#Royal Academy of Engineering Scholarships

[scotianostra]

The Scottish engineer James Blyth died on May 15th 1906 in Glasgow.

Another innovative Scot, Blyth gave the world the First Electricity Generated Wind Turbine

Us Scots have always been innovators, wind turbines are popping up all over but when Kincardineshire man James Blyth invented a turbine to light his holiday home in Marykirk and offered to light the village street it was the work of the devil.

James Blythe was described as “a true man of science…one who by insight, patient toil, and mechanical ingenuity did much in his day to explain and illustrate many of the facts of physical science."

Born in April 1839 in Marykirk, Kincardineshire, Blyth was educated at the local Parish school and Montrose Academy before winning a scholarship to the General Assembly Normal School in Edinburgh. After obtaining a BA from the University of Edinburgh, he taught mathematics at Morrison’s academy in Crieff.

After obtaining his MA in 1871, Blyth was appointed Freeland Professor of Natural Philosophy at Anderson’s College in 1880 (now the University of Strathclyde), where he began a research program on the use of wind power for electricity generation and storage. This research culminated in the installation of a cloth-sailed, horizontal wind turbine (as opposed to the now more common vertical wind turbine) at his Marykirk holiday cottage in July 1887.

This was several months before the American Charles F. Brush installed what many mistakenly believe to be the first wind turbine, though Brush’s was considerably larger and included the useful safety feature of an automatic brake to prevent damage in high winds. Blyth’s design was 33 ft in diameter and stored the electricity generated in ‘accumulators’, otherwise known as batteries.

After a lack of success offering his surplus electricity to local villagers, who branded electricity 'the work of the devil’, Blyth was able to install a larger, much-improved version of his wind turbine at the Montrose Lunatic Asylum, Infirmary and Dispensary, where it ran successfully for 30 years.

In 1891 Blyth presented a paper to the Royal Society of Edinburgh espousing his belief in the benefits of renewable energy sources, particularly wind but also wave energy.

Blyth received an honorary doctorate from the University of Glasgow in 1900 and died on this day in 1906. After the turbine at Montrose Asylum was dismantled in 1914, there would not be another public utility wind turbine in Britain until 1951. However, his legacy today is an important one, as his old college, the University of Strathclyde, conducts world-leading research into wind turbine technology and Scotland seeks to become a world leader in wind energy generation.

So that’s another first for Scotland, the wind turbine.

[umlewis]

"Since the publication of the Hamilton Commission's final report, we’ve been working with a range of partners to support the progression of young people from underserved communities into STEM and motorsport careers. Key headlines so far include the Ignite Partnership, founded by Sir @.lewishamilton and @.mercedesamgf1, which is today led by Mission 44. Through this funding, we have invested in various initiatives to improve access to STEM and motorsport careers, such as launching the MSc Motorsport Scholarship with the Royal Academy of Engineering. We’ve also been working to tackle barriers in education with organisations such as @.teachfirstuk to increase the number of Black STEM teachers and inspire the next generation of engineers and mathematicians." - august 3, 2023 📷 @.mission44 / instagram

[f1]

F1 teams told they must work to improve governance and transparency

Formula One teams must do more to improve their governance and transparency if they are to embrace a sustainable future, according to new research. The report by the Standard Ethics group has concluded that F1 teams need to make clear their position and goals on environmental, social and governance issues, with only three of the 10 on the grid currently having a publicly stated code of ethics. “There is work to do for the governance side, this is the most important,” said Jacopo Schettini, the director of research at Standard Ethics. “It is very, very important to see a long-term commitment to sustainability. A long-term commitment comes from crucial important documents like a code of ethics or a sustainability plan or policies on specific issues. “There were three teams with a code of ethics – McLaren, Aston Martin and Ferrari. They were talking about all major sustainability issues but I would like to see more from the other teams.” Standard Ethics assesses companies on their performance relating to sustainability and environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. They were not commissioned to analyse F1 teams but undertook the research independently. In their report, teams were assessed on whether they publish a code of ethics, the quality of reporting of ESG issues, whether they have a human rights policy and whether they disclose environmental targets. They did this by analysing the information each team has published in the public domain. Schettini noted that investigating this way was a vital test of the transparency he believes is key to a positive sustainability policy. “We analysed by what they publish,” he said. “It’s very important, the first part of sustainability is to be transparent, to inform people what you are doing about that. You should publish everything.” Schettini acknowledged that in some areas the teams performed well. Most, the report concluded, were addressing human rights and addressing environmental targets. However outside of the three teams cited the lack of a published code of ethics and of an ESG reporting system meant governance and transparency was lacking. “Sustainability is not just environmental topics, but also gender inequality or risk management, or health and safety. It’s a lot of issues,” Schettini said. “Having an ESG reporting system we can see what they are doing, they have to improve governance and reporting.” Clearly, however, teams are acting positively. Mercedes have committed to fund the MSc motorsport scholarship programme with the Royal Academy of Engineering, aimed at improving diversity among motorsport engineers, part of their Ignite partnership with Lewis Hamilton. Schettini added that some teams may also have a code of ethics and ESG reporting system that was not public, but reiterated that was a part of the problem. “Sustainability needs transparency,” he said. “Transparency and a long-term vision, give us a long-term vision. What you are thinking about sustainability and keep us updated on your goals. If you fail to meet a target we understand, you can postpone a target but it’s very important that you have a target and a roadmap.” The group have since received feedback from several teams looking to improve their performance in future. F1 recently published its latest report into its environmental goal of going carbon neutral by 2030, a target the sport believes it is on course to meet. However, F1’s teams are far from alone in requiring improvement. “We do something like this, even more accurately with most leading European football teams,” said Schettini. “Last year, we discovered more or less the same approach from them, so we have seen some environmental targets but even leading football teams lack transparency.” via Formula One | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/sport/formulaone

[jyoti54]

KIIT's Teen Scientist Snehadeep Nominated Fellow of UK's Royal Astronomical Society

Snehadeep Kumar, an Electronics and Electrical Engineering student of KIIT Deemed-to-be-University, has been nominated as a fellow of the prestigious Royal Astronomical Society, London, thus joining the club of select few Indians who have been bestowed with this honour.

He sets his name amongst the world's greatest scientists such as Charles Babbage and William Herschel to be a fellow of the learned society. He was nominated by the President of The Royal Society of Chemistry, Dr Tom Welton. The fellowship was instituted in 1793. Snehadeep’s achievement has sent waves of jubilation in the KIIT campus with the Founder of KIIT and KISS Dr. Achyuta Samanta congratulating him for the recognition. The Founder, who met him today, said Snehadeep's multi-faceted achievements are a source of inspiration for hundreds of KIIT students who aim to become scientists in the future.

In May 2021, Snehadeep decided to start his own journal called the Aurora Academic Journal, an online interdisciplinary magazine, to help bright students with original research who could not afford to pay for publishing. Reaching out to friends across the globe, he soon had a team in place. The Journal takes entries from all over the world and across disciplines. The website gets 500 hits a day, with interviews with Dr Robert Lefkowitz, Nobel laureate in Chemistry, Dr Gerard't Hooft, Nobel laureate in Physics, and Dr Tom Welton, President of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

In October 2021, Snehadeep co-founded the Nebula Space Organisation, the first space organisation run entirely by students. The organisation is aiming to launch the world's smallest space telescope by 2023-24. He is also an Innovation Fellow at the Harvard Crimson Entrepreneurship Society at Harvard University and also a young research member of the prestigious New York Academy of Sciences. Recently, he has also received a 56 lakh scholarship by Lifology to study at national and international universities.

His journey was published in the famed online newspaper, Global Indian, in March, 2022, which described him as a ‘Teen Scientist’. His father, Mr. Tushar Kanti Kumar works at Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and his mother is a homemaker.

[astrovian]

Richard Armitage writing for the Wall Street Journal (28/12/21) - Part 1/2

Full transcript under cut

Part 2 here

I was born on Aug. 22 - the day King Richard III died in battle in 1485 at Bosworth Field in Leicestershire, the English county where we lived.

My parents later told me they had planned to call me Russell, but when I was born on Aug. 22, my dad insisted on Richard. My mother didn't mind.

Dad had always been a Richard III fanatic. He felt the monarch was betrayed by Shakespeare and by history in general. He is also fascinated by the propaganda used by the House of Tudor during the transition of power.

We lived in a residential development in Huncote, on the outskirts of Leicester. Our home was a brick box with four windows and a door. All the other houses in the area looked the same.

My mother, Margaret, was a homemaker and the local postwoman. She'd get up at 4:30 a.m. to sort and deliver the mail on her bike and return in time to make breakfast.

Once my older brother, Chris, and I were in school, she decided to go back to work and took a job at the local school so she'd be home when we returned.

She was probably the biggest influence on my life, simply because of her presence at home. She always said to others, "When Richard says he's going to do something, he does it."

My father, John, was a nuclear engineer. In the late 1950s and early '60s, he worked for General Electric and was on the team that designed the U.K.'s nuclear reactors.

Most of his career was then spent visiting sites to fix things and update the equipment. He was away from home quite a lot when I was little.

Every time we drove into Leicester, my dad would point out Bow Bridge, where legend falsely suggested had thrown Richard III's dug-up body into the River Soar. Once I started grade school, my dad and I would visit Bosworth Field on my birthday.

Leicester had three theaters when I grew up. For a provincial city, that was a lot. As a child, my parents often took me to the theater. I remember the feeling when the lights went down and the production began to come alive. I lived for that.

Classical music was important at home. My father had an amazing stereo he set up in a room. He'd close the door, dim the lights and just listen to Mozart.

Early on, I associated music with a solitary experience. I loved going up to my room for a couple of hours and practicing on my school instrument.

At primary school, I took up the cello, had lessons and really enjoyed it. But in high school, lugging the cello around was an ordeal. So I picked the smallest instrument possible, the flute, because it fit inside my school bag.

Just prior to attending a sports-focused high school, my parents and I had a discussion. I said I wanted to pursue the arts. So we picked Pattison College, a performing-arts school in Coventry.

Mum went back to work, and all of her wages paid for my education. That was such a big sacrifice. It was a great school. I had been a C- student but emerged from Pattison with A's and B's.

In school I had a brilliant history teacher, Mrs. Speake. She talked about padt events in a way that felt very immediate and awakened my imagination.

Coming to acting was a slow burn for me. After high school I became a professional musical-theater performer. But at 23, I started to realise that I wasn't interested in a production's music, singing and dancing. What captured me was the narrative.

The school was close to Stratford-upon-Avon and and we would often visit the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. I saw a particularly striking performance of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." As I watched the performers on stage and their connection with the audience, I realised that's what I wanted to do. I successfully applied for a scholarship and won a place at the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art.

After school, in 2002, I got a brak in a British TV series called "Sparkhouse." My role ran through four episodes and I finally played an arc of a character. I felt I had become an actor.

Today I divide my time between homes in New York and London. I love both cities for different reasons.

At the Royal Film Performance of "The Hobbit" in London in 2012, my family attended. Before the screening, I was allowed to take on family member to meet Prince William. I took my mother.

After the screening, as the royals left first, Prince William passed my seat, touched me on the shoulder and said, "Brilliant performance." My mother was visibly shaking. She saw me do what I said I was going to do.

[sidespart]

Fanfic title: the sound of falling stars

Supernatural Sci-Fi AU,  Royality or LAMP

Patton, Virgil and Logan are engineers for some kind of inter galactic company (like star fleet but with more capitalism I guess?). They’re pretty low level and are basically a glorified salvage crew. They have their own ancient ship which constantly seems to be falling apart and they mostly get sent to deal with decommissioned ships/ stations. They pick them over for anything useful to The Company and set whatever is left over to drift off towards the nearest star. 

They’ve all got some backstory for how they ended up with this rubbish job.  Logan is super smart genius engineer but couldn't afford to go to The Academy (that’s for Earth People and he’s some poor outer edge colonist), he got in on a scholarship but pissed off the wrong people with his attitude and ended up with this assignment. Virgil deliberately picked an assignment that would keep him as far away from other people as possible...(on the run from a Dark and Tragic Past??) Patton also chose this assignment - he is the true explorer, but knew he didn't have the money or connections to get to get star ship assignment, and he isn't exceptional like Logan, but this way he still gets to see the universe.

So at the start of the story they work okay together but arn’t super close - Logan has a bit of an ‘i’m better than this’ attitude, Virgil doesn't want to be friends with anyone and deliberately pushes them away. Patton is trying but is mostly ignored by the other two.

The Company takes over a smaller organisation which has been struggling for a while. The crew are sent to pick over a newly acquired space station orbiting a star right on the edge of Company space. This place hasn’t been inhabited for years but the original owners never cleared it out properly due to lack of funds.

So they get there. The stations life support isn’t on so Patton heads over first (in a space suit) to turn it on manually whilst the other two monitor remotely. (Logan is better suited to hacking into the station from their ship computer once Patton plugs their....space flashdrive....in to the stations ops centre and Virgil is fucking terrified of space walks but they’re pretending not to know that).

Everything goes smooth. The lights and air come on, Patton takes off his helmet - and hears singing.

Nice singing. Not like the crackling automated voice that the station computer speaks with. And despite their best efforts they cannot find a source.

Virgil thinks the place is haunted. Logan thinks its just a glitch with the communications software. Patton’s inclined to to agree with Logon, except day 3 of their salvage operation Patton starts singing an old song from home, and the voice starts singing it back.

When the voice has finished repeating the lyrics Patton had sung, it carries on the song, making up its own lyrics and tune to finish it off. (Patton applauds when it’s done). 

Patton tells the other two about it but Logan dismisses it - the song is probably in the stations entertainment archives somewhere - but Patton’s not so sure. The voice sings classical music (MCR) around Virgil without any verbal prompting. And it’s...kind’ve sassy? It will wait until Logan is just about to take a sip of his coffee before suddenly bursting into LOUD operatic singing - making Logan spill his drink.

Privately he thinks the voice has so much personality it deserves a name - he starts calling it ‘Roman’.

Roman’s influence seems to more than just the communications system. The longer they stay the more unexplained stuff keeps happening. The coffee machine in the old canteen turns itself on just before Logan reaches to do it himself. When Virgil and Pat get separated exploring the lower levels, warm red lights turn on guiding them back together. When the three of them agree to take an evening off and watch a movie, Cinderella comes on no matter how many times they try to change it. When they eventually give in and watch it, the room temperature turns up just a bit and the lights dim, making the room as cosy as possible. 

Eventually all three of them have to agree that this is something beyond just the stations interface. But WHAT exactly Roman is is still a mystery - an incredibly sophisticated AI? An Alien? Some mysterious research project left behind by the old owners?

A Ghost?

Before they can start to figure it out The Company sends a message to say that, due to the size of the job and how long it’s taking them, they’re going to send additional teams to help out.

If The Company discovers Roman, there’s no doubt in any of their minds that they will do whatever it takes to pick him apart for study. Even if means destroying him in the process. 

So now they have to choose between staying loyal to The Company, who is responsible for their jobs, ship and bringing them together in the first place, or figuring out a way to protect this disembodied personality in a space station that they’re not even sure is ‘alive’.

Easy choice.

Bonus:

At some point Pat’s gotta go to some romantic looking observation deck and dance whilst Roman sings some schmaltzy number (and start imagining he was dancing with someone/ trying to picture what Roman would look like if he had a body).

Roman talks Virgil down from a panic attack by beeping the stations controls in time with his breathing count

Big dramatic ending where Patton and Virgil are convinced Logan has downloaded Roman onto The Companies servers in exchange for being given the more prestigious position he has been denied for so long

But PSYCH. Logan escorts them back to their original piece of shit ship and reveals that THAT’s where he moved Roman too - they’ve now got a singing ship instead of singing station

Sequel where the four of them are On The Run. Maybe ending with Roman being downloaded into a human/robot body so they can finally all hug idk

SPACE STUFF

For the fake fic titles asks (please dont send anymore at the moment!)

[wishingforatypewriter]

Introducing Samara Beifong 

(Continuation of the Avatar Jade headcanons from here and here)

Years before she became the avatar’s manager or the first platinum bender, Samara Beifong was born in Central Ba Sing Se and spoiled by her family in a manner befitting the youngest daughter of a youngest daughter. 

As her parents are both nonbenders with vaguely pacifistic ideals, her earthbending training (and much of her upbringing in general) was left up to her maternal grandmother (and her aunts, whenever they were around).

Samara adores her grandmother, Kuvira, and reveres her opinions above everyone else’s (to the regular frustration of her own mother). The easiest way to provoke her to violence is to make a certain kind of comment about Kuvira—the kind that is far less common in Ba Sing Se and Zaofu than it is in other parts of the Earth Republic, and especially the UR. 

She acutely feels the weight of her family’s metalbending legacy—being a direct descendant of Toph, Suyin, and Kuvira, and also having two aunts who’ve influenced the discipline—and is a bit of a perfectionist about her form.

Her parents are both career humanitarians—her father a doctor, and her mom a civil engineer—who spend a lot of their time providing aid to the poorest, most secluded regions of the Earth Republic. 

Although Samara has never seen much of the country outside of the major cities and towns, she was raised to never turn her back on a person in need. And perhaps this value is what compelled her to bring the shy scholarship kid in her class at the Upper Ring Institute under her protection. 

By the time Jade is found to be the avatar, looking after her is second nature to Samara, so it is a natural choice for her to accompany her as she travels outside of the Earth Republic to learn the other elements. (And really, who else could be counted on to stop the White Lotus sages from steamrolling the soft-spoken avatar and bring those mean girls at the Royal Fire Academy to heel?)

While Jade works on her avatar training, Samara immerses herself in the nonbending fighting styles (as well as the social scenes) of the other nations and often gets drawn into secret, unsanctioned duels—including one with Princess Ayano of the Fire Nation (She’s used to outclassing most benders her age, but that particular encounter provided her with some much-needed humility...and almost gave Jade a heart attack). 

[womenintranslation]

Starting this Thursday. From the PEN Translation Committee, Jill!, and DC-ALT announcement:

DC-ALT Board Member Nancy Naomi Carlson is co-organizing three virtual readings in celebration of Women in Translation Month, streaming for three consecutive Thursdays at 1 p.m. ET. Find out more and stayed tuned for all three readings by clicking the links below:

Aug 13

Aug 20 - including DC-ALT Board Member Indran Amirthanayagam

Aug 27

It’s August, and time once again to celebrate Women in Translation (#WiT) Month! This initiative was started six years ago by blogger Meytal Radzinski with the purpose of focusing on translating words by women or nonbinary authors and working toward gender parity in literary publishing—so important to freedom of expression throughout the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has opened up opportunities to include translators and the authors they translate in a virtual reading format, showcasing participants who might otherwise not have been able to travel to such an event in the past.

Organized under the aegis of the PEN America Translation Committee and hosted by Jill! A Women+ in Translation Reading Series, this event will bring together five translators joined by their authors, working in such varied languages as Guatemalan Spanish, K’iche’, Hebrew, Arabic, Galician, and Senegalese French.The reading, moderated by Anna Dinwoodie, will be followed by a brief Q&A discussion (time permitting). We hope you’ll join us for this one-of-a-kind bilingual reading!

On AUGUST 13, at 1pm ET, tune in for the first LIVE bilingual readings by translators from Guatemalan Spanish & K’iche’, Hebrew, Arabic, Galician, and Senegalese French. This reading will be livestreamed; you can RSVP and tune in via the Facebook page of our host, Jill: A Women+ in Translation Reading Series.

Gabriela Ramirez-Chavez is a Guatemalan-American poet, translator,and Literature Ph.D. Candidate at UC Santa Cruz. Her work appears in Centro Mariconadas: A Queer and Trans Central American Anthology (forthcoming) and The Wandering Song: Central American Writing in the United States (2017). She attended the Kenyon Review Translators Workshop with a scholarship.

Rosa Chávez is a Maya K’iche’-Kaqchikel poet, playwright, artist, and activist who is Guatemala Program Coordinator for the international feminist organization JASS Mesoamerica. She has published five books of poetry, including El corazón de la piedra(2010), and the play AWAS (2014). Her poetry has been widely anthologized and translated.

Joanna Chen is a literary translator and writer. Her full-length translations include two books of poetry (Less Like a Dove and Frayed Light, a finalist for the Jewish National Book Award) and a book of nonfiction, My Wild Garden. She writes a column for The Los Angeles Review of Books.  

Tehila Hakimi is an award-winning Hebrew poet and fiction writer. She was a 2018 Fulbright fellow at The University of Iowa. Hakimi has published a poetry collection (We’ll Work Tomorrow), a graphic novel (In the Water) and a collection of novellas (Company). Hakimi is a mechanical engineer by profession.

Melanie Magidow is the founder of Marhaba Language Expertise, providing Arabic to English translation and other multilingual services. She holds a Ph.D. in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures from the University of Texas at Austin. Magidow has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Fulbright Commission. She is also a co-host of the Goodreads MENA Lit Book Group. For more on her projects, see melaniemagidow.com.

Reem Bassiouney was born in Alexandria, Egypt. She obtained her M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Oxford University in linguistics. In addition to more than 8 books in linguistics, Bassiouney has 7 novels and has won numerous awards. Her novels have been translated into English, Greek, and Spanish. Her most recent masterpiece, "أولاد الناسثلاثية المماليك" 'Sons of the People: The Mamluk Trilogy' was published in 2018. Reem Bassiouney was awarded the prestigious Naguib Mahfouz Award from Egypt's Supreme Council for Culture for the best Egyptian novel of the year 2019/2020, making her the first woman to win this prize.

Laura Cesarco Eglin translates from Spanish, Portuguese, Portuñol, and Galician. She co-translated Fabián Severo’s Night in the North (Eulalia Books). Her translation of Hilda Hilst’s Of Death. Minimal Odes, (co•im•press) won the 2019 Best Translated Book Award.Her translations have appeared in Asymptote, Modern Poetry in Translation, The New Yorker, and more. Cesarco Eglin is the author of five poetry collections, most recently Life, One Not Attached to Conditionals (Thirty West Publishing House). She is the publisher of Veliz Books.

