Chris Packham Wildlife Photography Competition

Ian Richards / / Competitions, Events

Chris Packham Wildlife Photography Competition

The challenge

Get your cameras or smartphones ready! From our urban architecture, allotments, parks and commons, out into the woodlands, fields, riverbanks and beaches, there’s an abundance of wildlife out there. It could be a fox, a falcon, a beetle or a badger – we want to see your best photographs that represent the wild creatures, large or small, living around us.

The prize

Shortlisted images will be presented to Visiting Professor Chris Packham via a pop-up exhibition held at the University of Lincoln at the end of October. Four winning photographers will each receive a prize of a £25 Amazon voucher and be invited to join Chris on a visit to the set of a television wildlife production in 2018.

Chris Packham
Chris Packham

 How to enter

Upload your photographs to Instagram using #ULWildlifeComp17 or email them to competitions@lincoln.ac.uk  (Max 4MB as JPEG or JPG). You can enter up to four photographs in your submission.

Deadline for entries is midday on Thursday 26th October. Shortlisted entrants will be notified on Monday 30th October and invited to the pop-up exhibition the following day, where winners will be announced by Chris Packham.

Full terms and conditions can be found below.

 

Chris Packham Wildlife Photography Competition 2017 Terms & Conditions

PROMOTER

The Promoter of this Competition is: the University of Lincoln, Brayford Pool, Lincoln, LN6 7TS, United Kingdom.

ELIGIBILITY

There is no entry fee to enter this Competition but to be eligible you must be a student currently enrolled at the University of Lincoln (as at 1st October 2017). University staff, alumni and members of the public are not eligible to enter the competition.

HOW TO ENTER

The Competition is open from 00:01hrs BST (one minute past midnight) on Monday 9th October 2017 and the deadline for entries is 12:00hrs (midday) on Thursday 26th October 2017. After this date no further entries to the competition will be permitted. No responsibility can be accepted for entries not received for whatever reason.

Entries should be submitted by email in JPEG or JPG format of between 100KB and 4MB in file size. Please ensure your image is a minimum of 800 pixels on its shortest side. Send your image by email to: competitions@lincoln.ac.uk and / or upload them to Instagram using the hashtag #ULWildlifeComp17.

If sending via email please include the phrase “Wildlife Photography Competition” in the subject line. Entries should be accompanied by a short caption (up to 100 words in length) describing the image(s), including the subject, location, and date taken.

SUBMISSIONS

All entries must be original photographs taken by the named entrant. They must not have been published elsewhere or have won a prize in any other photographic competition.

It is the responsibility of entrants to ensure their submission does not infringe the copyright of any third party or any laws. Joint entries are not permitted. Reproduction or digital manipulation of any pre-existing image by another photographer is not acceptable.

Submitted photographs should be authentic representations of a natural scene featuring wildlife in the UK. Composites, double exposures and CGI imagery should not be used. Minor enhancements of raw images using photo editing software (eg. cropping, adjustment of colour levels) are permitted but please avoid heavy use of pre-programmed filters.

JUDGING

Shortlisted entrants and winners will be chosen by a panel of judges appointed by the University. The University’s decision in respect of all matters to do with the Competition will be final and no correspondence will be entered into.

Multiple entries are not permitted by the same individual but entrants may supply up to four images within a single submission. These could be a series of images from a single shoot or a small portfolio / collection.

The Prize may be withdrawn or replaced at any time. The Prize is not transferable and no financial alternative will be offered.

Shortlisted entrants will be notified by email on Monday 30th October and invited to an exhibition at the University on Tuesday 31st October, where four winners will be announced. If a winner cannot be contacted or does not claim the prize within 14 days of notification, we reserve the right to withdraw the prize from the winner and pick a replacement winner.

PERMISSIONS AND COPYRIGHT

If your photograph features any person or people, they should be aware that they are being photographed and written permission (model release) should be obtained by the photographer from all involved (or their parent’s/guardian’s permission if under 18). The University reserves the right to disqualify any entry where such permissions are unclear.

Copyright in all images submitted for this competition remains with the respective photographer. However, each photographer grants a worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual licence to the University of Lincoln to feature their submitted image in any of their publications, websites and/or in any promotional material connected to this competition, including licensing for (non-commercial) editorial use by third party media. The Promoter will always ask third party media to credit photographers where images are used but cannot be held responsible for errors or omissions.

Winners agree to the use of his/her name and image in any publicity material associated with the Competition. Any personal data relating to the winner or any other entrants will be used solely in accordance with current data protection legislation and will not be disclosed to a third party without the entrant’s prior consent.

INDEMNITY

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the University of Lincoln excludes its liability for any loss, damage, injury, cost or expense suffered by entrants, whether directly or indirectly and howsoever caused, in connection with the Competition and use of any prize. Nothing in these Terms and Conditions shall exclude the University’s liability for death or personal injury arising from its own negligence or any other liability that cannot, as a matter of law, be excluded.

