Green Impact 2013-14

Divisions and departments across the School are encouraged to be part of creating real environmental change by getting involved in this year's Green Impact challenge.

LSE Chill

LSE Chill is back for its first session of this term on Friday from 5.30pm in the Fourth Floor Café Bar, Old Building. The session is open to all and will feature some dynamic acts.

Matthew Taylor

Matthew, who has been conducting LSE's Orchestra regularly since 2003, plays the piano, used to play the oboe and organ, and has continually struggled to play the violin.

 Research

 LSE in pictures

 Notices

 Training and jobs

Dear all,

Contributions from staff, students and alumni to the Strategic Review identified climate change as being in the top three issues that the School should be addressing.

The School’s Carbon Management Plan sets a carbon reduction target of 54 per cent by 2020, from a 2005 baseline. That means saving 7,800 tonnes of CO2 per year - equivalent to 700kg CO2 for each LSE student and member of staff.

We are making good progress in implementing our Environmental Policy, and in June 2013 LSE climbed to 22nd place in the People and Planet Green League, achieving its fifth consecutive ’First Class’ award. The LSE Environmental Management System achieved re-certification of the international standard ISO14001 in July 2013 and LSE has now achieved sending zero waste to landfill.

Continued environmental progress depends on embedding environmental good practice across the School in the day-to-day life of all departments and divisions, so all staff have a role to play. The Green Impact programme is a key part of this.

Now entering its fifth year at LSE, Green Impact is an environmental accreditation scheme that empowers teams of staff to adopt green office practices, and be a part of creating real environmental change.

Last year 50 teams took part from across LSE. The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment achieved the Platinum Award, and ODAR, LSE Estates, Mathematics and LSE Catering achieved Gold Excellence.

This year, I encourage all divisions and departments to participate in this challenge as a key step in our approach to addressing climate change, and implementing the School’s Environmental Policy.

Kind regards,
Andy Farrell
Chief Financial Officer

LSE celebrates the life and work of Lionel Robbins to mark 50th Anniversary of his report on Higher Education

LSE Library has launched an online digital exhibition of the life of economist Lionel Robbins (pictured) to coincide with the 50th anniversary of his landmark report into higher education.

The exhibition, The Economist and the Wider World: the papers of Lionel Robbins (1898-1984), includes a selection of photographs, papers and correspondence from Robbins’ life.

On Tuesday 22 October, LSE held a one day conference - Shaping Higher Education 50 Years after Robbins - to celebrate the anniversary of the publication of the Robbins Report.

The conference, supported by the LSE Annual Fund, closed with a public event featuring a panel discussion with Bahram Bekhradnia, Rajay Naik, and David Willetts MP.

The 1963 Report into Higher Education, chaired by Lionel Robbins, revealed that entry into university largely depended on class rather than ability, paving the way for expansion and modernisation within the higher education sector.

Elizabeth Chapman, Director of LSE Library Services, said: "LSE Library’s project celebrates the anniversary of this landmark report, and documents the important contributions Robbins made to the arts, politics and LSE during his long career, guaranteeing the availability of his papers to future generations of researchers." More
 

What the hell?

You may have twigged that something unusual is happening around campus this week: an event today (Thursday 24 October) involving guerrillas, hell and commandos.

Without giving too much away, it involves the Institute of Public Affairs, led by Professor Conor Gearty, who is pioneering a new style of lecturing at LSE.

Forget traditional lecture halls and think, instead, an intellectual form of a flash mob.

That’s the concept of guerrilla lectures, the first of which is happening this week - at an undisclosed location.

Keen to experience a unique, engaging, thought-provoking evening? Interested in discussing a controversial subject in a location that very few get the chance to see?

Meet us in the foyer of the New Academic Building at 6.45pm for more details about this secret assignment. Only 20 tickets will be issued, so don’t miss out.

P.S. Bring your bus pass. The evening will finish around 9.30pm.
 

LSE professor honoured for his work on social policy

Professor Bleddyn Davies (pictured), Emeritus Professor of Social Policy, has been awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award of the British Society of Gerontology for his work on helping to improve the quality of life of older people.

Professor Davies has also been conferred an honorary degree by the University of Kent for his contribution to social policy.

