Provost’s Visiting Professors scheme welcomes second cohort

Four new professors join the programme to act as Provost's Visiting Professors alongside those appointed last year.

In 2021, Provost Ian Walmsley launched the Provost's Visiting Professors (PVP) Programme, a programme which brings together leading academics to Imperial with the aim of enriching the community through scholarship, teaching and programming aligned with their research.

Nearly three years later, the programme welcomes its second cohort of Provost's Visiting Professor's. Meet them below.

Professor Eiman Kanjo, Provost’s Visiting Professor of Pervasive Sensing and TinyML

I am currently a professor of Pervasive Sensing and the head of the Smart Sensing Lab and IoT Lab at Nottingham Trent University. Our team is a diverse and multidisciplinary group that collaboratively builds the next generation of pervasive and wireless sensing technologies, including novel system architectures, data analytics, wearable and edge devices.

Our research areas include fidgeting interfaces and environmental monitoring for wellbeing, as well as smart retail and urban design. In recognition of my contributions to the field, I was named among the Top 50 Women in Engineering by The Women's Engineering Society in 2022, I am also the Award Lead of the new Alan Turing Institute Development Network. 

My primary goal as a visiting professor at Imperial College's Department of Computing is to fully immerse myself in the academic community and make meaningful contributions to the research and teaching endeavors of the Systems, Data Science, and AI groups. To achieve this, I will offer to supervise/co-supervise final year and MSc student projects that are closely aligned with my research and share my extensive industry connections by mentoring PhD and postdoctoral researchers. 

I am extremely passionate about the opportunity to join Imperial College as a visiting academic and believe that it will provide me with the resources and support, I need to take my research to the next level and make a meaningful impact. As a woman from an ethnic minority, my background and experiences offer a distinct and valuable perspective that adds meaningful perspective and nuance to my field.

Professor Dangyuan Lei - Provost’s Visiting Professor of Physics

I am a professor in the Department of Materials and Science and Engineering and Program Leader of MSc in Materials Engineering & Nanotechnology, at the City University of Hong Kong. Currently, I lead the editorial office of Nanophotonics Group (NPG) Light: Science & Applications in Hong Kong. 

This PVP programme will allow me to re-connect with Imperial Physics and Materials after completing my PhD study and postdoctoral training in Physics at Imperial about 11 years ago.

Over the past eleven years, I have established a highly interdisciplinary research programme on plasmonics nanophotonics and low-dimensional quantum materials in Hong Kong, which has grown from one member (i.e. myself in September 2012) to around 20 members at present. Our research programme has received significant international recognition through close collaboration with researchers from the UK, US, France, Czech Republic, Australia, Singapore, Japan, and mainland China.

Professor Samuel Agyei-Mensah - Provost’s Visiting Professor of Population Health

I am based at the University of Ghana as a professor in the Department of Geography and Resource Development, as well as the Director and Project Leader respectively of the Andrew Mellon Foundation funded Centre for Teaching and Learning Innovation (CTLI) and Building the Next Generation of African Academics (BANGA). 

Since implementing the PVP programme, we have had several meetings to help build connections globally which is leading to new global opportunities, particularly in Africa thanks to Julie Makani and her work. We have also heard powerful stories about the career path our PVPs have taken that have inspired our staff across the college. Ian Walmsley Provost

As the Director and Project Leader respectively of the Andrew Mellon Foundation funded Centre for Teaching and Learning Innovation (CTLI) and Building the Next Generation of African Academics (BANGA) project funded by Carnegie Foundation, New York. I have served as visiting lecturer/guest researcher in many universities across the world including Norwegian University of Science & Technology, Norway, University of Canterbury, New Zealand, University of Flensburg, Germany, Ohio State University, USA, and Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. Professor Agyei-Mensah is a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences .

My research in the past 20 years has focused on population health issues in Ghana/Africa within a spatial perspective. Beginning with under-five mortality which was the basis of my master’s thesis, and fertility decline the subject of my doctoral thesis, I have diversified my research portfolio over the years to encompass infections such as HIV/AIDS, and more recently environmental health issues such as water, air and noise pollution, and climate change. The HIV/AIDS epidemic was an entirely new theme for population and health researchers at the beginning of the 1990s; I contributed to bringing a geographical perspective on HIV/AIDS in Africa in journal articles and in an edited volume titled HIV/AIDS in Africa: Beyond Epidemiology that was seen as a ground-breaking collection by African researchers. I have also contributed to recent debates and discussions on the epidemiological transition and the “double burden” of infectious and non-communicable diseases in Africa. 

Professor Sandhya Visweswariah – Provost’s Visiting Professor of Biochemistry

Currently, I am an Honorary Professor in the Department of Developmental Biology and Genetics, at the Indian Institute of Science, in Bangalore.

After completing my PhD, I joined Astra-Zeneca Research Centre in Bangalore, India as a Scientist. During my stay in AZ, I realised that communicating my knowledge to younger people and ensuring their growth and success was the most satisfying. Therefore, I moved to academia and started my research group and have had satisfaction in seeing the progress of some of my former students.

Over the past seven years, I have visited CMBI (currently renamed as the Centre for Bacterial Resistance Biology) in Imperial College on
several occasions in connection with a joint Collaborative Grant for Research Professors awarded by the Royal Society that I have held
with Prof. Gad Frankel in the Department of Life Sciences. These visits have been of short duration, and I have delivered two talks in CMBI on these visits, the last being in July 2022. During these visits, I have been very impressed with the breadth of research interests that are not only being conducted in CMBI but across Imperial College. 

I have been a strong advocate of enthusing women to enter scientific disciplines, especially academia. I strongly advocate diversity and inclusion in my personal and professional life.