UCL Connect Issue 1

LONDON’S GLOBAL UNIVERSITY

issue one 4

cannot tell you how honoured I was to be asked to be guest editor for the first issue of Connect. This edition features a number of innovative UCL collaborations that have resulted in initiatives as diverse as a contemporary art exhibition at Tate Britain, and earthquake-resistant housing in Peru.

I

It was through my work that I met some of the brightest people from the UK’s top universities.

It was really then that I realised I wanted to do my postgraduate Urban Regeneration degree at UCL. I could have done it anywhere, but I chose UCL because I thought it would give me an edge.

Choosing a university is not just about an institution’s standards of education or the depth of its history, but is more about its alumni and being part of a global community of knowledgeable, talented and influential people who can come together to make change happen.

Whatever your area of interest, it is highly likely that there is a UCL connection. This really proved to be the case for me when I had a chance meeting with another UCL alumnus at JFK airport in New York. We got talking and when I told her about my work, she said she would introduce me to a friend who was also a UCL graduate. This friend ended up helping me write proposals that ultimately helped hundreds of people from

disadvantaged groups out of poverty.

I’m really looking forward to coming back this autumn to speak at the alumni networking event.

It’s important now more than ever that we continue to forge and encourage a connection between UCL graduates and alumni within different industry sectors.

As alumni we are already members of a proud grouping. Having been to a truly world-class university, I would encourage all fellow alumni to become even more involved and seize or create the opportunities that lie therein.

More about Tunde Tunde Banjoko OBE is Chief Executive of the charity Local Employment Access Projects (LEAP), which exists to help unemployed people who have difficulty accessing the labour market to develop the skills, attitude and behaviour to achieve long-term, sustainable employment.

Tunde also brought the STRIVE scheme to the UK, an empowerment programme that tackles some of the underlying reasons behind people being unable to find and keep work.

Tunde Banjoko (UCL Bartlett 2003)

COVER IMAGE: Light bulb to Simulate Moonlight 2008 Courtesy of Katie Paterson, the artist and Albion, London (Photograph by Ed Reeve) WORDS: Rachel Lister, UCL Communications DESIGN: Janine Shalan, UCL Communications MAIN PHOTOGRAPHY: John Carey and Anthony Day 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

contents 4 Talent scout

2 UCL news

18 Event highlights

Alumni professional networking success

A round-up of the latest stories from across UCL

A sample of some of the events on offer this autumn

8 The art of science

6 Careers news

20 UCL in Hong

Getting in touch with the world on a galactic scale, Katie Paterson reveals her unique view

UCL helps businesses tackle the current economic climate with free training and consultancy

Connect talks to Andrew Ng, Chairman of the UCL Hong Kong Club

12 Be part of

7 Bridging the gap

21 Departmental

something bigger Break new ground for less with some of UCL’s benefits and services

14 Everything in

account Alan Brener takes us on a tour of his career since leaving UCL

Kathy Barrett tells Connect how she helps UCL students to find their career path

16 Make your mark

on the future Why there’s never been a better time to give to UCL

Kong

focus UCL Laws project connects students with community for the first time

22 Reunion events Helen Talkin talks about getting back in touch

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news Earthquake assistance in Peru Sustainable Cities launch From Universal Vegetable Pills to Das Kapital

Earthquake assistance in Peru A team of undergraduates from UCL Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering spent the summer building earthquakeresistant housing in Casa Blanca, a small community in Peru which was severely affected by an earthquake in 2007.

The team used a technique called ‘improved quincha’: a variation on a traditional

construction method using wood, mud and cane that is resistant to seismic activity.

The students also instructed the communities in the differences between the traditional and improved construction methods, so that they can carry on rebuilding safe, earthquake-resistant houses once the project has finished. The project was partly made possible by the generosity of UCL alumni and friends.

You can read more about the project at the students’ blog at: cegeperu09.wordpress.com

UCL’s Grand Challenge of Sustainable Cities launched

From Universal Vegetable Pills to Das Kapital

UCL formally launched its Grand Challenge of Sustainable Cities – a programme to rally the university’s breadth of expertise in service of urban sustainability – on 8 July 2009.

The colourful characters of 19th-century Bloomsbury were revived at the second conference of the Bloomsbury Project in June 2009.

UCL President and Provost Professor Malcolm Grant welcomed hundreds of invited guests, including policymakers and practitioners from government bodies and non-governmental organisations, architectural practices and engineering firms.

Professor Grant predicted that by the end of the 21st century, some 80 per cent of humanity would live in cities. This rapid growth would put greater stress on the urban environment, posing significant problems in areas such as food security, energy, water, waste, transport, economy, trade, manufacture, wealth

creation and quality of life.

The launch marks UCL’s commitment to deploying the breadth of its expertise – in imaginative, interdisciplinary collaborations and partnerships with policymakers and practitioners – to face this challenge and make our cities fit for purpose.

UCL’s new research strategy makes a commitment to harness the university’s collective expertise to maximise its impact on major world problems. It focuses on Grand Challenges that are issues of global significance: initially Global Health, Sustainable Cities, Intercultural Interaction and Human Wellbeing.

