People

Communications award for political scientist

Professor Paul Whiteley, of the Department of Government, joined Robin Cook, Ken Livingstone, Rory Bremner and Jeremy Paxman as one of the winners at the 2003 Political Studies Association (PSA) annual awards ceremony.

Professor Whiteley picked up the Political Science Communication Award from James Naughtie of the Today programme. The award acknowledges the academic who has most successfully disseminated knowledge and ideas to academic and non-academic audiences. Professor Whiteley's studies of party membership have already had considerable impact on political parties, journalists and academics, while the ESRC Programme on Democracy and Participation, of which he is Director, will have long-term effects on the conduct of politics.

Judges for the PSA stated: 'His articles in the Guardian, clearly and tightly written, are a model of how an academic should convey ideas and information to an interested, but non-specialist, audience.'

Professor Whiteley was delighted to accept the award: 'It is really nice getting an award from one's professional association like this. But the awards ceremony showed the difference between journalists, MPs and entertainers on the one hand, and us academics on the other. In their acceptance speeches the former were witty, erudite and amusing, but we just said thank you!'

Other recipients of awards at the ceremony, held in London, included Essex Honorary Graduates Polly Toynbee who collected the award for Political Journalist of the Year, and Lord Bhikhu Parekh who received the Sir Isaiah Berlin Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Politics.

Professor Whiteley has also recently been appointed Chair of a Home Office initiative to encourage and support local groups working to improve their communities.

The establishment of an Active Citizenship Centre website, set up with £1 million government investment, was announced recently by the Home Secretary David Blunkett. The new 'virtual centre' will bring together 'thinkers' and 'doers' in civil renewal in a partnership to develop new ideas, best practice and cutting edge research, all aimed at bringing about change in struggling communities. Professor Whiteley will chair the Centre's steering group.

Professor Whiteley making his acceptance speech at the PSA awards ceremony

New Year's honours

The announcement of the Queen's New Year's Honours list saw a number of Essex faces rewarded for their pioneering achievements.

Former member of the Department of Computer Science and Honorary Graduate Professor Michael Brady received a Knighthood for services to engineering.

Professor Brady is currently the BP Professor of Information Engineering in the Department of Engineering Science as well as a Fellow of Keble College at the University of Oxford. A leading expert in computer vision, robotics, medical image analysis, and artificial intelligence, Professor Brady founded both the Robotics Laboratory and the Medical Vision Laboratory at Oxford and has authored more than 250 articles in these fields.

Also awarded a knighthood was honorary graduate and inventor of the world wide web Timothy Berners-Lee.

Timothy currently holds the 3Com Founders chair at the Laboratory for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and directs the World Wide Web Consortium, an open forum of organisations with a mission to lead the web to its full potential.

Fellow honorary graduate Patricia Hodgson become a Dame for her services to broadcasting. The former Chief Executive of the Independent Television Commission, Patricia began her career in television at the BBC as a producer. She was also part of the team which pioneered distance learning techniques at The Open University. In 1993 she was appointed Director of Policy and Planning and played a key role in many initiatives and led the BBC team which planned the launch of the corporation's digital and online services between 1997 and 2000.

East 15 graduate and award-winning director, Stephen Daldry was awarded a CBE in the honours. The Oscar nominated and Golden Globe winning director has received international acclaim not only for his feature films, namely The Hours and Billy Elliot, but for his work in the theatre. A former director of the Royal Court Theatre, Stephen has produced over 100 plays and directed numerous plays, including the multi-award winning Machinal and An Inspector Calls.

Death of graduate on Croatia mission

It is with regret that the University has learnt of the tragic death of former Essex Human Rights student Steve Degeneve who died after a car accident in Croatia.

Steve, 37, who studied for his MA at Essex in 2000/01, was a member of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) mission to Croatia.

He died earlier this month after an accident while driving from his field station in Vukovar.

Steve had served with the OSCE for two years. After working to promote human rights and democratisation standards at the OSCE centre in Dushanbe, he joined the Mission to Croatia as a Return and Integration Officer in March 2003.

Also in the printed January edition of Wyvern:

• AUA post for Susan Rhodes
• 25 years service rewarded
• Fundraising frolics