Category: Research Staff

Dr Adriana Navarro-Suarez, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellow, Department of Chemistry

Part of Shifting the Lens: A celebration of cultural diversity at Imperial

“To me, Colombia means happiness. There’s such amazing food, and on Sundays, we usually have a family gathering with our grandma. We don’t do this that often now because we don’t all live together, but whenever I go back home there is always a time where around 30 of us will gather and eat, drink and laugh.  

“Colombians also love dancing – especially Cuban and Colombian salsa! As a nation, we’re really successful in international dancing competitions. Colombia is also a very religious country. During Christmas, there is an event called novena, where for nine days before the 24th you pray each night. Each of those nine nights is hosted by a different house/family and includes food and drinks.  (more…)

Dr Nida Sajjad, Teaching Fellow, National Heart and Lung Institute

“I have always been passionate about engaging students through innovative digital learning technologies.” 

I am a medical doctor-turned-teacher with a research background in neuroscience. I studied medicine in Lahore, Pakistan, and after practising there I moved to Trento in Italy where I did an MSc in cognitive neuroscience. I really enjoyed working with patients and data and this led me into research, which ultimately paved the way for me to take on teaching roles at the Universities of Bristol and Birmingham. 

I joined Imperial as a Teaching Fellow in the National Heart and Lung Institute in September last year. It was difficult at the beginning as the whole interview process was online, and even now, I have only met people on Microsoft Teams!    (more…)

Andrew Grieve, Senior Air Quality Analyst, School of Public Health

“I’ve been able to combine my twin passions of air quality and digital technology to design and develop several air quality apps over the years.” 

I suffered from asthma as a child and always had a Ventolin inhaler in my pocket from primary school, so I was always interested in lungs and breathing and what would trigger an attack.  

I studied Environmental then Computer Science at Stirling University and was keen to pursue a career in science but ended up in the School of Public Health’s Environmental Research Group (ERG) somewhat by accident after I saw a job advertised in the back pages of New Scientist – which I picked up by chance in Tesco on South Clerk St in Edinburgh. I never imagined I’d end up living and working in London, but I feel incredibly lucky and grateful to have landed in ERG.  (more…)

Dr Yilun Xu, Research Associate, Department of Materials

“One piece of advice I give to students is to try to separate your work and living spaces as much as possible.” 

I came to the UK to do my postgraduate study, choosing Imperial because it looked like some interesting things were being done here. I did my Master’s and PhD here and now I am conducting post-doctoral research within the Department of Materials. I also teach in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and am a postgraduate mentor to students in the department.  

Lockdown has affected both my teaching and research but in slightly different ways. Most of my research is computational based and to begin with, my colleagues and I had some issues carrying it out remotely. However, we have worked closely together and looked at new ways to collaborate remotely as well as new software we could use. We can now use our computers in the lab remotely from our homes so are able to continue our modelling work.   (more…)

Dr Hamed Haddadi, Reader in Human-Centred Systems, Dyson School of Design Engineering

“I’m really grateful to all the colleagues putting in extra effort to limit the impact of the pandemic for our students and their research.”

I’m a researcher and an engineer with a deep interest in User-Centred Systems, Internet of Things, and Applied Machine Learning. I enjoy designing and building systems that enable better use of our digital footprint, while protecting our data privacy/security. I studied at UCL and Cambridge and have worked as an engineer/scientist at BT, Sony, Intel, AT&T, and Brave.   (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…)

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…)

Leon McFarlane, Research Technician, Department of Infectious Disease

“We started with animal studies and in June, began human clinical trials – that’s the quickest we’ve ever been able to move a vaccine candidate from the lab to the clinic.”

I’m currently working in Professor Robin Shattock’s lab. My background is in biomedical science, but I made the transition into infectious diseases research when I completed an internship with the Sanjeev Krishna group at St George’s, looking at malaria drugs and inhibitors.  

I worked there for a year and a half, but I knew I was more interested in the immunology side of the research. I completed my MSc in the Immunology of Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Following this, I started an internship at Imperial at the International Aids Vaccine Initiative working on HIV clinical trials, which connected me with Professor Shattock.  (more…)

Rebecca Sie, Teaching Facilities Manager, Faculty of Medicine


“The COVID-19 pandemic has added a new layer of complexity to my role given the changes it has brought about – changes that I could never have anticipated six months ago!” 

I worked for several years as a research scientist before making the transition to laboratory management, first joining Imperial in 2014 as a Trainee Laboratory Manager in the old Department of Medicine. I then spent some time working in Oxford and returned to the College just before Christmas last year. I had only been back for a few months when the College closed in response to the COVID-19 outbreak!  (more…)