Wood Words 2013-14

WOODWORDSTheCollingwoodCollege Alumni Magazine | 2013-2014

FROMCOLLINGWOODSTUDENT TOSTARTUP CEO

A LIFE INPOLITICS

RESEARCHINGENERGY IN ADEVELOPINGCOUNTRY

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Paul Brown talks about hisexperience at Collingwood

TALKINGNONSENSE

How writing a novelturned me into a perfumer

FALLING INTOFRAGRANCE

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WOODWORDSCONTENTS1 Welcome 3 Introducing the Vice Principal 3 James Proudfoot -

JCR President4 Emma Brownlow 5 - 6 From Collingwood student to

startup CEO7 - 10 Talking nonsense11 - 14 Falling into fragrance15 - 18 A life in politics19 - 22 Researching energy in a

developing country 23 - 26 Undergraduate research

internships

WELCOMEAMessagefromthePrincipal ProfessorJoeElliott

As I approach my third Christmas atCollingwood, I still feel like theproverbial child in a sweetshop.Having the honour to live and work asa member of this community is, quitesimply, exciting, inspiring, fulfilling,and, occasionally, enervating.My greatest difficulty is trying, andregularly failing, to keep up with somuch activity. In recent weeks, I havehad the pleasure of witnessingThe Wood receive the inter-Collegiatesports trophy (again), shiveringthrough the Woodplayers' productionof 'Dracula', listening to ourmusicians perform at College andUniversity concerts, attending a fancydress formal dressed as a Star Warsstormtrooper, and watching our teamtrumping a Bailey college in the finalof Durham's own version of UniversityChallenge (please look out for twoCollingwood guys sorting out Mr.Paxman in the next TV series).The list could go on and on... but,because of the richness of our alumnipieces, Emma has limited me to asingle paragraph this year (although,I hope that she will not spot that Ihave exceeded my quota).

Of course, the Collingwood communityconsists of more than current Durhamresidents and we are always delightedto welcome alumni back to Collegeand help them find themselves in theiryear group photos. Last month, weenjoyed an excellent reception in

Drury Lane, London, attended byalumni from each of the past fourdecades. The success of this eventhas encouraged us to organise asimilar event next Spring.

Our alumni offer so much to thegenerations that follow in their shoes.We are immensely grateful for thesupport that has enabled us topurchase an excellent "Eight",named after Sara Pilkington, astudent who died tragically a coupleof years ago, and a first-class babygrand piano that has proven to be amagnet to our musicians. Of course,many of our alumni also contributehugely by offering career advice andsupport to our students. At a time ofgreat competition in the employmentmarket, such guidance is invaluableand greatly appreciated. But also, ofgreat importance, is the fact thatalumni contact of any kind helps ourstudents to understand the role ofCollege as a key part of our identity,as a vehicle that helps us fulfil ourpotential across many varied aspectsof life, and, of course as the source oflifetime friends (and, in very manycases, a lifetime partner).

Thank you for the many differentways by which you show yourcommitment to the Collingwoodcommunity. I hope that you enjoy thiscopy of Wood Words and that I havethe opportunity to catch up with asmany of you as possible in 2014.

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“Our alumni offer so much to the generations thatfollow in their shoes. We are immensely gratefulfor the support that has enabled us to purchasean excellent "Eight", named after Sara Pilkington”

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Joe Elliott, Ruth Elliottand Jools Pilkington withthe new VIII, named inmemory of Sara Pilkington.


INTRODUCINGVICKY RIDLEYVICE PRINCIPALAs Vice Principal, I will support anddevelop specific areas of the collegecommunity as well as being anintegral member of the CollegeManagement team. Working withothers, my initial aims are to workwith the MCR to enhance theCollingwood postgraduatecommunity; build on the alumnirelations work already underway incollege; grow the CollingwoodConnect careers scheme; anddevelop new initiatives that willenhance the opportunities available

to all Collingwood students. I amparticularly keen to develop outreachand engagement opportunities withlocal communities that will providestudents with the opportunity tovolunteer and gain skills in newenvironments.

I am an alumna of Van Mildert Collegeand have several years’ experience ofworking at Durham University.Currently I work with ExperienceDurham, overseeing the University’sstaff volunteering programme andhave previously held the roles ofAlumni Relations Officer and StudentCommunity Action Manager. Havingbeen an active member ofCollingwood Senior Common Room,I am now very much looking forwardto working with all students, staff,alumni and friends of The Wood.

Throughout the festival themedweek, first year students were invitedto take part in numerous in-collegeactivities including dodgems, laserquest and a roller disco, as well asthe numerous bops put on by theincredible fresher rep team.

The rest of the term has seen oursports teams readily embraced bythis new intake, which has onceagain catapulted us forward in thesporting league tables.

Other societies have also flourished,with DUCK producing a nakedcalendar and the Arts Societyworking in conjunction with ourresident artist, David Venables, tocreate a Collingwood mural.

We finished the term, as ever, witha fantastic Winter Solstice, with a“Collingwood Games Night” theme,and we are all looking forward toanother packed term after awell-deserved Christmas break.

>> James Proudfoot, JCR President

“We finished the term, as ever, with a fantastic WinterSolstice, with a “Collingwood Games Night” theme.”

Collingwood has had a fantastic start to the year.We have had a new intake of over 400 fresherswho were welcomed by one of the mostambitious and well executed freshers’ weeksthat we have ever seen, entitled ‘Fresh Air.’

WOODWORDS

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You will notice that the style of WoodWords has changed. In Septemberwe sent out an e-Newsletter for thefirst time, where you may have readend of year reflections from JoeElliott, the JCR, MCR and SCRPresidents, and annual reviews froma selection of our many societies andsports teams.

The e-Newsletter can still beviewed on our website. This editionof Wood Words focuses on featurearticles written by Collingwoodalumni, and also some travel andinternship reports by currentCollingwood students.

Our alumni features have distinctthemes: careers and life afterCollingwood – issues very much atthe forefront of current students’, andrecent graduates’, minds.

The articles by Quin, Paul and Sarahillustrate how experiences gained atDurham, and the opportunities, evencoincidences, which arise aftergraduation, often have a significantimpact on the direction of our career,and of our lives. For some, ourchosen academic field providesspecialist, often recondite, knowledgeand skills that are invaluable for ourfutures. For others, it is the fusion ofmultiple intellectual, emotional,

social, physical, and aestheticexperiences at College and University,and what we learn about ourselvesduring this time, which more heavilybear upon who we become, and thelives that we lead.

Having had a successful life inpolitics, Lord Oliver Henley offers aninsightful reflection on PMs, changesto government and the measurementof one’s age! We are also delighted toshare a travel report from Harry, oneof the first recipients of The SaraPilkington Personal DevelopmentFund, and also share the experiencesof the first ever intake of CollingwoodUndergraduate Research Interns.

