UCL Connect Magazine (2010) by University College London

LONDON’S GLOBAL UNIVERSITY

issue two 2010

Contents Welcome to the second issue of Connect. UCL people share many defining characteristics. One of these is a thirst for knowledge and an excitement about discovery. These pages are testament to that spirit. From Thomas Hillier, the UCL Bartlett graduate who opens our eyes to an imaginary world, to Professor David Nicholas, Head of UCL Information Studies who talks about the future of our learning landscape, we can see how the university truly has ingenuity at its heart. So it seems fitting to choose lifelong learning as the theme for this issue.

UCL continues to embrace the quest for knowledge through our research, our innovative learning and teaching programmes and our outreach projects, which engage communities in London, the UK and the wider world. This quest expands far beyond the confines of our campuses, which are themselves spreading throughout the world. Whatever your interest and wherever you are, it’s possible that UCL can connect you to a learning path. Whether through continuing professional development, providing a source of expertise or learning a

new language, the UCL connection offers alumni an ever-expanding panorama of learning opportunities. Please take a moment to fill in the online alumni survey, as this will enable us to learn from you, our most powerful community.

News

Professor Michael Worton

Student union

Lifelong learning

A round-up of the latest stories from the UCL community

UCL Vice-Provost (Academic & International)

UCL: a one-stop knowledge shop

UCL’s new union: enhancing the student experience one brick at a time

Cover image: Map of Cyberspace 2006 Courtesy of Hannah Griffiths (see back cover)

Inside information 08 Professor David Nicholas takes Connect on a tour of the digital learning landscape

Reunion events

Laws alumna Jennifer Janes reunites the class of ’63

Words: Rachel Lister UCL Communications

Graduate careers

Teaming UCL graduates with final-year students

Design: studiospecial.com Photography: Matt Clayton (main and cover) Hilary Jackson & Marcus Yau

UCL Connect is produced for UCL alumni by the university’s Alumni Relations and Communications teams

Thomas Hillier The Migration of Mel & Judith During his fourth year at the Bartlett School of Architecture, Thomas Hillier (UCL Bartlett 2008) created The Migration of Mel & Judith: a hand-drawn, cut and stitched lampshade house which encapsulated the habitual activities of a retired English couple. Thomas’s unique assemblage piece tells the story of Mel and Judith who, having left their life in Croydon, now live on a small, uninhabited island situated on the River Nile, where in their weird and wonderful Do-It-Yourself English castle Mel brews beer in his bathtub-brewery whilst Judith bakes rose-bread in the bread-garden.

Contact: UCL Alumni Network, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT UK Telephone: +44 (0)20 7679 7677 Fax: +44 (0)20 7209 0117 email: alumni@ucl.ac.uk web: www.ucl.ac.uk/alumni

The value of a good 16 education What inspires two alumni to give something back

UCL in the Middle East

Asif Mahmood reveals his plans to bridge the Gulf

Event highlights

A sample of some of the events on offer this autumn

Departmental focus 21 The Eastman CPD programme: defining dental excellence at home and abroad

Benefits & services 22

Alumni giving

Revel in the greatest works penned and printed in UCL’s libraries

Eric Wilkinson remembers the UCL professor who changed his life

The work has received the High Commendation Award for best first time exhibitor at the Royal Academy’s 2010 Summer Exhibition. www.thomashillier.co.uk 1

News

Professor Michael Worton

Student union

Lifelong learning

A round-up of the latest stories from the UCL community

UCL Vice-Provost (Academic & International)

UCL: a one-stop knowledge shop

UCL’s new union: enhancing the student experience one brick at a time

Cover image: Map of Cyberspace 2006 Courtesy of Hannah Griffiths (see back cover)

Inside information 08 Professor David Nicholas takes Connect on a tour of the digital learning landscape

Reunion events

Laws alumna Jennifer Janes reunites the class of ’63

Words: Rachel Lister UCL Communications

Graduate careers

Teaming UCL graduates with final-year students

Design: studiospecial.com Photography: Matt Clayton (main and cover) Hilary Jackson & Marcus Yau

UCL Connect is produced for UCL alumni by the university’s Alumni Relations and Communications teams

Contact: UCL Alumni Network, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT UK Telephone: +44 (0)20 7679 7677 Fax: +44 (0)20 7209 0117 email: alumni@ucl.ac.uk web: www.ucl.ac.uk/alumni

The value of a good 16 education What inspires two alumni to give something back

UCL in the Middle East

Asif Mahmood reveals his plans to bridge the Gulf

Event highlights

A sample of some of the events on offer this autumn

Departmental focus 21 The Eastman CPD programme: defining dental excellence at home and abroad

Benefits & services 22

Alumni giving

Revel in the greatest works penned and printed in UCL’s libraries

Eric Wilkinson remembers the UCL professor who changed his life

The work has received the High Commendation Award for best first time exhibitor at the Royal Academy’s 2010 Summer Exhibition. www.thomashillier.co.uk 1

News James Murdoch launches UCL’s Centre for Digital Humanities

UCL brainpower boosts project in the heart of Haiti A team of UCL architects, engineers and students are pooling their expertise to build a primary school and community centre complex in earthquake-stricken Haiti.

Ms O’Halloran, who was already a member of the Global Development Initiatives society at UCL Union, set about stimulating interest in a project in Haiti.

Thinking Development, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) which has emerged at UCL as a collaborative response to the disaster, is masterminding a project to redevelop a site in the heart of the capital Port-au-Prince.

With support from the UCL Development Planning Unit, she quickly recruited a cadre of architects and engineers, and a team of students to help promote the project and raise funds.

The Centre Rosalie Javouhey will include a primary school, an adult education centre, a community kitchen and canteen, a multi-functional community space, and an urban garden and playground. The goal is to make the centre disaster-resistant, eco-friendly, sustainable, community-sensitive and beautiful, embodying local knowledge and cutting-edge design, and empowering the local community to develop as they see fit. UCL Philosophy research student Linda O’Halloran kick-started the project after receiving an appeal through the alumni network of her secondary school.

Ms O’Halloran said: “The vision for the project has been evolving over the past few months, but what has remained constant is the conviction that we are not dishing out charity; we are a not-for-profit social enterprise. We aspire to empower people in Haiti to direct their own development, by consulting them in all decisions, and by encouraging them to take on responsibility where they might otherwise leave it to the NGO.” Thinking Development registered as a new NGO in May and Ms O’Halloran and two of the team’s architects, Carlos Manns and Marcel Noeding, visited the site in Haiti in July.

The school in Ireland was founded by a religious order, the Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny, which is also the biggest educator of women in Haiti. The email asked past pupils to rally their resources to help their operations in Haiti, which were severely affected by the earthquake.

Find out more about UCL’s work in response to global natural disasters at www.ucl.ac.uk/rdr 2

James Murdoch, Chairman and Chief Executive of News Corporation, spoke at the launch of the new UCL Centre for Digital Humanities in May. The Centre, which will launch a new MA/MSc digital humanities programme in September 2011, brings together research from the traditionally separate disciplines of computing and humanities to create new tools that enhance the understanding and study of the humanities and cultural heritage. The Centre’s researchers will also analyse the impact of these new techniques on cultural heritage, memory institutions, libraries, archives and digital culture.

