Month: September 2024

Extension to term of Associate Provost (Academic Promotions)

Professor Peter Lindstedt has accepted an extension to his term as Associate Provost (Academic Promotions) until 30 September 2026.

Reporting to the Provost, Professor Lindstedt is responsible for oversight of the academic promotions policy and its implementation for Imperial, working in conjunction with the Consuls, Deans, and HR colleagues.

Professor Lindstedt received his PhD from Imperial’s Department of Chemical Engineering, where he went on to work as a Research Associate in 1984. He then joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering as a Lecturer and was promoted to Professor of Thermofluids in 1999. He has served as Head of the Thermofluids Division, Director of Research and Deputy Head of Department. He was elected Consul for the Faculty of Engineering and Business School for the period 2013 to 2016 and Senior Consul from 2017 to 2019.

Professor Lindstedt’s current research interests include reduced environmental impact from propulsion devices, methods for the prediction of particle size distributions of particulate matter from aero-engines, heterogeneous surface-fluid interactions leading to material degradation in fuel cells, catalytically active materials, highly reactive fuels for advanced propulsion applications and turbulence-chemistry interactions occurring during the use of ammonia and other hydrogen-rich fuels.

Promotions

We are pleased to announce that the following staff were successful during the promotions rounds.

Academic promotions take place on an annual cycle, with promotions taking effect from 1 September 2024. The last combined Learning and Teaching promotions took effect on 1 October 2023 and 1 January 2024. Learning promotions continue to take place termly, and the most recent round took effect on 1 June 2024. Teaching promotions now follow a new annual process, with the first round taking effect 1 September 2024.

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Director of Sustainability

Harriet Wallace has accepted appointment as Imperial’s first Director of Sustainability. Harriet began transitioning into this role in June from her previous secondment to Imperial as an Imperial Policy Fellow from the Civil Service, working with colleagues on implementing our Sustainability Strategy. 

In this new role, Harriet will lead and coordinate delivery of the Sustainable Imperial initiative announced in our new Strategy, working collaboratively with colleagues across Imperial. As the Strategy set out, Imperial’s goal is to set a global benchmark for university sustainability, nurturing graduates who understand and advocate for climate science, supporting our researchers to investigate and respond to planetary challenges and leading by example in our activities and on our campuses. 

Harriet will report to the Chief of Staff to the President and continue to work closely with Professor Tim Green, Academic Lead for Sustainability. The Sustainability Programme will continue to be governed by the Sustainability Strategy Committee, chaired by Professor Nigel Brandon, and supported by the central Sustainability Hub team and Sustainability leads and champions across Faculties and Professional Services.  

Harriet is a scientist by training and a policy, strategy and change practitioner by profession. She has had a lifelong interest in how we can make the most of science’s potential: for understanding the world better; for solving real-world problems; and to inform and influence both policy-making and human behaviours.  

She previously worked in government for many years, most recently as Director International Research and Innovation at BEIS (negotiating the Horizon Europe deal and sponsoring several Research and Funding bodies) and before that in roles on environmental, health and science policy and spending. Before joining government, she worked at Unilever on social and environmental responsibility and their corporate brand.

Acting Head of the Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction

Professor Phillip Bennett has accepted the role of Acting Head of the Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction in the Faculty of Medicine, with effect from 1 October 2024. Professor Bennett will continue in this role until a new postholder is identified and appointed. This is to replace our current Head of the Department, Professor Mark Thursz who has been appointed as Director of the Academic Health Science Centre.  

Professor Bennett has been Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology since 1995, after joining RPMS (Royal Postgraduate Medical School) in 1988 as a Senior Clinical Research Fellow, which later became Imperial. He was formerly the Director of the Institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology. He also directs (together with David MacIntyre and Lynne Sykes) the March of Dimes European Preterm Birth Research Centre at Imperial and (together with Tom Bourne) the Tommy’s National Miscarriage Research Centre at Imperial. 

Professor Bennett’s principal research interests are the microbiology, biochemistry and endocrinology of pregnancy, human term and preterm labour, and the stratification, prediction and prevention of miscarriage and preterm birth.  

Professor Bennett was elected Fellow of Academy of Medical Sciences in 2017; Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, London, UK, in 2000; Honorary Fellow Maltese College Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 2006; Honorary Fellow American Gynecologic and Obstetrical Society in 2018.