POP up SURGERY Medical Drama in the Inflatable Operating Theatre WELCOME

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THE MAGAZINE OF IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON Spring 2012

POP UP SURGERY Medical drama in the inflatable operating theatre WELCOME |

spring 2012 FROM THE ➜ inside issue 37 RECTOR Sta • Editor-in-Chief: Tom Miller (Biology 1995) • Creative Director: Beth Elzer • Editor-at-Large and Features Excellence is a healthy preoccupation for the Rector Editor: Natasha Martineau (MSc Science Communication 1994) • News Editor: Laura Gallagher • Managing Editor: Pamela Many of you have shared that Agar same message with me over the • Sub Editor and Distribution: past year at events in London Saskia Daniel and across the globe. You wish • Contributors: Jessica Adams, to see Imperial continually our- Elizabeth Atkin, Caroline Davis, ish because you, like me, believe John-Paul Jones, Simon Levey, that what we do here makes a Emily Ross-Joannou, Simon real di erence to society. 26 Behind the scenes Watts, Katie Weeks, Sam Wong BITING BACK (MSc Science Communication e translation of our research Liing the lid on the life 2009) can transform lives. To give an scientists who are ghting example, a new collaboration malaria The magazine for Imperial’s with the Royal British Legion COMBAT WOUNDS friends, supporters and alumni, will nd novel ways to protect Lab equipment replicating 28 Going public including former students of service men and women from the impact of explosions CUTTING EDGE Imperial College London, the injuries caused by explosive aims to help researchers Rector’s welcome 16 Feature Operating dramas and former Charing Cross and West- devices (see page 8). improve treatment of LEADING LIGHT surgical surprises – not for the minster Medical School, Royal bomb injuries. Inbox Inside the mind of theoretical squeamish Postgraduate Medical School, rough the educational Editorial, letters and physicist Sir John Pendry St Mary’s Hospital Medical experience we provide, we give contributors 31 Alter ego School and Wye College. students academic expertise, 20 Picture this CHORD CHEMIST broaden their horizons and To continue making a real e articles in this issue of Imperial bear In brief THE IMPERIAL UNDERWORLD Lecturer and musician Published twice a year by the equip them with skills for their dierence in this way, we testament to some of the big ideas and Spotlight on recent events Photographer Dave Guttridge Michael Bearpark connects Communications and Develop- future careers. e impact can need the right route map and, creative approaches to education currently and discoveries ne tunes his tunnel vision teaching and performing ment Division. imperialmagazine be seen through the success critically, the right fuel. With emerging from the College. e new eld of @imperial.ac.uk of our alumni, who contribute radical changes to the way metamaterials championed by physicist John 12 Product pipeline 22 Feature 32 Good reception to a wide variety of elds and higher education is funded in Pendry (see page 16), or the astounding and HELP AT HAND GETTING THINGS DONE Alumni, friends, supporters and Subscriptions endeavours, extending Impe- the UK, reducing the amount realistic surgical simulations developed by Hospital equipment designed An inside view on the role of sta¢ at College events around If you would like to subscribe rial’s reach far and wide. As universities receive from the Roger Kneebone and his colleagues to train to wipe out infections engineering in government the world to Imperial magazine please Hang Cheong Tan, President government, it is essential that surgeons and immerse public audiences from David Fisk email imperialmagazine@ of the Imperial College Alumni we seek out and explore new in the surgical experience (see page 28) are 13 Question time 34 Travel imperial.ac.uk Association of Singapore, said sources of funding. cases in point. It is world-changing innova- Has the human genome SAND TRAP at a reception last summer: tions and advances like these that we need to project lived up to its Geologist Cedric John looks for Online “e mark of a truly world class Many of you have already nd new ways to sustain in the future. promise? an answer to global warming in www.imperial.ac.uk/ institution is measured by what stepped forward to help – nearly the Omani desert imperialmagazine its graduates do aer leaving.” 4,000 of you understood the I hope to welcome many of you to the 14 Careering ahead urgent need I highlighted last inaugural Imperial Festival, which includes MAGNIFICENT MOTORS 35 Obituaries Opinions, beliefs and view- summer for scholarships to the Alumni Reunion on Saturday 12 May, Alumnus Will Fiennes gets points expressed by authors support the brightest students and to meet many more of you further aeld, under the bonnet of vintage 36 In memoriam in Imperial magazine do not who may struggle with the cost. during my visits to countries across the car restoration necessarily reflect those of anks to your contributions world. I look forward to receiving your guid- 38 Alumni dispatches the College. we were able to spend £624,000 ance on the College’s future path. 15 Campus life on Rector’s Scholarships in STORMY CROSSING 39 Calendar No part of Imperial magazine 2011–12, awarding many more Best wishes, Master’s student Kelly Oakes may be reproduced in any form than ever before. Imperial is far writes about riding today’s without permission. behind its global competitors in jobs market the size of the endowment funds ©Imperial College London 2012 it can call upon, so I am hugely RING RING grateful to all of you who have The autumn telethon supported us. Your contribution SIR KEITH O’NIONS FRS is Rector of Imperial College raised £381,000 for the helps to ensure that we continue London. He is a geologist who has worked at Oxford, Cambridge ON THE COVER Rector’s Scholarship Fund to achieve the excellence in and Columbia Universities, and has served the UK government Illustration by Matt Owens/ thanks to pledges education, research and transla- as Chief Scienti c Advisor to the Ministry of Defence, and as Volumeone.com from 1,344 alumni. tion that is core to our mission. former Director-General of the Research Councils. ILLUSTRATION: ¦PENDRY¨ VICTORIA TOPPING. PHOTOS: ¦ROCK¨ CEDRIC JOHN; ¦BLADES¨ DAVE GUTTRDIGE/THE PHOTOGRAPHIC UNIT PHOTOGRAPHIC GUTTRDIGE/THE DAVE ¦BLADES¨ JOHN; CEDRIC ¦ROCK¨ PHOTOS: TOPPING. VICTORIA ¦PENDRY¨ ILLUSTRATION: FINN®KELCEY MIKE ¦TELETHON¨ ; BEDDALL MARTIN RIG¨ ¦BLAST FINN®KELCEY, MIKE ¦RECTOR¨ PHOTOS:

TIME AND TIDE WHAT YOU WROTE TO US ABOUT Dear Sir, I read with interest the Story ideas obituary of Dr David Warren in the you’d like to Spring/Summer 2011 issue of Imperial New look read about magazine. My grandfather, Benjamin of the W. Warwick, was one of T.H. Huxley’s magazine Cool boys reading physics at the Royal inventions College of Science, having previously trained as an escapement maker and clockmaker. In about 1890, he made a clockwork-powered ship’s magnetic FROM THE EDITOR heading recorder which recorded on MORE PLEASE paper tape. He patented it and the Hello Tom, What’s happened to your Ponti cation and Amazing prototype worked on several voyages magazine! I opened it up on my iPad opinions on our achievements Imperial measure to Portugal. Unfortunately, it was not and immediately found three stories I articles by alumni a commercial success, evidently being want to read. It looks fantastic. Graph- Everyone remembers a good teacher. At your far ahead of the available technology. ics and style look like they’re heading most receptive, their very words can lodge in Dr Warren’s successful device has towards Wired magazine, which has your ears for a lifetime. manifestly lled a real need. to be a good thing. e closer people Among Biology favourites, I remember associate the cuing edge work MOST UNUSUAL PLACE TO FIND Professor Charles Godfray’s line on evolution: JUSTIN WARWICK coming out of Imperial with popular THE MAGAZINE “The name of the game is to get as many of your Mechanical Engineering 1957, MSc 1960, culture, the more it’ll have impact. Dear Sir, My full name is Le Trinh Quan MSc History of Science, Technology and genes into the next generation as possible.” Medicine 2005 Aer graduating in Aeronauti- Hien. You can call me Joseph (my Christian Whilst I was learning about relatedness, I heard cal Engineering in the 90s, I went on name). I am Vietnamese. of chemical engineers receiving profound insight to study, teach, and research at the Last week I went to the Singapore into whether hell was exothermic or endothermic, Royal College of Art. I’m particularly General Hospital and saw your magazine. and for medics a vivid lesson on why there’s no interested in how new technology I learnt some new things which I had not such thing as ‘normal anatomy’. RECENT TWEET is embedded in everyday life (along known before. Even though I am not an Moments like these are gis from truly with its social, cultural and ethical alumnus of the College, I would love to outstanding teachers, and we’re blessed at the INBOX Enjoying the Rector’s implications). I’m very pleased your receive it. Imperial to have so many around us. talk at the alumni dinner, magazine’s taking this new approach. One who knows more than most about wielding I suggest you reach I imagine there might be some old JOSEPH HIEN such inspiration is Dr Lorraine Craig of Earth out to lost alumni via reactionaries who prefer to return to Science and Engineering. Thanks to her and her LEAVE SCHOOL IMMEDIATELY! You have advocated us taking an appren- Facebook.” @ANTHONYHSIAO a trade or professional journal style Editor’s reponse ➜ – Your copy’s in the post! colleagues’ e¢orts, the Department regularly tops Our Spring/Summer 2011 issue featured ticeship. Are you aware, Sir, that all the magazine. Don’t listen to them. I the tables of our most satised students. Professor David Edgerton musing on the boys in this audience are planning to go love this new direction, and I plan to So it’s tting that Lorraine chairs Exploration relationship between war and innovation, to university. What would you recom- Glad you’re enjoying forward the PDF to other colleagues Board, operational since 1955, and responsi- and the role that Imperial played in the mend that we do?” Mumbai reception & in the creative industries. SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS ble for sending adventurous students to the Second World War. Without hesitation, Sir William hearing what #ImpCol’s Congratulations. More along By post to • Imperial Magazine, SALC Mezzanine, furthest flung and most demanding parts of the answered in three words: “Leave school up to at the moment. these lines please. Level 5 Shereld Building, South Kensington world, such as the Obra Valley in the Himalayas, Congratulations on an excellent new- immediately!” Will be sure to pass on Campus, London SW7 2AZ, UK pictured below during a recent student trip. look Imperial magazine! In the coach on the way back, our FB suggestion.” BRENDAN WALKER By email • [email protected] This summer the Board is looking to approve a I was particularly interested in crestfallen maths teacher pointed out @IMPERIALCOLLEGE Aeronautics 1993, DIC Mechanical Engineering By online comment • www.imperial.ac.uk/ 1996 full slate of overseas expeditions, and to preserve David Edgerton’s article, and in particu- that, famous as Sir William was, his was imperialmagazine its ability (almost unique in the UK) to do so lar his mention of “the great railway but one opinion. I am glad that I, for well into the future by seeking support from engineer Sir William Stanier”. one, chose to opt for the maths teacher’s sponsors and alumni. If you think you might Sometime in 1947–48, I was in a recommendation to stay on at school. from the share the vision to preserve this ultimate student group of boys from my school taken I spent a happy three years (1949–52) WELL… WE DID ASK experience then please consider contacting by our maths master to hear a talk by doing the Mining Engineering course at Dear Friends, I have received the rst ARCHIVE Lorraine directly at [email protected] Sir William on careers in engineering, the RSM. copy of your new magazine Imperial in MOULD FRIEND, I hope you like this new issue of Imperial, will during which he extolled the benets of Sir William, great man that he was, which you ask for comments. I must NEW IDENTITY keep your letters coming and, if you’re tickled by a full seven-year apprenticeship as being did not always have the right ideas! say that I nd it very supercial and what you see in these pages, then please think the only practical means of becoming not as good as Imperial Maers, which From the moment that a spore FLEMING’S MAGIC BULLET: about joining us for the ‘live version’ – the inau- a successful engineer. At the end of the A.C. TONY BREWIS at least had some in-depth articles of of fungus fell onto Sir Alexander Alexander Fleming’s discovery gural Imperial Festival on 11–12 May. Thank you. talk, those in the audience were asked if Geology 1952, DIC Mining and Mineral interest. I sincerely hope that Imperial Fleming’s culture plate in 1928, of penicillin might never have Technology 1961 there were any questions. One boy Engineer will continue to publish the killing the surrounding bacteria, happened had it not been for TOM MILLER Biology 1995 bravely stood up and said “Yes, Sir. very good contributions that it has it was destined to become one of his shooting prowess. in the past. Your magazine may serve the most studied organisms on the planet. But despite eight He had the option of becoming some general public interest, but decades of attention from scientists, it seems there may have a surgeon but the captain of WE’RE TWEETING! seems to have nothing worthy of the been a case of mistaken identity. The fungus that contami- St Mary’s rifle club, apparently high standing that the College repre- nated Fleming’s bacterial culture in his messy laboratory in reluctant to lose Fleming sents. Sorry to be so negative – but St Mary’s Hospital Medical School (which merged with Imperial as a member, suggested @ImperialSpark Documentary researcher asked if we have a perpetual you did ask! in 1988) was later ascribed to the species Penicillium chrys- that Fleming join St Mary’s motion machine. Unfortunately we require all our academics to obey ogenum. Now Imperial scientists have subjected preserved research department. There, the laws of thermodynamics. EDGAR MOSS specimens of Fleming’s fungus to modern genetic analysis, he became assistant bacteri- Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry and discovered that it’s actually a closely-related species, ologist to Sir Almroth Wright. 1945, PhD 1947 which has yet to be named. ➜ Doing something brilliant? Tell us about it at @ImperialCollege or @ImperialSpark PHOTOGRAPHY: ¦TOM MILLER¨ MARTIN BEDDALL; ¦OBRA VALLEY¨ JONATHAN PHILLIPS; ILLUSTRATION: ¦GEAR¨ MARK ALLEN MILLER ALLEN MARK ¦GEAR¨ ILLUSTRATION: PHILLIPS; JONATHAN VALLEY¨ ¦OBRA BEDDALL; MARTIN MILLER¨ ¦TOM PHOTOGRAPHY: UNIT PHOTOGRAPHIC GUTTRIDGE/THE DAVE ¦IPAD¨ PHOTOGRAPHY:

