People, prizes and presentations cont...
Summer Graduation
A record number of graduands converged on the Brighton Centre this summer to receive their degrees. The ceremony was the biggest in the University's history, with 1700 students graduating in person and over 400 in absentia.
Gal Rolfe and his sister Heli both graduated with First Class law degrees and plan to work at the same law company in Israel.
Three honorary degrees were conferred : lawyer Sydney Kentridge, closely associated with the struggle against apartheid, received an honorary Doctor of Laws. Johnetta Betsch Cole, president of the oldest American college for black women, received an honorary Doctor of Letters, and Prof Jocelyn Bell Burnell received an honorary Doctor of Science for her work in astronomy.
Above: With honorary graduand Sydney Kentridge (centre) at the Mandela Stand are from l to r: Mandela Scholars Ranveer Persad, Amos (Fana) Jiyane; Bernice Ryan, Trust administrator; Mandela Scholar Shafika Isaacs; Professor Harry Rajak who made the presentation and front left: Ann Ryan, trustee.
Below: Students celebrating in the traditional manner.
Helping reshape the British aid programme
In August IDS hosted a high-level consultation on the forthcoming Government White Paper on the British Aid programme. Chaired by Keith Bezanson, Director of IDS, the consultation was geared to providing the new Secretary of State for International Development, Clare Short, with off-the-record comments on the White Paper draft from some of the world's leading development experts, including Mahbub ul Haq (President of the Human Development Centre, Pakistan), Ismail Serageldin (Vice President of the World Bank), and Mohammed Sahnoun (UN Special Envoy on Somalia and the Great Lakes).
Socrates-Erasmus
This year's 200 Sussex students studying abroad in Europe as part of their degree are among the first wave of participants in the European Commission's new SOCRATES- ERASMUS scheme. The University's successful bid for a SOCRATES Institutional Contract not only provides funding for students to go abroad, but also for faculty exchanges; up to 30 Sussex faculty and an equal number of their counterparts from abroad are expected to participate. Sussex is also a participant in six successful curriculum development projects.
For further information on inclusion of bids for 1998/99 please contact Beatrice Merrick, European Programmes Officer, Room Arts B164 ext 2026, email: B.R.Merrick@sussex.ac.uk.
SOCRATES-ERASMUS Faculty teaching exchanges (1-8 weeks) and new student exchange agreements: deadline for expressions of interest 17 October 1997. Contact Beatrice Merrick, as above.
European Study Abroad Afternoon: Wednesday 15 October. Infor- mation for students on study abroad opportunities elsewhere in Europe. Further details from International & Study Abroad Office, Arts B164, ext 8002.
People, prizes...
Charlotte Graves-Tamvakis (AFRAS) has won this year's Val McNaughton Prize for International Relations. Charlotte gained a First Class Honours degree and received £50 in memory of Val, a former librarian in the Science Policy Research Unit and ex-student of Sussex.
Dr Sandra Thomas, has been seconded as Director of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics from October 1 for three years. Dr Thomas will maintain this role whilst continuing her research on biotechnology and gene therapy in SPRU.
Professor John Barrow will deliver the 1997 Benedum Lecture entitled The Origin of the Universe at the University of West Virginia on October 13.
Professor Chris Freeman, Emeritus Professor of Science and Technology Policy at SPRU was awarded an Honorary Degree of Laws by the University of Birmingham at their graduation ceremony in July.
John Rhöl, Professor of History, has been appointed to a fellowship of the National Humanities Center, North Carolina.The School of Chemistry, Physics and Environmental Science (CPES) has gratefully received nine volumes of the Dictionary of Organic Compounds (6th edition). The donation, from publishers Chapman & Hall, includes a year's subscription on CD-ROM.