After over 29 years with Imperial, Departmental Manager, Julia Anderson retired at the end of June. To honor her time at the College, an event took place on the 21 June to celebrate her incredible contribution and dedication to Imperial.
The event drew people from across Julia’s time at the College, including those who had retired or left, coming back to say their goodbyes. These included Prof Sean Hughes, the very first head of Department after the 1997 merger, along with Nigel Buck, Jenny Higham, and Suze Farrell.
Jeremy Nicholson gave a detailed overview of Julia’s career, which all started in November 1974 at the Westminster Medical School. After a brief spell at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1984, Julia came back to the Medical School and formed part of the project team for building the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. She remained until CXWMS merged with other London Medical Schools to form the Imperial College School of Medicine (ICSM) in 1997. Since that time, Julia has been managing the Department through its many iterations over the last 21 years.
Professor Ara Darzi also gave a heartfelt speech on Julia’s consistent dedication to the development and support of the Department and the personal role she has played in supporting him and his work.
Julia played a huge role in forming and championing the Athena SWAN initiative in the Department and leaves a strong legacy in place for the next phase in the Department achieving its silver award.
The role of Departmental Manager will be taken on by Elsa Paul, who comes to us from the Faculty of Medicine at Kings College London. Elsa will be starting on the 30 July.