Flaxman Gallery plays key role in Hollywood blockbuster Digital humanities involve the study of texts, images, film, sound, performance, and objects from museums, galleries or archaeological digs, among other artefacts. It covers the creation of digital models, collections, software, systems and interfaces, as well as the study of how audiences use these kinds of resources. Key areas of interest include how digital data and objects may be retrieved, organised, collected, curated and preserved for future use.

Speaking at the launch, Murdoch discussed the consequences for creativity of the digital world: “Digital technology has significantly changed the way we communicate and share knowledge. The Centre holds great promise, not only for finding new ways of applying technology to the study of the human record but also for providing insights and perspective on how we think about culture and creativity in the future. “As a discipline, the digital humanities have grown from the simple use of databases in scholarly work, to an approach championed here at UCL: a partnership in which technology is neither the servant of the humanities, nor its master, but an equal partner. The result has been a balance that has fostered innovation on both sides.”

To find out more about the centre go to: www.ucl.ac.uk/dh To read the full Murdoch lecture go to: www.ucl.ac.uk/news

UCL’s Flaxman Gallery played a central role in the recent film Inception directed by UCL alumnus Christopher Nolan (UCL English 1993). The famous central space so familiar to regular library goers featured as part of scenes shot around UCL to double for the Architectural School in Paris. The intelligent virtual reality thriller has received widespread acclaim since its release in July and rotates around a theme of dream manipulation backed up by a host of stars including Leonardo DiCaprio and Sir Michael Caine.

Nolan has shot scenes for several of his previous films, including The Dark Knight, at UCL but this is the first time the Flaxman Gallery has been featured as a location on the big screen. The space was also named ‘location of the month’ by Film London, the capital’s film and media agency. To read more about the filming and an interview with Dr Nina Pearlman, Manager of UCL Art Collections, go to the Film London website.

To learn more about the filming go to: www.filmlondon.org.uk/july2010 3

News James Murdoch launches UCL’s Centre for Digital Humanities

Ms O’Halloran, who was already a member of the Global Development Initiatives society at UCL Union, set about stimulating interest in a project in Haiti.

With support from the UCL Development Planning Unit, she quickly recruited a cadre of architects and engineers, and a team of students to help promote the project and raise funds.

Find out more about UCL’s work in response to global natural disasters at www.ucl.ac.uk/rdr 2

To find out more about the centre go to: www.ucl.ac.uk/dh To read the full Murdoch lecture go to: www.ucl.ac.uk/news

To learn more about the filming go to: www.filmlondon.org.uk/july2010 3

Lifelong learning

UCL’s Museums & Collections are a gift for all those who want to explore their world and its origins. With two specialist on-site museums and several collections housed on campus, these are spaces where learning never stops. For Nigel Harris (UCL Egyptian Archaeology 2005), returning to the UCL Petrie Museum brought more than memories; it brought a new learning space to a new audience… When did your connection with the Petrie Museum begin? My connection started when I was studying Egyptian archaeology at UCL, but it wasn’t until I left and started chairing Camden’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) forum that I reconnected with the museum. We wanted to celebrate LGBT people so we started LGBT History Month. In 2007 we started putting on a programme of events; things like history walks with the British Museum and film screenings. That’s when Debbie Challis, the Audience Development Officer at the Petrie, gave us a call to get involved and I was over the moon, because I loved the Petrie.

What kind of learning events did you develop with the Petrie? We collaborated on two events after the film Night at the Museum had been released, one of which was ‘Beyond Osis and Osiris: Alternate Sexualities in Ancient Egypt’. It was a chance for local people to come and view the collection from an LGBT perspective and it was so popular, so many people came – people who’d never visited a museum before. The last event we did was an LGBT history walk where people went round the museum and looked into the objects from a different perspective.

What does lifelong learning mean to you? I don’t like it when people say you’ve got to learn everything as a kid. I’m just learning the piano and I don’t see why we shouldn’t be learning until we’re in our graves. For me lifelong learning is about training myself in the things I want to do and I’m going to continue that forever. UCL’s not just about throwing knowledge at you, it’s about giving you the confidence and the resources to find out what you want to know. I want to learn Spanish next so I’m thinking about signing up at the UCL Language Centre.

How can people get involved in the programme? You can click on the volunteering tab on the Petrie website at www.ucl.ac.uk/museums/petrie/volunteering or visit www.camdenlgbtforum.org.uk 4

UCL Museums & Collections aren’t the only places to go to continue learning this autumn. There are a wide variety of Continued Professional Development (CPD) courses on offer from a range of departments. UCL Advances, the centre for entrepreneurship and business interaction at UCL, also offers a range of CPD accredited courses for entrepreneurs, small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and members of the UCL community. These courses are aimed at people who need extra training in specific business-related areas. Topics include leadership and management, finance, marketing, law and technology strategy. The courses attract both academics and professionals, creating a dynamic and interesting learning environment. If you’re looking for professional development courses to enhance your business skills, then these courses are for you. All courses have been accredited by the CPD Certification Service which supports Continuous Professional Development and learning activities. www.ucl.ac.uk/advances/cpd The Faculty of Laws also has a thriving continuing legal education section that offers a range of free public and fee-paying (discounted for alumni) events offering CPD hours for those who attend. www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/alumni/index And don’t forget UCL’s Language Centre, offering evening courses in 18 languages from Dutch to Mandarin: www.ucl.ac.uk/language-centre

To watch a film featuring the LGBT Petrie trail, visit www.youtube.com/ucltv 5

Lifelong learning

How can people get involved in the programme? You can click on the volunteering tab on the Petrie website at www.ucl.ac.uk/museums/petrie/volunteering or visit www.camdenlgbtforum.org.uk 4

To watch a film featuring the LGBT Petrie trail, visit www.youtube.com/ucltv 5

Student Union

Grand designs: a new union takes shape The UCL Union has always been the beating heart of the student experience. A space that provides social and sporting opportunities beyond the confines of the library and lecture hall, it is often the glue that binds many disparate Bloomsbury departments together.

The project will be a masterclass in merging the old and the new, enhancing and restoring the period features of listed buildings whilst developing facilities that meet the needs of today’s students. Alex Karski, UCL Classics student and current Student Activities Officer, believes that a new building is crucial for students.

This year marked a new era for the UCL Union. In response to the needs of a growing and discerning student population, who rightly expect world-class facilities as part of a global university’s offering, building work began in a bid to revitalise this central space of student life.

“Along with the Bloomsbury Theatre, the union is the hub of all the extracurricular activity that students do. It’s the primary location for the majority of the general societies who all use the buildings as a source for meetings.

The re-envisaged student centre will be made up of three buildings to complement the existing union building at 25 Gordon Street. Architects Levitt Bernstein developed the vision for the former Lewis building on the corner of Gower Street to be the main hub within a complex that will include a café, pub, performance venue and a range of multi-purpose rooms for rehearsals and meetings. In addition to professional office space for sabbatical officers and staff, there will also be specially designed facilities including a media suite and a dark room for those involved in visual arts societies.

“In terms of the union activity this redesign is central. I think it will have a very positive effect on the student experience. Our current union is in dire need of repair and it will be great to have a dedicated new space that will inspire students and get them involved. I have hopes that ours will match other university unions across the country.”

