Issue 13 : December 2013csbob/research/seeding/surface/... · From dissecting the American Dream,...

MomentumResearch news from Swansea University

Issue 13 : December 2013

In this issue• Great Minds - Nobel Prize winner Professor Peter Higgs, and CERN leader Professor Lyn Evans

• REF 2014 – where we stand

• Bloodhound – charting the progress of the supersonic car

Momentum Issue 13 Dec_Layout 1 17/12/2013 10:47

2 Momentum | Issue 13 | December 2013

Welcome to the December issue ofMomentum.

Momentum is more than ever an appropriateword to use to describe the research buildingat Swansea University. Preparation for theResearch Excellence Framework (REF2014)has, as Professor Noel Thompson points outin his lead article, revealed the quality ofresearch being produced across theColleges, and shown that what we aredoing is really making an impact.

This issue captures just some of this work.From dissecting the American Dream, totranscribing the experiences of Holocaustsurvivors and publishing UK refugeetestimonies. From social issues such as theneed for public administration reform, andthe roles of fathers in a child’s unplannedhospital stay, through to scientific researchon the survival of ocean species. We alsocatch up with the the BloodhoundSupersonic Car, ahead of its planned launchin 2015.

In our Great Minds feature, we look at theextraordinary careers of physicists andSwansea University Honorary Fellows,Professor Peter Higgs and Professor LynEvans, two men who have furthered ourunderstanding of the conditions present atthe start of the universe.

In this issue

On the coverProfessor Peter Higgs

Swansea University Honorary FellowProfessor PeterHiggs pictured atSwanseaUniversity in2012 with hisgroundbreakingformula for theHiggs bosonparticle. Finallyrealised in 2012at the LargeHadron Collider(LHC), at CERN, the European Organisationfor Nuclear Research, the previouslytheoretical particle saw Professor Higgs winthe Nobel Prize for Physics in October thisyear. Asked by Professor Simon Hands ofSwansea University in an interview in 2012what it was like to have his theory realisedafter 48 years, Professor Higgs said: “It isnice to be right about something sometimes.”

Momentum is produced by the Marketing Department. Please contact Kevin Sullivan on +44 (0) 1792 513245 or email [email protected] further information.© Swansea University 2013Swansea University is a registered charity.No. 1138342.

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For more details aboutSwansea University’s research

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Page 3 REF2014: What we’ve doneand what we need to do

Page 4-5 Research highlights – Plankton,Big Data and refugees in Wales

Page 6-7 Bloodhound Supersonic Car Page 8-9 Research round-upPage 10 Graduate success – Joseph

Taylor, Sports Scientist Page 11 Great Minds, Peter Higgs and

Lyn Evans Page 12 Postgraduate work – Charlotte

Eve Davies and lobster health


We have just negotiated the final twists ofthe maze presented by the ResearchExcellence Framework (REF2014), anduploaded the University’s submission ontoThe Higher Education Funding Council forEngland (HEFCE) database.

This represents the culmination of severalyears’ preparation and with it the startinggun will have been fired on an assessmentexercise that will last over 12 months anddeliver its results in December 2014. Someof my colleagues refer to REF as a game andI have no trouble with that metaphor, as longas it is recognised that the game is a deadlyserious one with serious consequences for thereputation of the University.

This is why we have invested suchconsiderable time and effort in preparing oursubmission, which involved the grading ofoutputs by internal and external assessors,the crafting and re-crafting of impact casestudies, and numerous drafts of the ResearchEnvironment narratives of our Units ofAssessment (UoAs). Although REF is in manyrespects an intrinsically divisive exercise, anddesigned to be so, we have sought to useour preparation to bring colleagues togetherto share best practice, to read and critiqueeach others’ submission and thereby to workfor the collective good to ensure the strongestpossible Swansea University performance.

The REF preparation exercise has also drivenother positive developments within theUniversity. It has focused minds on the qualityof publications we should be producing if theUniversity aspires to be one of the top 30research-intensive institutions in Britain.

Preparation has also acceleratedimplementation of a new careerprogression structure for those whocontribute to the University in ways otherthan producing internationally excellent andworld-leading research outputs; recognisingthe differentiation of roles that increasinglycharacterises the HE sector. Moregenerally, the internal REF preparationexercises have generated information that isbeing used in discussions aboutProfessional Development Reviews.