Watch a film about Sustainable Cities at itunes.ucl.ac.uk www.ucl.ac.uk/sustainable-cities

The three-year project, funded by a Leverhulme Trust grant, brings together a range of researchers from several disciplines and institutions. The aim of the project is to create an archive, illustrating the development of 19th-century Bloomsbury from a swamp into a hub of intellectual life, and to bring it to life in a series of talks.

UCL English lecturer Dr Deborah Colville explained how the epithet of ‘inventor’ was previously applied much more generously than it is today, and how Victorian

Bloomsbury was home to more than its fair share of the breed. One of these was James Morison, inventor of the Universal Vegetable Pill, which was marketed as a treatment for a range of complaints, from bashfulness to ringworm. A rather more legitimate inventor was Frederick Scott Archer, whose invention of the wet collodion process revolutionised photography, enabling the making of finely detailed negatives.

Professor Rosemary Ashton, UCL English, explored the intriguing figure of the German émigré in Victorian Bloomsbury. Many such émigrés found themselves drawn to the area’s radical and inclusive institutions – including UCL. Karl Marx himself can be dubbed an honorary Bloomsbury-ite, since he spent his days in the Reading Room of the British Museum in Great Russell Street, writing Das Kapital.

The Bloomsbury Project website will go live to the public in summer 2010, and UCL English is holding a Bloomsburythemed alumni event in March 2010.

To find out more, visit www.ucl.ac.uk/bloomsbury-project 3

talent This year, UCL connected graduates with industry for the first time through a series of alumni networking events.

So when Connect heard that Cheryl Jooron (UCL Geography 2008) had landed her first job in PR through the March event, we were straight on the scene. Here we talk to Cheryl, now the new girl at 3 Monkeys, and managing director, Annabel Dunstan (UCL Anthropology 1990) about the story so far…

Cheryl on 3 Monkeys “I went to the UCL networking event to get an insight into PR and marketing and to find out more about how to break into the media industry, which is so competitive.”

“While I was at UCL I was working as a brand ambassador for Sony PlayStation, so I was getting experience on a range of projects, PR campaigns and events.

I enjoyed the work, so that stirred my interest to pursue a career in PR, marketing or events.

“I was so pleased when I got the job at 3 Monkeys. I can’t wait to take on new challenges and get a chance to shine in such a great working environment.”

Next Alumni Professional Networking Event: Wednesday 11 November 2009 Architecture, Planning, Construction & Project Management For further information: www.ucl.ac.uk/alumni/careers

scout 3 Monkeys’ Annabel on Cheryl “I have great memories of my time as an undergraduate, and so I jumped at the chance to get involved with alumni events.

I was also keen to get advice from the team on how to attract UCL graduates to 3 Monkeys (since I know first hand how talented they are!). The networking event was the perfect opportunity to do this. I treated it as I would any other, distributing business cards to several students and urging them to contact me. As a result, two students followed up and came in to see me. “ Cheryl stood out as particularly impressive, so we invited her in for a week’s work experience. She was such a star that she ended up extending this to a three-week placement. She was involved in a number of projects with the accounts teams, from researching new business, to drafting short articles and releases for clients such as travelsupermarket.com.

“When her placement ended, we sent her off with a bottle of champagne and urged her to keep in touch. With a fast-paced, dynamic industry such as PR we always like to keep an eye on great people should a suitable opportunity arise. Sure enough, two months later, when we had an opening for a new team member on the Microsoft account, I emailed to see if Cheryl would like to be considered.

“Happily, Cheryl accepted and she started as a fully-fledged Monkey at the end of June. I can wholeheartedly recommend getting involved with alumni events, as they can prove to be invaluable networking (and recruitment) environments. My personal link with UCL has also proved a real bonus.”

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careers news UCL to tackle credit crunch with free training and consultancy UCL has unveiled a £3.8million package of activity to prepare UCL students for entry into an extremely difficult employment market, and to support London businesses during the economic downturn.

The measures provide extensive support to new graduates, including a £1,000 discount on taught masters fees for those who want to continue their UCL studies. Further strands of activity have been designed to facilitate access for London’s small businesses to UCL’s problem-solving expertise, and to professional training provided by the university to enhance the skills and career prospects of people already in employment.

The £2.5million of activity will provide:

“ We’re giving local, small enterprises access to consultancy and expertise that could really benefit their business.”

•

the opportunity for up to 135 students to spend eight to 12 weeks on fully-funded internships with local businesses in London

•

560 places for students and local people on intensive business language training courses in Arabic, Japanese, Mandarin and European languages

•

a summer ‘boot camp’ in entrepreneurship to teach UCL graduates the basics of starting up a business, such as reading balance sheets and producing a business plan

•

additional investment in UCL’s Careers Service to ensure graduates have free access to professional careers support for at least one year after graduation.

500 individual coaching and mentoring places will also be provided for current students, supported by major employers including Deloitte, National Rail and Siemens.

The second part of UCL’s plan comes in the form of a £1.3million project called HELO that is being led by UCL and supported by London Business School. The scheme has been designed to enable London businesses to access free consultancy and technical expertise from these leading institutions.

UCL President and Provost Professor Malcolm Grant said: “Universities need to play a central role in helping people to adapt to the new economic landscape.