On-site work began on 28 June this year and this is just one of a number of redevelopment projects being carried out across campus throughout the autumn and beyond. UCL Estates & Facilities head up the coordination of these projects and it is alumni support that helps to provide the very best twenty-first century student experience. MAKE A GRAND ENTRANCE If you’d like to make a lasting mark on the student experience at UCL please consider how you might play a central part in this project. Individuals who contribute gifts of £10,000 or more over five years will be acknowledged on a plaque in the entrance to the building. For gifts of £25,000 or more, donors have the opportunity to name various spaces within the building. To find out more please contact Fiona Duffy, Head of Leadership & Legacy Giving, on +44 (0) 20 7679 9192 or via email at f.duffy@ucl.ac.uk

Student Union

Inside information

Google, Facebook, Wikipedia. Information is everywhere. It’s the plethora of websites we tap into every day. It’s the tool with which we search, share, socialise and spend. Few people know more about how the digital transition has transformed us than Professor David Nicholas, UCL’s Head of Information Studies. One of the main interviewees in the BBC series The Virtual Revolution, which won this year’s International Emmy for a digital programme, Professor Nicholas is a world-leading expert on how we consume information in the digital age. Here he tells Connect about the benefits and pitfalls of this exciting new world. “Are we benefiting from the big fat information pipe we’re all connected to, this great opportunity to be totally informed? – that’s the big question. There’s more information available than ever before, but I would argue that 11–16 year-olds, what we call the Google generation, may actually know less about the world around them than previous generations. This generation is being brought up in a different age – an age which certainly offers benefits to them, because they have information available to them 24/7, a library on their table. However, there is a gulf between their way of learning and that of older generations, and we haven’t yet worked out how to bridge it. Institutions are still behaving in an old way, according to the principles of a pre-digital age. They are unsure whether to hang onto those principles, or whether they should change (dumb down as they might call it!). “It is important for us to think seriously about how the speed of change in the digital age is affecting academic life – life at an institution such as UCL, which has been operating on a bedrock of knowledge and learning for almost 200 years. For instance, we need to question the extent to which we accommodate a form of learning that involves skipping along the surface and knowing a little bit about a lot of things. “People assume that learning in the digital age is all about remote and distance-learning technologies, but it’s not; it’s about a proliferation of sources and the different ways of gathering information that exists online. How, for instance, do we accommodate people who don’t understand what the words ‘collection’ or ‘peer review’ mean – who don’t know how to distinguish between a poor or a quality source? We are encountering these 8

challenges in new generations of students who are used to finding their information through Google. The implication for a student studying something like media or politics is bad, but it’s potentially very bad in chemistry or medicine. It is not that I would deem anything in the digital sphere unworthy or irrelevant from a research perspective, but it is becoming harder to differentiate between sources, authors and ultimately fact or fiction. “The perceived ownership of digital knowledge is a critical issue – it’s actually now almost impossible to tell who produces what information. An excellent example of how this works is in the health field. We put a touchscreen kiosk in Tesco, next to the pharmacy. It had health information on it with the intention that people could search it to find out more information about their health while they were waiting for their prescription. People used it in droves. The information was from the NHS, and the equipment was produced and manufactured by a company called Surgery Door – but when we asked people whose information it was, most people believed it was Tesco’s. When they were told it wasn’t, the majority became very upset! Another example is that some people think the information they find online is owned by Google which gives them undue reassurance about its reliability. I’m afraid that the safe, moderated, compartmentalised world we once inhabited has gone – and people don’t always have the skills to negotiate the one that has replaced it.

“It is important for us to think seriously about how the speed of change in the digital age is affecting academic life – life at an institution such as UCL, which has been operating on a bedrock of knowledge and learning for almost 200 years.” “There are, however, benefits for researchers. As more and more things migrate into the digital space – whether shopping, learning, reading or hobbies – everything arguably becomes information in the sense that you have to use keywords and a search engine, browse tables of contents and chase up links. Would we have regarded shopping as something that required information skills? Maybe not, but with e-shopping, when people go to buy 9

Inside information

empowers people to search out information for themselves – which is great – but should we just open the door and leave them there? The classic example is that of the e-citizen. Governments can give people the tools to vote online, but nobody is interested in ensuring that people understand policy issues, which would enable people to make a genuinely informed choice. I don’t want to sound like I’m doom-mongering; I used to live in an information-poor world and I’m the first to say in some ways we are incredibly empowered these days – but my feeling is that we’re missing a trick. I would argue that we’re not as informed as we should be given what is on all our doorsteps – the trouble is that we treat information as wallpaper. Nobody looks beyond the first Google hits page – and yet important things may be there. It’s not so much the speed of broadband, which seems to wholly absorb government agendas, but what we’re doing with all that speed.

“Businesses and organisations need to prepare for the born digital generation to come into the workplace. This generation may expect something different from their training and support systems. They may change the businesses themselves, or alternatively they may need to conform to the structures and processes in place. Everyone can see this tidal wave coming; but nobody knows how and where it will hit. Right now we’ve got clashes in cultures and expectations. Information is the heart of everything because it affects every subject and every individual. There’s no doubt that digital’s given the world a stage – but I think we’re in an information wild west right now; everything’s about acquiring land. But the sheriffs will come.”

“As a research group in UCL Information Studies, I feel CIBER (Centre for Information Behaviour and the Evaluation of Research) is flashing a torchlight. We’ve recently been explaining to GPs how people access information now. We’re telling them that this is how 10 million people behave when it comes to accessing health information – and asking, ‘So what are we going to do about it?’ Until we come up with the answers, it’s just like watching an inevitable car crash.

something they look at a cross-comparison website, they do a bit of research, they throw in a few keywords, they go to a retrieval engine like Google, yielding a lot of information, and ultimately, knowledge. “A striking aspect of the new information age is that we never do anything for very long. The common platform is digital, whether it’s the internet, the mobile phone, or now the iPad, and with all of them, you click on a link, you look at something, and you’re always enticed to go somewhere else from there. As researchers, we’ve been learning a lot about what happens when we migrate into that space, and some of our observations are challenging, disturbing even, because we didn’t realise before that people behaved like that. Maybe they always have – but the digital age is providing the mechanisms to observe this behaviour and destroying some long-held beliefs. “Now we actually know how people behave online, we’re beginning to ask questions. We’re looking at the fact nobody reads anything lengthy online, and we’re also researching the erosion of the boundaries between traditional subjects, skill sets and hierarchies in the online space. The internet has exploded the discipline boundaries between what were quite separate fields in the hard copy domain – notably publishing, journalism, archives. Today, we’re all librarians, commentators, politicians and journalists, because in the digital age we’re very do-it-yourself. 10

Ahead of the digital curve

“There’s no doubt that digital’s given the world a stage – but I think we’re in an information wild west right now; everything’s about acquiring land. But the sheriffs will come.” “At UCL, we may need to move away from the disciplinary boundaries that have been built up in a hard copy, pre-digital world, and we may need to build the teaching and learning model in a new way. We’re already seeing a shift in the learning environment, but the current challenge is closing the gap between what we do or can do in the digital world and what we are currently offered by institutions such as universities that are still partly stuck in the past. “One of the things we need to think about is how we equip people to source and manage information in a digital environment. How could a person surfing the internet judge fairly, for instance, what the balance of evidence is about climate change, when there is so much written from so many perspectives? “One of the questions I really believe you have to ask of the digital age is whether we’ve really found a better way of doing things than going through the intermediary, the journalist, the expert? On the one hand, the internet

2007: UCL’s President and Provost, Professor Malcolm Grant, seals a supercomputer research and technology partnership that involves creating a cutting-edge High Performance Computing (HPC) facility for the university’s 16,000 researchers. 2009: UCL becomes one of the first universities outside North America to appear on iTunesU, an online platform enabling users to download UCL lectures, interviews, seminars and news, and play audio and video materials on their iPod or computer.