Our impact case studies provide a

substantial evidence base that clearlyillustrates the tremendous reach andsignificance of the social, economic,cultural, political, policy-making and debate-shaping impact of Swansea University’sresearch. This is material that, for the future,we can use to raise the profile of theinstitution and to demonstrate that what wedo makes a difference.

In REF2014 we will be submitting around360 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff, 61.3% ofthose eligible for inclusion at the outset of thepreparation exercise. In 2008 we submitted512 FTE, which represented 90% of eligiblestaff. Also, along with this cohort of staff, oursubmission will include over 50 case studiesof such an extraordinary range and diversitythat it would take several issues ofMomentum to do them justice.

From these figures it will be apparent that wehave gone for a more aggressively selectivesubmission strategy this time around. Wehave deliberately raised the bar in terms ofthe quality of outputs we expect from

colleagues and this has meant submitting alower percentage of eligible staff. We knowthat our competitors are doing likewise. Also,on strategic grounds, we have had toexclude some colleagues whose researchoutputs are of a high quality. This isregrettable and disappointing for thoseaffected, but the decision has been madewith best interests both of UoAs and theUniversity in mind.

Moreover, many of those not selected willhave made significant contributions to theUniversity’s submission in terms of the impactcase studies with which they have beeninvolved, while the work of others will havesignificantly strengthened the researchenvironment narratives of their UoAs. Theseare contributions which the Universityrecognises and values.

The challenge ahead is to maintain themomentum that REF preparation has given

us. We have established the quality of workwhich we expect of our research-active staffand we must now monitor and supportcolleagues to enable them to produce this.We must ensure the continued updating ofour evidence base on research outputs, bothas preparation for REF2020 but also toinform PDR discussions with colleagues. Wemust seize the international collaborativepossibilities of the stellar, REF-related,

professorial appointments we have made.Above all we must think hard about our futureimpact strategy: how to grow the impact ofsome of the case studies already identifiedbut also how to realise the impact potentialof research activity right across the University.This requires us to think not just in terms ofimpact in a REF sense, but also moregenerally, as demonstrating impact is criticalto the case we can make to government andothers for additional research funding.

REF isn’t going to go away. There will be aREF2020 and we need to prepare for that.But we should also use REF preparation forour own purposes and to achieve our ownobjectives; use it, as we have usedREF2014, to enhance the quality of what wedo as a research community and to shapethis institution into the University all of us wishit to be.

Issue 13 | December 2013 | Momentum 3

The challenge ahead is to

maintain the momentum that

REF preparation has given us.“ ”

Above all we must think hard

about our future impact strategy“ ”

Professor Noel Thompson, FRHistS Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research)

REF2014: What we’ve done and what we need to do



Ocean plankton species are notadapting to climate change – and could disappear altogether

Research led by scientists from SwanseaUniversity’s Institute of Life Science andCollege of Science, in collaboration withDeakin University in Warrnambool,Australia and the Sir Alister HardyFoundation for Ocean Science in Plymouth,has found cold water ocean plankton arenot adapting to climate change, willcontinue to become scarcer, and couldultimately disappear.

The team’s work, which has been supportedthrough funding from the Natural EnvironmentResearch Council (NERC), has beenpublished by leading international journalGlobal Change in a paper entitled ‘Multi-decadal range changes versus thermaladaptation for north east Atlantic oceaniccopepods in the face of climate change’.

The paper’s lead author Stephanie Hinder, aPhD student in Swansea University’sDepartment of Biosciences, College ofScience, said: “There is overwhelmingevidence that the oceans are warming. Theresponses of animals and plants to thiswarming will fundamentally shape how theoceans look in future years and the nature ofglobal fisheries.

“It is well known that warm water species areexpanding their ranges as warming occursand vice versa. However, whether speciesare able to adapt to new temperatures isequivocal.

Co-author Mike Gravenor, Professor ofBiostatistics and Epidemiology at SwanseaUniversity’s Institute of Life Science, Collegeof Medicine, said: “The consequences ofthis study are profound. It suggests thatcold water plankton will continue tobecome scarcer as their ranges contract tothe poles and, ultimately, disappear. So,certainly for these animals, thermaladaptation appears unlikely to limit theimpacts of climate change.”

