The quiet revolutionary

May 6th, 2011

For a man who hasn’t had a holiday in nearly two years, Dlawer (Del) Ala’Aldeen looks remarkably relaxed. Even more remarkable when you consider that as well as his role as Professor of Clinical Microbiology and Head of the Molecular Bacteriology and Immunology Group (Division of Microbiology & Infectious Diseases) at The University of Nottingham, he is Minister for Higher Education and Scientific Research in Kurdistan.

Prof Ala’Aldeen was invited to join the newly elected coalition government in Kurdistan in 2009 by Dr Barham Salih.

“We go back a long way,” explains Prof Ala’Aldeen. The pair had both been in London in the late 80s when Saddam Hussein massacred 180,000 Kurds in a systematic campaign of mass summary executions and disappearances, widespread use of chemical weapons and the destruction of thousands of villages.

Prof Ala’Aldeen had fled Saddam’s brutal regime for the UK in 1984 but campaigned vigorously for those left behind.

After the Gulf War ceasefire in 1991, a Kurdish uprising was crushed by Iraqi and tens of thousands of people fled to the mountains, sparking a humanitarian crisis. Prof Ala’Aldeen, who by now had founded the British-based Kurdish Scientific and Medical Association (KSMA), went over to Kurdistan to work with refugee charities.

Throughout this time, Prof Ala’Aldeen lobbied Parliament and persuaded then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to support the Kurds – and to persuade the US and French governments to do the same. This led to the formation of the Kurdistan region. Saddam withdrew his administration and in 1992, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) was formed. At about the same time, Prof Ala’Aldeen came to Nottingham, taking up his Clinical Leadership position two years later.

He began supporting Higher Education in Kurdistan, persuading the then Vice-Chancellor Sir Colin Campbell to organise for more than 80 university leaders to come here to learn how to run a university. A fee-paying course later evolved and the University continues to build on its relationship with Kurdistan.

Prof Ala’Aldeen continued to follow events in Kurdistan, writing newspaper articles and being appointed to the British Government’s working party on chemical and biological weapons.

“I was a critic, but a constructive critic,” he says, “which is why the parties and the Prime Minister liked my comments because there were criticisms, but always solutions. I became known as this outspoken academic who supported the system but remained critical as to how things could be improved.”

And then came the invitation from Dr Salih, the newly elected Prime Minister in Kurdistan’s coalition government, to head up the reform of the region’s desperately outdated and bureaucratic Higher Education system.

“I asked him to accept radical reform rather than a partial approach,” says Prof Ala’Aldeen, who wrote A Vision to the Future of Higher Education in Kurdistan (A Road Map to Quality).  “I got the backing of the government and the opposition. That was a unique situation as our reform was based on a model that everyone agreed on.”

He then asked the VC for a secondment. “He very kindly agreed and supported me with enthusiasm and I’m grateful for that.”

Prof Ala’Aldeen quickly realised the enormity of his task. “A country that is emerging from the ashes of Saddam Hussein and a completely closed system that was designed to keep a closed community suddenly became democratic and forward looking and wanted to catch up with the rest of the world. At first it was almost overwhelming and like a one-man band. But luckily there is plenty of talent around that has the understanding necessary and is willing to help.

“Each day, each month, there was a milestone. Each time we introduced something it created the expectation of something else.

“Occasionally, it’s like flying an aeroplane while you are mending the wings. It was a steep learning curve, learning how everything there worked before we could start to change it. We were taking on, head on, the long-entrenched interests of people who made money out of the system and knew how to exploit it. For the first time in the history of Iraq, all appointments would have to be made on talent and merit, and each university would have its own elected body which would be central to all its functions.”

There were protests at first. Prof Ala’Aldeen explains: “There was extreme intolerance of change but the time for introducing change was right – there was a palpable hunger. Trying to reform a system that’s bureaucratic, enclosed, nationalist, socialist, run by a dictator – first you need to understand the mentality and the culture while at the same time you’ve worked all your professional life in a country like Britain. It’s like going back, maybe by a century. There’s a gap between your aspirations and what you can achieve in reality.”

The coalition government in Kurdistan aims to swap Prime Minister every two years, creating cabinet reshuffles. “I decided to just do as much as I could in the first two years. Indeed the first milestone was changing the legislation which will make the reform more permanent,” says Prof Ala’Aldeen.

“This is a long evolving system – a process that may take decades and generations to complete. But what we have done in the first two years is lay the foundations.”

So how does life in Kurdistan compare to Nottingham, where Prof Ala’Aldeen has a wife and three children?

