December 2007
It is the week before Christmas from a very cold and foggy Birmingham. I went Christmas shopping last night and as the picture shows it was freezing but it did not deter people from being in the City. The Director, Professor Philip Lumley kindly hosted his annual "Mince pies with the Director". Mr Spence had the same drinks dispenser as before and it held copious amounts of mulled wine for all the staff and friends of the School. He did assure me that it was not the same wine that had been drunk at the Christmas Concert last week.
What is happening around the School? The 4th Year students have all finished their end of year vivas. Prosthetics, Periodontology and Conservation vivas all took place and there is fierce discussions taking place on how the examinations went and the eventual outcomes – the majority of students passed. Spare a thought for the 3rd Year students who have examinations in January and also the Final Year students who can see the final examination looming on the horizon. Clinics are still working and patients are battling their way into be treated. The last student teaching clinics are on Friday afternoon and YourBlogger will be there supervising students before he takes a relaxing Christmas holiday. 
To all our friends around the world -
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
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The Winter Ball was a resounding success and credit must go to Saniel Gandesha and his team. The Ball was held at a new venue to the School Mirage Banqueting & Hospitality Suites. It was a great place to party and the evening included a cocktail reception and tasty meal. There were with various entertainments including Fire-Throwers, Magicians, Crazy Golf and a Festive Chocolate Fountain. Santa was our very own Dr John Morris and he was dishing out presents to anybody he met. Speeches were given by Saniel, Mr Kris Coomer and Prof Damien Walmsley. Prizes were presented by Dr Deborah White and Jane Clarke. This was followed by a DJ and music with dancing until late. It was a fun night and an opportunity to catch up with students and staff and enjoy a good time before Christmas. Congratulations again to everyone who made it such a success.
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13th December 2007 - an eventful day in the life of the School of Dentistry
Professor Lawrence Young visited the Dental School today and was shown around by our Director and Head of school, Professor Philip Lumley. Professor Young will be taking over as Head of the College which includes Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences from the January 2008. He met with members of the School Core executive first and then was shown around the various clinics and research floors. As a pathologist he was interested in the Research work that Dr Gabriel Landini is undertaking. Dr Dick Shelton and Professor Tony Smith showed him the research laboratories and the breadth of research that takes place in both Tissue Injury and Repair and Biomaterials. There was an opportunity to see the teaching clinics in full swing and talk to the students. There was also time for him to view our very successful Ecourse learning environment and a full demonstration was provided by Giles Perryer. It was a very positive visit and the School was pleased to welcome Professor Lawrence Young. Everyone in the Dental School wishes Professor Young well in his new role as Head of College.
We said goodbye to an old friend this afternoon, Dr Peter Rock. Peter is Reader in Orthodontics and amongst his many other duties is also the Public Orator for the University. A packed Boardroom was present to listen to Professors Lumley and Laird give speeches in praise of Peter. Professor Laird took us back down memory lane and showed pictures of Peter as a young member of staff including his writing and starring roles in the Student review “Incidentals”. When it came to the reply, Peter put on his Cricket clothes which allowed him to reflect on past times in Birmingham. He also looked forward with his “all time greats” Cricket team made from the present staff. Peter has served at the school for 40 years and 2 months and will be missed as he supported the School strongly both in Teaching and Research. Good luck Peter and we wish you a long and happy retirement.
Such an exciting and eventful day was rounded off by an enjoyable Christmas Carol concert which was organised by the Birmingham Dental Students Music Society. There was a lively mix of Carols, readings and poems and the compère for the evening Professor Iain Chapple did a great job of ensuring that the proceedings kept to time. The organisers had been busy and thanks go to all the students but in particular Johanna Bryant, Claire Bolton and Lawrence Nolan for their hard work. A special mention to Fran Goble and Elizabeth Blackley as organizers (they did a lot of work behind the scenes). There were some last minute changes to the programme but as usual the students’ talent showed through and the music was of a high standard. There were numerous highlights including Claire Bolton singing “All I want for Christmas”. The two “Sunnys” led the audience through a rousing rendition of I wish it could be Christmas everyday to finish a pleasant evening. Everyone adjourned to the foyer for hot drinks and mince pies. All proceeds from the evening will be given to St Mary's Hospice.
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Hey everyone.
Its Christmas time!!! Following the sucess of the BDS Factor Talent show the Birmingham Dental School Music Society is holdings its annual Christmas concert on Thursday December 13th at 6pm (after all your viva's so no excuses 4th Years). Tickets will be £2.50 and this includes mulled wine and mince pies. All profits will go to St Mary's hospice.
If you are interested in performing, either singing in the choir or playing an instrument (all abilities welcome) please email me on SXK324@bham.ac.uk or alternative just turn up in the AMLT on Wednesday 12th at 3.30pm.
So come along, sing be merry and get into the christmas spirit along with the rest of the Dental Hospital.
Tickets will be on sale daily in the common room all this week, get your tickets early to avoid disappointment!