By entering this competition you agree to indemnify the University of Lincoln and keep the University of Lincoln indemnified against any loss, damage, injury, cost or expense suffered by the University as a result of your entry in the Competition, including (but not limited to) any claim of infringement of intellectual property rights made by any third party.

The University of Lincoln reserves the right to cancel or amend this Competition and these terms and conditions without notice in the event of a catastrophe, war, civil or military disturbance, act of God or any actual or anticipated breach of any applicable law or regulation or any other event outside of the Promoter’s control. Any changes to the Competition will be notified to entrants as soon as possible.

ACCEPTANCE OF TERMS

The Competition and these Terms and Conditions will be governed by English law and any disputes will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England. Entry into the Competition will be deemed as acceptance of these Terms and Conditions.

 

 

Lincoln named among the best for its careers service

Laura Jones / / News

The University of Lincoln has been named in a list of the best universities in the UK for career services.

The list has been compiled by StudentCrowd, which carries out student reviews into various aspects of university life, including courses, clubs and societies, student halls and much more.

This survey called on students from every university in the country to review their careers service and over 7,000 responded.

The Careers and Employability team at the University of Lincoln, which has recently been acknowledged by AGCAS and NUE Awards for its innovative approach to employer engagement, came an impressive 20th in the poll.

Read the full story at www.studentcrowd.com/article/20-best-universities-for-career-services-2017.

Great Lives: Judy Friedberg | 22nd Nov

Zoe Homes / / Events

imageJournalist Judy Friedberg is a freelance media consultant and journalist who worked on both foreign and home news before specialising in Higher Education as Universities Editor at the Guardian newspaper responsible for the University Guide and Guardian Students and overseeing the Higher Education editorial.

Event Details: Wednesday 22 November 2017 | 5.30pm for 6pm lecture | Stephen Langton Lecture Theatre

Judy Friedberg will visit the University of Lincoln in November 2017 for the first time to talk about her career in journalism and offer insight into her role at the Guardian, a flagship media outlet embracing the digitalisation of media reporting. The audience will also hear about Judy’s very personal experiences of growing up in South Africa at the time of the Apartheid, encouraging her to start teaching in local townships overcoming adversity and breaking down prejudices that were ingrained in the South African culture and education system at the time. Judy is a great ambassador for education with the ability to inspire both young and old audiences with both humour and humility.

Judy was recently well received at a talk she provided in London for a University of Lincoln Alumni and Teachers Network Event.

This lecture is free to attend but prior booking is essential via the form here: https://www.lincoln.ac.uk/home/campuslife/whatson/eventsconferences/judy-friedberg.html

Great Lives: Chris Packham – All About Bats and Owls | 31st Oct

Zoe Homes / / Events
Chris Packham
Chris Packham

This Halloween Special is a repeat of last year’s very successful All About Bats and Owls lecture in the LPAC. 

TV presenter and naturalist Chris Packham is a wildlife expert, photographer and author with a passionate concern for conservation and the environment. Chris Packham was appointed Visiting Professor at the University of Lincoln in April 2015 and continues to share his expertise with both our students and the local community.

Event Details: Tuesday 31 October 2017 | 5.30pm for 6pm lecture | LPAC

Chris will explore the wild side of Halloween with a free-to-attend public lecture where he will discuss how bats live and explore the vital ecological role they play. With support from the Bat Conservation Trust, of which Chris is President, the talk will give audiences the chance to observe a live demonstration of pipistrelle bats.All About Bats and Owls is part of the University of Lincoln’s flagship Great Lives free public guest lecture series, which aims to provide inspirational insights into different aspects of society – from the entertainment world to elite sport.

This lecture is free to attend but prior booking is essential. Please visit the Events web page for more details and to book.

 

Great Lives: Carol Ann Duffy | 16th Nov

Zoe Homes / / Events

carol-ann-duffy-portraitPoet Laureate, playwright and Visiting Poetry Artist at the University of Lincoln, Carol Ann Duffy will return to the University of Lincoln on the evening  of Tuesday 16th November to read a selection of her works.

Event Details: Thursday 16 November 2017 | 5.30pm for 6pm lecture | Isaac Newton Lecture Theatre

Carol Ann Duffy is Professor of Contemporary Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Britain’s poet laureate in May 2009. She is the first woman, the first Scot, and the first openly LGBT person to hold the position. Her collections include Standing Female Nude (1985), winner of a Scottish Arts Council Award; Selling Manhattan (1987), which won a Somerset Maugham Award; Mean Time (1993), which won the Whitbread Poetry Award; and Rapture (2005), winner of the T. S. Eliot Prize. Her poems address issues such as oppression, gender, and violence, in an accessible language that has made them popular with our own students, schools and with the wider public alike making her a popular visitor to the University of Lincoln throughout the academic year.

