Month: November 2013

The Julia Higgins Awards

This year’s Julia Higgins Medal has been awarded to the Department of Chemistry, in recognition of its success in being the first College Department to be awarded a Gold Athena SWAN award.

The Julia Higgins Certificates have been awarded to Mr Rob Bell from the Human Resources Division, Dr Patricia Hunt from the Department of Chemistry, and the Learning and Development Centre.

The Medal and Certificates recognise individuals and departments that have made a significant contribution to the support of academic women at the College, selected by a subcommittee of the Provost’s Board. They are named in honour of Professor Dame Julia Higgins FRS, FREng, Professor of Polymer Science, now a Senior Research Investigator in Chemical Engineering and previously Dean of the City and Guilds College and Principal of the Faculty of Engineering.

National Pay Award 2013/14

Following their rejection of the Universities and Colleges Employers’ Association’s (UCEA) final pay offer, four of the five New Joint Negotiating Committee for Higher Education Staff (JNCHES) trade unions remain in dispute over the offer. As the formal dispute resolution procedure has been exhausted, UCEA has advised that institutions can now implement the pay offer.

The College’s national pay scales have therefore been uprated to incorporate a rise of 1% with effect from 1 August 2013 for those staff remaining on national non-clinical rather than local pay scales. Payment at the appropriate new rates will be made in December 2013 salaries and will be backdated to 1 August 2013.

Director of Estates Projects and Director of Digital Systems Transformation

Director of Estates Projects

Mr Michael Lytrides joined the College on 14 October 2013 as Director of Estates Projects. He succeeds Mr Steve Howe, previously the Director of Capital Projects and Planning, who left the College to take up a post at the University of the Arts.

My Lytrides joins Imperial from Mace Limited, where he was an Associate Director. During a secondment he led the project to deliver the main international media centre for the Olympic and Paralympic Games 2012.  Prior to that he worked for Arup Project Management and Capita Symonds. Mr Lytrides trained as a chartered civil and structural engineer, having gained his undergraduate and Master’s degrees at Imperial.

Director of Digital Systems Transformation

Mr Mike Russell has accepted appointment to the new post of Director of Digital Systems Transformation in the ICT Division, with effect from 11 November 2013.

Mr Russell previously worked for the infrastructure consultancy firm WS Atkins Group PLC in a range of engineering consultancy and project management roles, most recently focusing on technology-driven changes to business processes. He has a degree in in electrical and electronic engineering from Nottingham and an MSc in Physical Instrumentation, and is a chartered engineer and IT professional.

Both postholders report to Mr Simon Harding-Roots, Chief Operations Officer.