Imperial people

“Teaching is a gift – you share a space with students who are as enthusiastic about the environment as you.” 

I’ve always had an enormous passion for the sciences and the natural world, from entomology and ornithology, to our blue spaces including freshwater aquatic ecosystems and marine life. Studying biochemistry and forensic science enabled me to apply laboratory skills for scientific and environmental applications, such as river water quality monitoring. I’ve had an environmentally and science focused career in and out of academia, including with river and botanic garden charities and scientific research at Imperial. 

Wanting to continue my passion related to water and to apply a variety of skills, the role of research coordinator of the Strategic Research Partnership between Imperial and Anglian Water based at the Centre for Environmental Policy (CEP) was very appealing.   

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Read Chetna Vaghela, Anglian Water Research Coordinator, Centre for Environmental Policy in full

“The relationship between work and health is relevant no matter where you work or what you do” 

The work I do here at Imperial is all about the relationship between work and health. This is currently high on the policy agenda in the UK as more people are falling out of employment due to long-term ill-health. The healthcare landscape is not a level playing field when it comes to occupational health – access varies depending on the employer, which makes it harder to deliver change.  

One of the policy areas I am focusing on is how we can improve the health and working conditions of health and social care workers. The other policy area that interests me is how we make better use of the fit note (commonly known as a sick note…a misnomer!) to help people living with medical conditions to keep working.   

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Read Lara Shemtob, Honorary Clinical Research Fellow, School of Public Health in full

“I fell in love with London and started looking for a PhD position in the field of malaria” 

When I was young, I thought I wanted to be a medical doctor. It was after attending a lecture in biochemistry that I decided to re-direct my interest toward the microscopic dynamics that take place within cells, as I found this fascinating.    

I received my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the Università degli Studi di Palermo in biology, and cellular and molecular biology respectively. At the end of these studies, I travelled from Sicily to London to learn English. I fell in love with the city and started looking for a PhD position in the field of malaria to combine my passions of molecular engineering and Africa. 

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Read Dr Federica Bernardini, Research Associate, Department of Life Sciences in full

“My research is about the climate impacts of contrail cirrus clouds – line-shaped clouds that form behind an aircraft” 

I am a research associate at the Transport and Environment Laboratory in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Global aviation is fundamentally entwined with the fabric of modern society, bringing significant social and economic benefits, but it also generates negative impacts in the form of climate change and local air pollution.  

I develop computer codes to improve existing models of aircraft flight. I use them to simulate aircraft fuel consumption, exhaust emissions, and the formation and lifecycle of contrail cirrus – line-shaped clouds that form behind an aircraft. My research objective is to improve our understanding of the climate impacts of contrail cirrus clouds, which are responsible for two-thirds of the climate effects from aviation.  

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Read Roger Teoh, Research Associate, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in full

“As scientists, I believe it is our responsibility to convey what we do to the general public”

My desire has always been to answer unanswered questions and defy what has been established, broadening the fields of research one small discovery at a time, and contributing to the better understanding of ourselves and our surroundings. With this aim I started my career in my home country Spain, where I studied biology. In 2013 I decided to move to the UK to do an MSc in virology at Imperial, and luckily obtained funding from Spain that enabled me to do just that. This is where I discovered my interest in how our body’s defences, our immune system, respond to attack by harmful microbes (pathogens) by mounting a complex and well-orchestrated response, and how pathogens have evolved ways to subvert this response.

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Read Julia Sanchez Garrido, Research Laboratory Manager, Department of Life Sciences in full

“I use nanotechnology to boost light-matter interactions with the aim of developing a sensing platform to detect disease biomarkers.”

I am a Research Associate in Biosensing at the Department of Materials. My academic journey to date has been dynamic and crossing boundaries. Having graduated in mechanical engineering at Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea, I chose to study nanoscience and nanotechnology for my PhD at the same university. Then I dived into biomedical engineering research at the Hamlyn Centre at Imperial for my first postdoctoral role. After four and a half years at the centre, I moved to the Stevens Group at the Department of Materials to further dig into biosensing studies, where I have been working on developing a next-generation biosensing platform for disease screening of broader diseases. (more…)

Read Jang Ah Kim, Research Associate in Biosensing, Department of Materials in full

“I look forward to the day when malaria is eradicated, and I can say we helped contribute to that!”

I’m an immunologist by training, with my early career focused on vaccine development. When I shifted away from the bench into project management, I wasn’t really sure I liked it, but over 20 years later I realise I’ve found my place. (more…)

Read Dr Karen Logan, Senior Project Manager and Network Coordinator, Target Malaria   in full

“I have been trying to make computer models of brains, to understand how we see, learn, sleep, and remember.”

I started my academic journey by studying electrical engineering at the University of Tehran in Iran. Although I valued the technical skills and attention to detail that I acquired in becoming an engineer, I felt that it didn’t satisfy my need for free thinking and answering the many life questions that I had in my 20s.

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Read Sadra Sadeh, Research Fellow, Department of Brain Sciences in full

“I have been working with an illustrator to produce a series of artistic but scientifically accurate drawings of the roots of active volcanoes.”

I started my university career as a Physics student in Italy. During my undergraduate degree, I spent a year abroad at the University of Manchester and this experience opened the door for me to British academia. I switched from Physics to Geophysics and was offered a PhD scholarship at the University of Southampton to study the Soufrière Hills volcano on the island of Montserrat.   

Since then, my main research focus at Imperial has been to image the plumbing systems of active volcanoes to better understand how magma is transported to the surface before and during an eruption. The volcanoes I study are usually submarine volcanoes or island volcanoes, and they are best studied using marine geophysics. These are the same field techniques that are used by the oil industry to image and monitor hydrocarbon reservoirs.  

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Read Michele Paulatto, Research Fellow, Earth Science and Engineering in full

“I was lucky enough to be part of the medical team at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games, a truly unforgettable experience and a patient group like no other!”

I completed my undergraduate degree qualifying as a Diagnostic Radiographer in 2004. I’ve enjoyed a brilliantly varied career up to now, working clinically in various countries, commencing a research career at UCL, and completing an MSc in Medical Magnetic Resonance. I was lucky enough to be part of the medical team at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games, a truly unforgettable experience and a patient group like no other! 

A particular career highlight came in 2014 when I worked in the Falkland Islands for a year. I was responsible for the medical imaging of the human population as well as that required by the veterinary service and the fisheries department.  

My current role at Imperial is as Senior Research Radiographer in a friendly and supportive team at the Mansfield Centre for Innovation. We optimise, acquire and analyse MRI data for an array of different studies, working closely with cardiac and psychiatric imaging groups who study diseases ranging from cardiomyopathy and pulmonary hypertension to schizophrenia and psychosis. We also perform some clinical imaging, such as running the fetal MRI service for Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.  

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Read Alaine Berry, Senior Research Radiographer, Institute of Clinical Sciences  in full