“Technical innovation does, however, have the capacity to bring back some of the positive values of a previous age. I think the iPad is going to revolutionise everything and bring back reading to the way it was before other technologies drove it out. It’s also going to make people pay for information in a way that they haven’t before. The platform does make a difference. You can do more with the iPad, so people already accept they’re going to have to pay something. Because the Mac is a cool instrument, because the charges are incremental and nice words like ‘apps’ have been developed, it’s going to change the digital model yet again.

2010: Apple produces a film about education focusing on UCL as a leader in digital learning: www.apple.com/uk/education If you want to learn more about the CPD courses that the department currently offers please visit: www.ucl.ac.uk/infostudies/teaching/cpd-short-courses To receive your next copy of Connect via email, simply send your email address to alumni@ucl.ac.uk or tick the box within the enclosed questionnaire.

Ahead of the digital curve

Reunion events

Association with Zvi, the person who’d given me a lift there. Justice Bach is our Honorary Chair and we have set up the Chaim Herzog UCL Israel Alumni Award as part of the UK’s Chevening Awards programme.” So what does Jennifer think it is about UCL that brings people back? “I think people feel a sense of pride because of UCL’s history and the traditions of liberalism on which it was founded. I always talk about these very proudly, and of course we’ve also recently seen UCL zoom up the ratings and reach number four worldwide, which is very exciting.” And what about Jennifer’s recent fame on UCL’s YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/ucltv) where she’s featured in a film about UCL Freshers’ Week in 1960?

Absolutely fabulous: celebrating 50 years

“It looks as though my main interest when I went up to UCL was dancing in the cloisters, but I must have done some work too! Now that I’ve retired from a very time-consuming job as company secretary of Israel’s largest bank, I have more time for dancing and my other love – blues music.”

“We’d held reunions for years, but to mark the 50th anniversary of coming to UCL, we decided to make a real effort to find more alumni. Twenty alumni came to the reunion – from as far as Trinidad, the USA, Italy, Israel and Norway, which is twice as many as in the past, and we are now in touch with a dozen more from our year who were unable to come. I also asked everyone to write about what they’d done since leaving UCL, and the resulting booklet is absolutely fabulous. People are usually too modest to talk about their achievements, but we now know that what they have done is really impressive, and in many fields as well as the law. I’m sure UCL must have had quite an effect on us all.” To start the reunion, the current Dean of the Laws Faculty, Professor Dame Hazel Genn, hosted a tea for the former students, followed by a guided tour of the campus and drinks and dinner at UCL’s Terrace 12

Restaurant. Jennifer tells me with a smile: “It was even arranged for Jeremy Bentham to be open late.” Today Jennifer runs both the Laws ’63 alumni group and, together with Zvi Geffen (UCL Economics 1981), the UCL alumni group in Israel – her home for the last 37 years. The duo organise lectures by visiting UCL academics, write a newsletter and run a scholarship fund which, every year, enables a graduate of an Israeli university to study for a UCL masters degree: “The selection process is fascinating – seeing the people who wish to go to UCL and hearing about their aims and motivations.”

There are several reunions coming up next year, some of which are listed below. Please go to www.ucl.ac.uk/alumni to find out more. 1961 Middlesex Hospital graduates Summer 2011 Alumni organiser: Malcolm Jayson 1961 UCL Medical School graduates 14 July 2011 Alumni organiser: Edward Galizia 1964 Town Planning (PG) graduates Summer 2011 Alumni organiser: Michael Ray

When Jeremy Bentham stays out late you know it must have been a good party. Here Jennifer Janes (UCL Laws 1963) recalls coming back to mark a UCL Laws 50th anniversary for the class of ’63, and her five minutes of fame on UCL’s YouTube channel…

When someone pointed out that it was going to be 50 years since Jennifer Janes and her fellow Laws ’63 graduates had first crossed the cloisters, she wanted to hold a special celebration:

GET TOGETHER

1973 Laws graduates Summer 2011 Alumni organiser: Graham Wedlake 1986 Royal Free graduates Summer 2011 Alumni organiser: Sandra Quenault 1986 UCH & Middlesex Medical School graduates June 2011 Alumni organisers: Ian Keith and Astrid James

“I think people feel a sense of pride because of UCL’s history and the traditions of liberalism on which it was founded.”

1991 Speech Sciences graduates October 2011 Lunch gathering Alumni organisers: Eileen Grist and Charlotte Painter If you’re interested in attending any of the above reunions or would like to organise your own, please email Felicity Bond at: f.bond@ucl.ac.uk The Alumni Relations team can offer advice and help you to contact your former classmates. UCL venue hire is also available at a discounted alumni rate.

But Jennifer tells me she wasn’t even on the alumni records until she happened by chance to see a UCL reunion advertised in her local paper 16 years ago: “The speakers – all alumni – included Lord Woolf (then Master of the Rolls); the former President of the State of Israel, Chaim Herzog; and retired Justice of the Israeli Supreme Court, Gabriel Bach. At the end they asked for volunteers to form a local group, and, to cut a long story short, I ended up establishing the UCL Israel Alumni

Are you a 1970s Economics graduate? We’re currently looking for a former student who would like to organise a reunion for their year group. Please get in touch with Felicity Bond: f.bond@ucl.ac.uk or call 020 7679 9783 to find out more. 13

Reunion events

Absolutely fabulous: celebrating 50 years

When someone pointed out that it was going to be 50 years since Jennifer Janes and her fellow Laws ’63 graduates had first crossed the cloisters, she wanted to hold a special celebration:

GET TOGETHER

“I think people feel a sense of pride because of UCL’s history and the traditions of liberalism on which it was founded.”

Graduate careers

The Bigger Picture When Emily Kerr (UCL Genetics 2005) graduated she didn’t know which career path to take. Now, through UCL’s Focus on Management course, she helps students like Onayimi Sanni (UCL MSc Engineering 4) get closer to finding theirs… ‘Focus on Management’ is an intensive two-day, non-residential course run by the UCL Careers Service. It teams UCL graduates who are already established in their careers, with final-year UCL students considering their future career options. Students work in small teams on case studies from some of the biggest organisational brands.