“We’re giving local, small enterprises access to consultancy and expertise that could really benefit their business. We’re also training and retraining people so that they are best placed to deal with the demands of a changing economy, and all of this comes hard on the heels of our recent announcement to cut fees for UCL undergraduates who decide to boost their skills and maximise their employability by pursuing a masters programme here in 2009.”

bridging

the gap

Kathy Barrett, Joint Acting Head of the UCL Careers Service, tells Connect how she gets graduates off to a good start and how important alumni are in that process…

Q A

Q A Q A

What would you say is the single most important thing you provide for UCL students?

For a lot of students it’s someone that can help them. What we try and give them is a belief in themselves and the skills for lifelong career planning. We work in different ways with students, from advising those who have no idea what they want to do, right through to helping with job interviews.

GradClub UCL Alumni are eligible to join and use GradClub up to two years after completing a qualification at UCL. Whether you want to get your first job, make the jump from a temporary job to a permanent career or to change direction, GradClub can provide the advice and information that you will need. www.ucl.ac.uk/careers/gradclub

How do you keep in touch with graduates after they’ve left UCL? We’ve got a two-year scheme called GradClub that is run by our parent body, The Careers Group. Normally we charge for this scheme but this year because of the recession, we’ve got funding which means GradClub is free for anyone graduating this year.

How do you get alumni involved?

Employers send alumni to talk about careers at the university they’ve graduated from if they can, because they know it is a big plus, especially because that person will be able to relate to the students much more easily than someone from a different university.

Employ a UCL student If you would like to advertise a job vacancy to UCL students please visit: www.ucl.ac.uk/careers

Become a careers mentor If you are interested in providing informal careers advice to current students and recent graduates please visit: www.ucl.ac.uk/alumni-communiy

With the sectors that don’t have big recruitment schemes, our way in might be through an alumnus, because often those sectors are difficult to penetrate as they don’t have the budgets.

It would be wonderful if we could access more alumni, since they’re a very valuable resource.

7

the science of art Katie Paterson (UCL Fine Art 2007) has ventured inside a glacial lake, to the moon and back, and to the edge of the universe – all within the last few years.

After collaborating with Professor Ofer Lahav on her work All the Dead Stars, Katie returns to UCL as Artist-in-Residence for the department of Astronomy & Astrophysics. Connect found out what it means to discover dead stars and make connections on a galactic scale…

atie Paterson isn’t your average artist. Her piece Vatnajökull (the sound of) is, from first viewing, nothing more than a mobile number in neon lights, but the real operation is based in a tiny tent at Vatnajökull, the largest glacier in Iceland. Embedded there deep underwater is a microphone leading into an outlet glacial lagoon, connected to an amplifier and a mobile phone. Vatnajökull (the sound of) is a live phone line straight through to a glacier. To call the number from any telephone in the world is to experience a different kind of reception – the fascinating cacophony of gurgling and trickling that only Vatnajökull can provide.

K

A swathe of publicity for her degree show and subsequent solo show at Modern Art Oxford propelled Katie into the international limelight, but instead of basking in the warm glow of recognition, Katie was camped out in the cold. She explains that it’s sometimes the technical aspects of setting up works like Vatnajökull that proves to be the most challenging: “I had to put a hydrophone into the lake on a cable under the ice, and put all the equipment and batteries in a tent on the edge of the lake. I camped out there for two weeks during my degree show to make sure all the equipment was working. It was a bizarre experience, both stressful and exciting, especially watching the calls coming through. I was in the tent for the opening night, on the phone to all my friends and family at the show. The Oxford show was on for two months, so I left the equipment

9

alongside international artists working with similar themes. “I was really happy and shocked to be selected for Altermodern at the Tate. The curator, Nicolas Bourriaud, approached me about a year before and had expressed an interest in my work. At the time I had the idea in my head.

Ideas can sit there until something like this turns up that gives you the opportunity to realise it.

Langjökull, Snæfellsjökull, Solheimajökull 2007 3 digital films, 1h57m. Photograph by Katie Paterson

Vatnajökull (the sound of ) 2007/8.

Photograph by Katie Paterson

there. I didn’t fancy camping out there that long!”

Vatnajökull (the sound of ) 2007/8. Photograph by Katie Paterson

“I was really happy and shocked to be selected for Altermodern at the Tate.”

Katie also had to make sure she secured funding so the work would engage a mass audience.

“I had to get sponsorship, which came from Virgin Mobile,” explains Katie. “It worked both ways – I needed publicity for people to call the number and as a way of distributing the work.

Virgin had their own PR company, so the line started receiving calls mainly from London, but as the press coverage grew, calls were coming in from as far afield as Iraq and Canada.”

But it was Katie’s work All the Dead Stars, created for the fourth Tate Triennial, Altermodern, that saw her selected for the showcase of contemporary British art

“The idea for All the Dead Stars came through different works I’d done in the past – particularly one of the sound of a dying star, which was broadcast through a loud speaker when people opened or shut a door – the sound is like a middle C. At that time I wasn’t sure if there were five, or five billion dead stars, so I contacted lots of astronomers. I discovered some 27,000 dead stars had been recorded, so I needed plenty of expert help in mapping them. No such map had existed beforehand – there are seven different types of dying star, from supernovae and gamma-ray bursts to white dwarfs, so we had to first make a list of all these stars and then get the coordinate points for each one. We had to bring together vast amounts of data, which I did with the help of Dr Mark Sullivan from Oxford. Once we had all the coordinates, they were laser-etched on a piece of two by three metre black anodised

aluminium. Accuracy was very important to me. I had to make sure this was not some piece of fiction.

