Negative workplace experiences can lead to changes in our personality, new research from LSE has revealed.

The research, published in the Journal of Vocational Behavior, found that workers who felt they were placed under excessive strain in their roles reported higher levels of neuroticism, becoming more worried and irritable, and became less extroverted, showing signs of shyness and speaking less often.

A new study led by LSE has prompted calls for design changes to chemical products which resemble drink shapes.

Following a directive from the European Council to remove these products from retail shelves, LSE consumer behaviour expert Dr Frédéric Basso and a team of French-based researchers claim that marketers are misleading consumers and putting them at risk of poisoning.

"Cleaning and personal care products which look, taste and smell like fruit are potentially dangerous," Dr Basso says.

The Hellenic Observatory celebrates its 20th anniversary
Why was the was Observatory founded? And who was LSE’s first Chair in Contemporary Greece? Professor Kevin Featherstone provides the low-down on 20 years of the Hellenic Observatory.

Ellen Marianne Leonard - President of the Students’ Union, 1907
Sue Donnelly looks back at Ellen Marianne Leonard, who in 1907 became the first woman President of the LSE Students’ Union.

Applications are now open for the LSE Director and you can view the advert here.

The search firm Russell Reynolds has been appointed to assist with the search and you can view the position specification on their website here.

Applications are invited from members of the academic staff of the School for the new role of Pro-Director (Faculty Development) recently approved by Council. The term of office is from 1 September 2016 for five years.

Applications should be made to Indi Seehra, Director of Human Resources, via email at i.seehra@lse.ac.uk by Thursday 6 May.

LSE academics have enabled positive change in global development from approaches to economic growth to supporting industrial development in Africa, and trading and hedging in financial markets. Three new research impact case studies are out now:

Influencing the content of five landmark global development reports - Department of Geography and Environment expertise on approaches to economic growth influenced OECD, World Bank and European Commission publications.

Managing and sustaining growth in African economies - The Enterprise Maps project, led by LSE Professor John Sutton, Department of Economics and STICERD, identified the key factors supporting industrial development in five fast-growing African economies.

Improvements in the sequential change-point detection schemes for finance - The implementation of detection procedures by Pavel Gapeev, Department of Mathematics, by certain analytic research groups in the financial industry led to improvements in the existing methods for trading and hedging in financial markets.

The Institute of Global affairs (IGA) invites colleagues from across LSE to participate in the first round of calls under its ‘Research and Impact Seed Fund’.

This round is supported by the Rockefeller Foundation and welcomes short descriptions of projects under the broad theme of ‘Resilience’. We encourage submissions within one or more of the four subthemes agreed with the Rockefeller Foundation: financial resilience, climate resilience, resilient cities and resilience in post-conflict transitional processes.

Applications must be received by Sunday 15 May.

The Internal Communications team in the Communications Division is looking for a bright, creative communications professional for the new 18-month Student Communications Manager post.

All of the details can be found here. If you have any questions about the role, please contact Sarah Coyle.

Take advantage of the quiet period between terms to get back in shape for summer.

All LSE staff who join the LSESU Gym for a period of three months or more before the end of April will receive student prices (from as little as £16 per month) plus a free Body Composition Analysis.

To take advantage of this offer, please enquire at the Gym or email su.gym@lse.ac.uk.

LSE and King’s College London are hosting an Athena SWAN Conference on Friday 13 May, 10am-4pm, in LSE's New Academic Building (8^th floor).

Professor Julia Black will be opening the conference and Professor Robin Mansell will be discussing ‘Mainstreaming equality at LSE’.

Find out more and book a place here.

Fraud at polls: can journalists and statisticians check? The Mozambican experience
Speakers: Johan Ahlback, Dr Joseph Hanlon, Dr Jouni Kuha
Recorded: Wednesday 16 March, approx. 87 minutes

Europe and the Return of Geopolitics
Speaker: Pierre Vimont
Recorded: Tuesday 22 March, approx. 66 minutes

The Life Project: the extraordinary story of 70,000 ordinary lives
Speaker: Dr Helen Pearson
Recorded: Tuesday 22 March, approx. 76 minutes

The Research Division would like to invite staff interested in research funding to attend the following events:

Funders at LSE - Wellcome Trust
Wednesday 11 May, 12-1.45pm
The Wellcome Trust will talk about their funding opportunities available to social scientists and humanities researchers. It is a unique opportunity to ask questions and discuss your project idea directly with the funder. The Trust provides more than £700 million a year to science, the humanities and the social sciences, as well as education and public engagement.

Searching for funding opportunities online
Thursday 12 May, 12.30-1.30pm
Find out how to search for funding opportunities using existing online search engines. This hands-on session will be delivered in a computer room. You will explore Research Professional’s funding database, set up a personalised profile and funding opportunity alerts.

The Research Division has released their training programme for Summer Term. To view the full programme, click here.

For more information, email researchdivision@lse.ac.uk.