Reporter

Presidential hat-trick

16 July 2012

Three Imperial alumni have been named President or President-Elect of prestigious engineering societies.

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Tags: Alumni
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Friends reunited – Alumni gather at Asian receptions

12 July 2012

President & Rector Sir Keith O’Nions visited China and Hong Kong during the first week of July to meet Imperial alumni, industry leaders, government representatives and university counterparts.

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Tags: Alumni
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Alumni Reunion

29 May 2012

The 2012 Alumni Reunion took place on Saturday 12 May, as part of the inaugural Imperial Festival. Nearly 1,000 alumni registered their attendance and, with the sun shining, enjoyed catching up with old friends, rediscovering the campus and trying out some of the hands-on scientific demonstrations on offer in the Festival’s research zone.

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Tags: Alumni, Festival 2012
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Vox pops

24 May 2012

At the recent Imperial Festival, Reporter spoke to visitors to find out:

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Tags: Alumni, Festival 2012, Vox pops
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Festival fever!

24 May 2012

It’s midday on Saturday 12 May on the South Kensington Campus – the sun is shining, bunting and balloons frame the buildings, 1920’s jazz music is floating through the air and the site is alive with staff, students, alumni and their families and friends – all here for the inaugural Imperial Festival.

On 11–12 May the College opened its doors to the public and invited them to take part in hands-on demonstrations, music, dancing, stand-up comedy, street performances and art.

“The idea of the Festival is to provide an annual glimpse into some of the exciting work going on in Imperial laboratories today,” explains Tom Miller, Director of Communications and Development. “It gives people a chance to quiz the scientists on the front line about their discoveries and to learn or discover something they didn’t know Imperial was involved in.”

Conceived two years ago as part of a review into the membership and purpose of the College Court, the original idea for a festival event was born out of the desire to engage people, institutions and organisations outside of Imperial. Its potential to reach broader audiences including staff, alumni and supporters as well as the general public, was met with the decision to run it over two days and partly on a weekend to make it family friendly. The final format had four key elements, starting with a gala dinner on the Thursday night to celebrate staff achievements over the year, the launch of the new Court on Friday, an Alumni Reunion on Saturday, and the Festival itself on Friday evening for adults and on Saturday afternoon for families.

The event was organised in- house by a team led by Natasha Martineau – Head of Research Communications (Communications and Development) – who took on the mammoth task of creating the College’s biggest ever public event working with colleagues including Harriet Martin and Katie Weeks, and colleagues from across College, especially those in Commercial Services and Facilities.

We wanted to lift the lid on the amazing work that goes on at the College

“The main thinking behind the programme we put together was to lift the lid on the amazing work that goes on at the College, and to make it available to anyone who might be interested in what we do and how it affects their daily lives,” explains Natasha. “When you work here you sometimes forget what a privilege it is to have access to this work, and the passion of the people who do it.” Research undertaken by the team revealed that lots of staff and students across College were already involved in public engagement activities. Hoping to draw from this group, an invitation went out to all departments and institutes. Each one came back with a suggestion or two of something they wanted to contribute to the festival – leading to over 30 interactive displays in and around the marquee on the Queen’s Lawn.

Along with a call for proposals came a set of guidelines for the demonstrations. Each group had a relatively small space and was asked to focus on talking with visitors – from young children to members of the Council – and giving them something to handle. “We wanted to move away from the Power Point and posters you might find at academic conferences,” explains Natasha, “and create an environment where our many audiences could have a two way exchange with the scientists and where their questions and ideas might inform or stimulate the way we do research”. Professor John Seddon (Chemistry) got his first taste of public engagement at the Imperial Festival and explains how he enjoyed considering what demonstrations might work using his 14-year-old son as a testing ground to ensure they would be interesting to a public audience. “We had to put on demos that were within the constraints of being safe, nontoxic, non-explosive and not too smelly, but that would make people stop at the stand and think ‘that would be a fun thing to do’.”

John enthusiastically presented a range of experiments at the Festival – including a petri dish full of ferrofluids that, when you applied a magnetic field from below, formed beautiful spikes aligned along the magnetic field. He also did an experiment with corn flour and water to illustrate the properties of materials that could make flexible body armour for soldiers or skiers but would immediately solidify in an accident and offer good protection on impact.

Outside the context of the Festival, public engagement is becoming an increasingly important part of the expectations of public bodies that fund research. “In a way I welcome this approach,” says John, “We get public funding, so we have to justify what we are doing, and it’s also a good way to encourage a new generation of scientists to come forward.”

Dr Sandra Shefelbine (Bioengineering) is a big fan of public engagement and has worked with the BBC, the Dana Centre and the Wellcome Trust. Sandra was keen to get involved in the Festival and gave a lecture on how bones work (called Skeletons out of the closet).

“I think any time you try to describe your science to a lay audience, it benefits how you look at it, and events like this help to spark the intrigue of science at an early age.” she says. “I could describe everything in terms of equations or super-complicated modelling but in order to explain it in a way in which everyone can understand, you have to break it down into what is really important. That often leads me to start thinking ‘Why do we normally talk about it in such a complex way – is it really necessary?’”

The Festival attracted around 7,000 people over the weekend, which is a clear sign of the public’s interest in science, and the event is being fully evaluated by the team over the next few weeks. The hope is that this will become an annual event. “We had so many suggestions, I hope we can return to them in coming years. I also hope the Festival will continue to help public engagement become an integral part of the life of a researcher at Imperial,” says Natasha.