Lara Dopazo Ruibal has published four poetry collections and she is the co-editor and co-author of the experimental essay volume Através das marxes: Entrelazando feminismos, ruralidades e comúns. Her poetry collection ovella was awarded the Francisco Añón Prizein 2015, and with claus e o alacrán she received the Fiz Vergara Vilariño Prize in 2017. Dopazo Ruibal was a resident artist at the Spanish Royal Academy in Rome for the academic year 2018/2019.  

Aubrey D. Jones is Assistant Professor of French at Weber State University in Utah. She received her Ph.D. in French Literature from the University at Buffalo-SUNY and has also worked in freelance translation since 2010. Aubrey is now involved in building Translation Studies in French at Weber State, as well as undertaking the translation of works of Franco-Ontarian and Senegalese poetry and fiction. She lives in Ogden, Utah with her husband and three children, and will often be found wandering in the mountains when not in her office.

Ken Bugul was born in Senegal in 1947 as Mariétou Mbaye. In her native language, Wolof, her pen name means “one who is not wanted.” From 1986 to 1993 she worked for the NGO IPPF (International Planned Parenthood Federation) in Kenya, Togo and the Congo. Ken Bugul’s autobiographical debut novel Le Baobab Fou was published in 1982 and is one of the most important documents in the Francophone literature of West Africa from the 1980s. Since then, Bugul has published many novels, which have been translated into several languages. Characteristic of her work is a highly literary language densely woven with the rhythms and fundamental thought structures of Wolof.

This reading will be moderated by Anna Dinwoodie, a poet and German-English translator. Anna received a Katharine Bakeless Nason scholarship to attend the Bread Loaf Translators Conference in 2019, and her writing appears in the anthology Poets of Queens (August 2020). She is currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing & Literary Translation at Queens College, CUNY.

[livinglikebritishroyalty]

𝒫𝓇𝒾𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝑅𝒾𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓇𝒹

♕ 𝐹𝓊𝓁𝓁 𝒩𝒶𝓂𝑒: Richard Alexander Walter George

♕ 𝐹𝓊𝓁𝓁 𝒯𝒾𝓉𝓁𝑒: His Royal Highness Prince Richard Alexander Walter George The Duke of Gloucester

♕ 𝐵𝓸𝓇𝓃: Saturday, August 26th, 1944 at St. Matthew's Nursing Home in Northampton, England

♕ 𝒫𝒶𝓇𝑒𝓃𝓉𝓈: His Royal Highness Prince Henry The Duke of Gloucester (Father) & Her Royal Highness Princess Alice Duchess of Gloucester (Mother)

♕ 𝒮𝒾𝒷𝓁𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈: His Royal Highness Prince William of Gloucester (Brother)

♕ 𝒮𝓅𝓸𝓊𝓈𝑒:  Her Royal Highness Birgitte The Duchess of Gloucester (M. 1972)

♕ 𝒞𝒽𝒾𝓁𝒹𝓇𝑒𝓃: Major Alexander Earl of Ulster (Son), Lady Davina (neé Windsor) Lewis (Daughter), & Lady Rose (neé Windsor) Gilman (Daughter) 

♕ 𝐸𝒹𝓊𝒸𝒶𝓉𝒾𝓸𝓃: Barnwell Manor (In Northamptonshire, England), Wellesley House School (In Kent, England), Eton College (In Berkshire, England), & Magdalene College at the University of Cambridge (In Cambridge, United Kingdom: Studied Architecture, Bachelor & Master of Arts Degrees in Architecture)

♕ 𝐼𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓇𝑒𝓈𝓉𝓈 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒲𝓸𝓇𝓀: Interests: Armed Forces (Air Force, Architecture, Court System, Defense, Disabled, Fallen Soldiers, Heraldry, & Security), Education, Food (Wine Trade), Health (Blindness, Cancer, Historic Sites, Hospitals, Leprosy, Medicine, & Support Animals), Nature (Agriculture, Conservation, Forests, Horticulture, Land Management, Soil, & Wildlife), People (Disabled, Elderly, Homelessness, Religious, & Trade), Science (Anthropology, Archeology, Art History, Engineering, Technology, & Transportation (Cars, Trains, & Trams)), Sports (Golf & Rowing), & The Arts (Architecture, Metal Work, Music, Shoe-Making, Stonemasonry, & Theatre). Work: Chancellor of The University of Worcester, Commissioner of the Historic Building & Monuments Commission for England, Co-Patron of Abbotsford Trust Appeal, Corporate Member of the Royal Institute of British Architects, Fellow of The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts/Manufactures/Commerce, Founding Chancellor of The University of Worcester, Freeman of The City of London, Freeman/Liveryman of The Worshipful Company of Masons, Honorary Fellow of The Institution of Civil Engineers, Honorary Fellow of The Institute of Clerks of Works and Construction Inspectorate, Honorary Fellow of The Institution of Structural Engineers, Honorary Fellow of The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland, Honorary Freeman of The City of Gloucester, Honorary Freeman/Liveryman of The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, Honorary Freeman/Liveryman of The Worshipful Company of Vintners, Honorary Freeman of The Worshipful Company of Grocers, Honorary Life Member of The Bath Industrial Heritage Trust Ltd, Honorary Life Member of The Farmers Club, Honorary Life Member of The Friends of All Saints Brixworth, Honorary Life Member of The Royal Army Service Corps & Royal Corps of Transport Association, Honorary Member of The Architecture Club, Honorary Member of The Friends of Hyde Park & Kensington Gardens, Honorary Member of The Oxford & Cambridge Club, Honorary Member of The Petal Childhood Cancer Research, Honorary Member of The Reform Club, Honorary Membership of The Ecclesbourne Valley Railway Association, Honorary President of The The 20-Ghost Club Limited, Honorary President of The BR Class 8 Steam Locomotive Trust, Honorary President of The Somme Association, International Advisory Board Member of The Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, Joint President of Cancer Research UK, Member of The International Advisory Board for The Royal United Services Institute, Member of The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Member of The Scottish Railway Preservation Society, Member of The St George's Chapel Advisory Committee, Patron of Action on Smoking & Health, Patron of Canine Partners for Independence, Patron of English Heritage, Patron of Flag Fen, Patron of St Bartholomew's Hospital, Patron of The Architects Benevolent Society, Patron of The Black Country Living Museum, Patron of The British Association of Friends of Museums, Patron of The British Homeopathic Association, Patron of The The British Korean Veterans Association, Patron of The British Limbless Ex-Service Men's Association, Patron of The British Mexican Society, Patron of The British Society of Soil Science, Patron of The Built Environment Trust, Patron of The Built Environment Education Trust (SHAPE), Patron of The Church Monuments Society, Patron of The Cresset (Peterborough) Ltd, Patron of The Construction Youth Trust, Patron of The De Havilland Aircraft Museum, Patron of The Essex Field Club, Patron of The Forest Education Initiative & Forest Education Network, Patron of The Fortress Study Group, Patron of The Fotheringhay Church Appeal, Patron of The Friends of Gibraltar Heritage Society, Patron of The Friends of Gloucester Cathedral, Patron of The Friends of Peterborough Cathedral, Patron of The Friends of St. Bartholomew the Less, Patron of The Gilbert & Sullivan Society, Patron of The Gloucestershire Millennium Celebrations, Patron of The Grange Centre for People with Disabilities, Patron of The Guild of the Royal Hospital of St Bartholomew, Patron of The Heritage of London Trust, Patron of The International Council on Monuments & Sites, Patron of The Isle of Man Victorian Society, Patron of The Japan Society, Patron of The Kensington Society, Patron of The Learning in Harmony Project, Patron of The Leicester Cathedral's King Richard III Appeal, Patron of The London Chorus, Patron of The London Playing Fields Foundation, Patron of The Magdalene Australia Society, Patron of The Mavisbank Trust, Patron of The Middlesex Association for the Blind, Patron of The Norfolk Record Society, Patron of The North of England Civic Trust, Patron of The Northamptonshire Archaeological Society, Patron of The Newcomen Society, Patron of The Nuffield Farming Scholarships Trust, Patron of The Oriental Ceramic Society, Patron of The Oundle Town Rowing Club, Patron of The Peel Institute, Patron of The Pestalozzi International Village Trust, Patron of The Richard III Society, Patron of The Royal Academy Schools, Patron of The Royal Air Force 501 (County of Gloucester) Squadron Association, Patron of The Royal Anglian Regiment Association, Patron of The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Patron of The Royal Blind (Services for the Blind and Scottish War Blinded), Patron of The Royal Epping Forest Golf Club, Patron of The Royal Royal Pioneer Corps Association, Patron of The Scottish Society of Architect Artists, Patron of The Severn Valley Railway, Patron of The Society of Antiquaries of London, Patron of The Society of the Friends of St Magnus Cathedral Association, Patron of The Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum, Patron of The St George's Society of New York, Patron of The Three Choirs Festival Association, Patron of The Tramway Museum Society, Patron of The United Kingdom Trust for Nature Conservation in Nepal, Patron of The Victorian Society, Patron of The Westminster Society, Patron of The Worshipful Company of Pattenmakers, Patron-In-Chief of The Scottish Veterans' Residences, Patron-In-Chief of The Friends of St Clement Danes, Practicing Partner at Hunt Thompson Associates Architectural Firm, President of Ambition, President of British Expertise International, President of Christ's Hospital, President of The Britain-Nepal Society, President of The Cambridge House, President of The Crown Agents Foundation, President of The Greenwich Foundation, President of The Institute of Advanced Motorists, President of The London Society, President of The Lutyens Trust, President of The Peterborough Cathedral Development and Preservation Trust, President of The Public Monuments and Sculpture Association, President of The Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution, President of The Society of Architect Artists, President of St Bartholomew's Hospital, Ranger for The Epping Forest Centenary Trust, Royal Bencher for The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, Royal Patron of Bede's World Museum, Royal Patron of Habitat for Humanity (UK Branch), Royal Patron of The 82045 Steam Locomotive Trust, Royal Patron of The British Museum, Royal Patron of The Global Heritage Fund UK, Royal Patron of The Global Heritage Fund UK, Royal Patron of The Lilongwe Wildlife Trust, Royal Patron of The Nene Valley Railway, Royal Patron of The Peace and Prosperity Trust, Royal Patron of The Royal Auxiliary Air Force Foundation, Royal Patron of The Strawberry Hill Trust, Royal Patron of The Wells Cathedral - Vicars' Close Appeal, Senior Fellow of The Royal College of Art, The Duke of Gloucester Young Achiever's Scheme Awards, The Offices Development Group for the Ministry of Works, Vice Royal Patron of The Almshouse Association, Vice Patron of The National Churches Trust, Vice President of LEPRA, Vice President of The Royal Bath and West of England Society, Vice President of The Royal Cornwall Agricultural Association, Vice President of The Royal Smithfield Club, & Visitor of The Royal School Dungannon