| IMPERIAL | SPRING ¯°±¯ SPRING ¯°±¯ | IMPERIAL | AND NOW A FEW interview theoretical physi- WORDS FROM OUR cist John Pendry (page 16). CONTRIBUTORS “John enjoys a formidable reputation among students and sta¢, and I initially /in brief worried that he would be a EVENTS + DISCOVERIES “Facially, he’s brilliant” says completely impenetrable photographer TIM WALLACE, interviewee. In fact, it is rare who took pictures of Will to meet a scientist who is Space plans (1) Fiennes (PhD Mechanical so clear about what they do Engineering 1970) and his and why they do it.” Anjana CITIES SLICKER classic cars for Careering is a freelance science writer Researchers from ahead (page 14). “Will looks and columnist for Prospect Imperial are embark- like he’s been an engineer magazine. Previously, she heat up ing on a programme since he was ve years old!” worked at The Times as a to improve the quality Tim’s own chosen cra was feature writer and science line as pre-vinyl disc jockey photography and is inspired event presented in glorious of life in cities, by also clear from a young age: columnist. DJ78, using two 1930s by David’s work in making detail on page 28. Jessica, making them more he rst picked up a camera “Not only hot but steamy, wind-up gramophones and sure the voice of engineer- who has peered inside pleasant and e¸cient at the age of seven and is too,” is how photographer his vast collection of rare ing is heard in government: cadavers and held a human places in which to live, now a specialist in automo- DAVE GUTTRIDGE (3) shellac records. “It took a while and I had brain as part of her biomedi- work and travel. tive photography, with a described his experience of Illustrator VINCENT to do a few studies – it’s cal sciences degree, found clientele including some shooting Imperial’s network RHAFAEL ASEO (4) is important to nd a refer- the experience a unique of the most prestigious car of underground tunnels for based in the Philippines, ence photograph with good one. “The simulation manufacturers in the world. Picture this (page 20). We where he generates his art composition.” appealed to people’s fasci- Double alumnus ANJANA also enlisted Dave’s expert using a mix of computer Science reporter JESSICA nation with medical drama AHUJA (2) (Physics 1990, eye for a number of other programmes, a good eye HAMZELOU (5) (MSc – it was certainly a novel PhD 1993) experiences unusual photoshoots for and lots of hard work. His Science Communication way to spend my Saturday a bout of nostalgia as issue 37 of Imperial (pages depiction of David Fisk 2009) had to hold on to her morning,” says Jessica, who she reconnects with the 28 and 31). When not behind for Getting things done nerves and her breakfast to can more oen be found Department of Physics to the camera, Dave does a ne (page 22) draws on portrait cover the simulated surgery writing for New Scientist. Most cities have grown without strategic planning, meaning Victorian sewers service state- of-the-art hospitals Imperial scientists are planning to take physics to new limits with two missions recently given the and intelligent cars green light by the European Space Agency, which are due to launch by 2019. Solar Orbiter will travel use roads with limited closer to the Sun than any other mission, measuring the star’s magnetic ¤eld and improving our capabilities. Problems understanding of how solar activity and the harsh solar wind a¥ect the Earth. The Euclid mission will with transport, energy, address key questions about dark energy and dark matter, which are fundamental to physics and water and waste tend cosmology, and search for clues to the early expansion of the universe. Through a massive ‘near- to be considered on infrared digital camera’, Euclid will survey far distant parts of space using faint light that started its their own, rather than Tap into journey shortly a«er the Big Bang. jointly. The £5.9 million Digital City Exchange IMPERIAL’S programme, funded by Research Councils UK, PERCENTAGE REDUCTION IN DEATHS FROM aims to create a more INFECTION AND RESPIRATORY ILLNESS integrated approach. BIG IDEAS AMONG PATIENTS PRESCRIBED A STATIN It is hoped this will The benefits of being prescribed statins enable city leaders are still being felt by participants to better manage following a major trial that ended peak demand across 36 in 2003. Imperial researchers have sectors, conserve found that the death rate among those prescribed a statin is still lower than resources, stabilise in those given a placebo, even though prices and create most participants in both groups have capacity for busi- Stay up to speed on the been taking statins ever since. nesses to grow. latest thinking and research with Imperial’s inaugural and special lectures online. IN HIS OWN WORDS: Felix Editor, Pallab Ghosh (Physics 1983) I even managed to annoy the then Rector to the point that he arranged for a www.imperial.ac.uk/ rival one-o newspaper to be produced, called Fido, full of gossip about me.” events/catchup Felix, Imperial’s student newspaper, published its 1,500th issue in November 2011. The newspaper began in 1949 and is still keeping students up-to-date and entertained today, breaking stories, unveiling scandals, and – in the tradition of all great newspapers – keeping the authorities on their toes. You can browse the Felix archive, including the very rst edition, at www.felixonline.co.uk/issuearchive ILLUSTRATION: ¦SOLAR ORBITER ¨ EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY ¦ESA¨ AGENCY SPACE EUROPEAN ¨ ORBITER ¦SOLAR ILLUSTRATION:

FRONT LINE SCIENCE THE APP: A SPOTON IDEA

Students from Impe- rial and UCL have won £10,000 for developing a digital aid to ght acne in the Startup Summer entre- preneurial competition. Spotless is a phone application and web platform that allows users to take a photograph of their skin  A»UBIS and then track the spread ANTIVEHICLE UNDERBELLY or retreat of their acne, Lost and found BLAST INJURY SIMULATOR providing them and their doctors with a record of Scientists race against time to save the GOAL > Replicates an under-vehicle how the acne is respond- explosion and its effects on limbs ing to di¢erent treatments last ‘Flying Pencil’ from being erased ONE OF A KIND > Only device that over time. The money will At midday on 26 August 1940, at the height of the Bale can simulate such explosions in support developing the of Britain, a German bomber was intercepted by F controlled conditions idea as a product and aircra, sustaining heavy damage. It crash-landed in the TO ¤ HOURS > Time it takes to registering Spotless as a shallows o the Kentish coast by the Goodwin Sands, set up an experiment company. killing two of its four crew members. A FRACTION OF A SECOND > e wreck of the Dornier 17 plane, also known as How long the experiment lasts the ‘Flying Pencil’, sank some 50 feet to the boom and NAME > Anubis is the ancient was covered in sand. Egyptian god of the underworld By 2010, the sands had shied enough to uncover what The recovery is believed to be the last ‘Flying and conservation Pencil’ in existence. Now, Impe- of this bomber will rial researchers are in a race greatly enhance against time to defend the plane the RAF Museum’s against the corrosive eects ability to tell the of seawater, so that it can be wider story of the conserved and exhibited. Battle of Britain, SOLAR CHARGING: e Royal Air Force Museum particularly the A BRIGHT PLAN is planning to li the plane out of sacrifices made the sea later in 2012. ey ulti- on both sides oadside bombs are the better means of protecting people from The team is also aiming to develop A strategy to enable mately want to unveil it in a new during the leading cause of death and bomb blasts. a test that can detect the early onset of retailers in the developing gallery in tribute to those who conflict. injury for armed service Centre Director Professor Anthony Bull blast lung – the most common cause world to generate income lost their lives during the Bale personnel on operations (Mechanical Engineering 1992, PhD 1995), of death among people who initially by o¢ering a solar mobile of Britain in Afghanistan and Iraq. from the Department of Bioengineering, survive an explosion. Shockwaves from “I very nearly lost phone charging service Dr Mary Ryan, from Imperial’s Department of Advances in medicine and said: “We urgently need to know more, so bomb blasts can cause internal trauma my life for my country, has won £10,000 in the Materials, is one of those trying to save the plane. protective gear mean that soldiers that we can protect and treat people more that can damage whole organs, as well so of course I absolutely Business School’s latest She said: “We have been analysing fragments already have a greater chance of surviving e¢ectively. This centre can make a real as disrupting cellular and molecular welcome any research to Business Plan competition. brought to the surface and it is absolutely fascinating a bomb blast than ever before, di¢erence to the survival and quality of processes. These injuries may not show better understand blast The MBA students plan to see how this bomber, which crash landed more than but those who are injured can face life of those serving in conflicts.” for days, making it di¸cult for medical injuries and to treat and to put most of their prize 70 years ago, has been so well preserved by the layers of amputations, long-term disability Civilian engineers, scientists and teams initially to detect and gauge the equip injured service money towards developing sand. We are relishing the challenge of nding a way to and dependency. military doctors at the Royal British severity of blast trauma. personnel in the future.” the phone charger proto- help save this historical treasure, so that it can be raised

Now, a new £8 million centre Legion Centre for Blast Injury Studies at TRIPLE AMPUTEE AND type, known as Solaris, and and put on display for future generations.” has launched at Imperial that aims Imperial are already working on a number + VIDEO EXTRA : Using real footage and FORMER ROYAL MARINE COMMANDO moving it towards manu- She and her colleagues are developing a liquid MARK ORMROD, ¯º to enable researchers to gain a better of projects, including developing an sounds from the blast lab, a team of MSc Science facture. Solaris was created Communication students, working on a project solution to clean the Flying Pencil’s aluminium understanding of the injuries caused ‘intelligent’ combat boot. Insulated with called Inside Knowledge, have reconstructed by Siten Mandalia (MEng fuselage and remove corroded layers from it. e hope by roadside bombs, improve how putty, this would absorb and then deflect Seven Nation Army, a song by the White Stripes, Mechanical Engineering is that this solution, based on citric acid, will be power- such injuries are treated, and create the impact of an anti-vehicle mine blast. from scratch: http://bit.ly/xv07xp 2009) and it can charge ful enough to clean the bomber and prevent further several mobile phones at aacks of corrosion, but not so powerful that it damages the same time. any remaining paint and markings on the plane. PHOTOGRAPHS: ¦SOLDIER¨ SEAN POWER FOR THE ROYAL BRITISH LEGION; ¦LEG¨ JOHN STILLWELL/PA WIRE STILLWELL/PA JOHN ¦LEG¨ LEGION; BRITISH ROYAL THE FOR POWER SEAN ¦SOLDIER¨ PHOTOGRAPHS:

Wildlife enthusiasts across south- NEW BUZZ east England are volunteering their time to carry out a regular census of rose-ringed ON CAMPUS A parakeets – small, noisy CHEEP green birds that have settled Like hall wardens looking out in England over the last for the students in their care, DATE 50 years. These relatives of the parrot and budgerigar members of the Imperial rst came to the UK from College Environmental Africa and Asia as exotic pets, Society are watching over but many have now escaped 3,000 housemates in and settled in parks and gardens. the South Kensington Researchers from Imperial’s Project £624k Parakeet are using the survey data to Campus’s rst beehive. assess how these birds could a¢ect our = The bees moved into the native British bird populations, as well society’s garden, behind as their potential e¢ect on agriculture. 6» More information about how to take UNDERG DUATE the Ethos sports centre, part is at www.projectparakeet.co.uk. last summer. Sadly they ¼½ had not produced much MASTER’S STUDENTS honey by the time winter set in, so their guardians RUMOUR HAS IT ¾ the parakeets PHD STUDENTS have been feeding them descend from sugar syrup to try to help a pair freed Generous donations from them bolster food supplies. by Jimmy Hendrix alumni and supporters to in the 1960s. the Rector’s Scholarship The budding beekeepers Fund allowed 85 Rector’s have been getting tips from Scholarships to be awarded < colleagues on the Silwood to students beginning their less than studies in the 2011–12 Park Campus, which has academic year, more than seven active hives. In August, 0. 0000000 EYE OPENER gene that is faulty in people with three times as many as the Silwood’s annual honey 00000000 choroideraemia, aiming to halt previous year. harvest produced several jars 00000000 Gene therapy to the deterioration that gradually of honey, which was shared leads to blindness. 0001c m save sight Twelve patients in the trial between those who have been e rst patients to receive gene are undergoing surgery to have working with the bees. The amount the therapy for an incurable type the gene therapy injected into of 20 years of intense research in electron differs from of blindness are being treated one eye. e therapy uses a my laboratory,” Professor Seabra being perfectly round, in a new trial. If successful, virus as a delivery vehicle to said. “Reaching this stage was as recently discovered the advance could lead to the transport DNA, including the only possible because a handful by Imperial physicists. rst-ever treatment for choroi- missing gene, into the light- of aected families and private deraemia, a progressive form sensitive cells in the retina. charities raised enough funds to Turbocharging the roots e ability to oer a of genetic blindness that arises Once there, the gene is switched allow us to perform the relevant gene replacement treatment in childhood and aects over on and becomes active. With research. is is a moment of STUDENTS ENGINEER BACTERIA TO FIGHT SOIL EROSION was the nal objective of 100,000 people worldwide. this particular gene therapy, fullment for us and a dream If the electron was 20 years of intense research e novel gene treatment the treatment could provide a come true for all choroideraemia magnified to the size in my laboratory. is is a was developed by Profes- one-o permanent correction patients”. Undergraduate bioengineers Engineered Machine World Champion- ➜ Soil erosion of the solar system, moment of fullment for us sor Miguel Seabra at Impe- of the disease, since the gene is e trial primarily aims to and life scientists have ship at MIT. In the lab, the team altered worldwide it would still appear and a dream come true for all rial’s National Heart and Lung thought to remain in the retinal assess safety, but the research- engineered bacteria to help E.coli bacteria, so that they could seek prevents stops spherical to within the choroideraemia patients.” Institute in collaboration with cells indenitely. ers expect to nd out within plants to combat soil erosion, out seedling plants and enable these crops growing on width of a human hair. Professor Miguel Seabra Professor Robert MacLaren “e ability to oer a gene two years whether or not the winning them top prizes in to survive better in poor-quality eroded land the equivalent PHOTOGRAPHY: ¦HONEY HARVEST¨ DANIELLA MCMANAMON DANIELLA HARVEST¨ ¦HONEY PHOTOGRAPHY: at Oxford University, who is replacement treatment for these degeneration has been stopped MCMANAMON DANIELLA HARVEST¨ ¦HONEY PHOTOGRAPHY: the 2011 Interna- soil by encouraging the plants’ roots to of half the size of tional Genetically grow faster and longer than normal. leading the trial. It replaces the patients was the nal objective completely by the gene therapy. PROVOST JAMES ¦OLYMPICS¨ ILLUSTRATION: the UK each year.

ROWING Melanie Wilson, a WATERPOLO Adam Scholeeld SAILING Alumna Alexandra Rickham (Environmental FENCING Fourth year medical student Maiyuran OLYMPICS 2012 graduate entry Medical student is Vice-Captain of the GB team Policy 2006) is hoping for a sailing gold in the Ratneswaran is on the GB senior fencing team Watch out for these and rowing scholar, won a place and an Electrical and Electronic Paralympics. She competes in a two-person keelboat while h year Hannah Bryars, another medic, Imperial hopefuls in the GB rowing team in 2009. Engineering PhD student. (SKUD 18) as half of Team Birrell Rickham. is on the women’s fencing team.

The Designing Out Medical Error project brought together hospital sta¥, safety experts and process ➊ analysts from Imperial Has the Human Genome Project lived up to its promise? College London and St Mary’s Hospital with designers at ➌ the Royal College of Art to SMART conceive hospital products DESIGN that minimise the occurrence  of mistakes that endanger Infection the patient. prevention 1 2 3 4

This storage unit helps THE RESEARCH FUNDER THE GENETICIST THE POLICY SPECIALIST THE GP AND ETHICIST hospital sta¥ prevent infections and save time by ensuring that the equipment ➍ e human genome When the rst human e project has com- e project was intro- they need is conveniently project has exceeded our genome was sequenced in pletely changed the way that duced with great fanfare and accessible at the end of e expectations and has 2001 no-one anticipated people talk about genetics high expectations, but two very bed. The CareCentre™ transformed the science of such a massive rate of change. and disease. e research is decades later, it has to be said is now being trialled on ➎ genetics by decoding the e race between public and just the beginning of a big that its impact on primary hospital wards. DNA within each of our private funding for the rst conversation we need to have care is muted. As a GP, I have cells. Many thousands of sequence set the scene for about how we use the data. only occasionally experi- scientists worldwide now use rapid technological develop- It has also raised impor- enced patients requesting ¿. GEL RAISING the genome sequence in their ment. Sequencing costs have tant questions about how non-routine genetic tests, Hand hygiene is regarded as ➋ day-to-day research. Inter- gone from $3 billion to less genetic information from this such as the antenatal test the most important factor in national collaborations are than $5,000 per genome in research should be shared. for cystic brosis or for the preventing hospital-acquired exploring genetic variation just 10 years – now it’s data People are generally disposed BRCA mutations in relation infection, but compliance is among thousands of human analysis and storage that eat to want their data to be used to breast cancer. poor. The CareCentre puts genomes, as well as improv- resources. to help others, as long as it Before widespread alcohol hand gel at the end ing our understanding of e project has caused is done securely and they genetic testing is oered, of every bed, helping sta¢ the biology of other species, a complete culture change retain some control. But how adequate guidance, education remember to wash their including microorganisms in how we research links do we ensure this informa- and training of GPs will have hands before and aer that cause infectious diseases. between genes and disease, tion is used safely, and that to be expanded, so that we visiting each patient. e result is a constant and has provided some discoveries can be shared for are condent in discussing stream of discoveries about patients with diagnoses everyone’s benet? with our patients the ethical . CONTACT PRECAUTIONS ➏ how genetic variation where this previously At medical research char- implications of sharing or Gloves and aprons are kept in uences our health. For wouldn’t have been feasible. ities, we have links to patients, withholding information in the CareCentre, ensuring example, 10 years ago, we For people with some single clinicians, researchers and with or from family members. that it is easy for sta¢ to did not know the mutations gene and common disorders, funders and well-known Outcomes from the follow hygiene protocol. that cause malignant more precise diagnosis and public faces, and we are project have also raised melanoma. As a result of targeted treatment have working on nding answers resource issues in the broader . WRITE STUFF the project, we have now become possible. to these questions. We get healthcare sector. Provi- During their observations found a mutation that I’ve worked on nding beer policy if people engage sion of the new monoclonal of hospital wards, the team occurs in more than half genes for insulin resistance directly, so we need everyone antibody drugs against cancer noticed that drugs trolleys of all melanomas, which has and kidney disease. Being to get involved in discussing has led to strident discussion had no surface to write on, led to the development of the involved in such signicant these issues – from patients about the ethics of ration- making it inconvenient for new drug vemurafenib. advance has been extraordi- to politicians, and children to ing, the so-called postcode sta¢ to put down their folders HELPat HAND We have new approaches nary. It’s also important for grandparents.” loery, the extent of patient and wash their hands. to everything from diagnos- us to help people understand autonomy and the role of The CareCentre has a flat NEW DESIGNS FOR HOSPITAL EQUIPMENT tics to drug design because of and adapt to the challenges BECKY PURVIS is Head of Policy organisations such as NICE top for writing… AIM TO WIPE OUT HOSPITAL INFECTIONS the Human Genome Project. and changes presented by at the Association of Medical (the National Institute of It has more than lived up to this new era of research.” Research Charities (MSc Science Clinical Excellence). Communication 2003) . SAFE STORAGE its promise: it is shaping the e project has undoubt- …with drugs kept in a locked future of medicine.” PROFESSOR TIM AITMAN is Head edly had a signicant impact cabinet beneath of the Physiological Genomics and on our scientic under- Medicine Group in the MRC Clinical BUG BRIEFING Each year in Europe, PROFESSOR SIR MARK standing, but this has yet to , WALPORT is Director of the Sciences Centre at Imperial. He . CLEAN DESIGN Healthcare-associated there are: deaths aributable billion is a Trustee of the Public Health translate into meaningful Wellcome Trust, and was Wipes are on hand to keep infections (HCAIs) are or substantial changes in to HCAIs previously Professor Genomics Foundation, and was a surfaces clean. preventable using simple, ¾.Ã MILLION of Medicine and Head special advisor to the 2008 House primary care or everyday low-cost measures, but episodes of HCAIs of the Division of Lords Inquiry on Genomic clinical practice.” ². THROWAWAY SUGGESTION innovation is required to resulting cost to of Medicine at Medicine Gloves, aprons and wipes change the behaviour of  healthcare providers Imperial DR PAQUITA DE ZULUETA can go straight into a clinical sta. MILLION a signicant is a GP and honorary lecturer »Ä , in the School of Public Health clinical waste bin that extra days in hospital additional deaths in which nancial burden at Imperial, where she is opens automatically. as a result HCAIs contribute Programme Director Source: European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) for the Applied Clinical Ethics Course. PHOTOGRAPHY: BRISTOL MAID BRISTOL PHOTOGRAPHY: ROSEN KIM ILLUSTRATION:

stalls. e marquee is awash with students who would claim that it’s just a coincidence that they happen to be wearing a suit and carrying a stack of freshly printed CVs on the day of a fair. You will oen see these same people trying to strike up a casual conversation with a potential employer which, in reality, looks anything but casual. Alongside seasoned careers fair patrons are the more sceptical punters, unconvinced that the event supports their cause, who are using it to gather enough free stationery to see them through revision instead. Regardless of the approach taken at a careers fair, geing an interview is a mara- thon aair. Meeting the challenge requires hours of online assessments, application form lling and CV tweaking, not forget- LOGBOOK ting all those extra curricular activities you MAGNIFICENTMOTORS should be doing too. A degree is no longer OCCUPATION: enough. Managing Director of ➼ No U turn: restoration in progress Interview days can provide some Fiennes Restoration light relief, especially if they involve e Apprentice-style tasks, as many now do. In restoration projects summon up the courage to a sharp blind bend and I met It’s a shame that there are ey are nonetheless hard work. Employ- BUSINESS: that may last years, send out my rst invoice. the Post O¸ce van coming in kids who haven’t had the ers want perfection – in a whole day spent Restoration of if not decades, Will I used to wonder if I would the opposite direction – we opportunity to really get analysing case studies, working in small pre-war Bentleys and Fiennes (PhD Mechanical have done things di¢erently stopped about six inches involved in the mechanics of groups and enduring one-to-one interviews, Rolls-Royces Engineering 1970) takes the if I’d had any formal business apart. an object. just one slip-up and you’ve blown it. unrecognisable shell of what training but came to the IMPERIAL: Why should classic IMPERIAL: Tell me more about In our nal year, instead of rumours of LOCATION: may, in its heyday, have been conclusion that I’d probably cars be driven? the 1932 Rolls-Royce 20/25 job oers spreading through lecture theatres, Filkins, Oxfordshire a supercar and painstakingly never have started the busi- FIENNES: Cars need exercise. FIENNES: Originally shipped those who had received good news made returns it to its former glory. ness in the rst place. I remember one customer to Switzerland with a formal announcements on Facebook. Congratula- IMPERIAL: What’s been coming to collect their car: saloon body, the original RECOMMENDED tions were oered in the same way, giving IMPERIAL: You’ve made a your favourite car to restore we took it for a test drive owner later rebodied it with DRIVE: I’m afraid we don’t have any umbrellas left, others yet to taste success a computer screen open coachwork. Aer his Peking to Paris career out of something you and why? on a local route with lots behind which they could hide their jealousy. death, the car was sold to rally love: what advice would you FIENNES: Of all the cars we’ve of sweeping bends and would you like a free pen instead?” ose who went on from Imperial give to today’s students? had through the workshop, they turned to me and said, an Afghan prince who, in straight into jobs or PhD study were the FIENNES: If you have an the one that gave me a real “I’ve never driven it at more 1939, accidentally drove it As rain hammers on the roof of the crowded one more year while studying for a Master’s ones who had numerous internships under FIRST CAR: ambition or a dream, it will thrill was a 1938 Bentley than 40,” and I thought to into Lake Geneva returning careers fair marquee on the Queen’s Lawn, degree. I’m gaining skills that I hope will their belt, or had spent sweltering summers 1936 Riley always be an unanswered known as the Embiricos myself: shame on you! Some from a party (it was retrieved a pen from a prospective employer promises help me into a job when I leave Imperial. working in the lab. question unless you have a Bentley, commissioned and of these cars may be over the next day). The daughter to do lile to shelter me from the down- At a recent Royal College of Science As for the rest of us, some rays of MOST DECORATED go at achieving it. There’s built to test the theory of 50 years old but they still of its 1950s owner tracked pour. But should it give me hope for when Union dinner, I spoke to an alumnus who sunshine are beginning to peek through the CAR: that nagging “what if” and, aerodynamics. We had it more than hold their own the car down to Seattle: she I leave Imperial? If they’re handing out free graduated a generation before me. In her clouds. Some of my classmates are back with Pebble Beach for me, that question would here about 25 years ago and against modern tra¸c. bought it, shipped it to the pens, might that mean they have jobs to give nal year she received not one, or even two, their parents for now, but as the interviews Concours d’Elegance bug me for the rest of my life. it was the most wonderful IMPERIAL: Why is there such UK and we got involved in the out too? but three job oers. In similar tales, alumni trickle in they are inching closer to their rst, winning Rolls-Royce When something is your heart car to drive: even with all the an enduring love and fascina- late 1990s, completing the At the end of my undergraduate studies, described the ‘milk round’, when companies proper job. 20/25 and soul, you’ll put up with windows down there was no tion for these cars? restoration last year. We were the Rector told us in the Royal Albert Hall would visit campus and encourage students ose of us who chose to stay in di¸culties that people in a change in air pressure inside FIENNES: There’s a sense of invited to attend the Pebble that our newly conferred Imperial degrees to sign up to interviews for any positions academia just a lile longer will have to leave regular job just wouldn’t. the car – which was tricky in satisfaction from repairing Beach Concours d’Elegance, would open many doors for us. Despite that interested them. its warm embrace eventually. ough it IMPERIAL: Would you hot weather. something and making it where the car won second in impressive statistics – 89 per cent of Current students talk about the old- didn’t protect me from the rain, that free pen change anything about IMPERIAL: What’s the closest work. People who buy these Rolls-Royce class, as well as Imperial graduates nd graduate-level style ‘milk round’ as if it were a myth or will come in handy when I start lling in job Aer nishing my PhD, your career? you’ve come to disaster? cars oen have that sort of the Lucius Beebe Trophy. I realised that industrial jobs six months aer completing their legend. ough it still exists, these days it applications of my own. research wasn’t really FIENNES: I don’t have FIENNES: I was taking the interest. These days, if you studies – my classmates and I are nding is the employers who have their pick of the for me, and so decided to any formal business rst car we’d ever restored take something apart, you’ll + ONLINE EXTRA: See more those doors rather sti. students, not the other way around. KELLY OAKES (MSci Physics 2011) is studying for a do my own thing. training and I started back to its owner in London: probably have to throw it photographs from the workshop Faced with a stormy jobs market, and Today, most students frequenting Master’s in Science Communication. She edits the science and find out about the Rolls out very naive – our former premises were away because it won’t survive no umbrella to protect me from the worst Imperial’s careers fairs will say they’re pages of Felix, the Imperial student newspaper, and blogs for Royce 20/25 at www.imperial. I remember trying to down a single track lane with the process of disassembly. ac.uk/imperialmagazine of it, I opted to shelter inside academia for ‘networking’ with the people manning the Scientic American. PHOTOGRAPHY: TIM WALLACE TIM PHOTOGRAPHY: FULLARTON DAVID ILLUSTRATION:

¿ | IMPERIAL | SPRING ¯°±¯ SPRING ¯°±¯ | IMPERIAL | ¿ LEADING LIGHT

Theoretical physicist John Pendry reveals what gets him thinking and the inspirations behind his new ideas.

