News Release Archive 1999
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1999 College press releases are listed below in date order,
with the most recent first. For further details please contact
Katie Price, Press
and PR Officer, External Relations Office on 01784 443967.
6.12.99 College-Borough partnership
brings top pianist to Runnymede
23.11.99 Nanophysicists a step closer to
quantum computers
15.11.99 Croydon student is choral scholar
11.11.99 Grand opening of redeveloped Noh
Studio
6.10.99 Royal Holloway students
win women's history prizes
28.9.99 Memory demystified at Royal Holloway
24.9.99 Professor gives hi-tech slant
to Victorian Studies
7.9.99 Classics lecturer advises on Dome
Exhibit
Royal Holloway, University of London, and Runnymede Borough
Council have teamed up to bring a top international musician
to the Borough for a ground-breaking artistic residency. Russian
pianist Sergei Dukachev will be artist-in-residence at Royal
Holloway and in Runnymede for three weeks from mid-January
2000. He will give recitals, concerts, masterclasses and individual
consultations, as well as working with schools, ensembles
and music teachers in the Borough. The residency is part of
his fifth visit to the UK, during which he will also give
performances in London and Cheltenham.
The dual residency kicks off the Millennium Art Year, an
initiative launched by Runnymede Arts Development Steering
Group to provide accessible arts for everyone in the Borough.
Millennium Art Year also includes the Millennium Arts for
All Competition to stimulate new work in music, writing, painting
and sculpture in Runnymede, and the Egham and District Choral
Society's International Festival in June. Among the highlights
of Sergei Dukachev's visit will be his concerts at Royal Holloway
and at Chertsey Hall. But for Runnymede schoolchildren, musicians
and teachers, the highpoint will no doubt be the chance to
work closely with the pianist in workshops and masterclasses.
Head of Runnymede Leisure Services, Ronnie Fleming said:
"This project has three main aims: enabling young people
to work with a top-flight pianist; offering the general public
the chance to hear a musican of international standing in
a venue within the Borough; and giving Runnymede's music teachers
the rare opportunity to participate in masterclasses."
Vanessa Gordon, Concerts Administrator at Royal Holloway
and a member of the Runnymede Arts Development Steering Group,
said:
"The special thing about this residency is just how many
people will have the chance to experience the work of this
wonderful musician. With tickets ranging from just £2
for some events to a top price of £10, this really is
an artistic initiative for everyone."
ENDS
Recent work by nanophysicists at Royal Holloway, University
of London, has brought quantum computers a step closer to
reality. Professor Victor Petrashov, who leads the Nanotechnology
Research Group, has published research in the latest issue
of the prestigious journal The Physical Review Letters, which
demonstrates that it is possible to control the conductance
(the ability to carry a current) of metallic nanostructures
using quantum properties of current-carrying electrons.
Though Professor Petrashov is quick to stress that his work
is fundamental research, in theory this opens the door to
the manufacture of computers on the nanoscale - small enough
to fit a microprocessor of Pentium-III complexity into one
of the full stops on this page. As he says: "Where there is
a predictable effect, there you can make a device."
Our current computers are built using traditional semi-conductor
electronics, which are fast approaching their limit in terms
of miniaturisation. Semi-conductor devices obey the rules
of classical physics, where electrons can be pictured as billiard
balls and behave in the same way. An electric current can
be described as a stream of particles rushing through the
semi-conductor. At the minute level, however, the stream becomes
a drip-drip of discrete particles, and the current is liable
to fluctuate in an unpredictable way. Thus there is a lower
limit to the size of semi-conductor devices. In metals, on
the other hand, the concentration of electrons is 100,000
times higher and so, even at the nanoscale, there is a steady
stream of electrons when a voltage is applied. Metals then
appear to be the materials which will allow miniaturisation.
However, in metals there are real obstacles to controlling
the huge concentration of electrons. And, of course, at the
minute scale, electrons observe entirely different rules,
behaving not always like billiard balls but exhibiting both
wave and particle characteristics - Professor Petrashov alludes
to Escher's counter-intuitive drawings to explain the physical
world at the nano-scale. Professor Petrashov has discovered
a novel method of controlling conductance by exploiting the
wave-like behaviour exhibited by electrons at the nano-scale,
and it is this discovery which is the subject of his published
research.
Facilities upgraded:
Nanotechnology and low temperature facilities have just been
upgraded in the Tolansky Building thanks to a major HEFCE
grant within the Refurbishing Research Laboratories initiative
for "Condensed Matter Physics: specialist facilities for nanotechnology
and low temperature physics" (£189,000) and matching
funding from the College. They now have two new clean rooms
and a new working area which allows the whole group to work
together. In addition, they share with the Low Temperature
Group a new workshop for making equipment. The nanotechnology
team works in the custom-built laboratories in special anti-dust
suits. At the nano-scale, a speck of dust is a dangerous thing.