Sunny Kotecha (5th Year)
Music Society
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So it was not the THES and the Ecourse was not featured but Your Blogger was at Sports Personality of the Year at Birmingham's very own NEC. I almost expected to see Giles going up for an award but sport is not his thing. The event was very exciting especially as you get to see all those little extra things that happen when the cameras are away from the screen. There was a great warm up act by Matt Stevens of the English Rugby Team and Bobby Robson was very emotional accepting his life time achievement award. I even met other dentists there who had come along for the event. The picture shows the England Rugby Team collecting the Team of the Year.
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For those who keep contact with the school via this Blog, I am delighted to inform you that Anna Jephcott has given birth to a baby boy weighing 8lb 11 oz born on Saturday 1st December. Mum and baby are doing fine although they are still in hospital at present. The School will be sending flowers with their best wishes as soon as they are home.
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Mr Mike Milward was recently invited to give a keynote talk at the Oral Microbiology and Immunology Group (OMIG) conference which took place at Gregynog Hall, a conference centre in mid-Wales.
The conference took place over 2 days (5-7th November 2007), and the theme was ‘Polymicrobial Diseases & Interactions with the Host’. The conference was well attended with a number of high profile international speakers presenting their research on a range of human diseases.
The title of Mike’s talk was ‘NF-kB in Periodontal Disease’ which is an area Mike is currently researching as part of his PhD. His talk was well received by the audience. The School was also represented by Dr Paul Cooper who is an OMIG committee member and part of the conference organising committee. Paul chaired one of the sessions as well as presenting some of his research into neutrophil NETS.
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Dr David Randell, is a Computer Scientist specialising in Artificial Intelligence. He has joined the School of Dentistry, to work on a STFC http://www.scitech.ac.uk/ funded project grant jointly held by Drs Gabriel Landini (Oral Pathology, School of Dentistry) and Toby Breckon (Applied Mathematics and Computing Group, School of Engineering, Cranfield University). The project is on "Novel imaging methodologies for high throughput cell nuclear segmentation in bright field histological imagery". David will be incorporating an innovative spatial reasoning logic framework he has developed to the image processing techniques developed in Birmingham and to real-time object detection techniques implemented at Cranfield (developed for surveillance/security) to automatically identify tissues, cells and nuclei in microscopy images.
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The Dental School's Talent night took place recently and YourBlogger has just got his hands on the latest picture of the newest Boy band on the block. They were the hit of the night and seen here are the stars. From left to right, Will "Justin Timberlake" Palin, Phil "Ronan Keating" Tomson, Kris "Dizzee Rascal" Coomer and David "Robbie Williams" Attrill. They are seen posing backstage before their famous performance. There will be more to come of the "Dental School has talent night" so keep coming back!
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It is now December and I thought I might share with you a picture of my Reindeer that lives in my front garden. I dare not show you the rest of the house as although there are lights, they are not as bright as these ones!
November 2007
Web News
Times Higher Education Supplement
MEDEV
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UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM NEWS RELEASE
Dentistry at Birmingham scoops THES award
A team of staff from the University of Birmingham’s Dental School are celebrating after winning a prize at the prestigious Times Higher Education Supplement Awards, which took place at the Grosvenor Hotel in Mayfair on 29th November.
The JISC-sponsored prize in the Outstanding ICT Initiative category focuses on the school’s newly developed ecourse, a Content Management System which complements traditional learning and teaching environments and materials.
Giles Perryer who leads the ecourse team said: “We have a diverse student body, who are based away from the University’s main campus and also spend a significant period of time in clinics.
“This makes on-demand interactive learning particularly important to ensure we give our students a high quality experience. The open environment of the ecourse also encourages a strong sense of being part of a student community even when our students aren’t in the school.”
Giles has an additional reason to celebrate after winning the national Dentist Teacher of the Year award at the Caledonian Club in London on 7th November.
Dr Deborah White, Director of Learning and Teaching at the University’s Dental School, said the new system was designed with the help of students, allowing them to create their own content online as well as giving staff a way of delivering interactive learning and teaching materials. This includes a range of educational podcasts, which are available through iTunes, and video content, which helps students prepare for clinical situations at short notice.
Professor Damien Walmsley, of the Dental School, said Giles and his small team had beaten off stiff competition to scoop the coveted prize. He said: "This is fantastic news, both for the school and for the university and I'm delighted our work has been recognised at the highest level.
"This initiative was student-driven: we embraced new technologies to provide an interactive style of communication, which has really captured the interest of both students and staff. It was this innovation, combined with the students' imagination and enthusiasm, which impressed the judging panel and sealed our success last night."
He added judges were particularly impressed by an innovation of the microscopic kind. Recently the school's ecourse has been enhanced further by the development of a component-free virtual microscope allowing students to view slides remotely. The virtual microscope recognises what features are on a slide, and guides students to zoom in on areas of specialist interest.
The system will also allow staff to create virtual patients with a variety of dental conditions to simulate the experience of testing and applying knowledge in the clinic.
