Month: January 2021

Dr Sally Makady, Industry Partnership Executive (Digital Transformation), Enterprise

“In my role as Programme Manager, I explore engagement with multiple governments in Asia and the Middle East whose populations are worst-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.” 

I’m a Life Sciences industry generalist with experience in creating new partnerships across industry as well as with emerging fields in technology and healthcare, such as digital health. I studied pharmacy as an undergraduate and neuroscience as a postgraduate student. 

I joined Imperial last January as an Industry Partnerships Executive in the Enterprise division, focusing on digital transformation. Shortly after, we headed into lockdown and Imperial, together with Professor Robin Shattock, co-founded the social enterprise VacEquity Global Health Ltd. to globally deliver the COVID-19 vaccine developed in his lab. My line managers kindly accepted my request to support VacEquity Global Health Ltd. in achieving its mission and as a result, I was seconded to Enterprise.  (more…)

Dr Stefano Sandrone, Senior Teaching Fellow, Department of Brain Sciences

“I enjoy mentoring the next generation of neuroscientists: respect, knowledge, enthusiasm and experience are essential in creating an excellent learning environment.” 

I am an Italian neuroscientist, a Senior Teaching Fellow and a Principal Investigator within the Computational, Cognitive and Clinical Neuroimaging Laboratory (C3NL).  Before joining the College, I was a Teaching Fellow at King’s College London, where I completed my PhD and a brief postdoc.   

I am a very social person with several interests, ranging from art exhibitions to football, from going to the Royal Opera House to travelling. All things I could not do during the lockdown, which I also spent away from my family.   (more…)

Shafina Vohra, Research Postgraduate, Dyson School of Design Engineering

“My study is looking at hands-on learning in education and whether this enhances teaching and learning.” 

My freelance graphic design experience in the Middle East turned into curiosity about what happens in the brain in creative people, and this led me to completing a BSc in Psychology. After publishing my undergraduate dissertation as a research fellow, I turned to training as a teacher at the Institute of Education at UCL shortly after and fell in love with educating. I never wanted to become a teacher and dreaded the thought of teaching teenagers! But little did I know that one day, the very teens I taught would become the centre of my world.     (more…)

Richard Baughen, Instrument Engineer – Space, Department of Physics

“The instrument was shipped off to the Netherlands and set up for us by colleagues at the European Space Agency. I was able to remotely log in to our instrument and control it from my living room…” 

I work as part of a team building a scientific instrument called a magnetometer that will be sent on a spacecraft to Jupiter and its moons in 2022.   

When the pandemic started, we found ourselves stuck at home alongside the rest of the country. After a couple of weeks tidying up documentation, we knew that to make real progress we had to get back into the lab. You cannot build a magnetometer in your kitchen… or can you?  (more…)

Richard Baughen, Instrument Engineer – Space, Department of Physics 

“The instrument was shipped off to the Netherlands and set up for us by colleagues at the European Space Agency. I was able to remotely log in to our instrument and control it from my living room…” 

I work as part of a team building a scientific instrument called a magnetometer that will be sent on a spacecraft to Jupiter and its moons in 2022.   

When the pandemic started, we found ourselves stuck at home alongside the rest of the country. After a couple of weeks tidying up documentation, we knew that to make real progress we had to get back into the lab. You cannot build a magnetometer in your kitchen… or can you? 

With great help from the department, some of us were back in very limited capacity from early May and things could start to move.  (more…)