On 3 May eight teams of schoolchildren came to Imperial to compete in the live final of the London Schools’ Chemistry Challenge, battling it out using posters, drama, music and presentations to a present their case for the greatest discovery in Chemistry in the last 100 years.

The initiative began last year, also marking the International Year of Chemistry, which celebrated the contributions chemistry has made to society.

The competition saw over 1,000 school students registered to take aprt, with academics from the Department of Chemistry selecting eight teams for the final.

With an open remit on how to make their case the GCSE and A Level students had to present in front of a panel of judges including Imperial’s Professor of Science and Society Lord Winston; David Philips, President of the Royal Society of Chemistry and Head of the College’s Department of Chemistry Professor Tom Welton.

The winning entry, highly commended by the judges, came from team  “Notre Bam”, a group of students attending Notre Dame School in Surrey. They won for their presentation on polymers, which involved drama and music as well as chemical knowledge. The team received an iPad each, together with a tour of a leading research facility in the future.

Pictured right:  Notre Bam with judges and organisers.

Team member Elizabeth said: “As a group we have thoroughly enjoyed the experience and our knowledge of chemistry has been enhanced by studying the subject outside of our syllabus. We have really benefitted from the experience and look forward to the day at a research centre…and our iPads!”

The event’s was arranged by the Department of Chemistry and the Royal Society of Chemistry, supported by Imperial’s Outreach Office.  One of the organisers, Dr Oscar Ces, said:

“This was a fantastic evening where teams of students from across London showcased their talent and demonstrated the impact that Chemistry has had on society over the last 100 years. It’s been a wonderful way to celebrate the International Year of Chemistry”.

Organisers hope to run a similar event in the summer. 

 — John-Paul Jones, Communications and Development

Thousands of visitors including members of the public, alumni, staff and students were in party mood on the College’s South Kensington Campus this weekend, as they explored the Imperial Festival – a two day insight into the wonderful and surprising world of life and research here at the College.

Organisers estimate that around 7,000 people in total came to the Festival on Friday evening and across Saturday. Over the two days visitors had the opportunity to try their hand at surgery thanks to Professor Roger Kneebone’s pop-up simulation, have a pint with a professor, meet robots and take part in hands-on demonstrations by Imperial researchers.
Nearly 1,000 alumni alone registered to attend the alumni-specific events on Saturday while good weather saw curious passers-by join science fans and families who had already heard about the Festival.

One of the organisers, Natasha Martineau, Head of Research Communications, said:
“Imperial’s first Festival went better than many of us dared to imagine, with hundreds of staff welcoming thousands of visitors to the event. Around each corner there was yet another opportunity to discover something new about the work of the College. We’re very grateful to everyone who made it all possible, and of course to the sunshine, which made a big contribution to the festival atmosphere on campus this weekend.”

See below for a Festival slideshow as well as tweets and photos from the Festival’s Storify stream.

What has been your favourite thing about studying in London?

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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.”

Read more here

On Wednesday 9 May postgraduate students and guests from over 65 countries will be taking part in Imperial’s 2012 Postgraduate Graduation Ceremonies at the Royal Albert Hall.

Congratulations to all our new graduates, and welcome to the Imperial alumni community. We hope you, your friends and family have a very memorable day. Follow the day’s events here, and share your tweets, videos and photos, using the hashtag #ImpCol.

Professor Christopher Wastell, who held a Chair of Surgery at Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, died on 18 January 2012. Julia Anderson (Surgery and Cancer) shares her memories of her colleague:

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British paralympian swimmer Ellie Simmonds (pictured right with Neil Mosley, Assistant Director of Commercial Services), was at South Kensington Campus on 27 March to train in the swimming pool at Imperial’s Ethos sports centre during a trip to London.

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Professor Kamran Nikbin, Professor of Structural Integrity (Mechanical Engineering) discusses the role Imperial’s Structural Integrity Centre, sponsored by EDF Energy has in advancing safety issues in the nuclear industry. Structural integrity covers a wide range of failure assessment of structures and the related material response to stresses and failure mechanisms.

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This month, Martin Lodemore, Patient and Public Liaison Officer (Medicine), is attempting to canoe the length of the Thames in an inflatable canoe in memory of his nephew Tom, who died from sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP), aged 27. In the UK, 1,000 young people die each year from epilepsy and around half of these are due to SUDEP. Martin reports on his challenge:

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By course attendee Dr Karl Smith, Research Associate (Civil and Environmental Engineering)

Why did you go on the course?

Delivering presentations is increasingly becoming a standard part of job interviews. My research contract is nearing its end, so I’m currently immersed in the job application and interview process. My key aspiration was that this course would help to maximise my recruitment prospects.

What did you learn?

I received some very constructive feedback on how I could address the weaker aspects of my presentation approach and delivery. Watching and, moreover, critiquing the other attendees’ practice presentations gave me a strong grasp of what should engage an assessment panel.

What element of the course did you find the most helpful?

A crucial element was that each presentation was filmed. Consequently, we could watch video playbacks of our performances: this gave us a revealing insight into our individual tics, some of which were shown to be alarmingly distracting. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this course to fellow postdocs pursuing gainful future employment.

Visit the website for more information on the course