The first GDEM of the 2018-19 academic year proved very popular as students and staff crammed into the CDT suite to hear Prof James Durrant.

Prof James Durrant gave an engaging presentation to a packed audience at the first Gender, Diversity and Equality Meeting (GDEM) of the 2018-19 academic year on 9 November with a talk entitiled "Joining the Dots: How I Arrived Where I Am".

Durrant told how luck and fortune made frequent appearances on his career path. And, while he has also had to remain flexible when it came to taking research fellowships along the way, he is now right where he wants to be: heading a large research group at Imperial, director of the CPE, an elected fellow of the Royal Society and leading Sêr Cymru Solar at Swansea - a £7m initiative to establish a research cluster focused on the development of low cost, large area photovoltaic technologies. 

GDEMs are a programme of monthly talks and discussion sessions with speakers drawn from CPE academics, fellows and postdocs. These informal sessions each feature one speaker, who talks about their career to date and how they have overcome various challenges, followed by an open discussion session. Everyone is very welcome to attend and take part in the discussions!

If you are interested in giving a talk at a GDEM, or have suggestions for invited speakers, please contact Jaspreet Kainth: j.kainth15@imperial.ac.uk