The responses of animals and

plants to this warming will

fundamentally shape how the

oceans look in future years and

the nature of global fisheries

Stephanie Hinder

“”

Calanus, courtesy Paul Jones of Deakin University


Swansea University, in partnership withCardiff University, is among five grantrecipients in the first phase of a £64 millionfunding investment by the Economic andSocial Research Council (ESRC) to supportthe development of a UK-wide network ofinnovative centres to strengthen the UK’scompetitive advantage in Big Data.

The announcement of the newAdministrative Data Research Network(ADRN), which will form the core of theESRC Big Data family, was made onOctober 9 by Rt Hon David Willetts MP,Minister for Universities and Science,during the Mountbatten Memorial Lecture atThe Royal Institution in London.

The ADRN, which came into being onOctober 1 and will run for an initial periodof five years, is a partnership betweenGovernment departments, research funders,national statistical authorities and theresearch community, which will reachacross the UK to facilitate research basedupon linked, routinely collectedadministrative data.

The ADRN will be led by the Universities ofEdinburgh, Queen’s University Belfast,Southampton, and Swansea, with theAdministrative Data Service (ADS) to be

based at the University of Essex.Collectively, these four centres and oneservice will benefit from a grants packagetotalling approximately £34 million.

The £8 million ADRN Wales will be led bySwansea University, in partnership withCardiff University, under the direction ofProfessor David Ford, Institute of LifeScience, College of Medicine, SwanseaUniversity.

Commenting on the announcement,Professor David Ford said: “ADRN Walesis a truly exciting development. The newCentre will share a brand new purpose-designed building at Swansea University,designed specifically to house ADRNWales and its sister Centre – the MedicalResearch Council’s Farr Institute – bothworking together to unleash the potentialof large scale data to conduct powerfulnew research.”

A new book presenting the experiences ofrefugees has been published by the HafanBooks project, run by Swansea UniversityGerman lecturer, Dr Tom Cheesman (pictured).

Are You Happy With That? includes poetry,short stories, testimony and essays by 35

refugee writers from 26 countries, fromAfghanistan to Zimbabwe, all associated withWales. All proceeds from the book will go tothe Swansea Bay Asylum Seekers SupportGroup (SBASSG).

Dr Cheesman, based in Swansea University’sCollege of Arts and Humanities, is publisher,co-translator from Arabic, French, Persian andSpanish, and editor of the book. He said:“People who seek asylum in the UK are oftenhighly educated, and many are talentedwriters. It’s often their writing – expressingdissent – that led to them havingto flee their countries. But the UKauthorities often treat themappallingly. People whose claimsare refused on first hearing arecut off from any kind of publicsupport. At least 100 people inSwansea are in this position –completely destitute – whichshames Britain’s claim to be acivilised country.”

The Hafan Books project appliesinsights from Dr Cheesman’sresearch since 1995 on migrant

literatures, and develops collaborations witharts and charity organisations in Walesfounded in that research process. HafanBooks has produced 22 titles since 2003and has been recognised as exemplary forrefugee awareness and integration thougharts, and emulated in the UK and overseas. Itis one of 56 impact studies that have beensubmitted by Swansea University through theResearch Excellence Framework (REF) 2014process, which aims to assess the quality ofresearch across Higher Education Institutionsin the UK.


Refugee experiences in Wales

Wales to share in ESRC’s £64m BigData funding investment



This October marked the 30th anniversaryof Scottish entrepreneur Richard Nobledriving the Thrust 2 car to a then worldrecord speed of 633.468 mph. The ThrustSSC campaign in 1997, also directed byNoble, led to RAF fighter pilot Andy Greenbecoming the first person to break the soundbarrier on land. Their record of 763.035mph still stands.

