Academics from a range of disciplines, who are pooling their expertise to launch the Journal of Transatlantic Studies, took a significant step towards their goal yesterday when they agreed publication with Edinburgh University Press.

Professor Alan Dobson of the Department of Politics was named editor of a new Journal of Transatlantic Studies. The twice yearly journal will focus primarily on contemporary and post 1945 affairs covering Europe and the Atlantic coast of Africa and their interactions with north, south and central America and the Caribbean.

A graduation ceremony was held in London to allow a group of design students who have missed graduation in previous years due to a design show - to join in the festivities of graduation - on location. 40 design students graduated in July in a modern art gallery housing some of the most famous and valuable works of modern art in the UK. The Estorick - a handsome Georgian villa set in a walled garden in Canonbury Square - is only 20 minutes walk from the New Designers venue and close to the base of University Chancellor Sir James Black who attended the ceremony.

Two of the Belmont residence blocks including the dominant tower were refurbished over the summer months to host the first ensuite facilities on campus. 84 ensuite bedrooms with internet access were created in a self-financing project worth £3 million.

The Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit celebrated its twentieth anniversary with a 40 per cent decline in coronary mortality rate since the Unit was established in 1981. Experts gathered from all over Scotland at the Queen Mother Conference centre at the Royal College of Physicians in June to discuss what is happening to heart disease in Scotland, its risk factors, current research, policies, guidelines and "fighting back".

Scottish Higher Education Funding Council awarded the University £433,000 in a Knowledge Transfer Grant to help researchers at all of Scotland's universities and higher education institutions to turn their projects into a commercial reality.

A fellowship with the Royal Society of Arts was awarded to Professor Geoff Ward, an expert in American literature in the department of English

The University is to provide a focus for research on social dimensions of health with the establishment of a new Centre for Health Informatics in partnership with Tayside Primary Care Trust. The £1.8 million initiative will bring together anonymised data from a range of health projects and sources creating a pool of secure information for research and its translation into practice. The project is one of three successful initiatives from the University of Dundee to have secured a total of £8,196,000 in this round of the Science Research Investment Fund.

Sixty summer school students successfully completed their intensive summer programme and were offered places to start degree courses in October 2001

Professor Calum Colvin, whose unique style of "constructed photography" has earned an international reputation took a new Chair of Fine Art Photography at the Faculty of Duncan of Jordanstone College.

Dr Kate Storey, a Principal Investigator who runs a research group in the Wellcome Trust Biocentre secured a prestigious five-year Senior Non-Clinical Fellowship, worth £900,000, from the Medical Research Council (MRC). Dr Storey's research aims to understand fundamental cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the generation of the nervous system.

Dr Tom Owen-Hughes, Dr Joost Zomerdijk and Dr Bill Hunter, three scientists who run research groups in the Wellcome Trust Biocentre secured prestigious 5-year Senior Research Fellowships in Basic Biomedical Sciences from the Wellcome Trust totalling over £3m.

Over 200 water experts from around the world gathered at the University for a major international seminar to discuss the difficult issues surrounding water management. Lawyers, economists, hydrologists, engineers, social and political scientists attended from some 40 countries including China, Japan, USA, Australia , Kenya, Saudi Arabia and Mozambique. "Globalisation and Water Management. The Changing Value of Water" was organised by the University's International Water Law Research Institute. The institute also received £330,000 - the university's biggest ever grant for policy research - to develop a legal assessment model -- a "LAM" -- to help states evaluate their legal entitlements and obligations to water that crosses boundaries.

Over £1 million was awarded to Professor Grahame Hardie to co-ordinate a research project across five European countries. Professor Hardie is to lead the new research investigating the links between diet, exercise and Type 2 diabetes.

Professor Roland Wolf addressed scientists from across Europe in Istanbul. Professor Wolf delivered the Gerhard Zbinden Memorial Lecture, which recognises scientific excellence in the area of drug and chemical safety.

Residence staff came to the rescue of over 100 tourists stranded in Scotland after the September 11 terrorist attack on New York. Passengers on a flight from Frankfurt to Calgary were housed in the West Park Villas.

The University adopted Blackboard as its Virtual Learning Environment for on- line course delivery. As well as providing easy access to course content on-line, a VLE can provide a rich learning environment for students both on- and off-campus. It can integrate different aspects of teaching and learning, including course documents, timetables, news, lectures, assessment, feedback, and student-to- student contact, so helping to create a holistic student experience.

Autumn Term