Join CEE’s flagship event to reconnect with fellow alumni, expand your network, and explore the future of Civil and Environmental Engineering with sector leaders. Reconnect. Reflect. Celebrate.
Join us for a unique and meaningful event as we celebrate 141 years of real impact—impact we’ve made, and the impact we will continue to make together.
Alumni Connections is our inaugural alumni engagement event, bringing together graduates of Civil and Environmental Engineering for an afternoon of insight and an evening of celebration. Whether you’re returning to campus for the first time in years or staying connected to today’s research, innovation, and education, we’d love you to be part of this special occasion.
The programme
The event begins inside the Department with a keynote address from Professor Chris Johnson, Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (UK Government). This will be followed by a dynamic panel discussion on how innovation and sustainability are shaping the future of civil and environmental engineering.
You’ll also have the opportunity to tour our cutting-edge labs, meet current students and view a showcase of our latest work, and reconnect with fellow alumni over refreshments
In the evening, we invite you to a black-tie dinner with live music, where we’ll raise a toast to our shared legacy and the lasting impact of our community—celebrating those who are with us and remembering those who has passed.
We’ll reflect on the sustained and significant global impact of our alumni and look ahead to a collective future where we continue to work together to shape the world.
Whether you’re returning to campus for the first time in years or staying connected to today’s research, innovation, and education, we’d love you to be part of this celebration
Registration via – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/alumni-connections-a-festive-celebration-of-our-people-and-impact-tickets-1530048278589?aff=oddtdtcreator
Please note, this registration link is strictly for alumni of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. For current Imperial staff or students interested in attending please email our events team directly t.gordon@imperial.ac.uk
Alumni are invited to attend the full event, or either Part I (Afternoon Programme) or Part II (Evening Celebration).
Full Agenda:
13:30 – Registration
14:00–17:00 – Part I: Welcome back to the Department
- Keynote: Professor Chris Johnson CBE (Chief Scientific Adviser, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, UK Government)
- Panel: ‘Building the Future: The Next Era of Civil & Environmental Engineering’.
- Moderator: Professor Jean Venables CBE (class of ’69).
- Panellists: Roger Bailey (Chief Technical Officer at Thames Tideway, class of ’81), Anhad Narula (Chairman at Africa Plus Partners, class of ’02), Dr Mireille El Hajj (CEO at Astraterra, classes of ’10 and ’17). Further panellists to be announced.
- Networking reception: Join us for a tour of our world leading labs, hear from researchers and students about our current research, and mingle with peers.
– Programme break –
18:30-22:30 – Part II: Black-tie dinner with champagne welcome and live music (surcharge £100)
Speakers:
Professor Washington Yotto Ochieng CBE
Professor Washington Yotto Ochieng is Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Chair Professor in Positioning and Navigation Systems at Imperial College London. He is also the Director of Imperial’s Centre for Active Resilience and Security (CARS).
Washington is a renowned expert in infrastructure resilience, trans-modal mobility, positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) systems and geomatics. Ochieng is a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the Royal academy of Engineering, and Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Royal Institute of Navigation (RIN), Institution of Highways and Transportation and the Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors. He holds multiple high-profile positions, including President of RIN, Board Member of the Science Museum Group, Chair of the Science Museum Advisory Board, and Member of advisory councils at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), the Department of Transport (DfT) and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
Professor Chris Johnson
Professor Chris Johnson is the Chief Scientific Adviser in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) having taken up the role in July 2024. Prior to this, he served as Pro Vice Chancellor for Engineering and Physical Sciences at Queen’s University, Belfast (2020-24) and Head of Computing Science in Glasgow University (2014-2020).
Chris’ research interests lie at the intersection of cyber security and the engineering of safety-critical systems, in applications where it is not possible to halt operation and analyse potential malware without creating significant safety concerns. He helped lead the Department for Transport (DfT) review of UK airports, airlines and air traffic organisations that informed the National Cybersecurity Strategy for Aviation. He set up cyber security labs for the UK Civil Nuclear Industry. He was SG Chair of the National Cyber Security Centre’s Community of Interest in Industrial Control Systems. He is a member of the National Cyber Advisory Board (NCAB) appointed to support the implementation of the UK Cyber Strategy.
His early work helped deliver a range of analysis techniques to identify lessons learned from previous failures. He subsequently served as an expert witness to the Grenfell Tower public inquiry where he helped identify recommendations to improve data and communications across the UK emergency services.
His more recent work has delivered techniques for the ethical introduction of machine learning in military systems, including safety and security requirements, on behalf of the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD).
He has held fellowships from NASA, as well as the US Air Force and the US Navy (Office of Naval Research).
Professor Jean Venables CBE – BSc Civil Engineering (‘69)
Jean is a Chartered Civil Engineer and Environmentalist with an MSc in Public Health Engineering and a distinguished career in water and wastewater engineering, flood risk management, and environmental consultancy. She was the first woman President of the Institution of Civil Engineers (2008/09) in its 190-year history and has held senior roles with the Environment Agency, Thames Estuary Partnership, and the Association of Drainage Authorities.
Jean has extensive experience in professional development, lecturing, and chairing high-level committees, and is the author of Preparing for the Professional Reviews of the Institution of Civil Engineers. She has received numerous honours for her contributions to civil engineering, including an MBE, OBE, and CBE. Jean holds Visiting Professorships at Imperial College London, Southampton, and Strathclyde Universities.
Roger Bailey – BSc Civil Engineering (‘81)
Roger Bailey is a chartered civil engineer with more than 30 years’ experience in the planning, design and construction of complex infrastructure projects in the UK and internationally. Roger joined the Thames Tideway Tunnel project in February 2012. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers and has held board level positions in both civil engineering contracting businesses and engineering and planning consultancies prior to joining the project. The first 20 years of his career was in the geotechnical contracting sector (mining, piling and ground engineering) in the UK and overseas followed by over 10 years in transportation consultancy (highways, rail, aviation) for clients such as Crossrail, Network Rail, TfL, Highways Agency and the Department for Transport.
Mireille El Hajj – MSc Transport (‘10) and PhD (‘17)
Dr Mireille Elhajj is the founder of London-based boutique consultancy Astra-Terra, a company specialised in PNT and smart solutions. She is also Visiting Professor at Imperial’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Previously, she was a Lecturer and an “Infrastructure and Space Science Fellow” at the Institute of Security Science and Resilience. She has published various papers in Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT), Interference mitigation and novel integrity monitoring methods for multiple applications in telematics and smart cities. She completed her PhD at imperial on the use of new GPS signals to improve accuracy for surface transport.
Peri Smith – MSc Control Systems Eng, Department of Electrical and Electronic Eng (’07), PhD Civil and Environmental Engineering (’17)
Peri is an Electrical and Electronic Engineer who completed her doctorate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. She is the Director of Systems Engineering and Integration
at global consultancy Ricardo (a member of WSP) and has attained over 20 years of engineering and management expertise working
across a number of industries. This ranges from the commercial aviation flight simulation industry to mainline, metro and subsurface railway
projects in the UK and Australia and for global clients.
Her experience involves the delivery of organisational change in the technical Systems Integration arena working across multiple engineering disciplines and technology and she has led award-winning projects and project teams, including for the ‘Performance improvement in the public sector at London Overground’.