Growing pains: Arab Spring

Affirming access for all

Embracing the material world

A school of opportunity

Art from the ground up

Visionary research

LONDON’S GLOBAL UNIVERSITY

People 2012

Capture your memories – UCL Alumni Lostbook

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Images: UCLU Photosoc

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Arab Spring art For the feature on the Arab Spring UCL People commisioned a student from the UCL Slade School of Fine Art Minjae Lee. Her illustration of a cactus native to the Middle East reflects the concept of a dying establishment providing a source for new growth.

The other artworks featured in the exhibtion, Plot for a Biennial, produced by Sheikha Hoor (UCL Slade School of Fine Art 2002), President of Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, and are produced with kind permission of the individual artists.

Front cover: Cairo, 6 February 2011. Almost two weeks after the uprising began, protesters were back in Tahrir Square. © Alex Majoli/Magnum Photos

UCL People is produced for UCL alumni and supporters by the university’s Alumni Relations and

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Art Direction: studiospecial.com

Art Director/Production: Fiona Davidson

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Main photography: John Carey Matt Clayton Kirsten Holst Elaine Perks UCL Media Services UCLU Photosoc

The new UCL Institute of Making will be a world-first, nurturing a dynamic culture of making across the university

Making as a way of thinkingWhat could you do with a brick that changes colour with temperature? Or a phosphorescent material that, when exposed to light, glows for a week?

Or, how about the lightest solid in the world, composed of 98% air?

These astounding materials and the intriguing possibilities they present will soon be together under one roof as the new UCL Institute of Making – a dynamic space that will bring together industry, students and academics from all disciplines who are interested in the made world.

“Making as a way of thinking is fundamental”

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Embracing the 44 material worldA first look at the new UCL Institute of Making, which aims to nurture a culture of making across campus

Visionary research 36The UCL Institute of Ophthalmology recently won the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for its outstanding work to fight glaucoma and other eye problems

Growing pains 08BBC Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen introduces a series of personal testimonies on the Arab Spring and its aftermath

People 2012

Features

Welcome to the 2012 issue of UCL People magazine. To make sure you receive your copy, please ensure your details are up to date by completing the enclosed form or online at www.ucl.ac.uk/alumni

A school of opportunity 30UCL is sponsoring a new academy and taking the lead in an exciting new era of engagement with secondary education

Art from the ground up 40UCL Slade alumna Spartacus Chetwynd on her nomination for the Turner Prize 2012 and her approach to art

Affirming access for all 18How the university will ensure that money is not a barrier to entry under the new tuition fees regime

Regulars

Online contents 02

A selection of the content available through UCL’s digital channels

Leader 03UCL President & Provost Professor Malcolm

Grant on an eventful year

Snapshot 04A round-up of the latest stories from the UCL community

Inside story 16Professor Jon Butterworth: what it’s like working at CERN

The gallery 24UCL’s recent international activities in pictures

Campus Q&A 29Professor Anne Johnson on Venezuelan arrowheads and Margaret Thatcher

Parting shot 48The Bentham Boat Club team from 2006

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YouTubeWatch short films about the latest research, student activities and more

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LeaderPresident & Provost

It is my pleasure to introduce this issue of UCL People. I do so with the first twinges of nostalgia; some of you might know that I intend to retire with effect from September next year, by which time I shall have completed a 10 year term as President & Provost. With the search for my successor now safely underway, I look forward to a final year as thrilling and challenging as my first at our unique institution.

The first item I want to report on is a major institutional achievement. Shortly after I joined the university, UCL set itself the challenge to raise £300 million from our partners and supporters to make remarkable things happen. At the time, it was the largest ever fundraising campaign for a UK university, and I’m delighted to report that it has now closed – two years ahead of schedule and having exceeded our original target. That is a huge success, and I wish to thank all those who made it possible – our supporters, our fundraising team and our academic staff who make UCL such an exciting place. Maintaining our global competitiveness and realising our ambitions requires us to continue to raise funds and we plan to build on the philanthropic success of this campaign.

I am extremely proud of our efforts over the past nine years to make UCL an even more outstanding university in which to study and work; it is constantly changing and modernising, and already looks and feels like a very different place from the university you attended. A good example is the recent merger with the School of Pharmacy, which will enable us to jointly establish a major pharmacy research base of international renown.

It isn’t an end point of course. New developments showcased in this edition include the UCL Institute of Making, which will bring together all those curious about the material world with a literally hands-on approach. You can also read about how we are the sole sponsor of the UCL Academy – a new non-selective, mixed, state secondary school in Camden that is impressively oversubscribed for its first intake this autumn. The principle of access based on merit is a founding tenet of UCL that remains unchanged, and journalist Sue Littlemore explores in these pages new measures that we have established to ensure this continues.

Two illustrious alumni journalists have contributed pieces to this issue. BBC Middle East Editor and UCL History graduate Jeremy Bowen provides his seasoned first-hand perspective on the evolution of the Arab Spring, while Vivienne Parry, UCL Zoology graduate and Vice-Chair of UCL Council, investigates the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology’s unique recipe for breakthroughs in eye diseases.

Change is an inherent part of maintaining UCL’s world-class standing, and how we communicate with our alumni is no exception. In response to your feedback, you’ll notice more alumni voices and a new range of features in this issue as well as a refreshed design. I hope you enjoy it – and, as ever, I look forward to hearing your responses and news.

Professor Malcolm Grant

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SnapshotNews from UCL

Provost retirement

Wolfson Foundation grantUCL was awarded a £20 million grant from the Wolfson Foundation, the largest single award ever made by the foundation and one of the largest philanthropic donations in UCL’s history. The grant will be used to establish the Leonard Wolfson Experimental Neurology Centre at UCL.

The centre will accelerate the development of treatments and identify future therapeutic targets for neurodegenerative diseases, with the aim of earlier intervention for patients. Dementia alone costs the UK economy £23 billion a year, yet government and charitable investment in dementia research is

UCL President & Provost Professor Malcolm Grant has announced his intention to retire from UCL in September 2013.

The selection process for a new Provost will be conducted by a Joint Committee of Council and Academic Board – otherwise known as the Joint Selection Committee.

In April, Council approved the membership of the Joint Selection Committee, which will conduct the search for Professor Grant’s successor.

Executive search consultants Odgers Berndtson have been appointed to assist in the search for the next Provost.

12 times lower than spending on cancer research.

Professor Malcolm Grant, UCL President & Provost, explained: “Through this new centre, we are determined to provide a fitting and lasting legacy in Lord Wolfson’s memory, building upon his constant support for the advancement of medical science for human benefit.”

The centre will be based at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, the partner hospital of the UCL Institute of Neurology, reflecting the importance of bringing together clinical and scientific excellence.

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Art by Animals

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01 Flowerpot, Boon Mee (elephant, Samutprakarn Zoo, Thailand)

02 Untitled, Joseph (Sumatran orang-utan, Erie Zoo, Pennsylvania)

03 Untitled, Baka (Sumatran orang-utan, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, Colorado)

An exhibition featuring works of art from several species of animal, including paintings by elephants and apes, took place from 1 January to 9 March as part of the Humanimals Season at the UCL Grant Museum of Zoology.

The Art by Animals exhibition was very popular and received widespread media coverage. A highlight was a painting of a flowerpot by the elephant Boon Mee who was formerly a logging elephant in Thailand.

Since the mid-1950s, zoos have used art and painting as a leisure activity for animals, also using the activities to raise funds for conservation or for the zoo by selling the works.

Co-curator Mike Tuck, a graduate of the UCL Slade School of Fine Art, said: “We believe the exhibition at the Grant Museum to be the first to exhibit multiple species’ paintings and to attempt to take a broad view of the phenomenon.”

The art was displayed alongside historical documentation and animal specimens.

Jack Ashby, Manager of the UCL Grant Museum of Zoology, explained: “Whether this is actually art is the big question. While individual elephants are trained to always paint the same thing, art produced by apes is a lot more creative and is almost indistinguishable from abstract art by humans that uses similar techniques.”

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School of Pharmacy merger

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01–03 Staff and students from the School of Pharmacy are already an integral part of the UCL Faculty of Life Sciences

In January 2012, the School of Pharmacy, University of London, merged with UCL. The school is now part of UCL Faculty of Life Sciences and will officially be known as the UCL School of Pharmacy.

The school will continue to provide undergraduate and postgraduate education in pharmaceutical science, as well as undertaking world-leading research focused on advancing and understanding medicines and healthcare, and on creating new medicines.

Professor Sir John Tooke, Vice-Provost (Health) and

Head of the UCL School of Life & Medical Sciences, commented: “I am confident that this innovative new alliance will be mutually beneficial, drawing on the considerable complementary academic strengths of both institutions. Our mutual ambition is to build on existing collaborations to establish a major pharmacy research base of international renown and work with our new colleagues to enhance the excellent educational programmes and student experience already provided by the school.”

