Research recognition
Kingston University's researchers are recognised for the contribution they make to their disciplines and to wider society. This page highlights a selection of recent accolades made to our research staff.
Professor Robert Istepanian
Elected to Vice Chair for International Telecommunication Union focus group
Professor Robert Istepanian has been elected to Vice Chair for International Telecommunication Union focus group.
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Professor Robert Istepanian has been elected as Vice Chair of a focus group for machine-to-machine communication, within the world authority in defining communications standards the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Machine-to-machine (M2M) communication is considered to be a key enabler of applications and services across a broad range of markets including health-care, logistics, transport and utilities.
View Professor Istepanian's profile page.
Professor Fiona Ross
Stimulus paper commissioned by the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education
Professor Fiona Ross, Dean of the Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences, has been commissioned by the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education to research and write a stimulus paper on the subject of leadership of practice disciplines in higher education.
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The research will explore how leaders manage the tension between meeting the needs of employers (to produce graduates ready for the workplace) and satisfying the academic drivers of universities (growth, research excellence and value for money). Fiona’s stimulus paper, to be published in October at the end of a six-month research sabbatical, will look closely at nursing and teaching to study the challenges faced by university leaders of these subjects. She will work with Dr Chris Tye and Professor Di Marks-Maran from the Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences and Andy Hudson from the School of Education. The paper is designed for a wide audience of vice-chancellors, governors and commissioners to spark further debate and to propose ways to develop academic leaders in practice disciplines.
View Professor Ross's staff profile.
Professor Audley Genus
Invited talk on topic of global importance at ESRC/EPRSC-funded conference
Professor Audley Genus has given an invited talk at a conference on energy resilience and energy security, sharing a platform with a spokesperson from Department of Energy and Climate Change and the Head of the UK energy research centre.
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Professor Audley Genus has given an invited talk at a conference on energy resilience and energy security, funded by ESRC and EPSRC research councils; sharing a platform with a spokesperson from Department of Energy and Climate Change and the Head of the UK energy research centre. Professor Genus argued that energy resilience is much more than a question of technology, or innovation in improved energy infrastructure; rather resilience requires learning about more effective ways to reduce energy demand and reducing vulnerability to external shocks by decentralising the energy system to enable more localised, small scale generation. He suggested the recognition and achievement of this is hampered by pervasive practices, which may be thought of in terms of regulatory, normative and cognitive/cultural rules.
View Professor Genus's staff profile
KTP with Hampton Court Palace
AHRC award for Humanities and the Creative Economy
A Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) between Kingston University, Hampton Court Palace and project associate Suzannah Lipscomb has been awarded the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) sponsored KTP Award for Humanities for the Creative Economy. .
The award is for the project that best demonstrates the contribution made by the humanities to KTP. KTPs are a three-way project between a graduate, an organisation and a university or research organisation. This KTP was part of a wider project to improve the visitor experience to the Tudor Palace at Hampton Court and coincided with the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s accession.
Professor Vesna Goldsworthy
First poetry collection wins the Crashaw Prize
Professor Vesna Goldsworthy, Director of the Centre for Suburban Studies, has won the Crashaw Prize for her first collection of poems, The Angel of Salonika. .
The Crashaw Prize is the international prize for debut collections of poetry in English. Professor Goldsworthy's book was also named in The Times' Best Poetry Books of 2011. The newspaper said: "Her accomplished first collection explores the journeys of exile, geographical, spiritual and linguistic, as she travels from the Balkans to 'The Heart of England, wherever that may be', with an intense precision."
View Professor Goldsworthy's staff profile
Small Business Research Centre
Prizes from the Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship
Staff from Kingston's Small Business Research Centre have won two prizes at the Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship's annual conference. .
A paper entitled 'Who Are You Calling Old?: Revisiting Notions of Age and Ability Amongst Older Entrepreneurs' (PDF) by Dr Thomas Wainwright, Ewald Kibler, Professor Robert Blackburn and Teemu Kautonen won the Business Creation, Resource Acquisition, Business Closure track prize.