[wiqi4love]

RAEng Engineering for Development Research Fellowships in UK, 2018-2019

RAEng Engineering for Development Research Fellowships in UK, 2018-2019

The Royal Academy of Engineering is offering ‘Research Fellowships’ & ‘Engineering for Development Research Fellowships’ for the academic year 2018-2019. Fellowships are available for international researchers.

These highly prestigious five-year Research Fellowships are designed to promote excellence in engineering by providing support for high-quality candidates to become future research leaders.

[scotianostra]

The Scottish engineer James Blyth died on May 15th 1906 in Glasgow.

Blyth was an electrical engineer, and a pioneer in the field of electricity generation through wind power and his wind turbine.

Born in April 1839 in Marykirk, Kincardineshire, Blyth was educated at the local schools before winning a scholarship to the General Assembly Normal School in Edinburgh. From there, he enrolled at the University of Edinburgh, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts in 1861, before becoming a teacher of mathematics at Morrison's Academy in Crieff.

Blyth was then appointed Freeland Professor of Natural Philosophy at Anderson's College in 1880 (now the University of Strathclyde), where he began a research program on the use of wind power for electricity generation and storage.

This research culminated in the installation of a cloth-sailed, horizontal wind turbine (as opposed to the now more common vertical wind turbine) at his Marykirk holiday cottage in July 1887. Blyth's design was 33 ft in diameter and stored the electricity generated in 'accumulators', otherwise known as batteries, that's the turbine in the second pic from 1891.

In 1891 Blyth presented a paper to the Royal Society of Edinburgh espousing his belief in the benefits of renewable energy sources, particularly wind but also wave energy. Later that year he was awarded the Brisbane Gold Medal by the Royal Scottish Society of Arts for his work in producing electrical energy from wind.

After a lack of success offering his surplus electricity to the local village, whose residents branded electricity "the work of the devil", Blyth was able to install a larger, much-improved version of his wind turbine at the Montrose Lunatic Asylum, Infirmary and Dispensary, where it ran successfully for 30 years.

Blyth received an honorary doctorate from the University of Glasgow in 1900 and died on this day in 1906. After the turbine at Montrose Asylum was dismantled in 1914, there would not be another public utility wind turbine in Britain until 1951.

There's a wee bit more on the man here https://www.strath.ac.uk/alumni/connectandnetwork/alumnusalumnaoftheyearaward/alumniinhistory/jamesblyth/

[umlewis]

"Less than three weeks until applications close! Together with The Royal Academy of Engineering and @.mercedesamgf1, we launched the MSc Motorsport Scholarship programme. The scholarship provides students from Black and mixed Black backgrounds with financial and career support throughout their studies to kickstart their careers into the motorsport industry. Apply now via the link in our bio." - february 23, 2024 📷 @.mission44 / instagram [application link]

[f1]

Lewis Hamilton project aims to help girls and black students enter motorsport

Hamilton said helping girls and black students into F1 addresses an "urgent need to push for better representation in our industry" Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes' Ignite partnership has announced its first grants, targeting 8,000 girls in the UK in a bid to increase women's participation in motorsport. New grants will fund programmes for females from under-represented ethnic groups and low-income backgrounds. The move comes as F1 team Alpine launch their own project to develop a female driver to compete at the top level. Ignite also announced grants for black students studying engineering degrees. More than £500,000 will go to both initiatives - the first will expand the Girls on Track scheme launched by Motorsport UK in 2016, while the second will establish a motorsport scholarship programme for 10 black students to study MSc (Masters) courses at the Royal Academy of Engineering between 2023 and 2025. Ignite was co-founded by Hamilton and Mercedes in 2021 to increase diversity and inclusion within motorsport, and has established a fund of more than £5m for grassroots projects. "We chose these grants because they focus on supporting individuals from two crucial and underrepresented demographics, moving us towards our goal of increasing the number of women and black talent in the sport," said Hamilton. With the funding, Girls on Track will bring into the programme more schools in economically disadvantaged communities and says at least half its participants will qualifying for free school meals. Black engineering students will receive £25k tuition and living costs, and the scheme is aiming for 90% of scholars to be working in the F1, motorsports or engineering sectors within two years of finishing their Masters. via BBC Sport - Formula 1 http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/

[ruffoverthinksthings]

Since most of the famous royals go to Auradon, what about the commoner children? What is their school life? Are they like in-city kids with less funding than the royals? And the half-fae kids in these schools, are they treated badly?