Swansea University researchers have been atthe heart of Richard Noble’s current project,the Bloodhound Supersonic Car (SSC), since2007. Launched by Noble in October2008 at Swansea's National WaterfrontMuseum, the Bloodhound SSC, driven againby Andy Green, is set to take the land speedrecord into a whole new speed regime byincreasing the current record by over 30% to1000mph by 2015. The team at Swansea University areresponsible for the aerodynamic design ofthe car which builds on the legacy of Thrust2 and SSC, combining space, aeronauticand Formula 1 technologies to cross theMeasured Mile in just 3.6 seconds. Dr Ben Evans, Lecturer in Aerospace

Engineering and expert in ComputationalFluid Dynamics (CFD) for high speed flow, isone of Swansea University’s lead researcherson the project. He said: “The big news isthat there has been a ‘design freeze’ on thecar, which rules out any further changes. It isa big achievement for us at Swansea, and arelief! We got involved in the project in2007 and through every change in thedesign phase the pressure has been on us todetermine what improved and whatdeteriorated. We have now established thatall individual systems are working.

The next stage is to build a databank runningsimulations to predict how the ‘frozen’ designof the car behaves in the hope that thetheoretical behaviour of the car will matchthe actual testing.

In the winter of 2014/spring of 2015, wehope to be at a stage where we can roll thecar out for ‘low’ speed testing. The testingwill be carried out on in Newquay,Cornwall, on a runway which we predict islong enough to get the car up to 300 mph. All being well, high speed testing will followin 2015 in the Haskeen Pan Desert in SouthAfrica, the final location for the actual landspeed record attempt.”The iconic car, representing the best of Britishingenuity and design, is the perfectinspiration for the next generation ofscientists, technologists and engineers, andthe project is primarily a global educationinitiative designed to showcase STEMsubjects to schoolchildren. This September, at Cardiff’s Senedd building,schoolchildren, Welsh Assembly membersand the public were able to view the full-sizemodel of the Bloodhound SSC brought thereby the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Ben said: “What is phenomenal is how theeducational programme has snowballed.Since 2007, 6,000 schools have signed upto be partners in the project.

Bloodhound Supersonic Car (SSC) -

It is great to see how, through

schools’ involvement, the

project has become familiar

to the next generation of

potential scientists,

technologists and engineers

“

”

Ben Evans showcases a model of the Bloodhound SSC to school children at the launch in 2008 at the National Waterfront Museum



I speak about Bloodhound every year atopen days at the University and I always askthe potential students: ‘How many of youhave heard of Bloodhound?’ A few yearsago, only several hands would have goneup in the air, but at this November’s openday everyone put their hands up. It is greatto see how, through schools’ involvement, theproject has become familiar to the nextgeneration of potential scientists,technologists and engineers.” National and international interest in theproject, particularly during the high-speed

testing phase, is expected to be huge. Thepotential of Bloodhound has already beenrecognised at the highest level. In April2012, the Bloodhound stand at the MACHManufacturing Show at the NEC,Birmingham, was visited by Vince Cable MP,Secretary of State for Business, Innovation &Skills, who took a great interest in theproject. In September this year, theBloodhound headquarters in Bristol wasvisited by Chancellor George Osborne,leading him to remark: “Times are tough, butBritain has turned the corner.” In a recentvisit by the Bloodhound project team toNumber 10 Downing Street, the PrimeMinister, David Cameron, said: “Britishengineering and innovation are a part of ourhistory that we are rightly very proud of andour engineering excellence continues tochange the world that we live in for thebetter. Bloodhound is a fantastic example ofwhat our engineers can achieve.” Now that the design phase of the car iscompleted, the team at Swansea can focuson how the pioneering research methodsused can help solve other engineeringproblems.Ben said: “What I am excited about now isseeing how the technology we havedeveloped can be applied to other projects.For example, one of our students is already

working for a Swansea University-basedcompany, C-FEC, on a novel wind turbinedesign using some techniques developed forthe Bloodhound’s aerodynamic design. Sofrom a research point of view, there aremany, many benefits, and we now have thechance to think about how we can translatethe learned technology into further productdesign.”

To follow the progress of the Bloodhoundproject, visit the website:www.bloodhoundssc.com

) - Beyond the Design

Streamsurfaces showing the complex flowfieldpredicted downstream of the Bloodhoundairbrakes (located on side of the vehicle fuselage)

Pressure coloured streamsurfaces showing theflow around the Bloodhound airbrake and thewake impinging on the rear wheel system

A streamsurface over the vehicle, coloured by pressure coefficient



Wales’s role inrebuilding the livesof three femaleHolocaust survivorsSwansea University researcher ProfessorFrances Rapport has written a book whichdetails the life stories of three femalesurvivors of the Holocaust and how theycame to live and settle in Wales after the war.