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01–02 The UCL Union George Farha Café Bar and the UCL Cancer Institute: two of many initiatives made possible by the Campaign for UCL

Prostate cancer research

Campaign for UCL exceeds £300 million

A new type of prostate cancer treatment, which uses sound waves to target individual cancer sites selectively, could provide an alternative to traditional treatment with significantly fewer side effects, according to promising results from a UCL-led clinical trial.

The results, published in Lancet Oncology, show that 12 months after treatment, men had a 9 in 10 chance of achieving trifecta status – the ‘perfect outcome’, including being cancer-free after a

year. The standard therapy currently involves treating the whole prostate, either with radiotherapy or surgery. Men who undergo traditional treatment have a fifty per cent chance of achieving the trifecta status.

Dr Hashim Ahmed, who led the study at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and UCL, explained: “This study provides the proof-of-concept we need to develop a much larger trial to look at the health of the men treated for

prostate cancer in the medium and long term.

“We’re optimistic that men diagnosed with prostate cancer may soon be able to undergo a day case surgical procedure, which can treat their condition with very few side effects. That could mean a significant improvement in their quality of life.”

The research was funded by the Medical Research Council, the Pelican Cancer Foundation and St Peter’s Trust.

UCL has today announced the closure of its 2004 philanthropic campaign, two years ahead of schedule and over the £300 million target it set itself at its launch. The Campaign for UCL is the largest UK campaign to close outside Oxbridge and has raised £316 million to fund facilities that include the UCL Cancer Institute, the Denys Holland Lecture Theatre (UCL Laws) and the Lewis Building, the new students’ union building.

UCL President & Provost Professor Malcolm Grant said: “In 2004, we presented ourselves with a challenge: to reach out to our partners and supporters and work together to make remarkable things happen through philanthropic support.

“At the time, it was the largest ever fundraising campaign for a UK university. The generosity of our supporters has breathed new life into our teaching spaces and libraries, uncovered treasures of the past, and fuelled new discoveries and ideas that will shape our future. UCL is a very special place and I am proud of our efforts over the past eight years to make it an even more exciting university in which to study and work.

“UCL has set ambitious plans for the next 10 years and philanthropic support will play an important part in realising those ambitions. Plans are already well underway for the next Campaign which we expect will be even larger than this one.”

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As BBC Middle East Editor, Jeremy Bowen (UCL History 1982; Fellow 2005) witnessed firsthand the tumultuous birth of the Arab Spring. Here, he introduces a series of personal testimonies from UCL alumni and staff on the shockwaves that continue to be felt in the worlds of law, media, business and politics

Growing painsDay one, year zero of the new Egypt – 12 February 2011 – the morning after they overthrew Mubarak, was so full of euphoria and sheer outright happiness that they brushed aside, very cheerfully, anyone who tried to remind them of an iron law of revolution. It states that the hardest job is not overthrowing the dictator, but making the new order.

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Egypt had followed Tunisia – “this little country that beats us at football”, as one Egyptian blogger in Tahrir Square described it to me – in ousting a dictator.

But once Egypt had removed its president, a sense of not just the possibility, but the certainty of change swept through Arab countries. It has not been as easy as many in the region hoped on that morning in February 2011.

Tunisia has made the best progress towards a stable, workable new reality. But Egypt is hobbled by economic trouble, sectarian tension and a new struggle in the making between Islamists and the army. Syria is sliding into a civil war. Libyans, with foreign help Syrian rebels can only dream about, ousted Muammar al-Gaddafi. Having a huge oil income helps, but Libya is struggling with the legacy of dictatorship and its own civil war. Bahrain and Yemen are full of uncertainty and strife.

Other countries in the region have not been affected as radically, but nowhere is untouched. To try to ride the wave, rulers have had to introduce constitutional reforms, increase social spending and make promises about cracking down on corruption. Even Saudi Arabia redirected a huge chunk of its oil revenues to education and welfare items that the King hoped would buy off any new discontent.

In 2011, Arabs pushed to be citizens, not subjects. They wanted to find a better way, without leaders who in some cases were turning dictatorships into dynasties. Many of the people who rose up against the old order in 2011 took action when they realised that even the death of their ageing despots would not free them. The leaders of Libya, Egypt and Yemen all wanted to keep power in the family.

The demonstrations were dominated by a generation of young people who were more politically conscious, more aware of the outside world and better connected to it than their parents and grandparents had been. Arab police states obsessively tracked threats to their regimes. But they could not defuse the biggest bomb of all – demography. No statistics in the Arab uprisings of 2011 were more important than the ones about population growth. The exact numbers vary from country to country but getting on for 60 per cent of the population was under the age of 30, sometimes more, sometimes a little less. The under 30s were in the vanguard of all the Arab uprisings.

Arab boomers had grown up and found the world was not to their liking. They wanted their share of the national cake, but it was shrinking at a time when more people wanted a slice. The people at the top took their own huge cut, while the people further down the pecking order waited for their turn, which never came. By 2011, the boomers had had enough.

So far, the biggest winners are political Islamists who have won elections in the places where people have had the chance to vote. The mainly secular revolutionaries who had such a prominent role in events in 2011 have not been able to get organised, or to persuade big enough sections of the population that they understand their lives sufficiently or can make them better.

The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Ennahda in Tunisia and other branches of Arab political Islam say that they are committed to democracy. Plenty of secular activists just do not believe them. They fear that the real face of political Islam in the Middle East is that of Salafis, religious revivalists who are agitating for what they say would be a purer, more austere way to live.

A long road is ahead. Change has barely started in some places. In others, it’s revolutionary. One Egyptian secular activist described a new factor that could be crucial if ever a government, Islamist or secular, decides it wants to turn the clock back. He said: “We know the way to Tahrir Square.” Egyptians, and by extension other Arabs, had woken up, discovered that they could protest and reserved the right to do it again.

For a short time last year, it looked as if dominoes were tumbling as quickly as they did in Europe in 1989. Irreversible change is happening. But it’s clear now that it will not be easy after the years of authoritarian rule, and the accumulation of so many layers of economic, political and social challenges. The road ahead is long and hard, and it will be years, not months, before the Arabs and their neighbours get to the end of it.

01 Untitled © Minjae Lee 2012 (UCL Slade School of Fine Art)

02 Tagh’out © Ammar Bouras, 2011 multi-channel mixed-media installation, dimensions variable, courtesy of the artist

03 Wall1 © Ammar Bouras, courtesy of the artist

04– 05 School Girls © Shohreh Mehran 2009 ongoing series, oil on canvas, dimensions variable, courtesy of the artist

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A former correspondent for London Tonight and BBC Radio 1, Nazanine Moshiri (UCL Modern European Studies 1997) is East Africa correspondent for Al Jazeera English and was on the ground during the Tunisian uprising in 2011

At the beginning of 2011, journalists were actually banned from Tunisia, so I was sent along with my producer to get into the country by posing as tourists. By the time we got there, though, the government had lifted the ban, as President Ben Ali had just fled the country.

So we were there at the beginning of the revolution and I actually stayed on and covered it for about three months, before moving on to cover events at the border with Libya.

There had been protests on a small scale for years in the central parts of the country, where there is high unemployment among young people and graduates. But I think it was the way that the images of Mohamed Bouazizi – the street vendor who set himself alight – were picked up by both Facebook and Twitter, and then shown on Al Jazeera to millions of Tunisians and much of the Arab world, that probably acted as the main trigger for the revolution.

Also, the way the police and the security forces opened fire on protesters, and the footage of that being shown on Al Jazeera and online, provoked a further backlash. People had just had enough and so things got out of hand really quickly; I think the security forces didn’t know what to do or how to react.

The army, meanwhile, refused to shoot at the people, and, for me, that was a really interesting factor as well. I think if the army had stood with the security forces and Ben Ali, things would have been very different.

It was incredible to see a country actually in transition from revolution to democracy; seeing how difficult it is, but at the same time seeing people power, just how people coming out to the streets can influence events in such a way.

Tunisia had its first ever free and fair election back in October, which I witnessed. There are still some issues when it comes to freedom of speech and, obviously, there are a lot of problems with the economy that need to be resolved, but at least people are free, on the whole, and they no longer have to fear being arrested and tortured simply for expressing their opinions – which was happening a year ago.

As far as the wider Arab Spring goes, I think everyone felt that when the uprising in Tunisia happened – followed by a relatively smooth transition to democracy – that it was going to be an easy path for other Arab states.

However, Tunisia is very different to those countries; it’s small and doesn’t have the same geopolitical importance as Libya, Egypt and Syria. For them, the period of transition is likely to be much more complex and protracted.

“ It was incredible actually seeing a country in transition from revolution to democracy”

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“ Tahrir Square was a defining moment for me”

Egyptian national Noha Aboueldahab has worked for the UN Development Programme in Lebanon and, most recently, UNESCO in Qatar. After studying in London, Toronto and Paris, she is now an MPhil/PhD student in UCL Political Science and visited Tahrir Square during the Egyptian revolution

My research looks at the social, legal and political dynamics that led to the decision to prosecute the former leaders of Tunisia and Egypt, and the similar calls that were made in other countries that were hit by the Arab Spring.

