Author: Andrew Youngson

Head of the Department of Computing

Professor Alessandra Russo has accepted the appointment of Head of the Department of Computing, for a term of one year, with effect from 1 July 2024.  

This is to succeed our current Head of the Department, Professor Michael Huth, who is taking up a prestigious senior post at a University in Germany. 

Professor Russo joined Imperial as a PhD student of the Department of Computing in 1991 and became Research Associate in 1995. She was promoted to Professor of Applied Computational Logic in 2016. Professor Russo has held several senior roles within the Department of Computing, including Director of Postgraduate Research and Deputy Head of the Department since 2020. 

Professor Russo’s main research areas are in Computational Logic, Symbolic Machine Learning, Probabilistic and Distributed Inference, and their applications to Intelligent Adaptive Systems, Security, Network Management, Distributed Control Systems for Sensor Networks, and System Biology.

Consuls and Proconsuls

Professor Ann Muggeridge has been elected as Proconsul, for a term of three years, starting from 1 September 2024.  This follows the completion of her term as Consul for the Faculty of Engineering and the Business School at the end of August 2024. 

The full list of Consuls and Proconsuls for 2024-2025 is set out below.   

Consuls 

Professor Jonathan Mestel – Senior Consul 

Professor Renata Kosova – Faculty of Engineering and Business School 

Professor Alessandro Astolfi – Faculty of Engineering and Business School 

Professor Miriam Moffatt – Faculty of Medicine 

Professor Wisia Wedzicha – Faculty of Medicine (Clinical) 

Professor Stephen Curry – Natural Sciences and cross College organisations 

Professor David Evans – Natural Sciences and cross College organisations   

Proconsuls 

Professor Dorian Haskard 

Professor Richard Jardine 

Professor Liz Lightstone 

Professor Martin McCall 

Professor Ann Muggeridge 

Professor Peter Openshaw 

Deputy University Secretary and General Counsel

Bridget Edminson has been appointed to the position of Deputy University Secretary and General Counsel.

In this role, Bridget will lead the Central Secretariat, Risk Management, Safeguarding, Research Integrity, Internal Audit and Corporate Compliance functions, in addition to her ongoing leadership of the Legal and Regulatory Affairs team.  

Bridget joined Imperial in September 2022 and has established a high-quality legal and regulatory compliance team. Prior to joining Imperial, Bridget was General Counsel and Director of Governance and Compliance at the University of Sussex, and prior to that worked for 18 years in the Government Legal Service. 

Head of Department of Finance

Professor Robert Kosowski has accepted an extension to his appointment as Head of the Department of Finance, at the Business School, until 31 July 2025.

Professor Kosowski joined Imperial from INSEAD in 2006 as Assistant Professor and was promoted to Professor of Finance in 2019. He served previously as Deputy Head of the Department of Finance.

He is also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research, and has held several advisory positions with notable institutions – including with the UK Government, within the banking sector, and with the International Monetary Fund.

Professor Kosowski’s research interests include asset management, risk management, machine learning, hedge funds, mutual funds, performance measurement, business cycles, derivative trading strategies and economic forecasting.

Head of the Department of Surgery and Cancer

Professor George Hanna FMedSci has accepted an extension to his appointment as Head of the Department of Surgery and Cancer until 31 January 2027.

Professor Hanna is currently Head of the Division of Surgery within the department and holds a chair in Surgical Sciences. Professor Hanna’s clinical work is based at Hammersmith Hospital, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in oesophageal and gastric cancer surgery.

The current interest of his laboratory revolves around volatile organic compounds analysis to investigate molecular drivers of volatile biomarkers and develop a non-invasive breath test as a platform technology to detect gastrointestinal cancers. He leads an NIHR Health Technology Centre in In-Vitor Diagnostics.

Registrar and University Secretary

Following the recent appointment process, Richard Martin has accepted appointment as Registrar and University Secretary, with effect from 1 March 2024.

Richard will combine the responsibilities of University Secretary (Central Secretariat, Legal & Regulatory, Risk and Corporate Compliance) with his current role leading Academic Services.

He will report to the President as University Secretary (and also to the Chair of Council as Clerk to Council) and to the Provost as Registrar leading the Academic Services Group.

Richard began his career in Higher Education as a Graduate Management Trainee at Imperial in 2000, becoming Deputy Faculty Administrator for the Faculty of Engineering in 2003 and then moving to work at UCL and in Australia where he was responsible for establishing UCL’s first overseas campus in Adelaide as Chief Operating Officer of UCL Australia.

Richard returned to Imperial in 2011 to take up the role of Faculty Operating Officer for the Faculty of Engineering, after which he served as Director of Transformation and most recently Director of Academic Services.

Consuls

Renáta Kosová, Professor of Economics and Deputy Head of the Department of Economics and Public Policy, at the Imperial College Business School, has been elected to succeed Professor Ann Muggeridge as one of the Consuls for the Faculty of Engineering and the Business School, for a term of three years, from 1 September 2024 to 31 August 2027.

The full list of consuls, senior consul and proconsuls for 2024-25 will be announced in the coming weeks.