University of Cambridge (cam.ac.uk)

Cambridge engineers and alumni have been announced Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering in recognition of their outstanding and continuing contributions to the profession. They join an Academy on a mission to use the power of engineering to build a sustainable society and create an inclusive economy that works for everyone.

This week HRH The Prince of Wales gave the opening address to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Turbo Expo conference, the largest annual conference on the subject of flight and land-based power generation, due to have been held in London earlier this year but which is being held online due to the pandemic.

Since its inception 10 years ago, the Laing O’Rourke Centre for Construction Engineering and Technology, University of Cambridge, has focused on driving transformation in the construction sector, in collaboration with strategic industry partner Laing O’Rourke.

Startups funded by US agency ARPA-E file patents at twice the rate of similar cleantech firms. The UK should trial its own climate-focused ARPA as part of COVID-19 recovery package, argues a Cambridge professor.

A UK-led team of astronomers has discovered a rare molecule – phosphine – in the clouds of Venus, pointing to the possibility of extra-terrestrial ‘aerial’ life.

Global populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish have declined by over two-thirds in less than half a century, due in large part to the same environmental destruction that is contributing to the emergence of zoonotic diseases like COVID-19, according to a World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) report released this week.

The University of Cambridge is to offer all students living in college accommodation a weekly test for infection with SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, even if they show no symptoms. While the testing of asymptomatic students is not national guidance, the University will be launching this programme as part of their ‘Stay Safe Cambridge Uni’ public health initiative.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge and the University of Zurich have discovered that a drug newly approved for cancer improves kidney dysfunction in a mouse model of Dent disease 2 and Lowe syndrome.

University of Cambridge PhD student Siddharth Swaroop has been announced a recipient of the 2020 Microsoft Research EMEA PhD Award, helping to support his final year of research.