The work features every dead star that has ever been recorded. The earliest one dates back to a Chinese astronomer who recorded a supernova in 1,006 AD, although he did not realise what he had witnessed at the time.

About three-quarters of the stars have been recorded in the last five years because there are now space-borne telescopes that are surveying large areas of sky. Dying stars are being recorded all the time, so I quite like the idea of updating the work in five years’ time.

“I first met Ofer Lahav when we both did talks at a Slade event called ‘Space is the Place’. He took me to the UCL observatory at Mill Hill, and I asked if he would do a talk for the Altermodern show. It became a work in itself – we conducted the talk for ‘Late at Tate’ on the gallery’s front green. I’m really interested in his work and the way he conveys things – he has the perfect balance of making you understand complex information without being patronising.

Ofer came along to the exhibition and it was refreshing to see his perception of what artists get up to – I think he was pretty surprised by some of the work!”

artist-in-residence for the Astrophysics Group: “It will give me the opportunity to find out what’s going on at the cutting edge and work with some of the staff and students. I’m really looking forward to it.” In the meantime, she has received a Darwin 2009 award to continue this theme. “I’m going to visit a telescope in Hawaii that looks as far back as 13.2 billion years, right to the edge of the universe. It can see almost all the way back to the beginning of time – it’s surreal that you can look back to a time when the Earth didn’t even exist. I think it’s fascinating the way stars die and the connections between us and them – we are, essentially, stardust.”

“I think it’s fascinating the way stars die and the connections between us and them – we are, essentially, stardust.”

The Art Of Science In 2004, Professor Ofer Lahav (Perren Chair of Astronomy and Head of UCL Astrophysics) established UCL’s Cosmology group, which has been working on increasingly complex and ambitious international efforts to survey the universe. The group’s work so far has revealed how galaxies are distributed across the universe. “Our research confirms that the visible parts of the universe, such as stars and galaxies, only constitute a small fraction of its total mass. Imagine a Christmas tree in the dark with lights hung around it. We can see the lights, but not the tree, although it is the tree that constitutes the majority of total mass.”

The group is currently participating in the Dark Energy Survey (DES) to discover the different components that make up the universe. This new survey, with observations due to start in 2011, will map 300million galaxies in order to understand the relation between dark energy and the universe and therefore get closer to nailing Einstein’s theory on General Relativity and the connection between time, space and gravity.

“ When stars die, it can be a spectacular explosion, scattering nebulae across a galaxy.”

Professor Lahav’s encounter with the art world has had a strong personal resonance. “It suddenly made me realise that this was something I would really like to pursue, outside my research work. As a scientist, I have a completely different perspective to Katie as an artist. We astronomers measure stars and galaxies to understand their physics. She sees, in a catalogue of objects, a graveyard of stars. When stars die, it can be a spectacular explosion, scattering nebulae across a galaxy. These in turn result in the birth of new stars, and I find that quite spiritual – the iron we all have in our bloodstream results from gas being scattered across the universe by dying stars. I think Katie is a responsible artist in that she takes real material and gives it her own interpretation. I find it very refreshing.”

Slade alumni news: www.ucl.ac.uk/slade/slade09/news UCL’s Astronomical Observatory in Mill Hill: www.ulo.ucl.ac.uk

As a progression of All the Dead Stars, Katie is returning to UCL as the 11

Be part of something

bigger

Ultimate Escapes

U

ltimate Escapes was co-founded by Phil Callaghan (UCL Physics & Astronomy 1974) and is one of the industry’s largest private destination clubs. Take your pick from destinations across the world: play golf in Tuscany, take in the beautiful beaches of the Bahamas or glide through the Deer Valley in Utah, one of North America’s top ski destinations. The club’s private, multimillion-dollar homes are well-appointed luxury residences that offer concierge services and the amenities of a private country club.

As former students of a global university we want you to experience more of what the world has to offer, which is why we provide a wide range of discounts on products and services to help you explore. Break new ground for less this autumn.

Any questions?

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

Benefit: UCL alumni receive a 25% discount off the lowest current prices for a membership. www.ultimateescapes.com

UCL Alumni Web Community alumni@ucl.ac.uk (we can email you your personal access code if you have not yet received it) +44(0)20 7679 7677 www.ucl.ac.uk/alumnicommunity

Asia House C: quote UCL alumni D: reduced membership enquiries@asiahouse.co.uk +44(0)20 7307 5454 www.asiahouse.org

Avis C: O788305 (starts with the letter ‘O’ not the number) D: up to 10% +44(0)844 581 0187 www.avis.co.uk/ premierpartners

UCL Bloomsbury Theatre C: UCL alumni (present your alumni network card at box office) D: varies depending on the show (not available on all shows) info@thebloomsbury.com +44(0)20 7388 8822 www.thebloomsbury.com

Chatham House

UCL Language Centre & SSEES Language Unit You can pack a new language into your case this autumn, as UCL’s Language Centre offers evening courses in 18 languages. The courses focus on spoken communication – perfect if you’re planning your next trip away. www.ucl.ac.uk/language-centre The language unit at SSEES also offers evening courses in 17 Slavonic and East European languages. Students are also given access to the nationally renowned SSEES library for the course of their study. www.ssees.ucl.ac.uk/eveningcourses Benefit: Discount on all courses for UCL alumni. For details, check the websites above.

