December 2006
Its Christmas!
It is really the end of the year as the School is now closed until the 3rd January 2007.
----------
It is Thursday 21st December and Lynne Reynolds, the School Manager, organised the traditional breakfast of bacon and egg butties with champagne. This annual event took place in School Office and many staff dropped by to say hello and join in the fun. By midday the school became quiet and most people had gone home for the holidays. See you in 2007 !
-----------
The School would like to congratulate Ruth Poole who has been awarded £1,500 for a Universitas 21 fellowship to visit with Dr John Dyson at the Prince Philip Dental School, Hong Kong.
Ruth is a PhD student investigating vibrations of dental handpieces using scanning laser vibrometry. This project is funded by the EPSRC, and is supervised by Professor Damien Walmsley, Dr Simon Lea and Dr Adrian Shortall at the University of Birmingham School of Dentistry. She receives her award from Professor Michael Clarke at a ceremony at the University on January 30th, 2007.
------------
Friday and it is the last day of term. The School is getting ready for the Christmas holidays. Professor Lumley held the traditional Head of School Open House where there was drinks and mince pies. Most of the staff dropped by during the afternoon including Professor Laird who always knows where there is a party! The party theme continued with the Students who held an end of term bash in the Students' Common Room. It was a fitting end to an exciting term. The writer of this Blog retired home and did not follow the Students later that evening to the German Market in the centre of Birmingham. Whilst the Students go on holiday the School catches up with itself and staff will be in next week still working!!!
-------------
Thursday was a busy day and the Student's Carol Concert took place in the Alex MacGregor Lecture Theatre. It started at 5.00pm with a student poem read out by Professor Chapple followed by Carols. Laurence Nolan gave a great performance of "Lonely this Christmas" and "Fairy Tale of New York". The Choir performed "The Holly and the Ivy" with an extra verse sung solo by Adam Joy (who missed the rehearsal and did not realise not all verses were being sung!). Claire Bolton performed "Rocking around the Christmas Tree" and she got the audience dancing. Student President Neal Ravel led the way in by showing everyone how to Jive! the evening was a great success and all proceeds went to St Mary's Hospice. Straight afterwards Prof Walmsley, Dr Attrill and Mr Russell were seen to disappear for the Prosthetics Department Christmas Party. They were going on the Black Country Tour bus which was parked outside the School. The students were impressed as it was a double decker with a bar on the lower deck and a dance area on the top.
--------------
The Lunchtime concert went very well and Sister Anna O'Connor from the Univeristy Chaplaincy gave the Christmas message. She used the analogy of your favourite soap opera you may only watch it once and then you are hooked and stay for more episodes. Congratulations go to Dr Peter Rock for organising this annual event for both School and Hospital staff in the building. Dr Peter Rock is very busy as he is the public orator and will be giving the address for the honorary graduants at the University Congregations later this week. Christmas is sill happening as there is the Concert/Carol Service by the students on Thursday evening as well.
The building is buzzing and many of the fourth years are stressed out as the vivas in Prosthetics (all day Monday) and those in Periodontology are in full swing. The results come out today so the students are worried whether they have passed or not. Life is never dull when you are a student.
Just to get more people in the swing of things the Birmingham University Dental Students Society announced the following End of term/Xmas Christmas party for Friday 15th of December 2006....
LOCATION; INFAMOUS COMMON ROOM AT THE PRESTIGIOUS DENTAL SCHOOL
TIME; 17.15
There will be a selection of drinks provided by BUDSS and cakes and biscuits, homemade by our members of staff...plans after are to go out in to town and have a few drinks at the German Xmas market on New Street (President Neal Raval's new hangout point)...
We hope to see all you guys there as it will be a nice event to end the long term we have all had!!!!!!
