New medal for meritorious service among honours bestowed at Imperial's graduation day

Wednesday 20 October 2010
By Simon Watts

A new honorary award recognising meritorious service to Imperial College London will be presented for the first time at the College’s Commemoration Day graduation ceremonies today, which sees over 2,000 undergraduates receive their degrees in science, engineering and medicine.

The Reverend Brooke Kingsmill-Lunn will accept the first Imperial College Medal, in honour of his service to the College spanning more than fifty years. The Medal has been established by the College Council to recognise a longstanding contribution to the College which enhances its reputation, mission and objectives. Reverend Kingsmill-Lunn has been ringing the bells in the Queen’s Tower on Imperial’s South Kensington Campus for special occasions and royal anniversaries since 1953, and has managed its team of bell ringers since 1976.

Alongside the presentation of honorary awards, the achievements of more than 2,000 Imperial graduands will be acknowledged during the ceremonies at the Royal Albert Hall. Addressing the graduands at his first Commemoration Day ceremony as Imperial’s Rector, Sir Keith O’Nions will call on them to use their degree to benefit society, saying:

“Education is at the core of an enterprise which undertakes research at the cutting edge, translates it for economic benefit through new companies and addresses the big societal challenges of this era. As you now embark on the next phase of your individual careers you will become leaders in business, industry or public service, scientists, engineers, medics and surgeons, entrepreneurs and inventors. The collective contributions we know you will make to the world is truly inspiring”

Recognising the contributions to society of a former Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Pro Rector at Imperial, an honorary doctorate will be posthumously awarded to Sir Hugh Ford, who is widely recognised as the engineer who revolutionised how plastics and metals are produced in Britain. An Associateship of Imperial College will also be posthumously awarded to Sharine Brown, former Head of Accommodation Services, who made significant contributions to student welfare at the College for over 20 years.

Another first for the College today is the award of an Imperial Doctor of Science degree, which will be presented to Stepan Lucyszyn in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, for his work in Millimetre-Wave and Terahertz Electronics. Introduced by the College Council in July 2009, the Imperial DSc is for published work of an exceptional standard that contains original contributions to the advancement of knowledge and learning, which has given the candidate international distinction in their field of study.

Excellence in teaching and pastoral care will also be recognised with the award of Medals to College staff. This year’s four Medal winners in the Excellence in Teaching category are Professor Anthony Bull (Department of Bioengineering), Professor Nigel Bell (Centre for Environmental Policy), Dr Frank Berkshire (Department of Mathematics), and Professor Martin Liebeck (Department of Mathematics). They win praise for their imaginative lecturing techniques, such as maths demonstration lectures that make use of doughnuts, tennis rackets and boomerangs, as well as for their willingness to help students on a group and one-to-one level.

The two Medals for Excellence in Pastoral Care go to Mrs Margaret Cunningham (Department of Computing) and Dr Mike Emerson (National Heart and Lung Institute). They are recognised for the exceptional care they show to students, winning praise for offering sympathetic, non-judgemental counselling and for their willingness to make themselves available at very short notice to students who need advice.

Commemoration Day marks the visit made to the College by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1945, on the centenary of the foundation of the Royal College of Chemistry, Imperial College’s oldest forerunner.