If you are interested in writing an articlefor a future edition of the magazine,please do get in touch. It has been apleasure to meet some of you in personover the last year, and I hope to hearfrom many more of you soon.

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EMMA BROWNLOWCOLLEGE DEVELOPMENT & ALUMNI RELATIONS OFFICER

WELCOME

We hope that you enjoy this edition ofWood Words and, as always, wewelcome your comments andfeedback. Today, there are over 5600Collingwood alumni living in the UK andthis number rises every year, as newlygraduated students join our alumnicommunity. Producing the magazinebecomes ever more financiallychallenging, with rising costs associatedwith design, print and postage as thevolume of magazines requiredincreases. This year’s production costsare in excess of £6000, so we must allconsider the future of Wood Words.

We know that our alumni body isdiverse and well-connected, and thatsome of you may have skills oropportunities to support the futureproduction of the magazine. Are youa designer? Is your organisationinvolved in publishing or printing?Would you be willing to contributeto the costs of production throughdonating to a magazine fund? Couldyour organisation sponsor WoodWords? If you can help in any waywe’d love to hear from you,so please do complete and return theenclosed insert, or get in touch with

Collingwood’s Development & AlumniRelations Officer, Emma Brownlow.

Join us too for a discussion aboutthe future of Wood Words on theCollingwood Linked-In group.Would you be willing to pay to opt into receive a hardcopy version? ShouldWood Words only be available as ane-magazine? We want to hear yourideas and comments so log-on andjoin the discussion.

(LinkedIn: Collingwood College,Subgroup of Durham University)

CAN YOU HELP US PRODUCE FUTUREEDITIONS OF WOOD WORDS?


FROM COLLINGWOODSTUDENT TO STARTUP CEO

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Quin Murray PsychologyCollingwood 2009-12

Quin Murray (centre).


Studying in Durham made me alittle… hyperactive. With each term Iwanted to get involved in more andmore things. I had little idea of whichof the many interests, hobbies ormotivations I would pursue until afterI finished my exams, but I was surethat I wanted to try my hand on a fewprojects after leaving Durham.

My plan was to try an entrepreneurialapproach to tackle social issues. It wasmy role as challenges officer at DUCKthat probably did the most to ignite thispassion for social change. Sitting on theDUCK allocation process, where wedetermined how and where to givethousands of pounds of student raisedmoney, provided me with the first forumto consider possible ways of tackling andmaking a difference to unemployment.

However, I didn’t know where to start.Like most Collingwood students, I’dmet a number of amazing, creativeand entrepreneurial people bothbefore and during my time atDurham, and I began talking to a fewclose friends about potential projects.Very quickly I found myself creating amulti-faceted software company withan old school friend, and we started afew increasingly successful projectsin completely different fields, suchas educational apps, social media(Tweet Wire) and fashion sizing(Befittd). The projects got off theground within months and our teamquickly expanded to six people.

We frequently had passionateconversations about potential issuesto tackle and projects to start andtowards the end of 2012, I returnedto considering the issues ofunemployment. We all had plenty ofrecently graduated, or still studying,friends, who were struggling throughthe recruitment process. We realisedthat one of the biggest issues thatthey were facing was that they did notknow of, or apply to, many of theemployers for whom they would be agreat match. In particular, lots oftalented, creative people who lovedthinking and writing were looking at

careers in the City and not applying tothe many smaller companies andMedia agencies that would love tohire them - companies that ourfriends would jump at the opportunityto work at once they found out aboutthat opportunity.

We realised we could actually help.We just needed to show off thesestudents to the employers that were,in essence, looking for them buthadn’t received an application. Hencethe idea for Seed Jobs was born –to reverse recruitment; to let the jobsfind students; to let employers applyfor candidates. We would help peoplefind their first, "Seed", jobs.

We knew we were onto something,but first we needed to find out exactlywhat experiences other students, invarious universities and from differentbackgrounds, had with therecruitment process – how manyapplications they made, howconfident they were, how muchguidance they received and howthey found it. The picture thatemerged from our survey was thatmost students wanted and neededpersonal help and were overwhelmedwith information about all the differenttalks, companies and deadlines thatwere emailed or posted around.How could people make seeming life-commitments for after university tojobs that they did not understand orhad not experienced? Some peoplehad done internships only to learnthat a job was not right for them.What could we do?

Like me, most people just try toget the most out of their time atuniversity, especially one with as

much to offer as Durham, and thereality is that this is exactly whatmany people should do. Studentsshould try and do as much as theycan, and employers should be able tosee who they are and not just whatgrades they got or where they worked.So we are starting from the beginning.

We are trying to get to know people –not from their CV’s but from theirinterests and activities (what they likeand what they do!). Our team hasnow grown to 10 people and we havedeveloped algorithms that can startmatching people with the kind of jobsthat they will like and will do well in.Publicity has also been buildingrecently when we were featured in theTelegraph and then invited to exhibitat TechCrunch Disrupt in Berlin. Ournext step is competing in the finalof Vator Splash, where we will bepresenting to VCs and press alike.Wish us luck!

It’s been an incredibly challengingjourney and we’ve realised that weare not going to make any changesovernight and have many more yearsof hard work ahead of us. However,things seem to have just startedfalling into place and the responsewe are getting from both students andemployers is incredible. We have onlyrecently started matching the firststudents on our growing databasewith their first jobs. Being able tocome back to Collingwood only a yearon and help my friends find the jobsthey want – and do it for free – iscertainly the most satisfying thing Ihave done to date, and I can’t helpbut remain the hyperactive dreamerthat Durham made me into.

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FEATUREWOODWORDS

“Like me, most people just tryto get the most out of their timeat university, especially one withas much to offer as Durham.”

ntre).


TALKING NONSENSE

Paul Brown Economics& PoliticsCollingwood 1978-81

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LBS founders; Richard Lewis,Paul Brown and Julian Sharples,31 years on.


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FEATUREWOODWORDS

I’m sure I’m not alone, but I can't help feelinga sense of total inadequacy when I read aboutthe achievements of Collingwood high-flyers.

As alumni go, I think I must rank as'pretty hopeless'. I’m sure I’m not alone,but I can't help feeling a sense of totalinadequacy when I read about theachievements of Collingwood high-flyers. You know the sort I mean; thosewho've boldly gone to discover six miledeep trenches under the Pacific, otherswho uncover genetic predispositions tocancer, or even the very few whosuccessfully split infinitives that havepreviously gone unsplattered.

I look at my post-Collingwood life andthink, ‘where did I go wrong?’ Where isthe successful doctor, or at the veryleast, lawyer, that my parents hadhoped for? Instead they got a voiceover.A what? It’s a job description so unlikelythat dictionaries can't even agree onhow to spell it. Am I a voice over? Or avoiceover? Or a voice-over? Or simplythe annoying noise that interruptsotherwise palatable viewing andlistening? I’ll settle for the last. Notnecessarily out of accuracy, youunderstand, but out of consistency, andthat’s a quality that I proudly uphold.‘Brown might have been wrong’ they’llsay one day, ‘but at least he wasconsistently wrong’. It’s good to have atleast one tick in the box.

It’s an inescapable truth that I havespent my entire post-Wood life talkingnonsense into microphones, and at thegrand old age of 55 I have yet to be anemployee. I stress this because it isimportant. Given the University’s aim ofhelping graduates into jobs, it’s worthknowing that being an employee isn’t avital prerequisite for adult life.

Conversely, the skills I learned, theexperience I gained and theconnections I made at Durham wereabsolutely central to being able to ‘getaway with it’ for so long. Here, let meexplain.

I’m not an academic. Never was. But Iknow a good opportunity when I seeone, and this one was calledCollingwood. I’d done a little workexperience in local radio during themonths before coming up to Durhamand with this in my back pocket, Imade the most of CollingwoodWednesdays. While sports teams werechasing each other around MaidenCastle or straining their sinews up anddown the river, I was on the train toNewcastle or across to Stockton torecord commercials for what were thenMetro Radio and Radio Tees.Independent local radio was only fiveyears old at this point and voiceovershardly existed, so it seemed a cryingshame not to exploit this lack ofcompetition. So that was the start. I waslearning the art of what you can do inthirty seconds.

Meanwhile, back in Durham, theUniversity revue group at the time wascalled DUST (Durham UniversitySensible Thespians). It was a sort ofpoor man’s Footlights, with severalrevues a year held at the AssemblyRooms, assorted formals, tours,entertaining the troops in NorthernIreland, and an annual show at theEdinburgh Fringe. I wheedled my wayin. At the time, many of DUST's leadinglights were at Collingwood. They

included Mike Field, Julia Josephs andthe multi-talented Kjartan Poskitt. Insuch company I couldn't fail to feelencouraged. I remember being in aweof how Kjartan could hold an audiencein the palm of his hand. All I could holdin the palm of my hand was amicrophone. And perhaps that was myEureka Moment. For some inexplicablereason, I appeared to have amicrophone-friendly voice. I wasn'tgoing to argue the point, and since myacademic progress was not, how can Iput it, electric, it occurred to me thatperhaps I should consider a long-termfuture talking nonsense.

More nonsense was duly written andperformed and it seemed to have thedesired effect. Revue spinoffs includeda comedy radio series and the blaggingof a BBC TV show. Called ‘This WayOut’, and produced by BBC NE, it wasgreat fun at the time, but, in retrospectit has to rank as one of the mostexcruciatingly cringe worthy pieces oftelevision ever devised. A copy stillexists but I swear I’d have to be torturedclose to the point of death beforerevealing its whereabouts. My writingand performing partner at the time wasKevin Lygo of Cuths. He’s now Head ofITV Studios. I repeat; where did I gowrong?

As the big, wide, post-Collingwoodworld loomed ahead, and havingdecided to try talking nonsense for aliving, the question arose; why limit theidea to just talking nonsense? Someonewould have to record it, and often, writemusic to go with it. How about a future

“I look at my post-Collingwood life and think, ‘where did I go wrong?’ Where isthe successful doctor, or at the very least, lawyer, that my parents had hoped for?”


talking, playing and recordingnonsense? In other words, why haveone bite of the cherry when I couldmake myself copiously sick?

To reach this ultimate target of a‘nonsense processing plant’ what Ireally needed was a couple of talentedpartners. Once again, I needed look nofurther than the Wood. The collegeband at the time was the quaintly, andsomewhat indelicately, named RigidStools, under the leadership of musicstudent Richard Lewis and engineerJulian Sharples. Both were up for thechallenge, on the basis that it seemed afar better option than a proper job, andso the partnership of LBS wasconceived. It wasn’t a long pregnancyeither. Within days we had received ourfirst musical commission and a sterntest of our resolve to be creative andinnovative. Should we record our demosubmission at Abbey Road? No. Theextremely glamorous ‘Skipper ofDarlington’ (your local main Forddealer, ask for written details) wasrecorded on the upright piano whichstood in the Collingwood dining hall. Iam sad to discover it is no longer there.I was hoping it might have got a blueplaque by now.

And so I left Collingwood with contacts,partners, but above all, the ability to talkwith supreme confidence and authorityon subjects about which I had noknowledge whatsoever. For a close knitteam of partners with businessacumen, guiding the development ofthe fledgling LBS would pose noproblem. Which is why we had one hellof a struggle, because we didn’t have aclue what we were doing. Nevertheless,

in between nervous phone calls fromMr. Pocklington, our highly strung andunderstandably anxious bank manager,we managed to stagger from onemilestone to the next.

We set up business in StrawberryStudios, the former home of seventies’pop band 10cc, in Stockport, southManchester and a few years later, weadded a studio in Soho, in the heart ofBritain’s advertising productionindustry. Of course it wasn’t a properbusiness; it was a bunch of studentshaving fun. In fact the college vibe ofthe enterprise reinforced by the factthat along with L, B and S cameWood graduate Sue Sanford, whocommitted the cardinal sin ofmarrying me in 1985. Other Durhammates were regularly called in toperform, and some, who had ended upworking in advertising agencies, weretapped up for work. So familiar werethe faces around us it was rather as ifwe hadn’t actually left the CollingwoodJCR bar at all.

By the start of the 90s we’d begun toassemble a decent portfolio of TVcommercials in the Soho studio, just atthe time when digital sampling wasappearing on the scene. It just sohappened that the BBC’s Tomorrow’sWorld programme was planning a‘special’ about the burgeoning digitaltechnology scene. It also ‘justhappened’ that Castle graduate HowardStableford was to present it. You canguess the rest.

During our post-Durham years thenumber of local radio stations in Britainblossomed from around 30 to several

hundred, while TV channels have alsoexploded in number from the meagrethree that existed during our days in theWood. Add to that the phenomenalgrowth in all forms of digital media andit’s easy to conclude that we simplyhappened to be in the right place at theright time - although the right place didchange geographically. In the mid-nineties Richard and Julian went theirseparate ways towards Oxford with theirown interests while I have remainedsteadfastly in the North West.

Some say that learning is wasted on theyoung. It wasn’t exactly wasted on me,I just forgot to make the time to do it.However, while I didn't cover myself inacademic glory during my years inDurham, I can proudly say that today, ifa little knowledge is a dangerous thing,then I must be damn lethal. So manymillions of words have passed my lipson so many different subjects that, byrights, I should be number one choicefor the pub quiz team. Except it all goesin one ear and straight out of the other.For example, today was spent talkingabout triblets, 26 piece capping setsand anticlastic bangles. Tomorrow it willbe replacement hip joints, a sports-chain selling cheap trainers and anairline flying to Thiruvananthapuram.No luchtime drinking tomorrow, then.Never mind, I may be stuck in a tinymetal room endlessly abusing themother tongue all day, but at least theextraordinary variety of subject matter isone redeeming feature.

So does that all mean I am just an odd-ball? An aberration from the Durhamnorm? And what, for me, has beenCollingwood’s legacy? I write this in a

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“At the time, many of DUST's leading lights wereat Collingwood. They included Mike Field, JuliaJosephs and the multi-talented Kjartan Poskitt.”

WOODWORDS


year when I have returned to the Woodfor the first time since graduation, and,separately, I’ve joined up with a bunchof my peers from the early eighties.Both visits were extremely gratifying indifferent ways. Physically, theappearance of the Wood may now bevery different, but I found that itsattitude isn’t. I felt instantly at home,and while students have to be evermore focused on their futures, there stillseems to be a relaxed mood ofconfidence, creativity and

independence about the place. Inshort, it was the place I remembered,(even when I took off the rose tintedspecs), and it seems to be doing agreat job. Meanwhile, Messrs. L B & Sgot back together for Richard Lewis’birthday in Oxford this autumn, where Ialso drank too much with lots of otherDurham alumni and friends whom Ihaven’t seen for thirty years. This wasan even more welcome revelation.Guess what? None of them havediscovered new trenches under the

Pacific. Or cures for cancer. They areall intelligent, humorous andcommunicative individuals, unafraidof following their own paths, and notat all the untouchable high-achieversI had feared. It was a huge relief to aman who spends his life in a box, andit leaves me thinking that, along withmany others, perhaps I haveCollingwood to thank, not just forwhat I have become, but for what Ihaven’t. Go figure.

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FEATURE

Paul addressing a Durham audience in 1979 and Paul addressing Collingwood in 2013.


Sarah McCartney Natural SciencesCollingwood 1978-81


I’m part of a team, led byneuroscientist Professor ColinBlakemore, with AHRC funding toexplore the way human senses work.

Ever since the Victorians labelled it as alow, animal sort of sense, which refinedhumans probably didn’t need, smellwas at the back of the queue when itcame to academic research into humanperception. Now it’s catching up, andit’s a very exciting time to be involved.

Last week I worked with an Italianstylist, Silvia Bergomi, to create thescent of Rome 1963. Silvia is tall, slim,beautiful and lovely to work with. Shehad a vision of a woman in a Fellinifilm, wearing a fragrance of tuberoseand ylang flowers, with a hint oftobacco and the scent of a forest.Though I say it myself, the result israther wonderful, but excruciatinglyexpensive. It will perfume the ItalianHouse of Style for Perroni in London,where I shall also be running six

workshops to help people create theirown personal fragrance.

My company, 4160Tuesdays, isbased in Acton London W3, which Imoved into three weeks ago. There’smy lab, and space for makingperfume, meetings, workshops andsitting down for a nice cup of coffee.Come and visit if you happen to beanywhere near Westfield, Shepherd’sBush. It’s only five minutes away.

This week I’m working on an orderfor a North American online retailer,one of the few companies that has asystem to ship perfume overseaslegally, now that the Civil AviationAuthority has placed a total ban onposting perfume.

Life as a perfumer is fascinating,fraught with ridiculous regulations,and occasionally absolutely fabulous.Sometimes I stop to ask myself,“How exactly did I get here?”

Collingwood was only 15 miles from myschool but it showed me a completelydifferent way of thinking. For a start, Ilearned that I was allowed to studythings I enjoyed, not just the things Iwas best at. There was a course onprimatology. Oh joy unconfounded. Isigned up with Dr. Manley. Here was ahint that you can make up your ownmind and form your own future withoutwaiting for permission from yourparents or your teachers. Collingwoodallowed people's creative spirit to

flourish. There were bands to play in.I'm still in touch with Guy de laBedoyere who led the ParacetamolBasement Orchestra, in which I playedclarinet and sax. There were theatregroups. There was a lot of dancing.

I'd arrived with bucket loads of Asto study maths, but quickly realisedthat I just wasn't a dedicatedmathematician. I was never going tobe a dedicated anything. Collingwoodlet me switch around a bit.My general science degree waslooked on as an academic disaster bymy fellow students but outsideDurham no one knew that so it hasnever stopped me doing anything Iwanted. For me, the great thing aboutit was that I had variety: maths,psychology, anthropology and thehistory and philosophy of science, anideal stack of subjects forunderstanding life in general.Collingwood also unveiled mypreviously unused rebellious streak...

From Collingwood, I went to work in anad agency. This was mostly because arather snooty careers officer looked atme up and down over the top of hisglasses, looked away and said, “Youdon’t have the personality foradvertising; why not try teaching?”

I’m still not sure whether this was aninsult to me, advertising, or teachers,but I took it as a challenge and got ajob at D’Arcy McManus & Masius.From the media planning department I

FALLING INTOFRAGRANCE

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FEATURE

On Saturday, I’m off tothe Senate House torun a perfume eventwith my academicpartners at the LondonUniversity School ofAdvanced Studies.

How writing a novelturned me into a perfumer


then hopped over to the marketingdepartment of the Guardiannewspaper, and ended up running liveevents. After that I went freelance,organising events and writing articleswhile I studied for a Master’s degree inmarketing and corporate strategy.

I originally met the directors of thecosmetic brand Lush when I ordered2000 heart-shaped bath bombs forthe Guardian’s Valentines’ Day event.Then as part of my degree I wrote anassignment on the changes intechnology which were about to affectretailers. As Lush was the only retailerI knew, I rang them up and asked foran interview, then sent them thefinished work.

Complete silence. Nothing for sixmonths. Then Mark Constantine, thebig boss, called me and asked if Icould write. I’d just had a piece onpassing your motorbike test publishedin the Guardian weekend magazine,so I said yes. For the next 14 years Iwrote the Lush Times, then Lush’sblackboard signage, product labelsand everything else that neededwriting. I trained their overseas teamsto write in a style that sounded as ifthey were having a friendlyconversation with a customer, ratherthan the usual unattainableboastfulness of cosmetics advertising.

I’ve learnt a great deal about theingredients which Lush used to maketheir products; as each issue of LushTimes had to be different, I boughthundreds of books and did masses ofresearch into plants and their properties.

At the end of a very difficult couple ofyears when I had to organise my illmother’s move into a home, I decidedto take some time away from the

intensity of Lush’s wildly creativeatmosphere. I wanted to explore a fewcreative ideas I had, including writinga novel. I knew I could do thedistance as I’d been writing up to60,000 words every three months forLush; the question was whether ornot I could tell a good story.

