First up is Professor Heiko Balzter of our Department of Geography, who the Royal Society has appointed as a new Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award holder. The scheme provides up to five years’ funding for the recipients’ work, which in Professor Balzter’s case focuses on satellite concepts for reducing deforestation and mitigating climate change.

These awards are intended attract or to retain respected scientists of outstanding achievement and potential and Professor Balzter joins a group of seventeen other leaders in their fields.

Director of Administration for the College of Science and Engineering Geoff Green and Tee Holden of the University of Derby shared a prestigious award recently from the Association for University Administrators. The pair work in partnership as East Midlands Co-ordinators for the AUA and over the last 18 months have built a support network for administrators and managers at several universities in the East Midlands. They were presented with the award for Most Innovative Involvement at the AUA’s 2011 Jubilee Lecture and Awards Ceremony.

Mark Heggs with the President of the ICWCI.

The work on the Percy Gee Building Development has already garnered a plethora of praise, but Mark Heggs of our Estates and Facilities Management Division has added to this with a Building on Quality Award from the Institute of Clerks of Works and Construction Inspectorate. He received the ‘Winner Award’ in the New Build category for his role as Clerk of Works during the project.

And finally, a book co-authored by a University of Leicester geneticist has been named Book of the Year by TV historian Michael Wood in BBC History Magazine. Surnames, DNA, and Family History combines history and linguistics with the latest research into genetics courtesy of the Department of Genetics' Dr Turi King, revealing how DNA testing can provide insights in the origins and development of surnames. It is published by Oxford University Press, priced at £20.