Campus anniversary for LSE lovers

Two LSE graduates have returned to the School for a special photo shoot to celebrate their first wedding anniversary at the place where they met.

Last chance to tell us what you think

The Press Office has put together a short feedback survey for you to let us know how you feel about Staff News.

Jacqui Beazley

As deputy head of catering, Jacqui spends her lunch hour feeding LSE, and would serve a Chinese banquet if she were holding a dinner party at home.

It is with great sadness that the School announces the death of Amber Miro, assistant director of IT Services (User Services).

Amber, who was suffering from cancer, died suddenly on Tuesday 6 March. She was just 46 and her death has shocked and saddened colleagues across the School.

Amber joined LSE in 2001 as a training manager and rose rapidly to become assistant director in 2005. She was a leading professional in her field and throughout her career always sought to ensure that the users of services provided by IT were listened to. As a result she came into contact with a wide range of staff and students across the School.

Jean Sykes, chief information officer at LSE, said: 'Amber was endlessly patient, courteous, and helpful. She worked incredibly hard to ensure that LSE staff and students received the best and most responsive service Amber and her team could give.'

A virtual scrapbook has been set up in Amber’s memory, where friends and colleagues can pay tribute, reflect, and share their thoughts. The scrapbook can be found at www.ambermiro.org.

Growing esteem for LSE as the School rises in world reputation rankings

LSE has jumped eight places in the second annual rankings of global universities based on their reputation among senior academics, ranking 29th in the world and fifth in the UK.

The Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings are based on a poll of over 17,500 academics worldwide. Participants are questioned at the level of their specific subject discipline and are asked to name just a handful of those that they believe to be the best, based on their own experience.

LSE is only one of five UK institutions to come in the top 30, after the University of Cambridge in third place, the University of Oxford in sixth place, Imperial College London in 13th, and University College London (UCL) at 21. The School placed 37th in last year's table.

This year's rankings show a drop for several UK universities, including Imperial, UCL, the University of Edinburgh and Bristol. LSE appears to be bucking the trend with a rise of eight places. This comes despite the School having had a particularly turbulent year over its links to Libya. More
 

Two LSE graduates have returned to the School for a special photo shoot to celebrate their first wedding anniversary at the place where they met.

Jacky Lam, who graduated in law in 2007, met Cadence (accounting and finance, 2006), at a Christian Union Jazz Event during Jesus Awareness Week in 2005. Jacky explained: ‘She was sitting alone, and I thought, "I wouldn't be a very good host if I allowed this beautiful damsel to fend for herself without a warm welcome! I found out she was curious about Jesus, and I had plenty to say about Him (how convenient!). A number of months after she put her faith in Him, we started dating.’

Nabila Ramdani (pictured), a PhD student in LSE's Department of International History, has been named a ‘Young Global Leader (YGL) for 2012’ by the World Economic Forum.

The honour, bestowed each year by the Forum, recognises outstanding young leaders from around the world for their professional accomplishments, commitment to society, and potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world.

For 2012, the Forum has selected 192 YGLs from 59 countries and all sectors of society, including business, civil society, social entrepreneurs, politics and government, arts and culture, and opinion and media. Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan chaired the selection committee for the YGL 2012 awards.

Past YGLs include David Cameron, UK prime minister; Maria Bartiromo, anchor, Closing Bell, and anchor and managing editor, Wall Street Journal Report, CNBC; Larry Page, co-founder and chief executive officer, Google; and Zhang Xin, chief executive officer, SOHO China.

Nabila said: 'I am delighted to have been granted this title - it will inspire me to try and live up to the achievements of past YGLs. I am also particularly proud to have been honoured while I am a student at a world famous centre of excellence like LSE.’

More Women in the Military: a good thing for modern warfare?

On Saturday 10 March, Professor Mary Kaldor (pictured) joined Colonel Marian Lauder MBE, war photographer Alison Baskerville, and bomb disposal expert Major Nicola Roberts at London's Women of the World Festival 2012, to discuss the effects of increasing numbers of women deployed to the front line or taking leadership roles in the military.

For more information and the full programme, click here.
 

The Woolf Report - LSE Action Plan

The School has published an update on the Woolf Report recommendations, in the form of an action plan.

The plan lists the 15 recommendations set by Lord Woolf, along with the actions taken to date and the actions to follow.

To view the action plan, click here.
 

The Ethics Code consultation has now been running for just over a month. A number of committees have already taken the opportunity to feedback their views on what should be included in the School’s first overarching Ethics Code, and many more will do so over the coming month.

In particular, last week’s 'All Staff Briefings' provided a good forum for discussion, and the notes of these meetings are available on the Ethics Code consultation webpage.

Easter period job advertising deadlines

In order to support departments in advertising vacancies during the Easter holidays, please take a few moments to note the deadlines during this period.

HR would recommend that advertising during the week immediately prior and after the Easter bank holiday is avoided, due to the lower response rates that are normally received.

If you do wish to advertise around the Easter holiday, you must agree your final versions of your advertising documents, including funding authorisation and grade evaluation, with your HR adviser by the following deadlines:

Deadlines for HR to receive requests to advertise for week commencing 2 April 2012

• External adverts: Friday 23 March (e.g. www.jobs.ac.uk, Guardian website)

• Internal only adverts: Tuesday 27 March (e.g. LSE jobs page)

Deadlines for HR to receive requests to advertise for week commencing 16 April 2012

• External adverts: Monday 26 March (e.g. www.jobs.ac.uk, Guardian website)

• Internal only adverts: Friday 30 March (e.g. LSE jobs page

Please note these deadlines relate to online advertising only. If you wish to advertise in a publication, the relevant copy deadlines will need to be factored into your timetable. Please consult with your HR adviser for more information.
 

LSE Garrick
8am-6pm Monday-Friday
CLOSED Thursday 5 April
RE-OPENS Thursday 12 April

Plaza Café
9am-6pm Monday-Friday
12pm-6pm Saturday and Sunday
CLOSED Thursday 5 April
RE-OPENS Thursday 12 April

Café 54
8.30am-4.30pm Monday-Friday
CLOSED Thursday 5 April
RE-OPENS Thursday 12 April

Staff Dining Room and SCR Bar (Members only)
Café Bar 10am-4.30pm Monday-Friday
Dining Room 12.30-2.15pm Monday-Friday
CLOSED Thursday 5 April
RE-OPENS Monday 16 April

George IV
12noon-11pm Monday-Friday
CLOSED Thursday 5 April
RE-OPENS Thursday 12 April

Fourth Floor Restaurant
CLOSED

Fourth Floor Café Bar
CLOSED

There are three halls of residence open over the Easter vacation (17 March-21 April), which are available to all as great value bed and breakfast accommodation.

Carr-Saunders, Passfield and Rosebery residences all offer affordable and central accommodation in the heart of London.

LSE staff are also entitled to a 10 per cent discount from standard rates, making this a great option if you have friends and family visiting London over the break.

Staff accommodation availability

There is currently a range of rooms, studios and apartments available to let from Wednesday 28 March for staff and visitors to LSE.

These are suitable for short or long term lets, starting from £45 per night. Book now to avoid disappointment.

We sometimes have excess demand so if you are letting a property, please forward your details along with a brief description and monthly rate. We have also smartened up the apartment in Passfield Hall; please have a look online.

For more information about staff accommodation, contact Samantha Da-Costa on ext 7023, email s.e.da-costa@lse.ac.uk or visit Accommodation for staff and visitors.
 

Tell us what you think - Staff News feedback survey 2012

The Press Office has put together a short survey for you to let us know how you feel about Staff News. It is an important way for us to find out how we can improve the newsletter for you.

The survey is open to all staff and should take no more than five minutes to complete. To take part, visit www.survey.bris.ac.uk/lsewebsite/staff_news_2012.

The Library is running a project which aims to investigate the needs of LSE researchers, students and staff in the area of research information preservation.

The outcome of the project will be learning materials that will be used at LSE to improve our researchers’ skills in preserving and disseminating their research data.

To assess what’s needed, the Library would like all research-active staff and PhD students to complete the online survey at http://lsedice.wordpress.com/.

LSE centre managers have a generic email address, Centre-Managers@lse.ac.uk, which we use to communicate with each other and also with relevant divisions across the School, in particular the Research Division.

However, we are aware that there are many departmental research administrators (or administrators of smaller research groups), with whom we cannot always communicate and with whom we would often like to share relevant information.

Thus we would like to extend an invitation to such research administrators to join your own generic email address, which centre managers would be happy to help set up, with a view to research group administrators then taking ownership of it themselves.

The publication, put together by students from the departments of Philosophy at LSE and Birbeck, is a novel attempt at blending the argumentation style of philosophy with the lyrical nuances of poetry.

This edition features the composite poem ‘Around the World in Eighty Lines’, which highlights 20 perspectives from cultures around the world, as well as several individual contributions and the three winning poems from the LSESU Literature Society poetry competition.

Copies are now available in the Department of Philosophy common room and departmental office, located in the Lakatos Building, and in the Shaw Library. For more information about Philosoverse or to request your copy, visit Facebook. Copies are limited so make sure you get yours soon.

The prize winners in the Moodle competition run by the Disability and Well-being Service and the Neurodiversity Service are:

• 1st prize - Mark A Seager
• 2nd prize - Ewan O’Connor
• 3rd prize - Anne-Laure Joubaire
• 4th prize - Nhung Vu
   

The LSE Treatment Clinic, which welcomes LSE students and staff, is now open on the first floor of Tower Two.

The clinic offers professional treatments including acupuncture, osteopathy and sports massage from practitioners with over 20 years of experience between them. Their combined expertise is effective in the treatment of pain relief, including musculoskeletal pain, repetitive strain injury, tension headaches, posture advice, sports injuries, anxiety, insomnia, migraine, among many other ailments.

The practitioners are:

• Hanya Chlala
  Acupuncture available in a dual bed setting on Wednesdays and Fridays
• Laura Dent
  Sports massage available on Mondays
• Tim Hanwell
  Osteopathy available on Tuesdays and Thursdays

Acupuncture is excellent in helping with the withdrawal of smoking and managing hay fever, and osteopathy and sports massage can help with general sports injuries (e.g. skiing) or if you are training for a marathon.

This week's picture features the suspended glass roof in the atrium, the central nucleus of LSE's New Academic Building.

For more images like this, visit the Photography Unit.

Independent review projects fuel poverty to worsen and calls for reinvigorated strategy

Professor John Hills, director of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) at LSE, today published the final report of his independent review of fuel poverty.

The review confirms that fuel poverty is a serious national problem and shows that it is set to rise rapidly. It affects people with low incomes and energy costs above typical levels.

It proposes a new way of measuring the problem, focused both on the number of people affected and the severity of the problem they face. More
 

Recommendations in a new academic paper by Professor Paul Dolan about what questions should be asked in large-scale surveys of happiness are being used by the Office of National Statistics and are being considered by the OECD.

The paper focuses on how to measure ‘subjective well being’ (SWB) at a time when governments around the world are beginning to seriously consider using SWB to inform and evaluate public policy.

Professor Dolan and his co-author, Robert Metcalfe from the University of Oxford, suggest measuring the three different components of Subjective Well Being - life satisfaction, momentary mood and purpose - separately and recommend the level of detail at which each should be collected.

Professor Dolan says: 'Having SWB on large surveys will allow us to test the possibility of improving people’s levels of happiness and the important objective circumstances that allow people to have higher levels of happiness'.

Discrimination makes me sick!

The attitudes of the general British population towards Muslims changed post 2001, and this change led to a significant increase in anti-Muslim discrimination.

In a recently published paper, Dr Grace Lordan (pictured), lecturer in health economics at LSE, uses this attitude change to estimate the causal impact of increased discrimination on a range of objective and subjective health outcomes.

The difference-in-differences estimates indicate that discrimination worsens blood pressure, cholesterol, BMI and self-assessed general health. Thus, discrimination is a potentially important determinant of the large racial and ethnic health gaps observed in many countries.

Dr Lordan and her co-author, David W Johnston from Monash University, Australia, also investigate the pathways through which discrimination impacts upon health, and find that discrimination has a negative effect on employment, perceived social support, and health-producing behaviours.

The paper, Discrimination makes me sick! An examination of the discrimination-health relationship, can be found here.

Citizens' Privileges or Human Rights? The Great Bill of Rights Swindle
On: Tuesday 20 March at 6.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Speakers: Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, and Professor Francesca Klug, professorial research fellow and director of the Human Rights Futures Project at LSE.

