Kathryn Al-Shemmeri has accepted appointment as Chief People Officer with effect from 4 November 2024.
Reporting directly to the President, Kathryn will be a vital member of the University Management Board and its committees. She will oversee the Human Resources function and provide strategic leadership on all people-related matters.
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.
Kristin Blanchfield has accepted appointment as Imperial’s Vice-President (Advancement), with effect from January 2025.
Reporting to the President, Kristin will lead the Advancement Division to drive funding and alumni engagement in support of our new institutional strategy. She will be a key member of the University Management Board and its committees.
Professor Anne Dell CBE FRS FMedSci FAA has been elected Consul for the Faculty of Natural Sciences and cross University organisations for a term of office starting from 1 November 2024 until 31 August 2026. Professor Dell will be replacing one of the two Consuls for this constituency, Professor Stephen Curry, who will serve as Consul until 31 October 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 University organisations – until 31 October 2024
Professor David Evans – Natural Sciences and cross University organisations
Professor Anne Dell – Natural Sciences and cross University organisations – from 1 November 2024
Proconsuls
Professor Dorian Haskard
Professor Richard Jardine
Professor Liz Lightstone
Professor Martin McCall
Professor Ann Muggeridge
Professor Peter Openshaw
Professor Richard Craster has accepted an extension to his term as Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences until 31 August 2027.
Reporting to the Provost, Professor Craster is responsible for providing strategic leadership, planning and coordination for the Faculty of Natural Sciences, and for driving continuing excellence in research and education. As Dean, Professor Craster is a member of Imperial’s Council and its University Management Board (UMB).
Professor Craster was both an undergraduate and PhD student of Imperial, and joined Imperial as a staff member in 1998 as a lecturer holding an EPSRC Advanced Fellowship, following a lectureship at the University of Nottingham and Junior Research Fellowship at Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge. He was promoted to Professor of Applied Mathematics in 2004 and was Head of the Department of Mathematics from 2011 to 2017. He was the Director of the CNRS-Imperial Abraham de Moivre International Joint Research Unit until 2023 and is Co-Director of the EPSRC-funded UK Acoustics Network. Professor Craster is also a member of the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering.
Professor Craster’s research interests lie at the intersection of applied mathematics, engineering and physics in particular in metamaterials, guided waves, fluid mechanics and elasticity.
Professor Mark Thursz has accepted the appointment of Director of the Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC), with effect from 1 August 2024, for a term of five years. He succeeds Professor Jonathan Weber who had held this position since 2012. We express our thanks to Professor Weber for his long stint in office and for his unwavering commitment to the AHSC and its NHS partners and to Imperial College London.
Professor Thursz has been the Head of the Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction (MDR) since 2019, a role he will step down from in due course once a new postholder is identified and takes up the post.
Professor Thursz joined Imperial in 1991 as a clinical research fellow and was appointed to a Senior Lectureship in 1997. He was promoted to Professor of Hepatology in 2006. He has held many senior roles within the Department and Faculty, including Head of the Division of Digestive Diseases within MDR, and St Mary’s Campus Director.
He is R&D Director at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, where he is a consultant hepatologist based at St Mary’s Hospital. He is also Director of the NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre, which in 2022 was awarded a five-year grant of over £95M from the NIHR to support research activity in collaboration with Imperial College London.
Professor Thursz is a former secretary of the British Association for Study of the Liver (BASL) and led the European Association for Study of the Liver, as Secretary-General (2011-13). Professor Thursz’s research interests are focussed on viral hepatitis and alcohol-related liver disease. He established the Prevention of Liver Fibrosis and Cancer in Africa (PROLIFCA) programme to address barriers that prevent the control and elimination of viral hepatitis in countries with limited resources. He also runs a translational research programme in alcohol-related liver disease funded by the MRC and NIHR.
Professor Graham Cooke has accepted appointment as Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, with effect from 1 August 2024, for a term of five years.
Professor Cooke will continue in his role as Vice-Dean (Research) for the Faculty of Medicine. Professor Cooke is also currently serving as Deputy Head of the Department of Infectious Disease, a role which he will step down once he takes on the role of Deputy Dean of the Faculty.
The Julia Higgins Medal and Awards recognise individuals, groups, and departments that have made a significant contribution to the support of academic women at the university.
Award winners
You can read more about the awards in our news story.
The Provost’s Awards for Excellence in Health and Safety recognise individuals and teams whose efforts have resulted in significant improvements to health and safety in the university over the past year.
Individual award winners:
Team award winner: Life Sciences Health and Safety Task Force
Highly commended:
You can read more about the awards in our news story.
The Provost’s Awards for Excellence in Animal Research celebrate good practice by research and CBS staff at Imperial.
Individual award winners:
Team winners:
You can read more about the awards in our news story.