CID/alumni membership number: Dear alumni, These are unprecedented times and our thoughts are with you as we deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope that you and your loved ones all are staying healthy and resilient. I wanted to write to you to let you know about developments at the College and our colleagues’ contributions to the global effort to manage the outbreak. In my Annual Address last week, I stressed the importance of courage, collaboration and improvisation in response to emerging global challenges. The speed and impact of the outbreak of COVID-19 is one of the greatest challenges we have faced. At the College, our first priority is the health and wellbeing of our community and we have been closely following Public Health England and NHS advice to ensure that Imperial is a safe place to work and study. The situation is changing rapidly and everyone is understandably concerned about the uncertainty. This week we are transitioning to remote running of the university wherever possible. We have already moved to remote education and we will now do the same for our research, facilities and support services wherever we can. We will continue to fully support our students in our halls of residence. You can follow our messages to the College community and most recent news here. I am proud of the leading role many at the College have played in responding to this pandemic. This has been an important contribution to the global effort to manage the outbreak, to enhance international and UK preparedness and to plan and prepare for effective support and protection of our own staff and students. Many of our colleagues are at the forefront of dealing with patients through our clinical service, as well as contributing to research programmes and policymaking. I suggest that you regularly check our College website www.imperial.ac.uk as we are keeping it up to date. You can subscribe to Imperial Today from the bottom of our news page here where you will see numerous stories about our latest research. The newly established Abdul Latif Jameel Institute for Disease Emergency Analytics is playing a leading role and you can learn more here. Our thoughts are with our
community of alumni and friends here in the UK and around the world. Thank you for all of your support in these challenging times. President Alice Gast |