WORDS BY ANJANA AHUJA // ILLUSTRATION BY VICTORIA TOPPING

I have just disembarked at candid and amusing interviewee. Of his more luxury cars. He has also been a a train station outside London, 2004 knighthood, the rst bestowed on a consultant for Marconi; the ling cabinet when I spot the tall, thin, serving Imperial physics professor since in his fastidiously tidy study, where we are bespectacled man in a woollen jumper Sir George Thomson received one in 1943, shuttered away for the interview, is stu¢ed smiling at me from the opposite plat- he says: “I regard it as a great honour but full of old patents he wrote while consult- form. We shake hands and climb into his I never have it on my badge at scientic ing for industry. polished black Lexus, me anxiously trying meetings. You have to be careful not to Not that his other major pieces of work not to muddy the plush cream mats while ponce around calling yourself Sir John all have been dull. In 2000, he published the driver, one of the world’s leading theo- over the place.” The breadth of his work a short but explosive paper in Physical retical physicists, chats about property was also memorably celebrated in 2008 Review Letters explaining the theoretical prices in this well-heeled part of the world. during a three-day ‘Pendryfest’ at Imperial, possibility of a perfect lens. It built upon Professor Sir John Pendry speeds me to where he has worked since 1981 as Profes- work done nearly 40 years earlier by the an immaculately kept bungalow; the sitting sor of Theoretical Solid State Physics, forgotten Russian scientist Victor Veselago, room and study are decorated not with following stints at Bell Labs in the US and who suggested that a material with a nega- equations but with framed photographs Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire. tive refractive index – something never that he himself has taken, courtesy of the The metamaterials for which he has seen in nature – could produce an almost digital camera that he carries everywhere become so well-known are articial materi- magical lens capable of creating images at in his briefcase. The scenes – Isles of als whose e¢ects derive from their physical a resolution ner than the wavelength of Scilly landscapes and sunlit doorways in structure, not their chemical make-up. In light being used. South Kensington – reveal a decent eye. brief, they are engineered from collections He recalls: “One day I decided to do the “It’s all about the geometry, the visuals,” of microscopic structures that, at a larger job properly, and found something that he explains of his photography. Only later, scale, do unexpected things to electro- Veselago hadn’t noticed: that you could when transcribing our interview, do I realise magnetic waves, such as deflecting them. arrange things so that the focus was theo- how similar his response is when I ask him Such materials can theoretically be used retically perfect. It turns out that the lens to describe his approach to theoretical to bend light around an object, rendering was so simple that anyone from Maxwell’s physics: “I think in geometry; I always like the object invisible – a 2006 nding that time onwards could have solved it quite to have pictures in my mind.” This unique led to him being lauded in the international easily, even a third year undergraduate.” clarity of vision has enabled John, 68, to press as the inventor of a Harry Potter-style Really? “Yes!” And it only took him a day? ‘see’ and solve mathematical challenges invisibility cloak. His achievements have “One morning!” he chuckles, leaning back in physics across a staggering breadth attracted attention from many quarters: a in his chair. “It’s just that nobody asked of subject areas, from surface science to presentation on the cloak to the American the question – amazing, isn’t it? That’s why optics to the completely new discipline of military research agency Darpa resulted in people thought I’d got it wrong.” That day, metamaterials, which he largely invented. a job o¢er – rejected, of course – paying John emerged from his study to tell his wife During the next two hours, he sheds his considerably more than a professorial Pat, a Cambridge-educated mathematician initial formality, turning into a gracious, stipend, and certainly enough for several and now retired Inland Revenue adminis-

SPRING ¯°±¯ | IMPERIAL | ¿³ trator, that he had just done which could revolutionise the storage of data on handled has become much more formal, with more form-lling and lecturing something that would either optical disks – they are also pioneering a special- involved. In my day, if PhD students needed to know something they looked it make or break his reputa- I THINK IN GEOMETRY; ist eld called plasmonics, which is the control up. I accept that’s a very old fashioned attitude and I’m happy to go along with tion. and manipulation of light down to the nanome- the new system but I would have hated it. I still remember attending my last Publishing his solution – I ALWAYS LIKE TO HAVE tre scale. Their rst challenge is to build a crude lecture at Cambridge. At the end of it I put my pen down and thought: ‘That’s it took him a month to work precursor to the perfect lens, known as a light the last bloody lecture I will ever go to in my life.” up the nerve – was the most PICTURES IN MY MIND. harvester. The harvester does not create an image, “But overall the College has provided a good environment for my work, gut-wrenching moment of but instead gathers all the light falling on to it and particularly in terms of colleagues. Standards are high and the reputation is his professional life: “I knew sends it to a single point. Being able to concen- high, which is hugely important to how your research progresses.” The formi- it would press some buttons trate light in this way is, John thinks, a critical step dable combination of John and Imperial’s reputations has attracted not just but I also knew the conse- in the process of getting light beams to interact. large grants in hard economic times, but also some of the brightest talents quences if it was wrong. Scientists are George Thomson’s achievement of a Nobel he says, he loves proposing experiments Such photon-photon interactions could, he says, in optical science, including Maier, who has just picked up a prestigious awfully competitive, and if there’s one Prize for Physics. According to impeccable for others to try. Sometimes, experiment- drive a new industry. Wolfson merit award from the Royal Society, and Professor Ortwin Hess, who way for a young scientist to make his sources, he has certainly been nominated. ers merely point him to papers they’ve When I met John at the train station, I had only holds the Leverhulme Chair in Metamaterials. reputation it’s as Jack the Giant Killer. written as a result, or consult him for more vaguely recognised his face from my student days This, plus the campus’s position near Hyde Park, has made John reluctant So some senior scientist comes out with In an alternate universe, John might well hands-on advice. “That I really, really enjoy. at Imperial, which I joined in 1987 as a physics to move elsewhere, despite his general dislike of London. He gets into his something that makes a damn fool of have been an experimental scientist. Even I love going into a lab and asking ques- undergraduate. My lack of familiarity might be car at 5.30, heads to his pied à terre in Battersea and plays piano for an himself, and pointing it out is a route as a grammar school boy growing up near tions about the kit. For someone who’s not because he cut a deal early on with his colleagues hour, before coming to work. He is an accomplished pianist; he owns three, to fame and fortune. Quite a few young Manchester – living with his oil rep father, a full-time experimentalist, I have a good to do more administration and less teaching. including a grand piano bought by his wife Pat as a gi for his 60th birthday. men and some older ones tried to take secretary mother and younger sister above understanding of what’s likely to work. It’s Today, John does not lecture to undergraduates He would love to have been a concert pianist, he confesses, but shies away that route when I published.” his grandmother’s sweet shop – he had a a bit like being a composer – you can’t play but continues to recruit research students. Given from playing in public, although he does The brevity of the lens paper only practical bent. “My uncle was an engineer all the instruments but you have to know that I stayed on to do a PhD, our paths might well demonstrate his talents to me by playing a fuelled the unbelievers: “I was head of and he put magazines like Wireless World what they do. That’s the di¢erence between have crossed in the Blackett Laboratory’s eighth Bach prelude just before we sit down to a

department at the time. I was doing my my way – that’s where spotty kids went in mathematics and theoretical physics – floor postgraduate co¢ee room but, since it is also pasta lunch. It’s a bit like being a composer science at weekends, and I couldn’t take my day. Today, I suppose, they go to the in mathematics you’re oen generating the place where I met my husband, I can fairly He pays his dues to society in the currency – you can’t play all the a month out of my life to write a huge internet. But I take pride in being able to x results for their own beauty, but for me, the claim distraction. of outreach, revelling in giving public talks instruments but you have to review. So when people didn’t see a things and love knowing how things work.” crucial thing is whether someone can do and lectures all over the world. He confesses know what they do. That’s the long paper emerge, every man and his The decision to abandon experimental an experiment. If they can’t, then the idea I return occasionally to Imperial, either to see to feeling slightly nervous about a forthcom- dierence between mathematics dog came forward. Some letters were work, taken while he was reading natural is dead.” old colleagues or to chat to the press o¸ce. For ing talk to a secondary school – he and Pat and theoretical physics – really quite nasty. These things make sciences at the University of Cambridge Despite being two years away from his me, the addition of the glassy, colour-blocked don’t have children, he explains, so he feels in mathematics you’re oen you angry and upset but then I realised: (where he met his wife), was a pragmatic 70th birthday, his ability to generate novel Faculty Building, and the revamped Main Entrance a little out of his depth with younger pupils generating results for their own if these people, who aren’t fools, were one: “The problem with being an experi- ideas is still very much alive. Recently, John on Exhibition Road, lend the College a more corpo- – but, admirably, he’s going to feel the fear beauty, but for me, the crucial misunderstanding things, this must be mentalist is that you’re shackled to your kit. and Professor Stefan Maier, a renowned rate, professional feel. John, who remembers and do it anyway. Just mention Harry Potter, thing is whether someone can something more profound than I origi- As a theorist you travel much more lightly, experimentalist also based at Imperial, won being horried at the unpainted, tobacco-stained I advise. My nine-year-old daughter, I tell do an experiment. If they can’t, nally thought.” so you can hop about.” This is especially a £4.9 million grant from the Leverhulme o¸ce he was allocated on arrival, is largely him, is terribly excited that I am meeting the then the idea is dead.” John still regards it as one of his most important given his belief that scientists Trust to properly establish the eld of meta- approving: “College is much better organised, real-life inventor of an invisibility cloak. spectacular achievements, exemplifying should change eld every 10 years or so, materials with Southampton University, even just the simple things like getting the bloody And no, he does not begrudge being his philosophy of diligently following because “your PhD problem will only last and, crucially, move it into optical wave- place painted. Plus, there used to be very few mentioned in the same breath as the where the numbers lead: “When you so long. Most ideas, with a few exceptions, lengths. Optical wavelengths, in the range formal ways of looking aer people’s careers. So bespectacled boy wizard. “What constitutes see something anomalous, it may be as are worked out in 10 years.” of a few hundred nanometres, are orders if your colleagues were collegiate and responsible success for an idea?” he muses, reclining his long frame in perhaps the small as a speck of dust on this table but He can still enjoy, vicariously, the thrill of magnitude smaller than radiofrequency you were ne, but there were horrible instances same way he did 11 years ago, when he discovered that he had seen what it’s a gi, because either it will improve of experimentation by collaborating with wavelengths. The metamaterials needed to where it went wrong. On the other hand, when I Veselago had not. “It’s other people picking it up and running with it. So, by your understanding or will lead to some- experimenters like Professor David Smith manipulate optical light therefore need to joined there were only 5,000 students and maybe going around and getting publicity – and it’s been my good fortune to ride on thing new.” Google records more than at Duke University, who, to the delight of be correspondingly Lilliputian, presenting a 100 professors [compared with today’s gures of the coat-tails of these wonderful Harry Potter stories – you encourage other 5,000 citations for the paper. While many, including journalists, turned John’s nanoengineering challenge. nearer 14,000 and over 400, respectively], and the scientists to work in the area and do something with your ideas. Ultimately, John will not comment on the possibil- elegant equations into reality by building a While they are working towards construct- Rector knew every professor personally.” if you’re going to pay your debt to society for having all this fun with science, ity, it is likely that he will also match cloaking device at radio frequencies. And, ing the perfect lens out of metamaterials – “Also, the way research studentships are somebody has to make something with it.”