When the Egyptian uprising erupted on 23 January 2011, I was in Qatar working, and watching the events unfold, I was just dying to go there. So I managed to convince my boss that I needed to go, and travelled to Egypt on 3 February.

I went with my husband, a Canadian journalist. As it turned out, that day was one of the worst for foreign journalists in Tahrir Square. There was a huge crackdown: they were getting taken away, beaten up in the middle of the desert and left there.

It was extremely tense, and with the neighbourhood watch points that had been set up you just couldn’t tell if people were pro- or anti-Mubarak. People were carrying swords, sticks and knives. I was terrified for Andrew, my husband. I told him: “Don’t say a word – I don’t want them to know you’re not Egyptian.”

So we just decided to stay in our hotel that night, and we got up very early the next morning to leave. We did, eventually, make it to Tahrir Square that day and that was a defining moment for me; it was a moment of pride that I had never experienced before as an Egyptian.

People from all walks of life were there: the farmers, the American University graduate students, with their Gucci bags and Prada sunglasses, and all sorts of businessmen, women and children. After seeing that, I knew that it was a genuine uprising that was engulfing pretty much the whole country.

Now, a lot of people are saying that the revolution has failed or is failing, that all of this was for nothing because of the current problems with the military. There is this sense of despair. But that upsets me because it wasn’t despair that ousted Mubarak, it was hope, it was this amazing energy from the people.

I am optimistic about lasting political change; I think it’s going to take a very long time and I think that’s normal. We haven’t known a healthy sort of political state in Egypt and so we are trying to discover it now. We’re trying to discover what makes sense for us and not transplant a democratic model from somewhere else.

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“ I saw President al-Assad, one-to-one, for an hour”

Professor Sir Jeffrey Jowell QC is Emeritus Professor of Public Law (UCL Laws) and Director of the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law. A leading authority on constitutional law, he has advised Libya and Bahrain, and made a secret visit to Syria last July, which made the front page of The Times in February after the emails of a presidential advisor were hacked

In June 2011, Wafic Saïd, a Syrian-Saudi Arabian businessman, visited President Bashar al-Assad and his wife in Damascus, as he was very keen that democratic change come about immediately. He was told they would like to change but they didn’t quite have the technical ability to draft the law.

So Saïd instructed his solicitor to find a person with experience in constitutional drafting and they came to me. I agreed on the condition that I could speak my mind to the president on the need for immediate cessation of violence, release of political prisoners and constitutional reform into a democratic system.

Due to legal professional privilege, I cannot tell you about the content of my conversation with the president, who I saw one-to-one for about 45 minutes to an hour, but the aim of my visit was to draft an electoral law that broke the monopoly of the Ba’ath party and set up a multi-party democracy with election monitoring and so on. That law went through the Syrian Parliament last August and passed by referendum in February. The recent elections were held under its authority.

When it came to advising the new regime in Libya, it was through an approach made to the Bingham Centre by the Libyan Progress Initiative, a group of mainly Libyan exiles with very strong connections both to the country’s transitional council and the interim government.

All they asked us for was a paper on possible constitutional models for Libya. They said they were in a similar position to South Africa after the end of Apartheid; namely, that they could choose their system, be it presidential, parliamentary, proportional representation, an independent judiciary and so on. We drew on many democratic models, and in particular on constitutions such as Iraq, Tunisia and the Maldives, to the extent that they now seek to reconcile Sharia law with the constitution’s bill of rights.

Whether they accept our paper is for them; we’re simply advising, but at least what we’ve been able to do is put before them more options than they otherwise might have had, from which to choose their own solutions to these problems.

Bahrain was completely different. Following the riots there in February 2011 and the issue of the doctors who were apparently tortured and then jailed, the government set up an International Committee of Enquiry, headed by a very distinguished Arab jurist, Professor Mahmoud Cherif Bassiouni.

The committee made a number of recommendations as to how to deal with these issues, in accordance with international standards of human rights and the rule of law.

The King of Bahrain accepted these, but once again, advice was needed on how to implement them. So they asked Sir Daniel Bethlehem, the immediately previous head legal advisor for the Foreign Office, and me to form a team, and we went out there at the end of December.

We met all the different parties and, over the past few months, have been drafting decrees that the King has issued, seeking to bring about the rule of law; an independent judiciary; and, in particular, accountability from the police, the army and the security services for their actions and to make sure that they abide by the highest international standards of human rights.

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“Infrastructure is a game-changer”

Dr Nasser Saidi (MSc Economics 1974) is the Chief Economist of the Dubai International Financial Centre. He was Minister of Economy and Trade and Minister of Industry of Lebanon (1998–2000)

The phrase Arab Spring is a misnomer – a Eurocentric term based on a rosy picture of rebirth that is at odds with the state of flux that currently characterises the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

I prefer the term Arab Firestorm to describe the turmoil and transformation that has swept the region – provoked by the political, social and demographic, and economic vulnerabilities that have persisted for decades. Although it started in Tunisia, the firestorm could have happened in any MENA state: all Arab countries have these vulnerabilities, albeit at different degrees.

Successful examples of political transition usually need two to three years to assemble a coherent policy for attracting private sector and foreign investment. We’re still midway through that period and many issues have never been discussed before, such as the role of religion and how this relates to the type of constitution that will be adopted (secular versus Sharia); the role of the state; and who controls the military and their role.

My fear is that deteriorating economic circumstances will roll back what we have already – privatisation, tourism and the opening up of trade. Meanwhile, reform and robust institutions are desperately needed, yet there is an absence of leadership: the Arab League is deeply flawed and unfit for purpose.

Europe helped the transition of former USSR countries following the fall of the Berlin Wall and it needs to do the same in the Arab world, in spite of the current Eurozone deadlock.

In particular, the issues of labour policy and immigration are paramount. The European recession will mean lower demand for North African exports and fewer job opportunities for immigrants which, in turn, will mean greater North African unemployment. So, what will EU policy be? Opening up of trade is needed, but again the recession and political deadlock over the euro prevents this.

Liquidity is already available in the Arab world: management and know-how are what are needed. That is why I believe that an Arab Bank for Reconstruction and Development (ABRD) should be set up, backed by Europe. It would be a regional financing institution that would focus on infrastructure and development, and would have a strong emphasis on private sector participation.

Another priority must be the Arab-Israeli conflict. It is a cancer that currently poisons relations with Europe and the US, and without addressing or resolving it, Europe will be accused of double standards.

As political change happens across the Arab world, the foreign policy agenda will loom large. So, whichever government gains power in Egypt, Palestine will be a key issue, with significant implications for Israel.

Equally, the strength of the Muslim Brotherhood has taken many people by surprise and their lack of political experience worries the Arab business community. What policy will emerge from these relatively untested politicians? Uncertainty equals less investment.

Infrastructure is a game-changer for me – this is where efforts need to be directed, especially with Egypt. Without it, foreign investment will not come. So any new government needs to focus on that.

Ultimately, a historic opportunity, such as this, is unprecedented. We’ve had revolts and coups many times before; truly, this is the first time where it is region-wide. MENA’s demographic, financial and natural resources must be harnessed, and leadership and vision will be key.

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I’ve been living a double life for the past 18 months. In one half, I am a professor of physics at UCL, teaching students and, lately, being head of department. In the other half, I coordinate a large, international group of scientists working on the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), at the CERN particle physics laboratory in Geneva.

At CERN, in a 27km-long underground tunnel, protons are colliding head-on at the highest energies ever achieved (as I write, we have just started up again at a new record energy). Many different particles are produced in these collisions, and the ATLAS detector records as much information about them as possible. We use this information to test our understanding of the fundamental forces and smallest constituents of nature – and, of course, to look for surprises!

CERN is the only place in the world where such studies can be done at present. Scientists and engineers from all over the world work there. On a global scale the commute from London is practically negligible (my co-convener travels from Harvard).

About 30 people from UCL – students, engineers, postdocs and academics – work on ATLAS. Of course, much can be done remotely (after all, the World Wide Web was invented at CERN for precisely this purpose), but sometimes you really need to be there, especially as a coordinator.

My job is to make sure the jigsaw of skills and interests across the collaboration result in coherent scientific papers. Not too different from the time when we were building the detector – significant pieces of hardware, electronics and code came from UCL,

My double life

Professor Jon Butterworth (UCL Physics & Astronomy) has been dividing his time between UCL and coordinating the ATLAS experiment at the CERN particle physics laboratory, Geneva. UCL People found out more about his involvement

Inside storyJon Butterworth

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and it all had to come together with contributions from all over the world to make the experiment work.

The group I coordinate is primarily interested in measuring what happens in the collisions, and seeing whether it is what we expected. There are groups dedicated to searching for the unexpected, for new particles, and in particular for the Higgs boson. We know that at the energies the LHC is producing, two fundamental forces of nature – electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force – come together. At the LHC they look similar, whereas at everyday energies they are very different. We know that the mass of the ‘bosons’ – particles that carry the forces – is responsible for this behaviour, and we think the Higgs boson may be the way the particles get this mass. By the end of this year

we should know whether that is correct, or just another theory to add to the scrapheap of neat ideas that don’t agree with experimental data.

