December 2008
So this is Christmas and what have we done......
We had a very successful year and the range of activities and successes may be found in this Blog. From the 3 peaks to the RAE, from the 150 years celebrations to the National Student Survey, we have worked hard but also enjoyed ourselves. Have a great Christmas and New Year and we leave you with views of Birmingham this Christmas.
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The RAE results have been released today and 60% of the research activity from the School of Dentistry was rated as being internationally world-leading or excellent with overall, 90% of the activity being recognised as of international quality. Well done!
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The Graduate School Festival of Research and Enterprise was held in the Medical School. It was a showcase for postgraduate research students throughout the College of Medical and Dental Sciences. There was an introduction and Welcome by Professor John Gordon (Head of the Graduate School) and this was followed by presentations from Dr. Mark Payton and Professor Paul Moss on Enterprise, Innovation and Technology Transfer. This was immediately followed by presentations given by Research Students. There were 11 oral presentations and dentistry was represented by Joanne O’Beirne (Accelerated hardening of a root filling material, Mineral Trioxide Aggregate - MTA) and Mike Milward (Modulation of the host response to periodontal bacteria using a natural oxidant). There was a high turnout of research posters from the School of Dentistry (total of 9). There were prizes for the best posters and presentations and the School was delighted that Zoe Gale won the Medici Prize for the best poster in the category enterprise and innovation. Zoe's poster was entitled Effects of neurotrophic growth factors on dental pulp stem cells.
The day finished with the 2008 William Withering Lecture given by Professor Raymond Dwek FRS, Head of the Glycobiology Institute University of Oxford on Glycobiology at Oxford – A Story Of Innovation and Imagination.
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The School Office have made a special Christmas Grotto and it is free to visit. Here we see the array of Santas, Christmas Turkeys and Christmas Trees on display.
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Professor Mike Read, Dean Emeritus of the University of Missouri/Kansas City School of Dentistry came to visit Birmingham on behalf of ADEA/IFDEA. Here we see Mike with Donald Spence and Deborah White.
The Music Society organised this year’s Hospital and School Carol Concert on 11th December in the Alexander MacGregor Lecture Theatre. There were Mince pies and “mulled wine” served in the Foyer of the Ground Floor. Everyone's favourite carols and songs were performed and there was even audience participation in the singing. Claire Bolton took on the main organisation but everyone in the Music Society helped out by playing or singing. In the midst of examinations and with the busy run up to Christmas, it was a fantastic effort. There was also a collection in aid of St Mary's Hospice. Here are some more pictures including a strange Santa.
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The traditional Director's Open House was held as a thank you to all in the School for their hard work during the year. A good supply of Mince pies was available for those who dropped in to say hello.
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Giles Perryer and Damien Walmsley were invited by Jane Williams (Director eLearning, Medicine) to give a presentation on the Birmingham ecourse. This took place at the Dental School at Bristol University. The morning session was introduced by David Dymock (Senior Lecturer in Oral Microbiology) and consisted of presentations from Damien and Giles on the award winning ecourse at the University of Birmingham. Subsequent discussions were led by Dr John Davis, Academic Director of e-learning on the future of VLE provision at Bristol. An audience of over 40 interested educators in Medicine and Dentistry provided feedback on the examples of elearning given by Giles and Damien. This feedback will be used to assist Bristol on their elearning strategy. The picture shows Jane, Giles, John, Damien and David during the day's proceedings.
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The School said good bye to Sue Roche who has served the School and Hospital for nearly 20 years as a part-time lecturer in Oral Medicine. John Hamburger paid tribute to her hard work and dedication to both the students and patients. We wish Sue a happy retirement.
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Forget the Father Christmas Grotto at Selfridges, Floor 2 are creating their own Winter Wonderland. Here we see Martin Ling and Anna Jephcott outside their room on Floor 2. Not to be outdone others have placed a few Christmas trees outside their door.
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One of the first Christmas Parties at the School took place at the Dragons BBQ at Five Ways. The Postgraduate school started the festivities and both supervisors and students attended the meal. Students from all three research areas were there including the researchers who supervise them. Well done to Jan Poller for organising the evening. We were also pleased to welcome the PSIBS students to the meal who are starting off on their PhD's in this EPSRC funded postdoctoral centre. More parties are planned and people start to realise it is only 2 weeks to Christmas.
