Lasting legacy

Imperial’s teaching, research and innovations have never mattered so much to the world. The College has risen to the challenge of the pandemic, delivering award-winning student education through national lockdowns while operating on the frontlines of the world’s scientific response. It has stood firm on international values in the face of Brexit and wider geopolitical uncertainty. It has spoken out, and taken action, against racial injustice. It has created a thriving innovation district at White City, strengthening British science, fuelling global business, and benefiting the local community.

So, as Professor Alice Gast’s eight-year term as President ends, what have been some of the Imperial community’s achievements during this time, and what’s next?

Gast has made collaboration, internationalism and diversity the bedrock of Imperial’s strength, working with partners across the globe – from the African Institute of Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) and the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), to the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Meanwhile, existing global partnerships, such as Imperial’s joint medical school with Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, thrived.

In 2015, President of MIT, L Rafael Reif, co-signed the MIT-Imperial Seed Fund with Gast. “In many ways, our partnership is a natural one,” he says. “We share a commitment to supporting long-term, fundamental research. Our partnership also reflects a shared belief that universities have a responsibility to offer the world the most effective solutions to the most urgent challenges. Some of these challenges – like maintaining a liveable Earth – require immediate action on a set of very hard problems. Alice has opened countless opportunities for faculty and researchers to forge new connections and explore new frontiers.”

And when this spirit of internationalism was threatened, Imperial fought back. On the morning of the Brexit referendum result in June 2016, Gast and one of her closest colleagues, the late Provost Professor James Stirling, wrote to the Imperial community that “Imperial is, and will remain, a European university”. And it has. The College went on to grow its European connections, instigating major new partnerships with CNRS of France, Europe’s largest research organisation, and TUM of Germany, creating new means of collaboration and getting ahead of political barriers. It also launched a seed fund for new European collaborations.

Gast, the first woman to lead Imperial, identified that too few women were benefiting from the College’s startup culture. Renowned investor Alexsis de Raadt St. James partnered with her to help turn this around, launching WE Innovate, a programme for student women entrepreneurs that provides access to funding and mentoring, and exposure to investor networks at the earliest stage.

“Without Alice, all this innovation would never have happened,” says de Raadt St James, founder of the social venture fund Althea Foundation. “She was the perfect president at the perfect time in the perfect university. Without her, I don’t think I would have been able to launch WE Innovate as successfully as I did. She planted the seeds for innovation: it’s a phenomenal legacy. She taught Imperial that there are many ways to be a president, and that you need diversity of thinking, thought and background. That way, you reach beyond what’s comfortable.”

As De Raadt St. James and Gast wrote in the Guardian: “When investors wonder where the next transformative founder will come from, we have a simple answer: she’s at university, and she needs your support.”

Since its launch, WE Innovate has supported more than 250 women with innovative business ideas including intuitive drone control software, an early detection tool for crop diseases and zero waste menstrual products.

“Alice has pushed forward an inclusive agenda; she’s recognised that diversity is so important when it comes to innovation and moving science forward,” says Christina Friis Blach Petersen (Innovation Design Engineering), co-founder (with fellow Imperial student Hugo Sarrsjo) of LYS Technologies.

“WE Innovate had such a different feel to it. We were helping each other, rather than being competitive. It was incredibly inspiring hearing other successful women share their experiences and ideas, and then having the opportunity to work together.”

Support for wider student entrepreneurship has also grown with the state-of-the-art Enterprise Lab, offering students training, business coaching, mentoring digital tools, and access to funding and investors. Gast says: “When our students arrive at Imperial, they get a library card and membership of the Enterprise Lab. It’s one way in which our culture is different.”

Regius Professor and co-founder of DNA Electronics and DnaNudge Chris Toumazou embodies Imperial’s enterprise culture. His company was the first to set up at Scale Space White City, Imperial’s community for innovative businesses. Gast is, he says, a big thinker who looks ahead: “Alice gets people to work together across the board, on the big sciences. She’s broken barriers within the university to enable large-scale interdisciplinary projects to happen.”

Gast and her husband, Bradley Askins, have worked with philanthropists and the College’s Advancement team to augment Imperial’s impact. Annual giving now averages more than £40 million per year, three times the previous ten-year average.

Perhaps the most ambitious of Gast’s fundraising initiatives is a landmark £100 million campaign for the School of Public Health, delivering solutions to society’s most pressing healthcare challenges. A major advocate and supporter of this campaign is Marit Mohn (MSc Chemical Engineering and Chemical Technology 1973), who gave £25 million to the world-leading Mohn Centre for Children’s Health and Wellbeing which draws together expertise from across the College to pursue research and education on the understanding and prevention of children’s health issues.

“I don’t think I would have done this if Alice had not been President,” says Mohn. “She felt the project would be successful – and she knew that Imperial could not achieve its goals without philanthropic support.”

Professor Deborah Ashby, Director of the School for Public Health, agrees. “When we needed funding for a new building for the School of Public Health, Alice delivered an entirely new approach,” she says.