It is a privilege to be involved in an experiment so exciting that my parents have seen it on the news. These are great days for physics, and I hope the joy of science in general spreads because of it.

If you want to follow the story over the next year of discovery, some of it at least will be here: www.guardian.co.uk/science/life-and-physics where I write for the Guardian.

An ATLAS event with two photons. The photons are indicated by the clusters of energy shown in green.

ATLAS Experiment © 2012 CERN

At the time of going to press, LHC scientists claimed the discovery of a new particle consistent with the Higgs boson. Professor Butterworth commented: “We don’t know exactly what we’ve discovered but it’s fundamental, new and exciting, and it looks like the Higgs boson. We still need to see that it does the complete job that the Higgs is there for, which is to give all fundamental particles mass. I feel absolutely elated!”

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Affirming access for all

Following changes to higher education, UCL students starting in 2012 will face unprecedented tuition fees of £9,000. However, UCL is putting measures in place to ensure that money is not a barrier to entry

By Sue Littlemore & Ben Stevens

As Aaron Porter walked past Millbank Tower in Westminster on 10 November 2010 he faced a choice. He could try to calm the immediate situation or he could hurry to the television studios to answer the growing number of calls for his comments as then-President of the National Union of Students.

An estimated 50,000 people had turned out to march through London against the coalition’s decision to triple university fees. “The majority of people were not protesting for themselves,” says Aaron Porter. “The university students were protesting for future generations.”

By the afternoon, the focus was as much on the 200 or so who had smashed windows to break into Conservative Party headquarters in Millbank Tower, as on fees. Even so, watching the news later that evening, Dr Ruth Siddall, UCL’s Dean of Students (Welfare), was struck by the school-age protesters: “People that young don’t really have an accurate concept of money and I remember thinking that £9,000 a year to them must seem absolutely astronomical.”

The government’s decision to allow universities to raise annual fees to a maximum of £9,000 was coupled with drastic cuts to public money for higher education teaching. From 2012, UCL will receive no government teaching funding for any undergraduate courses in Arts & Humanities, Social & Historical Sciences (except Archaeology), Laws, Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment, Slavonic & East European Studies, Mathematics, Statistics, Psychology and Computer Science.

Faced with those cuts, the determination to maintain outstanding teaching and facilities for undergraduates was a significant factor in UCL’s decision to set fees at £9,000 a year. The system allows students to borrow that money and delay

For information on how to fund a scholarship or bursary, please contact:

Rosie Meredith Head of Leadership & Legacy Giving UCL, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT r.meredith@ucl.ac.uk +44 (0)20 3108 3827

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Scarlett Milligan (UCL Laws) Flesch Bursary recipient

Studying law at UCL is fantastic. I love the university’s sense of openness and the close-knit campus feel it has, despite being in central London.

I’ve wanted to be a barrister from a ridiculously early age. It requires a three-year degree, one year of Bar training and a one-year pupillage, but I’m committed for the long haul.

After being offered a place to study here, I was sent information on bursaries and scholarships, so applied for one. I left home in the final year of my A levels, so I’m used to being self-sufficient – but it was important for me that it was not a sympathy vote.

I would still have come to UCL without the scholarship, but I would now be facing colossal debt and having to pursue a job on the side. If you know what you want, go for it. Money and time haven’t stopped me so far, so why now?

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Fatima Yusuf (UCL Medical School) Rose Bursary recipient

I’m studying for a six-year medical degree. The first three years are about giving you a firm scientific grounding in medicine. We do dissections, which really help you to visualise what you’re learning. I was apprehensive at first, but I’m not too squeamish so it’s fine – apart from the smell!

I was born in Somalia, but came to Britain when I was three and grew up in north London. I went to Somalia in 2005, which gave me my first glimpse of a developing country with no healthcare system and it made me realise the importance of doctors.

I get no financial assistance from my parents because I’m the eldest and I’ve got loads of siblings. This bursary takes the worry away from having to take out loans.

Finance was a huge worry when I was applying to uni, but the drive to be a doctor was even stronger, so I wasn’t going to let it stand in my way.

Once I’m qualified, I want to work in London and perhaps help out in developing countries during the holidays.

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repayments until their post-graduation earnings exceed £21,000. Even so, some commentators fear that the new costs will put many students off.

So far, applications to UCL for this autumn have held up. Nevertheless, Professor Anthony Smith, UCL’s Vice-Provost (Education), makes no assumptions: “Intuitively, it seems students must be thinking each year that they will be accumulating quite significant debt, but actually we have no idea what impact that will have on student behaviour – it’s futurology.”

Perhaps more certain is the sense spreading across higher education that as students pay more they will expect more. Rafts of new measures sharply focused on enhancing the UCL student experience reflect that. They include a review of how undergraduates are taught, assessed, receive feedback and achieve employability; improvements to accommodation and other buildings; significant investment in the careers service, with greater involvement from alumni; and a new emphasis on enterprise, entrepreneurial activities and the spread of entrepreneurship training.

A brand new student centre will also be built on a vacant site next to the Bloomsbury Theatre and will contain all key student services such as registration and student welfare, as well as rehearsal rooms and learning and social spaces.

An equally pressing challenge is to ensure higher fees and debt don’t hamper UCL’s progress towards admitting students from a broader range of backgrounds. All universities setting fees higher than £6,000 must reach an Access Agreement with the independent watchdog, the Office for Fair Access. Under its plan, UCL will spend almost a third of its additional fee income on measures to increase applications and enrolments from both state educated pupils and from youngsters in neighbourhoods where there is little or no habit of going to university.

Last year, UCL confirmed it hadn’t met its latest targets to improve its social mix, although there had been progress, and it’s hoped that an updated strategy will keep that up. Eventually, UCL will be spending £1.2 million annually on a range of outreach activities designed to raise pupils’ attainment and aspirations, and £7 million a year on cash bursaries to support students from less affluent homes.

Some universities have reduced their fees for poorer students, but UCL decided to provide cash to help undergraduates with their living costs as soon as they start their studies. As Professor Smith explains:“We are offering students bursaries, as against fee waivers, because we feel it’s important students have that

financial support while they’re studying and not just to reduce debt on graduation.”

The encouraging news is that many alumni are willing to support students financially. Vice Chairman of Barclays Cyrus Ardalan (UCL Economics 1972) attributes his success in part to UCL and is delighted to fund a postgraduate bursary, the Ardalan Scholarship. “I had a fantastic experience at UCL and it’s a way of giving back. I don’t expect anything out of it myself, but if it gives someone an education that they wouldn’t otherwise get, if I can make a difference to someone’s life and they go on to contribute to society, then that makes me very happy.”

“If I can make a difference to someone’s life and they go on to contribute to society, then that makes me very happy”

He believes the new funding arrangements mean that the culture of giving among UK alumni will grow. “In America, it’s pretty standard behaviour for alumni to give back to their universities. Historically, in the UK, universities were completely funded by the government so there was no need to think in those terms. Now the world has changed and I feel it is appropriate to consider giving something back.”

Sepideh Hajisoltani (UCL Bartlett 2011) was the first recipient of the Ardalan Scholarship while she studied for her MSc in Building & Urban Design in Development. “It provided me with a wonderful, life-changing experience at UCL,” she says. “The only way I can express my gratitude would be to do the same thing for another student in the future.”

Most UCL alumni will have enjoyed an era where students received grants and paid no fees. Most people agree that those days are gone. “I had the benefit of my higher education entirely funded by the state and so will most of our alumni,” says Professor Anthony Smith. “We need to be clear how much it’s changed and how finance has moved from the state to the individual. I suspect many of us feel uncomfortable about that but that is what has happened. We need to declare, ‘It’s so different now.’”

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Erion Thaci (UCL Bartlett) Rose Bursary recipient

My sister and I are the first members of our family to go to university. At college in Redcar, I studied plumbing, but I had an inspiring tutor who convinced me to aim higher.

So, I studied for a BTEC National Diploma in Construction and a Plumbing Technical Certificate Level Three simultaneously and then took his advice to move away from the North East and aim for the best universities.

I’m now studying for the BSc Project Management for Construction degree at the UCL Bartlett. The degree incorporates subjects such as economics, management and building technology, which allows a great breadth of knowledge to be gained.

Originally, my ambition was to project manage complex construction projects; however, studying economics as a module has made me rethink my future career. It’s really fascinating looking at a project from a developer’s point of view.

Getting a bursary is unbelievable, and it would be very difficult to study in London without one: Student Finance England loans would only cover accommodation costs. I’m in a shared room at the moment, which makes it cheaper, but next year I’ll be paying around £140 per week. You can rent a whole four-bedroom house in Redcar for that!

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Elmira Zarrabi (UCL Bartlett) Ardalan Scholarship recipient

The Sustainable Urbanism Master’s programme at the UCL Bartlett School of Planning is a new course – this is only the second year that it has been running – and only a handful of universities offer it across the world.

It’s even better than I expected and is extremely interdisciplinary – the other students and my tutors all have very diverse backgrounds and interests.