My novel is about a woman whosolves people’s problems withbiscuits, a chat and a bottle of scent.She works in London, talks to people,gives them some home-made biscuitsand asks them about the place andtime where they were happy. Thenshe makes them a perfume whichcaptures the sense of their happymemories so they can take this withthem and smell it when they need to.As she works on personalrecommendation, some of her clients’lives get tangled up; there’s a smallcrime, a huge misunderstanding butit all gets sorted out in the end.

The problem was that I couldn’t findcommercial perfumes which had thescents I was describing. Thisresearch cost me quite a lot ofmoney, but my collection of nicheperfumes comes in very handy whenI run my workshops. The result wasthat I decided to make my own. Iinvested in a few perfumery materials,then a few more, then a lot more.My family and friends would ask howthe novel was going, I would tellthem, but instead of asking to read itthey would ask me if I could makethem a scent to encapsulate theirown happy times. I made The LionCupboard for my sister. This is thescent of a big Victorian sideboardwhere my father used to keep his hat,scarves and gloves. It’s like getting a

hug from our late dad. I madeSunshine and Pancakes for mymother-in-law to remind her of Britishbeach holidays. Urara’s Tokyo Café isthe smell of spring blossom in Japan,scents which I made to raise moneyfor tsunami orphans at a perfumeparty in a tiny cafe, in Tokyo, run bymy friend Urura Shiinoki.

Next, through a combination ofTwitter and people who happen toknow people I know, I met “OdetteToilette”. Odette runs perfume events,including the wonderful PenningPerfumes collaboration betweenpoets and perfumers, and she invitedme to share my scents with heraudience at Scratch + Sniff.

It turned out that there were severalpeople in the audience who wouldchange the direction my life had beentaking. One was Claire Hawksley, ownerof Les Senteurs, London’s loveliestscent shop; another was JosephineFairley, founder of The PerfumeSociety, editor of the Beauty Bible,blogger for The Scent Critic and writerfor You Magazine. She also foundedGreen & Black’s and sold it to Cadbury.

Jo handed me her card and my jawdropped. I’d known all about her when Iwas at Lush. She was that legendaryjournalist who didn’t want to write aboutthem. Claire placed an order and Joreviewed Urura’s Tokyo Café on her blog.

There was one moment when Irealised I’d accidentally turned into aperfumer. It was the point where 60people were sniffing a paper stripscented with Urura’s Tokyo Café, andsmiling. That was a year and a halfago. It hasn’t been straightforwardsince then. New EU regulationsseverely restrict the use of beautifulnatural materials like rose, jasmine,citrus fruits, oak moss and spices.Some are banned completely afterover 2000 years of use. In theultimate environmental irony, this onlyhappened because greencampaigners wanted safety testsperformed on the synthetic materialsin perfume, convinced that they weredamaging the air we breathe. It turnsout that the synthetics in use at the

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“Life as a perfumer is fascinating,fraught with ridiculous regulations,and occasionally absolutely fabulous.”

ARTICLEWOODWORDS


moment are a great deal safer on theskin than many naturals. Mostlybecause the naturals are formed ofmany different odour molecules, someof them allergens, so they are moredifficult to control. All the same,everyone in perfumery thinks that theEU has gone a little nuts; possiblysomeone in charge had a badexperience earlier in life with someonewearing too much Dior Poison.

The barriers to entry, as they’re calledin business strategy, are pretty high inperfumery. This is why around 90% ofperfumes – including all the designerand celebrity ones - are made by thesame five companies worldwide(except Miller Harris’s L’Air de Rien forJane Birkin). But it’s also why indieand niche perfumers who do manageto squeeze themselves into the markethave a small but solid fan base.People get tired of the same old pinkfruity florals for women and bluewatery citruses for men, just as theyget tired of fast-food outlets and startto look for something more interesting.If you’re interested, have a look at

Basenotes.net. Here you’ll find awhole world of genuine perfumereviews away from magazines whosewriters daren’t say a word againsttheir advertisers. The perfume fanswho run Basenotes are interested inthe new and the unusual as well asthe mainstream; they’ve written aboutme several times and this has made areal difference to the business.

Twitter and the blogosphere areessential too. I sell about 50% of myscents through my website at themoment, with the help of Twitter andmy Facebook page. During my yearoff I also taught a course on onlinemarketing at my local university. Iended up writing a book: ‘OnlineMarketing in 7 Days! For people whocan’t avoid it any longer’. I do try tofollow my own guidelines, and theyseem to be working.

In the last year, I’ve worked with TheGin Garden, making perfumes withthe same botanicals as BombaySapphire, I made the scent of the seashore for the Memory Network’s

Proust event, the scent of the bottomof the ocean for Penning Perfumes,and scented the Glasgow School ofArt with the smell of a tropical bananaplantation for Rosie O’Grady, one ofthe Saatchi Gallery’s new youngartists. In Manchester, I met KatiePiper and ran a workshop for herfoundation for people who have hadsevere burns and are going through aseries of operations to repair thedamage. Working with Steph Singer’sBitter Suite, I scented a Debussystring quartet for a live performancewith the People Pile dance group.

What next? Christmas. The time whenmost perfumes are bought andwrapped up. Then a year of WestLondon workshops to help peopleunderstand more about themysterious world of scent, and tomake their own. More academic andarts collaboration and more scents toremind people of happy times.

No one has offered to publish thenovel yet. I might stick it on thewebsite as a download.

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Lord Henley HistoryCollingwood 1972-75


It used to be said that age wasdefined by the age of policemen.When you thought that policemenwere looking younger, then you knewthat you were getting old. I wouldsuggest that the age of PrimeMinisters, and your relationship tothem, could be another useful meansof assessing the ageing process,though it has been furthercomplicated in the late twentiethcentury, and our own, by the steadydecline in their ages. I was bornduring Winston Churchill’s secondpremiership. He first held that officeat the age of 65. Attlee, Eden,Macmillan and Douglas Home wereall in their late 50’s on becomingPrime Minister. All had held otherposts beforehand. Wilson, Heath,Mrs Thatcher and Major were all a

little younger, though Callaghan wasan exception in being older than hispredecessor. In 1997 we saw adramatic change with a new primeminister, Tony Blair, aged 45, followedby, after the brief Brown years, DavidCameron at 44. Neither Blair norCameron had ever held office before,Cabinet or otherwise. If one ignoresRamsay Macdonald, that had nothappened since Wellington in 1827,but then he had at least led somearmies in the field, winning a fewvictories of some note. I make thesepoints merely to make it clear that Iam now old, Prime Ministers areyoung, and experience matters lessthan it did in the past.

