Skip to main content

A message from Professor Peter Bath, incoming Head of the Information School, for staff and research students

It is almost 26 years ago that I sat in a lecture theatre in the University’s Medical School with about 70 other new students and we were welcomed to the then Department of Information Studies by the Head of Department, Professor Tom Wilson. Tom spoke about library and information science and how the courses we were embarking upon would be the start of our careers in the information profession. I never imagined, sitting there listening to Tom that, over a quarter of a century later, my career would lead to my becoming Head of the Information School and it feels strange that I will, in a couple of weeks time, be standing up in front of a new cohort of students to welcome them to Sheffield and the School.

Although I did not realize it at the time, my journey to becoming Head of School really started that day in September 1990. Following my MSc, I studied for my PhD, under the supervision of Peter Willett. I then worked, first as Research Fellow, then as Lecturer, in Information Science in the Sheffield Institute for Studies on Ageing. I returned to the Department in 2000 to set up the MSc in Health Informatics. I have been here ever since, although I never really felt I had left. During that time, there have been five Heads of Departments: Micheline Beaulieu, Peter Willett, Sheila Corrall, Phil Levy and, most recently, Val Gillet. They all contributed a great amount to the Department in their time as Head and I feel very humble and privileged to be following in their footsteps.

I would like to give my deepest thanks to Val, for all her hard work as Head of School over the last four years; she has done a fantastic job leading the School. During that time, the School has achieved a great deal under Val’s leadership and we now stand in a very good position. Our student numbers have grown and the research income that has been generated through new projects has increased substantially. Val has overseen the School’s preparations for REF2014, in which we achieved a score of 100% and were ranked top for our research environment. Two new, and highly successful, programmes, the MSc in Data Science and the MA in Library and Information Services Management, have been introduced. There have been changes to staff and, under Val’s leadership, the School has recruited excellent staff to the professional services team and academic staff. These are just a few highlights from Val’s time as Head. She has been a great leader we all owe Val a great deal of thanks for her hard work. I know Val will be a very tough act for me to follow.


Knowing Val as I do, I am sure that she would be the first to say the School’s achievements have only been possible through your support, as colleagues, across the School. Val has been a great leader and she has led a team of great people: I would like to thank you all staff for the work and support you give the School. We are a team and we all work together. Val has led us through challenging times and I know that there will be challenges ahead for us in the next few years. I also know that, with your support and your work, the School is in a strong position to face these challenges. I see the role of Head of School as leading it, and also serving it; I look forward to working with you all and to building on the School’s achievements.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Raspberry Pi Weather Project now live

A project to create a raspberry pi weather station is currently live in the Information School.  The Sheffield Pi weather station has been created by Romilly Close, undergraduate Aerospace Engineering student at the University of Sheffield.  The project was funded by the Sheffield Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) scheme and is being supervised by Dr Jo Bates, Paula Goodale and Fred Sonnenwald from the Information School. Information about the Sheffield Pi station and how to create your own can be found on the project website .  You can also see live data from the Sheffield Pi station on Plot.ly , and further information can also be found on the Met Office Weather Observations Website .    This work compliments the School’s existing project entitled ‘The Secret Life of a Weather Datum’ which explores socio-cultural influences on weather data.  This project is funded under the AHRC’s Digital Transformations Big Data call.  It aims to pilot a new approach to im

Our Chemoinformatics Group wins Jason Farradane Award

The Information School's Chemoinformatics Research Group has been awarded the 2012 UKeiG Jason Farradane Award , in recognition of its outstanding 40 year contribution to the information field. The prize is awarded to the three current members of the group,  Professor Val Gillet , Dr John Holliday and Professor Peter Willett . The judges recognised the Group's status as one of the world's leading centres of chemoinformatics research, a major contributor to the field of information science, and an exemplar in raising the profile of the information profession. The School has a long association with the Farradane prize. Its second recipient was long time member of staff Professor Mike Lynch in 1980.

Professor Mike Thelwall gives inaugural lecture

Professor of Data Science Mike Thelwall recently gave his inaugural lecture at the University of Sheffield, entitled  How helpful are AI and bibliometrics for assessing the quality of academic research? The lecture, delivered in the University's Diamond building, was introduced by Head of the Information School Professor Briony Birdi. It covered Mike's research into whether Artificial Intelligence can inform - or replace - expert peer review in the journal article publication process and what this could look like, as well as to what extent bibliometrics and citation statistics can play a role in assessing the quality of a piece of research. Mike also discussed whether tools like ChatGPT can accurately detect research quality. The inaugural lecture was well attended by colleagues from around the University.