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Interview with Sir David Attenborough

Watch our interview with honorary Bangor graduate Sir David Attenborough...

Bangor Professor wins Labs to Riches award

Professor Johnson Professor Barrie Johnson of Bangor University was one of nine UK scientists awarded a Royal Society award at the annual Royal Society Labs to Riches event in London recently.

Prof Johnson, of the School of Biological Sciences was awarded a Brian Mercer Feasibility Award of £ 28,000. This will enable him to further develop his innovative and cost-effective means of both cleaning acidic mine pollution and retrieving metals contained in the waters.

Prof Johnson explains: "The project under development takes a radically different approach to the problem of dealing with long-term environmental pollution caused by the mining of metals. The technology recovers metals present in mine wastewaters selectively, thereby allowing them to be recycled. This “green” approach harnesses the abilities of some bacteria that occur naturally in metal mine environments to precipitate metals."

Professor Johnson is trialling the technology to clean mine water draining workings at a very old copper mine at Parys Mountain, on Anglesey. According to Prof Johnson: "This was once the most productive copper mine in the world. Hundreds of years after its closure it is still generating a highly acidic drainage stream that contains very elevated concentrations of copper, zinc and iron. The objective is to clean up this water while at the same time removing and recover the three metals selectively in different stages of treatment”.

The technology also has the potential to be used world-wide in “biomining” operations where bacteria are used to extract copper from low-grade ores. Sir Peter Williams, Vice-President of the Royal Society said: “Science has the potential to solve some of the greatest challenges facing the world at the moment but only if we continue to invest in good ideas. We need to be on a constant look-out for the next big thing and then willing to support it when it comes along”.

Professor Steve Hawkins, Head of Bangor University's College of Natural Sciences said: “Professor Johnson is generating state of the art research on bioremediation, working in north Wales and on the wider international stage. Such ground breaking environmental biotechnology is a major contribution to Bangor University’s mission to contribute to a sustainable Wales and world.”

The bacteria that are the key to the biotechnology have been isolated by Barrie Johnson from mine sites in Spain and the U.K., and also from geothermal areas on the volcanic Caribbean island of Montserrat. These bacteria produce hydrogen sulfide as part of their normal metabolism and metals can be removed on contact with hydrogen sulphide. The unique characteristic of these particular bacteria is that, in contrast to all known species of hydrogen sulfide producing bacteria, they can live in very acidic waters.

Ph.D. Studentship Titles 2009

Surviving a warming world: physiological limits in marine amphipods (Dr Nia Whiteley Ref:NW/NS09).

Tracing the evolution of novel toxins in the pitviper venom arsenal. (Dr Anita Malhotra Ref: AM/NS09).

Rising DOC concentrations in aquatic ecosystems: Impact on formation of disinfection by-products during the treatment of waters for drinking water supplies. (Prof Christopher Freeman Ref: CF/NS09). ( Separate Deadline - Feb 28th 2008)

The identification and functional characterisation of novel cancer testis antigens for ovarian cancer therapy and diagnosis. (Dr Ramsay McFarlane Ref:RM/NS09).

Deadline for Project 3 is (CF/NS09) February 28th 2009.

Deadline for all other projects is Monday 30th March.

Instructions to applicants:

Please e-mail your application to Phdapplications@cns.bangor.ac.uk, in PDF, MS Word or text format or post it to

Sally Wells
Graduate School Administrator
College of Natural Sciences
Bangor University
Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2UW, UK

Your application should include:

a curriculum vitae (including the name and contact details of TWO referees) and
a letter of application, stating clearly your name, the project title and first-named supervisor. The letter should outline what inspires you to undertake scientific research, and the reason for applying for this specific project.

When submitting your application by email please title your documents in the following format:
Supervisor Surname_your surname_your initial_cv or letter
For example, if your name was John Smith and you were applying for Dr Nia Whiteley’s project on remote sensing, you should name the covering letter file: Whiteley_Smith_J_letter and the CV file as Whiteley_Smith_J_CV.

The deadline for receipt of applications is 30th March, 2009 (apart from Project 3 – deadline Feb 28th).

Applications will be scored on the basis of academic qualification and background, previous employment (if relevant), quality of references and the contents of the covering letter. Short-listed candidates will be invited to Bangor for interview.

July 2008: Award Enables Student to Research In Russia

Sam Rastrick, a third year PhD student at Bangor University is to undertake research in St Petersburg, Russia, thanks to a Student Award from the Welsh Livery Guild. Read on...

New courses at the School of Biological Sciences

We are happy to announce that the School of Biological Sciences is able to offer the following exciting new courses (subject to validation) for 2008 entry:

Zoology with Animal Behaviour BSc (Hons) (Subject to validation)

Cancer Biology BSc (Hons) (Subject to Validation)(18 Apr 2007, 10:42AM)

UCAS course code: B130 BSc/CB

New Degrees for 2008 Entry:(22 Mar 2007, 2:02PM)

Cancer Biology, Zoology with Animal Behaviour & Zoology with Animal Ecology.

Chris Freeman wins Royal Society Mullard Award(7 Mar 2007, 12:22PM)

Professor Chris Freeman has won the Royal Society Mullard Award: