On Friday 5 November, Queen Mary University of London celebrated 50 years of Materials graduates in London and the first cohort from Queen Mary Engineering School at Northwestern Polytechnic University (NPU) in China.
Over 160 people joined the in person and virtual celebrations including five of the first 12 PhD materials graduates from Queen Mary and 20 recent graduates from Queen Mary Engineering School, who are now studying for Masters in the UK.
After a Welcome by Professor Andrew Livingston, Vice-Principal (Research) and Professor of Chemical Engineering at Queen Mary, three sessions of talks started with former Heads of Materials; Edgar Andrews, the founding Head of Materials, Bill Bonfield FRS FREng FMedSci, Peter Reed and Paul Hogg, who reviewed the events and developments from their time in Materials. Professor Andy Bushby also discussed about his career from Undergraduate to Professor and Vice Dean at Queen Mary Engineering School.
The second session allowed four former students and staff to share more about their careers after Queen Mary. Tony Kinloch FRS FREng and Bob Young FRS FREng represented earlier cohorts of students and former staff covering adhesion and polymers, and their engineering applications. Rob Neumann and Sophie Parsons, who both completed undergraduate and PhD degrees in Materials covered their industrial experience in Formula1 and forensic engineering in the shipping industry. Ioannis Spanoudakis, CEO of Athens 2004 Olympic Games and PhD graduate also joined this session.
The final session featured current members of staff at Queen Mary's School of Engineering and Materials Science. Dr Karin Hing, Dr Ana Sobrido and Dr Joe Briscoe talked about their current research and plans for the future, while Sir Colin Humphreys FRS FREng looked forward from the next 50 years, discussing the potential for Materials to change the world from green energy generation and storage, recyclable materials to biomaterials. Professor Liz Tanner FRSE FREng, current Head of Materials, closed the event, thanking the speakers and attendees.
For media information, contact: