Latest University News

What lies beneath - university’s seabed survey pinpoints historic wreck

The last resting place of a historic Anglesey-built fast sea raiding vessel featured in a 1951 British film has been pinpointed by sonar in a new survey by experts from Bangor University.

Publication date: 3 August 2020

Awards Aplenty in Wales’ top Book Awards

Two Bangor Universoty academics shortlisted for the English and Welsh categories of Literature Wales’ Welsh Book of the Year Awards have been successful in being awarded prizes and Ifan Morgan Jones then went on to be awarded both the overall Welsh language Llyfr y Flwyddyn book of the year category and the Golwg Barn y Bobl people’s vote award.

Publication date: 1 August 2020

Creative writing lecturer wins Poetry Book of the Year

Creative writing lecturer and poet, Zoë Skoulding has been awarded the Poetry category Wales Book of the Year Award for her latest volume of poetry: Footnotes to Water.

Footnotes to Water follows two forgotten rivers, the Adda in Bangor and the Bièvre in Paris, and tracks the literary hoofprints of sheep through Welsh mountains. It was a Poetry Book Society choice last year.

Publication date: 31 July 2020

Bangor University Lecturer wins Llyfr y Flwyddyn

Ifan Morgan Jones has been awarded the Welsh Llyfr y Flwyddyn fiction category for his novel, Babel.

Ifan Morgan Jones is a lecturer in journalism. He has written four novels, the first of which, Igam Ogam, won the Daniel Owen Memorial prize at the National Eisteddfod in 2008. He completed a PhD at Bangor University in 2018 on the subject of the Welsh language press in the 19th century and this research formed the basis of his novel Babel.

Publication date: 30 July 2020

Cancer research published in Science Advances

Cancer is a disease that has touched us all, and although we now know a lot about how cancers develop and grow, we still have a lot to learn.  A major factor in cancer development and in treatment resistance is the presence of genome instability. This essentially involves frequent alterations to the genomic DNA of the cell, including changes to the letters of the genetic code as well as more obvious changes such as chromosome deletions, or even movement of large DNA fragments from one chromosome to another. Work in UKRI Future Leader Fellow Dr Chris Staples’ laboratory housed at the North West Cancer Research Institute (in the School of Medical Sciences at Bangor University) focuses on how cells normally prevent such genome instability from occurring.

Publication date: 26 July 2020

We discovered a new species, but war means it may now remain hidden forever

The world has a new species. My colleagues and I were hugely excited to announce it but, alas, this stingray – a distant cousin of sharks – can’t be claimed to be a particularly spectacular or awe-inspiring animal. It’s small – about the size of an outstretched hand – and, as far as we know, plain, without distinctive markings. But what’s special about this stingray is where it came from, how we came to discover it – and why we may never see it again.

This article by Alec Moore, Post-Doctoral Fisheries Scientist, at the School of Ocean Sciences is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Publication date: 23 July 2020

Teenage friends praised for immense bravery in sea rescue

A Bangor University student is praised by Police the his immense bravery in rushing into the sea to save a man.

Dyfed-Powys Police Superintendent Ifan Charles met with Marine Biology and Oceanography student Tom Williams and friends Ciaran Phillips and Morgan Discombe-Hughes to thank them for their actions after a man got into difficulty on the water’s edge.

Publication date: 23 July 2020

Bangor Honorary Professor to lead work on teaching Wales’ “rich history built on difference and diversity”

Professor Charlotte Williams OBE has been appointed by the Welsh Government to lead a new working group to advise on and improve the teaching of themes relating to Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities and experiences across all parts of the school curriculum.  

Professor Williams is Honorary Professor in the School of History, Philosophy and Social Sciences at Bangor University and former Associate Dean and Professor of Social work at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. She holds Honorary Fellow appointments at Glyndwr University and the University of South Wales.

Publication date: 21 July 2020

Students rewarded for supporting their peers

Two mature students have been rewarded for supporting their fellow students at Bangor University.

Jodie Jackman and Dinah Jennings have both been active and effective in the University’s Peer Guide Scheme, which enables students to help and support new students at the University.

Publication date: 17 July 2020

New Netflix series is another take on women in Arthurian legend, says Bangor University academic

Netflix will begin streaming its latest epic fantasy drama, Cursed, based on the Arthurian legend and centering on the iconic Lady of the Lake on Friday July 17th.

Prof Raluca Radulescu, Director of the Centre for Arthurian Studies at Bangor University, explains why this mysterious and powerful character in Arthurian legend continues to appeal.

Publication date: 16 July 2020

Super-lenses made from spider webs and laser-based advanced manufacturing to be discussed in public seminar.

Super-lenses made from spider webs and laser-based advanced manufacturing are just two of the topics being discussed by world-class Bangor University academics in an upcoming public seminar.

Publication date: 10 July 2020

Post-Covid shift away from global supply chains could boost North Wales economy

A backlash against globalisation in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis can kick-start North Wales’s powerful manufacturing sector with a boom in cutting edge technologies like 3D printing boosting the recovery, according to a top expert.

Bangor University economics lecturer Dr Edward Jones, predicts more businesses and governments will want to have their supplies closer to home as they emerge from months of unprecedented lockdown.

Publication date: 9 July 2020

How animals are coping with the global ‘weirding’ of the Earth’s seasons

This article by Dr Line Cordes, Lecturer in Marine Biology, School of Ocean Sciences is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The UK’s weather did a somersault  in the first half of 2020, as the wettest February on record gave way to the sunniest spring. Climate change has warped the environmental conditions that might be considered normal, creating progressively weirder seasons that cause havoc for society. Longer, drier summers increase the risk of crop failure and fires, floods engulf homes, and less winter snowfall and earlier thaws threaten freshwater supplies.

Publication date: 9 July 2020

Bangor University’s Clubs & Societies placed second in WhatUni.com awards 2020

Bangor University has been awarded second place in the ‘Societies & Sport’ category of this year’s Whatuni Student Choice Awards. The University also came in the top four in the Giving Back category. 

Publication date: 8 July 2020

Solving mysteries with Leverhulme Research Grants

Three awards to Bangor University will enable scientists to solve some of the unanswered mysteries of science and record one of the earth’s most diverse ecosystems.

Publication date: 7 July 2020

Cyfri’r Cewri: Wales’ mathematicians

Professor Gareth Roberts who is well-known for his Welsh language work to popularise mathematics, and who is a former Pro Vice-Chancellor of Bangor University has a new book published.

The book builds on Llewelyn Gwyn Chambers’ work Mathemategwyr Cymru (Cardiff, 1994). Previously a Reader in the Department of Mathematics at Bangor, he set out the history of some 70 Welsh mathematicians.

Publication date: 7 July 2020

The impact of climate change on marmot survival differs between seasons

Many animals have evolved life cycles and strategies (patterns of survival and reproduction) in line with predictable seasonal variation in environmental conditions. Short and mild summers produce bursts of vegetation and food, the perfect time to give birth to young. Long, harsh winters when food is scarce have shaped animals to largely depend on fat reserves for energy, and in extreme cases, to hibernate or migrate.

However, climate change is altering these seasonal conditions to which many species are adapted. Temperatures are increasing, winter snowfall is declining, snow is melting earlier, summers are extending, and the frequency of extreme events (e.g., droughts, floods) are on the rise.

Publication date: 7 July 2020

Bangor researchers’ work informs Lords report warning of ‘pandemic of misinformation’ in democracy

The advice of two researchers at Bangor University has informed a report into democracy and digital technologies by a House of Lords committee.

Publication date: 3 July 2020