November 2008
As we head into the weekend it is always good to see how the other half lives. What happens after you have worked at the School and Hospital for many years? Well Birmingham has its own Golden Girls!
Sandy Gibbons writes "Thought you might like to see some photo's of the Golden Girls on the Orient Express. Proving there is life after the School of Dentistry and the Dental Hospital. We all had a lovely day on a truly luxurious 1930's Pullman and our journey from Birmingham International to Knightsbridge included a champagne reception."
The picture shows former school secretaries Sandy Gibbons and Anne Ward together with former hospital administrator Pauline Harrington. Michelle Shortall is still the Directors secretary and keeping the others in check!
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The British Association of Oral Surgeons (BAOS) Annual Conference 2008 was held in Edinburgh and there was a great result for the Birmingham Team as 5 Prizes were won. The following were winners: -
Staff from the Dental School and Hospital attended the conference and these included Prof. Thomas Dietrich, Mr. Gerry Flaum, Mr. Mike Hahn, Mrs. Carolyn Evans and Mr. Ralph Seymour.
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Ben Scheven travelled to New York last week to visit Dr Sleiman Ghorayeb’s lab (Hofstra University, Long Island, NY) and to discuss their collaborative research project proposal. Last Friday, Ben visited the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research at North Shore-LIJ Hospital (Long Island, NY) and met up with Dr Dan Grande, Head of the Orthopaedic Research Laboratories, where ground-breaking research on (cartilage and ligament) tissue engineering is taking place. Ben gave a presentation at the Feinstein Institute entitled “Role of cell biology in biomechanics and bioengineering of hard tissues”.
The Saturday, Ben had the chance to tour New York City (Manhattan) which was an additional and interesting experience.
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This is in someways one of the busiest weeks in the School Calendar. Today the 4th Years have the OSCE examination and on Wednesday and Friday are the papers for Finals Part 1. All the best to our students and to all staff the weekend is not far away!
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ABAOMS is the acronym for the the Association of British Academic Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons and their Annual Conference is being held in the Matfen Hall set in the beautiful Northumberland countryside. The Birmingham delegation consisted of Prof Thomas Dietrich, Yogesh Bulsara and Dan Saund. The Programme included talks on Teaching Anatomy, ePortfolios and suture techniques. The standard of all the talks was high and were informative on teaching of Oral Surgery to Undergraduates. There was a presentation given by Professor Damien Walmsley on "Europe, Competences, Dental Education, where is it all going?" who was representing ADEE and informing the conference on the updated Task Force document.
The picture shows the Birmingham boys having a relaxing time before the conference the next day.
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The Roll of Honour for those members of the Hospital and School who fought for the freedom of our country is shown below. We remember them in our thoughts.
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Celebrating 150 years of Birmingham Dental Hospital
The Alex MacGregor lecture theatre was packed to overflowing to hear 5 eminent speakers talk on a variety of topics. Eagerly awaited was Birmingham's own Barry Cockcroft who talked on the subject of "Matching Education, System Reform and Changing Needs". He also talked about his own undergraduate days at Birmingham including watching a Cricket match instead of attending lectures only to find Professor John Osborne sitting behind him. Dr Mike Martin gave an entertaining lecture on "Something Old, Something New" followed by Mr John Hamburger on the topic of "The Oral Mucosa – A Medical Mystery Tour". In the afternoon Mr Kevin Lewis (the only non Birmingham graduate on the bill talked about the "Legal and Ethical Issues in Dentistry".
The final lecture of the day was the Alexander MacGregor memorial lecture and was entitled "BDS (Benefits of Discovery Science) Found in Translation?" given by Professor H Sewell, Professor of Immunology, Former Pro-Vice Chancellor of Nottingham University. He highlighted the importance of research in Dentistry and the discoveries that have come about by the investment of Research Funds via the MRC into Medical Research.