I’m from Tehran originally and we have quite a problem with pollution. The built environment plays a big part in this, and my course will give me the skills to start tackling problems like these.

My ambition is to work in London, maybe through an internship, and then perhaps return to Tehran to run a small practice or to join a good firm.

In Iran, I didn’t have to pay tuition fees, so studying in the UK was really expensive for me and receiving a scholarship was extremely important. Without it, studying this course would have remained just a dream.

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TurkmenistanIn August 2011, three volunteer conservators from Heritage Without Borders (HWB) embarked on a project at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Ancient Merv, Turkmenistan. HWB is a social enterprise established at UCL by heritage professionals and students. It aims to assist the many projects, particularly in the developing world, where conservation and heritage skills are needed but are not accessible or affordable. The aims of the Ancient Merv project are to conserve small finds from past years’ excavations; train local graduates and museum staff in basic conservation skills; assess future conservation needs in Turkmenistan’s museums; pilot the HWB model; and test methodology and practicalities. In recognition of the volunteers’ work, HWB was shortlisted in the international category of the Museums+Heritage Awards 2012.

The galleryUCL around the world

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GreeceUCL President & Provost Professor Malcolm Grant and the British Ambassador Dr David Landsman hosted an alumni reception for more than 300 alumni at the British Embassy in Athens on 25 April 2012. PhD student Ifigeneia Giannadaki (UCL Greek & Latin) explained how a scholarship enabled her to pursue postgraduate study at UCL; Eugenia Arsenis (UCL Philosophy 1999) entertained guests with traditional Greek piano music; and there was a screening of a short film entitled I was Achilles by PhD student Joyce Datiles (UCL Greek & Latin).

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AustraliaTwelve students donned their mortarboards for the first UCL graduation ceremony in Australia, the first ceremony in UCL’s history to be held outside England. UCL established its first international campus, the School of Energy & Resources, in April 2010 and offers a Master of Science in Energy & Resources (MSc), as well as a Graduate Diploma, Graduate Certificate, PhD and executive education. It has recently received regulatory approval to double its student intake and launch 10 new courses in response to industry demand. The UCL International Energy Policy Institute has also recently opened with support from BHP Billiton, to drive research into the economic, legal, environmental, technological and cultural issues faced by the resources sector.

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FranceProfessor Michael Worton, UCL Vice-Provost (International) and Fielden Professor of French Language, was presented with the prestigious Légion d’honneur – usually reserved for French nationals – for his contribution to the development of French study in the UK and educational collaboration between the two countries. One hundred and fifty members of the UCL community were invited to the Hôtel de Matignon as guests of Prime Minister M François Fillon and Mme Penelope Fillon (UCL French 1977) for the ceremony of investiture and a celebration of the relationship between UCL and France. Guests were given an exclusive opportunity to explore items from UCL’s collections, with curators on hand to discuss the history of each item.

I am extremely grateful to have the opportunity to pursue my childhood dream of being a scientist, thanks to the legacy gift of a UCL Chemistry alumna.

Working in the electrochemistry group for my final year project made me realise this was research I really wanted to be part of.

My inspiration comes from my supervisor, Dr Daren Caruana; his passion and enthusiasm is infectious, and the recognition from world-leading scientists in this field for UCL research serves as continual motivation.

I feel very lucky to be part of such a friendly, approachable and hard-working family here at UCL.

By leaving a gift in your will to UCL you have the chance to change someone’s life and give a world-leading research institute a precious tool. This is your way of continuing to contribute to both science and the UCL community. I will always be thankful for the thoughtfulness of the individual who has undoubtedly helped me to pursue my career.

Atif Elahi PhD student

To find out more about Atif and what ideas your legacy could spark, please visit www.ucl.ac.uk/makeyourmark/legacy or contact:

Ruth Coutinho Deputy Head of Legacy Giving UCL Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT r.coutinho@ucl.ac.uk +44 (0)20 3108 3822

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Create a spark – consider a legacy to UCL

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What has been your most memorable experience at UCL? Waking on a Sunday morning in 1989 to hear the first item on the BBC news that Margaret Thatcher had banned public funding of our research grant application to understand, through a national survey, the behaviours that transmit HIV.

What has been your most fulfilling research trip? To San Francisco, Atlanta and New York in 1986 with a King’s Fund Travelling Fellowship to learn about the early impacts of the AIDS epidemic. It set up friendships and research collaborations that have lasted more than 25 years.

What is your most treasured possession? My arrowheads from the Yanomami tribe in Venezuela and my original copy of the Black report on inequalities in health.

What is your favourite journey? A sleeper train with my family to almost anywhere, provided that there is a fine picnic en route, and sunshine and good coffee on arrival.

What is your most marked characteristic? Talking too much.

What is it that you most dislike? Pomposity and hazelnuts.

Which talent would you most like to have? Performance skills. I was seriously in need of them during my eight minutes of stand-up at UCL Bright Club, which was exhilarating and terrifying in equal measure.

If you could live anywhere, where would you choose? A Bartlett-designed eco-house on Sydney Harbour transported to a south-facing location in London with a microclimate to match.

What do you most value in your friends? Tolerance and affection.

Who is your favourite hero of fiction? Úrsula Iguarán in One Hundred Years of Solitude. Not a hero, but the backbone of an extraordinary novel, which seemed an even better read in a hammock on the Orinoco.

Which living person do you most admire? I am not good on personality cults because most real achievements cannot be attributed to one person alone.

What makes you laugh? Everything on a good day and nothing on a bad one. And not let’s forget Maggie Smith.

What achievement are you most proud of? Recording the soundtrack to the film 1492: Conquest of Paradise at Abbey Road studios as a member of the English Chamber Choir. The truth, of course, is my children.

www.ucl.ac.uk/global-health

Professor Anne Johnson, Co-director of UCL Institute for Global Health and Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology Having enrolled at the Middlesex Hospital Medical School in 1985, Professor Johnson has been at UCL ever since

Campus Q&A

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With its sponsorship of the new UCL Academy, the university is taking the lead in an exciting new era of engagement with secondary education

By Ben Stevens

A school of opportunityIn education, there can be few things more exciting than designing a school from scratch, establishing its vision, determining its curriculum and designing the building itself.

This is exactly what UCL is doing by sponsoring the UCL Academy, a non-selective, mixed state school in Swiss Cottage, north London, which opens in autumn 2012. UCL is the only university in the country to have taken the step of becoming the sole sponsor of an academy because it believes that in sharing facilities, expertise and providing support to teachers and pupils, it can bring about a fundamental improvement in the educational experience of pupils in the school and beyond.

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The Academy will specialise in maths and science, and rethink both the traditional curriculum and classroom design. The building will have ‘superstudios’, large open teaching spaces that will enable role-playing, performance and project work, fuelling more imaginative teaching. It will also boast state-of-the-art science laboratories and a demonstration theatre for interactive lectures, experiments and talks by visiting UCL academics.

Such bold vision is clearly striking a chord with parents as the Academy is already oversubscribed: 1,065 applications were made for 180 places in Year 7 and 250 applications for 125 places in Year 12.

Professor Michael Worton, UCL’s Vice-Provost (International), has been the driving force behind the project since its inception. “We want the school to transform the lives of all its pupils and to help transform the lives of the entire community around it. We will be extending the traditional curriculum, promoting interdisciplinary problem-solving and applied learning, thereby preparing our pupils for the demands of the complex 21st century.

“For this reason, we have put our commitment to education for global citizenship right at the heart of the life of the Academy. In practice, this means shaping the students’ personal and social development, as well as their intellectual growth. So all pupils will be expected to take part in an extended day with compulsory after-school social, sporting and cultural activities as well as academic classes.”

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01–02 Construction of the UCL Academy

03 Professor Michael Worton, UCL Vice-Provost (International)

04 UCL Academy © Penoyre & Prasad architects

05 Professor David Price, UCL Vice-Provost (Research)

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In line with this global citizenship agenda, all students, sixth-formers and staff will learn Mandarin together. Meanwhile, the Year 7 students will be taught using the International Middle Years curriculum – which is used in British schools around the world – giving them a direct link with their peers in, for example, Beijing, Cape Town or Italy.

Professor David Price, UCL Vice-Provost (Research), a former Governor of another Camden school, is the first Chair of Governors of the UCL Academy.

“I am committed to ensuring that the school will provide an outstanding educational experience for Camden students,” he says, “and that students will get the most out of a close relationship with London’s global university. My ambition is that this relationship will develop new models for collaboration between schools and universities, to the benefit of both parties.”

Adele Biss (UCL Economics 1967), a UCL Council member for nine years, lives near the Academy and is in no doubt about the benefits that it will have for Camden. “It’s wonderful. A neighbourhood state secondary school where children from all backgrounds will get an excellent education – that didn’t exist when I was looking for a school for my son.”

“Fears about the Academy becoming a preserve of the middle class are unfounded,” she says. “This is a very diverse area with strong liberal traditions rather like UCL. The excellent fee-paying schools close by will now be challenged by a school where young people regardless of family fortune will have access to an outstanding state education – breaking social, academic and confidence barriers.”

