New Imperial Ambassadors

The Office of Alumni and Development is pleased to welcome four new Ambassadors to the International Ambassador Scheme

The Office of Alumni and Development is pleased to welcome four new Ambassadors to the International Ambassadors Scheme:

• Professor Sir Roy Anderson, Rector Elect of Imperial College (from Summer 2008)
• Professor Julia Buckingham, Pro Rector for Education
• Ebrahim Mohamed, Director of the Imperial Executive MBA Programme
• Lord Robert Winston, Professor of Science and Society and Emeritus Professor of Fertility Studies

Professor Sir Roy Anderson 

Professor Sir Roy Anderson, a distinguished epidemiologist and currently Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Ministry of Defence, will succeed Sir Richard Sykes to become the 14th Rector of Imperial College London. Sir Roy will take over from Sir Richard in the summer of 2008, when Sir Richard retires after leading Imperial for eight years.

Currently on secondment to the Ministry of Defence, Sir Roy, 60, has held Imperial's Chair in Infectious Disease Epidemiology since 2000. Becoming Rector will crown a 40-year association with the College, which began when he was admitted as a zoology undergraduate in 1965.

Professor Julia Buckingham  

Pro Rector for Education at Imperial College London, Head of the Faculty of Medicine BSc programme and Deputy Head of Undergraduate Medicine.

Julia also holds the following positions of esteem:

• President of the British Pharmacological Society (2004 to date)
• Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Neuroendocrinology (2004 to date)
• Chairman of BioScientifica Ltd, Society for Endocrinology (2002 to date)
• Member of Council of the British Society for Neuroendocrinology (2004 to date)

Ebrahim Mohamed  

Ebrahim is a teaching Fellow and faculty member of the Finance and Accounting and Imperial Entrepreneurship Centre. Winning an ESRC studentship in 1991 to study for MSc (Econs) in International Accounting and Finance at the London School of Economics, Ebrahim teaches,  researches and consults in the area of Accounting, Finance, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He has been at Imperial College since 1992 and has worked on a number of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Ebrahim has held visiting lectureships for the London School of Economics, City University and Queen Mary University of London. He is an accredited examiner of the University of London external programme and a member of the Institute of Learning and Teaching (ILT).

• Director of the Tanaka Business School Executive MBA Programme. The programme was ranked Globally 10th, European 3rd and UK 2nd in the Financial Times Executive MBA 2004 Survey.
• Member of the Imperial College Entrepreneurship Centre. The Centre was ranked 4th In the World and 3rd in Europe in the Financial Times FTMBA 2004 survey.
• Director of Teach First Programme in 2004. Involved in designing the educational curriculum and delivery of this strategically important short course for 140 highly talented young individuals with leadership potential.
• Appointed member of the Teach First Employer Advisory Group.
• Bestowed honorary title of CTES Finance Fellow in September 2004.
• Increasing profile as specialist teacher of finance for high technology entrepreneurs in London and the UK through CTES Business Training working alongside internationally renowned faculty from London Business School and Cambridge University. Selected to teach alongside leading Entrepreneurship scholar from Stanford University(Prof. Tom Byers) in November 2004. Spearheading the Tanaka and Imperial College reputation in technology entrepreneurship and innovation.

Lord Robert Winston 

Lord Winston runs a research programme in the Institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology of Imperial College, on improvements in transgenic technology in animal models, with a long-term aim of improving human transplantation.  He has around 300 scientific publications in peer-review journals on reproduction and embryology. He is also Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University and has recently been appointed to the Chairmanship of Council of the Royal College of Music.

His research led to the development of gynaecological microsurgery in the 1970s and various improvements in reproductive medicine, subsequently adopted internationally, particularly in the field of endocrinology and IVF.  His work on preimplantation genetic diagnosis enabled families carrying gene defects to have children free of fatal illnesses. This included techniques to help families with sex-linked disorders, single gene defects (such as cystic fibrosis) and chromosomal abnormalities for example, those causing pregnancy loss. He holds twenty-six patents. He is Chairman of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Trust Fund, a charity which raised over £13 million to establish the Institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology funds and which funds high quality research in human reproductive biology. He was Director of NHS Research and Development at the Hammersmith Hospitals Trust until 2005.

Robert Winston has been a visiting professor at a number of American, Australian and European universities. He was Chairman of the British Fertility Society 1984-87 and Dean of the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 1989 - 97. He was President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 2005.  He is currently a member of Council and Chairman of the Societal Issues Panel at the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

His awards include a Wellcome Senior Research Fellowship 1973-77, a Blair-Bell Lectureship RCOG, 1978, the Cedric Carter Medal, Clinical Genetics Society, 1993 and the Victor Bonney Medal for contributions to surgery, Royal College of Surgeons of London, 1993. He was Gold Medallist for the Royal Society of Health in 1998. In 1999 he was awarded the Faraday Prize by The Royal Society and the BMA Gold Award for Medicine in the Media. He won the Edwin Stevens Medal (the Royal Society of Medicine) in 2003, was the North of England Zoological Society's gold medallist in 2004 and won the Al Hammadi Gold Medal at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, 2005.

He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, an Honorary Fellow of Queen Mary College, and holds honorary Fellowships of the Institute of Biology, the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. He has been awarded honorary doctorates at fourteen universities.

His activities in the House of Lords include speaking regularly on education, science, medicine and the arts. He was Chairman of the Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology 1999-2002, initiating enquiries into Antibiotic Resistance, Non-Food Crops, Nuclear Waste, Science and Society, Genetic Databases, Aircraft Passenger Environment, and Science in Schools.  He is a board member and Vice-chairman of the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology.

Robert Winston is committed to scientific education and regularly writes or hosts popular science programmes for the BB C 's main channel, the Discovery and ABC networks. His many television series on different aspects of science have been shown in many countries overseas. Perhaps the best known is 'The Human Body' which won a record of three BAFTAs, an Emmy nomination and a Peabody award. Robert Winston has published fourteen books for lay readership:- 'What Makes Me Me' won the Aventis Prize in 2005, and 'The Human Mind' was short-listed for the same prize in that year. 'Human' won the BMA First Prize for the Best Popular Medicine Book in 2005. He regularly gives seminars in schools and universities.