I had the privilege to serve underthree Prime Ministers: Margaret

Thatcher, John Major and DavidCameron, and also to observe fromthe opposition benches in the Lords,the governments led by Tony Blairand Gordon Brown. Those threeConservative Prime Ministers allfaced, or face, different challenges.Their majorities in the Commonsdiffer at different times, and in thecase of the present administration issuch that a coalition government isnecessary. This of course meanseach must work in a different wayaccording to what is possible at anygiven time. Each had or has, ofnecessity, a different relationship withthe ministers in their team andsimilarly with the Commons, boththeir own backbenchers and the

A LIFE INPOLITICS

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>> Oliver Eden, later Lord Henleywas a founding member ofCollingwood in 1972. He spent hisfirst year (as did 66 others, the fullcomplement of the ’72 entry) in VanMildert and subsequent years inCollingwood itself. After leavingDurham he was called to the bar bythe Middle Temple and in 1978entered the House of Lords as ahereditary peer. In 1989 he enteredthe Whips’ Office before becoming

a junior minister in what was thenknown as the Department of SocialSecurity. Under Margaret Thatcherand John Major, Oliver served in afurther three departments,Employment, Defence andEducation, ending as a Minister ofState in the last, as minister forHigher Education. In opposition hecovered Education, Home Office,and Justice at various times, as wellas serving as Opposition Chief Whip

between 1998 and 2001 as thethen Government took the firststage of the Lords reform throughparliament. He returned togovernment in 2010 as a minister inthe Department for Environment,Food and Rural Affairs, later beingpromoted to the Home Office. Heleft office in September 2012, asretiring ministers used to say, tospend more time with his family.

>> Lord Henley...an introduction


Opposition. I was not in the Commonsand so cannot speak of that but cantalk from my own perspective of whatit was like to work as a junior ministerin the Lords under three ratherdifferent Prime Ministers.

First, it is worth getting rid of somemyths. The first and most importantmyth is that of Mrs Thatcher as atyrant, imposing her views roughshodon the cabinet and all other ministers,brooking no argument. This is quitesimply wrong. She wanted to bepersuaded by argument. She wantedher ministers to know their stuff. Whatshe could not take was the badlybriefed (probably as a result of hisown incompetence) minister who didlittle more than stick to thedepartmental line. As Lord Carringtonput it, “People were somehowfrightened about arguing with her.They didn’t realise that she loved anargument. She existed on arguments.It sharpened her wits and made herthink about whether she was right orwrong. People who say you couldn’tchange her mind were absolutelywrong...if you knew your stuff and youargued it, a) she quite enjoyedsharpening her wits and b) if shethought there was something in whatyou said then she did change hermind.” (The House Magazine April2013). Allied to this is a belief that,with her large majorities, she felt thatshe could almost ignore Parliament.Here I would like to quote the thenSpeaker of the Commons, BettyBoothroyd, who spoke of their jointbelief in the role that Parliament playsin our democracy and in its duty tohold the executive to account.Baroness Boothroyd quotes fromMargaret Thatcher’s memoirs whereshe says that “nobody understandsBritish politics who does notunderstand the House of Commons”.As Lady Boothroyd wryfully observes,that is often forgotten. It is not clear asto which subsequent Prime Ministerthat former Labour MP was referring.

Secondly, a few comments on JohnMajor’s administration which ended

in the calamitous election of May1997, which left the Conservativeparty with 164 seat in the Commonsand Tony Blair with an invinciblemajority despite having barely 40% ofthe vote, and certainly fewer votesthan John Major had obtained in the1992 election. The size of thatCommons majority and the electoral

shift did lead to a certain amount ofrewriting of history, particularly by thevictors of that election. I would notwant to see radical change to ourelectoral system which, in the main,produces results that satisfy the vastmajority of the people, despite havingan unfair bias towards the Labourparty. But one must not let a result

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Lord Henley speaks to Collingwood students about a life in politics.


like 1997 allow certain commentatorsto paint a picture of a totallydiscredited government being thrownout with the overwhelming support ofthe British people. The voting figuresin 1997 disprove that. Further, theidea that John Major’s governmentfailed is simply untrue. There weremajor problems at the end, problemsresulting from a dwindling majority,rows over Europe and the memoriesof the ignominious departure from theExchange Rate Mechanism, entry towhich had been enthusiasticallysupported by the Opposition in themonths immediately after the 1992election. What really ought to beremembered was the fact thatfollowing that departure, under theChancellorships of Norman Lamontand Kenneth Clarke, the economyhad steadily improved and we wereable to hand on to the incomingLabour administration an economy inrobust health and no deficit; therewas in fact a surplus. Compare that tothe position in 2010, when after allthose years when Gordon Brownclaimed to have abolished boom andbust, an incoming Chief Secretary tothe Treasury should find a note fromhis Labour predecessor letting himknow that “there is no money left”.History will in due course reassessJohn Major’s time as Prime Ministerin a positive way.

After thirteen years in opposition,I returned to government with thecreation of the current coalition in2010. Things were very different.First, from a personal point of view,I no longer found myself one of theyounger members of the team butsomething of an old lag (with theexception of the House of Lordswhere I continue to be well belowthe average age). Further, manycolleagues, the Prime Ministerincluded, had no experience ofgovernment, other than in somecases as a special adviser. Secondly,this was to be the first peace timecoalition government in livingmemory, and we would all have to

find new ways of working withcolleagues from parties other than ourown. In the event, this has workedbetter than many expected with a realspirit of pragmatism breaking throughmuch of the time, leading me,certainly, in many inter-ministerialmeetings, to forget who came fromwhich party. Thirdly, the media hadchanged a lot over the precedingyears. This had started in the ninetiesbut had accelerated in the earlieryears of this century and will continueto do so. Put simply, it is no longerjust a question of responding to theprint media and putting in anappearance on the Todayprogramme; we now have rollingnews, 24 hours a day, on a vast arrayof radio and television channels, aswell as a growth in the new forms ofcommunication from Twitter onwards.Government needs to be muchquicker and nimbler on its feet in itsresponses. And fourthly, Whitehallitself has changed. It is not just thatso many departments have changedtheir names, had responsibilitiesmoved to other departments whilst

gaining new ones, but at the sametime its method of working haschanged. Certain things haveimproved; I find individualdepartments talk to each other more,and thus see where their policiesmight affect others in a way that wasnot always the case in the past. Onthe other hand, the decision makingprocess does seem to be slowingdown. It might be that the two areconnected.

I left the government in the reshuffleof September 2012. At this stage, itwould be wrong of me to make anycomment on an administration whichis still in office, and in which I served.I appreciate that this is not what allex-ministers do, but I have always feltthat one’s first judgement is mostlikely to be wrong, the same is true ofthe second and third. It all takes time.Ask me again in a few years. Thenagain remember the famousmistranslated quotation followingNixon’s visit to China, and his host’salleged response that it was too earlyto comment on the effects of theFrench Revolution.

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FEATURE

“After thirteen years in opposition,I returned to government with thecreation of the current coalition in2010. Things were very different.First, from a personal point ofview, I no longer found myself oneof the younger members of theteam but something of an old lag.”


Harry Speak GeographyCollingwood Third Year


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Throughout most of July and the very beginning of August2013 I was lucky enough to be in South Africa, thanks inpart to the Sara Pilkington Personal Development Fund.

RESEARCHING ENERGY INA DEVELOPING COUNTRY

The Sara Pilkington Personal Development Fund

>> The Sara Pilkington PersonalDevelopment Fund has beenestablished by the parents of SaraPilkington, who sadly died in2012. Jonathan and Jools alwaysencouraged Sara to embraceopportunities which would developher as a person, broaden her lifeexperiences and give her a rich

understanding of the world aroundher. As Sara's opportunities to gainfrom such experiences were sadlycut short, her parents have chosento establish this fund so that otherCollingwood students can haveaccess to similar character-buildingand life-affirming experiences.

The aim of my trip was to conductresearch for my Geography dissertationon the changing energy structure ofJohannesburg in the context of thenational policies on energy.

It was whilst in a lecture that the ideaof energy in a developing country firstcame to me as a potential topic for adissertation. From there the ideabegan to grow and I realised thatSouth Africa would be a fascinatingcountry in which to do my research.Following extensive discussions withmy Research Methods Tutor, Idecided that investigating energy atthe national scale was likely to be toobig a task. However, with closefriends living in Johannesburg andmy own personal interest in cities,I decided to tailor my investigation tothe energy structure andconsumption of Johannesburg itself.

From the moment of my arrival inJohannesburg it was evident that theopportunity to actually be on site wasgoing to be incredibly valuable. Whilston the Gautrain on the way to myfriends’ house from the airport, it wasimmediately possible to see thegovernment supplied solar waterheaters on the RDP housing (statefunded accommodation). The reasonfor this initiative is that an estimated35-40% of an energy bill isattributable to the costs of heatingwater. Thus, in an attempt to reducethe amount of energy beingconsumed for the purpose ofproviding hot water, the provision ofsolar water heaters for low income,state provided housing has been anationwide policy. Had I not beenable to see this first hand, it wouldhave been very difficult to fully

appreciate the scale of this operationwithin the country.

On my first day I noticed the frontpage of the newspaper was an articleon the delays at Medupi, the newcoal fired power station beingdeveloped in the Limpopo province,which was supposed to startproviding 800MW to the grid earlierthis year with the completion of thefirst stage (of a long term total of4800MW). This highlighted what acritical issue energy security is inSouth Africa at the moment, asalmost every day during my stay therewas another piece on the topic in thepaper. Not only this, but by being inthe country I was also exposed to theradio advertisements by Eskom (thenational energy provider),encouraging people to reduce theirenergy consumption to reduce the


strain on the grid, as well as advertsalong the roads with a similarmessage regarding energyconsumption over the winter months.

However, the most valuable elementof me being in the country was theopportunity to undertake face-to-faceinterviews with a range of differentprofessionals with knowledge specificto the energy industry and toJohannesburg. One of the mostinteresting of these interviews waswith a man who worked for the City ofJoburg council, who had beeninvolved in the city’s energyassessments and Johannesburg’sGrowth and Development Strategythrough to 2040. I was also able tohave a meeting with three membersof the Gauteng City RegionObservatory, a department affiliated toWits University, who had someincredibly useful insights into thehistory of the city and the way inwhich the power grid has beenstretched as urban sprawl has takenplace. Furthermore, the directmeeting allowed me to gain access tosome physical copies of reports theyhad produced which will certainly beof aid as I write up my dissertation.

Aside from the dissertation focus ofthe trip, I was lucky enough to spenda week in Cape Town, where I wasable to visit Robben Island. Given thestate of Mandela’s health at the timeof my visit, it was particularlyinteresting to see first-hand what hehad been through for close to threedecades in the fight for a just andracially equal South Africa. A talk by aformer prisoner on his experiencesand what life in the prison was reallylike was deeply moving and it wasquite inspiring to see the reality of thesacrifice made to enter a new era forthe country. Although not directlyrelevant to my investigation in itself,there are certainly aspects of the newera of governance arising in the post-Apartheid era that I may try toincorporate into the project. It wasalso very interesting to go to CapeTown and see the differences


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FEATUREWOODWORDS

between the city which is under thegovernance of the DA andJohannesburg which is ANCcontrolled. Again, this is something Iwill look to explore in my final project.

Finally, I was fortunate enough tospend three nights on a game reservewhich was quite an exceptionalexperience. Perhaps the highlight waswatching a leopard cub stalk along adried up river bed in an attempt tocatch an impala, but despite closingthe gap to only a few metres (withoutbeing detected), the young leopardwas eventually unwilling to even givehis luck a go and as a result the

impala herd calmly strolled away,oblivious to how life threatening theirsituation had been just momentsbefore. Perhaps as an addendum tothis was seeing a female leopardpinned in a tree as a lioness watchedher expectantly from the bottom of thetree. However, these stand-offs havebeen known to last for days so I did notsee the final outcome, though was latertold that the lioness had left and theleopard had escaped without harm.

I would like to express my deepestand most sincere gratitude to thePilkington family for their support,and for setting up the Sara Pilkington

Personal Development Fund to allowstudents, such as myself, to havethese life-affirming experiences. Theexperiences I was lucky enough toencounter on the game reserve arecertainly memories that will stick withme for a long time to come, and theopportunity to conduct research for aproject that I find absolutely stimulatingand fascinating in the country itself issomething I simply cannot even beginto quantify. I just hope that I am able tocompile the abundance of information Ihave been exposed to into a well-constructed and engaging final project!


COLLINGWOOD COLLEGEUNDERGRADUATERESEARCH INTERNSHIPS

>> Thanks to the generosityof one of our alumni, we havebeen able to establish aresearch internshipprogramme for four studentsthis summer and for each ofthe next two summers.

The scheme provides funds which paya small salary to our students to workalongside Durham researchers overthe summer vacation period. Theyhave the opportunity to gain first-handexperience of engaging with a senioracademic, often as a member of ateam involved in cutting edge research

projects and, in appropriate cases,gain access to highly specialistequipment and facilities.

The first four Collingwood ResearchInterns completed their projects overthe summer of 2013. To give a flavourof their experiences, extracts of theirinternship reports are shared here.

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FEATUREWOODWORDS

In the summer of 2013, I wasfortunate enough to be selected for aCollingwood College UndergraduateResearch Internship. It truly was aonce in a lifetime opportunity tocontribute to a very exciting andinternationally importantarchaeological research project.I have no doubt that many of theskills that I picked up whilstcollaborating on this research projectwill be invaluable in my futureresearch career, which I have beendreaming of for much of my life.

