Blog posts

Dr Johanna Jackson, Advanced Research Fellow, Department of Brain Sciences

“My EDI work includes a recent initiative using TikTok, funded by the College’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Seed Fund.” 

“I actually did my PhD at Imperial and then, after gaining some postdoctoral experience, moved into industry to research Alzheimer’s disease. A few years later, I became a senior research scientist with my own group focussing on synapse loss in Alzheimer’s disease. After eight years, I decided to leave industry and move back to academia – a slightly unusual move! 

“My current role involves leading the UK Dementia Research Institute’s Multi-‘omics Atlas Project, setting up my own group and being the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Lead for the Department of Brain Sciences. MAP is an initiative to map the cellular pathology in Alzheimer’s disease in post-mortem human brain tissue. My research focus is how synapses (the connections between brain cells) are affected in the human disease and identifying ways of rescuing those that are lost.   

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Steph Martin, Test Facilitation Coordinator, Human Resources  

“I am now responsible for the coordination of a fantastic team and the delivery of up to 25 testing sessions a week, across five campuses, and seven halls of residence.” 

Graduating in June 2020 was certainly daunting as I was faced with media headlines predicting a recession ‘worse than 2007’ or ‘as great as 1929’ – depending on who you chose to believe. What everyone did agree on was that 2020 was not a good year for job seekers!  

In September, I stumbled upon an opportunity to become a COVID-19 test facilitator – a casual worker for Imperial responsible for the running of the COVID-19 Asymptomatic Test and Trace project. I quickly applied, keen to put my newfound (and extensive) free time to some meaningful use.   (more…)

Simon Herriott, Business Transformation Manager, Enterprise 

“There is much more awareness of the power of data since I started at Imperial. Data underpins everything that Enterprise is doing…” 

I manage the business transformation function within Enterprise. I oversee the platforms that we use, such as Salesforce, and create bespoke additions to improve functionality and reporting capabilities. Before joining Imperial in 2017, I worked in project management in Higher and Further Education, the NHS, and climate consultancies.  (more…)

Dr Sohag Nafis Saleh, Principal Teaching Fellow and Phase 1 Digital Development Lead, Faculty of Medicine

Part of Shifting the Lens: A celebration of cultural diversity at Imperial

“When I was four or five, I moved from Leeds to Keighley, a small town about twenty miles away. It was a challenging place to be. At the time, the National Front had a strong presence there. I didn’t encounter it a lot, but the fear was always there, and there were places around town to avoid.

“My family is Muslim, however, me and my two elder sisters went to Catholic school. It wasn’t a choice based on religion, but rather on how we as a working-class family could get the best quality state education available – something my Mum felt our local Catholic school was best at providing for us. I wasn’t properly confirmed or anything, but I was an altar boy!

“There were other schools in the area that had more Asian people and also there was a Muslim community. But I was kind of kept away from that. So for me, I didn’t have much of a cultural or religious identity growing up. I saw culture and religion as being hand-in-hand; I saw them as the same thing. My school life was this strange dichotomy of being Muslim and Catholic, but I found it really helpful because it made me learn about different religions. Quite often, when people think about religions, it’s from the outside, but here I was an outsider in two communities – two very similar monotheistic religions. But people tend to focus on the differences, I guess.”

Read Sohag’s profile

Rokshan Easwarathasan, Undergraduate, Faculty of Medicine

Part of Shifting the Lens: A celebration of cultural diversity at Imperial

“I was never ashamed of my background at school, but there weren’t many of us and I wouldn’t always be outgoing about being Tamil and from Sri Lanka. I just knew I was different.

“My parents are both immigrants from Sri Lanka, but I was born and brought up in East London. My surname has thirteen letters in it – lots of Sri Lankan people have long names – and teachers have always struggled with it or avoided it full stop. Things like that make you realise you’re different. Even my first name, some people have difficulty with it. But nowadays people want to learn how to pronounce your name properly, even more so at Imperial where there are people from so many cultures. Everyone’s welcoming. (more…)

Kemi Aofolaju, Communications and Events Officer, Department of Bioengineering

Part of Shifting the Lens: A celebration of cultural diversity at Imperial

“I joined Imperial in May 2016, having moved to the UK at the age of six from Lagos in Nigeria. Sadly, my Dad passed away while I was studying Drama at Queen Mary University of London. It was a really difficult time, but the staff at my university were so amazing and supportive that they inspired me to work in higher education. (more…)

Fatima Elzahra Khan, Undergraduate, Department of Chemical Engineering

Part of Shifting the Lens: A celebration of cultural diversity at Imperial

“Back in the Emirates and Pakistan, there is a disparity between how men and women are treated, but my mum is one of the most powerful and inspiring women I know. She left home to pursue her education and get a PhD. Marrying my dad was not the done thing – she was probably expected to marry a local, which a lot of my aunts did do. (more…)

Dr Adriana Navarro-Suarez, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellow, Department of Chemistry

Part of Shifting the Lens: A celebration of cultural diversity at Imperial

“To me, Colombia means happiness. There’s such amazing food, and on Sundays, we usually have a family gathering with our grandma. We don’t do this that often now because we don’t all live together, but whenever I go back home there is always a time where around 30 of us will gather and eat, drink and laugh.  

“Colombians also love dancing – especially Cuban and Colombian salsa! As a nation, we’re really successful in international dancing competitions. Colombia is also a very religious country. During Christmas, there is an event called novena, where for nine days before the 24th you pray each night. Each of those nine nights is hosted by a different house/family and includes food and drinks.  (more…)

Riad Yagoubi, Research Postgraduate, Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction

Part of Shifting the Lens: A celebration of cultural diversity at Imperial

“When I was in primary school, I always felt different. A lot of other people thought I was weird because I knew Arabic/Algerian. There’s very much the stereotype in France that if you speak Arabic or Algerian Arabic you haven’t adapted enough to French society or can’t speak French very well. As a result, I felt quite alone a lot.

“In France, you are allocated a high school based on location, but I was able to choose my high school because I had good results. But I felt different as most of my fellow students were the sons of politicians and doctors, and my background was completely different. (more…)

Dr Nida Sajjad, Teaching Fellow, National Heart and Lung Institute

“I have always been passionate about engaging students through innovative digital learning technologies.” 

I am a medical doctor-turned-teacher with a research background in neuroscience. I studied medicine in Lahore, Pakistan, and after practising there I moved to Trento in Italy where I did an MSc in cognitive neuroscience. I really enjoyed working with patients and data and this led me into research, which ultimately paved the way for me to take on teaching roles at the Universities of Bristol and Birmingham. 

I joined Imperial as a Teaching Fellow in the National Heart and Lung Institute in September last year. It was difficult at the beginning as the whole interview process was online, and even now, I have only met people on Microsoft Teams!    (more…)