A paper entitled 'Adapting to a Fragile Recovery: SME Responses to Recession and Post-recession Performance' (PDF) by Dr John Kitching, Professor David Smallbone, Eva Kasperova and Mirela Xheneti won the Business Sustainability, Development and Growth track prize.
Find out more about the Small Business Research Centre
Professor Anne Massey
Best New Journal Prize for Interiors: Design, Architecture, Culture
A journal founded and edited by Professor Anne Massey, co-director of the Modern Interiors Research Centre was awarded the highly prestigious Best New Journal prize by the Council of Editors of Learned Journals at the Modern Language Association (MLA). .
The judges distinguished the journal, called Interiors: Design, Architecture, Culture, as exceptional and praised it for making "a lasting mark on the interdisciplinary study of interior design theory."They commented on the articles:"cultural implications well beyond the traditional borders of the discipline"and expressed admiration for "the visuals as well as the text regarding spatial relationships, social attitudes, and design."
View Professor Massey's staff profile
Professor Edward Bromhead
Delivers prestigious Geological Society lecture
Professor Edward Bromhead was selected by the Engineering Group of the Geological Society of London to deliver the 12th Glossop Lecture (PDF). .
Professor Bromhead's lecture, about landslides and the residual strength of clays, was held on 23 November 2011 at the Royal Geographical Society.
View Professor Bromhead's staff profile
Dr Bahram Ghiassee
Honoured by Nuclear Institute for outstanding article
Dr Bahram Ghiassee has been honoured for his investigation into Britain's plans to build a new generation of nuclear power stations. .
The paper, looking at the siting of the new stations, correctly predicted that three of the locations originally chosen by Britain's energy companies would not meet the strict legal requirements imposed by international, European and British law. The paper was written more than a year before the Government finally drew up a revised list in June this year.
The Nuclear Institute has now awarded its Pinkerton Prize to Dr Ghiassee from the Real Estate Research Centre. The prize is awarded for an article of 'outstanding merit' published in Nuclear Future, the Institute's journal. Dr Ghiassee received the award at a special dinner at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London's Park Lane.
Britain's existing coal-fired power stations will begin to be retired after 2015. The Coalition Government plans to give the go-ahead for eight new nuclear plants over the next decade. Dr Ghiassee is well-qualified to assess the validity of these plans as he holds both a PhD in nuclear engineering and a Masters of Laws (LLM). He is a member of the UK Environmental Law Association, the International Nuclear Law Association (Brussels) and the Nuclear Institute (UK).
View Dr Ghiassee's staff profile
Dr Will Brooker
Appointed as the first British editor of Cinema Journal
Dr Brooker has been appointed as the first British editor of Cinema Journal, the publication of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS). .
The journal has been running since 1967, but the role of editor has never before left the US. Kingston University will be the journal's home from 2013–2018. In the next issue of Cinema Journal, Dr Brooker is editing a section reflecting on film and TV post-9/11 to tie into the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. His first whole issue as editor will be in 2013. SCMS is a leading scholarly organisation in the US, while Cinema Journal is the leading scholarly publication in the field of cinema and media studies. It is peer-reviewed and published quarterly, with an acceptance rate of approximately 15 per cent.
View Dr Brooker's staff profile
Dr Jian Wang
Double recognition from the Institute of Mechanical Engineers for aircraft design
Dr Wang has received double recognition from the Institute of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) for his contribution to the design of a new generation of civil aircraft such as the Airbus. .
In 2011 Dr Wang first won the Kenneth Harris James Prize, which recognises the best paper on an aerospace subject. His research was then also awarded the George Stephenson Research Prize by IMechE. The prize, named after the famous railway engineer, is a highly recognised achievement and is one of the three Prestige Awards (Thomas Hawksley, George Stephenson and Safety Award) awarded by IMechE each year. Dr Wang received the accolades for a paper he wrote with three colleagues and a Phd student entitled Aerodynamic performance of a bypass engine with fan nozzle area changed by warped chevrons. The findings of this research have contributed significantly to the design of a new generation of civil aircraft such as the Airbus and Bowing. IMechE, an institution with a 160-year heritage, is dedicated to technical and engineering advancements in sectors including aerospace, automobile, power and railway.
