Passion, pain and quantum physics!

At last I’ve got going on putting together the research brochure and web pages – research is an area of university life I feel passionate about.
Research is so important to universities and Bedfordshire did very well in the last research assessment exercise. We’re submitting our current research to the new Research Excellence Framework (REF) at the moment and I know folk here have been extremely busy on this. A new aspect that the REF takes into account is the impact of the research on ‘society’ eg how it advances medical care, improves life chances, influences government policy, protects the planet etc.
When I look around at our  ten Research Institutes here it’s not hard to see how our research improves lives- IDOP work is improving the lot of older patients suffering from diabetes;  IHR is changing attitudes to organ donation among ethnic minority groups;  IASR is working hard to understand the abuse and exploitation of children and young people, so that laws and government policies can be strengthened to tackle this serious problem; and colleagues in iBEST are working hard to understand the ravages that man is causing to the environment, especially our coral reefs.
I do hope I can do justice to Bedfordshire’s research- it touches us all!

Oh dear, I’m going on a bit, as usual, but I am someone with scientific training (biochemistry) and am a sucker for things scientific, especially anything new in the realms of quantum physics – inspired by the late, great, Nobel prize winning physicist Richard Feynman – do read his autobiographies, they are hugely entertaining – and more recently by the ubiquitous Professor Brian Cox. (Photo courtesy of Paul Clarke). Amazing really, as I only just scraped a pass in my A level physics!
To keep the gender balance, one of my biggest scientific heroines is the brilliant Rosalind Franklin who never really got the credit she deserved for her work on DNA - that's starting to change and young women should be inspired by her, by Marie and Irena Curie, and indeed our own Bushra Ahmed, to reach great heights in scientific research.

Another of my passions, as you may remember, is rugby league – best forget my team’s performance in the season which has just ended – we now have the World Cup which started last weekend-sadly with losses for my national team, Wales (we stand little chance!), and Ireland and England, although Scotland came up with a superb, nail-biting win over the mighty Tongans on Tuesday. The Aussie and NZ teams are, as usual, strong but I have a sneaking suspicion that the Samoans might do well and cause an upset somewhere en route! Hope so!  Try and watch a match over the next few weeks-who knows, you might be converted!