C: quote UCL alumni D: reduced membership membership@chathamhouse. org.uk +44(0)20 7957 5700 www.chathamhouse.org.uk

Cottages 4 You C: quote UCL alumni by phone or click through from UCL alumni website D: 10% +44(0)845 268 0760 www.ucl.ac.uk/alumni/benefits

Girls Travel Club C: quote UCL alumni D: 10% info@girlstravelclub.co.uk www.girlstravelclub.co.uk

UCL Library C: UCL alumni network card required for access D: free reference access Payment of an annual membership fee of £50 entitles you to borrow up to five books at a time library@ucl.ac.uk +44(0) 20 7679 7700 www.ucl.ac.uk/library

London Hotel Discounts C: quote UCL alumni D: varies depending on the hotel www.ucl.ac.uk/alumni/benefits/ accommodation

Royal Commonwealth Society C: quote UCL alumni D: reduced membership membership@thercs.org www.thercs.org

Royal Institution C: UCL1 D: 20% discount on membership members@ri.ac.uk www.rigb.org

Science|Business C: quote UCL alumni D: reduced subscription rates subs@sciencebusiness.net www.sciencebusiness.net

STA Travel C: quote ‘UCL8’ D: range of discounts including £20 off flights (excl. Europe) +44(0)8714 680 648 (ULU branch number) only available through ULU branch

UCL Union Bloomsbury Fitness C: quote UCL alumni (and take your alumni network card) D: continued access and reduced membership fee bf.admin@ucl.ac.uk +44(0)20 7679 7221 www.uclunion.org/sport-fitness/ bloomsbury

UCL Union

C = Cardholder access code D = Discount

C: Take your alumni network card ucl.union@ucl.ac.uk +44(0)20 7679 2541 www.uclu.org 13

everything in account

There’s something distinctly UCL about Alan Brener (UCL Laws 1977).

Opportunities seem to seek him out but he’s always on the hunt for ‘interesting things’ too; werewolves being just one…

A

lan Brener is quite the adventurer. He’s moved seamlessly between a range of high profile roles from an unusual foundation of law and accounting. Today he heads up Regulatory Strategy at Santander’s UK operations, which now includes Abbey and Alliance & Leicester. It’s one of the largest global banking giants and, compared to its rivals, has had ‘a very good crisis’.

When we meet he tells me he’s taking his son to the UCL Grant Museum to find out where the werewolves have gone – but something tells me he wants to know too.

Alan’s days have been busy since leaving UCL. He’s audited Express Dairies, been involved in privatising Rolls Royce, regulated insurance companies, briefed the ministers of Whitehall and is working at becoming fluent in Spanish.

Reflecting on his time as a private secretary he chuckles and says: “Do you know Bernard from Yes Minister? Well I was Bernard for two years”, but it’s when Alan talks about his approach to his work that I find his real passion.

“What you’ll see from my background is that I’m always looking in different areas to see whether I can find things that would work in a different context. I move between departments, finance, tax, marketing, legal, compliance so I’ll talk to each in their own language; I suppose I’m a bit of a chameleon.”

Alan studied law at UCL but soon realised that combining his degree with accountancy would give him a unique edge and allow him to carve out quite a specialist career niche.

“I suppose I’m a bit of a chameleon.”

“There are a very small number of us who have done something similar because it’s very hard to do both. Law was perfect as a foundation but one thing I noticed when I was working for the Bar exams was that whenever the lawyers got a page of numbers they’d turn the page over – they generally didn’t deal with the numbers, so I thought it would be a good idea to combine the two.”

Alan’s working life could be seen as something of an inspiration for current UCL graduates – apart from one application to KPMG in his early career, he hasn’t made a single job application. He creates his own opportunities and connections. He is also a great enabler – as well as supporting UCL programmes through regular individual donations, Alan fosters links between UCL and industry through the programme at Santander and within his own organisation.

“We organise internships here. I initiated that and I’ve done that in previous companies as well. I like to think of new things we can try – I went to a UCL lecture on genetic algorithms and neural networks and thought, that’s interesting, I wonder what can we do with that?

When I see the bulletins for internships, I get in contact with our HR department to see what we can do. Santander has supported both universities and students around the world for many years and I don’t think it’s an accident that Santander’s Universities

Division in London signed up UCL very early on in its programme. It was because of UCL’s reputation as a first class organisation, and obviously the central location helps as well.”

So what advice would Alan give UCL’s current graduates walking out into the world of work this autumn?

“Go for the best you can possibly get. Go and join the best firm because they will give you a very good grounding and they’ll spend time on your training and development and you’ll also see things that you probably wouldn’t normally come across.

Also, be flexible, even if you end up doing one of the professional qualifications, think more broadly as to what other things might work with it.”

And with no limitations, what would Alan do next?

“Probably go back to university.”

Halloween Event: UCL Grant Museum Witches and Lizards Saturday 31 October A special night exploring everything from werewolves to vampires. Go to page 18...

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All of those who have been privileged to study or work at UCL know what a unique institution it is. Ranked in the world’s top ten, we are proud to attract the brightest minds amongst students and staff alike, and prouder still that our people are motivated by a desire to do good and to tackle the world’s most urgent problems.

