Reaching out to business
8 May 2012
Professor Tom Welton, Head of the Department of Chemistry, reports on his experience of being invited to the Imperial Business Partners dinner and discussion on 13 March.
“The Business Partners are a group of companies that have decided that they want to deepen their relationships with the College. These are AWE, BP, BT, GE, Ineos, National Grid, Rolls-Royce, Shell and Syngenta. Dow Chemical, which makes products in the chemical, advanced materials, agrosciences and plastics fields, were guests for the evening. Professor Julia Buckingham, Pro Rector (Education and Academic Affairs), led the evening’s first discussion on the world of £9,000 p.a. fees soon to be upon us, and what its consequences may be. Later, we had a second discussion on broader government policy for science and technology funding led by Lord Robert Winston, Professor of Science and Society (Humanities), who either has a remarkable ability to eat and speak at the same time, or doesn’t mind the taste of a cold dinner.
The real stars of the evening were the 20 or so teenagers, who had come to show us Imperial’s Reach Out Labratory in action. These young people were from schools in disadvantaged areas from all over London. They were fantastic. You couldn’t hope to meet people more enthusiastic about doing science. They each grabbed different guests to show us what they were doing and to tell us why the Reach Out Lab is so important to them. If you believe, as I do, that the foundations of Imperial’s success are its students, then I am happy to report that, should they choose Imperial for their degree, the College has a bright future to look forward to.”
Tags: Chemistry, Reach Out Lab
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