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Queen Mary Alumni e-Newsletter: November 2015

Your Alumni Ref. No:

Supporting our work

Can you add a gift to your list?
How’s your Christmas shopping going? Do you know what you’ll be giving to your family, friends, colleagues and neighbours? Are you a last-minute person or is everything bought, wrapped and labelled already? We’d like you to think about adding one more person to your list: one of our students in need of financial support. You’ll be helping someone like Seher, who told us: "Becoming a doctor was always my dream and something I feel so passionate about. You have helped me achieve my ambition and I am so grateful for that. It is wonderful to know that there are people who want to help students in financial difficulty."

Willing to add that someone to your Christmas list? The good news is it’s easy: no trekking up and down the high street, just a quick online process here. Thank you!

QMentoring success stories
Following a successful pilot with Faculty of Science and Engineering undergraduates earlier this year, QMentoring, our career mentoring programme, has been extended to the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Our mentors have truly embraced the spirit of the scheme and have done their part to widen access to their industry: listening, encouraging, reflecting back and challenging assumptions.

We are grateful to all our alumni mentors for their support. Sana Gite, a Maths mentee said, “My mentor guided me to think outside of the box, realising that a simple job or task that I had completed actually had many skills and talents hidden within.” Can you help too? We are looking for London-based mentors (in particular Geography, English and Drama, History, Biology, Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Psychology and Physics graduates) for a 6 month commitment starting now until April. Contact Jacqueline Steinmetz, QMentoring Coordinator, or telephone +44 (0)20 7882 3690.

The John Vane Legacy
Major contributions to medicine are exemplified by the pre-eminent pharmacologist Sir John Vane’s work: by the billions of people worldwide who take aspirin to prevent heart attacks; the 35-40 million people worldwide who take angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors every day to treat high blood pressure, heart failure or kidney disease, and the thousands of patients with pulmonary hypertension who are kept alive by prostacyclin.

The William Harvey Research Foundation aims to continue his pioneering approach and seeks to raise £2m to establish the John Vane Professorial Chair to lead a Centre for Pharmacological Innovation in the William Harvey Research Institute. Read more.

Alumni news

Alumna awarded Women in Science and Engineering prize
Amrita Ahluwalia (PhD Pharmacology, 1993), Professor of Vascular Pharmacology and Deputy Director of the William Harvey Research Institute, received the 2015 Prize for Research by the WISE (Women in Science and Engineering) Campaign at a special ceremony on 12 November. The WISE Awards are an annual event to celebrate women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects.

Special Congressional Recognition for QMUL alumnus
Silvano Orsi (Law, 2010) has received Special Congressional Recognition from the United States Congress for his efforts to revitalise and develop an inclusive and trendy “Little Italy Neighbourhood” in Upstate New York. The project aims to celebrate the community’s multiculturalism and provide educational, cultural, recreational and entrepreneurship programmes for the young and adults alike. Read more.

Barts Health NHS Trust makes great strides in sustainability
In her role as a Programme Assistant with the environmental charity, Global Action Plan, Abi Aldridge (Geography, 2014) has been working with Barts Health NHS Trust to help them to become more sustainable. The Trust has consequently saved around £9.2m over the past few years. Watch their ‘Sustainability Story’.

Celebrities, The Royal Family, privacy, and the law
Professor Robin Callender Smith, a three-time QMUL graduate and barrister, discusses his forthcoming book on celebrities and privacy law. Professor Callender Smith (Law, 1974; LLM Computer and Communications Law, 2010; PhD, 2014) is a Visiting Professor in the Centre for Commercial Law Studies at QMUL. Celebrity and Royal Privacy, the Media and the Law will be published by Sweet & Maxwell on 30 November 2015.

Calling all Geographers
A reunion for former students of the School of Geography is being planned for autumn 2016. If you would like to receive more information - or to find out more about getting a group together - please get in touch. Keep up-to-date with the latest news from the School by reading the Autumn/Winter 2015 issue of the Geography Newsletter.

Forthcoming events

Mile End Institute events
The Mile End Institute runs a topical programme of events around the themes of the state, the economy and the city. Alumni from all disciplines are welcome to attend events. Join the mailing list.

