Academic Beards

For both those of you who missed this early video production and those who just want to revisit the sparkling bearded past. 

Antonio López-Gay, a research fellow at the Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, has begun a six-month visit to the Nucleo de Estudos de Populaçao in the Department of Demography at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas-UNICAMP, São Paulo (Brasil). 


During his stay in Brazil, he will give several seminars in the Postgraduate Programme in Demography, combining this teaching work with his research on The Cohabitation Boom in Brazil and Other Dimensions of the Demographic Transition. 

Formació acadèmica: 

• Doctor en Demografia per la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (2007)
• Diploma d'estudis avançats (DEA) en Geografia Humana, UAB. (2004)
• Llicenciat en Geografia, UB (1999)
• Postgrau Mètodes per a l'Estudi de la Població, CED (2000)
• Investigador contractat Juan de la Cierva (des de l'1 de setembre de 2009)  

 
Camps investigació:
Second demographic transition, union formation, household changes, family relations, marriage markets of foreign population Urban demography, internal migration, residential mobility, reurbanization, selective migration, population substitution in urban central areas, gentrification, spatial segregation, demographic filter, inner cities, metropolitan regions, urban development, local demography, geo-demography, spatial statistics. International census data, data integration, data dissemination, IPUMS-International Population and development, world populations, population growth, population and environment, debates about the population growth, sexual and reproductive health. 

http://www.ced.uab.es/index.php?module=pagesetter&func=viewpub&tid=12&pid=39

Jesper Romers, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Oxford




http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~topnes/contacts/index.php#jr

Dr Tapio Rajala, Academy of Finland Postdoctoral Researcher at University of Jyväskylä, is interested in geometric analysis and geometric measure theory in metric measure spaces. Here are some of the topics he has recently studied.

• Optimal mass transportation: Ricci-curvature bounds in metric spaces, existence of optimal maps.
• Lipschitz, Sobolev, BV-mappings: metric differentiation, area formulas, dimension distortion, extension domains.
• Local structure of sets and measures: densities, dimension, rectifiability, porosity.
• Fractal geometry: self-similar and self-affine sets, Moran type constructions.

He is currently funded by the Academy of Finland, project Geometric properties of sets and measures: densities, rectifiability and constructions. Before this he was a postdoc at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa working in the European Project Geometric Measure Theory in non Euclidean spaces. 

http://users.jyu.fi/~tamaraja/

Professor Bill Gray of the University of Chichester is the director of the Sussex Centre for Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy, which is based at the university, and a renowned expert in all three fields. Last year he acted as a consultant on the Hollywood film Snow White and the Huntsman. We think he'd look splendid if he swapped that red jersey for an elven cloak and peaked hat.

http://www.chi.ac.uk/staff/professor-bill-gray

Dr Tim Bunnell
Associate Professor
Department of Geography
National University of Singapore

Building upon doctoral work completed at the University of Nottingham in 1999, the initial focus of Dr Bunnell's research at NUS was on the politics of urban landscape change in and around Kuala Lumpur and, in particular, in a high-tech zone known as the Multimedia Super Corridor. While he retains an active interest in urban development issues in Malaysia, since 2004 he has also been carrying out research on the Malay community in Liverpool, U.K.

In mid-2009 Dr Bunnell began a joint appointment with the Asia Research Institute (ARI). His role in ARI's Asian Urbanisms research cluster, has revolved around efforts to position Asia as a 'frontier' of urban theory. He is principal investigator on a comparative ethnographic research project on urban aspirations in Asia.

http://profile.nus.edu.sg/fass/geotgb/index.htm

1. Emeritus Professor Peter Higgs will grow a beard.

2. Dr Karen H. Beard will find ecological significance in the bearded clam.

3. Professor Slavoj Žižek will discover Grecian 2000.

4. Young Beard of November 2012, Dr Alan Goddard, will enjoy his new appointment at the University of Lincoln.

5. Professor Arvind Krishna Mehrotra and Oxford Professor of Poetry Geoffrey Hill will finally get to fight it out in a poetry competition atop Mount Doom.

http://www.open.edu/openlearn/education/educational-technology-and-practice/educational-technology/1973-maths-beards-and-props

Professor Keith Beven and his splendid beard have been awarded the prestigious Robert E. Horton Medal by the American Geophysical Union. Established in 1974, the Horton Medal is named in honor of Robert E. Horton, who made significant contributions to the study of the hydrologic cycle. The Horton Medal is awarded not more than once annually to an individual “for outstanding contributions to hydrology.” You may recognise Professor Beven from his previous exposure on Academic Beards, his visage used as an icon on Academic Beards on Twitter, and his starring role in Academic Beards: Some Say Academic Beards. You might be able to tell we have a soft spot for Professor Keith Beven's beard. We don't entirely understand what it is he does because it's a little modern for our academic tastes, but clearly the Earth and Space Science community think very highly of him. Congratulations on your recent honour Prof Keith from all the committee at Academic Beards.  

http://sites.agu.org/honors/winners/keith-beven/

Dr Michael Kasumovic is an evolutionary biologist and part of the Ecology & Evolution Research group in the School of BEES at the University of New South Wales.