Emily on coaching “The first year I did the course I mentored the students as a team manager and I enrolled through the graduate scheme at my employer Cancer Research UK (CRUK). I was looking for management experience but I soon realised there’s much more to the course than that. “The idea is to help UCL students practise the types of activities they’d get in graduate recruitment selection activities. It’s all about learning how to perform under pressure so they’re ready for interviews and selection 14

panels. For the team managers on the scheme, the focus is on management and on being perceptive about different situations. The course is great because it’s a completely anonymous environment. Because the people on the course don’t know you, you can start afresh and try different things. But two days is not a lot of time to get to know 10 different personalities – it’s an intense experience. “Since mentoring students on the course, I have mentored interns in our department at CRUK. It has really given me an insight into what management actually is and how you sometimes have to make decisions you don’t want to make and upset people. But what surprised me the most was just how much that year in work separates you. I was quite unsure about what I’d have to offer beforehand, but you underestimate how much value you can add. I always come back from the course feeling a renewed passion for the work that I do. “Even in my final year at UCL I was really torn between applying for PhDs or graduate schemes. It was the first point in my life where the next stage wasn’t predetermined – it really was like going into the big unknown. My advice to graduates now would be not to be so worried about knowing your final destination, but just to do some intern schemes or placements to give you that little bit of exposure to different industries.”

Onayimi on training “Just getting onto the course made me feel really good because it’s so competitive. When I saw the ad from the Careers Service it sounded like something I should do. It just seemed very different to anything else I’d done and it was taking us outside UCL. I try to do things that take me outside my engineering degree so I can explore different options so that was really what encouraged me to apply. When I went to BT’s offices on the first day, the environment and the atmosphere was really nice and I met my team members – funnily enough one of the guys from my course was on my team, which was nice, but it was also great to meet new people. “We all came together and they briefed us. The team leaders were really encouraging and helped by giving us feedback on what we were good at and what we could improve. We were given case studies for different companies and loaded with a lot of information and then we had to come up with a presentation in 30 minutes. I was so excited when our team won for our L’Oréal presentation – that was definitely a real highlight – we just ran out of time as we were closing the deal. “If I could ask the team leaders anything, I’d probably ask how they balance work and their personal life,

because the course made me realise that there’s so much work to do. “I think the Careers Service has probably been my most important connection at UCL. I’ve used them from the beginning to help me with my CV and this course was so useful. It’s really given me an insight into how I could combine engineering and management in my career and I’ve already applied for a job with BT, the course sponsor.” Job hunting? The Alumni Mentoring Network is part of UCL’s online Alumni Web Community. You can contact an alumni careers mentor for informal guidance and find out more about any profession. www.ucl.ac.uk/ alumni/careers Just graduated? With GradClub membership you can use the UCL Careers Service for two years after graduation. Go to www.ucl.ac.uk/careers/gradclub for ‘quick query’ sessions and Careers Service events. Recruiting? If you’d like to advertise a vacancy to UCL students, please go to: www.ucl.ac.uk/careers/recruiters/ services/advertise.htm

Graduate careers

Nadia Menuhin “I graduated in June 2008 and I got married two months later so I have UCL to thank for my whole future, my husband, who I met there, my children and everything. I know UCL is an institution but I always felt it was so much more than that. It was a wonderful community and it went over and above

The value of a good education

“The main benefit of giving back is a personal one. Being part of the Provost’s Circle very much reconnects me with the university and when I go back it feels like I’ve never been away.”

For many, crossing UCL’s campus leaves an impression that remains long after they leave. Here Nadia Menuhin (UCL French 2008) and Mary Reilly (UCL History 1974) reflect on what made their experience at UCL so special and why they’ve chosen to give something back.

“I feel my monthly gift is my own small way of saying thank you for all the wonderful people I met. UCL changed my whole view on education and it was refreshing to find an institution that I enjoyed being a part of.”

“When I found out about the Provost’s Circle it triggered something, and I thought that this was something I wanted to get involved with. I always wanted to support education in my charitable giving and this was a unique opportunity to do it. I’ve been very lucky in my life, I’ve had a very

the line of duty to allow me to continue studying when I became pregnant. The teachers there made it so much easier for me; they offered me personal, tailored support. “I feel my gift is my own small way of saying thank you for all the wonderful people I met. My £3 a month is a way to say thank you for my unique experience and for all the help that I received which was more than necessary. “I definitely trust UCL to use my money where the need is greatest. All the improvements I saw at UCL SSEES and in the UCL science block while I was there were needed and seemed very well done. “UCL changed my whole view on education and it was refreshing to find an institution that I enjoyed being a part of. I felt that my experience was really personal, I never felt like one of a thousand students.”

Nadia Menuhin

Make your mark

Mary Reilly “I really enjoyed my time at university. I think UCL’s spirit stems from it being the first non-conformist university and a lot of that egalitarianism is still there and that really appeals to me; it was quite cosmopolitan and I loved the buzz around it.

successful career and I’ve done very well and I’m eternally grateful to UCL for that. “The main benefit of giving back is a personal one. Being part of the Provost’s Circle very much reconnects me with the university and when I go back it feels like I’ve never been away. Just the other day I was with one of my American clients on Gower Street and when I said, ‘Look, there’s my university!’, he replied that he didn’t meet a lot of Brits who were so proud of where they’d studied.

“I give my gift to whatever the Provost wants to fund, which is a reflection of my confidence in him as an individual, of knowing he will use that money wisely. “There’s no doubt that funding universities now is crucial. When I was at UCL only 5% of the population went to university and the grant system was there for us. The privilege of going to a top-class university is phenomenal. We live in very troubled times so the more educated people are, the more they can make decisions. Education really is what frees the world.”

You can make a gift to UCL using the gift form attached to your Connect questionnaire. To find out more about making a gift please call +44 (0)20 7679 9736 or visit www.ucl.ac.uk/makeyourmark

Find out more To find out more about the Provost’s Circle (which recognises donors who give £1,000 or more to UCL in a single year) please contact Sian Hoggett on +44 (0)20 7679 9741 or email s.hoggett@ucl.ac.uk 17

The value of a good education

“The main benefit of giving back is a personal one. Being part of the Provost’s Circle very much reconnects me with the university and when I go back it feels like I’ve never been away.”

Nadia Menuhin

Make your mark

You can make a gift to UCL using the gift form attached to your Connect questionnaire. To find out more about making a gift please call +44 (0)20 7679 9736 or visit www.ucl.ac.uk/makeyourmark

Event highlights The events listed here are just a sample of some of the highlights on offer this autumn. UCL’s lunch hour lectures also return this October serving up brain food for hungry minds. Visit www.ucl.ac.uk/events for full listings.

Lunch Hour Lecture: From Dust to Diamonds Thursday 21 October 1.15–1.55pm Darwin Lecture Theatre Dr Adrian Jones (UCL Earth Sciences) www.ucl.ac.uk/lhl Surprisingly, different methods of diamond synthesis in the laboratory are still unable to approach the complexity of growth revealed in natural diamond. Diamond research is intimately coupled with technological advances and recent examples will be illustrated, which range from the formation of Earth’s atmosphere and evidence of cosmic catastrophes, to exotic unknown extraterrestrial micro-minerals. This lecture coincides with the Dust to Diamonds exhibition, running until 12 November, Wilkins North Cloisters.

