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Landmark Cardiff University building named after distinguished former Deputy Vice-Chancellor

19 May 2011

Cardiff University’s flagship new research building is to be named in honour of its late Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Hadyn Ellis.

The Hadyn Ellis Building will be a striking landmark development, at the heart of the University’s new Maindy Park research campus. The £30M Building will house highly advanced facilities for some of the University’s world-leading interdisciplinary scientific teams, including the European Cancer Stem Cell Research Institute and the Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute. The ground floor will include an attractive public area for lectures, displays and conferences about Cardiff University’s work.

Professor Hadyn Ellis was highly influential in the development of Cardiff University, until his death in 2006. Educated at St Julian’s High School, Newport, he was appointed as Head of Cardiff’s School of Psychology in 1989. In his own field, he was a pioneer in the cognitive psychology of face recognition. He published ground-breaking research on prosopagnosia – the inability to recognise faces following brain injury.

Professor Ellis became the University’s Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research in 1994. This period saw the University double its research income and shoot up the national league tables for research. These achievements were crucial to Cardiff entering the elite Russell Group of research-led institutions.

Appointed Deputy Vice-Chancellor in 2001, Professor Ellis played a key role in the merger with the University of Wales College of Medicine. During this period he was able to expand the University’s base of interdisciplinary research. He was awarded a CBE in 2004 for his services to Higher Education.

Professor Ellis’ wife, Diane, and the University Vice-Chancellor, Dr David Grant, today cut the first turf on the site of the Hadyn Ellis Building. The ceremony marked the start of the transformation of Maindy Park into a campus of six or seven high quality research buildings, due to take shape over the next two decades.

Dr Grant said: "Professor Hadyn Ellis was an internationally distinguished academic and a highly regarded Deputy Vice-Chancellor until his untimely death in 2006. He was an active champion of interdisciplinary research excellence, which the Maindy Park campus will foster. He also played an early, important role in the creation of the Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute, for which the Hadyn Ellis Building will now provide a modern, well-equipped home. We believe it is entirely fitting that this new building should bear his name."

The University aims to achieve BREEAM "excellent" status for the sustainability of the Hadyn Ellis Building. The architects are Nightingale Associates and BAM Construction has been appointed to construct the building

ENDS


For further information and pictures, please contact:

Stephen Rouse,
Public Relations Office,
Cardiff University.
029 2087 5596
07976 513386
e-mail: RouseS@cardiff.ac.uk

Cardiff University

Cardiff University is recognised in independent government assessments as one of Britain’s leading teaching and research universities and is a member of the Russell Group of the UK’s most research intensive universities. Among its academic staff are two Nobel Laureates, including the winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize for Medicine, University President Professor Sir Martin Evans.

Founded by Royal Charter in 1883, today the University combines impressive modern facilities and a dynamic approach to teaching and research. The University’s breadth of expertise in research and research-led teaching encompasses: the humanities; the natural, physical, health, life and social sciences; engineering and technology; preparation for a wide range of professions; and a longstanding commitment to lifelong learning. Three major new Research Institutes, offering radical new approaches to neurosciences and mental health, cancer stem cells and sustainable places were announced by the University in 2010.