The answer is, it varies depending on where you are.

Most upper class Auradonians send their children to establishments similar to Auradon Prep, or other types of prestigious academies, such as the modern day Knights barracks where they apprentice to become commissioned officers, superiors over the rest of the Royal Guard straight off the bat, or the fancier version of military school in the modern day, and sending misbehaving progeny to the military to smarten up in olden days.

Excluding home education, Mandatory Education for middle/working class individuals generally takes on three different forms, one of which has two subgroups:

I. Privatized Education

Generally only afforded by the middle class, or working class with scholarships, sponsorships, and/or connections to the societal rungs above them, these are the middle ground between the “best of the absolute best” schools like Auradon Prep, and the less well funded and oftentimes less prestigious public schools I’ll be mentioning below.

It’s the above average in every way, really: colleges don’t raise eyebrows when they see you studied there, but they will generally keep you in mind during admissions; it’s not likely to make you the center of attention at a party if you mention your alma mater, and you might have to explain what it is and what it’s known for, but no one will look any lesser about you for it; and you generally have a similar, very high-achieving, and holistic education like the Royals of Auradon Prep do, which encourages such values as independence, critical thinking, and philosophy alongside ethics.

To give you an idea, their Civics classes oftentimes includes hypothetical situations, essays, and Socratic debates where they are asked to commentate on, dissect, and criticize past decisions, such as that of the Magic Ban. One of the key differences is, in the private schools outside of Auradon’s Ivy League equivalent, the students are framed as average citizens answering referendums or wording letters to the executive branch, not the monarchs that proclaimed the order and whose signature is on the paper.

On a side note, they make up the bulk of Auradon’s high school Tourney league, which tends to be a VERY big deal to the institution and the location they are based in, wherever you go.

II. Public Education

The mandatory educational program that every single Auradonian citizen is supposed to have at the bare minimum. It emphasizes the three basic skills--reading, writing, and arithmetic--but also includes a very heavy focus on ethics, philosophy, and history, oftentimes retelling the stories of their many monarchs rises to fame and their adventures (read: Disney movies, except it’s quite literally history class).

Schools, depending on their geographic location and local government, are allowed to either specialize in preparing their students for IT, STEM, and their future college degrees; or with boosting their local industries and businesses, generally agriculture, alongside numerous exercises and events meant to foster stronger, closer ties to their community, alongside maintaining its health.

While in theory and in the constitution, every school is supposed to meet a set number of minimum standards and practices, and will have its operation on probation and intervention, then threatened with shutdown if they can’t meet the standards still, you might have guessed by now that it doesn’t quite work that way in practice...

A. City

Ironically, being “inner city” is a GOOD thing in Auradon.

It’s only been two decades since the giant industrialization rush, and while many of the giants have either fallen, cut down their activities significantly, or been rendered obsolete, a LOT of these industries are still around, still require a good number of employees, who they can pay great wages, and who said employees then use to buy housing close to their workplace, raise families in them, and desire good schools to send the children too.

Both by geographic proximity and majority of Auradon’s economic activity being focused in the metropolitan cities, many of these public schools do quite well for themselves, comfortably reaching the minimum standards if they aren’t able to match up to the most prestigious privatized academies--those tend to be the exception, though, like Arendelle Science High School which has very strong backing from its government, and mutual interest from its business interests to attract and more importantly, keep inventors, geniuses, and savants.

Depending on where you are, the city public school is just as viable a choice as private, and some of them do carry a better reputation than the latter.

Blame it on Auradon’s love for the exceptional, but there’s much to be said about being a notable graduate from a school that’s required to take in everybody VS one that can be selective about who they let in, and with much more means to groom them.

B. Countryside

And THIS is where the “inner city” effect is most strongly seen. As I mentioned above, the industrial boom is still around in Auradon (if slowing down and making its start towards a Green Revolution), and obviously, those workers didn’t come from thin air--they were from the countrysides and remote villages, either within that nation’s borders, or emigrating from them on whichever country’s “Dream” got them to bite.

Due to the lack of development, infrastructure, and interest (until recently) in the countryside, majority of the public schools here suffer, oftentimes falling below minimum standards, having poor facilities, or the inability to retain staff, either by their own choice, or because of external reasons like needing to have income to pay the rent and their own food.

There is also a marked lack of interest in government supervision and inspection of them--the competent supervisors are generally lured to the AIL (Auradon Ivy League) or better private schools due to pay and the lifestyles there, the ones that wish to actually follow through with the law lack the means and the support to enforce it, and then there are the ones that wish to do away with the standards altogether and impose their idea of what is a “proper” education with impunity.

There are a handful of schools out there that are basically focused on producing a new generation of basket weavers, ideal housewives, and/or farmers, even if they’re supposed to be learning how to read--but then again, what is there to read to them in the first place...?

C. Side Note

Both make up the minority of Auradon’s high school Tourney league, largely due to logistic and economic issues. There’s only so many teams that can be allowed on the official league match ups at once, and many of them have players that can be conveniently shipped off wherever and whenever, and whose schools have the training and equipment to keep them at the top of their game. (Pun intended.)

There’s also the matter of sports scholarships. Many of the great players end up leaving their old teams and lives behind entirely if the opportunity to study someplace better shows itself--and really, no one blames them.

III. Mentorship/Vocational Education

And finally, the most traditional sort of education that still exists, is becoming an apprentice for some sort of skilled occupation becoming a carpenter, a blacksmith, or perhaps one of the royal scribes, for those that really want a fast, guaranteed, if tedious track into a government job and perhaps a future seat there.

If you’re equipped for it, you can’t go wrong with having to take down and record all the going-ons in the states and having to file, retrieve, and disseminate that information. “No one knows what’s going on in the world better than the man who has to put it all to paper,” as the saying goes.

There’s also a much larger scale effort with some companies training highly specialized work forces, such as the increasingly complex and difficult nature of manufacturing cars, home appliances, and technology in Auradon.

Like in the real world, it used to be you had an electrician, an engineer, and a mechanic, and now you need someone who’s all three for one product line specifically.

P.S. Half-Fae kids depends again.

Those that are extremely human like such as half-elves generally get along just fine even in the most remote countrysides, as the villages tend to have been living with them and their full-blooded Fae parents for centuries, if they don’t have some sort of symbiotic bond with them.

They’re a little stranger and different than the humans, but not by THAT much--think of it like a mostly Caucasian American population who lives comfortably with their Italian American and African American fellows.

For those that have less than ideal relationships with the humans in the region (i.e. demons), they do tend to be bullied and treated with superstition, but eventually the kids get used to them and they become part of any of the normal school cliques and social rungs that their fully human classmates are also part of, if they don’t own it and take advantage of it.

You’ll find more than a couple of half-demon kids who openly embrace the “unholy” images of their supernatural side; leather jackets with “HELLSPAWN” behind them are rather popular, as are the requisite goats, fire, and pentagrams.

Sometimes, their heritage isn’t even acknowledged at all, except in passing, and they’re treated as equals, individual personalities and exceptional abilities notwithstanding.

“In the end, we’re all in the back of the same dung cart, so what’s the point?”

