2000
Bristol Enterprise Centre opened
The Bristol Enterprise Centre is launched to provide a professional bridge between the University and the commercial world and to manage the creation of 'spin-out' companies from the University.
Keeping it clean
The daily contribution of the cleaning staff to the University environment is essential to the smooth running of the institution.
See cleaning staff in 1934 and 1943 and find out how Doreen Mahoney, who worked here as a cleaner for over 40 years, left the University with an honorary degree.
Professor Eric Thomas appointed Vice-Chancellor
In September, Professor Eric Thomas takes up the position of Vice-Chancellor. He trained in medicine at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and became Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, then Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Biological Sciences at the University of Southampton before coming to Bristol.
Past Vice-Chancellors include:
Professor Conwy Lloyd Morgan
Sir Isambard Owen
Professor E. F. Francis
Dr Thomas Loveday
Professor A. M. Tyndall
Philip Morris
Professor John Edward Harris
Professor Arthur Roderick Collar
Professor Alexander Merrison
Professor Peter Haggett
Sir John Kingman
Students break out of jail
As part of RAG (fundraising) activities, students escape from a Bristol prison and get as far as they can in 36 hours without spending any money on transport. Some teams make it to Morocco, Italy and Tenerife, raising nearly £3,000 for local charities in the process.
See students from other generations during RAG week: 1941, 1957 and 1961.
Wellcome boost for cell research
Research into conditions like heart disease, cancer, memory impairment, diabetes and deafness gets a major boost with the opening in October of the £9 million Henry Wellcome Laboratories for Integrated Cell Signalling. The facilities enable scientists in the fields of anatomy, biochemistry, pharmacology and physiology to collaborate more effectively. The MRC Centre for Synaptic Plasticity is opened in November. The Centre is a joint venture between the Medical Research Council and the University. Its focus on the molecular basis of brain function is crucial to a better understanding of epilepsy, dementia and schizophrenia, and drug addiction.
Centre for Sport, Exercise and Health opened
In October, The Centre for Sport, Exercise and Health is opened by Richard Caborn MP, Minister for Sport. The £5-million centre includes a state-of-the-art fitness suite, two exercise studios, and a sports hall with a balcony that doubles as a jogging track. It also houses the Exercise and Sports Medicine Workshop, where services such as physiotherapy and osteopathy are available.
See women's sporting events in 1921, football in 1944 and Varsity rugby in 1972.
Botanic Garden gets new home
The Botanic Garden moves from Bracken Hill in Leigh Woods to The Holmes at Stoke Bishop. During the planning of the 1944 Normandy landings, The Holmes was used as a base for US Army generals. Today it is a small conference centre.
Doreen Mahony honoured
Doreen Mahoney, Domestic Supervisor in the Arts Faculty, retires in July after 42 years and four months' service. Her loyalty, dedication and hard work is rewarded with an honorary degree (Master of Arts) from the University - a first for a manual worker. Doreen, who started work as a cleaner on two shillings and threepence an hour, is also awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list for her services to higher education. Her mother, sisters, daughters-in-law and granddaughter all work, or have worked, for the University at some time.
See other group shots of our cleaners in 1934, 1943 and 2000.
Theatre Collection gets Museum status
The Theatre Collection, housed in the Department of Drama, is awarded the status of Fully Registered Museum in February. The Collection, established in 1951, attracts visitors from all over the world. Its particular specialities include theatre in the South West, Victorian and post-World War II theatre history, women's theatre, and scenery and costume design.
It's all in the stars
On 18 March the Centre for the Study of the Evolution of the Terrestrial Planets opens. The origins and structure of the Earth and its neighbours in the solar system are the focus of the new, four-million-pound research and teaching facilities.
University launches corporate website
In May, the University launches its redesigned corporate website. All top-level pages are redesigned and reorganised in the first phase of an ongoing project aimed at improving and updating the University's web presence. New features include a Directory of Experts (a searchable database of University experts for the media) and an expanded news and events section.
Graduate appointed President of RIBA
Bristol alumnus George Ferguson is appointed President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). He is currently Chairman of Bristol-based Acanthus Ferguson Mann Architects and is well known for his campaign to save the old Imperial Tobacco building in South Bristol, now the popular Tobacco Factory theatre, from demolition.
