and better institutions to train the masses? This question was addressed at the Emerging Markets Symposium, a meeting held at Egrove Park in Oxford in January which looked at the issue of Tertiary education in emerging market countries and is a GTC academic initiative. The article mentions GTC Principal Professor Sir David Watson and Associate Fellow, Ian Scott, Director of the Symposium.
Estrogen pills reduce breast cancer risk in study of menopausal women
CBS News online (USA), Health Pop blog, Unattributed, 07/03/12
Article about a new study showing women who take estrogen following menopause had a lower risk of breast cancer includes comment from Valerie Beral, director of the cancer epidemiology unit at Oxford University.
Read the CBS News article online
Learn lessons from underneath the Ivy League
Times Higher Education, p.11, Simon Baker, 01/03/12
The UK's higher education system must become “less precious” and emulate the “messier” half of the US model if it wants to succeed, a leading scholar has argued in an analysis of the policy errors affecting the sector. Sir David Watson, professor of higher education at the University of Oxford and principal of Green Templeton College, Oxford, says that the UK is too fixated on copying the higher-profile elements of US provision, such as the Ivy League universities. Writing in a paper for the Higher Education Policy Institute, Sir David says that the UK must look at how the "other half" of students in the US complete courses: over longer time frames as mature students; by switching between institutions; by dipping in and out of work; and through a mixture of full- and part-time study.
Click here to read the article online.
Professor wins research prize
Oxford Mail, In Brief, 02/03/2012, p.7, Unattributed
Professor Fiona Powrie has been awarded the 2012 Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine. Professor Powrie is the Sidney Truelove Professor of Gastroenterology at Oxford University and head of experimental medicine in the Nuffield Department of Medicine based at the John Radcliffe Hospital.
Is early light from FoI just too bright?
Times Higher Education, David Matthews, p. 22, 16/02/12
Article on the fact that Universities UK is lobbying for an amendment to the Freedom of Information Act which would specifically exempt research data from release before findings have been published, includes comment from GTC Fellow Dame Valerie Beral, Professor of Epidemiology at Oxford, who warned of the dangers of the Information Commissioner's Office deciding on how long it is reasonable to wait to turn raw data into a finished paper.
The global search for education: a life of learning
Huffington Post, C M Rubin, 14/02/12
Interview with Professor Sir David Watson, Principal of Green Templeton College at the University of Oxford, on global higher education.
Read the Huffington Post article
Imbalance of power in education
The Guardian, 03/02/12
Letter: Professor Richard Pring, GTC Emeritus Fellow, comments on the danger of placing too much power over schools in the hands of the Secretary of State for Education:
'The 1944 Education Act, hammered out during the war years, created a "maintained system" of education as a balance of power between central government, local government responsibility, the voluntary bodies (mainly the churches) and the teachers. That balance is now disappearing fast, without the public debate it needs and with hardly a squeak from Labour. The existing education legislation refers to the fast-disappearing "maintained schools", leaving academies and free schools exposed, without the protection of the law, to whatever whimsical ideas are dreamt up by the present or future secretaries of state, to whom they are contracted with minimal accountability to parliament.'
Read the Guardian letter online
Bric countries need more tertiary education
The Guardian, p. 33, 02/02/12
Letter: Professor Michael Earl, former Head of Templeton College, GTC Honorary Fellow and a former pro-vice-chancellor of Oxford University, and Lady English, a former principal of St Hilda's College, are among the signatories to a letter on the challenge facing higher education in emerging economies: 'The growth of emerging market economies, led by the Bric countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), is widely perceived as vital to global recovery. The world now needs emerging markets to succeed, but must neither ignore nor underestimate the challenges they face in producing a rapidly growing supply of entrepreneurial, administrative and professional skills ... Emerging market countries are economically, culturally and socially diverse, but all of them must increase access to tertiary education to promote social mobility, reduce economic inequality, and tackle the unforgivable waste in human capital, if their promise is to be fulfilled.'
