The People’s dispensary archive: launch event at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh

people's, dispensary, launch, event, bannerOn Wednesday last week, I paid a visit to the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The purpose of my visit was to attend the launch event of a new online resource. The People’s dispensary brings together digitised case notes from the earliest years of the Edinburgh public dispensary. Continue reading

Alice Thornton at the Festival of Cultural Heritage Research 2024

Alice Thornton's Books logoLast Thursday 18th April, I attended a session at the University of Edinburgh’s Festival of Cultural Heritage Research 2024 entitled Discovery and digitisation: Alice Thornton’s life and books (1626-1707). Continue reading

Creative informatics: unleashing the power of data – exhibition review

Edinburgh Science Festival 2024 brochure coverOn Thursday 4th April, I attended a private reception to celebrate the exhibition Creative Informatics: unleashing the power of data. The exhibition was hosted at the National Museum of Scotland as part of the Edinburgh Science Festival 2024 to mark the end of the funded phase of the Creative Informatics (CI) programme. Since its inception in 2018, Edinburgh Napier University has been one of the four partners of the CI programme alongside the University of Edinburgh, Creative Edinburgh and Codebase.

Over the past five years, the programme has supported individuals and organisations in the creative industries in Edinburgh and south east Continue reading

A gathering of leaves at the University of Edinburgh

A gathering of leaves display

One of the displays at A gathering of leaves. The exhibition runs until 25th February 2023.

Last Thursday evening I was delighted to attend the opening of a new exhibition in the ground floor gallery of the University of Edinburgh main library. Continue reading

Platform to Platform project presentation at the Creative Informatics showcase

creative informatics logoYesterday afternoon, Bruce Ryan and I headed over to Inspace to participate in the latest Creative Informatics showcase event organised by Vikki Jones and Caitlin McDonald. Members of eight project teams gave short presentations on their research, most of which have been funded in the last couple of years through small research grants. Continue reading

RIVAL goes virtual on 19th November 2020

RIVAL logoAfter two unsuccessful attempts to postpone the third of our RSE-funded RIVAL network events, Dr Bruce Ryan and I have admitted defeat. With the support of the RIVAL project board members, we have decided to keep Thursday 19th November 2020 as the date for RIVAL event 3 and run it as a virtual meeting that afternoon. Continue reading

Katherine Stephen to present at Tacit Engagement in the Digital Age

Katherine Stephen

Katherine Stephen

Congratulations to our Centre for Social Informatics colleague Katherine Stephen, who has recently learnt that her poster submission to Tacit Engagement in the Digital Age at the University of Cambridge next month has been accepted.

The purpose of the conference is to explore conceptions of tacit knowledge at a time when everyday life is increasingly augmented by artificial intelligence (AI). Katherine will present the research that she is currently undertaking for her Masters dissertation Metacognitive experiences of using AI in the workplace. (Katherine is completing her Masters degree at the University of Edinburgh as the first component of her 1+3 ESRC/SDS-funded PhD studentship on meta-skills maturity for future workplaces prior to joining us full-time in October to embark on her doctoral studies at Napier.) Continue reading

Research Impact and Value in LIS: introducing the RIVAL network

This afternoon I’m speaking at the Edge conference in Edinburgh about a new project, as summarised in the slide below.

RIVAL launch poster We started work on Research Impact and Value and LIS (RIVAL) on 1st February 2019. The Royal Society of Edinburgh has awarded us a grant to create a collaborative network of Scotland-based library and information science (LIS) researchers and library and information professionals interested in maximising the value of LIS research. This work builds on the pilot RIVAL event that we hosted at Edinburgh Napier University on 11th July last year. Continue reading

Fifty years of pulsars with Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell

royal society of edinburgh logoYesterday afternoon I visited the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) – of which I am a Fellow – to attend its 2017 Annual Statutory Meeting. Immediately afterwards the RSE opened its doors to members of the public who had booked places to hear a Presidential Address delivered by RSE President Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell. Continue reading

Two new appointments: Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Docent at Åbo Akademi University

The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) brings together distinguished individuals from the arts, business, science and technology and academia worlds to advance learning and knowledge in Scottish public life. The breadth of the Fellowship – which includes over 1600 individuals from the UK and abroad – enables the RSE to provide a wide range of leadership and expertise.

Each year the RSE undertakes a rigorous five-stage nomination and election process to appoint around 60 new Fellows. I was delighted to learn last week that I am one of those elected in 2017. Also elected in 2017 are Val McDermid, James Naughtie, Professor Iain Stewart and Kirsty Wark. HRH The Duke of Cambridge also joins the cohort as a Royal Honorary Fellow. Continue reading