Lecture: Inside Nature with Dr Henry Gee Tuesday 26 October 6.30–8pm Darwin Lecture Theatre www.ucl.ac.uk/museums/whats-on A candid look at what goes on inside the world’s most prestigious scientific journal. Dr Gee joined Nature in 1987 as a news reporter on a three-month contract. 23 years later, he is now a senior member of the editorial team. He is the author of several books including Jacob’s Ladder: the History of the Human Genome and The Science of Middle-Earth. 18

Bright Club: Hidden Treasures Tuesday 26 October 7.30–10pm UCL Bloomsbury Theatre Tickets: £5 www.thebloomsbury.com

Photographic workshop: Haunting Images

Lunch Hour Lecture: The Missing 650 Million?

Saturday 13 November 10.30am–1pm UCL Petrie Museum Tickets £10; pre-booking essential d.challis@ucl.ac.uk +44 (0)20 7679 4138 www.ucl.ac.uk/museums/petrie

Thursday 2 December 1.15–1.55pm Darwin Lecture Theatre Dr Maria Kett (UCL Leonard Cheshire Disability & Inclusive Development Centre) www.ucl.ac.uk/lhl

From the practical to the fantastic, a short workshop on taking images in museums with minimal light levels and then how to paint objects with torch light. Using a SLR camera and tripod in the museum, you will be taken through some basics of photography before creating some atmospheric images.

According to current estimates, there are around 650 million persons with disabilities globally, yet they have been largely absent from many of the discussions and decisions that determine their lives.

UCL’s intelligent variety night is coming home! After 18 months in comedy clubs and at festivals, our team of comedians, lecturers, researchers and musicians will be appearing in their home theatre. Join us for this hilarious exploration of the treasures hidden right under your noses. This is a joint UCL Public Engagement Unit, UCL Museums & Collections, and UCL Bloomsbury Theatre event.

Alumni Professional Networking: Politics and Government Wednesday 27 October 6.30–9.30pm Engineering Front Building Tickets: £10 www.ucl.ac.uk/alumni/careers Thinking about changing your career or need a helping hand to get started? Join us to hear an experienced alumni panel discuss careers in politics and government. Topics will include think tanks, advocacy, public policy research and government, and guests will have the opportunity to network and ask senior alumni their career questions.

Lecture: Soft but not Floppy: The Art of Science and the Science of Art Wednesday 17 November 4–5.30pm Location: TBC www.ucl.ac.uk/museums/whats-on Professor Steve Jones, former Head of the UCL Research Department of Genetics, Evolution & Environment, examines the interactions of art and science. Drawing parallels with our own perceptions from the world of animal camouflage and animal behaviour, he will talk about his research on snails, as a malacologist. Derived from the Greek root of ‘malakos’ for soft and floppy, this term for a student of molluscs means something remarkably rude in Greek.

Lunch Hour Lecture: Can HIV Treatment Stop the AIDS Epidemic? Tuesday 30 November 1.15–1.55pm Darwin Lecture Theatre Professor Graham Hart (UCL Infection & Population Health) www.ucl.ac.uk/lhl Prospects for preventing HIV have been boosted by data suggesting that antiretroviral treatment reduces infectivity. It is argued that treating HIV-infected individuals results in lower ‘community viral load’ and fewer infections. In San Francisco, every person diagnosed with HIV is offered immediate treatment. Can we treat our way out of the HIV epidemic? How will this affect prevention campaigns based on condom use? This lecture will mark World AIDS Day on 1 December.

Marking International Disability Day on 3 December, this lecture will examine some of the debates taking place within academia, international development practice, and at policy level about this issue: why these voices have been missing for so long; and discuss how an emerging global consensus has begun to see disability as a key issue in international development and global human rights.

Making Seasonal Cards: Greet with Art Saturday 4 December 2–5pm Wilkins Strang Print Room www.ucl.ac.uk/museums/whats-on Get inspired by the UCL Slade collection of greetings cards by famous artists such as Paula Rego and Richard Hamilton and create some original cards in time for the holiday season. All ages welcome. 19

Bright Club: Hidden Treasures Tuesday 26 October 7.30–10pm UCL Bloomsbury Theatre Tickets: £5 www.thebloomsbury.com

Photographic workshop: Haunting Images

Lunch Hour Lecture: The Missing 650 Million?

Saturday 13 November 10.30am–1pm UCL Petrie Museum Tickets £10; pre-booking essential d.challis@ucl.ac.uk +44 (0)20 7679 4138 www.ucl.ac.uk/museums/petrie

Thursday 2 December 1.15–1.55pm Darwin Lecture Theatre Dr Maria Kett (UCL Leonard Cheshire Disability & Inclusive Development Centre) www.ucl.ac.uk/lhl

UCL in the Middle East Bridging the Gulf Asif Mahmood (UCL Bartlett 2006) is one of those people. The kind who’ll meet you despite having just flown in from South Africa, who’ll have something akin to flu but will keep chatting away smiling and who’ll apologise profusely when their phone starts to rumble.

It’s individuals like Asif who maintain UCL’s global presence, who set up alumni communities from scratch and who embody the word solidarity. It’s why Asif wants to bring UCL to Qatar and whilst he’s at it, to the rest of the Gulf…

Departmental focus Defining best practice

“I absolutely loved UCL; I want to continue representing it now as part of the alumni network because I felt I benefited so much from it. When I went to UCL I got such a good vibe, I really liked the atmosphere; there was something about it that I felt connected to and that’s remained with me ever since.”

Pioneering, international, prestigious. These are all words that define the UCL Eastman, one of the most recognised and established dental institutions in the world.

Asif studied project management for construction at the Bartlett and graduated in 2006, so it’s been four years since he left UCL – and as soon as he left he moved to Qatar with a job at Bechtel, one of the world’s leading engineering and construction companies. “It was quite exciting because I went to teach English in China first and then came back, signed all the papers, worked one day for the company in London and then was flying out to work for them in Qatar. It was hard initially because the society is very different, and there isn’t much of a community feel.” Asif tells Connect that officially there are 40 or 50 alumni in his part of the world, and he’s hoping that after people see this interview they’ll come out of the shadows. “At the moment we’ve set up a Facebook group and in the short term we’ve got Ramadan coming up which is a big event for people in Qatar, so when we break the fast we’re going to have an alumni event. It doesn’t matter if people are Muslim or non-Muslim: it’s just for the UCL community to get together for an event that’s important in the country where they live. We’re also thinking of organising an event across the Gulf including Dubai, Saudi and Doha, because a lot of people move from place to place.” So other than his naturally evident coordination skills what inspired Asif to set up the group? “It’s a cliché I know, but even now when I speak to my friends from UCL we all say it was the best time of our lives. People say the friends you make at high school are the ones that last forever but for me it’s my friends from uni. I feel in terms of where I am today in my career, my job, my life, it was UCL that helped me the most, and I had such a great time with UCL people, I thought this was the best way to give something back.” To join the activities in Qatar please get in touch with Asif at: sheikhasifmahmood@gmail.com To find out about regional activities in your area, please check and update your details using the form enclosed and go to: www.ucl.ac.uk/alumni

Professor Andrew Eder, Director of Education and CPD at the UCL Eastman Dental Institute, tells Connect how, through a range of training programmes, it continues to set the standard for excellence… “In 2009, we ran 330 different Continued Professional Development (CPD) courses, with almost 8,000 attendances annually. The courses we offer here run from the shorter ones, some of which are half a day updating dentists on relevant topics, to our longest programme with almost 500 enrolled: a five-year flexible part-time Masters in Restorative Dental Practice.” The Eastman was the first UK dental school to establish an academic education centre dedicated to CPD, which came at an opportune time. In 2002, the General Dental Council introduced mandatory CPD for all dentists and today almost 2,500 practising dentists access the Eastman’s CPD courses every year. “Historically, dentists used to think when they finished at dental school that was it; they knew it all. It’s clear that this is not the case. When you finish, you’ve got the basic skills but that is really when your learning begins. “We try to make things as flexible as possible for dentists who are busy in practice so rather than just take a day course they can build up their training to achieve a degree. The biggest developments in the last few years have been our investment in state-of-the-art facilities, our involvement in educational research, where we’re ploughing the outcomes back into new courses, and our investment in innovative teaching technologies, enabling people to train in a virtual environment.”