The letter follows the Emerging Markets Symposium 2012, a GTC academic initiative which identifies and promotes solutions to high priority sectoral issues facing emerging market countries by building consensus among opinion leaders and supporting their efforts to implement solutions in their respective spheres of influence.
Read the Guardian online letter
Radio: Malcolm Boyden, BBC Radio Oxford
27/01/12, 11.22am
It is mentioned that the Million Women Study, which is run by Dame Valerie Beral at Oxford University, showed that if women drink more than two units of alcohol a day, they double their risk of breast cancer.
Listen to the interview (c.1:22:00 on the iPlayer clock)
Le Prix Louis-Jeantet 2012 remis à deux biologistes
Le Temps (daily newspaper in Switzerland), Olivier Dessibourg, 25/01/2012
The German biologist Matthias Mann and the English immunologist Fiona Powrie have been awarded the 2012 Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine, a prize which comes with 700,000 Swiss francs to further their research. Fiona Powrie, a GTC Fellow and professor of gastroenterology at the University of Oxford, won the award for explaining why the immune system, which protects against pathogens, does not attack beneficial bacteria which live in the intestine.
Read the Le Temps article online
Aspirin to ward off heart attacks can do more harm than good, study says
The Times, p. 9, Chris Smyth, 10/01/12
A new study suggests that a daily dose of aspirin, sometimes recommended for people thought to be at risk of heart problems, may be too risky for healthy people. Professor Peter Rothwell of Oxford University says that the timescale of the study was too short to draw conclusions on aspirin's effect on cancer deaths.
Read The Times article online
The happy menopause pill
Daily Mail, p.48, Jane Feinmann, 27/12/11
Article looking at HRT alternative DHEA includes comment from GTC Fellow Professor Valerie Beral, director of the Cancer Research UK epidemiology unit at the University of Oxford.
Read the Daily Mail article online
Another marathon effort for Richard
Oxford Mail, p.14, 10/12/2011, Laura Jones
An Oxford University professor is back on track and preparing to run his 27th marathon after beating cancer. GTC Emeritus Fellow Professor Richard Pring hopes to run the London Marathon in April - two days after his 74th birthday. The education academic was stopped from competing in April after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and a form of rheumatism. But after an operation at the Churchill Hospital and plenty of rest he is hoping to take up the 26-mile challenge again next year.
Read the Oxford Mail article online
How the contraceptive pill changed Britain
BBC News Online, 04/12/2011, Rebecca Cafe
Feature on the contraceptive pill includes comment from GTC Fellow Dame Valerie Beral, Professor of Epidemiology at Oxford University.
Read the BBC News Online article
Christmas cheer deters gloomy shoppers
The Daily Telegraph, 03/12/2011, p.20, Unattributed
Research by Nancy Puccinelli, GTC Visiting Fellow and an associate fellow at Oxford University's Said Business School, found that Christmas music, decorations and cheery sales staff deter many shoppers.
Read the Telegraph online article
Festive retailers risk repelling stressed holiday shoppers at Christmas
Garden Center magazine, Unattributed, 30/11/11
In the final days before Christmas many a shopper will be feeling the pressure of the holiday season leading to undue stress. New research by Nancy Puccinelli, GTC Visiting Fellow and Associate Fellow at the Saïd Business School, reveals that this stress may lead to consumers avoiding stores revelling in the festive season. An expert in the psychology of marketing, Puccinelli has studied how consumer mood affects behaviour. She finds that consumers in bad moods will avoid salespeople who are overly positive and upbeat, and retail outlets holding celebrations. The extreme contrast between consumers' negative feelings and the atmosphere in the store, be it festive decorations, overly ebullient salespeople or relentless Christmas music actually makes them feel worse and less willing to purchase. Consumers compelled to remain in the store may ultimately feel more positive but have been found to undervalue the retailer's offerings.
Read the Garden Center magazine article online
'Behaviour doesn't happen in a vacuum'
New Statesman, p38, Sarah Darby, 21/11/11
Q&A with Dr Sarah Darby , deputy programme leader at the Environmental Change Institute, on how to motivate people to reduce their energy consumption.