Fragments: Transcribing the Holocaust,published by Hafan Books, was launched atthe National Assembly for Wales. FrancesRapport is Professor of Qualitative HealthResearch at Swansea University’s Institute ofLife Science, College of Medicine.

The 100-page paperback book is theculmination of seven years’ work and detailsthe extraordinary life stories of three femalesurvivors of the Holocaust – Anka Bergman,who passed away aged 96 in July 2013,Terry Farago, aged 86, and Edith Salter,who passed away aged 91 in 2011.

The three women were survivors of theHolocaust and were interned inconcentration camps including Auschwitz-Birkenau. They lost the majority of their familymembers during the war and, throughdifferent circumstances and twists of fate, allcame to live in Cardiff, settled there, andmade it their home.

Professor Frances Rapport said: “The book is

a celebration of these extraordinary women’slives and through literary experimentationand poetic transformation it reveals thewomen’s individual and unique stories ofloss, grief and hope.”

Living the “Dream”:fifty years on fromDr Martin LutherKing’s speechSwansea University has hosted a publiclecture focussing on Barack Obama and

Martin Luther King’s dream for America.“The Promised Land? Barack Obama andMartin Luther King’s ‘Dream’” was deliveredin October by Chris Marshall, a doctoralresearch student and Strategic ProjectsManager at the University, as part of theResearch Institute for Arts and Humanities(RIAH) public lecture and event series, andto coincide with Black History Month.

The lecture explored how Obama haspositioned himself as the heir to MartinLuther King, and how he has written himselfinto the narrative of the American CivilRights movement.

Chris Marshall said: “Forty-five years after theMarch on Washington, the first AfricanAmerican to be elected to the Presidencywould be hailed as the fulfilment of MartinLuther King’s ‘Dream’ – an associationObama actively encouraged during hiselection campaign.

“What this lecture explores, in the fiftiethanniversary year of Dr King’s iconic speech,is how Obama consciously inserted himselfinto the Civil Rights timeline by presentinghimself as the leader who would take hispeople into the ‘Promised Land’ of racialequality guaranteed by the US Constitution. Italso looks at what his election has reallymeant for race relations in America.”

Research Round-up

At the launch of Fragments: Transcribing the Holocaust, (left to right) Eva Clarke, daughter of AnkaBergman; Terry Farago; Professor Frances Rapport; Vivien Geddes, daughter of Edith Salter.

Chris Marshall lecturing on Martin Luther King



Texas secondmentfor Swanseananohealth scholarDr Lewis Francis, a Senior Lecturer inNanoBiology, Reproductive Biology andGynaecological Oncology at SwanseaUniversity’s Centre for NanoHealth, Collegeof Medicine, has returned to Wales aftercompleting a four-month secondment inHouston, Texas, USA.

Dr Francis is the first academic fromSwansea to undertake a secondment as partof the collaboration between Swansea

University and The Methodist HospitalResearch Institute (TMHRI). Scientists fromthe two institutions have entered into aformal partnership to initiate researchprojects based on common scientificinterests, and co-mentor graduate studentsfor degrees in the areas of MedicalSciences and Engineering.

During his four-month stay Dr Francis had avisiting scholar position in TMHRI and anadjunct professor position in the NaturalSciences Department at RICE University.

Dr Francis was also invited to TMHRI toparticipate in collaborative research withinvestigators in the department ofNanomedicine.

New book on publicadministrationreformDr Yogesh Dwivedi from the Department ofOperations, Management andEntrepreneurship within the University’sSchool of Management is co-editor of anewly-released book entitled PublicAdministration Reformation: MarketDemand from Public Organisations. Itcovers how public organisations attempt toinstil trust in their performance, credibility,integrity, efficiency, cost-effectiveness, andgood governance by viewing tax-payingcitizens as consumers. Dr Dwivedi said:“This book explores the roles of

eGovernment and a citizen-centric focus inthis transformation.”

“It looks at the synergies between the marketeconomy, public administration reformation,and theircomplex bilateraleffects at a timewhen there is aheightened needfor publicadministrationreform as a resultof the economicchallengescurrently facedby nations acrossthe globe.”