The evening Banquet to celebrate 150 years was held at the Council House and the Lord Mayor of Birmingham was there to greet people. The picture shows the Lord Mayor with our students who are the future of Dentistry in the West Midlands and the UK. Speeches were led by Dr Peter Rock and the reply by Mr Rick Roberts Medical Director of South Birmingham PCT. The evening celebration was rounded off by a thank you from the ever famous Rene and a song from her husband. So we move forwards onto the next 50 years with the prospect of a new hospital in the near future. The founding father Samuel Adams Parker would have been proud of the achievements of the Hospital 150 years on from its inception.
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BIRMINGHAM DENTAL HOSPITAL
150 YEARS
Today is the the Birmingham Dental Hospital 150 Year lecture programme in the Alexander MacGregor Lecture Theatre.
As the participants gather in the foyer outside the theatre they may notice a small but important plaque that commemorates the founder of the Hospital, Samuel Adams Parker.
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The celebrations of the 150th Anniversary of the Dental Hospital will also be marked by an Official Dinner at the Council House this Friday 7th November.
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Here is yesterday's answer and it is Vince (proudly wearing his medal) on the Porters desk who completed the recent Birmingham half marathon. Well done to Vince and just to remind you he is collecting sponsorship !
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Today is a celebration of the people who work in the Dental Hospital. Such a building will not exist without the hard work and dedication of the different and varied groups of Staff in the building. So the Birmingham Dental Hospital close up features one of these people.
Whose medal does this belong to and for what event does it represent?
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Here is yesterday's answer and it is taken from cubicle 603 on the 6th Floor clinic East wing. The picture was taken earlier this year when it was sunny and prior to the present facelift of curtains etc. On a clear day patients have an uninterrupted view as far as the Barr Beacon and beyond.
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Today's close up - which clinic would you be in to see this particular view?
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The answer to yesterday's Birmimgham Dental Hospital Close up is shown below. It is the Paternoster.
Some trivia our Paternoster even has a mention in Wikipaedia!
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Today's close up - where would you be standing if you saw this sign?
The answer to yesterday's Birmimgham Dental Hospital Close up is shown below. It is the staff Entrance.
To get people thinking about the Hospital then each day we will be having a series of pictures. In the Hospital there is a themed set of photographs called Birmingham close up. Well Your Blogger thought it might be good to have a Birmingham Dental Hospital Close up. Here is the first one.
Do you know where this is?
Answer will be with you tomorrow.
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October 2008
The School was visited this week by the three representatives from Liaquat
University of Medical & Health Sciences, Jamshoro, Pakistan. The visitors
were Vice Chancellor Prof. Noshad Ahmed Sheikh, the Director of the Medical
Research Centre Prof. Khaliq-ur-Rahman Sheikh and the Director of
Postgraduate Studies, Prof. Khalique Siddiqui.
They were given a tour of our research and teaching facilities at the School
of Dentistry and their two sponsored postgraduate students gave presentations
on their progress.
Ms Erum Khan is researching in the field of tissue engineering of the oral
mucosa (supervised by Drs Shelton, Cooper, Landini and Mr Hamburger) and Mr
Naresh Kumar spoke about his research entitled "Towards improving the dynamic
mechanical response of resin-based dental materials" (supervised by Drs
Palin, Shortall, Addison and Prof. Marquis).
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As Charity week draws to a close, the highlight was the School Fete in the Common Room which included a Cake sale, coconut shy, lucky dip, table football and pro-evo tournament. But the most intriguing stand was the Whose ‘Nose’? competition where students have to guess which nose model belongs to which member of staff.
Here we see Rohin in front of all the pictures and the noses on the table. But Dr Hill and Miss Jephcott found their own noses!
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It is snowing and this is the scene at 5.00pm 28th October!
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The Students have a charity week event (more details below) and we took some pictures of the staff in their new blue coats. Pictures to follow!
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It maybe half term but the Dental School is hectic and there are several events to report.
First to report is a fond farewell to Jane Millard. Jane was a well respected Research Technician who contributed to various projects in the School. Her leaving presentation included dinner at Minzu, Chinese restaurant and a presentation in the Osborne room. Her leaving speech was given by Dr Paul Cooper.
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The Birmingham Half Marathon was run today and several staff and students from the school took part including Phil Lumley, Angela Critchlow, Rob Mew and Carl Horton. Results and details may be found on the Web site.