[inkacontextlog]

David Mach

Biographical information:

Born in 1956 in Fife, David Mach attended Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art where he chose to specialise in sculpture because he thought it was the most demanding, intellectually and physically. He them was offered to study in Poland for his postgraduate year, however he martial law denied him to attend, this was followed by an invitation to attend king’s royal college in London on a Scholarship. March became a part-time lecturer in the Sculpture School, Kingston University from 1982 to 1986 and was a lecturer at the Contemporary Art Summer School, Kitakyushu, Japan from 1987 to 1991. He received an honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Dundee in 2002.  In 2004 he was elected an honorary member of the Royal Scottish Academy and the same year, the University of Dundee appointed him Professor of Inspiration and Discovery. From 2006-2010 he became a Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery. Currently working from his studio based in London. 

Analyses of Practice:

David Mach is one of the UK’s most successful and respected artists, known for his dynamic and imaginative large scale collages, sculptures and installations using diverse media. Most famous for his sculptures made from matchsticks, his work often refers to figures from history and popular culture, such as Gandhi, Betty Boop, and Charlie Chaplin. His theatrical yet universally relatable pieces are, in part, inspired by the work of the Pop Art movement—depicting everyday culture through everyday materials. “I don’t make work out of bronze,” said the artist of his work. “I’m doing it with this unlikely, naff material because coat hangers are something you don’t give a second thought to. It’s getting to another audience. You’re not talking to the guy who loves art; you’re trying to reach people who would rather set you on fire and chuck you in the river than pay attention to what you do.”

Mach’s first solo exhibition was held at the Lisson Gallery, London in 1982. His international reputation was quickly established and he has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions around the world including London, New York, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Hong Kong, Hakone, Tel Aviv and Warsaw. Public commissions include the tumbling telephone boxes, “Out of Order” in Kingston, “Train” in Darlington; “Big Heids”, visible from the M8 between Glasgow and Edinburgh; “It Takes Two”, sited North of Paris and in Marseille, Likeness Guaranteed commissioned by McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton, and most recently, “Giants” in Vinadio, Italy and “Phantom”, commissioned by Morrisons supermarket for the Promenade in Kirkcaldy, Fife. In 2003 his “Arm’s Length” sculpture of a woman made in coat hangers won The Jack Goldhill Award for sculpture at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.  In 2011 Mach was awarded the Bank of Scotland Herald Angel Award for his exhibition “Precious Light”, a daring contemporary interpretation of the King James Bible in the form of large-scale collage and sculpture. The same year, he also won the Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award for Art.

Important works:

David Mach is most famous for his sculptures made from matchsticks. In the early 1980s Mach started to create smaller-scale works assembled using thousands of matchsticks pressed into a clay mold to form the likeness of Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe, Mahatma Gandhi and Ben Kingsley, among others. Mach uses Japanese matchsticks because their heads come in all sorts of different colours. After accidentally setting fire to one of these heads, Mach now often ignites his match pieces as a form of performance art. He was inspired by a comment on him after he exhibited his magazine sculpture, saying he was a guy that would build the Eifel tower from matches. 

Previ ous lights, burning of the devil head sculpture at Edinburgh Arts Festival in 2011.

Big Heids 

Supported on an upturned freight containers, some 7m (23 feet) high, the heads where installed in 1999. The controversial work cost £273,000 and forms part of the M8 Art Project, intended to form a 'sculpture corridor' along the road between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Designed by Methil-born sculptor David Mach (b. 1956), the sculpture is modelled on the faces of local volunteers, two men and a woman picked at random from the streets of Motherwell. It is crafted from thousands of welded steel tubes, of the sort once manufactured at the former Clydesdale Steel Works at nearby Mossend. The work is intended to represent of the strength of character of the people of North Lanarkshire and also pays tribute to the industrial heritage the area, with construction undertaken by Motherwell Bridge, an engineering company founded in 1898. Supported by the Lanarkshire Development Agency, the project became the focus of an engineering training programme, involving a team of apprentices and adult trainees.

Magazine sculptures by David Mach

The thousands of magazines are composed into ripples and swells that mimic natural forms like rocks and topography. There’s something post-apocalyptic about the juxtaposition of transportation technology and the writhing mass of periodicals that weaves through it.  The carefully aligned magazine structures are building forms that can depict natural disasters as the objects which are part of the sculptures that being household objects or even trucks and aircrafts seem to be stuck in the weaves created by the magazines, carried by them or even almost completely veiled under them. 

David Mach’s “Golgotha” Sculpture Casts the Crucifixion in Coat Hangers

Although Mach is not religious, he finds great inspiration in the Bible. “The Bible has it all- war, famine, sex, death, pestilence, jealousy, revenge. Struggle, pain, love death- it’s all in there,” Mach said of the piece during it’s original showing. “As an artist, I think I would struggle to find a richer source of inspiration. No single text has had such a profound effect on our language, culture, and thoughts as this book.”

“Golgotha is my largest coat hanger piece to date,” Mach says. “I wanted this sculpture to be dramatic. It is an epic, violent scene. So the sculpture needed to have as much pathos as possible. I extruded the coat hanger hooks outward to reflect that and to me they seem to capture the agony of the moment.” Coat hangers are used as contours to describe the shape of the human form, where thousands of hooks are arranged in such a way that they create a sort of double image or sense of movement- the sculptures appear to look as if they are vibrating or animated.

Technique:

David Mach uses extremely diverse media including everyday mass produced objects repurposed to form cluttered compositions. coat hangers, matches, magazines, playing cards, candy wrappers and many other unconventional materials in creating his sculptures. ‘big on gesture and big in proportion, it demands your attention and gets it’. 

[armeniaitn]

Beyond Motherhood: Powerful Armenian Women in Science

New Post has been published on https://armenia.in-the.news/society/beyond-motherhood-powerful-armenian-women-in-science-52086-19-08-2020/

Beyond Motherhood: Powerful Armenian Women in Science

In this week’s empowerment series, we learn about three Armenian women who dedicated their lives to science in the 1900s. Paris Pishmish, Alenoush Terian and Anna Kazanjian Longobardo were scientists at a time when being a woman in the field did not come easily.

Nonetheless, they blazed trails and took on leadership roles in a field where few women existed. In their careers, at a time in which few women filled these roles, they not only held the titles as firsts, but their work impacted the work of future generations. 

Paris Pishmish de Recillas

Paris Pishmish de Recillas

As a Mexican Armenian woman, Paris Pishmish, known as one of the preeminent female astronomers not only worked hard in her own career, but she also carved out time to mentor other women who wanted to become astronomers as well.

Pishmish, born Mari Soukiassian in Constantinople on January 30, 1911, was the daughter of Soukias Soukiassian, the great-grandson of Mikayel Amira Pishmish who was a member of a powerful class of Armenian commercial and professional elites titled amiras. Filomen, her mother, was Mateos Izmirlian’s niece who was the Patriarch of Constantinople from 1894 to 1908 and Catholicos of All Armenians until 1910.

Pishmish attended an Armenian elementary school and later became the first woman to graduate from Istanbul University with a degree in mathematics and classical astronomy in 1933. She then graduated from Harvard University with her Doctor of Science in mathematics in 1937; in 1939, she became an associate researcher at Harvard College Observatory. An expert herself, she drew great inspiration from the likes of astronomers such as Harlow Shapley, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, Bart Bok, Donald Menzel and Fred Whipple, to name a few.