Fathers’ roles duringa child’s unplannedhospital stayDr Ruth Davies, an Associate Professor ofChild and Family Health at the College ofHuman and Health Sciences, has had anarticle published in the Journal of AdvancedNursing and also in Nursing Times about therole that fathers play in caring for their familyduring a child’s unplanned hospital stay.

Dr Davies, who co-authored the article withSue Higham, a lecturer with the OpenUniversity, observed and interviewed fathersand nurses at two children’s wards to gainan understanding of fathers’ experiencesduring their child’s stay in hospital and theirinteraction with children’s nurses.

The study found that fathers were activeparticipants in the care of the sick childduring their child’s hospitalisation. Althoughthe father’s role as a breadwinner wasimportant to them they all adopted a ‘familiesfirst’ approach and negotiated workcommitments with their employers to be withtheir child. Despite this active involvementchildren’s nurses perceived fathers asmarginal to their child’s care with the majorityperceiving mothers as the authority on thechild’s care.

The study showed fathers adoptingprotecting, providing and participative roles.However, many were not equal partners incare. While fathers were often seen asmarginal to the child’s admission, they werean essential part of the family’s experience.

Dr Davies said: “As a result of this researchwe have received funding from CYPRN (TheChildren and Young People’s ResearchNetwork) for our own Research DevelopmentGroup. Our aim is to undertake furtherresearch about fathers’ involvement in theirchild’s health and well-being.”

While fathers were often seen as

marginal to the child’s admission,

they were an essential part of the

family’s experience“

”

Dr Lewis Francis (centre) with University Chancellor Rhodri Morgan (right) and Vice ChancellorProfessor Richard B Davies


Joseph Taylor graduated with a BSc (Hons)in Sports Science in 2002 and a PhD inSports Science from Swansea University in2007. He is currently a PerformancePathway Scientist and works across allParalympics sports.

Why did you decide to study at SwanseaUniversity?

Initially the front cover of the prospectuscaught my eye with its aerial photo of theUniversity set in parkland and adjacent to thebeach. Upon further investigation the SportsScience degree was perfect for mydevelopment and attendance at an open dayconfirmed that Swansea was where I wantedto study.

What did you enjoy most about yourcourse at Swansea?

The diversity of the course which ultimatelyenabled me to obtain a broad knowledge ofSports Science while facilitating my desire tospecialise in the analysis of performance. Thestaff were also fantastic and ensured thatlearning was challenging but fun.

What are you doing now career-wise?

Since completing my PhD I have beenemployed by the English Institute of Sport andheld two positions. First, between 2007 andmid-2013 I worked as the PerformanceAnalyst with British Disability Swimming andhave provided support to the Great Britainteam at numerous competitions including two

Paralympic Games (Beijing 2008 andLondon 2012). Since July 2013 I have nowbecome a Performance Pathway Scientist andwork across all Paralympic sports to assist withidentifying and developing talented athletes.

How has Swansea University and yourcourse helped you with your chosencareer path?

My degrees have provided me withknowledge and skills that are essential for ascientist working in elite sport. Furthermore, theexperience gained alongside my studies(working with Swansea City FC, Llanelli FCand Afan Lido AFC) allowed me todemonstrate that I not only know the relevanttheories but that I can also apply them topositively impact on athlete performance. Thiswas critical to obtaining employment with theEnglish Institute of Sport.

What are the most challenging parts ofyour job?

Working in elite sport brings a number ofchallenges including long and unsociablehours, many of which are spent away fromhome at training camps and competitions.However, it is probably the high pressurenature of elite sport and the lack of time toget things done that cause the mostsleepless nights.

What are the most rewarding parts of your job?

The opportunity to apply my knowledge andskills to assist in athlete development andultimately contribute to Great Britain’s sportingsuccess is the most satisfying aspect of therole. The job has also led to a number ofother unique and fulfilling experiences such asbeing able to travel the world and beinginvited to attend the Queen’s Summer GardenParty at Buckingham Palace.

What are your plans for the future?

It is difficult for me to imagine anything otherthan working in sport and the excitingchallenges of the 2016 Paralympic Games inRio de Janiero and the 2020 ParalympicGames in Tokyo lie ahead.

What have you done that you are mostproud of?