But we haven’t got here alone. You are part of a formidable community of alumni and friends that help us to achieve our very best. It is thanks to your foresight and commitment that we now have £126million committed towards our Campaign for UCL goal of £300million. But there is still more to do.

Challenging times lie ahead for us. In the UK, government funding for universities is decreasing.

Thirty years ago, funding covered about 75% of university costs, but today, it is less than 40%. Universities are profoundly vulnerable to changes in funding from successive governments and economic fluctuations, yet the work that we do cannot afford to deviate from excellence. Your gift can change our future landscape.

In order to survive and flourish, universities across the world need to find alternative sources of funding, and increased philanthropic support from alumni and friends is now critical for us to remain a global player.

Whether it be a monthly gift, a longer-term endowment, or a legacy, any contribution you make today will have a lasting benefit tomorrow.

MAKE YOUR MARK

Visit ucl.ac.uk/makeyourmark to make yours

When you were a student, your closest friend may have been studying with you by way of a scholarship or bursary.

Your most inspiring professor may well have been funded through an endowed chair, a permanent post offering the ongoing support needed for research and teaching excellence. With current funding making such opportunities scarce, we are now reliant on your support to attract the leading minds we need to work with us, to maintain the world-class research for which we are renowned.

Compared to our US counterparts, we are more than lagging behind. It’s common for over 50% of our American peers to make an annual gift to their university as opposed to the 2.9% of UCL alumni who make an annual donation. Our endowment levels do not compare well either. In the USA, where personal philanthropy has a long tradition, our academic competitors have hundreds of times the endowment reserves that we have at our disposal. For example, UCL’s current endowment level is £65.5million with a student body of 22,000.

Compare this to Stanford University and MIT, which have endowment levels of over £10.5billion and £6.1billion and student bodies half our size.

It is vitally important that UCL is able to build up a similiar foundation of financial support. We have held our own, and exceeded our goals against the fiercest competition, but as government funding falls away, we must turn to the generosity and foresight of UCL people who have invested in us, and in whom we have invested.

UCL deserves the security to flourish.

As members of the UCL community, please consider a gift, of whatever you can, to help provide the long-term support that will drive tomorrow’s world. There has never been a more pressing time to make your mark on the future.

ON THE FUTURE 17

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.

Printing Japan: UCL’s collection of Japanese prints

Lunch Hour Lecture: The new biology of ageing

Wednesday 14 October 6–8pm

Tuesday 20 October 1.15–1.55pm, Darwin Lecture Theatre www.ucl.ac.uk/lhl Professor Dame Linda Partridge (UCL Genetics, Evolution & Environment)

Karly Allen explores UCL’s collection of Japanese prints, which date from the early 19th century to the early 20th century.

Artists featured include Ogata Gekko, Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Kunisada, Utagawa Hiroshige and Ohara Koson.

Object Retrieval: You are the Routemaster Thursday 15 October – Wednesday 21 October A one-week event created by artist Joshua Sofaer in association with UCL Museums & Collections.

A rolling team of researchers from the arts and sciences will investigate one object from the university’s collection for seven days, in a converted Routemaster bus in the UCL Front Quad.

Medical School Reunion (University College, The Royal Free & Middlesex Hospitals) Saturday 3 October 6.30pm–midnight BAFTA, London Black Tie, Red Carpet Attire £95 per person (discount for tables of 10 people) www.ucl.ac.uk/alumni UCL Medical School Alumni celebrate their graduation anniversaries.

Object Retrieval will run 24 hours a day for UCL staff and students and until midnight for the general public. Everybody is invited to participate.

Research into ageing has been rejuvenated by the discovery that genetic alterations extend the lifespan of laboratory animals. These mutations keep animals healthy for longer and protect them from many of the diseases of ageing.

Professor Partridge will look at how this and other discoveries have led to a new wave of research directed at understanding how these changes can increase healthy lifespan in humans.

Halloween Event: UCL Grant Museum Witches and Lizards Saturday 31 October 5.30–8pm £3 payable on the door – including a glass of wine or soft drink Where better to spend Halloween than in a room full of scary skeletons and spooky skulls? A special night exploring everything from werewolves to vampires.

Professional Networking Event: Architecture, Construction, Planning and Project Management

Staged reading of George Orwell’s Burmese Days Wednesday 4 November & Thursday 5 November 7.30–9.30pm £10 (£8.50 concessions) Please book online: www.ucl.ac.uk/library/ orwell UCL, home to one of the world’s most comprehensive archives of George Orwell’s works, hosts the first staged reading of Burmese Days by the International Theatre Collective, Aya, led by UCL alumnus Ryan Kiggell (UCL Geography 1999). The reading will be followed by a question and answer session.

Wednesday 11 November 6.30–9.30pm The Engineering Front Building, Malet Place, UCL Cost: £10 Book online: www.ucl.ac.uk/ alumni/careers Thinking about changing your career? Would you like to work in Architecture, Construction, Planning or Project Management and not sure where to start?

This event is designed specifically for graduates up to ten years after graduation. Guests will have the opportunity to network with other alumni and learn from senior alumni already established in their careers.