Professor Davies started work at LSE in 1963 as an Assistant Lecturer. In 1974, he set up the Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU) to research and analyse the economics of social care and related areas. He was awarded an OBE in 2001 for contributions to social science and social policy, and given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Public Health Association in 2007 for his contributions to research and policy on care services for older people.

Professor Davies said: "It has been a great privilege to have been able to work on issues of such significance for the common good, and to do so as a member of such an able and helpful community."
 

Susan Scholefield (pictured), LSE School Secretary, has been appointed by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills as Non-Executive Member to the Competition Service.

The Competition Service funds and provides support services to the Competition Appeal Tribunal. The support services it provides cover everything necessary to facilitate the carrying out by the Competition Appeal Tribunal of its statutory functions and includes, for example, specialist legal, administrative staff, and accommodation services.

Susan’s appointment is for four years starting on Friday 1 November.

Competition Minister Jo Swinson (LSE BSc Management, 2000) said: "The knowledge and experience of members makes a vital contribution to the excellent work of the Competition Service. I am pleased to welcome Susan Scholefield as the Non-Executive Member. She brings with her an impressive wealth of knowledge and experience from a distinguished and varied career and will be a great asset to the UK's competition regime."

LSE PhD student Garrick Hileman, together with a team of LSE students and alumni, has launched MacroDigest.com, a website bringing together information and analysis on everything moving the economy.

Garrick, who won the 2013 LSE Entrepreneur of the Year award and a development grant from the Centre for Learning Technology, found that staying on top of the conversation and analysis surrounding economic events, like the European sovereign debt crisis, was very difficult when using existing RSS readers and Twitter tools.

The team launched MacroDigest this month to help students, academics and professionals filter through the thousands of online voices and news sources to understand what’s systemically important today.

Introducing LSE's new Executive Officer to the Director

Hugh Martin (pictured) joined the School on Tuesday 15 October having been appointed as Executive Officer to the Director, Professor Craig Calhoun.

Hugh joins LSE from the University of Bristol, where he was Head of Governance and Secretariat. Prior to that, he held a number of posts at the University of St Andrews, including Chief of Staff to the Principal and Vice-Chancellor.

Having read English at the University of Oxford, he worked in the retail sector for several years, becoming Head of Customer Relations for W H Smith.

Within the sector, he has experience in a variety of university departments including governance, recruitment and admissions, registry, development, and IT. He has also tutored and lectured in English literature, and has organised and taught at university summer schools. He has been an Associate Lecturer in Arts and Creative Writing at The Open University for ten years.

Outside of higher education, he is a Governor of a secondary academy school, and a Non-Executive Director of a charity that provides Zimbabwe’s children orphaned by AIDS the resources that a parent would otherwise give.

He is married to Catherine, a Zimbabwean, who is a researcher in integrative neuroscience and endocrinology at the University of Bristol.

Hugh can be contacted by email at h.c.martin@lse.ac.uk or on ext 3601.
 

LSE Catering provides a professional and friendly service for a wide range of hospitality events, from formal dinners or drinks receptions, to delivering finger food lunches and refreshments to your office or meeting rooms.

In an aim to meet our customer needs and expectations, we have recently improved our finger food and sandwich lunch menu.

Deliveries can be made to most buildings on campus so why not view our services and menus, or contact us to discuss bespoke arrangements for your event.

A reminder that applications are invited from members of the professorial staff to fill the vacancy of the Vice-Chair of Appointments Committee (VCAC) to succeed Professor David Stevenson, who completes his term in office on 31 December.

The role of the VCAC is to act as the independent guardian of academic standards and quality on behalf of the Appointments Committee. The term of office is from 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2016.

The deadline for submitting your entries for the Equality and Diversity Photo Competition is Sunday 3 November.

The theme for the competition is "redefining difference", urging all participants to demonstrate creative thinking about diversity.

Twelve images will be selected to go into the School’s Diversity Calendar for 2014. This is your opportunity to see your work published and circulated across the School, and to win a prize. If you haven’t already sent in your entries, do it now.

Diploma in Management

The CMI Diploma in Management offers seven members of staff the chance to form part of our 2014 cohort, providing a broad-based externally validated management qualification in key areas such as operations, finance, people, information and change.