2 December 2015, 6.30pm
Re-imagining the BBC - Charters Past and Present
The debate around the review of the BBC Charter is in full swing. As the broadcaster and the government start the process of defining its future role, what can be learned from previous rounds of negotiations? Lord (Peter) Hennessy will chair the first of two events organised in partnership with the BBC. Tessa Jowell, Norman Fowler and David Levy will reflect on the lessons of the past Charter reviews. This event will take place at the House of Lords. Places are extremely limited; please email if you wish to attend.

3 December 2015, 6pm
How to Advise Parliament? Routes into the policy making process
Engagement with parliamentary committees can generate impact, which is both significant and far reaching - but quite often these channels are under-utilised by researchers. The Mile End Institute and UCL Public Policy will bring together representatives from Parliament and those who have given evidence to discuss the benefits of this route into the policy making process. This event will take place at UCL. Register interest.

11 December 2015, 7.30pm
QMUL Music Society Christmas Concert
Handel’s Zadok the Priest is one of his best loved and mightiest compositions, originally composed for the coronation of George II in 1727 and sung at every coronation since. Beethoven’s Egmont overture was written as incidental music for Goethe’s play, and Sibelius’ Karelia Suite needs little introduction. Book now.

Autumn 2016
25th Anniversary of the IRC
An event to mark 25 years of the Interdisciplinary Research Centre (IRC) at QMUL is being planned. If you completed your studies with the IRC, please ensure that you are kept informed of arrangements by updating your details. Register interest.

Previous events

Noticeboard

Are you an Alumni Volunteer?
Have you helped QMUL with student recruitment, organising an event or careers workshops and talks? If you have helped to further our work in any way at all, we would love to hear from you. Our Alumni Volunteers are a valuable part of our fabric and we want to celebrate and share your volunteering stories. Please get in touch.

If you would like to join us an Alumni Volunteer, we would also be delighted to hear from you. Find out more about how you can get involved.

International Alumni Profiles
QMUL International and QMUL Careers & Enterprise are looking for recent international graduates to share their experiences of student life and the world of work.

The International team are initially looking for alumni from Europe to complete a profile. Careers & Enterprise are looking a bit further afield and are producing country-specific job search guides to help current international students who are considering returning home after they have graduated from QMUL. As a starting point, they would like to hear from alumni from China, India, Malaysia and Pakistan who have gone through this process and found work in their home countries. If you are interested in providing a profile for either project, please contact us.

Join the Department of Drama’s QMUL Livelihoods Network
Drama alumni are invited to join the QMUL Livelihoods Network, a forum for past and present students to connect and share their experiences. An informal event is being planned for 9 December on our Mile End campus. The Department is also looking for alumni who would be willing to mentor current students. Contact Katie Jackson, QMUL Livelihoods Network Coordinator and QMUL Drama Graduate (2014) for more information.

BCI's annual Christmas Auction
Running out of present ideas? Eyeing up mysterious kitchen gadgets that your loved ones will never use? Don’t worry, Barts Cancer Institute’s (BCI) online Christmas Auction is coming up! From 1-7 December, bid online for a range of exciting and one-off gifts. Theatre tickets, restaurant vouchers, and rare experiences are all up for grabs. All money raised goes towards our cancer research. Find out more or if you have something you’d like to donate, contact Katrin Hood.

Social media

Help us to spread the word about the Queen Mary Alumni Network by encouraging your friends to like, follow and join us.

Like us on Facebook
Over 7,000 of you have ‘liked’ our Queen Mary University of London Alumni Network page on Facebook. Keep up-to-date with university news and information about forthcoming events, share your photos and memories of QMUL.

Follow us on Twitter
Follow @QMAlumni on Twitter. Tweet your musings about your time at QMUL. #QMAlumni

Join us on LinkedIn
Join our Queen Mary Alumni Network group of 7,000+ members on LinkedIn to make business contacts, share careers advice, network with fellow alumni and join in with discussions.

Noticeboard online
Visit the Noticeboard area of our website to keep up-to-date with opportunities and information about how you can get involved in the life of QMUL.

Have you moved?
Make sure you receive your copy of QMA alumni magazine, due for publication next spring, by updating your address via our Alumni Portal.

You can also use this online platform to get in touch with friends who are registered users, book on to events and make a gift.

Do your bit for the environment!
Save paper by signing up to receive QMA by email. You can request to do so via the Alumni Portal or by email to alumni@qmul.ac.uk.