House price research shows value of conservation

Houses in conservation areas sell at a premium and rise in value quicker than those elsewhere, finds a new LSE-led study.

Help for REF impact case study writers

The Research Division will host a number of drop-in surgeries over the summer to provide further help to ICS authors. The next session will be on Thursday 16 August.

Gavin Eves

Gavin, who has been advice manager in the Student Services Centre for the past four years, loves indie pop music but often feels disturbingly old whenever he goes to a gig.

Causes & Things - a new LSE podcast

Causes & Things is a new podcast from LSE which introduces just a few of the ideas being explored at the School.

Does staging the Olympics make a nation any happier? Is police drugs enforcement making matters worse? What does a 40-year legal battle over a pop song tell us about creativity and copyright? Why do people spend real money on virtual goods? And how do you tell if you’re a maverick?

This podcast features five stories about ideas being investigated by LSE academics and what they may mean for society. The researchers explain what drives their inquiries, how they go about them and where their findings will take them next.

Causes & Things offers not just an introduction to their work but also a sense of the breadth of the research going on at LSE. In this episode Professor Paul Dolan explains how he is measuring the ‘happiness effect’ of the Olympic Games while Elli Gardiner tells us how a business can maximise the benefits of having mavericks on the team. Luke McDonagh unpicks the story of how a famous pop melody ended in legal disharmony, Daniel Bear gives an insight from London's streets into his research on drugs policing and Vili Lehdonvirta shows how the virtual economy of a computer game operates.

LSE academic recognised by the Royal College of Psychiatrists

Professor Eileen Munro (pictured), professor of social policy at LSE, has been awarded a President’s Medal by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, in recognition of her significant contributions to improving the lives of patients with mental illness.

This year Professor Sue Bailey, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, presented medals to seven individuals who were all chosen for their outstanding contributions in varied fields: research, education, clinical work, the media and public policy.

Amber Miro Memorial Award

UCISA, the Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association, have announced the creation of the Amber Miro Memorial Award.

In announcing the award, UCISA chair Tom Mortimer commented: 'The intention is that the award reflects much of Amber’s passion: it will aim to highlight innovative uses of either leading-edge technology or social media. It is hoped that this will highlight the creativity that exists within IT service departments to identify innovative solutions and to share Amber’s enthusiasm for both social media and new technology.'

LSE academic presented with Distinguished Achievement Award

Professor Emeritus Howell Tong (pictured), Department of Statistics, has been selected as a recipient of the International Chinese Statistical Association Distinguished Achievement Award.

Professor Howell joined LSE as professor of statistics in 1999 and is known for his pioneering work in non-linear time series. The award honours his achievements and leadership in statistical research, education and statistical applications.

LSE academic appointed to the World Economic Forum

Professor Eve Mitleton-Kelly (pictured), director of the Complexity Research Group at LSE, has been appointed as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Complex Systems.

The appointment is for two years and she will be attending the next Summit to be held in Dubai on 12-14 November.
 

Last week, eight LSE students travelled to India to spend eight weeks working on community development projects.

The students, who were selected to join the Tata International Social Entrepreneurship Scheme (TISES), will be involved with projects including carbon mapping and water harvesting, HIV/Aids awareness, and impact assessment of education and healthcare initiatives.

This is the third year that LSE has been involved with the programme. TISES offers students a distinctive internship in the ongoing corporate sustainability projects of Tata companies, enabling them to learn about living, working and contributing to development in India. In turn the interns bring their academic expertise, international perspectives and practices to these projects.

LSE’s TISES programme manager, Maddie Smith, said: ‘Through TISES our students have the opportunity to make a difference to people’s lives in India and a chance to find out more about this fascinating country. Addressing real issues, the projects also develop skills beneficial to the student’s future careers.'

A former LSE student has won second prize in the postgraduate category of the 2012 Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Awards, for his fast-casual Mexican restaurant chain Poncho no. 8.

Nick Troen (pictured with LSE Director Judith Rees) graduated from LSE with a master’s in management, organisations and governance in 2009. Since completing his dissertation on the burrito market, Nick has worked with his business partner Frank to build up the company.

Poncho no. 8 has since become one of London’s most successful new burrito bars, having launched restaurants in St Paul’s, Spitalfields and Soho. The business aims to create the best-tasting burritos in London, through freshly prepared ingredients and healthy cooking processes, and is now looking to open new locations in the City and across London.

Ana Botín, CEO of Santander UK, said: ‘Santander is delighted to name Nick Troen from LSE as runner-up in our Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Awards. Entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of our economy and the creativity and commercial acumen demonstrated by the winners and runners-up have been extremely encouraging. These students are the future of the UK economy and Santander Universities is proud to be able to lend its support.’