In terms of education, completing my PhD. Interms of work, being able to experience the2012 Paralympic Games from a very uniqueposition. I will never forget the blindingcamera flashes and atmosphere whenwalking into the stadium for the OpeningCeremony, the roar of the crowd in theAquatic Centre when British Swimmers werecompeting and the feeling of pride seeingBritish swimmers with gold medals aroundtheir necks and knowing that I had playedsome small part in helping them achieve theirdreams. In terms of life, marrying my wife(also a Swansea alumna) and having twoamazing sons.

What are your favourite memories of youruniversity years at Swansea?

I had an amazing seven and a half years inSwansea and the memories come floodingback on my regular return trips to the city. Ihave fond memories of the university, theSports Science Department, the Jiu Jitsu club,the nights out and of the many friends madeand lost. However, more than anything I missliving by the sea, the beaches and beauty ofGower, the restaurants in Mumbles andSwansea itself.

Joseph came back to Swansea to give acareers talk to Sport Science students lastyear with a view to returning to do thesame next year.

Graduates in focus


Stay connected Graduates of Swansea Universitybecome members of the AlumniAssociation, a network of past studentswho support each other professionallyand socially around the world.Alumni have an important role in helpingthe next generation. If you would like tofeature in future publications, or indeed,if you can offer work placements orresearch opportunities to our students,please email [email protected]

Keep up-to-date with newsfrom Swansea Universityand the Alumni Association www.swansea.ac.uk/alumni

Joseph Taylor, Sports Scientist, English Institute of Sport


Professor Peter Higgs was born in 1929. Itwas at the University of Edinburgh as Lecturerat the Tait Institute of Mathematical Physicswhen he first became interested in the originof mass, developing the idea that particles –massless when the universe began –acquired mass a fraction of a second later asa result of interacting with a background field(which became known as the Higgs field)which permeates the whole of spacetime.

In 1964, Higgs, along with several othertheoretical physicists, was looking for waysto evade a theorem which implied that animportant class of quantum field theories mustcontain massless particles, which were

known not to exist. He realised that theproblem could be resolved in gaugetheories, the type of theory which now formsthe basis of the standard model of particlephysics. Moreover, he showed that thesetheories would then necessarily contain amassive, spinless particle – the now-famousHiggs boson. He quickly wrote up his ideain two scientific papers, published in PhysicalReview Letters and Physics Letters, sparking anear 50-year hunt for the Higgs boson.

The Higgs field explains, according toscientists’ standard model of how the universeworks, why all particles have mass. TheHiggs boson was finally detected in 2012 atthe Large Hadron Collider (LHC), theunderground particle-smasher at CERN, theEuropean Organisation for Nuclear Researchin Geneva - a project directed by ProfessorLyn Evans. The LHC produces proton-protoncollisions at the highest energies yet studied.These create, in a very small region, theconditions of the early universe, a billionth ofa second after the ‘Big Bang’.

In July 2008, Professor Higgs was awardedan Honorary Fellowship by SwanseaUniversity. He has given lectures at SwanseaUniversity during National Science Weekand has taught current members of thePhysics Department as research studentsincluding Professor Simon Hands, previouslyof CERN and now Director of Research atthe University’s College of Science.

Professor Lyn Evans was born in Aberdarein 1945. He graduated from SwanseaUniversity with a first class degree in Physicsin 1966 and a PhD in 1970. He is quotedas saying: “I have the fondest memories ofmy six years at Swansea.” In 1994, hebecame involved in the planning of theproject which would become the LargeHadron Collider, the gigantic, 27km, multi-billion pound underground accelerator onthe French-Swiss border, leading to thepress dubbing him "Evans the Atom".

As Project Leader of the LHC at CERN hewas at the centre of operations during theconstruction and commissioning stage of the

LHC through to its globally anticipated start-up on September 10, 2008.

He spent 16 years as project director of theLHC, retiring two years ago after theaccelerator was up and running smoothly.

Professor Evans was made an HonoraryFellow of Swansea University in 2002. LastSeptember, he visited the University’s Collegeof Science to open new state-of-the-artlaboratories and teaching facilities. InDecember 2012, he was awarded theSpecial Fundamental Physics Prize, foundedin July 2012 by Russian physicist and internetentrepreneur Yuri Milner, and dubbed by themedia as ‘the Russian Nobel.’