“ The excellent fee-paying schools close by will now be challenged by a school where young people regardless of family fortune will have access to an outstanding state education”

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Beyond the classroom

The UCL Academy wants to enhance the education that it offers to its students through an exciting range of extracurricular activities such as drama, music lessons and cultural visits.

If you’re interested in helping these programmes or contributing to hardship funds for those students unable to participate, please contact Fiona Duffy, Head of Principal Gifts on: +44 (0)20 3108 3821 or f.duffy@ucl.ac.uk

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What was it that appealed to you about this role? There was a unique appeal for anyone who’s been involved in a leadership role in schools to have the opportunity to start a new school from scratch and be given a brand new building and a blank piece of paper – to recruit all your own staff and students and design the curriculum.

I thought having UCL as a sponsor created a very special and exciting opportunity.

How will the Academy fit into Camden’s current family of secondary schools? There’s a firm commitment from UCL, as the sponsor, to work with Camden as a local authority, so that we supplement and complement the provision.

We hope to be able to add a unique dimension: we’ll be the only academy, so far, in Camden and the responsibility on our shoulders is to be able to offer to that community of schools the benefits of being part of a university-sponsored academy.

What involvement will UCL academics and students have with the school? The Academy has been designed with input from academics, particularly in relation to the sorts of resources and learning spaces it will have.

We’re looking to develop relationships with undergrads and postgrads, perhaps mentoring and supporting our students, both within a subject and in more general terms.

We’re not going to be a drain on resources, and we would hope to contribute to the university in the sense that there are lots of departments that have a relationship with education in schools. We will be a test bed – a place where ideas can be developed and supported.

There’s an interesting aspiration for the students “to contribute to decision-making within the Academy”. How will this work? In good schools, when students feel part of the community, they have a sense that their views are valued. They understand that they can make a significant difference and contribution, but they also understand that, in the relative hierarchy of judgements, they can’t redesign absolutely everything, but they’ve got a sense of belonging and engagement.

In the Academy, that is what we’ll be working towards. When we interviewed and appointed the Vice-Principal and Assistant Principals, we used primary schoolchildren who will be the Year 6s coming into Year 7, and they were very tough, insightful interviewers.

There has been a fair degree of opposition to academies, and this one in particular. Do you understand why people have been concerned? Having been at a school in an authority that had two failing schools, which converted to academy status, I’ve seen from the inside the impact this can have and can therefore understand why there’s been some opposition.

If academies can really be seen to make a difference to a locality, then you can overcome some of people’s concerns. It is about making sure that it serves a community. It’s not about becoming elitist, but actually feeding into what’s needed in an area. And that’s certainly a commitment that UCL has made to Camden for this academy.

What difference do you want to have made in five years’ time? I think I want to be able to demonstrate that a large London comprehensive can be organised in a different sort of way, and to show that children’s engagement in their own learning enables them to thrive.

Q&A with Geraldine Davies, Principal of UCL Academy

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06 UCL Academy demonstration theatre © Penoyre & Prasad architects

07 Geraldine Davies, Principal of UCL Academy

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This Learning Life UCL provides plenty of opportunities for you to continue learning: you could sample one of UCL’s popular Lunch Hour Lectures, pursue a continuing professional development (CPD) course in your field, learn a new language or undertake a short foundation course in fine art. To help you choose, we have highlighted a selection.

UCL Language Centre Evening Classes

UCL alumni are entitled to discounts on evening courses in more than 15 foreign languages in addition to a 50% reduction on self-access fees, meaning that three months’ use is only £30.

www.ucl.ac.uk/language-centre

Slade Summer School and Short Courses

The programme includes a unique 10-week Summer School Foundation in Fine Art and a range of Summer School short courses, including one- and two-week courses in fine art. The Slade offers evening, Saturday and Easter short courses.

www.ucl.ac.uk/slade/shortcourses

School of Life & Medical Sciences CPD Courses

The School of Life & Medical Sciences offers a wide variety of continued professional development courses designed to stimulate and challenge participants.

www.ucl.ac.uk/slms/cpd

UCL Laws CPD Courses

UCL Laws has a thriving continuing legal education section that offers many free public events and fee-paying events, providing CPD hours for those who attend. In addition, all UCL Laws fee-paying events (excluding degree programmes) offer a discount to alumni.

www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/events/courses.shtml?cpd

Eastman Dentistry CPD Courses

UCL Eastman CPD encourages a structured and progressive approach to lifelong learning. It provides a comprehensive range of evidence-based educational activities to challenge and stimulate practitioners, specialists, consultants and all members of the dental team, from qualification to retirement.

www.ucl.ac.uk/eastman/cpd

Guest Lectures and Events at UCL Advances

Advances is UCL’s centre for entrepreneurship and business interaction at UCL. It runs a series of guest lectures and CPD certified events that are open to the public.

www.ucl.ac.uk/advances/business/training

Language Evening Classes at SSEES

The language unit at SSEES offers evening courses in 17 Slavonic and East European languages, with particular emphasis on spoken communication. Our evening course students are also given free access to the nationally renowned SSEES Library for the duration of their course. UCL alumni are entitled to discounted course fees.

www.ssees.ucl.ac.uk/eveningcourses

Lunch Hour Lectures

UCL’s Lunch Hour Lectures (LHL) are an opportunity to sample the exceptional research work taking place at the university. Lectures can also be watched from seven days after the event on the LHL website, via our LHL YouTube channel, or downloaded from iTunes U.

www.ucl.ac.uk/lhl

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Visionary research: the fight against eye disease The UCL Institute of Ophthalmology was awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize in November 2011 for its outstanding research, using stem cells and gene therapy in the fight against eye problems such as retinal and corneal disease and glaucoma

If, a decade ago, you’d had to pick a hot speciality in medicine, ophthalmology – the medical science that covers the eye and its diseases – is unlikely to have made the long list, let alone your short one. But today, ophthalmology is a leading area of research. And at the heart of this remarkable turnaround is UCL’s Institute of Ophthalmology.

While you might not be aware that in 2011 the institute was awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize in recognition of “outstanding excellence”, you can hardly fail to have seen some of the headlines generated by its research. In January, for instance, the story of a 24-year-old man with a form of inherited macular degeneration hit the media. He was taking part in an institute trial, a European first, of experimental stem cell retinal transplantation. Further breakthroughs in the experimental replacement of photoreceptors led to a Nature publication from Professor Ali’s group in May this year.

The institute is also responsible for a series of breakthroughs in gene therapy for blindness. The first trial for inherited retinal degeneration made headlines around the world in 2008. Institute investigators are currently involved in a trial to treat an inherited form of blindness called choroideraemia in which a virus, genetically engineered to carry the gene needed for sight, is injected into the eye.

Stem cell transplantation and gene therapy have been on the brink of breakthrough for a very long time – certainly I have been reporting on both for more than a decade now – but neither

have yet delivered their promise. So how has a small institute succeeded where so many others across the globe have failed?

“It’s down to a combination of reasons,” says the institute’s Director, Professor Phil Luthert. First on his list is partnerships, including those with Moorfields Eye Hospital, UCL and, more surprisingly perhaps, with industry.

Moorfields has a world-class reputation and attracts patients from around the globe. It has a symbiotic relationship with the institute, allowing multi-disciplinary collaborations between researchers and clinicians together with access to its rich and diverse patient base.

Then there is the relationship with UCL. The institute now sits within UCL’s Faculty of Brain Sciences, which draws together research activity across the brain sciences and includes the Institutes of Cognitive Neuroscience and Neurology and the Ear Institute. It’s a sensory system full house, which maximises collaboration across body systems that are distinct yet share much, energising and enriching all of them. The institute’s role also fits perfectly with UCL’s global mission, working as it does with diseases that affect so many worldwide.

The Faculty of Brain Sciences is relatively new to UCL and brings together expertise at the forefront of neurology, ophthalmology, audiology, cognitive neuroscience and mental health sciences. Combining these related areas allows an integrative approach to the study of mind and brain by focusing on the determinants of human perception, cognition, emotion

By Vivienne Parry (UCL Zoology 1978)

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“ The institute’s partnership with industry is both complex and sophisticated, and widely acknowledged as a model of ‘how to make things happen’”

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01 Professors Phil Luthert (right) and Peng Tee Khaw

02,04 A unique combination of people and partnerships allow the institute to punch above its weight

03 Detail of the institute interior

05 Retina by Dr Freya Mowat (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology)

and behaviour. Faculty Dean Professor Alan Thompson says: “We are recognised as world leaders in our fields and are well placed to lead research into such critically important areas as dementia, mental health and the sensory systems (vision and hearing). Our work attracts top-flight staff and students from around the globe.”

The institute’s partnership with industry is both complex and sophisticated, and widely acknowledged as a model of ‘how to make things happen’. Research is rapidly converted from concept to patient benefit in the form of new medicines and treatments. Professor Luthert describes the institute’s relationship with companies such as GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer as ‘‘fantastically exciting’’, and one in which the exchange of ideas genuinely works both ways.