Lunch Hour Lecture: The right to obscene thoughts

UCL Chamber Music Club Christmas Concert

Tuesday 8 December 1.15–1.55pm, Darwin Lecture Theatre www.ucl.ac.uk/lhl Professor Stephen Guest (UCL Laws)

Tuesday 15 December 6pm, North Cloisters, UCL Main Campus www.ucl.ac.uk/chambermusic

This lecture discusses how genuine freedom must include all manner of thought, including the irrational, the bad, and the obscene, and how the recent new offence of possessing extreme pornography has breached this principle.

Lunch Hour Lecture: The making of Johnson’s dictionary

The programme for this event will include the Overture and Nativity music from Handel’s Messiah, and Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on Christmas Carols. The popular Christmas concert is free and open to all. Enjoy the celebratory music and join members of the club for seasonal refreshments after the concert.

Thursday 10 December 1.15–1.55pm, Darwin Lecture Theatre www.ucl.ac.uk/lhl Professor John Mullan (UCL English Language & Literature) Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language taught the British how to spell, established Shakespeare as their greatest writer and provided the first and longest lasting map of the English language in all its subtlety and variety.

This lecture will tell the extraordinary story of how the first dictionary was made and take you inside what has become the least well known great book in our literature.

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Another perspective

UCL in Hong Kong Nowhere is UCL’s global reach more evident than from within its own regional groups. Here Andrew Ng (UCL Laws 1985), Chairman of the UCL Hong Kong Club, tells Connect how he’s keeping UCL alive and very much in the family…

“Studying at UCL was great fun and I made many lifelong friends from all over the world – it was one of the best times of my life. I studied law between 1982 and 1985 and I’ve kept in touch with classmates from as far afield as Singapore and Malaysia – many have since become long-standing clients.”

But as Andrew asserts, there’s more to keeping in touch than just coming along to events. He wants to make sure the UCL Hong Kong Club also gives something tangible back to the local community.

“Our local alumni set up a scholarship foundation to award annual scholarships and bursaries to needy and deserving local students.

We just selected a candidate for this year’s scholarship yesterday.”

So how did Andrew get involved with the regional group in Hong Kong?

“When I applied for membership in 1999, our former Chairman (the late KK Chu (UCL Laws 1960) noticed that two of my sisters and I all studied at UCL. Like me, most of KK’s family also went to UCL. So he drafted me in to help out and later asked me to take over as Chairman.

I’ve never looked back.”

But there are more advantages to alumni groups than just getting back in touch. Andrew says his events are not targeted to business networking but in the same breath says: “My insurance broker and dentist are alumni, so I suppose it follows that you tend to do business with people that you get on with.”

So how does he feel UCL affected his career?

“Graduating from a top-notch global university definitely opened doors for British-born Chinese people like me, who came from the state-run grammar school system.

I was able to get solid training as a trainee solicitor and then as an associate in City firms, even through the 1980s recession when there were very few ethnic minority lawyers around in London. This also helped me to set up my own law firm working across the world. But I’m also a beneficiary of the colour-blind meritocratic traditions (Gandhi and the first Asian students to study in the UK …). I’m thinking of naming my son (due in August) after Ng Ting Fang. He was a UCL alumnus and the first Chinese lawyer/ barrister to graduate in the UK; he later became acting Prime Minister of China – but this is all subject to my wife’s approval of course!”

Raising

departmental focus

the bar UCL Laws students will get the opportunity to work in a real-time law environment next year. The Pro Bono project is being set up to enable students, under supervision from qualified solicitors, to offer free legal advice to members of the community.

The project, made possible in part by donations to UCL from alumni and friends, sees current and former UCL students working together to provide a valuable resource with real-world benefits. Students will initially offer advice through other legal advice centres, but the future vision is for the Faculty to have its own advice clinic.

As well as the valuable professional experience and skills which students will gain from the project, they will also receive academic credit for their work, in the shape of a half or full course in their final year of study.

Rodney Austin, Senior Lecturer in UCL Laws, said: “The project will make the UCL Faculty of Laws’ legal education offering more attractive to potential candidates and students. Most importantly, this project opens up access to legal advice to those unable to afford the services of a practising professional.

It also gives students a

broader range of learning experience outside the classroom and offers the Faculty an additional opportunity to make a positive and direct contribution to society.

“We’ve been in discussion with the College of Law as well as a number of City law firms, but have also had a number of alumni express interest in helping as well. We are delighted alumni are willing to give up their time to be involved, as the contribution of their experience will be immensely valuable to the project.”

The pilot project begins in 2010 and will put UCL Faculty of Laws at the cutting edge of legal education. If you would like to find out more about getting involved in this project, or helping to make projects like these possible, please contact: Sian Hoggett at s.hoggett@ucl.ac.uk To find out more about the Laws alumni group visit: www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/alumni

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reunion events

Staying in touch with your university and your fellow students once you graduate isn’t always easy, especially when you find yourself halfway across the world, but for Helen Talkin (UCL Scandinavian Studies 1984) the journey back was just as much one of discovery as it was when she first arrived. We caught up with Helen to talk about making it back for her 25th reunion all the way from sunny California.

“I don’t think I realised until I’d left how lucky I was to study at UCL. I’ve lived in California for 11 years now and I’ve kept in touch through the alumni magazine, which I find fascinating.

