Updating US alumni and friends of Imperial

Last week alumni and friends of Imperial were updated on recent developments, as part of the College's commitment to developing its global outreach.

President Alice Gast hosted receptions for alumni and friends in New York and Boston, and Imperial’s Vice President (Innovation) Professor David Gann hosted a discussion on the College’s approach to innovation in San Francisco.

On the East Coast, President Gast described Imperial’s approach to excellence, and outlined examples at the College. This included an update on Bioengineering PhD student and Army Officer Captain Dave Henson MBE, who won a bronze medal in the T42 200m at the Paralympic Games in Rio, and led the British team at the 2014 Invictus Games, where he also won a gold in the IT2 200m.

Dr Hua Zhang (PhD Surgery and Cancer 2014) is a recent arrival to Boston. He says “I’m enjoying the beautiful weather here, and my new role as a visiting scientist at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.”

President Gast highlighted a number of Imperial's academic projects that have resonance in the US, including research by PhD student Stavros Sidiropoulos that is optimising New York’s airspace design in terms of capacity, safety, cost efficiency and environment by studying arrival and departure aircraft movements. Stavros’s study demonstrated how the overall distance travelled by planes could be reduced by 21%, and there could also be a controller workload reduction of up to 47%. She noted that Imperial's world leading Centre for Transport Studies is the preferred partner for many organisations looking at optimisation, including the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey.

She also outlined a study led by Professor Jeremy Nicholson which showed dramatic effects on risk factors for colon cancer when African and African American volunteers swapped diets for just two weeks.

Over on the West Coast, Professor David Gann CBE, Vice President (Innovation)  led a discussion on innovation at the headquarters of Inkling in downtown San Francisco, a company co-founded by Rob Cromwell (Computing 2010).  After presenting that day at the Stanford Digital Cities Summit, Imperial's Dr Ivan Stoianov presented some of his experimental and analytical research into urban water systems in smart cities. Professor Gann then led a discussion with Dr Stoianov, Director of Enterprise Simon Hepworth, Director of Financial Strategy John Anderson, and Executive Officer to the Vice President (Innovation) Dr Ling Ge. The group took questions from the floor and had a wide ranging discussion, on subjects including data science, start-ups and venture capital, and an update on Inkling from Rob Cromwell.

Alongside these events, President Gast also had an opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal, which outlined why the UK should expand and streamline graduate entrepreneur visas in the wake of the EU referendum.

Nigel Simpson (Computing 1985) attended the event in Boston. He said, "The most impactful class I took was an artificial intelligence (AI) class at Imperial. Dr Kowalski's AI course was well known as one of the most challenging ones to take. While it was baffling and maddening, it was above all entertaining! I remember sitting there enthralled as he blew my mind with concepts so advanced it was like he was an alien from another planet. He taught me the importance of continually challenging myself with curiosity, and the joy of learning new things at a point in my education where I'd become jaded by the learning experience. So, when I had the chance to take other advanced classes, I took them all! And I'm definitely still learning."

Francesco Sciortino (Physics 2016), who brought his degree certificate along in order to get a photograph with President Gast, as did Lucio Milanese (Physics 2016)

Nelson Kardos (MSc Biochemistry 1974) attended the event in New York. He said, "I studied under Nobel Laureate Ernst Chain.  Professor Chain had helped the Chinese pharmaceutical industry to start their antibiotic industry in the 1950s, and through his introduction I was able to visit China in 1976 as a foreign expert. Imperial opens the door to a wider world, and in my case it opened a unique door to China when all others were closed." Check out some of Nelson's historic photographs of China.

See a slideshow of images from the event in New York here, some of the photos from Boston here, the group photos from SF here.

Imperial has alumni groups all over the US - contact the Alumni Office to find out more.