Dear Colleagues,

Well another busy year filled with its share of challenges, successes and farewells is coming to an end. In terms of challenges we survived the last PBRF assessment and await with interest the results of the process in the New Year. On a similar note the Technical Services Review, and now it impacts on Professional staff, will be fully revealed in late January.

As is the norm for the School we can reflect on another very successful year in terms of student achievement, publications, and external grant success. In particular I am very proud of our efforts to date to support our excellent cohort of senior research fellows and to ensure a degree of succession planning, but we of course need to do more to grow our next generation of researcher leaders.

Finally, we have in 2018 seen the departure of number of senior academic and professional staff. In particular I would like to acknowledge Bruce Bagley, Denis Loiselle and Karn Hinton who are all retiring after having served their respective Departments, the School, and the wider Faculty and University with distinction. They will all be greatly missed, but we wish them all well as they embark on the next stages of their life journey.

So in closing I would like to thank you for all your hard work in 2018, and to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Regards

Paul