Read the New Statesman article online
The 'Avon ladies' of Bangladesh
Guardian online, Hanna Hindstrom, 21/11/11
A feature article on female villagers in Bangladesh who are starting to escape poverty by selling cosmetics and health products in their communities includes quotes from Professor Linda Scott of the Saïd Business School at Oxford University.
Read the Guardian article online
Self-harm common in teenagers, Australian study shows
BBC News online, Smitha Mundasad, 17/11/11
A study has found that 1 in 12 people self-harm in their teenage years, but for most the problem will resolve before adulthood. Professor Keith Hawton, Director of the Centre for Suicide Research at the University of Oxford, who wrote the commentary on the study, comments on the findings.
Read the BBC News online article
Grant winners
Times Higher Education, p.25, 10/11/11
GTC Research Fellow Dr Louise Locock of the Department of Primary Health Care Sciences and Professor Chris Bonnell of the Department of Social Policy and Intervention has both been awarded research grants by the National Institute for Health Research.
See the THE online listing
Ann's legacy gives hope and strength to millions
Jewish News, p. 4, Unattributed, 03/11/11
Special report on genetic conditions in the Jewish community discusses a new Jewish section on health website healthtalkonline.org, which is based on research from the University of Oxford. The section was launched by Dr Ann McPherson, a Jewish GP, and includes interviews with 40 people of Ashkenazi Jewish descent carefully chosen by researchers from Oxford University to reflect the fact that the Jewish community has a higher-than-average incidence of recessive genetic disorders. Dr Sarah Ryan of the Health Experiences Research Group says: “Individuals and relatives interviewed on healthtalkonline.org discuss how and when to have screening for recessive genetic disorders, which occur only when both parents are carriers of the defective gene.”
Forget the fads and quack cures! THIS is why you're tired all the time
Daily Mail, p. 50, John Naish, 08/11/11
A feature article on the number of people turning up at their GPs complaining of tiredness, when only around one in five of these patients actually has an identifiable physical illness. Article includes extended comments from GTC Emeritus Fellow John Wass, professor of endocrinology at Oxford University, who is seeing growing numbers of patients referred to him for testing by private doctors who have diagnosed adrenal fatigue. 'Adrenal fatigue is not a diagnosis that is accepted by qualified endocrinologists,' he says. 'When I test these patients' blood, there is nothing to indicate that there is anything wrong with them or their adrenal glands,' he says.
Read the Daily Mail article online
How heart treatment has changed
The Observer (Review), p. 30, Unattributed, 06/11/11
Another feature in the series of articles sponsored by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) looking at BHF-funded research. This week's feature explores how treatments for heart defects have improved over the past 50 years. One of the research projects mentioned is that of GTC Fellow Professor Shoumo Bhattacharya and his team at the BHF Centre of Research Excellence, Oxford University, who are investigating the effect of environment on genes. The Oxford team is using genetic techniques and state-of-the-art imaging technology to study how alterations in these genes affect the structure of the heart and lead to these conditions.
Read the Observer article online
MBA friends with (career) benefits
Globe and Mail (Canada), Alanna Petroff, 03/11/11
GTC alum and Said Business School MBA graduate Alanna Petroff discusses the value of the networks she has built during and following her time at Oxford.
Read the Globe and Mail article
One glass of wine a day increases risk of breast cancer
Daily Telegraph, Rebecca Smith, 02/11/11
This article on a study by researchers at Harvard University which found that women who drink four small glasses of wine a week increase their risk of developing breast cancer by 15%, includes comment from Valerie Beral, GTC Fellow and Professor of Epidemiology at Oxford University.
Read the Daily Telegraph article
Daily aspirin cuts risk of colorectal cancer
New Scientist online, 28/10/2011, Linda Geddes
GTC Fellow professor Peter Rothwell commets in an article on Newcastle-led research into the benefits of aspirin for people at high risk of developing bowel cancer. Professor Rothwell led an earlier landmark study on the topic. He said of the new work: ‘It provides the first evidence that aspirin is effective in reducing the very high risk of cancer that these individuals have.’