Applications are invited from practicing managers (team leaders to middle managers) to take part in this intensive course, who can demonstrate clear benefits from undertaking this kind of structured study.

Staff interested in finding out more are invited to attend the following information session on Thursday 7 November from 12.30-2pm in room B.07, 32 Lincoln’s Inn Fields.

We recommend that interested staff, and where possible their line manager, attend this session, which will include:

• An explanation on the programme structure and content from Tim Fuller, CMI Course Tutor

• Details on how to apply

• Information on how line managers can support staff participating on the programme

• Feedback from past LSE participants

• An opportunity to ask questions.

For more information, see Diploma in Management. If you would like to come along to the information session, book a place by emailing hr.learning@lse.ac.uk.
 

Computer tip of the week

Extend Excel formula bar

Sometimes when you are creating formulas in Excel they can become rather large, complex and difficult to read, for example, with nested IF statements. In such cases, the formula bar becomes very crowded and it is difficult to see the whole formula.

In order to see the whole formula in one go, you can increase the size of the formula bar. To do this, click on the down pointing arrow at the right hand end of the formula bar. To make this area even larger, point the mouse at the dividing line just above the column headings and when you see the double headed arrow, hold down the left mouse button and drag down.

If you have an IT question, check out our online guides and FAQs or attend our weekly Software Surgeries. Alternately, staff and PhD students are invited to enrol for a one-to-one IT Training session, or contact IT.Training@lse.ac.uk to book a consultation with a training specialist.

One bedroom flat available to rent

A one bedroom flat near Kensington Gardens is available for rent from 17 December to 1 January.

The flat is located on the first floor of an Edwardian house and is well furnished, with central heating, a double bed, broadband facilities and a washing machine.

The flat is located in an area full of shops and restaurants, and Bayswater and Queensway tube stations are seven minutes walk away.

The price is £130 per day. For more information, email y.meyenberg@lse.ac.uk or yml@unam.mx.

This week's picture features the New Academic Building on an autumnal day.

For more images like this, visit the Photography Unit.

Children in lower-income households do less well in school and have worse health than their better-off peers in part because they are poorer, researchers from LSE have found.

While it is well established that children in lower-income households do less well than their more wealthy peers, it has to date been unclear whether low income is itself a cause of lower achievement, or simply correlated with other key factors such as lower parental education. The report, published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on Tuesday 22 October, finds that low income directly affects measures of a child’s wellbeing and development.

Net Children Go Mobile releases first report

The first report of Net Children Go Mobile (NCGM) was published last week. NCGM is a European research project and researchers from LSE’s Department of Media and Communications were involved in designing the project proposal, choosing research questions, designing the survey and commenting on the report during its drafting.

Net Children Go Mobile: mobile internet access and use among European children, authored by Giovanna Mascheroni, Università Cattolica del S. Cuore , and Kjartan Olafsson, a visiting fellow at LSE, investigates how, where, and at what age children go online, and which activities they engage in on the internet. The report shows that in the countries surveyed on average 53 per cent own a smartphone (58 per cent in the UK) and 48 per cent (56 per cent in the UK) use it daily to go online.

Internet use is increasingly becoming private, the report finds. Despite the fact that smartphones are the devices most likely to be used on the move, smartphone use itself is mainly domestic: on average across the countries surveyed 39 per cent of children use smartphones every day in the privacy of their own bedroom, 37 per cent in another room at home, 23 per cent in schools and 26 per cent when out and about.

The findings reveal that children are increasingly using smartphones for social activities such as social networking, entertainment on media sharing platforms, and sharing content. Children’s preferences did vary according to country, with fewer children in the UK having social network site profiles (58 per cent) when compared to the other participating countries (average 70 per cent). This, in large part, reflects the fact that the UK has fewer underage users when compared to other European countries.

For more information, contact Leslie Haddon at l.g.haddon@lse.ac.uk or visit www.netchildrengomobile.eu/project.

NEW EVENT - Innovation: the essence of transforming development patterns

On: Thursday 21 November from 6.30-8pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Speaker: Professor Liu Wei (pictured), Executive Vice President of Peking University.

China has built a relatively well-off society by the end of the 20th century, transforming from a low-income country to a lower-middle-income one. In the first decade of the 21st century, China has further elevated itself to an upper-middle-income country.