The existing Durham Universityresearch project that I collaborated onis called ‘Bagendon: The Birth of acapital?’ This project, run by Dr. TomMoore of the Archaeology Department,explores the nature of power andidentity in the later Iron Age of theSevern-Cotswolds by focusing on thesite of Bagendon oppidum. Bagendonoppidum is a major Late Iron Age site inGloucestershire, which has significantpotential for understanding thebeginning of urbanisation in pre-Roman Britain. The site has beenstudied on and off since the 1950’s andis now being excavated and surveyedas part of this major research project.During the many years of excavationsand research, significant archaeologicalfinds and data have been collected,but much of this information has yetto be fully analysed.

I was fortunate to be able to activelycontribute and collaborate on thisresearch project in a variety of differentareas, and much of my work wasclosely supervised by lecturers withinthe Archaeology Department, Dr. TomMoore and Dr. Mike Church. Byworking on a variety of things I was ableto learn a great deal about differentarchaeological methods, applications,and, of course, the results. I now feelconfident that I would be able to pickup almost any archaeological skill andput it into practice and perhapseventually lead my own archaeologicalresearch project.

I started off the internship byanalysing the soil samples taken fromimportant archaeological features todetermine where burning may havetaken place on site and how thefeatures were created. This analysiswas done by a Loss on Ignition andMagnetic Susceptibility analysis. Theother soil samples were wet sievedand then separated in order toidentify if there was any burnt grainpreserved on the site. The resultsfrom these analyses are incrediblyvital to understanding what activitieswere taking place on site in terms ofsubsistence, industry, farming andperhaps ritual activities.

Another major part of this internshipwas sorting and cataloguing the

artefacts found in the currentexcavation, as well as theunpublished 1980’s excavations.This work was laborious butincredibly interesting, as we cannothope to understand anything aboutthe site without the actual objects.These objects ranged from hundredsof nails, coins, knives, fittings, leadobjects, blacksmithing tools, coinmoulds, brooches, worked bone,jewellery, pottery, glass bangles, flintarrowheads and even fragments froma gorgeous Roman blue glass bowl.The cataloguing of these findsrevealed the wide variety of featuresand activities that took place at thesite 2000 years ago - from farming,hunting and blacksmithing, tocarpentry, jewellery making, coinproduction and just general domestic

BAGENDON: THE BIRTH OF A CAPITAL?MATHIAS JENSEN


life. Analysis of the artefacts alsorevealed the wide trade networks thatwere exploited - some objects comingfrom hundreds of miles away.

The internship culminated in myparticipation on the excavation of theMiddle Iron Age part of the site forone week. It was fantastic to actuallyget out into the field so I can reallyunderstand how the results from thesoil analysis and the artefacts relatedto what was actually there. Theexcavation was incredibly fun andinteresting even if it did involvedigging in 30° C degree weather for 8hours - but as an archaeologist that iswhat I love! The results from this

season of excavation really enhancedour understanding of the site even if,as per usual, the season ended withmore questions than answers.

All of the results that I worked onduring this internship will be publishedas part of the site monograph, inwhich I will be an author. Thisrepresents a fantastic and very rareopportunity to contribute to apublication as an undergraduate,which will look great for when I applyfor research positions.

I am incredibly grateful for theopportunities that this internship hasprovided me. Many of theexperiences and skills I picked up will

certainly enhance my job and futurestudy potential. This internship hasgiven me the knowledge andconfidence to work as part of a largeracademic based research project andimportantly be an active contributorand leader, not just a participant.Already, because of this internship,I have been accepted onto a MastersCourse in Prehistoric Archaeology atAarhus University in Denmark and Iwas hired to be a supervisor on anIron Age research excavation also, inDenmark. My hope, though, is toreturn to Durham to do my PhD in afew years time, with the added benefitof having done this researchinternship and studied overseas.

WOODWORDS

Sorted soil samples.

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FEATURE

Project: Bioimage informaticsapproach for functional analysisof spatiotemporal dynamics andregulation of actin cytoskeletonin different membrane systems.

During my internship I supported amicrobiology research group at theUniversity by developing imageanalysis software for a number ofprojects, initially starting with trackingpollen in plant membrane systems.I cannot express my gratitude enough

for the opportunity the donor hasgiven me. This internship has beenincredibly rewarding and I am hopefulit will open up further opportunitiesthat would otherwise not have beenpossible. My journey towards a careerin research has begun, and I couldn'thave done it without them. Thankyou. I would also like to thank mysupervisor, Boguslaw Obara, for hisinvaluable guidance, enthusiasm, andpatience. Working with Boguslaw hasbeen a very positive experience and I

hope to continue to do so. My thanksalso to Patrick Duckney, who allowedme to contribute to his research.Finally, I would like to thank the staffat Collingwood College, whoorganised the research internships formyself and my fellow students,alongside countless other generousgifts that make our university lifeabout much more than just getting adegree. They have proven time andtime again that our community spiritis second to none.

JACK BARNSDALEENGINEERING AND COMPUTER SCIENCE

Project: Multi wavelength studyof galactic supernova remnantsand prospects for CTA.

Personally, this internship has beenextremely beneficial. Aside fromvastly improving my independent

research skills; I have refined myskills at writing programs in bothPython and C++, using the ROOTenvironment and using powerfulcluster computers. I'd also like to takethis opportunity to thank the generous

Collingwood donor, and CollingwoodCollege for providing support throughoutthe process. I'd also like to express mygratitude to the entire gamma-rayastronomy group for their invaluableassistance throughout the eight weeks.

SAMUEL SPENCERFOUNDATION PHYSICS

Project: Vision Processing Algorithmswith Raspberry Pi Robots.

This research project within theComputer Science Department involvedcreating and implementing algorithmsfor an autonomous Raspberry Pi robotso that using a video camera feed, itcan determine its location.

A large part of doing research is toovercome technical obstacles and

problems. It is only natural that thesewill occur and it requires enoughconfidence to resolve them yourself viareading papers, forums, internetresearch, discussion with othercolleagues, and then as a last resort,seeking help from the supervisor.Initially, this was quite challenging, butas the weeks went on, I became morecomfortable working like this.Sometimes it was necessary for my

supervisor to give me a pointer and withthis I was able to solve the issues.

The internship was a valuable andinsightful opportunity. It has highlightedthe importance of university research andgiven me first-hand experience of workingin this environment. This will undoubtedlybenefit me in my subsequent years atDurham, specifically in my final yearwhen an individual project is a keycomponent of the course.

TOM BARDSLEYENGINEERING AND COMPUTER SCIENCE

“During my internship I supported a microbiology research group at theUniversity by developing image analysis software for a number of projects.”


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