New look for logo
The University Council backs the introduction of a new, consistent visual identity. The approved logo consists of four blocks from the University's coat of arms that represent the University's founders and benefactors (the sun for Wills, a dolphin for Colston and a horse for Fry), a ship and castle based on the medieval city seal of Bristol, and an open book representing learning.
Box in a field draws media acclaim
In February, Richard Box, Artist in Residence in the Department of Physics, demonstrates the electrical fields surrounding power lines with his stunning art installation, Field, on a hillside near Bath.
The installation, consisting of several thousand ready-made glass fluorescent tubes that flicker into life across the hillside as the early evening light fades, represents work conducted by Professor Denis Henshaw into the health effects of living close to the electric and magnetic fields from overhead power lines.
Baroness Hale becomes seventh Chancellor
On 12 March, appeal court judge and distinguished legal scholar the Right Honourable the Baroness Hale of Richmond is officially installed as the University's seventh Chancellor. In the same year she becomes one of the UK's 12 Law Lords, the first woman to hold this position.
Past Chancellors include:
Henry Overton Wills III
Richard Burden Sanderson Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane of Cloan
The Right Honourable Winston Churchill MP
Henry Somerset, the 10th Duke of Beaufort,
Professor Dorothy Hodgkin
Sir Jeremy Morse
Dorothy Hodgkin Building opened
On 23 September, Lord Sainsbury opens the Dorothy Hodgkin Building, a new £18.75m stress research centre that houses state-of-the-art labs for 120 researchers, working on radical new approaches to the treatment of stress-related illness, psychiatric disorders, Alzheimer's disease and hormone problems.
The building features a remarkable artwork of moving images projected onto specially designed shutters installed inside five of its windows. These images represent some of the fundamental ideas in bioscience such as the human genome project and the structure of DNA.
Birth to BIRTHA
The Bristol Institute for Research in the Humanities and Arts (BIRTHA), which supports, promotes and disseminates research in the Faculty of Arts, is officially launched on 25 October.
CETLs set in motion
On 27 January, the creation of two Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETLs) is announced. One, AIMS, is based in Medical Sciences and the other, BristolChemLabS, in the School of Chemistry. They are part of a government initiative to invest £315m in the creation of 74 CETLs throughout England to 'promote excellence across all subjects and aspects of teaching and learning in higher education'.
BLADE is cutting-edge
On 25 February, the Queen opens the £18.5 million Bristol Laboratory for Advanced Dynamics Engineering (BLADE), the most advanced laboratory of its kind in Europe.
BLADE takes a 'complete lifecycle' approach - from analysis and design to construction and performance monitoring - to developing the next generation of engineering systems, including aeroplanes, helicopters, bridges and buildings. Its work helps reduce engineering failures, which in turn can lead to the loss of thousands of lives and billions of pounds through aircraft crashes, petrochemical industry disasters and earthquake damage.
HiPLA happy at 50
The University's Department of Hispanic, Portuguese and Latin American Studies celebrates its 50th birthday. The Department is acknowledged internationally as one of the most successful of its kind, both in the excellence of its degree programmes and in its cultural vigour.
Nobel Prize for Pinter
The 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature is awarded to honorary Bristol graduate, (the late) Harold Pinter, whose first play, The Room, had its debut performance at the University in 1957.
Stan the man
The teaching of medical sciences is enhanced by the arrival of Stan D. Ardman (standard man) - one of the world's most sophisticated human patient simulators.
Bristol best for science
A survey in of 3,500 researchers worldwide by The Scientist magazine rates Bristol as the best research institution to work at in the UK.
CHOMBEC opens
The Centre for the History of Music in Britain, the Empire and the Commonwealth (CHOMBEC) has its public launch on 20 March. The Centre encourages, and provides a focal point for, research into the history of music in the British Empire, in Britain, and within the West Country.
Tony Blair speaks at the University
The then Prime Minister Tony Blair speaks at the University on ways of renewing the criminal justice system.
New Botanic Garden opened
On 19 March, the new Botanic Garden is opened to the public. The garden has four core collections: evolution, rare and threatened natives, Mediterranean plants and useful plants.
ACCIS opened
On 16 April, the Advanced Composites Centre for Innovation and Science (ACCIS) is opened by Malcolm Wicks MP, Minister for Science and Innovation. The Centre brings together research across the University in composite materials, which are crucially important for UK engineering companies to maintain international competitiveness.