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Also there is an advance notice of the Dental Hospital's 150th anniversary dinner that is taking place in the Council House on 7th November this is preceded by the 'Present and future thoughts for Dentistry' which is a day of talks and presentations by influential people in dentistry. The invited speakers are:
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Finally it is Charity week and the Students are having fun the time table is as follows.
Monday 27th Oct
Start of Charity Week Challenge.
Tuesday 28th Oct
Dress down (jeans with rules-no ripped or faded jeans, shoes to be worn) on Clinical Practice day for 3rd/4th years. Charging £1 for everyone who wants to dress down. Collecting tins on Clinical Practice. Anyone deemed not presentable enough will not be allowed on clinic.
Thursday 30th Oct
Dress down day for 1st/2nd/5th years on Clinical Practice only.
School Fete in Common Room 11am to 4pm. Including Cake sale, coconut shy, lucky dip, table football and pro-evo tournament. Non-alcoholic event. ------ Sorry if this is an exhausting run through what is happening in the School and there will be updates throughout the week Take care and have fun wherever you are! ----------- You may have noticed the following icon on our web pages.
Whose ‘Nose’? competition where students have to guess which nose model belongs to which member of staff (Many thanks to all the staff who have participated and already had your nose alginate impressions taken and to Prof Walmsley who has been busy taking pictures! Your participation is much appreciated).
Friday 31st Oct
6pm to 8.30pm– Charity Review with small acts, blind date student version and staff version, auctioning of members of BUDSS committee and possibly others. Amount we raised announced. Prizes for games and Challenges awarded. Halloween themed with free pizza.
If anyone would like to be more involved and donate a prize or take part in any of the events, or has any queries, then please email Shiralee Patel or Preeyan Patel (BUDSS Chair and Vice Chair) at ssp517@bham.ac.uk and pxp556@bham.ac.uk
If you want to know about this then read the Browsealoud news pages.
The School of Dentistry once again embraces the latest IT technologies to keep our Web pages in line with new developments. If you have not had a chance to use Browsealoud then have a try it is fun and also has a serious side by helping those with difficulties in accessing our web pages.
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There were a few dentists and friends who entered the 12th Annual Road Race which took place on the University campus in aid of Acorns. The distance was 5k and the times show that it was a fast race. Here are some pictures before and after the event. First home for the Dentists was Prof Lumley (no surprises there!) followed by Prof Walmsley and Rob Mew who have a friendly rivalry match underway. So far Prof W is 2-0 up on races. First female dentist home was Angela Critchlow. Well done to all who took part in aid of the Acorns Hospice.
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Tony Smith was at the opening ceremony of the new clinical building of the Peking University School of Stomatology in Beijing last week. He describes the new building as a magnificent facility, which emphasises Peking University as a major international player in dentistry.
Finally if you are ever on the streets in Peking never accept a lift from strangers!
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Professor Tony Smith writes:- I’m pleased to report that Paul Hooi, a student co-supervised by Owen Addison and Garry Fleming (Trinity College & ex-Birmingham), won the Academy of Dental Materials Paffenbarger award 2008 for a project presentation entitled “Quantifying Ceramic Resin Strengthening by Varying the Resin Elasticity”. The Paffenbarger Award is given to the outstanding student presentation at the annual meeting of the Academy and this year, there was very stiff competition with 38 participants. Congratulations to Paul, Owen and Garry on this significant achievement !
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Oasis were in the City last night and they served up a great concert at the NIA. YourBlogger was there but did not have his camera so you will have to take it from me the light show was "out of this world" or as my PhD students will often remark "State of the Art visuals". From the opening strands of Rock n'Roll Star to the John Lennon song "I am the Walrus" ending the show, Liam and Noel Gallagher were on top form. In the standing area it was difficult to keep one's footing but the crowd settled down to enjoy the Oasis back catalogue. Stand out tracks are too numerous to mention but WonderWall, Don't Look back in Anger, Champagne Supernova etc etc were all well done. Although I had to listen to the guy next to me sing most of the songs! And the dental relevance, well Liam does have a few implants and there were some psychedelic visuals of teeth and mouths projected behind the band during some of the songs.