“In Kurdistan, when I wake up in the morning and go to work I don’t know what is waiting and how my day will go. This is greatly different to my academic life, where you can plan a year ahead. There I have bodyguards and have to be driven. It’s a joy when I come back to Nottingham and I’m able to lead a normal family life.

In Nottingham, Prof Ala’Aldeen heads a group of 20-odd scientists and students. Maintaining a relationship is vital and he is in regular contact via Skype.

“It’s amazing how much you can do – it’s not that different to being here and in another room! I’m lucky to have a very good group of scientists who are mature and independent. I also have a very good deputy, who’s been a very safe pair of hands over the years. I make sure my work here is not affected in any way by this secondment.

“All my life I worked in academia. It what gives me job satisfaction and it’s where my priorities are. But when I was invited to join a historic opportunity to contribute to system reform in the country where I was born I could not say no. I don’t want to retire and look back and think I had a lifetime of opportunity to do something big for the people of Kurdistan but I chose an easier life.

“I feel very lucky to be in Britain and think my family are very lucky to be in a society where things are so organised.

“I came here as a refugee looking for freedom but I found life. My attachment to Britain is eternal.”

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Psst! Want to know how to make Barbie look like your mum?

May 6th, 2011

What happens if you stick a sharp stick into a balloon? It pops, right? Well, not necessarily, as The University of Nottingham’s Physics Buskers are keen to demonstrate…

The Physics Buskers — whose last appearance was at Nottingham’s Light Night — are busy brushing up their skills ready for May Fest 2011, the University’s free community open day for family, friends and alumni on Saturday 7 May.

Barbie dolls, balloons, fluorescent pens and liquid nitrogen all play a part in helping to shake off the bearded-old-man-in–white-coats image and making people realise that science is fun.

“The aim is to raise interest in science and to let people know that it’s relevant to everyone,” explains Professor Penny Gowland, of the School of Physics and Astronomy. “People from age six to 60 — they’re all interested.”

“This is fun for us too,” agrees lab technician Paul Munday, as he dips a balloon into liquid nitrogen. The balloon deflates completely. He removes the wrinkled balloon and blows on it gently. Within seconds it reinflates.

“The liquid nitrogen is so cold — about minus 196 degrees — that it liquefies the air inside the balloon, making it about 700 times smaller. But the air is still there, it hasn’t gone away. When it warms back up it expands again and so the balloon reinflates,” he explains.

Then he pours the liquid nitrogen into a miniature steam engine; the gas that it gives off sets the engine in motion.

Other ‘tricks’ include dropping peanuts into fizzy water, writing on the audience with ‘invisible’ ink and making table-top rockets.

Paula Croal, first year PhD Physics student, demonstrates the balloon trick with a kebab stick. “This is a fab idea! I’m going to recreate this with my nephew — he’ll be amazed!”

Paula, along with Julian Sterling, has just spent several weeks working with city schoolchildren for a module on communicating science — part of the School’s outreach work.

Julian and Paula worked with year 9 students at Nottingham Academy, helping them to design and build rockets and rocket launchers.

The aim of the project was to spark an interest in the students and to make them think about studying at university. And, again, to challenge the stereotype about scientists.

“The kids were a little surprised when I turned up,” says Paula. “They assumed I’d be a man!”

After two weeks working with Paula and Julian, the students created an activity for 70 year 5 pupils from Jesse Boote Primary School to do as part of a ‘trickle down’ approach.

“I was quite impressed when I heard the year 9s explaining how the physics worked to the younger kids because we hadn’t drummed it in to them, they had just taken it in during the work we were doing,” says Paula.

“They really enjoyed it and by the end they all said they would definitely recommend it to another year as a worthwhile thing to do.”

It’s the introduction of physics busking to The University of Nottingham that earned its creator — PhD student Claire Sweetenham — a Vice-Chancellor’s Achievement Award last year. One busking event at Nottingham’s Broadmarsh Centre attracted more than 600 people.

By now the lab has come alive with spinning lights, noises, bubbles and smoke — and lots of discussion and laughter.

Finally, one of the students practises his Barbie spiel: “Why doesn’t Barbie look like your mum?”

“Because her legs are too long.”

He then plunges Barbie into a glass of water and: “Voila! Now she looks like your mum!”

May Fest 2011: Saturday 7 May, 11am  to 5.30pm at University Park. Visit www.nottingham.ac.uk/mayfest/index.aspx to find out details of May Fest 2011 and to download a programme.

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