Smokers cannot enter a clean room until one hour after their
last inhalation, because smoke particles can measure up to
.5 microns across. The team relies on special chemical cleaning
of all equipment, including special laundry services.
New team member:
A world expert in the field, Dr V N Antonov, has joined the
Nanotechnology team this month as a new lecturer. He specialises
in hybrid metallic and semi-conductor nanostructures. He is
developing unique equipment for space research, including
a device to count infrared photons one by one in a very important
wave-length range. This would allow the study of objects in
space of very low intensity which current equipment cannot
monitor.
ENDS
A student from Croydon has been awarded a prestigious choral
scholarship by Royal Holloway, University of London. Samantha
Fry of Waddon took her A levels at Old Palace School of John
Whitgift, and is now in her first year studying Music at Royal
Holloway. Samantha joins a great musical tradition at the
College, whose alumni include opera singers Dame Felicity
Lott and Susan Bullock and BBC Radio 3 boss Roger Wright.
As a member of the Royal Holloway Chapel Choir, Samantha
rehearses twice a week and sings at Morning Prayers every
weekday morning in the College's beautiful chapel. In addition
the Choir sings at Evensong on Sundays and at engagements
and special occasions both within and outside Royal Holloway.
Last year the Choir was singled out for special praise by
HRH Princess Royal after performing at the University of London's
Foundation Day. And in the summer, on its 25th annual tour,
the Choir was mobbed by well-wishers after singing in the
Duomo in Florence. The Choir has just released its third CD,
"Live at Corsanico", which includes works by Palestrina, Bruckner,
Stanford, William Harris and John Tavener.
ENDS
Royal Holloway's unique Noh Studio reopened in a grand ceremony
on Thursday 11 November, after significant redevelopment.
Mr Haruhisa Handa, Chairman of the International Foundation
of Arts and Culture, well-known philanthropist and a Noh performer
himself, with a passion for the arts, has financed major extensions
to the Noh Studio in order to more than double the seating
capacity to over 150. The exterior of the Noh Studio has also
received a new look in order to conform to Japanese aesthetics.
A shrine-shaped roof has been added to the current Noh stage.
In the second phase of the project, a Zen garden will be landscaped
outside the building. The latter will greatly reinforce the
Zen philosophy underlying Noh drama.
The Noh Stage, built according to traditional Japanese design,
was given to the College in 1991 providing a unique opportunity
- there is no other comparable stage anywhere in Great Britain
- for Western audiences to see Noh drama in performance. Dr
Poh Sim Plowright, Director of the Centre for the Study of
Noh Drama at Royal Holloway, which she established in 1981,
said:
"We are immensely grateful to Mr Handa for his enthusiasm
and generosity as our future benefactor and patron. We look
forward to his performance of Takigi Noh, fire-light Noh in
the open air, which will take place outside the Noh studio
to celebrate the completion of this project early in the new
millenium."
Royal Holloway is recognised as a centre of excellence for
the Study of Noh Drama and has received funding from the Daiwa
Foundation, the Japan Foundation, the Great Britain Sasakawa
Foundation and Mitsubishi Motors Corporation. The Centre has
an impressive library of books on Oriental theatre, a rare
collection of Kabuki manuscripts and research material, and
a collection of genuine Noh masks, fans and costumes, including
a priceless kariginu Noh costume. Dr Plowright says:
"As the oldest unchanged surviving theatrical form in the
world, the Noh teaches principles of economy, rigorous technique,
narrative structure, meditation and the relationship between
theatre and national life. The most important contribution
made by the Centre to the educational experience of students
has been to challenge received opinion and stimulate general
creative forces through the study of a startlingly different
but particular and sharply focussed theatrical form."
ENDS
Students on the Women's History Masters course at Royal Holloway,
University of London have taken two of the top three places
in a national prize for Women's History.
Catherine Horwood was the joint winner of the Clare Evans
Memorial Prize, a national prize administered by the Women's
History Network for the best new essay in Women's History/Gender
and History. She was presented with her prize at the Women's
History Network's annual conference last month. She took the
award for her essay, '"Girls Who Arouse Dangerous Passions:
Women and Bathing, 1900-1939." The essay is based on Catherine's
dissertation for the Women's History MA at Royal Holloway,
though she is now doing a PhD, with Dr Amanda Vickery, entitled
'Keeping up appearances: dress and class between the wars.'
Catherine Horwood said: "This is a tremendous boost. After
doing my first degree at the University of North London in
History at the grand age of 40, I joined Royal Holloway to
do the MA in Women's History. It was one of the best experiences
of my life, making women's history addictive and opening a
whole new world of ideas for me. Needless to say, I was hooked."
Elizabeth Kirk, another Royal Holloway student, was runner-up
with her essay 'Nice Girls? The regulation of feminine conduct
at Royal Holloway between the wars,' also based on her Women's
History MA dissertation. Elizabeth Kirk is the College's Reid
Scholar, studying for her PhD, again with Amanda Vickery.
