Alumni gathered around the world to celebrate their lifelong connection to Imperial, culminating in the Alumni Weekend at the Imperial Festival 2018.

A global celebration

From Accra to Zürich, alumni group leaders hosted 20 special gatherings around the world over a fortnight, giving guests an opportunity to reminisce, make new connections and celebrate with friends. From boat trips and picnics to drinks and dinners, over 300 alumni attended these events, celebrating their place in Imperial’s vibrant alumni community.

The events in Ghana and Kenya were the first alumni events to take place in each of the countries. Over 35 alumni attended the events in Accra and in Nairobi. They were joined by Professor Maggie Dallman, Vice President (International), Associate Provost (Academic Partnerships) and Professor of Immunology, who was in Africa to strengthen research ties and meet colleagues from partner institutions.

Alumni Weekend at the Imperial Festival 2018

In London, more than 1,500 alumni and guests returned to Imperial for Alumni Weekend on 28 and 29 April to celebrate their lifelong connection to the College and discovered the ground-breaking science on display at Imperial Festival.

With the Alumni Lounge as a base, guests beat the crowds and explored the Festival before it opened to the public, then rediscovered the Campus through tours of Imperial landmarks and facilities, and at special welcome back receptions hosted by their departments.

An exclusive programme of talks gave alumni the opportunity to hear from Imperial academics and students. The programme included pitches from the finalists of this year’s student enterprise competitions in the Enterprise Lab, Imperial’s dedicated new facility for inspiring, educating and nurturing the next generation of student entrepreneurs. Professor Neil Alford, Associate Provost (Academic Planning), shared the master plans for the South Kensington and White City campuses and Dr Aubrey Cunnington, Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Medicine, explained how Imperial is helping to reduce the burden of malaria and working towards its eradication.

“The visit to the Department of Mechanical Engineering labs was probably my personal highlight but going up the Queen’s Tower for the first time was also pretty cool. I'm looking forward to next year already! Dr Charles Parry (PhD Mechanical Engineering 1984)

Celebrating milestone anniversaries

President Alice Gast hosted a welcome back breakfast for alumni celebrating milestone anniversaries of 30 years or more since leaving the College. Guests were captivated by Professor Michele Dougherty, Head of the Department of Physics at Imperial, as she spoke about her role as principal investigator for the magnetometer on board the Cassini spacecraft and on its mission to explore Saturn and its neighbourhood.

“The whole Alumni Weekend for us could not have been better and was a very suitable way to celebrate our 60th anniversary. Many thanks for all your help in making our weekend so easy and enjoyable.” Mr Barry Lanz (Mining 1958)

Noel Corrigan (Physics 1978) was celebrating his 40th milestone anniversary and enjoyed being back on campus, saying that Imperial had changed in some ways but still the same in others. He has used his physics degree for operational research and admits to “still doing the odd calculation!”

Ann-Margret Plummer (Mathematics 1959) and her husband Ian (Mining 1958, MSc 1960) flew all the way from Canada to be back at Imperial for Alumni Weekend. Ann-Margret reminisced about the Women’s Association and life at Imperial saying, “It has changed a lot since I was here. My time at Imperial was fun but busy.”

Nine reunion groups of classmates also gathered to celebrate milestone anniversaries.

Alumni Weekend 2018: In pictures