Read the New Scientist article online
A mega study and a global trial, to fight killer diseases better
Indian Express, 27/10/2011
The largest ever study to investigate causes of common cancers in India is being carried out through a collaboration between Oxford University in the UK and 12 leading cancer centres in India. Several cancer centres are collaborating in the ambitious project to investigate whether certain factors common in Indian lifestyle are important in influencing the risk of cancer. Among lifestyle trends being investigated are vegetarianism and common spices in the Indian diet. The researchers will study whether these have a beneficial effect in lowering the risk of cancer. The researchers will also investigate if chewing tobacco, burning wood as a fuel indoors, and the adoption of Western lifestyles in Indian cities have a detrimental effect. The study is part of a project initiated by the INDOX Cancer Research Network, a partnership between the University of Oxford and 12 of India's top comprehensive cancer centres, says INDOX director and GTC research fellow Dr Raghib Ali. The study will involve as many as 30,000 people at 12 centres across India.
Read the Indian Express article online
A step in the right direction
Financial Times, Alanna Petroff, 26/10/11
Article on how studying for an MBA can help women prepare for a career in business by Alanna Petroff, a GTC alumna who holds an MBA from the Said Business School at Oxford. She discusses how her studies at Oxford, including attending events at the Said focused on women in business and the connections she made whilst studying, have helped her career.
Radio: James Cannon, BBC Radio Oxford
20/10/11, 7.07am, 7.31am, 9am
Professor Sarah Darby of the University Clinical Trial Service Unit, GTC Fellow and author of a new report on the effectiveness of radiation treatment after breast cancer, is interviewed. The research has shown that a course of radiotherapy after breast conserving surgery can reduce the rate at which the disease recurs, as well as having a greater effect on death rates than had previously been recognised.
Listen to the interview online (c. 0.06.30 on the iPlayer clock)
TV: South Today, BBC 1
20/10/2011, 6.35pm
Professor Sir Richard Peto of the Clinical Trial Service Unit is interviewed about new Oxford research into the effects of radiotherapy following surgery for breast cancer patients.
Radiation Therapy After Breast Cancer Surgery Cuts Recurrence, Study Says
New York Times, p A23, Denise Grady, 20/10/2011
Radiation treatment after surgery for breast cancer significantly lowers the risk that the disease will recur in the breast or spread lethally to other parts of the body over the next 10 to 15 years, Oxford researchers say. The new findings mean that radiation prevents recurrences for a longer time and saves more lives than was generally recognised, said Sarah Darby, GTC Fellow and a professor of medical statistics at the University of Oxford and an author of the report.
Read the New York Times article online
Prehistoric beetles sported hotrod colours
ABC Science, Jennifer Viegas, 28/09/2011
Article on a study into prehistoric beetles includes extensive comment from Andrew Parker, GTC Honorary Research Fellow and Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, a leading expert on colour in the prehistoric world.
Read the ABC Science article online
Is the Traditional Corporate University Dead?
Forbes Magazine, Karl Moore, 07/09/11
Article on corporate universities by Karl Moore, Associate Fellow at Green Templeton College.
Read the Forbes article online
Learning to Win - Two Approaches to Developing Your People from NFL Quarterbacks
Forbes (USA), 30/08/11, Karl Moore and Devin Bigoness
Article by Karl Moore, Associate Fellow at Green Templeton College, and Devin Bigoness on what NFL head coaches have to teach corporations bout leadership development.
Read the Forbes article online
Three MBA pitfalls you may not think of
Globe and Mail, 11/08/11
Diary piece in the Canadian newspaper by GTC MBA student Alanna Petroff, giving advice on studying for an MBA.
Read the Globe and Mail online article
Radio: The Spirit of Things, ABC (Australia)
07/08/11
John Lennox, Fellow in Mathematics and Philosophy of Science at Green Templeton and and Professor of Mathematics at Oxford, is recorded in front of an audience in conversation with Rachael Kohn, covering a range of topics in the religion and science debate.
