As staff will know, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Mark Smith will be leaving Warwick at the end of December to take up a new appointment as Vice-Chancellor at Lancaster University.

The process to appoint a Deputy Vice-Chancellor will commence during the coming term. The Vice-Chancellor will assume the direct reporting line with Heads of Department until an announcement is made. However, in the interim,there will be a number of changes to PVC portfolios to ensure that the priorities and business of the University continue to be driven forward strongly during this period.

In recognition of the contribution of former Pro-Chancellor, John Leighfield OBE, a road on campus has been named after him. 'Leighfield Road' is now the official name for the road opposite the new Bluebell halls of residence on the south/east side of campus, off Gibbet Hill Road.

It has been announced today that Professor Richard Higgott has been appointed as the next Vice Chancellor of Murdoch University in Australia. He will take up his new post in August.

Registrar Jon Baldwin attended a government Public Accounts Committee meeting on 30 March in order to give evidence on the financial sustainability of the UK higher education sector and the role of the Funding Council, HEFCE, in assuring this. He was invited to attend the event to represent the Russell Group of Universities, of which Warwick is a member.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor Mark Smith and John Hanna, Department of Physics and Claudia Ionescu, Department of Physics have been awarded the 2010 SAGE Best Paper Award by the Editor and Editorial Board of the Journal of Engineering in Medicine.