THE IMPERIAL

ta and students go about their daily business oblivious Sto the world beneath their feet: a network of tunnels under the South Kensington Campus that is shrouded in mystery. One winter aernoon, Imperial shimmied down a hole and became lost for a time in this subterranean land. e purpose – to investigate the myths that have become campus legend. Rumours range I was shocked in my from the discovery of a mummi- rst year, coming out of a ed body to tunnellers being tutorial, to be told to follow stopped by military police with my tutor down a service machine guns. As we descend duct. He showed me how deeper, the temperature rises to get from the Computing noticeably. “at’s hell down Department to the Union there,” says our guide, Chas Guirey, Bar without geing wet one Head of Maintenance, pointing to day when it was tipping it one particularly blistering tunnel. down.” CHRIS EVANS COMPUTING ¿·¶¶ Constructed aer the Great Exhibition of 1851 for the Impe- rial Institute’s heating systems, the tunnel network criss-crosses campus, running beneath Exhibi- tion Road to reach Southside and Prince’s Gardens. In days gone by ere were rumours of nuclear they’ve played host to drinking waste being stored in the tunnels. parties in the foundations of the Being the idiot I am, I went down. Queen’s Tower, secret trysts (a love We do not talk of that day or how I glow in the dark” JULIE HARRIS IMPERIAL nest complete with a bed, a light SCIENCE FICTION SOCIETY MEMBER, ¿·· and an empty bole of wine was once discovered) and kidnapped constituent college mascots held captive, awaiting ransom payment. Today, they house the College’s network of cables, wires and heating ducts. Essential stu, but a lot less exciting than imagining what went before. Adam Wielowieyski-Ipnarski (Computing 2001), describes his time traversing the maze as: “e thrill of the unexplored”. And indeed it is.

➺ Share your tales of the tunnels: www.imperial.ac.uk/tunnels PHOTOS: DAVE GUTTRIDGE/THE PHOTOGRAPHIC UNIT PHOTOGRAPHIC GUTTRIDGE/THE DAVE PHOTOS:

À | IMPERIAL | SPRING ¯°±¯ SPRING ¯°±¯ | IMPERIAL | ¿ GETTING THINGS

AN INSIDE VIEW ON THE ROLE OF ENGINEERING IN GOVERNMENT

As a House of Commons select committee considers how government uses engineering advice and expertise, systems engineer David Fisk reflects on his experiences in strengthening relations between government and engineering to show why this relationship matters, how it has evolved, and how Imperial alumni might strengthen it.

‘Engineering’ to most people means getting things done. Technol- BY of industrialisation. This approach provided a strong incentive ogy – ‘the knowledge of things’ – plays its part, but engineer- DAVID for manufacturers to secure competitive advantage by devising ing is more than ‘things’. Stripped to its essentials, to engineer FISK new technologies that exceeded the current standard. The Chief an outcome takes someone to be persuaded to make something, Inspector needed to be alert to false claims, but the incentive and others to want to use it when it is made. If that something has system made the job technically plausible. never been made before, then it follows that there are judgments to be The Chief Inspector oversaw the industry, but did not need to run it. made and risks to be taken. Governments are also supposed to be about This approach was certainly e¢ective. It is essentially how vehicle emis- getting things done. So what should citizens expect from their govern- sions, once the bane of urban life, have been regulated through contin- ments when they need something engineered? ued technical improvement to levels where eating at a pavement café in central London is now a pleasure. KEEPING UP WITH INDUSTRIALISATION For several thousand years governments have required access to an engi- FROM SOLUTIONS TO OUTCOMES neering capability to arm their nations. But it was not until the nineteenth By the 1970s, this approach to regulating technology was becoming a century that engineering issues began to appear in UK civilian legisla- little ragged where issues of scaling and complexity were involved. For tion. Industrialisation was taking place at speed and government needed example, oil reneries presented a bespoke legacy of systems stitched a way of engineering factories to be cleaner and safer, as an alternative to together over decades rather than a discrete technical solution to a forcing them out of business through prohibitions. single problem. The energy performance of the interconnected systems The pragmatic Victorian solution was for parliament to appoint a of a modern commercial building or hospital was far too complex to be person with formidable technical knowledge as Chief Inspector to regulated by the simple rules that applied to a domestic house. regulate industry. Regulation was designed to encourage incremen- Attention thus started to move from specic best practice solutions tal improvements in innovation and therefore keep pace with the rate towards performance targets such as maximum rate of pollutant emis-

Illustration by VINCENT RHAFAEL ASEO

SPRING ¯°±¯ | IMPERIAL | sions. This permitted di¢erent of public policy. military procurement. I myself performed this role for the engineering solutions with the The lack of direct experience then Department of the Environment from 1988. As my same outcome, without the need and true understanding of the colleague, David Edgerton (PhD Social and Economic Studies Turning ideas into reality to identify which one was best. parameters that govern engineer- 1984) described in issue 36 of this publication, Imperial has The government’s requirement for ing innovation have oen led to contributed a full-house of such advisers across di¢erent When the House of Commons select committee published its 2009 report of the enquiry into how government uses engineering, it in-house technical skills moved the opposite of the intended e¢ect departments, including the current Chief Scientic Advisor drew on a piece of career advice from Lord Mandelson that would warm the hearts of many of our sta¢ and students: “If you really want from the engineering expertise of when it comes to public policy. For to the government, Professor Sir John Beddington. to change the world, choose a career in engineering”. Chief Inspectors towards special- example, the European Trading CSAs have ‘access to ministers’, meaning that they oen At the time, Lord Mandelson was Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, and his comment encapsulated ists in measuring performance. Schemes (ETS) for greenhouse join meetings where technical substance underpins the the spirit of the committee’s report, which observed that the recent economic crisis has presented government with a “once-in-a- The US was probably the rst to gas emissions promised to open political decision. They are not intended to be a walking generation opportunity to restructure the economy by building on the existing substantial strengths of UK engineering”. push this logic further and set as the market to innovative solu- Wikipedia, but are well-positioned to draw heavily on exter- The report recognised that engineering underpins the work of many government departments and has a major role to play in the target the state of the environ- tions for a low carbon economy. nal peer networks, such as Fellows of the Royal Society and addressing global challenges such as climate change, food and water supplies, energy sources and economic stability. Aer reviewing ment itself. If the environmental But brave new expensive green the Royal Academy of Engineering. key themes via case studies on nuclear engineering, plastic electronics and geo-engineering, the report went on to make a number standard was met, then surely technologies that relied on high The CSA model forms part of a wider check and balance of recommendations about the specic role of engineering in government, which were broadly welcomed in the government’s rms could decide how to achieve ETS prices have been bankrupted, system to ensure that technical expertise is available to subsequent response. These include: it amongst themselves by recon- and smoke stack industries that those who need it. But while it seems to work for big issues, »Government should know what expertise it has in the civil service, and might look towards establishing greater levels in the generalist guring their technologies and kept their nerve have survived it is less good for some of the other levels at which govern- civil service as well as recruiting more engineering policy specialists, for example, via the science and engineering fast stream; emissions? the crash in market prices for ment is engineering things. Some of these never drop into a »The policy process should recognise that engineering and scientic advice have di¢erent things to o¢er, for example by seeking carbon units. Somewhat belat- CSA’s inbox at all, or if they do, it is at a stage when the only engineering advice earlier in the process of policy formation, and ensuring that government has enough in-house engineering THE ECONOMICS OF INNOVATION edly, governments are realising intervention le is to halt gross errors in o¸cial process. expertise to act as an intelligent customer; This line of reasoning soon led to that they cannot avoid employing So the problem of sourcing good day-to-day engineering »Government should adopt a practice of developing roadmaps for major engineering programmes, coordinating between them, and the birth of air pollutant emissions engineering knowledge and judg- judgment remains. Very large problems can start from very providing more strategic support for emerging industries and policy areas such as geoengineering; trading in the early 1990s. But it ment aer all. But how should they small errors. »A reorganisation of the high-level advisory structures in government could provide better overall transdepartmental management was also accompanied by some- do so in today’s complex world so of engineering policy. thing of a paradox: if the envi- di¢erent from that of the Victorian OTHER OUTSOURCING OF ENGINEERING EXPERTISE ronmental standard was a sharp Chief Inspector? Rethinking how government’s engineering competence universally agreed level, then could be improved cannot be just a matter of going into the conceptual economic model ACADEMICS AS GOVERNMENT reverse gear to a golden age. First, the move to focus on worked ne; but if the standard ADVISORS specifying outcomes has meant that engineering expertise ment would believe industry, even if government were in Brussels, the President of the a participatory democracy. It is were to be a trade-o¢, the regula- In search of an answer, we might has long since le central government. The state industries equipped to understand fully what they were saying. The Commission appointed the EU’s hardly plausible to envisage a tory body would be hard pushed to rst look to a model that was origi- and laboratories have gone to the private sector and with critical point arises when a government department no rst Chief Scientic Advisor, parliament able to assess engi- know the true cost of an innovative nally developed to help govern- them their engineering knowledge. This makes plausible longer has the internal knowledge to match the consultancy Professor Anne Glover. Consid- neering issues on its own. It relies measure without the engineering ment better assess technology for engineering careers in government a little hard to iden- contract it is managing, at which point it fails to understand ering that so much of the UK’s on the knowledge of the executive. expertise to know ‘how the widget military procurement which has tify: you will nd fewer chartered engineers in most central the limitations of any advice it has commissioned – the technical legislation arises from But if the executive no longer fully works’. Unfortunately, by focusing always set a particular challenge civil departments than you would in a typical town hall (or ‘unknown knowns’. implementing EU directives, it understands its engineering, the on outcomes, this knowledge had and requires immense amounts indeed the state council of the People’s Republic of China). The imperative to recover engineering competence in must be with some relief that the only certainties are the policy’s been lost from inside government of good judgment. As government What has emerged to ll this space has been the engi- modern government is as strong as ever. Regulators like UK CSA system has at last a point cost, and that someone will benet agencies. Asking the industry to is frequently seeking to buy what neering consultant. Imperial academics, through Imperial Ofcom are facing formidable technical opponents in the of contact in Brussels. Nearer directly from charging for it. The come up with a number would be has never been made before, Consultants, have frequently played this role of analysing form of the world’s monopoly-minded IT industry. Regula- to home, the UK’s Department outcome, for which the hapless like asking a turkey to pick the date discovering that it does not work the engineering implications of policy, under contract to tors like Ofgem and Ofwat are signing o¢ billions of pounds for Energy and Climate Change taxpayer yearned, risks becoming of Christmas. This was brought as intended in a real conflict can a department. In one sense the new world order is good of novel green infrastructure proposals that will end up on has been the rst central depart- totally indeterminate. This is not home to me during the negotiation be disastrous. business for independent consultants: no-one in govern- our utility bills, even if the widgets do not work as intended. ment to advertise for a Head of just a local British problem. Tech- of one EU directive where ‘cost per The problem of nding a better Only the European Commission, with the collective strength Engineering. nical complexity is engulng the unit’ emission di¢ered by at least way to assess military technol- of member states behind it, succeeded in taking on the At the time of writing, the participatory democracy the world a factor of 10 between member ogy became more pressing once power of Microso to unbundle the internet services from Committee on Science and Tech- over. Institutions like Imperial states for the same technology, the concept of a technology arms the Windows platform. But even the well-endowed Commis- nology has also launched a with its vast cohort of professional even when some of those states race really caught on aer the First sion had to rely on a valiant consultant to make the case. short follow-up investigation to engineering alumni could prove an were being briefed by di¢erent World War. By the 1950s it had The National Audit O¸ce (itself with no internal engineering its original enquiry. Imperial’s invaluable resource in preventing parts of the same company. become su¸ciently perplexing for expertise) meticulously records progress on vast IT engi- Faculty of Engineering has made this from happening. The di¢erence in intellectual the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to neering procurements, such as the communications system a submission in which we recog- spaces inhabited by the econom- institute a new role of Chief Scien- STOPPRESS for the Fire Service, that subsequently collapse in disarray, nise the top-level improvements DAVID FISK is Laing O’Rourke ics of innovation and the econom- tic Advisor (CSA). In the MoD this without even appearing to ask why such ambitious projects that have taken place. We suggest Professor of Systems Engineering and ics of the public sector means that was and remains a senior post STRENGTHENING THE VOICE OF SCIENCE are being scoped by non-engineers in the rst place. that a wider use of short-term Innovation in Imperial’s Department of government measures aimed at recruited from academia, closely AND ENGINEERING IN GOVERNMENT expert secondments, especially Civil and Environmental Engineering improving the economy can have linked to the procurement process, RECENT PROGRESS from academia, could provide and a Fellow of the Royal Academy a rather poor net e¢ect on the and with an internal analytical As we went to press, the House The good news is that this problem has not gone unnoticed. a possible solution to enriching of Engineering. Until 2005, he was national balance sheet. ‘Market- capability to challenge technical of Lords Science and Technology In 2009, the UK Commons Select Committee on Science the back-room processes where CSA to the Oce of the Deputy Prime based’ regulatory instruments are assertions from equipment provid- Committee published its report on and Technology published the report of its enquiry into key detailed decisions get made. Minister. From 1988 onwards, he held a case in point: they might o¢er ers and internal advocates. the role and functions of departmental how government uses engineering advice and expertise in UK universities potentially have roles including Chief Scientist and Policy a theoretical economist some The CSA model is now widely CSAs. The report sets out a range policy, Engineering: turning ideas into reality. I, with other much to o¢er. Director in the UK’s former Depart- satisfaction, but if the starting replicated across government of recommendations to strengthen colleagues like Professor Julia King (then Principal of Impe- These concerns may all sound ments of the Environment (DOE), point is a poorly structured engi- departments, demonstrating a CSAs’ access to the expertise, rial’s Faculty of Engineering), gave oral evidence. rather geeky in a world of sound- Environment, Transport and the Regions neering regulation, the outcome spread of concern about things independence and resources they Since then there has been some noticeable progress. bite politics, but the problem (DETR), and Transport, Local Govern- cannot per se count as a triumph technical that spreads far beyond need to do their job e¥ectively by In December 2011, and aer many months of indecision threatens to harm the heart of ment and the Regions (DTLR). challenging ministers and continuing to play a crucial role in informing government policy.

