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President’s Awards for Excellence in Culture and Community

The President’s Awards for Excellence are annual awards to recognise staff members who have made outstanding contributions in Culture and Community, Education, Research, Societal Engagement or Sustainability.

The President’s Awards for Excellence in Culture and Community recognise staff who have made outstanding contributions over the last year in Leadership: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion; Collaboration: and Sustainability.

President’s Medal for Excellence in Culture and Community

For individuals or teams who have made exceptional contributions to Culture and Community across the university.

Medal winner: Culture and Engagement Committee, Department of Surgery and Cancer

  • Gina Brown
  • Elsa Paul
  • Christopher Peters
  • Karen Pontifex

President’s Award for Excellence in Leadership

For staff who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and management at all levels within the university.

Winner: Julie King, Centre for Academic English

President’s Award for Excellence in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

For an individual or team who have delivered a specific project, initiative or demonstrated inclusive participation in their everyday behaviour that significantly contributes to the enhancement of equality, diversity and inclusion at the university.

Individual winner: Helen Johnson, National Heart and Lung Institute

Team winner: Imperial as One Media Academy

  • Hayley Dunning, Communications Division
  • Sarah Essilife-Quaye, National Heart and Lung Institute
  • Al McCartney, Faculty of Medicine Centre
  • Wayne Mitchell, Department of Immunology & Inflammation
  • Ellie Cawthera, Communications Division
  • Maxine Myers, Communications Division

President’s Award for Excellence in Collaboration

For an individual colleague or team who embodies our spirit of the Imperial community.

Individual winner: Toby Emmerson, Business School

Team winner: Producing Rational Evidence for Parasiticide Pollution (PREPP) Team

  • Leon Barron, School of Public Health
  • Tilly Collins, Centre for Environmental Policy
  • Neil Jennings, Grantham Institute
  • Andrew Prentis, Grantham Institute
  • Guy Woodward, Department of Life Sciences

President’s Award for Excellence in Sustainability

For an individual or team who have delivered a specific project or initiative or embedded everyday good practice that significantly contributes to the enhancement of sustainability at the university.

Individual winner: Sharron Stubbs, Faculty of Medicine Centre

Team winner: CID Green Team, Centre of Inflammatory Disease

  • Lyndon Costa
  • Alice Denton
  • Neil Galloway-Phillips
  • Christina Malaktou
  • Stacey McIntyre
  • Kerry Rostron-Barrett
  • Kassandra Vezyrgianni

You can read more about the awards in our news story.

Head of the National Heart and Lung Institute

Professor Barbara Casadei, MD DPhil FRCP FMedSci, has accepted the appointment of Head of the National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI) for a term of five years, and Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, with effect from 1 October 2024.

Professor Casadei holds the British Heart Foundation (BHF) Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Oxford and is an Honorary Consultant in Cardiovascular Medicine at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Professor Casadei is a Steering Committee Member of the Oxford BHF Centre for Research Excellence and Lead of the Cardiovascular Theme of the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre. She has been in the Board of Trustees of the Association of Physicians of Great Britain & Ireland, since 2021.

Professor Casadei has served on several other senior roles within the University of Oxford such as Lead of the Myocardial Biology Theme of the Oxford BHF Centre of Research Excellence and Deputy Head of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine.

She was Elected President of the European Society of Cardiology in 2018 and served until 2020. She served as Board member of the World Heart Federation (2020-22).

Professor Casadei was elected Fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedsci), in 2013. She was awarded the Honorary International Fellowship of the American Heart Association (FAHA), in 2018 and was awarded both The Gold Medal of the European Society of Cardiology, and The Mackenzie Medal of the British Cardiovascular Society, in 2020.  

Professor Casadei will take over from Professor Clare Lloyd who, as Interim Head of the NHLI, has been responsible for introducing many improvements and innovations, providing strategic vision, direction, and leadership to the Institute.

Extension of Terms of Offices within Faculty of Medicine

Professor Marina Botto FMedSci has accepted an extension to her term of office as Head of the Department of Immunology and Inflammation, in the Faculty of Medicine, by a further three years, until 31 July 2027.

Professor Botto is also the Interim Head of the Department of Brain Sciences and will continue so until we recruit the permanent Head. Professor Botto holds a Chair in Rheumatology in the Department of Immunology and Inflammation and also serves as Director of Bioservices at Imperial. Professor Botto’s clinical work is based at Hammersmith Hospital.

Professor Botto’s research focuses on how complement deficiency contributes to the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

Professor Mark Thursz has accepted an extension to his term of office as Head of the Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction, in the Faculty of Medicine, by a further three years, until 31 July 2027.

Mark Thursz is Professor of Hepatology in the Department. His clinical work is based at the St Mary’s Hospital. He has held many senior roles within the Department and Faculty, including currently Director Imperial Biomedical Research Centre, the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust Research Director, Head of Division of Digestive Diseases within the Department, and previously was St Mary’s Campus Director.

Professor Thursz’ research interests are focussed on alcohol-related liver disease, MAFLD and viral hepatitis.

Professor Wendy Barclay CBE  FMedSci has accepted an extension to her term of office as Head of the Department of Infectious Disease, in the Faculty of Medicine, by a further year, until 31 July 2025.

Professor Barclay holds the Action Medical Research Chair in Virology within the Department.

Professor Barclay’s expertise is in the field of respiratory viruses, in particular influenza viruses. Her studies aim to understand the molecular and cellular basis of the pathogenesis, host range restrictions and transmissibility of influenza viruses.

Professor Barclay was awarded a CBE for her contributions to the study of viruses and her research during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Professor Clare Lloyd FMedSci has accepted an extension to her term of office as Vice-Dean (Institutional Affairs) for the Faculty of Medicine, by a further two years, until 31 May 2026.

Professor Lloyd holds the Chair in Respiratory Immunology in the National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI) and was the NHLI’s first Institute Lead for Women from 2008-2014. Professor Lloyd has been the Interim Head of the NHLI since June 2023 and will continue in this interim role until the new Head of NHLI takes up the post.

Her research focuses on the development and regulation of immune responses in the lung, particularly the inception of allergic immunity in early life.

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 

Head of Department for Management and Entrepreneurship

Professor Kevin Corley has accepted the appointment of Head of the Department of Management and Entrepreneurship, at the Imperial College Business School, with effect from 1 May 2024 until 31 July 2025.  

Professor Corley joined Imperial as Professor of Management in 2022 from the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State where he held a Full Professor position. Professor Corley has also been a Visiting Professor at IE Business School in Madrid, Spain. 

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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.

Interim Head of the Department of Brain Sciences

Professor Marina Botto FMedSci has accepted an appointment as Interim Head of the Department of Brain Sciences with effect from 8 April 2024 for a period of six months, in the first instance. This is to succeed the current Head of the Department, Professor Paul Matthews, who is taking up the post of Director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute, in Cambridge.

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