“She brings people together: potential donors, scientists and other staff. Every donor comes from a different perspective, wanting to see and know different aspects of our projects and so Alice reshaped Advancement, ensuring it could do the vital work of discovering who might be minded to give and what their interests were. Now, when I meet potential donors, I can just do what I do best – enthusing about public health.”

Graduates David Dangoor (Physics 1971) and Elie Dangoor (Mathematics 1981), trustees of The Exilarch’s Foundation, have given millions of pounds to support initiatives such as a hub for multidisciplinary cancer research, The Invention Rooms – unlocking opportunity for young local people in White City – and the green space of Dangoor Plaza at the heart of Imperial’s South Kensington Campus.

“A university does not sit in isolation,” says Dangoor. “It needs to engage with a very wide range of stakeholders. Philanthropic support is a clear indication to the world that it has been found worthy of recognition to the point of financial support.”

He believes this is why it is so significant that President Gast has made Imperial more outward-looking. “The university has made very important connections with local communities. Alice has attracted the attention of significant donors and focused on student welfare.”

Such philanthropic support proved indispensable when crisis struck. In 2019, just months before the start of the pandemic, Imperial, with Community Jameel, launched the Abdul Latif Jameel Institute for Disease and Emergency Analytics. The Jameel Institute is directed by Professor Neil Ferguson and has a mission to combat disease threats worldwide.

The support of Community Jameel, alongside other funders, enabled Ferguson’s team to work quickly and openly as the novel coronavirus emerged, with timely reports made available immediately to the public and policy makers.

Similarly generous and flexible funding from philanthropists allowed Professor Robin Shattock and his team to develop a new-concept self-amplifying RNA vaccine candidate to test on animals and prepare for human trials – in just 14 days. That work proved that self-amplifying RNA vaccines worked, potentially against many diseases, and is likely to leave a profound scientific and public health legacy from the pandemic.

Locally, the College led the creation of the Great Exhibition Road Festival and Imperial Lates showcasing the latest science at the College. During the pandemic, the College’s engagement with alumni and friends moved online with special panels on the latest COVID-19 science, and the President’s Great Minds and Luminaries series featuring Imperial thinking and thinkers.

Gast drove forward a landmark review of Imperial’s history, launching an all-community dialogue to reflect on both challenging and inspiring elements to Imperial’s past - which has resulted in a deeper and fuller understanding of Imperial's legacy and how it is experienced today.

In the summer of 2020, the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis led to global outrage. At the same time COVID-19 was disproportionately harming Black, Asian and ethnic minority people in Britain. The status quo could not continue, and campaigners like Imperial As One (IAO) co-chair Dr Wayne Mitchell, Senior Teaching Fellow in the Department of Medicine, worked with Gast to enact change.

“There were two inequalities here,” says Mitchell. “We wanted to know: what is the College doing about them and who do we need to talk to? And the door was open. Sometimes it was uncomfortable. But there was an open-mindedness and willingness to make change.”

In June 2020, Gast wrote to the community: “I feel a deep anger and despair over the senseless death of George Floyd. It brings to the surface my shock and disappointment that racism and the violence that it breeds continue in the United States… Racism and violence have no place in society. Our spirit of common purpose must prevail, and we must pull together and collaborate as a community to support those who are afraid and mourning and to say: ‘Black Lives Matter’.”

When IAO asked for the establishment of a media academy for Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff and students, Gast took action: she found funding, agreed that Imperial would stop using its Latin motto (with its imperialistic connotations), would review its history, and helped establish a defined equality, diversity and inclusion strategy.

Imperial went on to launch a scholarship fundraising challenge to match the College’s £10 million investment in scholarships and studentships for Black students and others from underrepresented groups or facing financial barriers, as Gast confronted the “brutal fact” that “our talented community lacks diversity” in her 2021 address.

IAO co-chair and Diversity and Inclusion Research Fellow Dr Sarah Essilfie-Quaye from the Faculty of Medicine Research Strategy Team, adds: “There is still more to be done. But if we can keep this frame of mind, improving the culture, it can have impact not just at Imperial but on the wider landscape. Alice supported us with this – but we can’t be complacent.”

It’s this agility, ambition and innovation that defines Imperial right now. This year, Imperial became University of the Year and student satisfaction, as measured in the National Student Survey, reached an all-time high. Gast said: “When COVID-19 struck, students and staff did not just think about mitigation, they raised their ambitions. When labs closed, we sent ‘lab in a box’ kits to students’ homes. As borders shut, we developed virtual field trips. When the NHS needed doctors, we brought medical exams forward and online as our students stepped up.

“This teamwork blurred the formal divide between researchers, educators and learners,” continues Gast. “Students and staff collaborated on virology, vaccine technology, epidemiology and testing innovations that leave a lasting legacy beyond the pandemic. They worked together during challenging times to rethink our curriculum. Imperial’s experience is not just a case study in crisis, it offers a glimpse of what higher education can be.”