02 LIFE IN THE LAB Mosquito eggs hatch in their hundreds in large white trays partially lled with salted water. Just one millimetre long, the swimming larvae feed on algae and bacteria, growing to eight millimetres in one week before forming a chrysalis and emerging as adults aer another week. The flying insects are then transferred to meshed cages, like the one held here by Dr Dina Vlachou and Professor George Christophides, where they feed ➼ on infected animal or human blood sucked through a membrane that BITING mimics real skin. Imperial’s researchers are particularly interested in BACK adult mosquitoes; research indicates the spread of malaria can be halted most e¢ectively at this stage.

Imperial’s laboratories are home to tens of thousands of mosquitoes that are specially bred to help researchers understand and prevent the spread of devastating diseases.

01 TAMING THE BEASTS With over 300 million people 03 FIGHTING FEVER Imperial has long been at the a¢ected by malaria every year and no immediate prospects of forefront of e¢orts to halt malaria. Over a decade ago Professor a vaccine, scientists keenly seek new ways to tackle this disease, Andrea Crisanti bred the rst transgenic Anopheles mosquitoes. which is transmitted by the bites of the female Anopheles Now researchers aim to stop the disease by creating mosquitoes mosquito. Around 50 Department of Life Sciences sta¢ are genetically immune to Plasmodium, blocking its transmission to dedicated to breeding mosquitoes and analysing their interactions humans, or suppressing the insect populations by creating sterile with the malaria parasite Plasmodium in labs in the Sir Alexander males. Their work is funded by the Wellcome Trust and Bill and Fleming Building. Mosquitoes are kept at a tropical 80 per cent Melinda Gates Foundation, among others. Professor Christophides humidity and Â8°C, similar to conditions in their natural habitats coordinates a European Union-backed study in sub-Saharan in Africa, India and Asia. Africa, where scientists are testing how malaria parasites and their mosquito carriers react to potential vaccines and drugs. PHOTOGRAPHY: JO MIESZKOWSKI JO PHOTOGRAPHY:

EDGE

“AAAAH!” THE MAN LYING ON CUTTINGTHE TROLLEY BEFORE ME MOANS AND WRITHES IN AGONY.

He’s been rushed to hospital aer being stabbed in the side, explains Technologies the surgeon, who lis the man’s shirt to show me, along with a group for training surgeons of other curious individuals, the bleeding wound. ere’s a thud as the woman standing beside me falls to the oor in a faint. 1 / SURGEON OMAR FAIZ L explains to the audience what he needs to double up as essential e man, we’re told, urgently needs surgery. He needs to be props in public events do to treat the ‘stab victim’ who’s just been wheeled in. opened up so that doctors can check whether there’s been any 2 / VISITORS LEAN FORWARD TO SEE THE LIVER AND that make a drama damage to his internal organs, particularly his spleen. We’re warned gall bladder that Professor Roger Kneebone bought out of an operating that should the spleen detach, the blood vessel supporting it will be from the butcher to show the similarity between some free to “hose around”. human and pig organs. theatre crisis. Moments later, we’re asked to put on gowns and hats and we 3 / THE PORTABLE INFLATABLE OPERATING THEATRE shue over to the operating table, where the patient’s insides are on aectionately known as the igloo — lends itself to both display. e surgeon probes the slimy large intestine and invites us surgical training sessions and public events. WORDS BY spectators to join him in having a poke around. As my nger slides up 4 / WRITER JESSICA HAMZELOU DONS SCRUBS JESSICA HAMZELOU underneath the man’s liver, the peckish feeling I had earlier evaporates. for a hands-on encounter with a full set of vital organs Welcome to the world of simulated surgery. ankfully, the man in the abdomen of the dummy patient. PHOTOGRAPHY BY is an actor and his convincing injury is merely an artistic prosthetic. DAVE GUTTRIDGE e surgeons are real, as is the fainting member of the audience, but the injuries and internal organs subject to our prodding are not. Roger Kneebone, new Professor of Surgical Education at Imperial, has developed these simulations to improve the training provided for surgeons. Now he is also using them to give members of the public, like myself, a avour of what really goes on inside an operating theatre. It certainly feels like a real operating theatre. Inside an igloo-like in atable half-shell of a room, the dummy patient lies on a hospital bed, hooked up to a blood bag and an anaesthesia machine while his heart monitor continually bleeps. Most of the body is covered by a blue sheet, but the bloody face and maed hair are so lifelike that they momentarily distract me from the surgeon’s description of his innards. e prosthetic organs have been developed in collaboration with Max Campbell, the artist behind many of the medical models seen on hospital television drama Holby City. Creating fake organs for surgeons is more of a challenge though, as it’s vital that they feel as lifelike as they look. e models also provide an opportunity for Roger’s team to engage public audiences with surgery more generally. “We want to raise public awareness of surgical training,” says Roger. “e truth is that people tend to have mixed feelings about surgery. It’s scary but it’s of great interest – people are repelled by it but they’re also fascinated.”

e ‘theatre’ has been put together by a team of surgeons, psycholo- gists, designers and industrial engineers Ma Harrison (MEng Mechanc- ial Engineering 2002) and Cian Plumbe (DIC Mechanical Engineering 2004). While the overall impression is that of being at the heart of a surgical procedure, a second glance at the backdrop reveals that the trolley of surgical equipment is actually a poster, and that the heart monitor consists of two iPads mounted on a wheeled cabinet. e fact is that when your nose is centimetres away from a bleeding spleen, the background details lurking in your peripheral vision don’t have to be quite as realistic. As a result, the entire set-up can be put together quickly and cheaply, and can even be carried around in a few backpacks. Members of Roger’s team have just started taking their portable simulation set-up to hospitals around London to train surgeons from other places as well as Imperial, by Surgical giving them the chance to experience a simulation. demonstrations can Installing the surgical set-up at public venues is a more recent line of help clear up any questions that work for Roger and his team. At one event, the group put together a simu- people might have about surgery. lation at Imperial’s Reach Out Lab, for London schoolchildren who had “It’s important for a lot of young been aected by knife crime. “All the children knew someone who had people who might be thinking of been involved in a knife aack, but they had no idea of what happened going into medical careers, and once the injured person had been taken o in an ambulance,” says Roger. for people who hear about surgi- “It was the perfect way for them to nd out.” cal procedures but don’t know So far, Roger’s team has put on simulations for young and adult audi- what they are. e events are ences at London venues including the Wellcome Collection, the Natural also a great opportunity for us to History Museum and the Science Museum, as well as the Cheltenham learn from our potential patients, Science Festival. and rene our work accordingly.” It must be stressed, though, that the gory nature of the events rules them out for the faint-hearted. “We have processes in place to look aer people who feel squeamish”, says Roger. “At the same time, the occasional e gory nature of the events pair of weak knees helps conrm that things are genuinely convincing.” rules them out for the faint-hearted. Even the surgeons can get caught up in the realistic situations. When We have processes in place to look the group ran a simulation of a trauma scenario in which a man had been aer people who feel squeamish. hit by a lorry, the clinician got so carried away that he pulled out his scis- At the same time, the occasional sors and cut o the actor’s trousers, T-shirt and even his underpants, pair of weak knees helps conrm that much to the actor’s surprise. things are genuinely convincing.” Roger and his colleagues are now turning their aention to nding realistic ways of simulating other medical procedures for trainee doctors, such as mimicking the feeling of internal assessments by using haptic Training with models and technology to develop devices that give the user tactile feedback. actors gives everyone a much Internal assessments, of the vagina or rectum, for example, are HUNCHED INTENTLY OVER A LAPTOP IN THE LIBRY, beer idea of what a real opera- tricky to teach. “e student can’t see what they’re doing and neither Dr Michael Bearpark might be shuing his lecture slide set, determining tion is like. “When I came to can the teacher,” says Roger. With the device he’s currently working on, the structure of biomolecules or laying down a new track for his electronic Imperial 10 years ago, surgi- the student would be faced with an actor lying on a bed but, instead of duo to perform at the weekend. “Musical harmony is a type of chemistry and cal skills were taught with an sticking their nger in the actor’s boom, they would place it in a cradle lecturing is more of a performance than a lesson,” comments Mike, a Reader emphasis on the technical,” says connected to a computer. “When you put your nger into the ‘anus’, it in the Department of Chemistry, referring to his work teaching rst and Roger. He recalls that while feels realistic and, while you’re doing that, you still have to respond to a third year undergraduates about computational chemistry. students were honing their real, wincing person,” says Roger. Darkroom was formed in 1996, and is Mike on guitar and stitching skills, it was only on Meanwhile, there are plenty of real, wincing members of the public Andrew Ostler on synthesiser and laptop. “We take conventional pieces of latex. “It doesn’t give recovering from their close-up encounters with the medical drama they band elements like my guitar playing and put them together in you an idea of what it’s like to have just witnessed. When the actor comes back on stage at the end of an unusual way,” he says, describing their sound. “We treat each treat someone who has been the performance, I am impressed with the long, red signature of his ‘emer- instrument like a sample; we loop it, then overlay it with stabbed, had a few drinks, or just gency surgery’ that’s been artfully painted down his belly in place of the improvisation.” e duo has released eight albums with come o their bicycle,” he says. original bleeding wound. While the surgeons remove their masks to take science-inspired names such as Some Of ese Numbers is is where the actors questions from the audience, the rest of the team roll up their sleeves to Mean Something. eir improvised gigs aract come in. “Having a real person clear away the splaered blood in time for the next performance. anything from one to 100 people. Mike says he’ll there gives the clinician a sense never get tired of the feeling when a gig or of urgency,” Roger says. “You JESSICA HAMZELOU was taking part in the Pop-up Anatomy Lesson, produced at a lecture goes well. “When all the ingredients need to be able to respond to Wellcome Collection by the Clod Ensemble as part of their Performing Medicine Anatomy Session. come together and you get a good reaction people who are very anxious and You can hear more about Professor Kneebone’s work at his inaugural lecture on 23 May 2012 at from the crowd, there’s a real sense that very sick.” Imperial’s South Kensington Campus, and on iTunesU shortly aer. you have discovered something,” he says. “In both situations there is always the hope that you are inspiring people.” PHOTOGRAPHY: DAVE GUTTRIDGE/THE PHOTOGRAPHIC UNIT PHOTOGRAPHIC GUTTRIDGE/THE DAVE PHOTOGRAPHY:

¿¿ ¿

ALUMNI RECEPTIONS

1 / Val Nagle, Dr C. Farmer and Victor Nagle (Chemical Engineering 1963) mingle with more than 90 of Imperial’s 1,000 Canadian alumni at a drinks reception in Toronto. 2 / The Rector, Sir Keith O’Nions and his wife, Lady Rita, meet Chandra Gupta ¿ and Professor Syamal Gupta FIC (Mechanical Engineering 1963, MPhil 1986) at the alumni reception in Mumbai. 3 / The ªrst class buet 14 / A group of Chemistry students, part of the graduating class of 1961, dressed for dinner on the menu at the the outdoors on a geology ªeld trip to Dartmoor. alumni reception in Kolkata ¿ 15 / Fi°y years later, donning lab coats again, they returned to the lecture theatre to in the garden of Rajive Kaul celebrate their anniversary reunion. Some had travelled back to South Kensington from (Metallurgy 1971), President ¿ the USA, Canada and Israel to reunite with their old colleagues and tour the Department. of the Imperial College Alumni Association of India. 11 / A kilted MSc science graduate at the 2011 Postgraduate 4 / Ivy Pan (Mathematics Awards Ceremonies. 1989), and Dr Shir-Ming Shen ¿ (MSc Mathematics 1979) join 12 / Master’s graduates from the over 130 other guests at the Business School celebrate their alumni reception in Hong graduation in front of the Royal Kong. Albert Hall. 5 / Dr Daniel Friess 13 / A PhD graduate takes a ride GOODRECEPTION (Agricultural Science 2004), on Imperial College Union’s vintage Jennifer Morris (Earth Science ªre engine, Jezebel, a°er the and Engineering 2001) and Postgraduate Awards Ceremonies. Carolina Lee enjoy a drink with the Rector at a reception in Singapore attended by alumni with graduation dates spanning more than half a century. 6 / Victoria Monjo and Wilfried Laufs (Civil 16 / Debbie and Graham Engineering 1994) attend the Perry (Aeronautics 1965) join New York alumni reception at over 200 donors, alumni and the British Consulate-General friends, at a 2011 reception to with over 100 other guests, thank those whose support has making it the largest ever enabled Imperial to provide Imperial alumni event held in more philanthropically-funded the region. scholarships than ever before. 7 / Datin Siew Ka Mun, Alicia 17 / The Rector joins some of Chong and Mrs Al-Manaf the 85 new Imperial scholars (Aeronautics 1994) join over who have received scholarships 170 alumni and guests at a funded by donations to the Rector’s reception at the British High Scholarship Fund 2011–12. Commissioner’s Residence in Kuala Lumpur. ¿² ¿³

¿À 8 / The Secretary of State 9 / The Rector shares a for Culture, Olympics, joke at the Natural History Media and Sport, Jeremy Museum as Imperial Hunt, tours the Business researchers take part in School with Professor the Science Uncovered David Gann to announce event. the government’s £362 10 / A future scientist million investment to roll plays with BioBricks on out superfast broadband top of the giant E. coli across the UK, focusing on from the 2011 iGEM team the challenge of creating of student synthetic ultrafast mobile networks. biologists.

² ³ ¶ · PHOTOGRAPHY: ¦IMAGE ±°¨ IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON IGEM TEAM ¯°±± TEAM IGEM LONDON COLLEGE IMPERIAL ±°¨ ¦IMAGE PHOTOGRAPHY:

Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, another Jewish émigré from the fallen Russian Empire who went on to become SAND the second leader of Israel. Bob adopted a form of his surname. Pursuing his air for mathematics Bob studied civil engineer- T P ing in France, but his time there AN ANSWER TO GLOBAL was interrupted dramatically by the FACTOIDS WARMING MIGHT LIE IN THE outbreak of the Second World War ROCKY OUTCROPS OF THE and the subsequent Nazi invasion. DESERT IN OMAN. IMPERIAL He ed from mainland Europe MAGAZINE INTERVIEWS aboard a Dutch ship bound for the DR CEDRIC JOHN. United Kingdom, becoming once again a refugee. Initially he focused on using his engineering expertise on the war eort, repairing equipment damaged by bombs. He later took a ¯°°¯±.Å'ÇÅ.ÈÇ"N, ÊÊ°ÊÄ.Èº'±°.ÈÊ"E postgraduate degree in aeronautics at Imperial, joining other academic refugees from across Europe for whom the College provided a safe ➼ I’M A GEOLOGIST. I’M INTER long hikes but we always have GPS; food. If there’s one thing we’re not haven during the war. ESTED IN ROCKS, SO I TEND TO we always tell the base team where lacking, it’s food. On graduating in 1945, Bob GO WHERE THE ROCKS ARE. we go and we never work alone, so The only thing that’s gone wrong designed aircra parts for the I go on about 10 trips a year, oen we do take precautions. was when we used to work in a Bristol Aeroplane Company before to the Middle East as a large part Safety is obviously always impor- wildlife reserve for oryxes — Middle moving to the United States in of my activity is on Middle Eastern tant but when you work with an oil Eastern antelopes. [] We had 1948. Aer his marriage he became 11°–22° C rocks that act as reservoirs for oil and gas company, they take that a permission to work there but the a US citizen, able to follow career Range of temperature of the and gas. step further. A logistics company government of Oman decided to paths previously closed to him. Paci c Ocean at La Jolla We’re trying to understand how provides 4x4s and they take care close the reserve while one of my He joined the General Dynamics Cove, California, where carbonate rocks, like those that of everything. Their drivers are students was there, so she had to Corporation, a specialist in the Bob swam daily. store oil and gas, were formed, so very experienced at driving in the stay with the logistics team. Luckily aerospace industry based in San that we can predict their charac- desert. [] We always have spare we were able to nd a di¢erent Diego, working closely with the teristics under the surface. These cars in case something happens. region to focus on at short notice. newly formed National Aeronaut- “In the winter, rocks are deep underground in We have a lot of water. We have I think the Qatar Carbonates BOUND ics and Space Administration it feels like Qatar, but in Oman they’re at the satellite phones so we’re always in and Carbon Storage project will outward (NASA). surface where we can see them. touch with the base. It’s actually have a serious impact. First, it’s a Bob Benzwi’s engineering it’s full of They have tiny spaces inside, like a quite luxurious in one sense. long-term e¢ort, instead of being Earth’s boundaries were no constraint skills helped unmanned missions to break new ground. ice cubes.” sponge, which can hold oil or gas. Camping is one of the pleasures a piecemeal approach like some As a member of the teams working on the Mariner and Cedric and his team from the If you inject liquid carbon dioxide of doing eldwork. It can get very projects are, and it’s integrating for one Imperial alumnus. Escaping Pioneer missions, he designed crucial parts of the space Department of Earth Science into them, that can also be trapped cold at night. In some locations disciplines across engineering revolutionary turmoil and war in his vehicles that revealed craters on Mars, took measure- and Engineering take frequent under the surface. We go to ¤eld we’ve had frost at night. Then you and geology. The other reason ments on Jupiter and made the rst direct observations trips to the Middle East to locations, we measure things, we go to 40 degrees during the day is because the state of Qatar is early life, rocket engineer Robert Benzwi of Saturn. Emeritus Professor Andre Balogh (MSc investigate how depleted oil collect rock samples, [] we bring so it can be quite uncomfortable, serious about doing carbon capture (DIC Mechanical Engineering 1945) Physics 1966) from Imperial’s Department of Physics and gas reservoirs in the rock those samples back to London and but in general it’s not too bad. I go and storage. You can really tell worked on the rst NASA missions to described the 1960s as an era that produced ground- could be exploited for storing we look at them in thin sections for a week or two weeks maximum that it’s something that they have breaking space missions in an amazingly short time. carbon dioxide underground. under a microscope. The composi- but some of my PhD students have planned. They want to reduce the reveal the characteristics of other planets “ose were years when everything was still there to be Their research is part of a tion of the rocks tells us something stayed for a month on location. carbon footprint of Qatar and the in the solar system. discovered from space; they were exciting and fast- 10-year collaboration with about their history. The food when we’re camping is biggest carbon footprint comes moving,” he said. Qatar Petroleum and Shell. The most remote places take fantastic. We tend to put on weight from the oil and gas industry. If they Bob later led the Helios programme of the 1970s three or four hours of o¢-tarmac rather than lose it while we’re can actually capture carbon dioxide Bob Benzwi, who died on 3 May 2011 aged 92, had and 1980s, sending probes close to the sun, which, Ukraine ➝ Turkey driving to get to. To reach some of away. We have a lot of Indian food at the gas or oil well and reinject a tasted for adventure even into his nineties. Wearing according to Balogh, provided observations so unique ➝ Palestine ➝ the outcrops you have to walk for because the cooks are all from it, then they will manage to reduce two or sometimes three swimming caps to keep warm, that our knowledge of how the Sun shapes the inter- France ➝ England several hours, so they can be quite India, and also Middle Eastern that footprint. he liked a winter dip in the Pacic Ocean, especially in planetary medium still depends on the data gathered. ➝ USA rough seas. As the oldest member of La Jolla Cove Swim- “Robert Benzwi and his generation of space scientists ming Club in California, Bob spent his autumn years and engineers have le a very solid inheritance,” he said. Bob's émigré path began swimming in chilly open waters. As a younger man space In retirement Bob frequently visited family in Asia at three weeks old with an TENT escape om Ukraine. WHAT'S PICK AXE SPICES With temperatures was the territory he explored, working on pioneering and Europe, but was always pulled towards home and PACKED? What every Cedric’s caterers close to zero at missions that went further from Earth than ever before. the delicious La Jolla Cove where he learnt to swim. geologist needs provide top-notch night, sleeping Robert Benzwi was born Reuven Kossoy in Ukraine He took up painting and in a spree lasting several years Indian cuisine. ¯ WEEKS. for collecting under the stars in 1919. e country was still in the grip of chaos follow- produced landscapes that covered his front room. “He is not advisable. Ä,°°° MILES. rock samples. ing the Russian revolution and, when he was three weeks would get excited about things and just take o,” said his NECESSITIES old, his family ed to Istanbul. ere Bob grew into a friend, Bob West. Bob’s eagerness to gain new knowledge G P S FOR LIFE IN Essential for talented student, picking up mathematics and languages and skills was a lifelong trait that earned him a place in THE DESERT. navigating o-road. with particular ease. He continued his studies in Haifa the history of space discovery and a rm fan base among in the Middle East, where he was inspired by the activist La Jolla swimmers. PHOTOGRAPHY: ¦ROCKS¨ CLAIRE NUNES HARRINGTON SENA SENA HARRINGTON NUNES CLAIRE ¦ROCKS¨ PHOTOGRAPHY: MCKENZIE DONNA ILLUSTRATIONS:

• Dr Robert J. Rabett (St Mary’s Hospital Medical • Mr David H. Richardson (Chemical Engineering • Dr John Ferguson (Geology 1970) In memoriam School 1945) 1958) • Dr Gertrude L. Blamires (St Mary’s Hospital • Mr Richard J. Syrett (Mechanical Engineering • Dr Leslie Richards (St Mary’s Hospital Medical Medical School 1975) and Motive Power 1946, DIC 1947) School 1945) Imperial College London regrets to announce the • Dr Peta D. Buchanan (History of Science and • Mr Herbert J.R. Thorne (Chemical Engineering • Dr Cyril J. Stephens (Charing Cross and Technology 1970, PhD 1977) deaths of the following alumni, students, sta¢ and and applied Chemistry 1946) Westminster Medical School 1953) former sta¢, who were members of the College, the • Mr Christopher G. Cadwell (Physics 1972, DIC constituent medical schools or Wye College. • Mr William H. Tinker (Mining 1947) • Dato Foo Sun Lau (Civil Engineering 1952) 1973) • Mr John W. Vernon (Chemistry 1944) • Dr Denis Charles Mayr (Charing Cross Hospital • Mr Alan Harwood (Mathematics 1970) Medical School 1952) The list has been compiled from information received • Mrs Netta Waller (Wye College 1940) • Dr Warren H. Redding (Charing Cross and • Mr Harry Rook (Civil Engineering 1957) Westminster Medical School 1976)* since issue 36 of Imperial went to press in May 2011. • Dr Alan A. Ware (Physics 1944, PhD 1949) Alumni are listed according to their year of gradua- É Count Andrzej (Andrew) Skarbek (St Mary’s • Dr David J. Weeks (Mechanical Engineering and tion. Where an alumnus has obtained more than one Motive Power 1946, PhD 1954) Hospital Medical School 1954)* degree from the College, they are listed according to Following a complicated • Dr Eugene Wolf (Charing Cross and Westminster ¿·¶Às escape from Russian- the graduation year of their rst degree. Medical School 1943) occupied Poland, Andrzej • Dr Nigel Peter Botting (Chemistry 1983, PhD arrived in England on 1986) An asterisk (*) indicates that an obituary is available a troop train in 1946. • Dr Sigrun Tollerton, née Eriksen (Chemistry online at www.imperial.ac.uk/alumni/obituaries. Wartime trauma, coupled 1984, PhD 1987) To share news of a death, please email ¿·Às with work alongside [email protected]. • Mr James Armstrong (Civil Engineering 1957) renowned psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott, led him É Mr George Band OBE to specialise in psychiatry (Geology DIC 1958)* and he is credited with ¿··Às The youngest member of helping to develop NHS psychotherapy services. • Mr Peter Calderbank (Mineral Resources ¿·Às the 1953 British Everest His work included applied psycholinguistics, Engineering 1990, DIC 1994) expedition which put the effect of drugs on speech, and speech Breaking the mould • Mr Robert C.W. Cheung (Biochemistry 1993) É Mr Montague Alfred Hillary and Tenzing on therapy for children with language difficulties. (Mathematics and Mechanics the summit, George was • Dr Milton H. Ward (Mineral Resources In science the dead-end nding can be as important • Mr Peter M. Turner (Civil Engineering and 1944)* responsible for the radio Engineering 1995)* as the ‘Eureka!’ moment, as penicillin pioneer Surveying 1950) From his role as head of the equipment and food, and Ronald Bentley (PhD Chemistry 1945) found during economics department at helped establish the route • Dr Basil J. Wakeeld (Chemistry 1955, PhD 1958) through the Khumbu Courtaulds, Monty joined the • Mr John A. Wheatcro (Mechanical Engineering his early studies of the drug. Icefall and up the 3,700-foot Lhotse Face. He British Printing Corporation, 1958) Students where he was instrumental in was the first to ascend Kanchenjunga, the third • Mr Mir Balach (Environmental Policy) the founding of Usborne Books. highest peak, and climbed all over the world through his work in oil exploration. Dr Ronald Bentley, who died on States, he looked for a way to chemi- He went on to work for the civil • Mr Diego Garcia Florez (Physics) 6 June 2011 aged 89, was equally at cally synthesise the new antibiotic, a service, first as chief executive of the Property Services • Dr Colin R. Bayley (Chemistry 1955) ¿·²Às • Mr David Williams (Medicine) Agency, and then as second permanent secretary home in the kitchen as he was in the method that was then assumed neces- at the Department of the Environment. Active in the • Mr Ian C. Bell (Mechanical Engineering 1956) • Mr Richard C. Beckwith (Electrical Engineering lab. Away from research, he foraged sary for mass production. However, all community, he chaired both the south London and • Dr Leslie Crystal (Charing Cross and 1968) for his favourite cooking ingredient – aempts to chemically engineer peni- Kingston synagogues. Westminster Medical School 1950) • Mr Ivan Burgess (Electrical Engineering 1967) Sta¥ mushrooms – in nearby woods or on cillin failed. • Mr David W.T. Angwin (Mechanical Engineering and • Mr John H. Chapman (Wye College 1954) • Mr Brian R.M. Collins (Mining 1960) the local golf course. His baking was is defeat marked a turning point • Miss Lorna Bottomley (Medicine) Motive Power 1948) • Dr David Eddie (Charing Cross and Westminster renowned, not only for the results from in drug discovery history. Scientists • Mr Anthony J. Fairweather (Aeronautics 1961) • Professor Sasha Gogolin (Mathematics) • Mr Robert Benzwi (Mechanical Engineering and Motive Medical School 1955) the oven, but also for the biochemistry had revealed that the microorganisms • Mr Milon Ghose (Civil Engineering 1967) • Mr Peter Seal (Facilities Management and Power 1945)* • Professor James Lawrence Livesey (Mechanical lessons that he gave his family as the present in mould were essential to the • Professor Gordon W. Kirby (Chemistry PhD 1960) Property Services) • Professor Ronald Bentley (Chemistry 1945)* Engineering DIC 1952) yeast got to work. production of penicillin • Dr Victor J.M. Hickman (St Mary’s Hospital É Professor Peter Richards • Mr Ronald S. Bradshaw (Electrical Engineering 1948) • Dr John S. Bennett (St Mary’s Hospital Medical Medical School 1961) (Medicine) Ronald’s fascination and that chemistry prin- School 1953) • Dr Derek H. Isaac (St Mary’s Hospital Medical School with fungi arose when ciples could not recreate • Dr Edward H Penry (St Mary’s Hospital Medical Medical scientist Peter 1946) • Mr William B. Boland (Mathematics 1955) pursuing a doctorate THIS DEFEAT MARKED this natural process. As School 1967) Richards combined his • Mr Kenneth W.G. Clack (Mechanical Engineering and • Mr Peter G. Davies (Electrical Engineering 1957) expertise in neurosurgery at Imperial. Ineligible A TURNING POINT Ronald himself observed • Mr John A. Reason (Electrical Engineering Motive Power 1947) and leprosy with a passion on health grounds for IN DRUG DISCOVERY on a blog in 2008, the • Mr Norman E. Dixon (Physics 1952) 1961)* for training future doctors. • Dr John (Jack) C. Chapman (Civil and Environmental military conscription HISTORY… early 1940s marked the • Mr Charles D. Easteal (Metallurgy 1952) • Dr John Klaschka (Chemical Engineering 1962, As Dean of St Mary’s during the Second World THE EARLY ±ÅÇ°S start of the antibiotic Engineering 1942, PhD 1948)* • Dr David A.S. Eddie (Westminster Hospital PhD 1966) Hospital Medical School, • Dr James A.W. Dalziel (Chemistry 1949, PhD 1957) Peter led the School into War, he served the war MARKED THE START revolution leading to Medical School 1955) • The Hon. Neil Turner OBE (Wye College 1967) the 1988 merger with eort by researching the OF THE ANTIBIOTIC the successful control of • Dr John N. Carlyle Cooke OBE (St Mary’s Hospital • Mr Paul Chipman Farish (Mechanical • Dr Anthony K. Waters (St Mary’s Hospital Imperial, becoming Pro production of penicillin. REVOLUTION. many previously intracta- Medical School 1945) Engineering 1950) Medical School 1968) Rector (Medicine) and bringing medics to work Aer studies at Derby ble infectious diseases. • Dr Roger D. De Vere (Charing Cross and Westminster • Professor David Grahame-Smith (St Mary’s • Mr John G. Wilkinson (Physics 1960) alongside engineers and scientists there for the Technical College, he Doc B, as Ronald Medical School 1945) Hospital Medical School 1956) first time. He went on to be President of Hughes • Mr John Williams (Mechanical Engineering joined Imperial’s Depart- was known to colleagues • Dr H.J. Groves (St Mary’s Hospital Medical School Hall, Cambridge. • Mr Michael C. Hall (Civil Engineering 1959) 1962) ment of Chemistry in 1943, 15 years and students, devoted his career 1947) • Professor Chris Wastell (Medicine) • Mr Norman A. Hancock (Botany 1952) • Mr George Wray (Chemical Engineering 1964) aer Alexander Fleming’s discovery of to deciphering how bacteria and • Mr Brian E. Hopkinson (Electrical Engineering 1940) penicillin in a laboratory in St Mary’s fungi biosynthesise natural products, • Dr George C.B. Hawes (St Mary’s Hospital Hospital. Progress in applying it to publishing over 200 papers in research • Mr Leonard L. Martin (Mechanical Engineering 1948) Medical School 1955) kill pathogenic bacteria in the human roles at Colombia University and the • Dr G.D.W. Mckendrick (St Mary’s Hospital Medical • Mr Anthony D. Hoadley (Civil Engineering 1956) ➼ To enquire about leaving a legacy to School 1943) ¿·³Às body had stalled in subsequent years. University of Pisburgh in the United • Mr Anthony C. Holder (Chemistry 1952) Imperial in your will, please contact As Ronald began his investiga- States. He was proud of the educa- • Dr Gareth Mitford-Barberton (St Mary’s Hospital • Mr Roger S. Barnett (Mathematics 1970) Clare Dodds on +44 (0)20 7594 6132 Medical School 1949) • Mr Lancelot Laycock (Mining 1955) tions, war had made research eorts in tion he had received at Imperial and • Dr Juliusz Borysowski (Chemical Engineering or email [email protected] • Mr Brendan G. McKeown OBE (Geology 1956) the eld more urgent. Contributing to remained a generous donor to the • Mr William Page (Botany 1949) MCKENZIE DONNA ILLUSTRATIONS: 1972) a project involving 1,000 scientists in College 60 years aer his own gradu- the United Kingdom and the United ation.

