Lecturer appointed Olympics culture director

A City lecturer has been appointed Director of Culture for the London Olympic Games. Ruth Mackenzie is visiting lecturer for cultural leadership at City and an adviser on broadcasting and cultural policy for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

She said: “It’s the best job in the UK, and whilst people often talk about ‘a once in a lifetime opportunity’, it seems unlikely that I will ever get the chance again to work on such an enormous and exciting project.” GM

£10,000 to be spent on art for City

City plans to spend £10,000 on art to display around the university. City currently has 60 pieces of art on loan but is apparently keen to own more paintings. Staff and students can vote for their favorite pieces of artwork which will be announced in April. The paintings are on loan from Candid Arts Trust, an Islington charity which promotes the arts and arts education in the community. Only three votes had been cast when the Inquirer went to press. GM

SEMS leads European energy project

Researchers from the School of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences will lead a research project to improve the stability and security of Europe’s energy supply. The £2.3m project is sponsored by the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme. The South-East European Transmission System Operator Challenges project began with an opening event at City this month. The project will run for three years with City’s Dr Panos Liatsis and Prof Loi Lei Lai leading researchers from 14 international academic and industrial partners. GM

Researcher wins obscure award

Michelle Hickey has received the Anaesthetic Research Society’s Mapleson Medal for her research into the creation of a fibre optic sensor for measuring oxygen in abdominal organs. The biomedical engineer, from City’s Biomedical Engineering Research Group, conducted her research, funded by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, under the supervision of Dr Panicos Kyriacou and Prof Richard Langford from St Bartholomew’s Hospital.The award, which has been given out since 2000, is presented to the author of the best paper in the field and was named after Prof Bill Mapleson. SDM

Virgin Galactic president talks at City

The president of Virgin Galactic, Will Whitehorn, was due to deliver a talk on space tourism at City as the Inquirer went to press. The talk, the second Leslie Chamberlain Memorial Lecture, will be on the eve of the company’s second test flying programme. Whitehorn will discuss the latest technical innovations, the tourism air travel industry and the evolution of Virgin Galactic from Sir Richard Brason’s concept to present. The first commercial flight into space will be next year. The event will start at 6pm in the Oliver Thompson lecture theatre and registration is required. SDM

Byron expert joins university council

A former vice-chancellor and Lord Byron expert has joined the university council. Sir Drummond Bone was previously vice-chancellor of the University of Liverpool from 2002-2008 and principle of the Royal Holloway College from 2000-2002. The pro-chancellor of City University London, Apurv Bagri, said: “We are delighted that Drummond has joined our council. His vast experience and wise counsel will be invaluable to the university.” The council is the university’s governing body and sets its strategic direction. DC

Free lunchtime concerts launched

The Department of Music has launched a series of Friday lunchtime concerts open to staff, students and local residents. The concerts, held in the music department’s purpose built space, offer professional performance opportunities to students from the jointly run City and Guildhall School of Music & Drama’s Doctor of Musical Arts programme. The first concert takes place on 12 February with Indre Petrauskaite, this year’s joint winner of the City University London Cordwainers Prize for Music, as the first performer. DC

City prof launches London database

Prof Jonathan Raper launched the Mayor of London’s datastore. The website will provide previously unreleased data about London available to the general public, for free. The launch event in early January took place at City Hall, with Mayor of London Boris Johnson and president Obama’s chief technology officer, Aneesh Chopra. The project is based on Apps for Democracy, a US venture which aimed to make all of the government’s data catalogues available to everyone in an easy way. SDM