Students not on policy song
The Australian, p. 33, Andrew Trounson, 27/07/11
Article on the views of Professor Sir David Watson, Principal of Green Templeton College, Oxford, about how far universities are becoming instruments of government policy and the effect on students. Watson is a higher education expert and historian who says student activism appears to be undergoing a renaissance in tougher economic times. Even in Australia, where the economic outlook is more robust, government policy to expand participation may not address the skill gaps it is looking to fill. “I am intrigued that a lot of the rhetoric around the world is about higher education in terms of meeting human capital or labour market-oriented outcomes, but that a lot of the student culture is somewhat counter to that in terms of wanting to study other subjects,” he says.
Read The Australian online article
Heart attack: Risk more likely to be inherited than for stroke
Los Angeles Times, 27/07/11
In a study published on Tuesday in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular genetics, scientists at the University of Oxford showed that people are more likely to inherit the risk of having a heart attack than the risk of having a stroke. Senior author professor peter Rothwell, GTC fellow and professor of clinical neurology, said that the study, which confirmed earlier investigations into the heritability of heart attack and stroke, suggested that doctors needed to rethink the way they calculate a person's risk for heart attack and stroke.
Read the Los Angeles Times article online
The News Industry: by invitation
The Economist, 25/07/11
Dr David Levy, GTC Fellow and Director of the University's Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, is one of the invited guests contributing comments on the Economist website following their 'Future of the News' report.
Read the online discussion forum
Exhausting but worth the effort
Financial Time, p12, Alanna Petroff, 25/07/11
Alanna Petroff, GTC MBA student at the said Business School, writes about her experiences of the application process. Alanna writes a regular MBA blog for the paper.
Q&A, ABC Television, Australia
18/07/11
John Lennox, Fellow in Mathematics and Philosophy of Science at Green Templeton and and Professor of Mathematics at Oxford,is a panellist on Q&A, Australia's equivalent of BBC Question Time, in a religion-themes programme.
The Today Programme
21/07/11
GTC Fellow Professor Dame Valerie Beral, Head of the Cancer Epidemiology Unit at Oxford University, is interviewed about a study she helped to lead showing that taller people have a higher chance of getting cancer.
Gideon Koppel to be Aberystwyth University Professor
BBC News Mid Wales, 18/07/11
Gideon Koppel, an associate fellow at Green Templeton College, has been appointed professor of film at Aberystwyth University. His documentary about a rural community's fight for survival won international acclaim.
Read the BBC News online article
Row, row, row your boat
Financial Times, 15/7/11
Green Templeton MBA student Alanna Petroff posts her latest blog entry about joining the Green Templeton Boat Club and enjoying the quintessential Oxford experience of rowing on the Isis.
A little local difficulty
The Economist, 7/7/11
David Levy, GTC Fellow and Director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University, is quoted in an article about how the media is faring in different parts of the world. The article refers to Dr Levy’s book The Changing Business of Journalism and its Implications for Democracy, co-authored by Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, a post doctoral research fellow at the RISJ.
Read The Economist online article
Who would want to be in the driving seat on the road to nowhere?
Times Higher Education, 7/07/11, p.29, Sir David Watson
Comment piece on the higher education White Paper by Sir David Watson, Principal of Green Templeton College: "It's a good, and certainly not a hypocritical, device for Vince Cable, David Willetts and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) to have put students at the heart of their White Paper on the future of higher education in England. The test to which they will be held by history is whether they succeed in genuinely improving the prospects - of learning as well as earning - of students across the system, as opposed to getting the coalition government out of a hole."
Read the Times Higher Education online article
Sizeable Islamic market neglected by global brands, argues Oxford branding expert
Associated Press of Pakistan, 29/06/2011, Unattributed
A leading expert on Islamic brands is highlighting the untapped potential in Islamic markets which most companies are failing to exploit. Dr Paul Temporal, GTC Associate Fellow and an Associate Fellow at the Saïd Business School’s Executive Education Centre, said: ‘The Muslim market represents a significant untapped market… These days, when companies are facing ever stronger competition in established markets and while many companies are rushing into high profile regions such as China, India and Brazil, the single biggest market in the world has been largely overlooked. Islamic markets could present a potentially greater opportunity for growth with comparatively little competition from international or local brands.’