² | IMPERIAL | SPRING ¯°±¯ SPRING ¯°±¯ | IMPERIAL | ³ ALUMNI  Lost the rhythm in Rio? Failing to savour every bite of the Big Apple? Imperial’s EVENTS + MEETINGS + OCCASIONS DISPATCHES international alumni associations will help you ¤nd our community wherever in the calendar world you might be – get in touch and they’ll be pleased to welcome you. 1 MAY ➜ 3 MAY ➜ PETER LINDSAY MEMORIAL LECTURE PUBLIC LECTURE Exploring physics Athena Lecture moments a«er the Big Bang Manchester Vice-Chancellor Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell Relive your student days Recover the next day The top insider tip Join Imperial professor and CERN o¢ers insights into her career with a night out with a bite to eat from those in the know physicist Jim Virdee in the hunt for as a neuroscientist. 01/ 02/ 03/ the elusive Higgs boson. bit.ly/2012Athena bit.ly/2012PeterLindsay South Kensington Campus, London HONG KONG: Lan Kwai Fong is not HONG KONG: DIM SUM It’s HONG KONG: The synchronised light South Kensington Campus, London to be missed when it comes to denitely worth a visit to the show held every night by skyscrapers nightlife. Don’t be surprised if you world’s cheapest Michelin starred on both sides of Victoria Harbour – best nd yourself in the middle of a restaurant: Tim Ho Wan Dim Sum viewed from The Peak. 9 MAY 1112 MAY street festival! Specialist has turned from a small SINGAPORE: Explore the Arab Street GRADUATION COME AND VISIT SINGAPORE: For the best view of restaurant with no fame to a ‘must- area and try Peranakan food, a fusion Postgraduate Graduation sunset and aerial views of the city, eat’. Choose a weekday aernoon to of Chinese and Malay, which uses lots Ceremonies Imperial Festival head to the Roof Garden at the avoid the crowds. Also try Lin Heung Tea of fragrant spices and is found only in Postgraduates celebrate their Two-day College celebration open Marina Bay Sands. It’s free admis- House, one of the oldest restaurants in Singapore, Malacca and Penang. to students, sta¢ and members sion if you’re going up for a drink, but Hong Kong: like many traditional restau- BANGALORE: Gangarams achievements and make their way into the world as Imperial alumni. of the public, incorporating the $20 if you just want to admire rants, they only serve dim sum during on MG Road. This book- alumni reunion. www.imperial.ac.uk/graduation the view (although apparently the day. The decor may be simple, but store caters to all genres www.imperial.ac.uk/festival Royal Albert Hall, London if you’re persuasive enough, the the place is always packed. and licensing agreements South Kensington Campus, London guard will let you up for free…). SINGAPORE: CHILLI CRAB ensure that almost all BANGALORE: It’s unlikely that you’ll Try the seafood restaurants books cost a fraction meet a Bangalorean who doesn’t recog- at the East Coast Seafood of western prices. Stop in and pick up 15 MAY ➜ 23 MAY ➜ nise the name Koshy’s. It’s a rendez- Centre: the more popular a phrasebook in the local language of FRIENDS OF IMPERIAL LECTURE INAUGURAL LECTURE vous for people of all ages and walks of ones are Red House, Jumbo and Palm Kannada and learn to say “Namaskara”. Plastic electronics: Meet our new professors life engaged in debates, nostalgia and Beach. Order both a portion of chilli crab KAZAKHSTAN: Kazakhstan is vast and the coming revolution gossip – a great place to get a feel of and black pepper crab and, of course, di¸cult to experience all at once. Take a Professor Roger Kneebone explains Bangalore society. all crab is best digested with a cold dip into the country and visit Astana with Monthly Friends of Imperial Lecture how surgical simulation can show doctors how it feels to be the KAZAKHSTAN: Try the national beverage, Tiger beer. its breathtaking architecture. Climati- to be given by the Pro-Rector (Research), Professor Donal patient. kumys, in Almaty, the former Kazakh BANGALORE: DOSA A popular eatery is cally, Astana is the second coldest Bradley. www.imperial.ac.uk/events/ capital located in the foothills of the MTR. Since 1924, this small restaurant capital in the world, but the www.friendso¤mperial.org.uk inaugurals Alatau mountains. has been making hot dosas for Banga- locals will welcome you South Kensington Campus, London South Kensington Campus, London RIO DE JANIERO: During the day, loreans. Everything is old world here: warmly. Agua de Coco is delicious at any dhoti-clad waiters, the furniture and RIO DE JANIERO: More kiosk along the beaches of Copac- even the photographs. adventurous visitors 13 JUNE 2123 JUNE abana, Ipanema, or Leblon. At KAZAKHSTAN: BESHBARMUK Too many should try climbing the Pico SUPPORT THE COLLEGE MUSIC FESTIVAL night there are many activities to recommend but, wherever you go, de Tijuca, the highest point Legacy Lunch Supersonix in Lapa — musical programmes do call in advance to request your in Rio: it’s a 50-minute hike for lovers of samba, bossa preferred meat as beshbarmuk can be from the foot of the mountain. Alumni considering leaving a Exhibition Road’s institutions nova or chorinho, as well as cooked with mutton, beef or horse. Another adventure would be donation to Imperial in their will host a conference on the art and are invited to come and nd out science of sound, culminating in jazz and other types of music. RIO DE JANIERO: FEIJOADA Experts to go up the Complexo de more. Music Day. NEW YORK: The 20th floor pent- claim that the best is served on week- Alemão, one of the famous www.imperial.ac.uk/events/ www.exhibitionroad.com/ house at 230 Fih Avenue is an excel- ends at the Jockey Club in Gavea. Favelas, by cable car. The view from the legacylunch supersonix lent place to have a cocktail or even NEW YORK: BURGER AND FRIES top is absolutely breathtaking. South Kensington Campus, London South Kensington, London a cuppa. It has no sign outside – very Pete’s Tavern – which claims NEW YORK: A visit to the Highline discreet. It’s fairly pricey but the view of to be the oldest tavern in is a must: this one-mile (1.6 km) park the Empire State Building is excellent. New York established in 1864 in the clouds is on the old rail tracks 28 JUNE ➜ 6 JULY ➜ Alternatively, to be seen and to spot – does a wonderful Kobe beef and has exhibitions, performances, COME AND VISIT ON THE ROAD celebs, head to the meat packing district burger for $18. and video programmes by artists Hong Kong alumni dinner and hang at the bar at Pastis. who live in NYC. Open Day Alumni in Hong Kong celebrate Prospective undergraduates and the 30th anniversary of their their parents are invited to visit association. Imperial and discover what it’s www.imperial.ac.uk/alumni/ WITH THANKS for contributions from alumni associations in QUESTIONS? Alumni membership is free. Contact us for help really like to study here. Brazil, Hong Kong, India (Bangalore chapter), Kazakhstan, with issues concerning membership or services. hongkong www.imperial.ac.uk/visit New York and Singapore. Hong Kong Email: [email protected] South Kensington Campus, London ➺ Find out more about alumni groups at Imperial: Phone: +44 (0)20 7594 6138 www.imperial.ac.uk/alumni/alumnigroups/atozofallgroups Post: Alumni O¸ce, Imperial College London, KINGZETT JODY GRADUATION: LONDON; COLLEGE STFC/IMPERIAL ¦CERN¨ PHOTOGRAPHY: ➺ Contact us if you’d like to be proled in the next issue: SALC Mezzanine, Level 5 Shereld Building, [email protected] South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, UK For more details on Imperial College events, visit: Sign up and receive the e-Bulletin every fortnight by emailing: Web: www.imperial.ac.uk/alumni www.imperial.ac.uk/events [email protected]

¶ | IMPERIAL | SPRING ¯°±¯ SPRING ¯°±¯ | IMPERIAL | · ¿¿ MAY IMPERIAL¿ FESTIVALMAY

Alumni Reunion Spark something di¥erent ➼ From forensics Saturday 12 May to robots, artwork to enterprise, come and 10.30–19.00 A special programme of events and explore the best on o¢er from Imperial sta¢ and networking opportunities for everyone students today. Meet soapbox scientists, analyse who has ever studied at Imperial will be taking place alongside the Festival your £ngerprints, listen to the Imperial College programme. Details and tickets: Symphony Orchestra or try your hand at surgery. www.imperial.ac.uk/alumni/reunion

IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON • FREE + OPEN TO THE PUBLIC SOUTH KENSINGTON www.imperial.ac.uk/festival