New scholarships scheme announced in memory of Professor Jackie de Belleroche

Professor Jackie de Belleroche

New scholarships for postgraduate neuroscience students will celebrate the life of Professor Jackie de Belleroche, who passed away in July 2019.

Launching in the 2021/22 academic year, the new Jackie de Belleroche Scholarships scheme will support talented students on the MSc Translational Neuroscience and MRes Experimental Neuroscience programmes at Imperial.

The scheme will be open to all prospective students, including those from the EU and overseas, who have achieved a first-class degree or equivalent in their undergraduate studies. Applicants who have received an offer to study on either programme, have met the conditions of their offer and paid the deposit will be eligible to apply for a scholarship. Awards will then be made according to a competitive selection process.

The scholarships have been announced to mark the first anniversary of the passing of Professor de Belleroche, a key figure in the development and delivery of neuroscience education at Imperial. Alongside her teaching commitments, Professor de Belleroche was a renowned researcher in the field of motor neurone disease (MND) – sometimes referred to as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) – a progressive neurological disorder affecting nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. The de Belleroche lab created a pioneering database of families with familial MND, which crucially led to the identification of some of the genetic mutations that underlie the disease in these families.

“I had the huge pleasure of working with Jackie over the past 25 years,” says Professor Steve Gentleman, Director of Education for the Department of Brain Sciences. “She was a treasured colleague and an absolute inspiration to students. She was always there to support them, to help them develop their practical skills and scientific thinking and to prepare them for a career in biomedicine science.”

“When I joined the College in 2018, I quickly realised that Professor Jackie was not only a neuroscience pioneer but also a mentor for many students and colleagues alike,” says Dr Stefano Sandrone, Senior Teaching Fellow in the Department of Brain Sciences. 

“The quality and the extent of her teaching contributions, on undergraduate and postgraduate courses, were certainly outstanding, and her kind and elegant manners were unmistakable. She has always been genuinely interested in the people around her, promoting a culture of respect and inclusivity. Master’s students need to know who Professor Jackie was, have the chance to walk in her footsteps and to contribute to the creation of tomorrow’s neuroscientific community.”

Further details of the scholarships will be published on the MSc Translational Neuroscience and MRes Experimental Neuroscience programme pages in the coming months.

Interested in studying with us? Find out more about courses in the Department of Brain Sciences on our Study page.