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
The winners of the Times Higher Education Supplement Award in the Outstanding ICT Initiative category are the Ecourse Team from the University of Birmingham’s School of Dentistry are:
Mr Giles Perryer – Ecourse Developer / Lecturer in Clinical Practice
Dr Deborah White – Director of Learning and Teaching / Head of Dental Public Health
Professor Damien Walmsley – Chairman of ICT Committee / Professor of Restorative Dentistry
For further information contact:
Anna Dingley, Press Officer, University of Birmingham
Tel: 0121 415 8134/07769 952763/email: a.j.dingley@bham.ac.uk
Rachel Burrows – Head of Communications, University of Birmingham
Tel: 0121 414 6681 / mob
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We won the Times Higher Award for the ICT Initiative of the year. It is 2 am in the morning and it is only just sinking in. It is fantastic for the School and the University. The team of Deborah White, Giles Perrryer and Damien Walmsley are seen holding the award. It is gettng late and more news when we have had a good sleep but well done Birmingham!
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Last night the BDA held its 2nd Annual Honours and Awards Dinner at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel, London. The theme of this year's event was the dental team and there were a number of recipients with connections to the School of Dentistry and Birmingham. Awards went to Pat Denning (BDA Fellowship) and Professor Hugh Edmondson (BDA Roll of Distinction). Pat Denning was active on the BDA Representative Board and was Branch President of Central Counties in 1990. Hugh was Head of Department of Oral Surgery and Oral Medicine (1975 to 1997) and also Chairman of the Dental Formulary Subcommittee from (1987 to 2007). There were over 250 guests at the dinner and the Master of Ceremonies Stephen Hancocks OBE, kept the proceedings moving so that the evening kept to time. There were many other representatives of the School and dentistry from the midlands but it was particularly pleasing to see our student representatives at the occasion Neal Raval and Suchita Vayada.
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This is a big week for the School as on Thursday there is the Talent show in the Alex Macgregor Lecture theatre. Also in London the School is up for the Times Higher Award for the Ecourse. You will be kept informed of events as they happen!
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The OSCE examination ran like clockwork and this was thanks to Louise Finch and Karen Williams who put a lot of preparatory work into the day. It started at 9.00am and the first Cohort of students finished at 12.00 and then it was a quick turnaround for lunch followed by the next Cohort from 1.00pm to 4.00pm. We also welcomed visitors from Queen's Dental School. Both Jenny Good and Lorna Dysart are clinical teaching fellows in Belfast and had come over to observe the day. This picture shows Rachel Arnold Clinical Teacher and OSCE committee member with Lorna and Jenny in the clinic.
The OSCE day is a whole school day and it brings together staff, Nurses and students. There are 35 stations with activities that range from placing a rubber dam to communication skills. The students find the exam a very different one to the normal written papers and they appreciate the work and effort that goes into running the day.
YourBlogger on behalf of the OSCE organising committee would like to extend a big thank you to everyone who took part and made it a great success.
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OSCE Day is about to start.....
Reports later in the day............
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It snowed last night and both the house and garden looked very pretty. However coming into Birmingham this morning it has all melted away. What a pity! Let's hope it is all back again for Christmas!
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Dentists 3 Medics 0
Match Report: The game was played on a wet and bitterly cold Sunday afternoon, no more than 3°C. The dentists were soon 1-0 up as Rush cut inside from the left and passed the ball into the net across the keeper. The dentists continued to push forward. Faizal went agonisingly close as he struck the underside of the cross bar. Ahmed put the dentists 2-0 up, with a deft turn and cool finish inside the box. Rush made it 3 with a sublime left foot volley from 15 yards out fired across the keeper. Half time and 3-0 up.
The second half saw the medics come back strongly. They had longs periods of possession and sustained pressure, but were unable to breakdown the dentists stubborn defence. Medic midfielder was denied by the woodwork with a great effort from the edge of the box. Tempers began to flare as a few rash tackles went in from both sides. The medics took a quick free kick just passed the half way line, played through the middle to the lone striker sharp to the ball. Dentist keeper Sam stayed big and bravely closed down the striker. Unfortunately he took a blow to jaw and was unable to continue. Sam was subd off, and right back Abs took the gloves. The medics were awarded a very controversial indirect free-kick on the 6 yard box for an apparent pass back to the keeper. The shot was successfully charged down and cleared. The final 10 minutes were scrappy, with a number of close corners, but no additions to the score line.
Well done dentists. Keep up the winning ways.
Reporter: Sunil Shah
(Left to right)
Top row – Ronak, Ajay, Naheem, Sam, Faisal, Ahmed, Abs, Rush, Leon
Bottom row – Kunal, Sunil, Sunad, Nida, Jin
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The International Convention Centre provided the setting for the Inaugural Dental Pan-Society Conference. The theme of the conference was Dilemmas and Decisions in Dentistry. The following specialty societies collaborated on bringing this event to fruition the British Endodontic Society, British Society of Periodontology, British Society for Restorative Dentistry and the British Society for the Study of Prosthetic Dentistry. With the conference being held in Birmingham it was a fantastic opportunity for staff in the Dental School to take advantage of attending and listening to a dazzling array of International Speakers. One or two of the main stars came from Birmingham as well. Our students provided help in manning the stands. The conference dinner was held in the ICC. The city was buzzing with the Hollies performing in the ICC as well and Terry Wogan projected on a large screen outside for Children in Need. It was also the first Weekend of the German market. The School wishes to thank Miss Serpil Djemal, Chair of the Pan Society Meeting and organiser Annabel Thomas for making this Conference a great success.