On Sunday 8 July, nine members of staff from LSE Enterprise took part in the British 10K London Run.

Even though only two of them had ever participated in a competitive race, the LSE Consultancy team with a couple of colleagues from the Spain and Executive Education sections all made it across the finish line.

Jeannine McMahon said: ‘Only two of us were runners so this was a real challenge and took two months of training together in the gym. It was a great atmosphere on the day, with 25,000 people racing past all the iconic buildings on the streets of London.’

Online visits to LSE’s archive of Charles Booth’s colour-coded poverty maps have dramatically increased following their use on a popular BBC Two series.

The series, The Secret History of our Streets, looks at how London has changed since Charles Booth's social survey in 1886 and uses the striking maps, which are currently held in the LSE Archives, to tell the story of six archetypal London streets. Since the first episode at the beginning of June, there have been over 35,000 visits to LSE’s online Charles Booth Archive and over 800,000 page views.

Out and about

On Friday 6 July Dr Simon Hayhoe (pictured), research associate in LSE’s Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science, took part in a panel organised by The Guardian, entitled 'Academic Integrity 2.0: maintaining values and openness in a digital world'. The panel explored the challenges of drafting and implementing policy on plagiarism and copyright management in the internet age.

Dr Hayhoe will also be presenting a paper at the International Conference of Space, Place and Social Justice in Education at Manchester Metropolitan University on Friday 13 July. The paper, entitled An Examination of Virtual Museums and Cultural Inclusion: an ethnographic study of blind Californian school students visiting museum websites, was the first research output from a study conducted while Dr Hayhoe was a Fulbright Fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Arts, New York.
 

Academic abroad

On Monday 9 July Dr Ken Shadlen (pictured), reader in the Department of International Development at LSE, presented a paper entitled The Politics of Preventing Poor Pharmaceutical Patents: Brazil, India, and beyond, at the International Political Science Association in Madrid.
 

Applying to the Public Lecture Programme - deadline reminder

The deadline for applications from departments for the Michaelmas term Public Lecture Programme is Wednesday 1 August.

For more information or an application form, click here.
 

LSE will need to submit around 70 impact case studies (ICS) to REF 2014, showcasing the excellent impact which has arisen from research undertaken at the School since 1993. The School is aiming to submit only the best quality, 3* and 4* ICS, and believes that this is achievable. ICS which are graded 2* or less by the REF panels will not attract any QR funding following REF 2014. However, a 4* impact case study is expected to bring into the School around £120,000 per annum in funding from HEFCE (£720,000 over the 6 years until the next REF), so impact case study authors are making an important contribution to the School’s financial position, as well as its reputation.

To provide further help to ICS authors over the summer, the Research Division will host a number of drop-in surgeries. Research Division staff can answer questions on the REF rules on ICS and give some guidance on the content of ICS under development.

LSE Garrick
8am-6pm Monday-Friday
*Olympic Games 8am-3pm

Fourth Floor Restaurant
11am-3pm Monday-Friday
CLOSED 11, 12 and 13 July for Presentation Ceremonies
CLOSED 13 August - 28 September inclusive

Plaza Café
10am-6pm Monday-Friday
*Olympic Games 10am-3pm

Café 54
8.30am-4.30pm Monday-Friday
*Olympic Games 8.30am-3pm

Staff Dining Room and Café Bar (Members only)
Café Bar 10am-4.30pm Monday-Friday
3-7 September 10am-3pm
Dining Room 12.30-2.15pm Monday-Friday
CLOSED 23 July - 31 August inclusive

George IV
12 noon-11pm Monday-Friday

Fourth Floor Café Bar
CLOSED
RE-OPENS - 1 October

NAB Mezzanine
CLOSED
RE-OPENS - 8 October

Olympic and Paralympic Games: potential disruption
(27 July - 12 August and 27 August - 9 September)
Due to the uncertainty of the impact that the Olympic and Paralympic Games may have on business, these published opening times may be subject to change.

It is anticipated that the Catering hospitality service and catering outlets may experience some disruption during this time. Although we will do our best to keep any disruption to a minimum, we would appreciate your patience and understanding.

Information from the Post Room

Olympic update
The Post Room is asking that you prepare for the Olympics by arranging any deliveries, collections, stationery etc well in advance. The Olympic Road Networks will be in place a week before the start of the events and this will cause a lot more congestion than normal. Please plan ahead.

A4 internal envelopes
Please return A4 internal envelopes to the Post Room. These are now in short supply, and although the Post Room recycles as many as possible, it would be appreciated if you could return any that you may have spare.