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The 30 year reunion took place in Staff House on Friday night. The event was kindly funded by the Sir Arthur Thompson Charitable Trust. Many of the year of 1978 together with a few who crept over to 1979 were present to enjoy a night of good food, drink and wonderful memories. Professor Lumley led the speeches with the traditional review of the world in 1978. This was followed by Dr Peter Rock who provided a highly amusing account of changes in the importance of the specialities in the School since the assembled company had graduated. David Cottam provided the reply on behalf of the guests and remarked how pleased everyone was to see the support from the School of Dentistry. Pictures of this event have been posted on Flickr. Finally the School wish to give a big thank you to Carinna Chilton from School Office who organised the evening’s festivities.
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Rachel Arnold writes about taking part in the Great North Run
Hi
There may be some official photos where I'm running and not squinting into the sun, but these are from just after the finish. Had a fantastic day, I ran all the way and I'll definitely do it again. I'm not sure how much we raised but it'll be at least £500 so I wanted to thank everyone who sponsored me,
Rachel
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The Annual Scientific Meeting of the Sands Cox Society was held at the Birmingham Medical Institute, Birmingham. The Society was founded in 1981 and is for Birmingham Medical and Dental graduates. The AGM was chaired by Dr John Rippin and the new President Dr Ronald Fletcher was introduced. The Society makes several bursaries available to assist students with their electives. After the AGM the recipients of these awards 4 Medical Students and 1 dental student presented their elective work. Topics ranged from HIV in Uganda to Liver Transplant services in Australia. Haimisha Mistry presented her elective on her recent overseas visit and the title was "Paediatric Dental treatment in Vietnam". The Sands Cox lecture was given by Dr Richard Whittington the former coroner of Birmingham.
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It has been a quiet start to October which is not surprising as September was very hectic with a number of conferences taking place. That is not to say that we are not busy doing the day job. I thought it might be interesting this morning to see what the School and Hospital looks like following the demolition of Edward's House. I am not so sure it improves the view but judge for yourself.
September 2008
Rachel Arnold writes to YourBlogger. YourBlogger was at the Fresher's event in the Student common room last week. Many staff turned up to see exciting events such as speed dating and other fun and games. Here are a few photos from the event but I am sure that Rohin Butani BUDSS Publicity Rep and Website Administrator will have them on the BUDSS website soon. Spot the Student. Clue it is the one holding the bucket!
Postscript to the PEF conference The final day was good and once again our students performed well. Kris Coomar and Jo O'Beirne delivered oral presentations on their work and Lisa Palmer and Amal Linjawi presented at the poster session. Also Ben Scheven was elected counsellor MINTIG (mineralised tissue group). In the afternoon Tony Smith was involved in one of the Symposia Tissue Injury and Repair. Overall it was a good conference and congratulations to everyone at Birmingham who took part.
"I wonder if you'd be so good as to mention on the blog that I'm running the half marathon Great North Run on Sunday to raise money for the Parkinson's Disease Society and that anyone willing to sponsor me can find a form on the desk on floor 5, or can email me or go to JustGiving.com"
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Mike Milward and Martin Ling recently attended the British Society of Periodontology (BSP) autumn scientific meeting at Savoy Place in
Nice to have a shot of Mike with Mike Faraday!!
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Madam BUDSS Chair and Mr BUDSS President-elect.
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Peter Marquis has had a long and illustrious career at
Although Peter may have retired from administrative duties, he is still fully involved in research at the School of Dentistry including participating in grant applications, PhD supervision and research publications. 
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Spiderman, Spiderman,
Does whatever a dentist can,
Clinical Practice is his place,
Gives out grades all the time,
Students - Look Out!
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Kris Coomar writes “September definitely marks the opening to ‘conference season’! The British Society of Paediatric Dentistry (BSPD) held their annual scientific meeting over 16th-19th September in Liverpool, in its celebration year as ‘European Capital of Culture’. The conference was held at the Maritime Museum situated on the attractive Albert Dock development. A significant number of delegates attended from both Europe and internationally; Birmingham had a large representation with the whole of its dental hospital/school paediatric department attending. 
Posters were presented by some of the team and the meeting provided a good chance to exchange ideas/stories and meet with colleagues within the specialty.