Based on these achievements, the country sets its new goals for economic development: a sustainable economic growth to double its scale, a high-income economy with a higher per capita GDP, a transformation in the economic structure and an overall modernisation.

This event is free and open to all with no ticket required. Entry is on a first come, first served basis. More
 

Other forthcoming LSE events include....

The Social-Cultural Foundation of the 21st Century New Pan-Africanist Consciousness
On: Thursday 24 October at 6.30pm in the Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
Speaker: Adama Samassékou (pictured), Founder and Former President of the African Academy of Languages.

Capitalism Without Guilt: the moral case for freedom
On: Monday 28 October at 6.30pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building
Speaker: Dr Yaron Brook, Executive Director of the Ayn Rand Institute.

The Metropolitan Revolution: perspectives from US cities
On: Tuesday 29 October at 6.30pm in the Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
Speakers: Bruce Katz, Vice President of the Brookings Institution and Founding Director of the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program, and Professor Anne Power, Professor of Social Policy at LSE.

What's the Point of Contemporary Art?
On: Wednesday 30 October at 6.30pm in the Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House
Speakers: JJ Charlesworth, Associate Editor for ArtReview, and Mark Rappolt, Editor of ArtReview.

The first LSE Chill session of this term will take place this Friday (25 October) from 5.30pm in the Fourth Floor Café Bar, Old Building. The session is open to all and will feature some dynamic acts.

The line-up for the evening is as follows:

6-6.10pm Daniel Lombard
Daniel Lombard will be performing a stand-up comedy routine which is sure to have us laughing in our seats.

6.45-7.15pm Princessa Rellosa
Princessa Rellosa is excited to have her first performance at LSE. She will be singing a few of her favourites from artists such as Adele, Taylor Swift, Alicia Keys and Bruno Mars.

7.30-8pm The Critique of Pure Rhythm
The Critique of Pure Rhythm is the Department of Philosophy band. It specialises in 50s/60s rock and blues (with the occasional original number thrown in). Personnel are department members Roman Frigg, Max Steuer, Alex Voorhoeve and John Worrall; Alec Howells (second year BSc in Politics and Philosophy), former student Ipek Gencsu, and guest vocalist Natalia Tsalli. They promise to shake your nerves and rattle your brains.

Business History Unit seminar

On: Monday 28 October at 5.30pm in room 1.04, Tower Two

At this event, organised by LSE's Business History Unit, Simon Mollan and Kevin Tennent from the York Management School will speak on "Towards a New Organisational Theory of British International Business: the selection trust as a distributed firm, c.1930-1979". More
 

A Government-in-exile Beyond Exile: expanding governance in western Sahara's liberation movement

On: Monday 28 October from 6-7.30pm in the Thai Theatre, New Academic Building
Speaker: Dr Alice Wilson (pictured), Junior Research Fellow in Social Anthropology at Homerton College, University of Cambridge.

The outbreak of the Arab uprisings marked the 35th year of the government-in-exile of western Sahara, Africa’s last decolonisation case. Led by western Sahara’s liberation movement, Polisario, this government-in-exile has developed a state-like apparatus through which, with Algerian consent, it governs Sahrawi exiles in desert refugee camps in south-west Algeria. In recent years, Polisario’s government-in-exile has increasingly expanded its governance beyond its base in exile in Algeria to Polisario-controlled western Sahara.

This talk examines the implications of this expansion for the sustainability of the liberation movement.

This event is free and open to all on a first come, first served basis. For more information, email Sara Masry at s.masry@lse.ac.uk. More
 

On: Monday 28 October from 6.30-8pm in the New Theatre, East Building
Speakers: Dr Ana Cristina Alves, Senior Researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs, Professor Vladimir Shubin, Professor of African History and Politics at the Russian State University for Humanities, Dr Soyeun Kim, Lecturer at the University of Leeds, and Dr Mehmet Ozkan, Researcher at the SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research in Ankara, Turkey.

Emerging powers are playing an increasingly consequential role in Africa, and are set to deepen their impact upon political, economic and security dynamics across the continent in coming years. Africa is back in the global spotlight, though uncertainties remain as to the ability of its leaders to capitalise on commodity-led growth to realise the continent’s development potential.

With a host of internationally recognised scholars, this lecture will critically examine these trends and possibilities for Africa’s future development.

