PhDs in Nanoparticle Toxicology and Environmental Nanoscience
We seek to attract PhD candidates of outstanding ability as part of a major expansion of research into the fate, behaviour and biological effects of nanoparticles in the environment, funded by the NERC. The overall initiative comprises recruitment of five new and related posts, and focuses on the synthesis and characterisation of nanoparticles, as well as the study of their biochemical effects on sentinel species including aquatic plants and invertebrates. The ultimate goal is to provide a definitive understanding of the relationship between nanoparticle structure and molecular toxicity.
MRes Human and Environmental Health Impacts of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (HEINN) (one year full-time)
This postgraduate programme is designed to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of all aspects of nanoscience and its potential environmental and human health related risk. The MRes focuses on the fundamental and underpinning science but also discusses applications, synthesis and policy and regulatory responses. The MRes is a research focused Masters course with a large part of the course devoted to an independent, but supervised, research project which will be performed in state of the art laboratories at the University of Birmingham.
Further information on the course
Environmental Effects of Nanoparticles and Nanomaterials
Manufactured nanoparticles and nanomaterials offer many potential socio-economic, health and environmental benefits as a result of novel properties and behaviour that materials can exhibit when manufactured at the nanoscale. While the production of nanomaterials is undergoing exponential growth, their biological effects and environmental fate and behaviour are relatively unknown. This two day course is designed for those with interests in human and environmental health implications of nanoparticles and is recommended for PhD students, postdoctoral researchers and those in industry and government involved with nanoparticles.
Further information on the course
Paleoenvironmental Change and Hominid Evolution in Australia
Andy Baker and Alison Blyth (Open University) have been awarded a NERC standard grant to investigate how early humans interacted with and were affected by their environments, by using accurately dated stalagmite records to look both at how climates changed and how plants and ecosystems responded.
Measurement of Halogen Species by Resonance Fluorescence
A NERC research grant awarded to Bill Bloss will investigate naturally occurring iodine and bromine compounds in the marine atmosphere. Both species can affect the atmosphere's self-cleansing ability to remove pollutants, and atmospheric iodine species can form new particles which may act as cloud condensation nuclei, potentially affecting climate, but little is known about their global abundance and hence the significance of these processes.
CNRS Silver Award
Congratulations to Gilles Pinay who was awarded a Silver Medal from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris, France on 26 June. The CNRS Silver Medal honours researchers who are recognized nationally and internationally for the originality, quality and importance of their work.
New Paper in Science
New evidence that the climate of the Medieval period was one of a more persistently wet and westerly climate than present has been published in a recent issue of Science. The new results combines evidence from tree rings, stalagmites, ocean sediments and general circulation models to obtain the longest ever reconstruction of the North Atlantic Oscillation [read more...]
Geographies of Energy Transition Seminar Series
Stefan Bouzarovski has been successful in obtaining funding for an ESRC seminar series on 'Geographies of energy transition', organised together with Dr Gavin Bridge (Manchester), Professor Michael Bradshaw (Leicester) and Dr Nick Eyre (Oxford). The purpose of the seminar series is to catalyse social science research on the spatial implications of the contemporary energy transition by initiating a dialogue between human geographers and energy experts in the academy, policy community and commercial sector [read more ...]
NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety, starting 27 April 2010.
Management of Antisocial Behaviour for Environmental Health Practitioners, 15 April 2010
Certificate of Competence in Environmental Noise Measurement, 19-23 April 2010