BIPA opened
On 25 May, The Bristol Institute for Public Affairs (BIPA) is opened by the then Economic Secretary Ed Balls MP. BIPA comprises The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, The Centre for Multilevel Modelling and The Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship and aims to establish itself as the foremost location for national and international research on public affairs.
Tropical times
On 28 July, the Botanic Garden opens its tropical zone glasshouse, home to a giant Amazonian water lily. Victoria amazonica, the largest species of water lily in existence, has circular leaves of up to three metres in diameter.
Royal visit
On 6 November, HRH The Duchess of Cornwall visits the Veterinary School in her capacity as Patron of the Langford Trust for Animal Health and Welfare.
CETLs opens
State-of-the-art chemistry laboratories, computer-controlled human-patient simulators, high-tech facilities for anatomy teaching, and a 'lab in a van' are among the features of two new £24 million Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning' (CETLs) opened on 21 November. The centres received £10 million from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and a further £14 million from the University.
Fabulous at 50
The Drama Department celebrates the 50th anniversary performance of Nobel Prize-winner Harold Pinter's debut play, The Room, by restaging the play in the same room in the Wills Memorial Building where it was originally performed in 1957. The performance is recorded by the British Library Sound Archive as part of its Theatre Archive Project.
True blue
In May, the University launches BlueCrystal, a £7 million supercomputer facility that is capable of carrying out 37 trillion calculations per second and supports high-level research across a range of disciplines.
David May makes his mark
David May, Professor of Computer Science at the University and Chief Technology Officer at spin-out company XMOS, is named by EE Times as one of 35 people, places and things that will have the greatest influence on how this century develops.
Big Bang Day
On 10 September, the largest scientific experiment in the world takes place in CERN, Switzerland. The experiment, in which Bristol scientists are involved, recreates the conditions that existed just a billionth of a second after the Big Bang, and seeks answers to some of the deepest mysteries about the origins and workings of our universe.
Former student wins Nobel Prize for Literature
French writer Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, who studied English at the University in 1958-59, is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He is described by the Nobel Committee as 'an author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization'.
Harry Patch remembers
On 11 November, 110-year-old Harry Patch, who helped to build the Wills Memorial Building in the 1920s, lays a wreath at the Cenotaph in London to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the ending of WW1. After the ceremony, Harry, one of only three remaining WW1 veterans, meets Prime Minister Gordon Brown, at a reception in Downing Street.
Stem cell breakthrough
On 19 November, Bristol scientists Professors Anthony Hollander and Martin Birchall make headlines round the world when it is reported that the first tissue-engineered windpipe, utilising a patient's own stem cells, has been transplanted successfully into a young woman with a failing airway. The Bristol academics developed the stem cells as part of a major pan-European project.
University celebrates its 100th birthday
Throughout 2009, the University celebrates its centenary with a packed programme of events and activities.
New Centre for Nanoscience and Quantum Information to open
The new Bristol Centre for Nanoscience and Quantum Information (NSQI) will open its doors early in 2009. The building will provide a unique inter-disciplinary centre and, as one of the world's finest facilities for nanoscience and quantum information, will keep Bristol at the forefront of research for decades.
Pinter's passing
The centenary year starts with the sad news that Harold Pinter passed away on 24 December 2008.
Pinter had a long association with the University which awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters in 1998. His first play, The Room, has its debut performance at the University in 1957 and was restaged, in the same room as the original performance, in 2007. The anniversary performance was recorded by the British Library Sound Archive as part of its Theatre Archive Project.
For more on the 50th anniversary production, go to 2007.
World first in quantum computing
A team at the Centre for Nanoscience and Quantum Information brings quantum computing a step closer after performing a simple calculation on a primitive quantum computer that uses single particles of light (photons) whizzing through a silicon chip. This world first is part of research led by Professor Jeremy O?Brien, Director of the Centre for Quantum Photonics.
Major public artwork unveiled
A major new public sculpture by internationally acclaimed artist Jeppe Hein is unveiled as part of the University's centenary celebrations. Entitled 'Follow Me', the work is permanently sited in Royal Fort Gardens.
Churchill's daughter visits University
On 12 December, Lady Soames, Winston Churchill's youngest and last surviving child, attended a commemorative event in Wills Hall at the University to mark the 80th anniversary of the official opening of the Hall by her father in December 1929, following his installation as Chancellor.
