PRESS RELEASE




Newcastle University investing in new Professor of Transport - to take
forward its thriving research and training programme






The Transport Operations Research Group (TORG) in the University of
Newcastle's School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences is currently
seeking a new Professor of Transport who will lead existing colleagues
in capitalising on their research reputation and new research
opportunities offered by the University's current restructuring process.
TORG has been identified as a priority investment area in the new
Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering (SAGE) in recognition of
the key role that research will play in delivering sustainable solutions
to a wide range of transport problems.



TORG has a 30-year track record of success as a leading international
centre of transport research and teaching (achieving the top (5*)
research rating from HEFCE in 1996 and 2001), and is currently home to
one of the UK's largest transport postgraduate communities. Transport
Studies at Newcastle has always been multi-disciplinary and
restructuring means that TORG is able to expand the breadth and range of
its research. For example, TORG is maintaining its strong commitment to
European Commission funded R&D activities with bids to the first round
of FP6 including colleagues from Urban and Regional Development Studies,
Town Planning and Computing Science. New links are also being forged
with, for example, Natural Sciences, Electrical Engineering and
Mechanical Engineering and the University has recently appointed a new
Professor of Marine Transport who will take up post in September 2003
and will bring skills that are integral to transport planning.



The appointment of a new Professor of Transport is seeking to build upon
TORG's success and to restore its professorial leadership following the
departure of Professor Michael Bell in 2001 and the untimely death of
Professor Peter Hills in 2002. In the meantime, TORG is maintaining a
high level of research and teaching activities which will provide the
new Professor with an outstanding launch pad for further initiatives. It
is expected that further academic appointments, to complement the
Group's expanded range of skills and expertise, will follow once the
successful applicant is in post. The University is delighted to announce
that Professor Richard Allsop of the Centre for Transport Studies at
University College London (and the founding Director of TORG) has
accepted an invitation to assist the search process.



The new professor should have an established profile of international
excellence in their chosen area of transport research, and must be able
to demonstrate success in securing substantial research income from a
range of local, national and international sources. A track-record of
high quality publications and professional activity at an international
level is also expected. The new professor will be expected to play an
important role in identifying and fostering new research alliances both
within and outside the University in related centres of high quality
research, in order to help set an innovative and challenging research
agenda that will maintain and enhance Newcastle's current position as a
centre of excellence in transport research and sustain its training in
transport at the undergraduate, masters and doctoral level.



The current restructuring began in January, 2001 when the University
committed itself to an ambitious five-year programme of restructuring to
ensure that the University is better placed to meet the research and
teaching challenges of the 21st Century and establish itself in the "Top
10" of Russell Group universities. Since then, the University has
evolved successfully from approximately 70 Departments distributed
between seven Faculties, into 30 Schools in three Faculties - Humanities
and Social Sciences (HASS), Medical Sciences and Science, Agriculture
and Engineering (SAGE). This refocusing of academic activities has been
under-pinned by a complementary rationalisation of central financial
services and administrative support structures.  Individual Schools are
in the final stages of establishing their own internal academic and
administrative structures designed to deliver top research ratings (i.e.
6* and 5*) in RAE 2007.





Notes to Editors:



1.      TORG's current staff complement comprises 18 academic, contract
research, administrative and technical support staff. There are
currently 24 postgraduate research students and 38 taught postgraduate
students, taught and supervised by the transport specialist team.

2.      Professor Richard Allsop can be contacted by tel: 020 7679 1555
or by e-mail: [log in to unmask]

3.      Further details of TORG's teaching and research activities may
be obtained from Dr John Nelson, tel: 0191 222 7936; e-mail:
[log in to unmask]