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The German Market opened on Thursday and is already proving to be a popular venue for the inhibitants of Birmingham. The city centre has come alive and at night many people are standing around drinking Glühwein and eating grilled sausages. If you look around it is possible to meet many of our staff and students from the school!
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Northern Dental Sports Day – Birmingham 2007
From your Sorts Rep - Sunil Shah
Birmingham hosted this year’s sports day on Friday 2nd November featuring more than 400 students from Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and of course the return of Prem and his increasingly bizarre array of costumes! The day was filled with highly competitive tournaments in football, hockey, netball as well as exhibition rugby and rounders. There was also Mt Birmingham to climb (our rock climbing face), the chance to show your muscle on the gladiator duel and most importantly the beer tent!
Well done to all players. Birmingham was crowned overall champions. Our women’s and men’s B football teams were convincing winners and both unbeaten. Men’s A’s, hockey and netball teams were all runners up. It was a brilliant day overall, with many compliments received from the other universities. They all wish they’d come to Birmingham Dental School instead! We look forward to winning again next year in Manchester! -----------
A Halloween themed social followed filled with devils, vampires, clowns, mummies, the ghostbusters and many more! At gunnies we managed to get through 90 XXL pizzas and who knows how many pints! The partying went into the early hours at Shackleton on the Vale. 
The school said goodbye to Ms Anna Jephcott until next summer at a reception in the Osborne room. Anna is leaving to have a baby and Dr Deborah White in her address wished her all the best for the forthcoming event. The school knows that Anna will be keeping us informed of her progress. Yourblogger did have a picture of Anna but it was not a flattering one and it will be better to have one of her with the baby when it arrives!
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The DDU Educational Awards 2007
Mr Giles Perryer has been awarded ‘DDU Dentist Teacher of the Year Award’ for his presentation given at an award ceremony at the Caledonian Club, London. 
Giles's presentation was successfully judged for his knowledge of the subject, enthusiasm and ability to motivate students. Giles won £1,000 towards the cost of educational materials within the School. The 2007 Educational Awards were hosted by the Dental Defence Union and sponsored by Dentsply, BDA and Wesleyan Medical Sickness.
Staff and students of the School of Dentistry would like to send their sincere congratulations to Giles on receiving this award which ‘recognises the unsung heroes of the dental profession who have had a positive educational impact on students and vocational dental practitioners’.
Many Congratulations Giles!
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The School of Dentistry is like a family and it is always nice to celebrate staff events. Tonight Sue Goucher was hoping to have a quiet drink on her 50th birthday. However when she turned up at Estilo's restaurant in the Mailbox, she found all her friends from work there as well! Sue works on the 2nd floor with Marie in the secretary link office between Prof Chapple and Dr White's offices. Congratulations Sue and Many Happy Returns.
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The Mailbox is one of the most striking buildings in Birmingham and the walkway under the Queensway Road is also pretty as it is lit up at night with pink lights.
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The School of Dentistry should not exist in isolation from National Politics. As a School we must be aware of the changes that are happening in Dentistry that will have an influence on the education of our students. YourBlogger was at a symposium “The Changing face of Dentistry” which was part of the Westminster Health Forum Keynote Seminars. It was chaired jointly by Lord Colwyn, Member of the Science and Technology Select Committee and Paul Beresford MP, Member of the Communities and Local Governments Select Committee. The main speakers were Barry Cockcroft, Chief Dental Officer England, Susie Sanderson Chair of the British Dental Association Representative Board and Duncan Rudkin, Chief Executive and Registrar, General Dental Council. Views were provided from the Department of Health, the British Dental Association and revalidation by the General Dental Council. There were other Themes which included Public access to dental care, Recruitment and Retention in the NHS and the future of dental practice in the next decade. Eddie Crouch from Birmingham Local Dental Committee was one of the speakers on public access to dental care. There were some heated debates over the New Contract and many views were put forward including those from the Patient’s Association and Citizens Advice Bureau. It was aimed at informing parliamentarians about the state of Dentistry and the transcripts of the meeting will be published on the Web. One of the winners of the day was the weather and London was an exciting place to be as there was both the State Opening of Parliament and the launch of the new Channel Tunnel terminal at St Pancras station.
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Friday was a busy day for the staff as it was our Staff Development Day. We had our update given by Professor Philip Lumley. He congratulated staff on their successful efforts on behalf of the School and also provided background on the new College structure that will be happening within the University next year. This was followed by a morning where we discussed Change Management. At lunchtime everyone met at Michelle's restaurant for lunch and the picture shows all staff discussing various points from the morning.