This poetry reading is free and open to all members of the public, however booking is required via the form here https://www.lincoln.ac.uk/home/campuslife/whatson/eventsconferences/carolannduffy.html. If you have any queries regarding this event please contact the Events Team on events@lincoln.ac.uk or by calling 01522 837100.

Great Lives: Sir Mark Walport | 19th Oct

Zoe Homes / / Events
Sir Mark Walport
Recently appointed Chief Executive Designate of UK Research and Innovation, Sir Mark Walport has long been a champion for science, engineering and technology within his career including his role as Government Chief Scientific Adviser, Head of the Government Office for Science and Co-Chair of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology.
Event Details: Thursday 19 October 2017 | 11am for 11.30am lecture | Isaac Newton Lecture Theatre
Sir Mark’s previous roles include being Director of the Wellcome Trust, which is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health by supporting the brightest minds. A distinguished scientist in his own right, Sir Mark was also Professor of Medicine and Head of the Division of Medicine at Imperial College London and will talk on his career highlights and offer an insight into his roles at the forefront of government and running large scale research projects. His Great Lives talk at the University of Lincoln coincides with Sir Mark Walport being an honoured guest of the university and officially opening the Isaac Newton Building which is home to the School of Computer Science, Engineering and Maths and Physics.
Previous career highlights for Sir Mark include being a member of the India UK CEO Forum and the UK India Round Table, a member of the advisory board of Infrastructure UK and a non-executive member of the Office for Strategic Coordination of Health Research. He received a knighthood in the 2009 New Year Honours List for services to medical research and was elected as Fellow of The Royal Society in 2011.

This lecture is free to attend but prior booking is essential. Please visit the Events page for more details and to book your place.

Uni Imps Tickets – Lincoln vs Chesterfield | 7th Oct

Zoe Homes / / Events

Lincoln City FC New LogoUni Imps Tickets for Lincoln City vs Chesterfield on Saturday 7th October (3pm kick off) are now on sale from the SU reception in the Engine Shed.

Tickets are £4 each and you can purchase up to four tickets for the game. On purchase you will be asked to provide a valid staff or student card. You cannot reserve tickets by phone.

Please sit in the seat allocated on your ticket, as these are specifically for our Uni Imps Stand – Friends and Family.

These tickets are not for resale, anyone found doing so will be excluded from the scheme in the future.

If you require any further information please contact Rosie Damarell rdamarell@lincoln.ac.uk

Tiny poisonous Brazilian frogs are ‘deaf’ to their own call

Laura Jones / / News

Tiny Brazilian frogs still ‘sing’ despite not being able to hear themselves – this is the surprising discovery of new scientific research.

The new study, published in the journal Scientific Reports from the publishers of Nature, reveals that two species of pumpkin toadlets found on the leaf litter of Brazil’s Atlantic forest are insensitive to the sound of their own calls, producing sounds outside their hearing sensitivity range due to a partly undeveloped inner ear.

The findings show that these species differ dramatically from other frogs and toads, who have their ears tuned to the dominant frequency of their vocalisations and rely heavily on their acoustic communication to find a mate.

The results are particularly surprising due the potential costs associated with signal production. Male frogs calling to signal their presence to the opposite sex use valuable energy stores and could alert predators and parasites to their presence. However, like many brightly-coloured tropical frogs, pumpkin toadlets are highly toxic which researchers believe could lessen the threat to them from predators.

The research was led by scientists from a number of international universities, including the University of Campinas, Brazil, the University of Southern Denmark, Denmark, and the University of Lincoln, UK.

As pumpkin toadlets do not have ears, researchers exposed them to broadband signals and non-invasively scanned their body with a micro-scanning laser Doppler vibrometer, to detect vibrations, aiming to identify potential areas that vibrate at the frequency of the male calls. While vibrations were detected in the lungs, neural recordings suggest that the frogs do not ‘hear’ these frequencies.

The frogs are thought to be a unique case in the animal kingdom of a communication signal persisting even after its target audience has lost the ability to detect, and could be an example of evolution in the making where visual communication is replacing acoustic communication.

The movement of the throat made when males call out could constitute a visual signal, representing a by-product of the true signalling behaviour.

Dr Fernando Montealegre-Z, Head of the Bioacoustics and Sensory Biology Lab in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Lincoln, said: “These species effectively sing for nothing. It is a default behaviour after losing their hearing. They may be in a stage of evolution towards the complete loss of acoustic communication, where the hearing system has been lost but the vocal signals still occur.”

Studying the unique status of acoustic communication in these pumpkin toadlets further is likely to provide additional insights into the evolution and degeneration of acoustic communication systems in vertebrates.

The study, ‘Evidence of auditory insensitivity to vocalisation frequencies in two frogs’, is available to view online (Doi:10.1038/s41598-017-12145-5).