All was not work though: a ferry boat cruise down the Mersey and an extravagant conference dinner in the impressive Liverpool Town Hall kept delegates occupied in the evenings. All-in-all a very enjoyable conference with perfect weather to match. We hope to even better this experience when the BSPD Annual Scientific Meeting is hosted in Birmingham next year (16th – 18th September, 2009).”
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U21 ended on a high note with the meeting being considered a great success. Dentistry was represented in the main session by a presentation from Birmingham on the ecourse and the delegates interested in the way that we have structured our elearning. In the Dentistry breakout group we discussed the forensic odontology elearning project between Melbourne, British Columbia and Birmingham. We also discussed the latest educational developments including the document on Profile and Competences of the European Dentist released by ADEE. Finally the potential of staff and student exchanges between the U21 dental schools was explored. The final morning of the conference included reports from all the disciplinary groups Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing and Health Sciences. A post conference tour of Monticello, the Family Home of Thomas Jefferson was arranged and for those staying on longer there was a chance to explore the natural beauty of the Shenandoah National Park. Next year the U21 moves to Seoul in Korea.
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Charlottesville Virginia USA is the setting for the 2008 Health Sciences conference for Universitas 21. Representing the College of Medical and Dental Sciences are Prof Philip Lumley and Damien Walmsley from Dentistry. The setting is picturesque Charlottesville which has a lot of history attached to it, including the association with Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd president of the United States and the principal author of the American constitution.
U21 health sciences conferences follow a tried and tested format. There is a keynote address followed by a panel presentation and discussion. The Keynote was on the topic of "The Global Scope of Obesity and Co-Morbidities" and delivered by Anthony McCall who is the James M Moss Professor of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, University of Virginia. The session also consisted of a debate on this interesting and important subject. In the afternoon, the specialist subject areas broke away to deliver their own sessions. Dentistry covered the use of the International Blogging project which Birmingham is participating in with Vancouver. The session also covered transcultural research. In the evening the U21 group had a reception in the Rotunda of the University of Virginia. There was a group photograph in the lawns of the University followed by dinner in the Rotunda during which there was a toast to the original founder of the University, Thomas Jefferson.
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Don’t wish to get into birthdays on the blog but we do occasionally celebrate them and Paul Cooper and Gay Smith sprang a surprise on Ben Scheven with a cake for his birthday. Ben is not giving his age away but we do know he enjoyed the cake. Many happy returns.
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Here are a selection of photographs from Thursday's day at the Pan European Federation Research conference.Click the pictures to magnify them.
Thursday evening's Gala Dinner was held at the Natural History Museum. It was a spectacular setting with dinosaurs watching whilst we ate. After the thank you speech from Prof Francis Hughes, there was dancing to Alistair Sloan's Soul Band.
Tomorrow is the last day at the conference and Kris Coomer and others will be presenting to finish off a very successful conference not only for PEF but for Research at Birmingham.
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Here are some pictures from the PEF conference for the folks back home as you can see we are working hard. 
Don't our postgraduate students look happy.
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Wednesday morning - The PEF Conference begins and Congratulations to Dr Paul Cooper who was elected as a councillor to the ABSTD at their AGM yesterday.
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--------------Here are some pictures from the PEF conference for the folks back home as you can see we are working hard. Don't our postgraduate students look happy.------------------Wednesday morning - The PEF Conference begins and Congratulations to Dr Paul Cooper who was elected as a councillor to the ABSTD at their AGM yesterday.
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Another week and it is time for another conference. Most of the Academic staff from the School are attending the Pan European Federation 2008 research meeting which is taking place at the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre in London. It is an exciting venue which is only a stone's throw away from the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Cathedral.
The conference starts on Wednesday but there are a number of satellite meetings taking place on the Tuesday before the main conference and the first was the Association Of Basic Science Teachers In Dentistry in collaboration with the Association of British Academic Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons (ABAOMS) . Professor Tony Smith, Dr Paul Cooper and Dr Ben Scheven are attending this meeting which is being held at the British Dental Association. The programme includes talks on Laying the Anatomical Basis for Dentistry & Oral Surgery, Current Highlights in Basic Dental Sciences and a report on the Global Approach to the Future of Basic Science in Dental Education.