Dr John Tribe
Invited to join the Technical Research Committee of INSOL International
John Tribe has been invited to join the Technical Research Committee of INSOL International.
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INSOL International is a worldwide federation of national associations for accountants and lawyers who specialise in turnaround and insolvency. There are currently 40 Member Associations worldwide with over 9,000 professionals participating as Members of INSOL International. John's tenure will last until May 2013. John will be working with the rest of the committee on worldwide insolvency law policy development.
John is the KPMG lecturer in restructuring at Kingston's Law School and runs the Muir Hunter Museum of Bankruptcy. In addition to this new appointment John is also an editorial board member of Butterworths' Corporate Rescue and Insolvency, an advisory board member of Mithani: Directors Disqualification, LexisNexis (looseleaf), and a consultant editor of Jordan Publishing's Bankruptcy and Personal Insolvency Reports.
View John Tribe's staff profile
Dr Paul Archbold
Appointed Director of the Institute of Musical Research
Dr Paul Archbold has been appointed as the new Director of the Institute of Musical Research (IMR), one of the 10 prestigious institutes that make up the University of London's School of Advanced Study. .
Dr Archbold, who is currently Reader in Music, assumed the Directorship from 1 August 2011 on secondment. Dr Archbold is a composer of works featuring acoustic instruments and live electronics. His compositions have been performed by several of the leading exponents of contemporary music in the UK and broadcast internationally. He has created several contemporary music documentaries with the filmmaker Colin Still, including Climbing a Mountain, a film tracing the Arditti Quartet's preparations for the première of Brian Ferneyhough's String Quartet no.6. Dr Archbold was chairman and artistic advisor of the concert series Musicon and is a member of the executive committee of National Association for Music in Higher Education.
View Dr Archbold's staff profile
Professor Rob Blackburn
Queen's award for enterprise promotion
Rob Blackburn has been director of the Small Business Research Centre at Kingston University for 15 years. In 2011 he was awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion. The awards celebrate people who promote enterprise skills and encourage entrepreneurial attitudes. .
Professor Blackburn received the award in recognition for research work spanning 20 years, covering the demographics of business owners (young people, older people, and back and minority ethnic groups); business populations (such as fast-growth firms); and public policies for entrepreneurship. He has an extensive research portfolio which spans academic, public and private organisations; he has published more than 80 journal articles and reports, and six books. His work on the impact of regulation on small businesses, commissioned by the former Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform has provided valuable knowledge for business owners, researchers and policy makers in this area. Professor Blackburn is currently editor of the International Small Business Journal.
View Professor Blackburn's staff profile
Jim Blair
Appointed to key NHS Committee
Jim Blair has been appointed as the only expert on people with learning disabilities on the 12-strong Advisory Committee to NHS Evidence – a database that allows all health and social care staff to search for the latest research, guidelines and best practice information. .
The advisory committee, which includes clinicians, research experts and lay people, vets and accredits applications for inclusion on the database, which was launched in April 2009. The committee's decisions are recommendations to NHS Evidence and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.
Mr Blair was the UK's first consultant nurse in learning disabilities in acute care when he was appointed in October 2008. He is also a lecturer in Kingston's joint Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences. His work at St George's Hospital has included the development and implementation of an award-winning hospital passport scheme. The passport is a document filled in by people with learning disabilities and their carers, which provides hospital staff with information about the patient's personality, abilities, likes and dislikes. It is particularly important for patients with communication difficulties.
Professor Julia Davidson
Appointed member of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety
Professor Julia Davidson is co-director of the Centre for Abuse and Trauma Studies. She is a member of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) Expert Research Panel, a body responsible for developing and overseeing the implementation of a Child Internet Safety Strategy. .
The Council is a forum enabling Government Departments and stakeholders – including industry and the third and public sectors – to contribute jointly to the development and delivery of the strategy for child internet safety. Its aim is to work in partnership to keep children and young people safe online.
Professor Davidson's work has contributed to an evidence base about the safety of children online to inform future strategic directions. She has extensive experience of applied policy and practice research and has directed work with young victims, serious violent and sexual offenders, criminal justice practitioners and sentencers. In 2010 Professor Davidson was asked to advise the Kingdom of Bahrain on child internet safety in preparation for a State of the Nation review of internet safety in the region.
Professor Gavin Gilmore
Appointed Director of the Radon Council
Professor Gavin Gillmore from the Centre for Earth and Environmental Sciences Research has been appointed as director of the Radon Council, a non-profit making regulatory body for the radon remediation industry in the UK. Professor Gillmore is an expert in the field of radon measurement and remediation, and also natural hazards. .
The Council has been asked to comment on UK government legislation relating to radon and Professor Gillmore has made contributions to the NHS R&D thematic programme on reducing radiation risks. The radon manual produced by Cliff and Gillmore (2001) was used by the World Health Organisation in drawing up its recently published guidelines on public health aspects of indoor radon.
With collaborators across the globe, Professor Gillmore currently holds UNESCO/IGCP funding for a four-year international project, 'Radon, Health and Natural Hazards'. The purpose of this project is to develop a scientific network that then delivers changes to policy and practice regarding radon measurement and remediation around the world. Professor Gillmore has also developed KUMicro (Radon), a Health Protection Agency-validated commercial laboratory within the University, providing indoor radon measurements for homes and workplaces.
View Professor Gillmore's staff profile.
Professor Matthew Humphreys
MBE for work on urban regeneration project
Professor Matthew Humphreys is Head of Kingston Law School. In 2011 he received an MBE for his work on the EC1 New Deal partnership, a £53 million government-funded urban regeneration scheme in south Islington. .
Professor Humphreys chaired a board which brought together residents, the local council, the Health Authority and other service providers to lead on improvements to EC1 for local people. His area of research interest is European environmental law, which covers sustainability and urban regeneration. He is particularly interested in aspects of social justice developed from the sustainable development principle.
Professor Humphreys is also interested in the operation of the article 11 TFEU requirement that environmental protection be integrated into all aspects of Union policy; the relationship with transport policy is a particular area of focus. His book Sustainability in European Transport Policy was published by Routledge in December 2010.
View Professor Humphreys' staff profile
Professor Robert Istepanian
Outstanding paper award for work in mobile healthcare
Professor Robert Istepanian is a Professor of Data Communications and founding director of the Mobile Information and Network Technologies Research Centre. He is widely recognised as the first scientist to coin the phrase 'm-health' or mobile healthcare since the 1990s. .
In 2010 his seminal research paper on the potential of mobile health was awarded the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Sciences outstanding paper award by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. 'M-Health: Beyond Seamless Mobility and Global Wireless Health-Care Connectivity', published in the IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine in 2004, has since become one of the world's most cited papers on mobile healthcare.
His current research includes investigating emerging wireless and network (4G) technologies for medical applications, including:
- real-time medical video using mobile broadband phones for medical diagnostics;
- new robotic technologies for improved mobile chronic disease management systems such as diabetes; and
- introducing m-health technologies to the developing world.
Professor Istepanian has been invited to present a keynote lecture at the 2011 IEEE workshop on multimedia services in e-health, entitled 'Advances in Mobile WiMAX and LTE Technologies for Medical Video Streaming in Remote Robotic Ultrasonography Diagnostics'.
View Professor Istepanian's staff profile.
Dr Dimitrios Makris
Elected member of the British Machine Vision Association executive committee
Dr Dimitrios Makris is a Reader and member of the Digital Imaging Research Centre. Since 2007, Dr Makris has been an elected member of the executive committee of the British Machine Vision Association (BMVA), the top UK research grouping in computer vision. .
The Association provides a national forum for individuals and organisations involved in machine vision, image processing, and pattern recognition in the United Kingdom. It has interests in machine vision for quality control; security and surveillance; the environment; entertainment; and medicine.
The executive committee of the BMVA is charged with running its affairs and consists of 10 elected members. Dr Makris has contributed to the BMVA in many ways. He has been the organiser of the BMVA Technical Meetings for three years and in 2009 he chaired the meeting on Human Articulated Motion. In 2009 and 2010 he organised the BMVA/EPSRC Summer School in Computer Vision which was held at Kingston University.