That afternoon the School of Dentistry hosted hosted a reception in the Osborne room Trevor and Nerina to celebrate their recent marriage this summer. As Trevor pointed out it was not possible to invite everyone to his wedding and he was pleased that the School was able to hold this small party for everyone. 
So that was Staff Development Day and whilst we were working the students were organising and taking part in the Northern Dental Schools Sports Day. We hope they did well and won the event!
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For all Muslims fasting is over and the final year student's organised an Eid party for the whole school. Many staff and students were there after clinics had finished enjoying a plentiful array of Asian food and drinks. The party took place in the Dental Hospital canteen. Thanks go to Ahmad Farooq for arranging the food and the picture shows Nazim Dad, Adil Aslam, Zeshann Ali, Imtiaz Lorgat who were serving the food for everyone. Mr Spence found some of the food a little hot!
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HAVE YOU GOT TALENT?
If you read the definition on Wikipedia, Talent can mean lots of different things from a personal gift or skill to an ancient unit of weight. It could be a Tarento which is a variety entertainment personality in Japan. I hope we get more clues after the appearance of a series of quirky posters around the Dental School.
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Last night the School said farewell to Dr Jonathon Harris who is a Lecturer in Biomaterials. Jon has been with the School first as a Biomaterials student followed by working on several projects including the EPSRC Technology Transfer project and CPD-HQ. Dr Dick Shelton, Head of Biomaterials gave the leaving speech and the presentation took place on the 8th floor of the building in the refurbished Biomaterial laboratories.
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The “Bioceramics 20” conference was an international symposium of ceramics in medicine, held this year in Nantes, France. The meeting was spread over three days (24-26th October) and was well represented by delegates from the University of Birmingham. The School of Dentistry had four representatives: Dick Shelton, Mike Hofmann, Joanne O’Beirne and Kris Coomar; all presenting orally or via poster. The conference ‘kicked off’ with its traditional welcome reception. A very generous spread of French wines/cider, freshly cooked filled crepes, seafood and cheeses was laid out for the 300+ delegates. 
The symposium covered bone cements/scaffolds, bioactive/compatible metals, bioglasses/ceramics, composites and dental materials. A truly international representation was made, with delegates from all over Europe, Far East, Indian subcontinent, Middle East, Africa and the Americas. A lot was covered in the three days and the long and condensed sessions left one feeling in need of ‘une grande bouteille de vin!’ All-in-all, an excellent conference and a good time had by all. Can’t wait for next year’s symposium in Buzios, Rio de Janeiro!
![How many scientists does it take to get around Nantes? (Adrian Wright and Matt Cave [School of Chemistry] and Mike](http://www.dentistry.bham.ac.uk/ecourse/files/19/DamienBlog/kris05.jpg)
Yourblogger thanks Dr Kris Coomer for his account of the project
October 2007
There are stories that the Dental School is haunted but you will need to make up your own mind
Happy Halloween !!!!!
--------------------All around the Dental School notices are appearing and all they say is
HAVE YOU GOT TALENT ? Professor Tony Smith, Director of Research writes "I am delighted to report that a bid for an EPSRC funded Life Sciences Interface grant to form a Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) based at the University in the subject area of "Physical Sciences of Imaging in the Biomedical Sciences (PSIBS)" in which the School of Dentistry is one of the partners has been successful. It will fund a 10 PhD cohort every year for five years and the funding is for £5.5 million. This cohort of students will come from a background of chemistry, physics or engineering, who will be trained in the biological sciences. Each Cohort will undertake a 4 year PhD where the first year will be a series of mini projects followed by their main project for three years. The bid was led by Professor Mike Hannon of Chemistry and the schools involved with the application were Dentistry, Biosciences, Chemistry, Computer Sciences and Chemical Engineering. It will be a cross College research platform. The DTC will be based on campus and students will work in the relevant departments for study. Dentistry will have a representative on the management structure and be involved with the DTC centre. For Dentistry it will mean access to a pool of PhD students who will study with interdisciplinary supervision. The people involved with the bid from Dentistry were Damien Walmsley (lead), Gabriel Landini, Rachel Sammons and Will Palin. Bernhard Felver was involved with the final presentations as an engineer who is studying a PhD within dentistry. The grant is a great opportunity for dentistry to interact within a cross College arena and to be the main player in this DTC within our own new College. I’m sure that everyone will join with me in offering heartiest congratulations to the staff in the School, who pulled this off – well done ! This success reflects the School as a major player within the University’s research agenda." Birmingham at night is a photographer's delight. The Selfridges store always provides great views and represents the new bold face of the city. We know that you have it in you to beat South Africa. The School of Dentistry wish the England World Cup Rugby team all the best for the final on Saturday. So where will you be watching the game in the pub or at home with friends. It will be fantastic if they do win and all we can do is keep our fingers crossed. Also --------- --------- Peter Ward, Chief Executive of the British Dental Association spoke to the Dental Students about the New Dental Contract and the Future of Dentistry. There was a packed audience in the Alex MacGregor Theatre for the talk. Peter gave a frank and honest picture about the NHS and Dentistry but reassured the students that there would be an exciting time ahead for them. The talk was followed by Pizza and Drinks in the Student Common Room. The School would like to thank the final year students, Neal Raval and Suchita Vaidya for organising Peter's visit. ----------- For those of you worried that the school may not have many staff, we have appointed Martin Ling and Upen Patel both as lecturers in Restorative Dentistry. There will be more on their profiles when they officially take up their positions in the School. The eCourse team at the School of Dentistry have been shortlisted for the prestigious Times Higher Awards. The team comprising Giles Perryer, Deborah White and Damien Walmsley are shortlisted in the Outstanding ICT Initiative of the Year Award. On the JISC site the judges have listed institutional initiatives which best demonstrate an ‘innovative, strategic and potentially far-reaching use of ICT in support of the goals of that institution’. The Awards winners will be announced at a ceremony in London on November 29. September 2007
What does this mean?
