Awards will fund research for York academics
Posted on 5 December 2006
Prize allows York scientist to go to extremes
For the next two years, scientist Dr Lucy Carpenter will be taking her study of atmospheric chemistry to climatic extremes, thanks to a Philip Leverhulme Prize.
The senior lecturer in the Department of Chemistry at the University of York is already involved in a unique monitoring station in the Tropics, and the £70,000 Leverhulme Prize will allow her to lead a new project in the Arctic.
The International Polar Year project will examine the atmospheric effect of frost-flowers, the delicate ice crystals that form on sea ice and emit halogens, bromine and iodine, into the atmosphere.
Our overall aim is to develop an improved understanding of Arctic chemistry and emissions, and their effect and feedbacks on atmospheric chemistry and climate
Dr Lucy Carpenter
Scientists from the UK, Germany and Canada will test the theory that the combination of high surface area and high salinity in the frost flowers leads to the release of the halogens, which then interact resulting in the depletion of ozone and mercury in the troposphere.
Dr Carpenter said the project would be based at a Canadian research station in Hudson Bay for two months in spring 2008 with the team working in an air-conditioned portable laboratory.
"It's a big field experiment which is going to be logistically very difficult to do. We have to go out there in February and March because of the combination of cold temperatures and sunlight, so I shall spend some of the Prize on teaching relief," she said.
"We are hoping for temperatures of minus 20 to 30 degrees Celsius - there are huge floats of frost flowers in those conditions. Our overall aim is to develop an improved understanding of Arctic chemistry and emissions, and their effect and feedbacks on atmospheric chemistry and climate".
The Arctic project will run in parallel with the Dr Carpenter's work at the atmospheric monitoring station established in September on the Cape Verde Islands in the Atlantic. With German scientists at a nearby oceanography station, she is studying how atmospheric chemistry affects the ocean and vice-versa.
Prize helps art historian to spotlight 'forgotten' sculptors
A scholar from the University of York has won a £70,000 Philip Leverhulme Prize to help to throw new light on the 'poor relation' of British art.
Dr Jason Edwards, a lecturer in the University's Department of History of Art, will use the award to write a book on 19th-century British sculpture, which he hopes to follow with a an exhibition of rarely seen works from the period.
The book will feature a new interpretation of the Albert Memorial, particularly the evidence it provides of race relations across the British empire in the 19th century, and an examination of the iconography of the Natural History Museum in South Kensington and Oxford University Museum of Natural History.
The book will also include chapters on sculptor Thomas Woolner, one of the original seven members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; John Gibson, who went from being a Liverpool cabinetmaker to creating neo-classical sculpture in 19th-century Rome; and the so-called New Sculpture that emerged in the closing decades of the Victorian period.
The exhibition should provide the first major reappraisal of Victorian sculpture for 25 years
Dr Jason Edwards
Dr Edwards is hoping to complete the book late next year, while the exhibition is planned for 2010. Dr Edwards hopes that the exhibiton will feature a wide range of domestic-scaled sculpture, including important pieces by women, in a Victorian period house. The venue has yet to be finalised.
"Sadly 19th century British sculpture has been very much the poor relation of British art but interest in it is growing, so hopefully these projects will bring it to a wider audience," he said.
"The exhibition should provide the first major reappraisal of Victorian sculpture for 25 years and be the largest exhibition of its kind if we pull it off. It will give the public their first opportunity to see an exhibition of this scale and to view some of these pieces for the first time. There has never been a major exhibition like this outside a museum setting."
Notes to editors:
- For more information on the Philip Leverhulme Prizes and the Leverhulme Trust go to www.leverhulme.ac.uk
- The Hudson Bay International Polar Year project includes scientists from the University of York, the British Antarctic Survey, the University of Leeds, the University of Manchester, the University of Bremen and the Meteorological Survey of Canada.
- International Polar Year is sponsored by the World Meteorological Organisation and the International Council of Science. More information is available at www.ipy.org/start/index.php/site/about
- The Cape Verde atmospheric monitoring station is funded through the Natural Environment Research Council's Surface Ocean - Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS) programme.
- The Department of Chemistry at the University of York has an excellent reputation for teaching and research. In the last Research Assessment Exercise the department was awarded a 5 rating. It is led by Royal Society of Chemistry prize-winners in all three branches of physical, organic and inorganic chemistry. It has 46 members of academic staff, more than 380 undergraduate students, 150 graduates and 90 research fellows. More information at www.york.ac.uk/chemistry/
- The Department of History of Art at the University of York is an internationally recognised and rapidly expanding centre of academic excellence and provides prospective students with a wide variety of choices and specialisations. More information at www.york.ac.uk/depts/histart/