------
The School is getting ready for the round of parties and meals and this is the last week before the students break up and to get us in the spirit the music society will be putting on a couple of concerts to help you fully embrace the festive spirit. There will be a concert on Thursday 14th December in the Alex MacGregor Lecture Theatre 17:30 - 19:00 which will feature the following songs and carols for you to sing along to
Ding Dong Merrily on High
Hark the Herald Angels sing
Silent Night
O Little Town Of Bethlehem
We Wish You A Merry Christmas
The Holly and The Ivy
Fairytale of New York
When a Child is Born
Lonely This Christmas
O Holy Night
Walking In The Air
Rocking Around The Christmas Tree
These will be performed by a group of Dental students, staff and biomaterialists. There will also be a poem read by Prof Chapple. Tickets will be £2.50 with all proceeds being donated to St. Mary's Hospice. There will be mince pies and mulled wine at the interval (included in the price). Tickets will be available lunchtimes outside the AMLT or from Lawrence Nolan and Frances Goble (4th year students)
There will also be a Lunchtime concert on Tuesday 12th of December in the AMLT 1:00-1:45 which will contain 6 of the most popular chirstmas carols for all to sing. Tickets are not necessary but there will be a collection for St Mary's Hospice. There will also be some readings including one from guest speaker Sister Anna O'Connor.
Come along and dust off those voices whilst supporting your friends and colleagues.
-------
Readers of Dental Practice magazine will have seen on page 6 a piece on the Professionalism prizes awarded by the General Dental Council. Our very own Ravi Panesar who qualified in the Summer was the winner from our Dental School. This is an annual prize awared to a student in each school who shows professionalism in dentistry. This will include patient care, clinical governance and other related skills. Well done Ravi!
The School is fortunate to have Professor Tony Smith who is Editor of the Journal of Dental Research (JDR). The School Blogger asked him what he had been up to since the beginning of the term.
September Tony gave the keynote lecture on Dentine Regeneration at Hungarian Dental Association meeting in Debrechen. He also attended the Pan European Federation meeting to give a keynote on dental erosion, symposium speaker at Tissue Engineering symposium, the JDR Workshop on Manuscript Preparation, speaker at Research Careers symposium, speaker at joint BACTD/ABSTD satellite meeting.
October He spoke at the 60th birthday scientific symposium for Gottfried Schmalz, Regensburg, Germany
November-Tony gave lecture on dentine regeneration at Seoul National University and a JDR Workshop on Manuscript Preparation at the Korean Assocn of Basic Sciences in Dentistry meeting.
His schedule in Deceber is even more demanding as he is off to the IADR & AADR Boards of Directors meetings in Vancouver and then later in December, he is speaking at Dental Stem Cell meeting of European Research Group in Oral Biology (ERGOB) in Geneva. I am reliably informed that he will be catching up on some sleep over Christmas.
Professor Tony Smith is always keen to promot the Journal of Dental Research and there is a continuing increase in submissions, on-line subscription has now become a membership benefit, there is open access after 12 months and all archives back to issue 1, 1919 are now on-line and freely available. Phew talking to Tony is certainly exhausting and he certainly flies the flag for the School of Dentistry at Brimingham.
John Hamburger, Senior Lecturer in Oral Medicine has been invited to convene and chair an expert workshop on Sjogrens' Syndrome at the annual meeting of the British Society for Oral Medicine in May 2007
Mike Sharland who is our Head of Multimedia Services reports that he has got his Digital Dentist Web site on line at last! Lots of new content will appear over the coming weeks. Any comments on the site are always appreciated. Sorry the content is a bit lacking at the moment but it is a start. Well done Mike!
November 2006
The month started with an entertaining Staff Development Day which included a lively Fire Lecture. Following this the Dental School Staff were treated to a demonstration from Claire Gardener in Information Services on the Turning Point software. This is an electronic voting system linked into PowerPoint. Claire set up questions on the University and dentistry and then we answered questions via our keypads. It was good fun to use and is highly interactive. Many of us will be thinking of using this with our students in future lectures. The day was followed by the importance of the RAE2008 and targeting journals for our final submissions. We also covered other important subjects such as the Human Tissue Act and Fitness to Practice.
This month has been very busy at the school. Interviews for prospective dental students are well under way under the direction of our admissions tutor, Mr. Donald Spence. Potential applicants for the School of Dentistry are invited for interview and also shown around the school by our students during the lunchtime period.