Next on Phil Luthert’s list of reasons for success is people. “The institute has a collection of extraordinary intellects,” agrees Professor Thompson, “and a history of very focused, independently-minded researchers.”

Alongside partnerships and people, come two further considerations. First, biology. The eye is a perfect organ for research, being both contained and accessible. Now add a dash of luck: “We were in the right place at the right time,” says Luthert, “as disorders previously seen as intractable became treatable.” It’s not hard to see why Moorfields and the institute scooped £26.5 million from the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) last year for a national Biomedical Research Centre – one of only 11 nationally.

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UCL & Moorfields

Moorfields Hospital is planning to build new facilities that will incorporate the Institute of Ophthalmology, bringing a new vision of patient care and research under one roof.

If you’re interested in helping to fund these facilities and advancing the institute’s exciting work, please contact:

Fiona Duffy, Head of Principal Gifts UCL, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT f.duffy@ucl.ac.uk +44 (0)20 3108 3821

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A perfect illustration of the way that the institute works can be seen in its research into the causes and treatment of glaucoma, an eye disease that is the second most common cause of blindness worldwide after cataracts, affecting some 70 million people, seven million of whom are blind. Glaucoma is, in fact, a range of diseases in which pressure on the optic nerve leads first to loss of visual field, and then to blindness. We think of it as an older person’s disease, but globally it also affects younger people and can be very aggressive.

Eye drops are the mainstay of treatment, but in some cases they are not effective and the next step is delicate surgery requiring high levels of expertise and follow up. Peng Tee Khaw is Professor of Glaucoma and Ocular Healing and Director of the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre. His journey into the causes of glaucoma began when he was faced with a little girl of four who had the disease: “We couldn’t do anything for her and she went blind due to scarring blocking all the drainage channels we made.” It was the beginning of a life-long passion to beat the condition.

He has developed improved, safer surgical techniques for the disease that are now used worldwide, and are appropriate to the developing world where need is most urgent. The surgery aims

to lower pressure in the eyeball by increasing drainage in the eye but it is bedevilled by scarring, which itself causes major problems.

Indeed, scarring is a component of most blinding eye diseases. Professor Khaw’s research focuses on ways to neutralise scarring. He has moved from a world-first demonstration of how scarring is prevented with a short, single treatment of 5-fluorouracil (an inexpensive anticancer agent), through successful international trials, using novel drug delivery methods to create single application micro tablets to prevent ocular scarring. And this is where the relationship with pharmaceutical companies is essential in helping to develop this new generation of medicines from lab to bedside.

Glaucoma detection is a familiar part of eye tests in developed countries, but this approach is reliant on expensive equipment. With Moorfields, a simple laptop system for motion detection has been developed to help bring prevention to a global population.

The final word on the institute’s mission surely belongs to Professor Khaw. “We have to and will continue to innovate and change things – our patients need it.”

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Art from the ground up

Spartacus Chetwynd (UCL Anthropology & History 1995, Slade School of Fine Art 2000) has been shortlisted for the Turner Prize 2012. UCL People looks at her work and that of the many Slade artists who have previously been nominated for, and won, the prize

Spartacus Chetwynd has been nominated for her play Odd Man Out held at Sadie Coles HQ, Mayfair, in May 2011 – the first time that a performance has been shortlisted. The five-hour shows revolved around ideas of democracy, the right to vote and the disincentive to engage in politics.

Created with the aim of enlivening bored Londoners, giant photocopies were employed as barriers to divide the gallery into alternative routes, with voting booths at the start of the exhibition leading through to different performances. Visitors were invited to place a vote, and their choices informed the outcome of their circumstance.By Fiona Davidson

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In one area, there was an oracle. An alternative route led via an inflatable slide to the downstairs gallery, where visitors encountered a play based on Doris Lessing’s The Grass is Singing. This one-woman mime drama was a kind of punishment or purgatory. Another route led to a giant monster in a dark setting, amid a sea of bin liners and charred limbs. Nearby, once they had made it across the Dantescape, the audience could find a puppet re-enactment of Jesus and Barabas being offered to the multitude.

“The coordinated action of the puppeteers creates a symbol of inter-reliance and cooperation,” says Spartacus. “Embedded within this presentation of democratic power is an analogy for society and the body politic: social cohesion, which does not occur through democracy, is made evident through the power of the puppet! From the voting booths onwards, Odd Man Out seeks to be demonstrative, pushy and preachy, much like the theatrical Christian ‘Hell Houses’ of the American south that persuade an individual to turn to Christianity. Odd Man Out squishes and squeezes non-conformism and free-thinking out of its audience.”

Spartacus changed her name in 2006 “to remind people that they have a choice”, and her decision may not be permanent: “My name change annoys people. The moment it stops annoying people, I will rename myself Marvin Gaye Chetwynd.” She describes her approach to making art as “unbridled enthusiasm”. For each work, she strives to immerse herself in the worlds of her characters, honouring their passions and contributions with her own.

This is reflected in the bricolage way that Spartacus works – “impatiently putting things together” – her objects are handmade to illustrate how the earnest, almost absurd, efforts of one person can have real and meaningful consequences. She uses any materials that come to hand; the outfits are sewn from cloth that has been dyed using paint and salt, and masks and other accessories are made from latex or cardboard. Her figures can be comical and slightly sinister, highlighting the moral dilemmas and fated plights associated with fanaticism.

“Enthusiasm makes sense to me. My work is more like comedy or carnival rather than something that is professionalised; it has a fun, rebellious energy. Humour is often marginalised, it’s underestimated how hard you have to work to get or keep your ground. My performances are really gestural and are not meant to exist afterwards. I wanted to burn the costumes afterwards, but really had to change my attitude. My heroes are the Marx Brothers, but I only know them from their films. They bothered to make their fun, gestural, offhand experience package-able, not in a dark way, but in a way that people can enjoy afterwards forever. It’s important to make an effort to make things that last so they can continue to communicate to people.”

“Odd Man Out squishes and squeezes non-conformism and free-thinking out of its audience.”

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01 Odd Man Out, Spartacus Chetwynd, image by Sheridan Brown, courtesy Notes on Looking

02 Odd Man Out, Spartacus Chetwynd, © the artist courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London

03 Martin Creed, Work No.227 (The lights going on and off) © Tate, London 2012

04 Antony Gormley, Field for the British Isles, 1993. Terracotta. Variable size: approx. 40,000 elements, each 8-26 cm tall. © the artist

05 Rachel Whiteread’s House, 1993, © Rachel Whiteread, photo by Sue Omerod

06 Tacita Dean Film 2011, 35mm colour anamorphic film, mute 11 mins, courtesy of the artist, Frith Street Gallery, London and Marian Goodman Gallery New York/Paris

07 Zarina Bhimji’s Waiting © Zarina Bhimji, 2012. All Rights Reserved, DACS

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UCL Turner Prize winners/nominees

1986: Derek Jarman

1988: Richard Hamilton Lucian Freud (staff)

1989: Paula Rego Lucian Freud (staff)

1991: Rachel Whiteread

1993: Rachel Whiteread

1994: Antony Gormley

1995: Mona Hatoum

1996: Douglas Gordon

1998: Tacita Dean Cathy de Monchaux (staff)

2000: Tomoko Takahashi

2001: Martin Creed

2002: Catherine Yass

2007: Zarina Bhimji

2009: Enrico David (staff)

2010: Angela de la Cruz

2012: Spartacus Chetwynd

winner / shortlisted

Courting controversy The Turner Prize was established in 1984 by the Tate Gallery’s Patrons of New Art and has since become one of the most important and prestigious awards for the visual arts in Europe. £25,000 is awarded to a visual artist under 50 years of age and is intended to promote public discussion of new developments in contemporary British art.

The prize is named in honour of JMW Turner (1775–1851), who had himself wanted to establish a prize for young artists. His own work was controversial in its day, and the prize has certainly caused dissension over the years. Martin Creed’s winning piece Lights Going On and Off incensed artist Jacqueline Crofton to the extent that she threw eggs at the wall of his installation. Tracey Emin’s drunken outpouring and Madonna’s expletives have grabbed the headlines as much as the art itself. In 2002, then Culture Minister Kim Howells spoke out against the prize, calling it “conceptual bullshit” and was joined by Prince Charles, who added that the prize had “contaminated the art establishment”.

Fourteen UCL Slade School graduates and three members of staff have been nominated for the prize so far, many becoming household names producing headlining work. Alumni include Antony Gormley, the creator of many public art sculptures including Angel of the North, and Martin Creed, whose Work No.1197: All the bells in a country rung as quickly and as loudly as possible for three minutes, will be rung out across Britain to signal the start of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The UCL Slade School has always been at the vanguard of developments in contemporary art education and has recently been rated top for art and design by the Guardian University Guide 2013. Professor Susan Collins, alumna and Director of the UCL Slade School, comments: “Although historically the word ‘Slade’ has conjured up images of tradition – perhaps the life drawing tradition – in fact, the student work is so diverse that if there’s any tradition to speak of it’s one of questioning and curiosity and the fact that it’s a very plural umbrella for so many activities. Independent thinking and experimentation are highly valued in a critical yet supportive setting. All of this comes together to make for an exciting, energetic and experimental environment where anything seems possible.”

