Tina Fairless hangs up her lab coat!

This week Tina Fairless, will hang up her lab coat for the final time, after clocking up 40 years with the institution!

Find out more here.

Local sixth-form student works with lecturer on research project

A sixth form student from a local school has been working with Dr Jo Wright this summer on a mapping project, through a Nuffield Research Placement.

Read more about it here.

Dr Terry Tudor visits the University of Brescia

Dr Terry Tudor reports on his recent visit to the University of Brescia...

I’ve just spent an enjoyable week at the annual summer school by the CeTAmb LAB at the University of Brescia, in Italy. This year, the summer school looked at issues related to water, sanitation and waste management, primarily focused on developing countries. So very much about an integrated approach to the manner in which we address some of our key environmental and health issues, as outlined by Silvio, Daniele and Andrea.

The University of Brescia

On the final day, there were a number of really interesting projects outlined by the participants, that they are currently working on. These included sustainable waste management in Bolivia by Navarro Ferronato, as well as Domenico Vitiello’s agricultural project, for which by the way, he is seeking funding and partners. Certainly, two very worthwhile initiatives.

Also, this week at the University of Brescia, there was a workshop on Industria 4.0, facilitating the digitilisation of manufacturing industry. This very well attended event was hosted by the Laboratorio RISE which is a leading research centre in the field of utilising innovation and circular business models for resource management.

The summer school is open to students from all countries and there is some financial support available for those that wish to attend. If you require more information please feel free to contact me.

Dr Terry Tudor
Faculty of Arts, Science and Technology
University of Northampton
terry.tudor@northampton.ac.uk

Geography students visit SW USA

Second year Geography students have just returned from trip of a lifetime! They spent two weeks in Nevada, Arizona and Utah as part of the USA Field Module.

The students learned about tourism, geology and landscape development, and resource management.

Learning about tourism and Route 66 in Arizona

Visiting Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument

They visited a number of National Parks during the trip, including the Grand Canyon.

Smiling despite the rain!

The traditional Grand Canyon group photo

Admiring Delicate Arch (Arches National Park)

The glorious Bryce Canyon National Park

The group travelled through iconic landscapes, such as Monument Valley.

At Monument Valley

There was also an opportunity to learn about adventure tourism through rafting on the Colorado River in Moab, Utah.

Rafting the Colorado River

Towards the end of the trip the group spent some time in Las Vegas, learning about the unique tourist experience offered by the city.

The group's Twitter account of their trip can be viewed here (no login necessary).

Waste Management student undertakes work shadowing placement at SRCL

Final year Waste Management student, Stephen Anuge, recently undertook a work shadowing placement with SRCL.  SRCL is a leading healthcare waste services provider. The placement was organised by Dr Terry Tudor, a Senior Lecturer in Waste Management.

Read all about Stephen's work placement here.

Read more about Dr Terry Tudor's work supporting student employability here.

Northampton graduate returns to campus to talk about her work on health and development

Sonia Coates is a graduate of the University of Northampton and now works as a consultant for IOD PARC, a development consultancy based in Sheffield. Sonia recently returned to class to talk about her experiences as a development consultant.

Sonia Coates

Sonia is currently a team member working to provide technical assistance and Institutional support to UNICEF India for their reducing Open Defecation programme, and has recently completed a piece of participatory research looking at the impacts of WASH on education for girls in Zimbabwe for Plan International. She has experience of managing multi-country projects across sub-Saharan Africa and has also worked in S E Asia. She has a Masters in Public Health and International Development.

The session was illustrated with material from Sonia's work in Malaysia, Nepal, India and several sub-Saharan countries. She discussed various issues, including Water and Sanitation, child health, infectious and neglected tropical diseases.

Sonia answered students' questions on careers in development - and provided some top tips for those interested in working in this sector.

Sonia's top tips for developing a career in International Development

Geography students learn about the challenging issues surrounding Female Genital Mutilation

Dr Kevin Cook reports on a recent class about the challenging issues surrounding Female Genital Mutilation...

As I move towards the end of my second year module on Geography and Development, I have the opportunity to deal with some of the more challenging issues that face the world. I wanted to try to cover the complex issue of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) but was keenly aware of my limited understanding of the issues involved and wanted to provide a view from the Global South delivered by ‘practitioners’ working in the field.

I had heard about the excellent work of the UK charity Tanzania Development Trust (TDS) and knew that they worked with communities on FGM. I contacted them and Janet Chapman, Campaigns Manager and Project Officer, kindly offered to set up a Skype session with my students. We linked up with Egle Marija Ramanauskaite in London and Rhobi Samwelli, the TDS representative in the Mara Region in Tanzania.

Tanzania Development Trust logo

The twin highlights of the session were being able to talk directly, via Skype, with Rhobi Samwelli. Rhobi manages a safe house at Mugumu in Mara region for young women who wish to escape the horrors of FGM. The UK students were able to ask Rhobi detailed questions on FGM; questions that I would have been unable to answer.

The second highlight of the session was being able to take part in the online mapping project that Janet is looking after. One of the many problems facing young girls who wish to avoid being cut, is to find their way to the TDS funded safe house at Mugumu. There are no maps to guide them and Janet is using the mapping software package, Openstreetmap, accessible online and on phones.


Students were allocated a small un-mapped square and it soon became a competition to see who could identify the most buildings, roads and paths from the satellite images and transfer them to the base map. Their efforts will be confirmed on the ground later.

Over 900 online volunteers and 199 local mappers are now involved in the project – make that 925 with the University of Northampton students added. They have mapped an area of 14,248 square kilometres and added 5 towns and 169 villages and hamlets, 42,128 km of roads and tracks and 700,000 buildings. Countrywide the project has added 12,294 schools and 162 clinics.

Having better maps helped prevent 2257 girls from being cut in the 2016-17 season. However change is a slow process. 1076 girls were still cut, down from 3700 the previous year and 4 girls died, down from 12 last year.

Many thanks to everyone who made this session possible and especially to Janet, Egle, Rhobi and the GEO2006 students.

Anyone wanting to get involved in this work should contact Janet at j.chapman@tanzdevtrust.org