NEWS from The Royal Society May 95

The Royal Society is piloting a new postdoctoral fellowship scheme, to be known as the Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowships. The idea for the scheme arose from the Society's own investigation in 1994 into the current situation for women scientists, and was consolidated by the findings of 'The Rising Tide' a report produced for the Office of Science and Technology (OST). Both the Society and the OST concluded that the first few years after a PhD, when young persons aged between 25 and 35 are establishing themselves in scientific careers, is also the time when a) the individual may be starting a family b)the "system" offers very little in the way of security and flexibility at work.

Clearly the conflict of pressure from home and work will impact on both parents, but as women tend to take on the main responsibilities of child-rearing they are normally the ones most severely affected. Statistics show that the stage between PhD and Lecturer is one during which a significant number of women find themselves either progressing rather more slowly than their male colleagues, or deciding to abandon their research careers altogether. The Society is therefore piloting this new scheme to offer a recognised first step into a research career for excellent young scientists and engineers. The fellowships are open to both sexes and will offer a high level of support and flexibility which is advantageous to both, but should be particularly useful and encouraging to women. The Society stresses that awards will be made on merit.

Ten fellowships will be available offering four years' guaranteed tenure on research Staff IA/II scale, up to �5000 annual grant to cover research expenses, the option of participating in mentor and networking schemes, the option of working part time, regular career advice, support and flexibility with maternity cover.

Applicants should preferably not have passed their 35th birthday by 1 October 1995 and should have Ph.D or equivalent research experience. They should have had no more than three years' research experience at post-doctoral level on taking up the fellowship and should be normally resident in the UK.

The Royal Society enrolled the help of universities, as prospective employers of the Dorothy Hodgkin Fellows, by asking them to advertise the scheme internally. Two different forms of advertisement were used, one for those departments where women are significantly under-represented, the other for all other departments.

Although named after Dorothy Hodgkin, the fellowships are not limited to crystallographic applicants, they cover all areas of natural sciences. They will be funded by a mixture of the Society's own private funds and its Parliamentary Grant-in-aid.

The closing date for these fellowships was 19 May 1995, so by the time you read this it will be too late to apply, but I thought members would like to learn of this initiative. Those of you who have been regularly looking at BCA news on our World Wide Web homepage will have seen this news in time to apply.

We hope to bring you a report on the winners of the first set of fellowships in a future issue of 'Crystallography News'.

New Fellows of the Royal Society

Professor Julia Stretton Higgins, Professor of Polymer Science at the Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine, University of London. Professor Higgins is distinguished for her studies of the molecular structure of polymers, the basic molecules of plastics and gels. She has used a range of techniques to study their properties and dynamics, especially neutron scattering techniques, which she has developed and applied in novel and imaginative ways. Her work on the thermodynamics and demixing processes in blends of polymers has particular importance.

Professor Frank Matthew Leslie, Professor of mathematics at the University of Strathclyde has used mathematical models to study the alignment and motion of liquid crystals in magnetic fields.

Dr. Colin George Windsor, Senior Scientist at the National NDT Centre, AEA Technology, Didcot, Oxfordshire. Dr. Windsor is distinguished for his outstanding experimental and modelling skills, used to especial effect in the industrial application of beams of neutrons. He demonstrated the use of pulsed beams of neutrons to study solid matter, and pioneered the application of the penetrating abilities of neutrons to study critical defects and internal stress in engineering products. More recently he has applied pattern recognition techniques and neural nets to a range of areas, including weld defect classification, the analysis of the financial index, and signature recognition.

From the newsletter of the International Council for the Scientific Unions (ICSU)

• Change in Administrative Structure of the Royal Society
  Sir Austin Bide headed a review of the Society's administration which was published in a Corporate Plan in December 1993. It recommended a new structure which came into effect on January 1 1995. A central core management provides Council support, administrative and programme coordination and resource management. The various activity programmes are administered through six sections each of which reports to an Officer and works to develop and implement programmes for their area. A new Finance and General Purposes Committee is responsible for resource allocation and control. A Strategy/Policy Board assesses proposals on behalf of Council and advises it on strategy. The old International Relations Department no longer exists. The new Section for Science Advice assumed responsibility for the UK commitment to the International Council of the Scientific Unions (ICSU); it houses both National and International aspects of Science Advice. The new head of Section is Dr.P.M.D.Collins.
  Miss Ruth A.Cooper still has particular responsibility for ICSU, she can be reached at The Royal Soci ety, 6 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AG. Tel: 0171-839 5561 ext 267
• IUPAC Publications & meetings
  Blackwell Science has recently produced two publications for the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), 'IUPAC Handbook 1994-1995' describing the activities and rules of IUPAC, and 'History of IUPAC 1919-1987' to mark the 75th anniversary of IUPAC in 1994. Paperback versions are available at a reduced rate through the Secretariat to members of IUPAC bodies and affiliates.

  Several IUPAC sponsored symposia are listed in the 'Forthcoming meetings' section at the end of this issue. Further details from:

   
  
          IUPAC Secretariat, Bank Court Chambers, 2-3 Pound Way, 
  
             Templars Square,  Cowley, Oxford OX4 3YF  
  
         Tel: +44 01865 747744  email: [email protected] 
  
  

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