His research generally explores the innate differences between males and females and how the environment, both social and ecological, modifies these differences. He's also interested in how individuals maximize fitness in what seems to be a chaotic and unpredictable world. He's fascinated by how individuals use the information available during development to best make allocation decisions across suites of traits to best succeed in a future environment.

http://www.michaelkasumovic.com/about-me/

Academic Beards is bemused by Professor John Boyer, a senior instructor in Virginia Tech's geography department. Boyer's alter-ego is a cartoon character called The Plaid Avenger, who features in a series of lecture videos and a text book. Doting students can also purchase a range of merchandise including stickers, comic books or a pint glass to remind themselves of Professor Boyer's prowess in the lecture hall.

Professor Boyer says:

I have been teaching in the Department of Geography since 1998, actually teaching my first course (World Regional Geography) as I was finishing up my Master's degree research. At the time, the course had an enrollment of 50 students and was one of the biggest offered in our small department. In the last decade, I have grown that course to an enrollment of 575, offered every semester, and am teaching it to 2700 students this Fall...the third time I will be breaking a record for the largest class offered at Virginia Tech. This one will be incorporating elements of on-line video and on-line student interaction, as I continue to push the envelope incorporating new technologies into the learning environment.

What does Academic Beards think about all this? We are undecided.

See for yourself: http://thejohnboyer.com/

Dr Alan Goddard, Postdoctoral Researcher, Oxford University Biomembrane Structure Unit


Goddard is interested in how G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) come together to form dimers and how this influences, and is influenced by, ligand binding and G protein activation. He uses a variety of techniques including ensemble FRET and single molecule fluorescence approaches in collaboration with Dr Mark Wallace's group in the Department of Chemistry.

http://www.bioch.ox.ac.uk/aspsite/index.asp?pageid=787

Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences, University of Verona.

Ricercatore, Dipartimento di Informatica, Ex Facoltà di appartenenza Scienze matematiche fisiche e naturali, Università degli studi di Verona.

Research Area: Calculus of variations and optimal control; optimization. Viscosity solutions for Hamilton–Jacobi equations. Optimal transport problems. Nonsmooth Analysis and applications to Optimal Control Theory.

http://www.di.univr.it/?ent=persona&id=6498&lang=it

This photograph appears in 'Dr John Clifford, C.H. Life, Letters and Reminiscences' by Sir James Marchant, LL.D., first published in 1924, opposite page 218. Dr John Clifford was born at Sawley on 16 October 1836. John Clifford rose from a twelve hour per day child apprenticeship in a large factory through university exams in arts, science, and law to outstanding leadership in the Baptist Christian community. Among his fellow Baptists he was considered a progressive influence theologically. Socially, he frequently sided with radical movements, as evidenced by his membership in the Fabian Society. Politically, he exercised great influence on several pieces of legislation relating to education; he was a known supporter of David Lloyd George. In many ways, Clifford was the father of social Christianity among Free Churchmen in Great Britain. He used his Baptist conviction of religious liberty to advance his feeling that the message of Christ should be interpreted in light of growing knowledge and experience. He opposed, for instance the 'living-in' system of apprentices and later the atrocities perpetuated by the Belgians upon the Congo peoples. In 1885 his church established a home for unemployed women, and for more than thirty years he led in the temperance crusade to close public houses where neighborhood sentiment was in strong opposition. Clifford's attitude about the new interpretations of the Bible soon put him into conflict with Charles H. Spurgeon. The pastor at Praed Street had long urged attention to Darwin's work and German higher criticism, two issues Spurgeon saw as symptomatic of the 'down-grade' of Baptist life and thought. Eventually, Spurgeon withdrew from the Baptist Union in 1887, and Clifford was subsequently elected its president. In his inaugural address in 1891 he addressed the topic 'The Coming Theology'; he argued for the increase in the unity of humanity and a greater appreciation for Christianity. To Clifford's credit, he became the symbol of global Baptist leadership moving into the twentieth century. His openness led to significant positions in both the Baptist World Alliance and the Evangelical Free Churches in Great Britain. It was the issue of church-related primary and secondary education which made Clifford a powerful influence in the making of public policy. In the 1870s he welcomed legislation that created religious education in private schools. Clifford reasoned that the 'conscience clause' deprived schools where such instruction was offered of the right to public revenues. For this reason, in 1902 when a second Education Bill provided increased support for religious education in public schools, Clifford protested loudly and led a large-scale 'passive resistance' to the legislation. The preacher, who was largely credited with overturning the bill, had planned to protest with all his might against teaching a set of dogmatic theological opinions. He wished theological dogma to be taught, but by the churches, and at the expense of the churches. Clifford's literary output was remarkable. He penned ninety-nine books or pamphlets, edited denominational newspapers, and carried on a voluminous correspondence. His contributions were honored by heads of government and institutions; in 1883 Freewill Baptist Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, conferred on him in absentia an honorary doctorate. Sensitive to British opposition to 'bogus American degrees,' Clifford gracefully declined, preferring to be known as 'the pastor of Praed Street, Paddington'. (information from the 'generalbaptist' website)

Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, professor of English at Allahabad University, had hoped to be the first Indian in 300 years to be elected Oxford Professor of Poetry when a successor to Christopher Ricks was chosen in 2010. But alas, he was pipped at the post by Geoffrey Hill who won the position and its “lousy” salary (£6,901 a year).

http://department-of-english-au.info/faculty/10-arvind-krishna-mehrotra

Professor Hill was elected as Oxford’s 44th Professor of Poetry in June 2010. A graduate of Oxford, Hill read English at Keble College and his prolific and much honoured career as a poet has been accompanied by a series of academic posts at Bristol, Leeds, Cambridge and Boston University. While at Boston he was, with outgoing Professor of Poetry Christopher Ricks, a founding co-director of the university’s Editorial Institute. Geoffrey Hill gives a rare interview on Newsnight:




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Hill

I am a lecturer in Sustainable Heritage at the UCL Centre for Sustainable Heritage. I graduated in Physics from the University of Ferrara, Italy, with a dissertation on technical imaging applied to easel paintings and I completed my PhD at the same institution with a dissertation on Nuclear Activation Analysis.
Following a post-doctoral fellowship at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, where I studied prehistoric flint tools using a particle accelerator, I collaborated with the Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles, US, on a project entitled Organic Materials in Wall Paintings. This project aimed to deepen our present understanding of the use of organic materials in wall paintings by means of scientific investigations.

While working on this project, I became interested in conservation-related issues.  I decided to study for a Masters in Conservation of Wall Paintings at the Courtauld Institute of Art. I completed the course in 2007 and in the same year I was appointed a Mellon Fellow at the British Museum, where I developed multispectral imaging in the conservation of artistic and archaeological materials. Special attention was given to the development and implementation of visible-induced luminescence digital photography, a novel technology for the non-invasive identification of Egyptian and Han blue pigments. Using visible-induced luminescence imaging, it was possible to prove, for the first time, that the frieze and the pedimental sculptures of the Parthenon at the British Museum were originally painted using Egyptian blue.

I applied the same imaging technique on several artworks, including the sarcophagus of Seti I at the Sir John Soane’s Museum; the wall paintings in the Tomb of Tutankhamen, as part of a project coordinated by the Getty Conservation Institute and the Egyptian Antiquity Authority; the tomb paintings of Nebamum; the Mausoleum at Halykarnassos and the Temple of Artemis at Ephesos at the British Museum.

https://iris.ucl.ac.uk/research/personal?upi=GVERR68

Dear Sir/Madam,

I have devotedly followed your website and facebook page ever since your 'champion' academic beard was that of my beloved PhD supervisor, Prof Keith Beven. Whilst I can never claim to ever rival his 'bearded' excellence, I do have a beard of my own - would it be possible to be cited in your journal of academic facial pubes?  It would mean a lot to both myself and my folically-challenged students... (two, albeit weak, ginger beard photos attached)

I did send a similar email to the Royal Society on my non-beard related excellence - they suggested that I go and procreate... You are truly my last hope of achieving any distinguished recognition in my field.

Best wishes, Stewart

A/Prof Stewart W. Franks

School of Engineering
University of Newcastle
http://www.newcastle.edu.au/staff/research-profile/Stewart_Franks/

Our Reply:

Dear A/Prof Stewart W. Franks,

Sorted. Say 'hi' to Prof Keith next time you see him. We've never met him, but he feels like an old friend by now (he's still our Twitter beard of choice).

Can we ask for a small service from you in return, which will benefit the whole community? Can you put in a request that your university media office includes releases from http://academicbeards.blogspot.co.uk/ in its media reports. We fear that press officers fail to understand the full gravity of our attention.

Yours,
Academic Beards