His main research interests are motion analysis, articulated pose recovery and action recognition.
View Dr Makris' staff profile.
Professor Catherine McDermott
Recognised as design champion by Design Week magazine
Professor Catherine McDermott of the Design Research Centre has made major national and international contributions to the contemporary curating of design, and was listed in eminent design industry magazine Design Week's 'Hot 50' list of design champions. .
Professor McDermott is the author or co-author of more than 11 books on such topics as the history of design, street style British design in the 80s, the world's leading product designers, furniture design and the work of British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood.
One of her most influential books, Made in Britain: Tradition and Style in Contemporary British Fashion, involved interviews with fashion design icons Alexander McQueen, Julian MacDonald and Vivienne Westwood, in an attempt to understand how these designers' approach specific activities and practices such as tailoring, fabric selection and use, branding and accessories.
She is a director of the Curating Contemporary Design Research Group and is chair of the University's prestigious Stanley Picker Gallery. She is currently leading a number of projects around African contemporary design.
View Professor McDermott's staff profile
Dr Christos Politis
WG8 Chair on Spectrum Issues of World Wireless Research Forum
Dr Christos Politis leads a research team on Wireless Multimedia and Networking. He is a member of the Wireless World Research Forum Vision Committee and in 2010 chaired the 25th World Wireless Research Forum, which was hosted at Kingston University. .
The Forum is a global organisation with over 140 members from five continents, representing all sectors of the mobile communications industry and the research community. Their objective is to formulate visions on strategic future research directions in the wireless field among industry and academia, and to generate, identify and promote research areas and technical trends for mobile and wireless system technologies.
Dr Politis is also a member of the Steering Board and, since 2010, holds the position of ITU-R Liaison Rapporteur on behalf of WWRF Working Party 5A, Working Group 5 on New Technologies and Services. ITU (International Telecommunications Union) is the global standards body for telecommunications. He is also a member of the Net!Works Experts Group, responsible for contributing to the European Commission's Digital Agenda. He is a Reader and member of the Mobile Information and Network Technologies Research Centre.
View Dr Politis' staff profile.
Daniel Rosbottom
Royal Institute of British Architects National Award 2010
Daniel Rosbottom is Head of the School of Architecture and Landscape at Kingston, a role which he combines with that of director of his practice DRDH Architects. In 2009 Icon Magazine named Daniel as one of 20 influential young architects from across the world. .
Daniel's practice undertakes award-winning work internationally. He is currently working on a concert hall and city library in Bodø, a northern Norwegian city above the Arctic Circle. This project was won in an international competition, as was another ongoing project for elderly housing and a social centre in Aarschot, Belguim. The practice is also designing a church in 100 acres of prairie landscape in Oklahoma, USA and a villa in Inner Mongolia as part of a project working with renowned Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.
In the UK, the practice recently received a National RIBA award for 'The Workshop' in Sheffield, an office and studio for a design company. This project also won Best Building in the 2011 Sheffield Design Awards. Daniel is a writer and critic for architecture journals internationally.
View Mr Rosbottom's staff profile
Professor Hilary Tompsett
Appointed Vice-Chair of the General Social Care Council
Hilary Tompsett is a Professor of Social of Work. In 2010 she took up the role of Vice-Chair of the General Social Care Council (GSCC). This important body is responsible for setting standards of conduct and practice for social care workers and their employers. .
Professor Tompsett is a qualified and registered social worker with 15 years' experience as a practitioner and manager, and has worked with children and families, people with mental health problems, and older people. Her research interests include interprofessional practice and power and authority in professional practice.
Professor Tompsett is Chair of the Joint University Council Social Work Education Committee (JUC SWEC), which represents higher education institutions nationally to government departments and other organisations across the UK. She is also a member of the Social Work Reform Board, which is tasked with carrying out the reforms to social work identified in the Government Implementation Plan of March 2010.
View Professor Tompsett's staff profile