Royal Holloway's Women's History MA was founded by Professor
Lyndal Roper in 1990. The thriving programme has been enhanced
by the opening of a new research centre and archive at the
College, the Bedford Centre for the History of Women. Professor
Roper and Dr Vickery are directors of the new Centre.
ENDS
Fantastic feats of memory will be performed on Saturday 9
October at Royal Holloway, University of London
World records are expected to topple, as people with phenomenal
memories converge on the Department of Psychology. Special
sessions will look at techniques for improving memory, for
putting faces to names, learning languages and memorising
playing cards. Tai Chi and Mnemonics are among the methods
explored, and there will be a demonstration by memory training
pupils of what can be achieved.
The Great Memory Show, staged by the Guild of Mnemonists
in association with the World Memory Sports Association, will
demonstrate the potential we all have to improve our memories.
The day of workshops on memory techniques fits neatly with
the work of the Department of Psychology, whose memory experts
are concentrated in the Cognitive and Developmental Research
Group (CDRG). Royal Holloway's Dr Elizabeth Valentine and
Dr John Wilding both specialise in memory, ways of enhancing
it and factors affecting its efficiency. Dr Valentine and
Dr Wilding recently published research showing that performance
at GCSE was related to memory ability rather than IQ.
Dr Wilding said: "The participants in this programme will
demonstrate some amazing feats, but they will also be explaining
how they achieve them. Most of them claim that, with persistence,
anyone can do the same. One of the main themes of our own
memory research here has been the contributions of learned
methods and natural ability to performance. Though special
methods undoubtedly work wonders, I still believe that there
is natural variation in ability and that exciting research
questions remain to be asked and answered on this issue. Cooperating
with Peter Marshall and the Guild of Mnemonists is one way
of locating talented individuals for study. We have in the
past found it difficult to find these rare people.
"The Psychology Department has a distinguished record of
applied research in many fields, including memory. While much
of our own research has focussed on superior memory ability,
we will also be remembering the need to help those whose memory
has been impaired by accident or disease. Some of the proceeds
of the day will go to the Alzheimer’s Disease Society
to help with research and care of those who are suffering
from this crippling condition."
ENDS
Royal Holloway, University of London has established a new
Centre for Victorian Studies. The first Chair of the new Centre
will be the internationally renowned editor, textual theorist
and nineteenth-century scholar, Jerome J McGann. From October
1999, Royal Holloway's English department shares Professor
McGann with his American institution, the University of Virginia.
Professor McGann will take up the Thomas Holloway Chair of
the Royal Holloway Centre for Victorian Studies, as well as
being the director of the proposed MA in Victorian Culture.
A particular area of interest for Professor McGann lies in
exploring the research and pedagogic possibilities of the
internet. Part of the function of the Victorian Centre and
MA will be to bring contemporary technology to bear on research
projects connected with the Victorian period. The Centre is
a new and radical expansion of the previously existing Centre
for Victorian Art and Architecture. It represents an exciting
interdisciplinary development in the research and teaching
profile of Royal Holloway. Its main goal is to promote the
study and understanding of all aspects of 19th century British
life and culture. It will also take the lead in developing
exhibitions relating to the Victorian era and in working together
with museums and galleries to achieve this end.
ENDS
Boris Rankov, Head of Classics at Royal Holloway, University
of London and former Oxford rowing Blue, is advising Millennium
Dome organisers about one of their major exhibits. Dr Rankov
is working with the Ford Motor Company, which is building
a full-scale replica of an Athenian warship, the trireme,
for the transport section of the Dome.
The trireme was powered by 170 oars ranked in three tiers,
one on top of the other. The warship's principal purpose was
to chase and ram its opponents. With it the Greeks defeated
the Persians at the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC, and it is
believed to have been capable of almost 10 knots in a sprint.
No trireme wrecks have survived from antiquity, and one of
the great mysteries of the trireme was how the oarsmen - sitting
in tiers - could have powered it.
Since 1987, Dr Rankov has been involved in a project to reconstruct
the ship. As a Classicist and record-breaking Oxford rowing
Blue, he was uniquely qualified to solve the rowing problem.
Classical historian John Morrison and retired naval architect
John Coates used evidence of literary sources, vase paintings
and archaeological remains to discover how the ship would
have been built. The Greek government was so impressed with
their design that that in 1987 they built a full-scale reconstruction,
the Olympias. Dr Rankov trained the oarsmen of the Olympias
during her sea-trials. When the world's first museum devoted
to rowing was opened, at Henley-on-Thames in 1988, the trireme
became a key exhibit and has remained a chief attraction.
For the Millennium Dome, Dr Rankov will be giving technical
advice, as well as providing the text for the voice-over that
will accompany the exhibit.
ENDS
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