He is now Director of the international LinearCollider project, bringing together scientistsfrom around the world working on competingdesigns for a new type of acceleratorcolliding linear beams of electrons andprotons. The beam energies envisagedwould allow precision studies of the Higgsboson, together with searches for newphysics such as supersymmetry, dark energy,strings or even signs of extra dimensions. Ifapproved, the collider could becomeoperational around 2030.

Great Minds - Peter Higgs, Lyn Evans


Swansea University has played an enduring role in the careers of these two pioneering scientists who havetogether unlocked one of the fundamental secrets of our universe.

I have the fondest memories of

my six years at Swansea.

Lyn Evans“Professor Peter Higgs CH, FRS, FRSE

Professor Lyn Evans CBE, FRS, FLSW

”

It is nice to be right about

something sometimes

Peter Higgs, asked about thediscovery of the Higgs Boson

“ ”

This October, Swansea UniversityHonorary Fellow Professor Peter Higgs, thescientist who gave his name to the Higgsboson, won the Nobel Prize in Physics.Physics graduate and Honorary Fellow ofSwansea University, Professor Lyn Evans,played a crucial role in the discovery atCERN of the elementary particle thatconfirmed the theory conceived byProfessor Higgs almost 50 years ago.



Charlotte Eve Davies is a lobster pathologiststudying for her PhD in Swansea University’sDepartment of Biosciences. Specifically, shelooks at disease susceptibility of theEuropean lobster.

This year, Charlotte received funding allowingher to take her research project ‘Health statusof the European lobster, ‘Homarus gammarus’to Canada and the USA.

The Society of Biology and Climate ChangeConsortium for Wales Travel Grants, whichwere awarded to Charlotte, funded acollaboration with the Lobster Science Centre,part of the University of Prince Edward Island’sAtlantic Veterinary College, Charlottetown, inSeptember/October this year.

Specifically, Charlotte focused on learningabout screening techniques used to detect a

devastating disease called Gaffkaemia whichaffects lobsters in both the US and UK.Caused by the bacterium, Aerococcus viridansvar. homari, the disease is extremelycontagious and is exacerbated by warmertemperatures, so thrives in lobster impounds.

Charlotte said: “There are all sorts ofantibiotics and contingency plans available asit is a well studied area, but there is one thingthat I am particularly interested in, and that isvirulence. The bacterium seems to have avirulent and avirulent form, and there iscurrently no screening method which candifferentiate between the two.

PCR (polymerase chain reaction) and gaffbroth (PEA, or Phenylethyl alcohol broth) aremethods used to test for the disease, however Ihave found that the broth gives a lot of false

negatives and vice versa, and the current PCRmethod is not sensitive enough to differentiatebetween virulence.

Professor Spencer Greenwood, of the AVCLobster Science Centre, and his team havebeen looking at Gaffkaemia for a few yearsso I was keen to learn anything about thedisease, including new screeningtechniques that I could use when back inSwansea, or any new findings surroundingthe virulence factor.”

Whilst at the AVC Charlotte focused primarilyon a method which extracts and amplifies totalDNA which can then be used to detect forseveral pathogens or certain genes, whichmay be expressed in conjunction with disease.

Charlotte explains, “Once there I discoveredthat there was a range of other diseases whichProfessor Greenwood and his team arestudying, which may affect the Europeanlobster, so decided to test my samples for thesediseases too. With increasing oceantemperatures due to climate change, there is ashift happening all over the world which canmean certain species and diseases may occurwhere they haven’t been detected before.”

During her time across the pond, Charlottealso visited existing collaborators at the NewEngland Aquarium in Boston, USA, with whomshe is working on a shell disease project, aswell as another crustacean laboratory at theVirginia Institute of Marine Science.

Charlotte said: “It has been very exciting forme to be able to take my studies abroad,working at the forefront of research in my field,and learning new techniques, which I nowhope to reproduce in the lab in Swansea.Lobster health is an important issue for fisheries,as they have such long life cycles. It can takeyears for them to reach the minimum landingsize, therefore populations can be delicate.“

Postgraduate Research - Lobster health

Charlotte doing fieldwork with a lobster specimen

With increasing ocean

temperatures due to climate

change, there is a shift

happening all over the world

which can mean certain

species and diseases may

occur where they haven’t been

detected before

Charlotte Eve Davies

“

”


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