Today, Andrew says, there are over 14,000 dentists engaged in online CPD from 145 countries across the world, making the institute’s reach enormous. The focus is not just on the dentists but the entire practice team: “One of the biggest challenges has been to get team members out of the practice environment – we’re addressing it by going out to them, developing podcasts and online resources that they can download and access in their own time. If we can take the whole team up to the next level, ultimately it’s the patients who will benefit. My ultimate goal is to improve patient care and patient safety.”

To find out more go to: www.eastman.ucl.ac.uk/cpd/ To access the latest online resources go to: www.corecpd.com and www.dcpbites.com To find out more about the Eastman’s alumni community go to: www.eastman.ucl.ac.uk/about/alumni

To find out more about international alumni groups visit: www.ucl.ac.uk/alumni/get-involved 20

Departmental focus Defining best practice

Pioneering, international, prestigious. These are all words that define the UCL Eastman, one of the most recognised and established dental institutions in the world.

To find out more about international alumni groups visit: www.ucl.ac.uk/alumni/get-involved 20

Benefits & services

The benefits and services listed on these pages are exclusively available to UCL alumni network-card holders. You can find the latest alumni benefits listed at: www.ucl.ac.uk/alumni/benefits Ultimate Escapes Cardholder access code: quote ‘UCL alumni’ Discount: 25% off the lowest current prices for a membership

Hadrian Travel – See India Differently Cardholder access code: quote ‘UCL alumni’

Cardholder access code: UCL alumni network card required for access

Discount: $100 off holidays

Discount: free reference access.

www.ultimateescapes.com

www.seeindiadifferently.com

UCL Language Centre & SSEES Language Unit

Gosimply.com

Payment of an annual membership fee of £50 entitles you to borrow up to five books at a time

Discount: discount on all courses For details check the websites:

Cardholder access code: click through from UCL alumni website and quote ‘UCLALUM’

www.ucl.ac.uk/language-centre

Discount: range of discounts

www.ucl.ac.uk/library

www.ssees.ucl.ac.uk/ eveningcourses

www.ucl.ac.uk/alumni/benefits/ Leisure

UCL Bloomsbury Theatre

Royal Institution

Avis

Cardholder access code: ‘UCL1’ Discount: 20% discount off membership

Avis worldwide discount code: ‘O788305’ (starts with the letter ‘O’ not the number)

Cardholder access code: ‘UCL alumni’ (present your alumni network card at box office)

www.rigb.org

Discount: up to 10% +44 (0)844 581 0187

STA Travel

www.avis.co.uk/premierpartners

Cardholder access code: quote ‘UCL8’

The Economist

Discount: range of discounts including £20 off flights (excl. Europe) +44 (0)8714 680648 (ULU branch number)

Access > all > archives

Take a trip back to campus and indulge yourself in some of the greatest works penned and printed. UCL Library not only houses the George Orwell Archive, it’s also home to outstanding collections of medieval manuscripts and early printed books, notably from the CK Ogden and Graves Library, as well as significant eighteenth-century works. Many great minds and ideas were formed whilst exploring these treasures. UCL’s departmental libraries are also spaces worth re-discovering. One example is that of the UCL School of Slavonic & East European Studies which holds more than 190 archive collections – some made up entirely of important historical photographs.

We may be embracing all things digital at UCL, but we’ve not relinquished our love for the printed page, which is why we offer all former students continued access to the UCL Library. To apply for alumni access, simply register at one of the library’s issue desks on your first visit to gain free reference access. You’ll need photographic proof of your identity and your address, as well as proof of status that can be in the form of any of the following: • a UCL Alumni Membership card, • a copy of your UCL degree certificate, or • a copy of your degree results transcript. If you’d like to borrow books you’ll need to take along a passport-sized photograph. A borrowing ticket costs just £50 per year and you can take up to five books out at a time. If, however, you’re more interested in online journals, you can access these whilst on site.

Cardholder access code: ‘QLZ5’ Discount: save over 50% on the cover price. Offer open to subscribers based in the UK only +44 (0)845 357 8006

library@ucl.ac.uk +44 (0)20 7679 7700

Discount: varies depending on the show (not available on all shows) info@thebloomsbury.com +44 (0)20 7388 8822 www.thebloomsbury.com/ UCL Union Bloomsbury Fitness Cardholder access code: quote ‘UCL alumni’ (and take your alumni network card) Discount: continued access and reduced membership fee

Royal Commonwealth Society

www.economist.com/alumni/uk

Cardholder access code: quote ‘UCL alumni’

bf.admin@ucl.ac.uk +44 (0)20 7679 7221

Asia House

www.uclunion.org/leisure-fitness/ bloomsbury

Discount: significant reductions on joining fee and annual membership www.thercs.org Cottages 4 You Cardholder access code: quote ‘UCL alumni’ by phone or click through from UCL alumni website Discount: 10% +44 (0)870 191 7857 www.ucl.ac.uk/alumni/benefits/ leisure Girls Travel Club Cardholder access code: quote ‘UCL Alumni’ Discount: 10%

Any questions? Please contact us: alumni@ucl.ac.uk, +44 (0)20 7679 7677

UCL Library

info@girlstravelclub.co.uk +44 (0)7766 016502

Cardholder access code: quote ‘UCL alumni’ Discount: reduced membership

UCL Union

enquiries@asiahouse.co.uk +44 (0)20 7307 5454

Cardholder access code: quote ‘UCL alumni’ (and take your alumni network card)

www.asiahouse.org Science|Business Cardholder access code: quote ‘UCL alumni’ Discount: reduced subscription rates subs@sciencebusiness.net www.sciencebusiness.net UCL Careers Service / GradClub Cardholder access code: quote ‘UCL alumni’ Discount: reduced membership of £25

ucl.union@ucl.ac.uk +44 (0)20 7679 2541 www.uclu.org UCL Halls of Residence Cardholder access code: quote ‘UCL alumni’ (and take your alumni network card) Discount: reduced rates available during summer vacation +44 (0)20 7278 3895 www.ucl.ac.uk/residences

careers@ucl.ac.uk +44 (0)20 7866 3600 www.gradclub.co.uk www.ucl.ac.uk/careers

Benefits & services

Hadrian Travel – See India Differently Cardholder access code: quote ‘UCL alumni’

Cardholder access code: UCL alumni network card required for access

Discount: $100 off holidays

Discount: free reference access.