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The Turner Prize 2012 exhibition will be held at Tate Britain, 2 October 2012 – 6 January 2013.

The winner will be announced live on Channel 4 on 3 December 2012.

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Mark Miodownik, Professor of Materials & Society, will direct the new UCL Institute of Making. It will be a world-first, nurturing a dynamic culture of making across the university

Embracing the material worldWhat could you do with a brick that changes colour with temperature? Or a phosphorescent material that, when exposed to light, glows for a week?

Or, how about the lightest solid in the world, composed of 98 per cent air?

These astounding materials and the intriguing possibilities they present will soon be housed under one roof as the new UCL Institute of Making – a dynamic space that will bring together industry, students and academics from all disciplines who are interested in making a new world.

By Ben Stevens

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The Institute of Making will be located in a stunning new facility within UCL Engineering, facing onto Malet Place. In addition to a materials library, it will also contain a ‘make space’, a hands-on facility that will have a wide range of equipment for making of every sort, from textiles through to electronics, prototyping and even 3D printing. The institute’s facility will be glass fronted to show the technical facilities on offer and the making that will be taking place.

“Making as a way of thinking is fundamental,” says Mark Miodownik, the institute’s Director and UCL Professor of Materials & Society. “Engineering has been dominated by the internet and the digital sphere for the past 20 years, but people do not live a virtual life; they live in the real, material world.

“Material science is now coming up with the goods and showing how to remake the world in a completely different way.”

Reaching out to the public is an explicit part of the institute’s remit and, with generous support from donors, the hope is to invite schoolchildren and others to become members of the institute, engage with its collection and make use of its unique facilities.

When the Institute of Making opens in January 2013, it will be unique. “It will have the only materials library embedded within an engineering department and paired with a make space in the world,” says Professor Miodownik.

Asked why this might be, he’s frank: “There’s a chronic lack of imagination in UK universities and we have a research establishment that values intellectual theory over the working prototype.”

This theoretical bias has at times drowned out an existing dynamic culture of making that Professor Anthony Finkelstein, Dean of UCL Engineering, is keen for the institute to nurture across UCL.

“When I was a child, you would switch on Blue Peter and people would be making things out of cardboard and sticky-back plastic, while kids would have Meccano and be wielding soldering irons. There’s a global community that wants to rediscover that – the spirit of the garden shed engineer, the hacker, the experimental scientist – and re-engage with it, and the make space is our contribution to that.

“Often it’s in that business of making things,” he adds, “swapping skills and everything like that, that the real interdisciplinary work happens. It’s when the electronics engineer leans over the shoulder of somebody and says ‘You’re doing that mechanically and we could actually do that electronically’.”

Key to this culture of making is the concept of ‘hacking’. Professor Miodownik explains: “Hacking is all about deconstructing other people’s thoughts via objects. These days technology consists of complex objects that are only buildable by corporations – individuals can regain control by hacking these objects.” And the advent of 3D printing means that people can now make things that previously would only have been possible to manufacture in factories.

While some might try to dismiss all this activity as mere tinkering, there is considerable ambition to create an institute that will harness the theoretical might of UCL to produce new technology. “The Institute of Making will ask

Students and staff from all faculties will be invited to rediscover their inner hacker and spontaneously swap hands-on skills to unleash interdisciplinary creativity

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big questions and not be satisfied with trivial answers,” Professor Miodownik affirms.

Questions don’t come much bigger than dealing with increasing resource scarcity and the impact this will have on our way of life. “Oil is running out, which means plastics and tarmac will both disappear,” he adds. “That’s why we should stop burning it – it’s bonkers. It’s like having bought some antique furniture and using it for fuel rather than sitting on it.”

The good news is that there is no real shortage of minerals, just spikes of shortage, driven by the inefficient way that we use them. “Our systems are dumb in every way – we need to get smarter. It’s an approach that’s worked for us in the past.”

The Materials Library, which boasts more than 1,000 materials including all the elements, could well be the catalyst for these smarter approaches. “We’re an orphanage for discarded materials and there’s a gem of genius in all of them,” says Professor Miodownik proudly.

He and Finkelstein plan to invite design companies and other industrial representatives to the institute and use it to showcase the library’s cutting-edge materials to them – thereby sparking further innovation and collaboration.

As a result, the institute has built an iPhone app that allows users to navigate the library’s collection. With sufficient financial support, a second-generation app is planned that might include videos explaining the history of each material

or showing them being tested in a lab, with the ultimate ambition of creating the Wikipedia of materials.

“Materials are the best advocates of engineering and making that we have. Through them and the institute itself, we’ve got a chance to inspire the next generation of engineers to make a world that is more joined-up.”

The ability to print in three dimensions has democratised the invention and production of objects

Bringing it to life

UCL is providing start-up funding for the institute, but it is through philanthropy that it will truly achieve its full potential.

We are looking for financial support totalling £4 million, which will fund the physical building and construction work, as well as the people who will make the Institute of Making come alive.

Permanent naming opportunities are available at all levels – from establishing a named fund of materials bursaries and sponsoring a permanent named Chair of Materials & Society to naming the institute itself.

For further details, please contact: Rosie Meredith, Head of Leadership & Legacy Giving r.meredith@ucl.ac.uk or +44 (0)20 3108 3827

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John Horsnell CBE (UCL Laws 1957)

“I was startled to see, in the ‘Tug-of-War’ photos, two old friends who were with me at Bentham Hall, Cartwright Gardens, in the mid-50s. On the left, holding the trophy, is Roger Brown – a civil engineer who later gained a PhD. Roger was prop for London University rugby team and was, indeed, a strong man. Sadly, the person on the right did not live long. Peter John Pryor from Taunton was a lawyer and at that time President of the Union. Peter went on to become President of the National Union of Students (NUS) and I have no doubt in my mind that he would have become a success on the national political scene as a West Country Liberal. Sadly, later I heard he had died of leukemia in 1961 aged about 25.”

Alan Cantrell (UCL Civil Engineering 1956)

“I am pleased to report that the main picture shows the cup holder Roger Lewis Brown (whose father was a lecturer at UCL), a colleague of mine and a member with me in the University 1st XV front row. The inset picture shows Roger at number three, John Emil Stiefel at two and myself at number one on the rope, all of the Civil Engineering faculty. John and I were at University College School together and all of us graduated in 1956.”

Parting shotRevisited: Tug-of-War

In the Spring 2011 edition of UCL People we published a photo of a tug-of-war between Engineering staff and students. A number of readers were inspired to respond

Roger Brown (Civil Engineering 1956)

“I was amazed to see, on the last page, a photo of me holding the Postlethwaite Cup following the tug-of-war with the staff. I am also the third ‘puller’ on the rope on the students’ side. Mr Postlethwaite was a very conscientious student who signed in for most lectures, but he was very un-intrusive and never spoke. I seem to recollect that although he never took any exams he featured mysteriously on some of the lists of marks.

You will notice the uniformity of dress, mainly Harris Tweed jackets and the obligatory tie, for both spectators and ‘athletes’.”

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Arab Spring art For the feature on the Arab Spring UCL People commissioned a student from the UCL Slade School of Fine Art Minjae Lee. Her illustration of a cactus native to the Middle East reflects the concept of a dying establishment providing a source for new growth.

The other artworks featured in the exhibition, Plot for a Biennial, produced by Sheikha Hoor (UCL Slade School of Fine Art 2002), President of Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, and are produced with kind permission of the individual artists.

Front cover: Cairo, 6 February 2011. Almost two weeks after the uprising began, protesters were back in Tahrir Square. © Alex Majoli/Magnum Photos

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

Art Direction: studiospecial.com

Art Director/Production: Fiona Davidson

Design: Janine Clayton

Publisher: James Davis

Editor: Ben Stevens

Editorial Assistant: Jessica Lowrie

Contact: UCL Development & Alumni Relations Office Gower Street London WC1E 6BT

+44(0)20 3108 3833 alumni@ucl.ac.uk www.ucl.ac.uk/alumni

Director of Development & Alumni Relations Office: Lori Manders lori.manders@ucl.ac.uk

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Pulling togetherThis 2006 image is of a crew from the Bentham Boat Club. Founded in 1977 as a social club for former UCL oarsmen and women, it helps provide coaching for current UCL student crews. Today, the club has more than 150 members spread across the world and remains closely involved with the UCL Boat Club.

UCL People would love to hear your sporting memories and to receive your photos for publication in the next Parting Shot.

Find out more about UCL alumni sports clubs: www.ucl.ac.uk/alumni/groups/sports

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Growing pains: Arab Spring

Affirming access for all

Embracing the material world

A school of opportunity

Art from the ground up

Visionary research

LONDON’S GLOBAL UNIVERSITY

People 2012

Capture your memories – UCL Alumni Lostbook

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Visit our Facebook page and click ‘like’ to get started

www.facebook.com/uclconnect

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Images: UCLU Photosoc