“I think it was the sense of wonder that captured people’s imagination,” muses John, “and as a demonstrator it was also a lot of fun!”

Read what some of our visitors thought of the Festival here

See a slideshow of images from the day here

— Emily Ross-Joannou, Communications and Development

Tags: Alumni, BBC, Bioengineering, Chemistry, Commercial Services, Communications and Development, Facilities Management, Festival 2012, Wellcome Trust
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Rector’s India trip launches new chapter for Bangalore alumni

14 December 2011

The Rector Sir Keith O’Nions launched a new chapter of the Imperial College Alumni Association of India in Bangalore during his recent visit to the country incorporating stops in four cities in five days.

A reception hosted by the Rector on 2 December marked the establishment of the new Imperial alumni network in Bangalore. Alumnus Vibin Joseph, who graduated from the Business School in 2008, is the new Chair of the Bangalore chapter. Speaking at the event, he said: “The Bangalore alumni who I’ve met tonight are extremely keen about the new chapter; it will provide a great opportunity for the younger alumni to look up to the older generations for guidance and advice – this club could become an aspiration for the next community of Imperial students who are applying and will hopefully become part of this community.”

The Rector meeting alumni in Bangalore

Sir Keith O’Nions hosted other alumni receptions in Mumbai, Kolkata and New Delhi over the course of his trip at the end of November and into early December. Alongside he met with representatives from government, industry, the Indian media and higher education institutions, including the Indian Institute Delhi (IIT Delhi), which has been associated with the College since it was founded fifty years ago.

During his visit the Rector also discussed plans for a new scheme to support Imperial PhD scholarships, through which funds raised by Indian alumni will be matched by the College to cover tuition fees and maintenance costs for talented Indian students. Fundraising efforts in India will be championed by the Imperial College India Foundation. The Foundation counts among its board members alumnus Cyrus Mistry (Civil Engineering, 1990) who made headlines worldwide recently upon his appointment as chairman of the Tata Group, one of the world’s largest conglomerate companies.

— John-Paul Jones and Elizabeth Atkin, Communications and Development

Tags: Alumni, scholarships
Posted in Alumni, College, Students | 2 Comments »

Alumni telethon appeal

13 December 2011

Over £381,000 has been pledged by 1,344 alumni donors during this autumn’s telethon appeal. To date, 44 per cent of pledges have been fulfilled, with donations continuing to roll in.

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Tags: Alumni, rector's scholarship fund, Telethon
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Annual alumni reunion in Sydney, Australia

7 December 2011

On 4 November, 25 Imperial alumni and guests gathered at a restaurant in the historic Rocks area of Sydney, close to the southern end of the Harbour Bridge, for an informal reunion.

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Tags: Alumni, Australia, reunion
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Donor thank you

22 November 2011

To thank the College’s alumni and supporters, whose generous support has enabled Imperial to provide more philanthropically-funded scholarships than ever before, a reception was hosted by the Rector in the College’s main entrance on 17 November.

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Tags: Alumni, Donor Thank You, Event, Rector, rector's scholarship fund
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Rector’s Scholarship Fund

11 November 2011

Tags: Alumni, rector's scholarship fund
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First graduation day for new Chair

19 October 2011

During Imperial’s Commemoration Day, Baroness Manningham-Buller, as Chair of the College’s Court and Council, congratulated over 2,200 undergraduates as they received their degrees in science, engineering and medicine.

Baroness Manningham-Buller first joined the Council, the College’s senior governing body, in 2009. She became its Deputy Chair earlier this year and took up her appointment as Chair in July.

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Tags: Alumni, Commemoration Day, Commemoration Day 2011, prospective students, Students
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Commemoration Day 2011 – As it happened

18 October 2011

More than 2,200 students will be returning to the South Kensington campus on Wednesday 19 October, as Imperial celebrates Commemoration Day 2011.

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. A stream of some of the tweets, videos and photos from Commemoration Day 2011 is below. To share your content use the hashtag #ImpCol.

View “Commemoration Day 2011″ on Storify

Tags: Alumni, Commemoration Day 2011, Students
Posted in Alumni, Students | 1 Comment »

Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye

28 September 2011

As the College gears up for the start of term, alumni associations and Imperial College Union societies linked up to prepare new international students for studying at Imperial and living in London.

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Tags: Alumni, Freshers, hong kong, Imperial College Union, malaysia, singapore, Students, Welcome Week, Welcome Week 2011
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If I could offer you only one tip for the future

26 September 2011

As part of the recent Rector’s Scholarship Fund appeal, alumni were invited to write a message to Imperial students on the back of a bookmark featuring Sir Roger Bannister – a St Mary’s Hospital Medical School alumnus and scholarship beneficiary.

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Tags: Alumni, bookmarks, Rector, rector's scholarship fund, Students, Welcome Week, Welcome Week 2011
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Nautical but nice

22 September 2011

Alumna Alexandra Rickham (Environmental Policy 2006) is at the helm of multi-medal winning Team Birrell Rickham, tipped for sailing gold in the 2012 Paralympics.

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Tags: Alumni, CEP, London 2012, paralympics, sailing, team birrell rickham
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