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Jason Parry was on the town last night and here is a picture of him enjoying a Coke float at Wokmania in Hurst Street. Friends and colleagues were able to say goodbye informally to Jason who is a Research Associate at the School. He leaves on Friday and is moving to Morroco where he will be teaching English. It will be a change from working on toothbrush research. The School wishes Jason all the best in his future endeavours.
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On a cold Monday morning it is rather sobering to reflect on what being English is all about. It is losing to South Africa in the Rugby and seeing Lewis Hamilton come second in the World Championship. However both made us proud and we dream of future conquests in the years to come!
Don't mention the football!!
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The National Exhibition Centre at Birmingham hosted BDTA Dental Showcase. The theme was Magic and there were many examples of magic tricks being performed. Your Blogger was informed that Thursday and Friday were very busy days. On Saturday many dentists faught with the M42 and other exhibitions including both the International Caravan and Motorhome 2007 and subpostmaster shows. Even Donny Osmond is there this evening but he is competing with the Rugby World Cup final! 
There were many interesting new products at the show in the areas of endodontics and dental materials. There were live demonstrations on patients and many other exciting events. Professor Trevor Burke was seen around the Dental Update stand and was ready to greet and chat to people. The Exhibition is always exciting as it is a chance to meet people, old and present students, former colleagues and university friends. The dental trade work hard to make this event a success and this year's exhibition was probably the best yet. 
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Shaila Vasant (4th year dental student) provides an account of the Hawaiian Themed Padlock and Key Selly Oak Pub Crawl that took place on Wednesday 10th October
This year’s Hawaiian themed minder-minder brought back a sweet taste of the summer, as 68 freshers brightened up the streets of Selly Oak dressed in an array of multicoloured grass skirts, flower garlands and matching printed yellow shirts!
Pizzas were awaiting the freshers as they arrived at the Bristol Pear, after which it was time to start the fun and games, coordinated by the BUDSS committee, which included a fiercely competitive game of limbo, and the hula! Well done to Laura who won the limbo, Abisola who won the Hula, and Ashwin who won the best dressed!
The freshers then left the Pear each adorned with their own combination-bearing garland to enter the next pub where the minders were waiting for them with their padlock-bearing garlands. After this things became rather exciting, as freshers swarmed from padlock to padlock entering their combinations rushing to win the prize for the first to find their minder!
Overall the padlock acted as an excellent facilitator of conversation between the minders and mindees and everyone was very quickly getting to know each other. It was then onto the soak where there was free food and drink for all, the mindees continued to search for their minders, gradually becoming easier by process of elimination! The night carried on smoothly from here as the freshers were keen to continue meeting the more senior students who were able to give them a first hand insight into surviving as a dental student! Overall the event was a great success as all freshers were able to find a minder, and were given another really warm welcoming by the student society.
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Come on England!!
We must not forget Lewis Hamilton and hope that he wins in Brazil. Many of us will be dancing the Samba if he is successful over there and becomes World Champion.
Your Blogger was pleased to see that another UK Dental School now has its own Blog. Manchester Dental School has joined the Blogging craze and their Blogger goes under the pseudonym of "theCutter". May be Your Blogger should look for a more catchy name! theCutter also has a very sophisticated site covering topics on music, culture etc. If you want to more then visit Dentistry at Manchester Blog.
Well done to Manchester and we look forward to more of the same.
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The School is pleased to recieve a visit from Professor Jack Ferricane who has been appointed visiting Professor to the School of Dentistry. As Professor and Chair of Biomaterials & Biomechanics at Oregan University, Jack has a considerable research background in the area of Dental Composites. Jack is staying with the School for a few days and will be giving a lecture on "Placing Dental Composites - A Stressful Situation". He will be looking forward to returning to the States as he had an eventful and packed series of meeting with various researchers in the School of Dentistry. The visit was arranged by Professor Tony Smith, Director of Research and Editor of the Journal of Dental Research.