Read the Associated Press of Pakistan online article
'I urge India to set an example in openness to the region'
Times Of India, 29/06/2011
Interview with Sarmila Bose, a senior research fellow at Oxford University and former GTC governing body fellow, about her book Dead Reckoning: Memories of the 1971 Bangladesh war.
Read the Times of India article.
Awards: University honours ‘outstanding modern artists’
Oxford Mail, 24/06/11, p.18, Tom Jennings
Professor Dame Valerie Beral, GTC fellow and director of the Cancer Epidemiology Unit for the University of Oxford, is mentioned among recipients of honorary degrees at Oxford Brookes University.
Digital doctors
Oxford Times, In Business, p. 35, Maggie Hartford, 16/06/11
Feature on company 'Incuna' mentions one of its projects, the website www.globalhealthtrials.org, which is run by GTC Research Fellow Dr Trudie Lang of Oxford University’s Centre for Tropical Medicine.
Putting Ireland on the map for all the right reasons
Campus Engage Post, May 2011, p.17
Interview with Sir David Watson, GTC Principal, exploring the role of universities in civic engagement and their duties to the local community. How knowledge is effectively and responsibly created, tested and used is important, he argues, while so too is the interaction between university members and their interaction with others outside the institute gates.
Read the Campus Engage article
People: other changes
Times Higher Education, p. 25, Unattributed, 09/06/11
Round-up of university appointments includes a list of the 44 new Fellows appointed by the Royal Society, including GTC Fellow Fiona Powrie, Sidney Truelove Professor of Gastroenterology. Six other Oxford academics are also honoured: Hagan Bayley, professor of chemical biology; Alan Grafen, professor of theoretical biology; Ian Horrocks, professor of computer science; Alejandro Kacelnik, E P Abraham Fellow, Pembroke College; David Manolopoulos, professor of theoretical chemistry, and Angela Vincent, professor of neuroimmunology.
Five profs get slice of £14m
Oxford Mail in Brief, p.13, 06/062011
Five top medical researchers at Oxford University will share more than £14m of funding from The Wellcome Trust, two of whom are GTC fellows. Professor Fiona Powrie, GTC Fellow, is investigating the interactions between bacteria in the intestine and our immune system, while GTC fellow Professor Peter Rothwell researches stroke prevention. Prof Adrian Hill is leading research into a malaria vaccine, Prof Peter Donnelly is investigating the genetic basis of common diseases, and Prof Patrick Rorsman researches diabetes.
Docs honoured in UK health awards
Oxford Mail, Amanda Williams, 24/05/2011
Sir Richard Peto, GTC Fellow and co-director of the Clinical Trials Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit at Oxford University, has received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the prestigious BMJ Group Awards. Dr Ann McPherson, also a GTC Fellow, won Health Communicator of the Year.
Read the Oxford Mail online article
Why talk to Oxford University when you can whisper to a horse?
Huffington Post, Paul Hunting, 24/05/2011
Dr Marshall Young, of the Said Business School, and GTC Vice Principal is quoted in an article about horse whispering.
Read the Huffington Post article
Scientists uncover ‘key gene’ linked to regulation of body fat
BioNews, Kimberley Bryon, 23/05/11
Scientists say they have found a ‘master regulator’ gene, KLF14, which controls how active some fat metabolism genes are in your fat cells. Professor Mark McCarthy, GTC Fellow, led the study.
Read the Bionews report online
New Zealand earthquake student's Oxford place
BBC News Oxford, Unattributed, 18/05/11
A New Zealand student studying in Oxford while her own earthquake-damaged university is rebuilt has described it as the "opportunity of a lifetime." Bree Loverich is one of 42 students from the University of Canterbury that have come to Oxford after an earthquake struck Christchurch in February. It was hit by a 6.3-magnitude quake which killed 180 people and destroyed large parts of the city. In response, Oxford University offered free places for its Trinity term. Ms Loverich, who is doing a PhD in secondary education policies, is now three weeks into her eight-week term at Oxford. She said: "It was basically a dream come true to have an all-expenses-paid exchange to one of the best universities in the world."