www.ultimateescapes.com

www.seeindiadifferently.com

UCL Language Centre & SSEES Language Unit

Gosimply.com

Payment of an annual membership fee of £50 entitles you to borrow up to five books at a time

Discount: discount on all courses For details check the websites:

Cardholder access code: click through from UCL alumni website and quote ‘UCLALUM’

www.ucl.ac.uk/language-centre

Discount: range of discounts

www.ucl.ac.uk/library

www.ssees.ucl.ac.uk/ eveningcourses

www.ucl.ac.uk/alumni/benefits/ Leisure

UCL Bloomsbury Theatre

Royal Institution

Avis

Cardholder access code: ‘UCL1’ Discount: 20% discount off membership

Avis worldwide discount code: ‘O788305’ (starts with the letter ‘O’ not the number)

Cardholder access code: ‘UCL alumni’ (present your alumni network card at box office)

www.rigb.org

Discount: up to 10% +44 (0)844 581 0187

STA Travel

www.avis.co.uk/premierpartners

Cardholder access code: quote ‘UCL8’

The Economist

Discount: range of discounts including £20 off flights (excl. Europe) +44 (0)8714 680648 (ULU branch number)

Access > all > archives

Cardholder access code: ‘QLZ5’ Discount: save over 50% on the cover price. Offer open to subscribers based in the UK only +44 (0)845 357 8006

library@ucl.ac.uk +44 (0)20 7679 7700

Royal Commonwealth Society

www.economist.com/alumni/uk

Cardholder access code: quote ‘UCL alumni’

bf.admin@ucl.ac.uk +44 (0)20 7679 7221

Asia House

www.uclunion.org/leisure-fitness/ bloomsbury

Any questions? Please contact us: alumni@ucl.ac.uk, +44 (0)20 7679 7677

UCL Library

info@girlstravelclub.co.uk +44 (0)7766 016502

Cardholder access code: quote ‘UCL alumni’ Discount: reduced membership

UCL Union

enquiries@asiahouse.co.uk +44 (0)20 7307 5454

Cardholder access code: quote ‘UCL alumni’ (and take your alumni network card)

careers@ucl.ac.uk +44 (0)20 7866 3600 www.gradclub.co.uk www.ucl.ac.uk/careers

Alumni giving

Connect four Welcome to connect four. Here we try our hand at linking prestigious figures from the world of UCL. To reflect this issue’s digital learning dimension we’ve connected four figures from the field of electronics. Contact alumni@ucl.ac.uk with your best connections…

Deﬁning moments Every year a growing number of alumni make personal gifts to UCL but their reasons for giving often remain unknown. Here we find out why, for one former student, UCL was not just his university but the catalyst that transformed his life… It’s difficult to relay a story like Eric Wilkinson’s (UCL Economics 1978) without sounding sentimental. When I ask him what he remembers of UCL he talks about a professor of finance he can still visualise because he “looked like a skinny Einstein”, and “a really lovely but rather mad guy who taught Marxist economics”. But when I mention his most meaningful connection there’s only one man who comes to mind. “Professor Spraos made a huge difference to my life in terms of enabling me to be able to carry on and get jobs – it was that one decision by the professor and by UCL and that ability, if you like, to bend the rules and take me in, that had a huge, huge impact on my life.” Eric came to London from Lebanon during the war of the mid-1970s. He’d grown up in Beirut so he was used to the cosmopolitan vista of a metropolis, but he had nothing on paper to prove his A-level qualifications so gaining entry into a university seemed all but impossible: “I went to the registrar, who was a lovely man, a tall, elegant, ex-army chap, and he said – look, you know we can’t put you through UCAS because there’s no way you can fulfil the requirement of the system, but maybe you can go and see Professor Spraos.” And the rest ‘as they say’ is history. Professor Spraos (then Head of UCL Economics) agreed to take Eric onto the degree course saying that all he had to do was to perform academically at the end of the first term and find the money for the fees. Thanks to Professor Spraos and UCL, both Eric and his sister graduated in Economics from UCL in 1978.

“I needed somebody to put that faith in me, as I had no way of proving my academic qualifications and from my standpoint that was huge. It’s one of the most important connections of my life; it’s like that story, ‘for want of a nail the shoe was lost’. Making that connection meant that afterwards I was able to get a job at Arthur Andersen and after that an investment bank where my boss sponsored me for my MBA at Harvard. It was UCL that got that ball rolling.” Today, Professor Spraos’s significance to Eric lives on through a bursary which he set up in his name, and this year Eric hopes to meet the UCL student who will be awarded £10,000 to support each year of their degree programme. So asking what inspires him to give back now seems a little redundant: “The main thing is that first of all, I’m lucky enough to be able to give back and I think that a large part of that luck started with UCL. For all intents and purposes when I came to the UK I’d been raised abroad, I didn’t have a home to go back to, I didn’t have any money and I didn’t have any papers.” Eric is now Chairman of Coermar Spa, Director of Endeka Ceramics and a partner of Talisman Management. He works as an adviser to private equity funds and their portfolio companies. He has a career that’s spanned three decades and seen him based in London, Paris and New York.

Sir John Ambrose Fleming, head of the first UCL Electrical Technology department, invented the Thermionic (or Fleming) Valve. The electron tube device marked the birth of electronic devices in 1904.

Peter Kirstein, UCL Professor of Computer Systems, played a significant role in creating the internet by co-authoring one of the early technical papers on the internet concept in the 1960s.

In 2002 UCL Computer Science researchers made the first tactile contact over the internet with MIT counterparts through a transatlantic ‘virtual handshake’. The haptic electronics interface provided the sensation of touch stretching over 3,000 miles.

In 2009 Professor Sir Charles Kuen Kao (UCL PhD 1965) won the Nobel Prize for his work pioneering the development and use of fibre optics in telecommunications.

“People who have had the benefit of an education at UCL owe it to the institution to give something back, just like you owe it to a charity or a church. You’ve got to realise that your university had an important part in your development and I don’t think that dawns on you until later in life.“ 25

Alumni giving

Sir John Ambrose Fleming, head of the first UCL Electrical Technology department, invented the Thermionic (or Fleming) Valve. The electron tube device marked the birth of electronic devices in 1904.

Peter Kirstein, UCL Professor of Computer Systems, played a significant role in creating the internet by co-authoring one of the early technical papers on the internet concept in the 1960s.

In 2009 Professor Sir Charles Kuen Kao (UCL PhD 1965) won the Nobel Prize for his work pioneering the development and use of fibre optics in telecommunications.

UCL Alumni Network Gower Street London WC1E 6BT UK

Telephone: +44 (0)20 7679 7677 Fax: +44 (0)20 7209 0117 email: alumni@ucl.ac.uk web: www.ucl.ac.uk/alumni

Commissioned by Professor Anthony Finkelstein, UCL Head of Computer Science, in 2005, Map of Cyberspace is a mosaic that measures approximately 2m square and is made of a variety of glass tesserae and gold leaf. The design is based on an image by Lev Manovich which resulted from a net art project Mapping the Web Informe in California. Software was written to crawl and visualise websites which could then produce three distinct types of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;mapsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;: coloured link graphs, pixel dot maps and textual html listings. This software was then employed by different artists to create their own maps of parts of the web. www.hannahgriffithsmosaics.com