White City update: Head of Department, Professor Alan Armstrong shares the latest developments
“The building is shaping up amazingly. It’s clear to see, we’ll have more and better quality space at White City - and that’s just the start of it…”
At the end of January, we had the topping out ceremony for the Translation & Innovation Hub; the building next door to the Molecular Science Research Hub.
While our building is still some way from completion, it’s exciting to see such tangible progress; more space in particular, as we have so many successful staff members in the Department who would like to accommodate bigger group sizes - and who could achieve great things by doing so.
Two hubs; one smart ‘innovation ecosystem’
‘Imperial’s people have always made a huge impact on society; we are the real doers; the people who make things happen. With this move, we can expand this approach and bring it right up to date.’
The new campus will also provide us with better lab facilities for our postdocs and postgraduate students; more fume hoods, for example and state-of-the-art cell culture/protein production facilities, plus better vibration control, crucial for modern instruments.
We’ll also be a lot more accessible to industry, with spin-out and established companies in the hub next door. This will give us the opportunity to work much more closely with industry, to improve the student experience and to develop useful products.
Focussed on solving real-world challenges
In particular, we’d like to attract and incubate companies that fit with our six research themes: Advanced Catalysis and Synthesis; Chemical Biology and Healthcare; Environmental and Green Chemistry; Energy; Imaging, Sensing and Analytical Chemistry; and Materials and Molecular Design.
‘Our new research themes have been developed to encourage collaboration so we can work in new areas and on bigger projects - to more clearly impact on society and its challenges.’
These themes signal our commitment to interdisciplinary working and are also more public-facing – telling the world about what we do.
A special invitation for alumni
As alumni, many of you will doubtless have a nostalgic attachment to the lecture theatre and labs of your student days.
It’s worth knowing then, that part of our undergraduate teaching will remain in South Kensington for the foreseeable future. In fact, we have plans to refurbish this space – and look forward to telling you more about this in due course. In the meantime, an invitation:
If you have a company that you think would add to our research eco-system, or a compelling case for sharing our facilities and amazing new equipment, please get in touch. Similarly, if you have a problem or scientific challenge that would benefit from our network of scientists, please bring it to us.
You can contact me direct on +44 (0)20 7594 5876 or send an email to: a.armstrong@imperial.ac.uk; I’d be happy to discuss your ideas with you.
Professor Alan Armstrong, Head of the Department of Chemistry.
