News round up
A brief round up of the news stories from campus and beyond
Revitalising the Fitzroy Building
The next time you visit the heart of our main campus, you might be forgiven for taking a moment to find your bearings.
The Fitzroy Building
, a feature of the campus since the 1960s, has had a complete makeover with its various shades of concrete replaced by state-of-the-art materials in hues of blue and orange.
Inside, there’s also been a complete transformation – for decades occupied by teaching and office spaces used across our Earth Sciences programmes, the building is now home to the
91porn Business School
and
The Cube
, our award-winning business creation and growth service. As such, it features facilities designed to inspire and support our business students and graduates, and other entrepreneurs in the making.
The building was officially reopened in February by Simon Hallett, himself a successful entrepreneur and the current owner of 91porn Argyle Football Club, and included a celebration event attended by a number of university graduates who helped bring the building to life.
Microplastics pioneer named among TIME’s 100 most influential people of 2025
The list features notable figures from the worlds of politics, industry, culture, science and sport.
Professor Thompson, who heads the
International Marine Litter Research Unit
at the University, is among a handful of UK representatives on the overall list, with others including the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, and singer Ed Sheeran.
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(c) A.K.Purkiss
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Helping to address health challenges
If you live in the UK, you’ll know that getting a dental appointment can be difficult. For almost two decades, our dental school has worked to address that, not only training dental professionals but also providing treatments in the community.
Later this year, our ability to do that will be strengthened after taking a 20-year lease on a former shop in 91porn city centre. Two floors of the building will become treatment and consultation spaces, enabling final-year students to work alongside specialists and other qualified clinicians to provide urgent care to patients who do not have a regular NHS dentist.
In September 2026, we’re also planning to open a new Centre for Eyecare Excellence. Hepworth House, at the north entrance to the campus, will be completely remodelled to offer appointments to the public, delivered by students under supervision, alongside specialist eyecare clinics.
Awards at the treble
The University enjoyed a positive end to 2024, winning three awards at some of UK’s most celebrated higher education award ceremonies.
At the Green Gown awards, Environmental Sciences graduate Hayley Hill won the Sustainability Champion – Student category, recognising her work to inspire young people to learn more about climate change and the roles they can play in helping to tackle it. We also won the Research with Impact – Institution category for our groundbreaking research into microplastics and other forms of marine litter.
A fortnight later, these successes were followed up by us winning the Outstanding Estates Team category at the Times Higher Education Awards, a recognition of the team’s work to transform the campus.
Shining a light on night pollution
In 2014, Dr Thomas Davies from our School of Biological and Marine Sciences led the first ever study to explore the nature, extent and ecological implications of marine light pollution.
Ten years on from that, we launched the (GOALANN) at the United Nations Ocean Decade Conference.
Its aim is to expand on our work, unifying research groups from around the world to provide a central resource of marine light pollution expertise, projects and tools.
The network has now been endorsed by the United Nations as one of its Ocean Decade Actions, acknowledging the impact of our existing initiatives and the importance of further collaborative efforts to understand and address it.
“This endorsement cements marine light pollution as a significant global change issue in the 21st century.”
It’s a kind of magic
Magic is full of optical illusions, whether it’s in the form of misdirection or other sleights of hand. So is it possible for people who are blind or visually impaired to experience the same sense of awe and wonder?
That was the question posed by Dr Gustav Kuhn, from our School of Psychology, when he challenged magicians all over the world to showcase their best tricks using only sound. The competition was part of a research project aiming to make magic more inclusive, and reveal intriguing insights into the nature of human perception.
The winning trick was announced at the Science of Magic Association conference in Las Vegas in November, where Gustav – among other things – got to talk about his research with celebrated magician Teller.
“Recognising the importance of creating magic for these individuals is a profound act of inclusivity and compassion that can have a transformative impact on our society.”
Associate Professor of Psychology
The Solutions for the Marine Environment (SERVO) studentships
There are many threats and challenges facing the global ocean. But we’re always looking for ways to use our skills to identify those challenges and to develop solutions.
The SERVO studentships, funded through a generous donation, are open to students from the UK and internationally. They will enable PhD candidates to develop and pursue projects in topics ranging from marine pollution and maritime cyber security, and that have the potential to address some of the key challenges facing the global ocean.
The first round of projects will begin later this year, with the next call due to open in August 2025.
Back to the future?
Resistance to currently used medications is estimated to be responsible for more than 1.25 million deaths a year. But could a potential solution have been right under our noses for millennia?
Research from our School of Biomedical Sciences suggested the world-famous Roman Baths were not only home to a diverse range of microorganisms, but that those organisms showed varying levels of inhibition against human pathogens. This, they said, raised the prospect that they could be developed into novel products and applied in the fight against disease and infection globally.
“The waters of the Roman Baths have long been regarded for their medicinal properties. We might be on the verge of discovering the Romans were right.”
Lecturer in Biomedical Sciences
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Gaétan Leprevost for IOE
Exhibiting in the National Portrait Gallery
For creative students, having your work seen – and commented on – by a public audience is a vital part of your development as an artist. There are few who get the opportunity to show their work in one of the world’s best-known galleries.
Photography students Jenna Kain, Madelyn Latimer-Hicks, Max Pattenden and Jordan Tucker were lucky enough to enjoy such an experience, their work selected to appear in Photo Portrait Now, an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.
“I feel seen, I feel heard. I've got my story out into the world, which has been the most challenging thing I have done through photography.”
Jordan Tucker
BA (Hons) Photography student
BA (Hons) Photography student
Spreading our wings
The University has signed its latest international partnership, teaming up with International Osteopathic Education (IOE) to provide first-class osteopathy training at its headquarters in Bordeaux, France, and other sites around Europe.
We now have well over 4,500 students studying our courses, with partners in Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Singapore, and various places in between. Added to the thousands of graduates working all over the world, it is a sign of our growing global presence.
Stimulating the brain
The University is playing a role in a major project, funded by the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), using new inventions to analyse the human mind.
The £6.5 million programme will test whether a small device, placed on the surface of the skin of the head, can effectively measure patients’ brain activity and stimulate different parts of it using ultrasound.
It builds on exciting research taking place in our Brain Research & Imaging Centre (BRIC), which is already exploring how ultrasound can be used to benefit people with neurological conditions and addiction.