The Director of Postgraduate Education
If you have any concerns of an academic nature, then the first person for you to seek out is the Director or Postgraduate Education Paul Hewett (phewett@ast.cam.ac.uk).
Senior Student Administrator
Debbie Peterson (post-graduate.admin@ast.cam.ac.uk) is the Senior Student Administrator and also a departmental Wellbeing Advocate. Based in the H4, she oversees all aspects of Postgraduate Student administration from pre-admission enquiries, interviews, admissions, current student assessment processes, right through to the production of your PhD dissertation and examination. Debbie can advise on funding for Conferences, Observing trips etc., will arrange flights and can help you with the form-filling and sometimes complex University paperwork. If you encounter any problems or have concerns of a non-scientific nature during your time at the IoA you should talk to Debbie in the first instance. She will often be able to help and, if not, she will certainly be able to point you to the most appropriate person. If you have any problems interacting with specific academic staff or have problems in your relationship with your supervisor you should also inform Debbie or Paul Hewett at an early stage.
Mahsa Zohhadi, the Undergraduate Student Co-ordinator, and Carolyn Young, the Postgraduate Admissions & Examinations Co-ordinator share an office with Debbie and should be able to help you in her absence.
Reception, Housekeeping & Catering
Reception is located at the main entrance to the Hoyle Building. Bev Woolston is the IoA Receptionist and will be glad to try and help out with any problem you might have in general day-to-day life in the IoA including, but not limited to:
- Managing the postal system and the switchboard
- Setting up your email to enable scanning
- Handling personal bills for the photocopiers and telephones
- Ordering stationery
- Programming your University card to allow access to the Institute
You can contact Bev by emailing recept@ast.cam.ac.uk.
Mandy Cockrill is the IoA's Building Services Technician & Assistant Safety Officer. If you have any problems with your office or notice anything that is broken please email repairs@ast.cam.ac.uk.
Sebastien Magarinos, Emma Hyde, Anita Hawkins and Rafael Da Rosa form the IoA Catering Team and run the morning and afternoon Coffee breaks and any event where food and drinks are provided. The Housekeeping Team can be contacted at housekeeping@ast.cam.ac.uk.
The IoA Computing Group
Sue Cowell, Neil Millar, Graham Bell, Cormac O'Connell, and Rafikul Islam are responsible for the Science Cluster computers, including the network and most of the software available. The IoA Computing Group are best contacted via email to Helpdesk or via phone on 66666. Helpdesk uses a support system called RT, which generates tickets to handle individual requests. It is monitored by the support team during normal working hours and the system keeps track of faults that haven’t been fixed, maintains records of what has been done already and provides historical notes for methods of fixing similar problems in future.
Key Departmental Contacts
Angela Macharia (departmental.administrator@ast.cam.ac.uk) is the Department Administrator and is responsible for overall administration of the IoA including finance, personnel and welfare.
David Savidge (dws27@cam.ac.uk) is Deputy Administrator with particular responsibility for Finance, Buildings and Grounds and is also the Safety Officer. David is Angela's deputy when she is absent or not available.
Susan Leatherbarrow (sl@ast.cam.ac.uk) is the Accounts Clerk. She assists David in the Finance Office with the processing of accounts and financial management.
Ashley Worman and Helen Thirkettle (hr@ast.cam.ac.uk) are the Senior HR Coordinators and have particular responsibility for personnel and training issues, including immigration, visas, right to work and room allocation issues.
Steven Brenton and Alison Wilson (kavlisec@ast.cam.ac.uk) are the Administrative Assistants at the Kavli. Contact them with any queries relating to the Kavli Institute including events, visits etc.
Amanda Smith is the Graphics Officer at the IoA. In other words, she can make pictures, diagrams and posters, including very large ones, look as good as possible for presentation and publication. In addition, she provides bespoke illustrations, graphics and print-ready brochures and can also liaise with the AVMG, a University of Cambridge Audio VIsual service, if you require a service that she's not able to offer in-house.
Student Unions, Committees and Publications
- The Cambridge University Students' Union represents represents both undergraduate and graduate populations in Cambridge and can advise on official University matters, as well as legal, financial, academic and welfare matters.
- The Degree Committee of the Faculty of Physics and Chemistry discuss postgraduate student policy matters and consider postgraduate examination and progress reports.
- Cambridge University Reporter is the University’s official journal. It carries notices of official University business, announcements for events, and, in October, the full year’s Lecture List.
Dignity @ Work
Everyone in the University has the right to expect to be treated with respect and professionalism at all times. If you think there may be a problem and want to talk to someone outside of the Institute, you can raise a concern directly with on of the University’s Dignity @ Work contacts.