“I’m so glad I did come back. UCL has a very international community, and I met several people from other countries, including the USA. Although there was nobody else from Scandinavian Studies, I got to know people who’d majored in German who had been at UCL at the same time as me – one of whom I’ve met up with and been in regular contact with by email ever since.”

As part of the reunion, Helen was given a tour, where she found a marked difference from the campus and the cloisters of her time: “I remember the old walk from the DMS Watson to Scandinavian Studies from when I was there, and the strange smells coming from the Zoology department – UCL looks so much smarter now.

I was particularly impressed by the new library and the refurbished Cruciform building.

“UCL is a very important part of my life, and the reunion has inspired me to reconnect in whatever ways are possible, to get in touch with alumni, and to organise some alumni events in my area between LA and San Francisco. I think that having the shared experience of university enables you to connect with people in a unique way.”

”

Date for the diary: The UCL Medical School Alumni Reunion is taking place on 3 October 2009 at BAFTA in London’s Piccadilly (go to page 18 for more information).

The red carpet event will include guest speaker Richard Marshall, Head of External Discovery at GlaxoSmithKline.

For more information go to: www.ucl.ac.uk/alumni

connect four Welcome to connect four. Here we try our hand at linking four famous UCL alumni – can you top our choices?

Contact alumni@ucl.ac.uk with your best connections …

Margaret Mountford (UCL Greek & Latin 2002, 2004) of The Apprentice fame was born in Holywood, Northern Ireland.

Christopher Nolan (UCL English 1993) is a Hollywood (albeit the US one) filmmaker best known for directing Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. He recently filmed part of his new movie, Inception at UCL’s Flaxman Gallery.

UCL’s Flaxman Gallery houses work by the sculptor and artist, John Flaxman, as does the British Museum where Anthony Gormley (UCL Slade 1979) is a trustee. Most famous for The Angel of the North and also the ongoing One & Other project on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, Gormley’s work takes the human body as its focus.

Christen Jessen (UCL Medical School 2001) also focuses on the human body as part of the Channel 4 shows Supersize vs Superskinny and Embarrassing Bodies both of which he presents.

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alumni giving

Giving back to the future Richard Kilsby As a member of UCL’s Campaign Executive Committee, Richard Kilsby (UCL Laws 1973) plays a major part in driving UCL’s pursuit for excellence. Since graduating, Richard has stayed in touch with the Faculty through one of his old Professors, Rodney Austin. Together they have arranged several career mentoring presentations for students interested in pursuing non-law careers. Richard has also attended reunions and events and was keen to stay in touch as he thinks it’s all too easy to lose contact with your university and to miss out on the benefits that such a connection brings.

Richard’s own continuing engagement with UCL was partly inspired by his wife Susan who is an alumna of both Wellesley College and Yale University. He explains how she enjoys an excellent relationship with both of her former universities and that this has served partly as inspiration for his continued UCL engagement.

Richard has recently made a substantial gift to the Campaign for UCL. He explained his motivation for making this gift was based on a need for philanthropy within higher education: “Many alumni amongst my generation are oblivious to the changes which have been made to university funding in recent decades and the pressure on UK institutions to find alternative, private sources of funding. I’m proud to be associated with one of the best universities in the world and it is important to me, as I hope it will be to all current and future alumni, to do what I can to contribute to UCL’s continued success.”

“It is important to me to do what I can to contribute to UCL’s continued success.”

Every year, a growing number of alumni make personal gifts to UCL. Every donation is unique and means something different for each individual. Connect spoke to three former students to find out what they get from giving back…

Clare Cunliffe

UCL was hugely beneficial for her career.

Clare Cunliffe (UCL Medical Microbiology 1996) began her degree at UCL with an ambition to work in the pharmaceutical industry. Clare’s first job in clinical trials was a direct result of work experience arranged by her third-year project supervisor, Professor John Stanford.

She also met her current boss at a ULU careers fair and so feels her time at

Clare makes a monthly gift to UCL’s Provost’s Priority Fund, allowing UCL to direct her gift to the university’s highest priorities: “My education was free, yet invaluable. I want to contribute to UCL attracting and retaining the high calibre of academic staff that makes this possible, and I trust the university to direct my donation where it is needed most.”

Gillian Steggles

“UCL brings the world to your doorstep”.

Gillian Steggles graduated from the UCL Medical School in 1978 but later returned to become involved with academic life again. Despite no longer being a student, Gill wanted to continue to learn from UCL’s inspiring community. Over the past 31 years she has made the most of UCL’s libraries, the music club, and lunchtime lectures through which she believes

Gillian is one of UCL’s generous legacy donors and wanted to leave a gift in her will to preserve UCL’s status and to contribute to its future: “I want to enable future students to fulfil their own potential and for the spirit, strength and enterprise of UCL’s student body to continue to flourish and grow. I know a part of me will be left in the living fabric of UCL for years to come.”

For every £3 you give, the UK government will give us an extra £1...

which means more scholarships…

more facilities…

more textbooks…

and an even better UCL.

Thanks to the UK government’s Matched Funding scheme, UCL will receive an extra £1 for every £3 you donate until August 2011, regardless of whether or not you are a UK tax payer.

If you’ve ever considered making a donation, this is the perfect time. Visit www.ucl.ac.uk/online-giving to make your gift or contact us on +44(0)20 7679 9741 or at futures@ucl.ac.uk to see your money go further.

www.ucl.ac.uk