For more information, click here or email ideas.events@lse.ac.uk.
 

Climate Vulnerability and Human Security in the Jordan River Basin

On: Wednesday 30 October from 4-5pm in room LG.04, 32 Lincoln's Inn Fields
Speaker: Dr Michael Mason (pictured), Senior Lecturer in the Department of Geography and Environment at LSE.

This seminar reports initial findings from an environmental research project jointly undertaken by LSE (Geography and Environment) and Birzeit University (Civil Engineering).

The project examines the climate vulnerability of Jordan Basin farming communities with current or recent experience of belligerent occupation (southern Lebanon, Golan Heights, West Bank) - a condition labelled '(post)occupation'.

This event is free and open to all on a first come, first served basis. For more information, email Sara Masry at s.masry@lse.ac.uk. More
 

On Thursday 31 October from 6.30-8pm in the Old Theatre, Old Building, LSE
Speaker: Professor Lord Giddens (pictured), former Director of LSE and member of the House of Lords.

The European malaise goes deeper than the euro crisis alone, protracted and still unresolved though that may be. The EU and its member states must respond to deep-rooted changes affecting all the industrial countries. Pro-Europeans should recognise that now is the time for a far-reaching rethink of the European project as a whole to create a model appropriate to the needs of the twenty-first century.

This event marks the publication of Anthony Giddens' new book Turbulent and Mighty Continent: what future for Europe?. Books will be on sale after the lecture.

Predictability, Probability(s) and Physical Insight

On: Wednesday 6 November at 6.30pm in room CLM 2.02, Clement House
Speaker: Professor Leonard Smith, Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Time Series at LSE.

This lecture is a preview of the Charney Lecture Professor Smith will be delivering at the AGU (American Geophysical Union) Conference in San Francisco in December. An abstract of the lecture can be found here.

This lecture is free to attend but please email Lyn Grove at l.grove@lse.ac.uk to confirm a place.
 

Podcasts of public lectures and events

The Paralympic Movement Takes Off
Speaker: Philip Craven
Recorded: Monday 14 October, approx. 88 minutes

The EU in the Eye of the Storm
Speakers: Javier Solana and Robert Cooper
Recorded: Monday 14 October, approx. 87 minutes

Courses scheduled for next week include:

• Finding and Using Digital Media for Teaching
• Working with Others: fair treatment and respect (for non-managers)
• Copyright, the Internet and Teaching Online

Religious Identity and the Secular University

On: Monday 28 October from 12.30-2pm in OLD 3.21, Old Building

This year LSE opens a state of the art Faith Centre to provide religious facilities and opportunities for interfaith engagement for staff and students.

This clearly marks a shift in the way in which the secular university engages with religious identity and reflects changes taking place across the UK higher education sector.

This session will explore how religion impacts on the university through equality legislation, campus cohesion issues and as a changing factor in youth identity. It will consider the dangers as well as the opportunities raised by these trends and considers how a university like LSE may need to continue to reconsider religion and belief in the future.

To book a place, visit the Training and Development System.
 

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

• Assistant Librarian (Teaching Support), Library: academic services
• Assistant Professor in Accounting, Accounting
• Assistant Professor in EU Law, Law
• Assistant Professor in Economic Geography/Regional or Urban Economics, Geography and Environment
• Assistant Professor in Law and Anthropology, Law
• Assistant Professor in Operations Management, Management
• Assistant Professorship in Economics, Economics
• Deputy Registry Manager, Academic Registrar's Division
• Development Associate, ODAR: major gift fundraising
• EROB MSc Programmes Manager, Management: EROB Group
• Educational Developer, Teaching and Learning Centre
• Head of Health and Safety, PCPD: legal and compliance team
• Newsletter Editor and Assistant Press Officer (Maternity Cover), External Relations Division
• Reading Room Manager, Library: archives services
• Research Information Analyst and Open Access Officer, Library: academic services
• Research Officer (Environmental, Climate or Energy Economics), Grantham Research Institute
• Salesforce Project Manager, Management
• Senior Project Manager, Information Management and Technology
• Senior Student Services Adviser, Academic Registrar's Division
• TRIUM Recruitment and Admissions Administrator, Management
• TRIUM Transformation Project Manager, Management