Acting Vice Chancellor, Antony Long, highlights Durham University's work on environmental sustainability, the upcoming Lumiere Festival and pays tribute to our Chancellor, Sir Thomas Allen.

We’re pleased to say the Durham MBA (Full-time) has been placed in the global top 10, Europe top 5 and UK top 3 in the Corporate Knights Better World MBA Ranking 2021. This is an increase of 19 places globally, 5 places in Europe and 4 places in the UK, since the ranking in 2020.

Women’s participation in sport as athletes and fans is at an all-time high, yet men continue to outnumber women in positions of power in sport, in particular football.

Leading academics from our Department of Earth Sciences in collaboration with counterparts from Yunnan University in China have identified that a ‘hermit’ lifestyle was invented by ancient penis worms first, rather than by hermit crabs.

Our researchers are part of a team calling for more transparency over the hidden carbon emissions created by countries’ armed forces.

Dr Paul Chazot, from our Department of Biosciences, will be taking part in the inaugural Bright Ideas Gathering, on Saturday 20 November. This fringe event to the Lumiere light festival, will bring together innovators and influencers in a one-day gathering designed to inspire and inform.

Globally, heating our homes and businesses accounts for nearly half of all energy consumption and in the UK 77% of our heating is produced using fossil fuels. Decarbonising heat is essential if targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions are to be met. Thanks to the work of Durham Energy Institute (DEI), we are at the forefront of research into how to achieve this.

Our Chancellor, Sir Thomas Allen, is to step down from his post after more than ten years in the role.

We are proud to say that our Arts and Humanities subjects have been ranked among the best in the world.

For this year’s biennial Lumiere light festival we brought together the producers, Artichoke, and regional writing development agency New Writing North, on an exciting collaboration that will see new works from some of the UK’s leading poets light up Durham Castle. Among them is prize winning writer Kayo Chingonyi, an Assistant Professor in our Department of English Studies. Here Kayo tells us about his involvement and how poetry has been a central part of his life.

A team of scientists say that ‘grabby aliens’ are needed to explain why we humans have appeared so soon after the big bang, and that our descendants would encounter them in roughly a billion years’ time.

A new model developed by our data scientists to simulate the spread of COVID-19 has helped curb the spread of the virus in the world’s largest refugee settlement.