The OSCE (objective structured clinical examination) took place this month. Our OSCE is for the 4th years and is purely formative. There are 30 stations with 6 rest stations. These include stations from all subject areas Prosthetics, Periodontology, Conservative Dentistry, Clinical Practice, Orthodontics, Paediatric Dentistry, Behavioural Science, Radiology and Radiography. The clinical teachers are there in force and the students appreciate the hard work and dedication put into the examination. Even though it is only formative, it is taken very seriously by both Staff and Students. However there is a good atmosphere and the whole dental team is involved including nurses and radiographers.
The Final years are taking Finals Part 1 which is Dental Public Health and Oral Pathology. We wish them all the best with this examination.
Professor Walmsley presented a paper at the 2nd Asian Osseointegration Society meeting and also at the International Research Project on Magnets in Dentistry. These presentations took place at Osaka and Kobe respectively. He was lecturing in Japan with Professor Mark Thomason from the University of Newcastle.
The British Dental Association (BDA) held its inaugural Honours and Awards Dinner. The ceremony, held at London’s Langham Hotel, saw the award of the John Tomes Medal and anew entry to the BDA Roll of Distinction to dentists with connections in the West Midlands.
The John Tomes Medal, was awarded to Professor Elizabeth Treasure, Dean and Professor of Dental Public Health at Cardiff University’s School of Dentistry. Professor Treasure qualified from the University of Birmingham. Hon Alderman John Charlton was entered on the BDA’s Roll of Distinction, honouring his outstanding service to UK dentistry. Hon Alderman Charlton is a director of the British Fluoridation Society and Chair of the University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.
The School of Dentistry at Birmingham is at the forefront of the new Internet technologies and has developed a series of Podcasts which are available for dental students to download via their iPod/mp3 player. The dental school is listed on iTunes and subscribers automatically receive new Podcasts when they become available. The demand from the students for such form of learning materials is increasing and feedback is very positive. If you are interested in downloading them then please visit our our podcast area where they are freely available.
October 2006
Mr Giles Perryer of Ecourse fame has introduced a "wiki" this week on the ecourse. This is a high-trust web site that students can add to and edit directly anonymously. A pilot is being run for a couple of weeks to get a feel, after which we will assess the relative success of such a venture. Anybody unaware of what “wikis” are should visit Wikipedia which is the famous example.
Dr Deborah White who is our head of Teaching and Learning ran a very successful part timers update course we had many of our local teachers plus outreach teachers attend for a day. Maxine Lintern from the Staff Development Unit at the University of Birmingham gave an informative and lively lecture. This was followed by updates on teaching throughout the building and then a feedback session. It was well received and many more planned. The School is keen to involve our part-time teachers and provide support for their important role in the course.
Rehearsals are well under way for the “War of the Worlds concert”. Laurence Nolan (Year 4) supported by other students throughout the years is leading the way on this performance. He has undertaken a lot of the organisation and his efforts are going a long way to a successful production this week. Prof Chapple is the narrator following on from Richard Burton in the original. Prof Walmsley and Iain Roe are other members of staff helping out. More on the concert when it takes place next week.
The 30 year reunion was held at the Staff House on Saturday. It was great to see so many familiar faces and the evening was a great time to catch up with past students. It was particularly good to see Rene who in 1976 was an important part of the Canteen staff. Rene was as usual in sparkling form. The speeches were given by Professor Philip Lumley for the School and John Hamburger who was one of the class of 1976 and is on the staff as Senior Lecturer in Oral Medicine. Philip took us down memory lane and let the past students know what was happening in the outside world. Philip also reminded the year of their past misdemeanours including the introduction of silicone impression material. In order to test its elasticity a silicone ball was made and dropped from the 8th Floor! There were also stories of post finals celebrations where one unnamed person fell asleep in the Paternoster. Such things would never happen today! The 30 year reunion was organised by Carinna Chiltern from School office. The evening gratefully receives support from the Arthur Thompson Trust.
Another rehersal for "War of the Worlds" went well tonight (9/10/06). Adam Joy (yr 4) joined Laurence in getting the troops organised. We were also helped by violinist, Anna Jephcott (Lecturer in Oral Surgery) who marshalled the strings and woodwind sections. It is looking better and we went through many of the songs and the results sounded good.
