The Institute for Informatics and Digital Innovation (IIDI) is currently advertising three funded PhD places to start in early 2015 (on a date between January and March). The full advertisement can be found at jobs.ac.uk and on the Edinburgh Napier University vacancies web site. The closing date for applications is 21st November 2014, with interviews expected to take place in early December 2014.
Edinburgh Napier University’s celebration of Ada Lovelace Day hosted by Equate Scotland and Edinburgh Napier University’s Athena SWAN team on 14th October was a great success, as can be seen in the photographs from the event.
Edinburgh: a festival city
The International Journal of Event and Festival Management has just published an article that I co-authored with colleagues from the School of Marketing, Tourism and Languages at Edinburgh Napier University. The article is one of eight brought together in a special issue on the festival and event experience.
By Hazel Hall, Edinburgh Napier University
This article of mine is republished from The Conversation on 14th October 2014. Many thanks to Steve Vass working with me on this. It’s great to be an author for The Conversation having learnt about the site at the Digital Personhood network meeting in March 2014.
What was the greatest astronomical discovery of the 20th century? Some would say pulsars – highly magnetised, rotating neutron stars emitting beams of electromagnetic radiation. The scientific world was informed of these in a paper published by Nature in 1968.
Tuesday 14th October 2014 is Ada Lovelace Day, an international celebration of the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths. This evening I’ll be marking the day at a special dinner hosted by Equate Scotland and Edinburgh Napier University’s Athena SWAN team. Our guest of honour and keynote speaker will be astrophysicist Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, the first female President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Christine Irving
Christine Irving, part-time Research Fellow in the Centre for Social Informatics (CSI) at Edinburgh Napier University, is currently working on a thesis, provisionally entitled The development of a model of information literacy from a lifelong learning perspective, for the award of PhD by Published Works. This work will draw on Christine’s long track record of research and development work on information literacy and lifelong learning undertaken between 2004 and 2010 as part of the Scottish Information Literacy Project (2004-2010), and which continues with the Scottish Information Literacy Community of Practice The right information: information skills for a 21st century Scotland. I am Christine’s Director of Studies, and Dr Alison Brettle of the University of Salford is her second supervisor. Christine is required to submit her 25,000 word thesis by September 2015.
Iris Buunk and John Mowbray
Welcome to Iris Buunk and John Mowbray, new research students within the Centre for Social Informatics at Edinburgh Napier University. I am the Director of Studies for both students.
Professor Blaise Cronin
Many congratulations to Blaise Cronin, Visiting Professor to the Centre for Social Informatics at Edinburgh Napier University, who has today been named as one of the winners of the 2014 Jason Farradane Award.
Frances Ryan takes the stage
Hot on the heels of fellow Edinburgh Fringe performer Clare Taylor, last night it was the turn of Edinburgh Napier University research student Frances Ryan to step up to the microphone. Frances delivered an invited presentation at The Banshee Labyrinth (fringe venue 156) under the banner of the Edinburgh Skeptics.
Clare, Pam, and Susan on stage in the yurt (photo credit Jo Young)
Last Thursday Edinburgh Napier University microbiologist Dr Clare Taylor and her co-presenter Dr Pam Cameron (NovoScience) welcomed a sell-out audience to the yurt in Edinburgh’s St Andrew Square at their Fringe show Women! Science is not for you! Over the course of an hour they highlighted evidence to show how the gender balance in science careers shifts in the favour of men the further you look up the career ladder. They discussed the reasons for this, considered whether or not this is a problem, and debated possible strategies to bring about change. A key question is how to stem the flow of wasted talent that escapes from the “leaky pipeline” of women in science, as identified in the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Tapping all our talents report of 2012.
Hazel Hall 