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The Annual 30 Year Reunion Dinner was held at Staff House at the University of Birmingham. This dinner is held for each Dental Year who qualified from Birmingham Dental School 30 years after graduation. The dinner is sponsored by the Sir Arthur Thomson Charitable Trust and was hosted by Professor Philip Lumley, Head of School. Peter Rock gave a witty speech and boasted that it would be up for double CPD hours as there were two Postgraduate Deans present, Liz Jones ('77) and John Frame, husband of Kathy Frame (nee Batchelor '77). Further photographs of this event have been posted on Flickr. The school wishes to thank Carinna Chilton for her excellent organisation of the event.
The Curriculum team at the School of Dentistry won the Head of School's Prize for Excellence in Teaching and Supporting Student Learning. The Prize was announced by the Head of School Professor Philip Lumley at School Prize giving in July but the team were officially honoured by the Vice Chancellor at a recent dinner. It was also the occasion that they received their certificates. The following pictures show the team, Karen Williams, Ann Ward and Frances Deen and Lynne Reynolds (School Manager)with the Vice Chancellor and other award winners from the University. 
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Last night, the Dental Hospital played host to a consultation event for dental leaders on the Strategic Health Authority’s proposed strategic framework "Investing for Health". One of the key themes of this strategy is improving NHS dentistry. The meeting was attended by LDC Chairs and Secretaries, Clinical Directors of salaried primary dental care services, Dental Practice Advisers, dental public health staff, and senior hospital and academic dental staff. It was a lively meeting which included presentations by Eamon Kelly form the StHA and John Langford, Consultant in dental public health.
If you want to know more then the strategy it can be viewed on the following website at www.ifh.westmidlands.nhs.uk.
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The School said goodbye to Ahmad Hamdan, Lecturer in Orthodontics. Ahmad is moving back to Jordan and will take up a position in the Dental School there. Many people gathered into the Osborne room to hear Peter Rock, Reader in Orthodontics, give an amusing and witty leaving speech highlighting the achievements of Ahmad during his two times in Birmingham. The first in the early nineties when he gained his PhD and his recent spell as lecturer in Orthodontics. The School will miss Ahmad and his family. The picture shows a smiling Ahmad with his son, Mohammad.
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Ecourse shortlisted for Times Higher Awards
This is a marvellous achievement which reflects on the hard work and success that have been made by our staff and students who have helped the team with the development of the eCourse.
The School of Dentistry was represented at the Health Sciences Universitas 21 meeting in Hong Kong. Six dental schools were represented Birmingham, University of British Columbia, Melbourne, Brisbane, Singapore and Hong Kong. The main Health Sciences meeting discussed and debated issues such as Inter-professional learning (dental lead – Charles Shuler, UBC), Graduate Entry to Health Sciences programmes (dental lead – Mike Morgan, Melbourne) and Curriculum reform evaluation (dental lead – Esmonde Corbet, Hong Kong). In the dental breakout sessions the subject discussed included Benchmarking, the recent Global congress held in Dublin, assessment practices, potential student and faculty exchanges within the U21 network, e-Portfolios and Forensic Dentistry. The meeting was very useful and we look forward to contributing further to the next meeting in Virginia 2008. 
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Check out the latest groovy additions to the Ecourse. The one that everyone is talking about is the Virtual Patient. This gives you the chance to examine a patient in the comfort of your own chair!
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Freshers' Week has started and a big welcome to all our first year dental students who are commencing their dental course. Welcome to Birmingham and we hope you enjoy your stay with us.
If you are thinking of coming to Birmingham then check out our latest Podcasts which are also available on iTunes.
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Jack Bauer of 24 hours fame would have a hard time keeping up with our Head of School. Here is Philip competing in the Bournville Harriers Leafy 10K 2007 yesterday.
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James Rimell’s wedding
On a slightly rainy day in the Czech Republic, James Rimell – formerly at the School of Dentistry married his girlfriend Jitka Vildova in a 13th Century Castle, Hruba Skala. The wedding went without a hitch (except for James and Jitka getting hitched…), and was performed in Czech and then translated into English. Attending the wedding from the School of Dentistry were Dr’s Jonathan Harris and Simon Lea who found that, on the Saturday morning before the wedding, they were in the only block in the castle with no warm water and so had to shower in the coldest water the Czech Republic could provide!!
All who attended the wedding had a great time with the partying and celebrations going on until past 2.30am in the morning. James and Jitka (Mr and Mrs Rimell) are now relaxing (we hope) in the North of Italy around Lake Garda.
(thanks to Simon Lea our school wedding reporter in the Czech Republic)
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Dr Will Palin provides a review of the 19th Europen Dental Materials Conference ¨Bringing new technologies to the market...¨ which was held at the end of August at the Leeds Dental Institute, Univesity of Leeds. The meeting was enjoyed by several of our staff here: Adrian Shortall, Dominic Stewardson, Will Palin, Owen Addison and Yaz Arrain (who joined us recently as a part-time teacher in restorative -welcome Yaz!). The first day of key-notes included talks on developments of ORMOCER technologies, de-bunking the myths associated with glass-ionomers, new insights into mixing, engineering mineralised tissue and developments of injectable scaffolds for tissue regeneration.