Fieldwork and other off-campus activities

The School has issued new guidance on field trips and other off-campus activities.

It explains the duty that the School has to protect students and staff taking part in LSE-related activities, such as fieldwork, from reasonably foreseeable harm, and sets out three steps all organisers and participants should take before undertaking off-site visits or activities in heightened risk environments.

To view the guidance, click here.
 

Summer works newsletter

The LSE Estates newsletter on campus improvements and the long term maintenance programme for summer 2012 is now available, click here.

The newsletter includes information on the work being undertaken during summer and explains the impact that this will have on the student and staff experience on and around the campus.
 

AUA meeting

All members of the AUA (Association of University Administrators) are invited to a meeting on Monday 16 July from 1pm in room NAB 5.21.

Non-members are also welcome to attend. Lunch will be provided.
 

LSE Catering hospitality annual price review

The annual price review of LSE Catering hospitality menus will take effect from 1 September.

The price increase this year is likely to be in the region of 5 per cent.
 

Any LSE Catering customer using their card as a method of payment and spending £30 or more a month will be entered into a prize draw, with five winners each month getting £10 added to their loyalty purse.

The winners of the prize draw for June were:

• Harry Walker
• Magdalena Delgado
• Andrea Mennicken
• Carlos Riumallo Herl
• Andre Silva
   

Wimbledon is now over but many of you may have developed tennis elbow in an attempt to perfect your game. Fear not…. sport therapist Laura Dent, who is based at the LSE Treatment Clinic, is here to help.

Tennis elbow is a pain and tenderness on the outside of your elbow and sometimes in the muscles on top of your forearm. Symptoms usually develop gradually but the pain may get worse when you move your wrist or if you repeat the activity that triggered the pain.

House in North London available to rent

Three and a half bedroom house with sunny rooftop terrace available in North London in August and September, as well as 1 January to 1 August 2013.

Ideal for one or two couples or a family. Sixteen minutes by tube to King's Cross/St Pancras/Euston Station. Walking distance from Alexandra Park.

Available for £1,600 per month. For more information and pictures, email Miriam at mimicri@gmx.de.

Looking down from the Shaw Library balcony, this week's picture shows staff and students relaxing on the Fourth Floor Restaurant and Senior Dining Room roof terraces. In the distance, you can also see the roof garden on the third floor of the East Building.

For more images like this, visit the Photography Unit.

Challenges to India’s pharmaceutical patent laws

The Indian Supreme Court will soon hear final arguments in a challenge by the pharmaceutical company Novartis against the Indian Patent Office’s rejection of a patent for the leukemia drug, Glivec.

In a new article Dr Ken Shadlen, reader in the Department of International Development at LSE, analyses the key issues raised by the case. In particular, Dr Shadlen and his co-authors discuss the patentability of new compounds versus variants of existing compounds, and how the outcome might affect the length of patent terms, the timing of generic competition, and access to drugs in the developing world. The article is part of a larger collaborative project funded by an LSE-Columbia Seed Research Grant.

The full article can be read online at ScienceExpress and will be published in Science later this month.
 

House price research shows the economic value of conservation

Houses in conservation areas sell at a premium and show a greater appreciation in value than those in other areas. This is even after adjusting for the effects of the kind of property involved and where it is located.

These are just some of the findings of the first, rigorous, large-scale, analysis of the effects of conservation areas on house prices in England, funded by English Heritage and undertaken by LSE.

ETNO, the European Telecommunications Network Operators Association, has renewed its support for research into European telecoms policy being undertaken at LSE.

The research programme focuses on how the politics and economics of telecommunications and the internet are changing as novel business models and new traffic trends alter the structure and dynamics of the digital world. This includes the business conditions of 'new players' who operate alongside the telecommunication systems, such as content delivery networks, the major cloud services providers, social network sites and independent infrastructure investors, which are all part of the distinct and fragile structure of the European internet.

Dr Jonathan Liebenau, who leads the research and is a reader in technology management in LSE’s Department of Management, said: 'We aim to inform critical debates in Europe and elsewhere on the developing digital services landscape with rigorous, independent academic research. ETNO’s renewed support for this work will mean that we will be able to continue to gain an important perspective from industry on these issues.' More
 

The Leveson Inquiry should recommend the removal of politicians completely from the process of deciding individual cases on media competition or pluarity, with the final decision being made by an independent regulatory body such as Ofcom, an LSE policy brief has advised.

The report, by academics from LSE, the University of Edinburgh and European University Institute, also recommends the (re)establishment of fixed ownership limits for media mergers which would be periodically reviewed by the independent regulator as a safeguard against concentration of influence in the sector.

