Congratulations

In the 2009 New Year Honours List, Dr Peter Warburton (Director of Sport) was awarded an OBE for services to Higher Education and to Sport. David Croisedale-Appleby (University Council member and alumnus) received an OBE for public and voluntary service. Derek Hudspeth (Departmental Superintendent, Geography) received an MBE for services to Higher Education.

The Media Relations team won Outstanding In-House Public Relations Team and Best Use of Media Relations in the 2008 Chartered Institute of Public Relations Pride awards ceremony: Alex Thomas, Media Relations Assistant, was also shortlisted for Outstanding Young Communicator.

The Society for French Studies awarded Adam Strowger, a recent graduate in Modern Languages, the runner-up position in the 2008 R.H. Gapper Undergraduate Essay Competition for an essay entitled ‘The relationship between the narrator and the reader in Genet's Journal du voleur'.

Director of the Wolfson Institute, Tim Blackman, was appointed as a Local Improvement Advisor by the Department for Communities and Local Government, specialising in advising local public services on health improvement and tackling health inequalities.

Matthew Payne, (St Hild and St Bede) who studied level 1 Master of Engineering degree programme during 2007/2008, won the Rochester Prize which is awarded annually to the top undergraduate in first-year science.

The newly-launched ‘Best Bar None' awards saw the Students' Union bar, Kingsgate, crowned Best Bar in Durham. It then beat all of the pubs, college bars and clubs in the City to become Best Bar None 2008 overall winner, making Kingsgate the safest and best run licensed premises in the City.

Event Durham won the Mystery Buyer award at the National Venuemasters Conference, recognising the outstanding service they provide to potential customers/buyers. Event Durham also won the Gold Award for Business Tourism of the Year at the North East Tourism Awards. Team Durham's Sport Outreach team won Regional Community Sport Team of the Year, and finished in the top three nationally in the Justice Awards for ‘Community Sport'.

Dr Reza Molavi (Centre for Iranian Studies) successfully organised and hosted the recent public lecture, "Iranian Theocracy and Democracy: Convergence or Contradiction?", which was part of the Ferdowsi Lecture Series.