The first-day was capped by a tour and dinner at Bolton Abbey. 2 bar-staff and 100 delegates proved thirsty work, although the dinner and surroundings were fantastic.
The second day of key-note lectures started with Will Palin on ¨New technologies for analysis of light-activated resins¨, incorporating current and future research conducted by himself and Adrian Shortall. Other highlights included the future of fibre-reinforced composites, innovations in dental resin composites and a quite incredible insight into the use of neutron scaterring techniques for material analysis by Prof Bob Cywinski.
The conference was a great success thanks to the hosts (David Wood and Nigel Bubb) and the quality of lectures given by esteemed researchers. The European Dental Materials Conference held every two years always offers a more initmate and explicit insight into dental materials research than other larger conferences may offer. 
(Pictures by Dominic Stewardson)
Future dates and venues include:
20th European Dental Materials Conference in Manchester 27-28 August 2009 hosted by David Watts and Nick Silikas.
21st European Dental Materials Conference in Turku, Finland August 2011 hosted by Pekka Vallittu
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In the School of Dentistry you work with people every day and yet you still do not know what they have got up to in a former life. Stephane Simon is one of our PhD students from Paris 7 and is supervised by Professors Philip Lumley and Tony Smith. Stephane’s speciality interest is in Endodontics. In 2003 he undertook a Life Swap on French TV with a famous French comedian. First the comedian came to his dental office followed by the dental school. Stephane then spent 2 days with him, including performing a one man show in front of 1500 people. Stephane says jokingly that it was "The worse day of My life". For those who are interested (and I suspect there are many) here is a clip from YouTube of Stephane giving a memorable performance.
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Welcome back everyone!
Whether you have been on holiday for 7 weeks been working or just been around Birmingham, if you did not know it already the new term started today. The School is buzzing with students. There will be many stories told about electives, holidays and what has been happening to people. The excitement will soon turn to hard work as everyone settles in to the clinics, lectures, tutorials etc.
....and don't forget it will be Christmas before you realise it!
Roots across Europe
The 13th Bienniel Congress of the European Society of Endodontology was held in Istanbul this week and Birmingham was well represented amongst its 1400 attendees from all over the world. A strong scientific programme was presented with contributors from Europe, Asia, North America and Australia. Our own Professor Tony Smith openned the meeting with a stimulating lecture titled "A Molecular Basis for Endodontics" which was very well recieved. Phillip Tomson presented a poster on his research attempting to explain the biological action of Mineral Trioxide Aggregate. A full social programme was also enjoyed by all with excellent hospitality form the local Turkish organisers. As you can see some of the delegates sampled the local customs! 
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Once ADEE had finished then the Global Congress for Dental Education commenced. This conference was held at Dublin Castle and over 300 delegates from 66 countries worldwide came together.
The Dublin Congress focus was to improve oral health through collaboration of dental educators, industry and the public. The work of the conference was done by workshops with the results to be published in the Dental Educational journals early next year. The overall aim was to provide a global prospective to dental education where the privileged would help the underprivileged. It was a great opportunity for everyone to be involved with such a large worthwhile project. During the conference there were contributions from Dr. Mary Robinson, Chancellor, University of Dublin Trinity College who gave a Video Address on “Health as a Human Right: Implications for the Dental Profession”. Sir Iain Chalmers, Editor, James Lind Library Oxford; Founder member of the Cochrane Collaboration talked about "Human rights and professional responsibilities in health care and education". There was a telecast link with Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director, Earth Institute, New York who spoke on “An end to Poverty?” The final contribution was an inspirational talk by Dr. David Wong, Associate Dean for Research University of California, Los Angeles, on “Salivary Diagnostics: Impact on Global Oral Health”.
For three days, the congress participants discussed issues not only within their working groups but also interacted dynamically between other groups. As the Congress came to a close, Mary McAleese, President of Ireland re-launched the International Federation of Dental Educators and Associations (IFDEA) as The Global Network for Dental Education.
The work style was also balanced by social interactions which took place at a State Reception in Dublin Castle State Apartments hosted by the Minister for Education and Science of the Government of Ireland. There was also a Reception & Gala Dinner at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham. The school of Dentistry the University of Birmingham is proud to have been associated with the event and looks forward to supporting the global initiatives of IFDEA.
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The School of Dentistry is well represented at the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Association for Dental Education in Europe in conjunction with DentEd III which is taking place in the historical Dublin Castle Conference Centre located in the heart of Dublin city. The theme for the meeting is “Structural Changes in Dental Education” and there are various presentations from faraway locations such as Leeds and San Francisco. The ADEE web site provides more information. Our very own Neal Raval is representing the British Dental Students Society. The picture shows him networking with Dr Pat Ferillo the Dean of the University of the Pacific, San Francisco. The school also presented a lively poster on the success of podcasts in the teaching of Prosthetic Dentistry which received a great deal of interest. It was a dual presentation by Giles Perryer and Damien Walmsley. The ADEE conference ends tomorrow and then the Global congress for Dental Education commences.
The School of Dentistry
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