Category: College Announcements

Director of the Energy Futures Lab

Professor Tim Green, Professor of Electrical Power Engineering, has accepted appointment as Director of the Energy Futures Lab (EFL) with effect from 1 February 2014.  He has succeeded Professor Nigel Brandon OBE FREng, who led the EFL since its formation in 2005.

Tim Green joined the College as a lecturer in 1994 from Heriot-Watt University.   He became Professor of Electrical Power Engineering in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 2005, and has held the positions of Director of Undergraduate Studies and Deputy Head of Department. His research focuses on formulating the future structure of the UK’s electricity network, in order to support the incorporation of sources of low carbon energy. He leads the HubNet Supergen consortium of eight UK universities, which coordinates research on low carbon energy networks, and is the Network Champion for Research Councils UK.

Head of the Department of Physics

Professor Jordan Nash, currently Head of the High Energy Physics group, has accepted the appointment as Head of the Department of Physics from 1 July 2014.

After a first degree at Carnegie-Mellon and a PhD from Stanford Professor Nash worked as a Scientific Associate at CERN and then joined Imperial College in 1992.  He was appointed as a Lecturer in 1994 and promoted to Reader in 2000.  He has been head of the High Energy Physics group since 2007. 

His research areas have included precision measurements in electroweak interactions and matter-antimatter asymmetry, and searches for Beyond Standard Model physics.  He held a PPARC Lecturer fellowship working at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center on the BaBar experiment, and a CERN Senior Staff Scientist post working on the preparation of the CMS experiment at the LHC and leading the project preparing the upgrade of CMS for future high intensity running.

Professor Nash will succeed Professor Joanna Haigh FRS, who has served as Head of the Department of Physics since January 2009.

Appointment of the next President

Professor Alice P. Gast, currently President of Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, has accepted appointment as the next President of Imperial College London in succession to Sir Keith O’Nions. Professor Gast will take up the appointment in September 2014.

Professor Gast has served as President of Lehigh University since 2006 following appointments at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she was Vice President for Research and Associate Provost and held the Robert T. Haslam chair in chemical engineering. She was previously at Stanford University from 1985 to 2001 as a professor of chemical engineering and as affiliated faculty at Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory. She has been a US Science Envoy to Central Asia and is currently a Board Director of the Chevron Corporation and Trustee of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia.

Professor Gast’s appointment concludes an international search for Imperial’s next President conducted by the Appointing Committee established by the Council in April 2012.

Professor Gast’s full biography is available at: www.imperial.ac.uk/president/president-designate

 

Head of Department – Medicine

Professor Martin Wilkins, Professor of Clinical Pharmacology, Head of the Division of Experimental Medicine, has accepted the appointment as the interim Head of Department of Medicine within the Faculty of Medicine for 12 months from 1 December 2013. Professor Wilkins is a clinician scientist with a background in clinical pharmacology and toxicology. His primary interest is in proof-of-concept studies in humans. He uses pulmonary hypertension as a paradigm for developing novel therapies from the laboratory to patients.

He has recently stepped down from his role a director of a major clinical program group in the Trust. He is the Director of the National Institute for Health Research/Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility [formerly the Sir John McMichael Centre] and  Director of the Wellcome Trust’s Translational Medicine Fellowship Training Programme. He is President of the Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute, a Fellow of The British Pharmacology Society, Chairman of the BHF Fellowships Committee and Visiting Professor at ChaoYang Hospital in Beijing.

He will succeed Professor Gavin Screaton who has led the Department of Medicine since 1 January 2009. Professor Screaton has been seconded from his role as Head of Department to devote his full efforts to co-ordination of Faculty planning activities in his new role of Vice Dean (Academic Development).

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.

Vice President (Health)

The President & Rector has appointed Professor Dermot Kelleher as his Vice President (Health).  Prof Kelleher will remain Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, reporting to the Provost in this capacity.

This appointment as Vice President (Health) reflects the requirements for Professor Kelleher to assist the President by representing him and the College in key strategic partnerships in the medical/health sector, both in the UK and internationally.

Director of the Graduate School

Professor Susan Gibson has accepted appointment as Director of the Graduate School for a period of five years, with effect from 1 November 2013, reporting to Professor Debra Humphris, Vice-Provost (Education). She will divide her time equally between her new role and her continuing position as a Professor of Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry.

Professor Gibson first joined the College from the University of Warwick in 1990 as a Lecturer and was promoted to Reader in 1995.  In 1998 she moved to King’s College London as Daniell Professor of Chemistry, returning to Imperial in 2003 as Professor of Chemistry.  Her research interests lie at the border between organic synthesis and transition metal chemistry.  In 2003, Professor Gibson received the inaugural Rosalind Franklin Award of the Royal Society and in 2013 she was appointed OBE for services to Chemistry and science education.

Academic Registrar

Mr Dean Pateman has accepted appointment as Academic Registrar with effect from 1 January 2014.  Until that date, Ms Lorna Richardson will continue in post as Acting Academic Registrar.  He will report to the College Secretary & Registrar.

Mr Pateman joins Imperial College from Birkbeck, University of London.  Mr Pateman has been at Birkbeck since 2005, and Academic Registrar there since 2008. Prior to that, he was Director of Operations at UCL Eastman Dental Institute.