During her time at Harvard College Observatory, she met a Mexican mathematics student named Felix Recillas, started tutoring him in German, and ended up marrying him in 1941. Their two children, Elsa, an astrophysicist and Sevin, a mathematician, helped transform the field of astronomy in Mexico. Pishmish stayed in Mexico and taught at the National Autonomous University connected to the Tacubaya Observatory as an astronomer for over 50 years. Women in the early 1900s were not encouraged to pursue careers in the sciences despite their talents or desires. At the start of her career, Pishmish worked as a translator as well as a support scientist at Erwin Finley-Freundlich before she went on to work on her own projects.

Paris Pishmish de Recillas

Her work was unique as she focused more on the kinematics of the galaxy, as well as the photometry of nebulae and the determination of radial velocities. She developed the first-ever photometric investigation of stellar clusters – revealing three globular clusters as well 20 open stellar clusters and worked on figuring out the effects of interstellar absorption on stellar distribution while relying on various stellar populations to explain the origin of the spiral structure of the galaxy.

Translation – she was incredibly smart! 

She shared her work with the world, publishing more than 135 scientific articles in well-known journals including the Astronomical Journal, Astrophysical Journal, Astronomy and Astrophysics; she also presented at conferences, including one at the Byurakan Observatory in Armenia at the invitation of Viktor Hambardzumyan.

Her accomplishments were beyond extraordinary. She introduced the field of applied astronomy to her students in Mexico, and many of her students later became very well-known astronomers—Arcadio Poveda, Eugenio Mendoza, Enrique Chavira, Debora Dultzin, Alfonso Serrano, Alejandro Ruelas, Marco Moreno.

She was awarded a Science Teaching Prize by UNAM for her diligent work as a teacher and mentor as she advised her students and coworkers, setting a prominent example of devotion to science.

As a strong, passionate woman in the astronomical field, Pishmish was involved in a variety of organizations such as American Astronomical Society, Royal Astronomical Society of Great Britain, Academy of Sciences of Mexico, Mexican Physical Society and International Astronomical Union (IAU) where she was a member of several commissions. 

Pishmish penned a memoir titled Reminiscences in the Life of Paris Pişmiş: A Woman Astronomer along with her grandson Gabriel Cruz González, where she described her visits to Armenia and her love of the language and culture. Fluent in Armenian, Turkish, French, English, German, Italian and Spanish, Pishmish was able to share her research and learn from her colleagues around the world. 

She died on August 1, 1999, but her work and legacy live on through her students and her contributions to the field of astronomy.

Alenoush Terian Alenoush Terian, regarded as the ‘Mother of Modern Iranian Astronomy,’ was an astronomer and physicist, born and raised in an Armenian family in Tehran, Iran. The first Iranian woman to become a physics teacher, Terian was the founder of the first solar telescopic observatory in Iran. 

Alenoush Terian

Born to a French mother and Armenian father in 1921, she was fluent in French, Persian and Armenian, and understood Turkish and English.

After graduating from the University of Tehran in 1947, she worked in physics laboratories and quickly became head of operations. She aspired to continue her studies in France and worked tirelessly to convince her professor, Mahmoud Hesabi, to help her get a scholarship. He, however, refused to help her simply because she was a woman.

Alenoush Terian

But Terian stood firm. She didn’t let his unwillingness to help discourage her from pursuing her dreams. She persevered and went to Paris with the help of her father and studied at the Faculty of Atmospheric Physics of the Sorbonne, eventually earning her master’s degree in 1956. She was offered a teaching job there but respectfully declined because she wanted to go back to Iran. Confident in her trajectory, she became an assistant professor of Thermodynamics in the Department of Physics at Tehran University.

She was the first female professor of physics in Iran in 1964. Two years later, she became a member of the Geophysics Committee of Tehran University and in 1969 was selected as the chairwoman of the study group of solar physics at the Geophysics Institute at the university. She then went on to work at the solar observatory which she founded and eventually retired in 1979. 

She never married or had any children of her own, but she dedicated her entire life to her students and the classroom. One of her students stated, “She always said she had a daughter called moon and a son called sun.” In her will, she left her home to the Armenian community of Nor Jugha and to students who did not have a suitable place to live.

On her 90th birthday, the Iranian Parliament honored her during a ceremony. She passed away in 2011 leaving behind an indelible mark on history, astronomy, physics and the Iranian-Armenian community.

Anna Kazanjian Longobardo

Anna Kazanjian Longobardo

Finally, we meet Anna Kazanjian Longobardo – the first woman to receive a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Columbia University. One of the founders of the Society of Women Engineers, she was elected as a fellow and became the first woman to receive the Egleston Medal for her engineering achievements. She was later listed as one of New York’s “100 Women of Influence.”

Although she was born in New York City in 1928, she was born into a family of Armenian immigrants. Her father was an Armenian immigrant from Aleppo, Syria, and her mother was an immigrant from Constantinople, Turkey. Anna’s mother’s maiden name was Yazejian; her family survived the Armenian Genocide during WWI and was able to move to the United States. Additionally, her uncle Haig Khojassarian, also referred to as Hojassarian, was a well-known educator and leader.

Kazanjian exhibited a passion for science at an early age. She was devoted to her work but also spent ample time motivating other women. “We, the women, should work on our self-esteem and not allow failures,” she said. “I try to do it with my own children and my grandchildren… to make them feel that they’re capable – within their capability that they should try hard, because the world is their oyster. And I think that made a big difference,” she said in one of her interviews. Kazanjian spread her positivity and confidence to all women.

In addition to her accomplishments, she was one of the first women in the United States to work on board Navy submarines, destroyers and other vessels. She designed a submarine-towed buoy, which was used to calibrate sonar and her design helped raise navigational accuracy for submarines – the ones that operate below periscope depth.

In 1956, she worked on analog and digital programs including the development of navigational systems and the creation of the “Saturn” missile and the “Viking” space system as well as the “Avangard” project.

She began to work on calculating the flight of “Atlas” type ballistic systems designed for the Pentagon and designed specific guidelines that allowed her to hit the target at 10,000 miles. Her work was included in an extremely confidential collection, which only the country’s top officials were given access to and two years later, NASA used these calculations in order to launch satellites.

Anna Kazanjian Longobardo is currently retired and serves on various boards such as Woodward Clyde and Woodward Clyde Federal Services. The former vice chair of the Engineering Foundation Board as well as vice chair of the Bronxville Planning Board, she is still involved with the Barnard Science Advisory Council and Mechanical Engineering Advisory Board and currently lives in Bronxville, New York.

The lives and work of Paris Pishmish, Alenoush Terian and Anna Kazanjian Longobardo are truly inspiring. These three Armenian women persevered even in the face of adversity. When they weren’t heard, they spoke louder. They didn’t acquiesce to societal norms. They not only worked to advance their own careers, but they spent time to mentor, guide and inspire their students, colleagues and communities.

Together, they represent what it means to be powerful, intelligent leaders empowering women to fight for their dreams. 

Tvene Baronian

Tvene Baronian is a rising sophomore attending Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. She plans to graduate with a double major in Environmental Studies and English. On campus, Tvene is a member of the Environmental Club, Campus Green Club, Public Leadership Education Network (PLEN), Outdoor Recreation Adventure Program (ORAP), Sustainability Club, Koshare Dance Collective, and the Lacrosse Club. In addition to her involvement on campus, her passion for her Armenian heritage drives her participation in various volunteer organizations including Armenian Youth Federation (AYF), Hamazkayin Nayiri Dance Ensemble, HMEM Scouts and the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA). During her free time, she loves to sing, dance, write and draw. She has a passion for music and has performed at Carnegie Hall, where she showcased her love of Armenian opera.

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