Dress rehearsal tonight (12/10/2006) and we worked very hard. Adam Joy (yr 4) turned up with his Korg keyboard and Claire Bolton (yr 2) conducted with authority. Professor Chapple brought the pizzas and we tackled all the work. Some of the pieces work really well such as Eve of the War and Forever Autumn but other songs such as Thunderchild have really difficult timings 4/4 to 3/4 to 4/4 to 3/4 and so on. It is looking good and we are ready for the big day on Thursday.
Well the news is it was a resounding success. "War of the Worlds" played to a capacity audience in the Alex MacGregor Lecture Theatre. Both Lynne Reynolds and Donald Spence dispensed the Wine at the reception. Professor Chapple introduced the orchestra and the concert started with much excitement. The first half was just so good the orchestra could not believe it! There were few if any mistakes and the audience loved it. By the interval there was tremultuous applause followed by more glasses of wine. Professor Lumley drew the raffle and was assisted by Jessica and Natasha Chapple! The second half had a great solo by Lizzie and Laurence on the Spirit of Man. This was followed by a rousing finish of the End of the War. Lela Nolan controlled the Graphics which had been hand drawn by Lawrence . A vote of thanks was given by Professor Walmsley who as trustee of St Mary's Hospice thanked the audience for their kind donation. Professor Chapple gave a bottle of Champagne to Laurence as recognition of his commitment to the Birmingham Dental School Music Society. All the students and supporters are thanked for making it such a successful evening.
This week we have seen the Masters in General Dental Practice course featured in the Dental Practice magazine. This degree is suited for dentists working in the Primary Care Sector. It takes place one day for week for a period of between 3 to 5 years. The course has been running for five years and we just welcomed our new intake. The Course Director is Professor Trevor Burke and further details may be found on the Postgraduate website.
September 2006
It is a new term and the students return refreshed and raring to go. The final years are in their new GDP firms and are already on the prowl for presentation cases. Each GDP firm is led by an experience member of staff. The head of GDP is Richard Caddick who provides a link between the school and general dental practice. Richard is a practitioner and also leads a VT group. He is well placed at this interface. The other two heads are Roger Pearson who is a part time practitioner and Dominic Stewardson a full time academic with experience of practice.
The students have also returned from their elective studies and holidays and are keen to let people know how they have got on. They also return to letters which let them know of their requirements for the final examination that is not that far away.
The fourth years are back for a new term and for them it is nearly reaching the half way point of the course. The third years are seeing their first patients!
The School also has some new faces on the teaching staff. Miss Catherine Lambe who is a Cork graduate has been appointed as a Clinical Scientist. Mr Owen Addison has been appointed lecturer in Restorative Dentistry and is just completing his PhD. Owen is one of our own graduates and has worked as a house officer in Manchester and Birmingham.
The School has been active at many conferences.
Association for Dental Education in Europe.
This conference was held in Krakow (http://adee.dental.tcd.ie/) and Professor Damien Walmsley delivered a Key Note speech on Distance Learning in Dental Education.
Pan European Federation Meeting
PEF meeting was held at Dublin, Ireland
Presentations were given by many of our staff and it was regarded as a successful meeting
Universitas 21
Nottingham Meeting 2006
This was hosted by Nottingham and the Dental Section was organised by Professor Philip Lumley. Topics included elearning, information management systems and cultural issues. There was also a discussion on exchanges between the institutions.
British Society in Periodontology
Professor Iain Chapple was one of the Keynote speakers and the title of his presentation was Non-plaque induced gingival lesions in the younger patient
We have had some big successes this month as well
Dr Anthony Roberts won the Sir Wilfred Fish Prize at the British Society of Periodontology "How periodontal pathogens take advantage of a stressed host?".
Other successes this month include Dr Will Palin who has been successful in a Young investigator award from the EPSRC. The title of his research is “Dynamic monitoring of refractive index change through light-activated dental fillings” The total of his award is £240K
The usual school activities within the building are up and running including our usual Science Munch and Lunch, treatment planning forum, and the Dental Discussion forum.
Staff/Students Golf Match:
This Annual competition was held on Wednesday 6th September and althought the students were confident the staff retained the cup by . The course was in good condition, the weather was great and all enjoyed the day. Phil Murphy is looking at a weekend away in May 2007 for next year’s fixture.
The School of Dentistry
|Privacy|Accessibility|University contacts