Language, Culture, and Being Human
On: Thursday 22 March at 6.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Speaker: Professor Daniel Everett (pictured), dean of arts and sciences at Bentley University, Massachusetts.

What Would an Evidence-Based Copyright Law Look Like?
On: Monday 2 April at 6.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Speaker: William Patry, senior copyright counsel at Google Inc.

Management Accounting Research Group conference

The Department of Accounting will be hosting the 33rd annual MARG (Management Accounting Research Group) conference on Thursday 22 March.

The theme for this year’s London conference is 'Management Accounting Leadership: global challenges - local responses'.

The Distinguished Practitioner Lecture will be given by Phillie Karkaria, executive director of Tata Realty and Infrastructure Ltd, who will discuss 'Global Challenges, Local Solutions and Management Accounting Leadership'.

Other speakers include Robert Hodgkinson and Kirstin Gillon (ICAEW), Josep Bisbe (ESADE Business School) and Andrea Dossi (SDA Bocconi School of Management, Bocconi University).

On until Friday 13 April in the Atrium Gallery, Old Building.

The LSE Photo Prize Exhibition 2012 is now on display. The exhibition celebrates the photographic creativity of LSE’s students and staff and showcases the 42 winning entries from this year’s LSE Photo Prize competition, with the theme of ‘Overcoming Hurdles’.

The exhibited images were chosen by a judging panel of art professionals and LSE staff. The exhibition is supported by the LSE Annual Fund, Metro Imaging and A Bliss.

The exhibition is free and open to all, with no ticket required. Visitors are welcome Monday to Friday between 10am and 8pm (excluding bank holidays or unless otherwise stated).

Podcasts of public lectures and events

Mental Health: the new frontier for the welfare state
Speaker: Professor Lord Layard
Recorded: Tuesday 6 March, approx 88 minutes
Click here to listen

The Future of Egalitarian Capitalism, in Light of its Past
Speaker: Professor Kathleen Thelen
Recorded: Wednesday 7 March, approx 91 minutes
Click here to listen

Training for staff

Courses scheduled for next week include:

• One-to-one IT Training

• Mental Health First Aid

• 10 Digital Scholarship Lessons in 10 Videos - Professor Martin Weller

• An Introduction to Learning Technologies: how they can benefit your courses

• PhD Supervisors Workshop

• Writing for Blogs

• Performance and Development Review for Managers

For a full listing of what is available and further details, including booking information, see www.lse.ac.uk/training.
 

Below are some of the vacancies currently being advertised to internal candidates only, as well as those being advertised externally.

• Administration and communications officer, Anthropology
• Administrator, Anthropology
• Chair/reader of economics, Economics
• Development executive, ODAR: major gift fundraising
• Financial systems support officer, Finance: division office
• Head of LSE Annual Fund, ODAR: Annual Fund
• Information security manager, IT Services
• Institute administrator, Grantham Research Institute
• LSE fellow in global politics, Government
• LSE fellow in political science and public policy, Government
• LSE fellow in the anthropology of China, Anthropology
• Lecturer in management (marketing), Management
• Lecturer in management (public management and governance), Management
• Lecturer in media and communications (two posts), Media and Communications
• National Bank of Greece post-doctoral research fellowship, Hellenic Observatory
• Post-doctoral research assistant - economics of climate change, Grantham Research Institute
• Post-doctoral research assistant - green growth, Grantham Research Institute
• Professor of management (marketing), Management
• Research administrator, Mathematics
• Research economist, Centre for Economic Performance
• Research officer in control theory, Mathematics
• Senior student services adviser, Academic Registrar's Division

Professor Jude Howell (pictured), Department of International Development, is running the London Marathon to raise money for Breast Cancer Care.

This is a wonderful charity that provides support to women and men with breast cancer. Any donation, however small, will be hugely welcome. Donations can be made via http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JudeHowell.

Alternatively, you can send a cheque for Breast Cancer Care to Jude at International Development, who will send it on to the charity.

Nicole wants to hear from you!

Do you have some news, an achievement, or an aspect of LSE life that you would like to share? If so, then I would love to hear from you, contact me at n.gallivan@lse.ac.uk or on ext 7582.

The next edition of Staff News is on Thursday 29 March. Articles for this should be emailed to me by Tuesday 27 March. Staff News is emailed every Thursday during term time and fortnightly during the holidays.