Professor Iain Chapple has been working closely with Professor Nairn Wilson and organised a high profile symposium on "The Impact of Oral Disease on Systemic Health. What is the Evidence and How Big is the Problem?” The topics covered Diabetes and Cardiovascular disease and its links with Periodontitis. There was an impressive array of European and American speakers and whilst it is difficult to single out one presentation from the others, the lecture from Professor Mark Caulfield gave a fascinating overview of Atheromatous vascular disease and ischaemic Stroke in the UK"
The main group of Birmingham presenters travel down tonight with the conference officially opening tomorrow there will be more news to come. Many of us are staying in the student accommodation at Beit Hall in Imperial College. It may be basic but it is comfortable and provides great views of the Royal Albert Hall. Now we need the rain to stop and the conference to begin....
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.....So those little blue numbers that the clinicians are wearing look very fetching.
I think this will have to be a feature in a future blog.
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Welcome back EVERYBODY!
Hope your holidays were good.
Not only do you have to tell us about your electives but you will need to write them up. While you have been away, the staff have still been working at the School. But the School has been soooo quiet and the noise of idle chatter and the lack of gossip has been painful for the staff.
Daft as it sounds we are pleased you have you back.
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For those of you who want a bit more information at the ADEE Conference in Zagreb then there are a few pictures up on Facebook and a report on the Manchester Blog.
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ADEE conferences are always very good. Although they are aimed at the dental educator, the conference brings together the best of dentistry. There is a good mix of researchers as well as teachers. The networking opportunities with other colleagues in Europe allow old and new allegiances to be formed. Immediately before ADEE starts, the European Dental Students Association (EDSA) hold their own conference. When one attends the students’ conference, you are struck by the great enthusiasm for their chosen career and how they debate important topics. Also they party well and the highlight of the conference is the EDSAvision where each country takes turn to compete in a Karaoke contest. There are some interesting performances!
Turning to ADEE, the main conference discussed the recruitment and retention of academic staff. Speakers included Professor Paula O' Neill, Houston, Texas, USA, Dr. Karl Haden, Atlanta, Georgia, USA and Professor Kevin O’Brien, Manchester, UK. This conference also is renowned for its special interest groups and workshops. The following topics were covered in the afternoon
A Human Resource Management in Dental Schools: Goals and Possibilities, Career Development in Dental Schools, Recruitment & Retention of Education Staff, EDSA: Career Development in Dental Education - Student’s Point of View
Special Interest Groups: Logbooks in Dental Education, Ph.D. programmes in Europe, Harmonisation of dental specialist training and education in Europe, Development of Continuous Education, Student & Staff Exchange and Dental Tourism: Implications to Dental Education
Birmingham was leading from the front participating in all the workshops and special interest groups. In the evening we were ready for some R'n'R and the ADEE Reception was held in the impressive Croatian National and University Library. There were recitals by musicians followed by a sumptuous banquet. There is a presentation from Birmingham in the morning so it had to be an early night for some of us
August 2008
The summer is ending (some may say we never had summer) and it is a week away until the term starts. Your Blogger has been busy along with everyone else in the school. When the students are away you have this foolish idea that you will be able to catch up with work. You know, all those things that you could never complete whilst the students were around. So the summer came, 6 weeks of no students but as it turns out you never catch up. There is holiday to be had, papers to be written, patients to see, research to do etc, etc. So much to do and so little time. Then the summer finishes.
The first week of September is conference season and Your Blogger has gone down to Zagreb to attend the Association for Dental Education in Europe. He is waiting for the Birmingham team of Prof White, Mr Perryer, Miss Lynne Reynolds and Mr Donald Spence to arrive. However wandering around the foyer of the International hotel, he spotted Professor Thomas Dietrich who is in Zagreb already. There is a Smoking cessation conference taking place and there are several leading lights from dentistry at the conference. I had better not mention names as there own dental school or organisation may not even know that they are here! Meanwhile Your Blogger will update you on the events of the ADEE conference over the next few days.
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It was good to see the profile of Professor Deborah White in the news section of the British Dental Journal.
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Here is a picture of Anna Jephcott (Lecturer in Oral Surgery) on her wedding day on the 2nd August. Kirsty Hill took the picture of Anna and husband Anthony. Congratulations from the School on their wedding day.
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