Does buying Fairtrade coffee and Forest Stewardship Council toilet roll have any impact?

According to a new report published the answer is yes. However, certifications alone are not enough to save the world and a more concerted effort should be made by certification systems to collect information and data on their results, ensuring evaluations are conducted by external parties to maintain credibility, and establish a greater dialogue about sustainability risks and opportunities with the business community.

Toward Sustainability: the roles and limitations of certification is the final report of a 12 member Steering Committee, which included Dr Kira Matus, lecturer in public policy and management in LSE’s Department of Government.

The scale of what needs to be done to ensure that the promised Olympic legacy is achieved in the London borough of Newham has been set out in the initial findings of a new study.

The study, led by LSE professor Anne Power for the poverty charity Elizabeth Finn Care, began in early 2012 with an examination of Newham prior to the announcement of the successful bid in 2005. LSE researchers then compared these results with available data up to the present day.

Police officers fear inability to handle fresh waves of unrest, finds Reading the Riots project

Police fear a second wave of riots across England and are concerned they may not have the resources to cope, suggests the Reading the Riots project in new analysis of the country’s 2011 unrest.

A partnership between LSE and the Guardian newspaper, the research project has turned its attention to the experience of police officers, victims and the courts for the second phase of its analysis of the disturbances.

'It's about democracy, not austerity': research reveals new political phenomena in Europe

A new report on ‘subterranean politics’ across Europe from LSE's Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit reveals a strong undercurrent of political disillusionment that runs deeper than frustration with austerity cuts.

Professor Mary Kaldor (pictured), who led the study, says: 'Mainstream political circles portray the crisis in primarily financial terms. Our study suggests that the crisis in Europe is primarily political. These protests are not about austerity per se, but rather about the failures of democracy as currently practiced.'

The report, which was launched in Brussels and is supported by the Open Society Foundations, shows a widening gulf between European politicians and their publics. While politicians concentrate on saving the Euro, the public are growing increasing distrustful of political elites.

The full report, entitled ‘The ‘Bubbling Up’ of Subterranean Politics in Europe’, is available to download from http://www.gcsknowledgebase.org/europe. More
 

Research e-Briefing

Click here to read the June edition of the Research Division newsletter.

To sign up for research news, recent funding opportunities, research awards that are about to start, and examples of research outcomes, click here.

The next issue is out at the end of July 2012. More

Upcoming LSE events include....

Burma's Rohingya: a panel discussion
On: Monday 16 July at 6.30pm in the Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
Speakers: Greg Constantine, freelance photojournalist, Chris Lewa, director of The Arakan Project, and Melanie Teff, senior advocate and European representative at Refugees International.

From the Ruins of Empire: the revolt against the West and the remaking of Asia
On: Monday 30 July at 6.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Speaker: Pankaj Mishra (pictured), author.
 

Podcasts of public lectures and events

Winner Take All: the race for the world’s resources
Speaker: Dambisa Moyo
Recorded: Monday 25 June, approx 84 minutes
Click here to listen

Berlin 1961: Kennedy Khrushchev, and the most dangerous place on earth
Speaker: Frederick Kempe
Recorded: Tuesday 26 June, approx 78 minutes
Click here to listen

Creating a Learning Society
Speakers: Professor Amartya Sen and Professor Joseph E Stiglitz
Recorded: Thursday 28 June, approx 89 minutes
Click here to listen

Training for staff

Courses scheduled for next week include:

• Moodle Basics Training

• Developing Emotional Resilience in the Workplace

• Career and Financial Planning Workshop

• Moving to Moodle 2

• Getting to Grips with Office 2010 and Windows 7

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.

• Events and knowledge exchange officer, Government
• Hub economist, International Growth Centre
• LSE fellow, Finance
• LSE fellow, International Development
• LSE fellow in qualitative methodology, Methodology Institute
• LSE fellow in accounting (two posts), Accounting
• LSE fellow, Economic History
• Lecturer in management, Management
• Pinto postdoctoral fellowship, LSE IDEAS
• Post room operative (two posts), Estates: post room
• Postdoctoral research assistant (GGGI project one), Grantham Research Institute
• Postdoctoral research assistant (GGGI project two), Grantham Research Institute
• Professor/reader in accounting, Accounting
• Professor/reader in accounting and financial management, Accounting
• Project manager (estates capital development), Estates Division
• Research assistant, Asia Centre
• Student recruitment officer, Academic Registrar's Division
• Web producer (publications), Communications

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 26 July. Articles for this should be emailed to me by Tuesday 24 July. Staff News is emailed every Thursday during term time and fortnightly during the holidays.