Recognising Excellence in Healthcare
BMJ Group Awards 2011 online, BMJ.com
GTC Fellow Professor Sir Richard Peto has been awarded the BMJ Group award for Lifetime Achievement.
Dr Ann McPherson, also a GTC Fellow and co-founder of www.healthtalkonline.org, won Health Communicator of the Year award. She is terminally ill and it was accepted on her behalf by healthtalkonline’s patron, Hugh Grant.
Read the report on the BMJ website.
Resources should not be concentrated solely on the young
The Guardian, p. 8, Tom Schuller and David Watson, 17/05/11
Comment: David Watson, Principal of Green Templeton College, Oxford, and Tom Schuller write: ‘The government has scrapped the default retirement age of 65, but it has yet to say what will be done to ensure that people have the learning and skills necessary to survive in the workplace that much longer. What a difference there would be if it had backed this change with a strong commitment to learning opportunities at work for older people ... The decision to change the pension age contains nothing that might convert this from something that looks almost penal into a positive extension of people's working lives.’
Read the Guardian online report.
First online test for Alzheimer's
The Daily Telegraph, 14/05/2011, p.8, Andy Bloxham
A team of scientists from Oxford University - including GTC fellow Professor Mark McCarthy - have developed a fifteen minute online Cognitive Function Test, which can help diagnose the early signs of Alzheimer's disease perhaps years
earlier than it might normally be spotted. The test was created for Food for the Brain, a not-for-profit organisation that raises awareness of the links between nutrition and mental
health.
Read the Daily Telegraph online report
The 15-minute test for dementia that you can take online
Daily Mail, 14/05/2011, p.4, Fiona Macrae
An early warning test for Alzheimer's that can be taken online in 15 minutes has been developed by Oxford University scientists, including GTC fellow Professor Mark McCarthy. This follows a landmark Oxford University study last year which credits a tablet made up of three vitamin B supplements with cutting brain shrinkage linked to Alzheimer's by up to 500 per cent.
Read the Daily Mail online report
Why your love handles may be GOOD for you: The latest findings might ease your fears about your chubby bits
Daily Mail online, 10/05/2011
Article about research on fat stores and the health benefits of excessive fat includes comment from Keith Frayn, professor of human metabolism at Oxford University.
Read the Daily Mail online report.
Even low dose of aspirin 'could reduce cancer risk long term'
Daily Mail online, 21/02/2011
A report about the recent study led by GTC Fellow Professor Peter Rothwell and published in The Lancet, which showed that taking a low dose of aspirin over a long period can lower a person's risk of colon and rectal cancer by 20 per cent and gastrointestinal cancers by 35 per cent.
Can we have our ball back?
Financial Times, p1, Matthew Engel, 19/02/11
Article on Sky and News Corp by Matthew Engel, Oxford’s News International Visiting Professor of Media (and FT columnist) and GTC Visiting Fellow, based on his final 2010-11 News International lecture, which was delivered at Green Templeton College, Oxford on 15 February.
At the end of the article is a pull-out box on the lectures: ‘The News International Visiting Professorship of Media was established at Oxford University in 1996 following a donation from one of its most famous alumni, Rupert Murdoch. The four 2010-11 lectures broke a number of moulds. In previous years, the chair was specifically “of Broadcast Media” and the lectures were given by people professionally involved in broadcasting, as executives, broadcasters, producers, performers or writers. Past professors have included Dame Jenny Abramsky, former director of BBC Radio, the musicologist Paul Gambaccini and Armando Iannucci, the comedian and writer behind the television satire The Thick of It. This year Matthew Engel became the first print journalist invited to hold the chair; for the first time, sport was chosen as the topic; and for the first time a lecture was given over to an analysis of the benefactor’s business interests.’
|
|
|
Row, row, row your boat | MBA blog | MBA students blog about their ... |