News

Durham University Chancellor Bill Bryson at Queen’s Campus, Stockton

(27 June 2005)

Award-winning writer Bill Bryson, who took over as Chancellor of Durham University a few weeks ago, saw some of the University’s leading state-of-the-art research and teaching facilities at Queen’s Campus, Stockton, for his first official visit to view academic work in his new role today. (27 June)

His schedule gave him a chance to learn more about key research activity related to health and well-being in Tees Valley and the wider world, and about the learning experiences of past, present and potential students.

His tour took in laboratories for neuroscience and applied psychology, and other specialist areas such as the sleep lab. It also provided a chance to drop in on school-pupil participants in the latest activity at the Campus organised by the Connexions Tees Valley Programme, that offers young people practical help and information about careers, training and learning opportunities.

And at the weekend Chancellor Bryson met some of the original students of Queen’s Campus courses in 1992. They were back on Campus for a graduates’ reunion to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the first graduations for the Human Sciences degree. A pioneering course when launched in 1992, it is now a well-established programme in the University’s

Anthropology department with more than 120 Stockton-based students. Queen’s has some of the University’s most advanced teaching facilities, with its own well-stocked library and computer classrooms with networked PCs. Staff and students make extensive use of ‘duo’ – Durham University’s Online learning environment. The laboratories have state-of-the-art equipment for all forms of student practical work, from cell genetics, microbiology, histology/pathology, pharmacology and neuroscience to whole organism physiology. The Wolfson Research Institute has brought internationally-rated research to Stockton and creates further opportunities for students choosing their final-year research projects.

Psychology and Neuroscience

Durham’s research in cognitive neuroscience includes the function of the brain in connection with attention, memory, action, and visual perception. A large part of the work is housed in the Wolfson Research Institute, at Stockton, which is close to the major Teesside hospitals. Here Chancellor Bryson met Professor David Milner, together with colleagues Dr Thomas Schenk, Dr Valerie Brown and Dr Amanda Ellison.
The research teams also have active collaborations with colleagues in Oxford, Lyon, Munich, Reading, St Andrews, Utrecht, Duke University USA, and the University of Western Ontario in Canada. There is an active local branch of the British Neuroscience Association, which includes members of other University departments, including Biological & Biomedical Sciences and Engineering. The Psychology Department of the University has some 400 undergraduates divided almost equally between courses based at Durham and the very popular Applied Psychology course at Queen’s.

The Parent-Infant Sleep Lab

The Parent-Infant Sleep Lab on Queen’s Campus is the home for a team of researchers examining various aspects of infant sleep and night-time parenting. The lab itself was opened in April 2000, while the research programmes it houses have been in operation since 1995. Completed projects include: Risks to infants of triadic co-sleeping; bed-sharing behaviour of breast and formula feeding families; sleeping arrangements in twin infants. Chancellor Bryson met the sleep lab project leader, Dr Helen Ball, whose research makes a major contribution to the understanding of babies’ sleeping behaviour, particularly in the context of co-sleeping with parents.

Connexions

The Stockton-based programme runs a wide series of activities and services designed to help all 13-19 year-olds in planning their career, learning and training choices. Bill Bryson is meeting the participants in the morning and presenting awards to project winners after lunch. Details: separate news release from Connexions.

Notes to Editors

1. Chancellor Bryson is conferring more than 3,000 Durham degrees at ceremonies in Durham Cathedral from Tuesday afternoon 28 June to Friday 1 July. He received at honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree in a similar ceremony in 2004 and will also confer five honorary degrees during the week. (details in separate news release issued 23 June).

2. Queen’s Campus, Stockton, opened in 1992, now has nearly 2,000 students – almost a fifth of all Durham University’s 11,000 undergraduates. Main degree courses are Applied Psychology, Education: Primary School teacher training, Business & Business Finance, Human Sciences, Medicine, Biomedical Sciences.

3. The work of the Wolfson Research Institute at Queen’s Campus focuses on research in medicine, health and the wellbeing of people and places. It strengthens links with the surrounding region, in the health and caring services and in the wider community. Under a new Health Strategy Board in 2005, the University has linked the Wolfson Research Institute to other major research groups on the Durham campus, mainly in Anthropology and the School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences. This means that there are now around 150 research and research support staff (of whom 90 are at Stockton) and 100 postgraduate students (30 currently at Stockton) working within the framework of the Institute.

Media enquiries Tom Fennelly or Keith Seacroft, Public Relations Office, Durham University Tel 0191 334 6078 or 6074 www.dur.ac.uk/news.service/