Author: Jane Saffell

Department of Medicine granted Athena SWAN Silver award

athena silver

The Department of Medicine was delighted to hear last week that it has been granted an Athena SWAN Silver award in recognition of its commitment to address the underrepresentation of female academics in university STEMM departments.

The achievement reflects the fruits of actions completed and the impact of changes made since the department’s Bronze award in 2013. The gap between numbers of male and female academics is slowly closing, and academic promotion application and success rates are now slightly higher for women than men.

From the start of its Athena SWAN journey in 2012 the department (headed by Professor Martin Wilkins) took a broad approach by setting out to make changes to culture and organisation that would benefit all staff and students, and “building a strong and supportive academic community” is integral to its mission.

Developments since the Bronze award include a thriving mentoring scheme that is now being adopted by other departments, an annual Welcome reception for all new staff (and informative Welcome packs), an Academic & Family Life panel discussion programme open to the wider College, a DoM Life website, promotion support team and an Early Career Committee.

Many challenges remain for a department of nearly 1000 people spread across six campuses: ensuring that progress so far is both embedded and sustainable, fostering a supportive and interactive culture, and forging a clear departmental identity.

Progress is driven by a diverse Development & Opportunities Committee led by Dr Jane Saffell and supported by HR Liaison Officer Mrs Meriel Cartwright. Within this, an Early Career Committee co-Chaired by Drs Amy Birch and Ed Roberts spearheads initiatives for postdocs and PhD students.

If you are interested in the work of the committees, or would like to see the Athena SWAN submission and action plan, please visit the DoM Life website.

 

Dr Jane Saffell
Senior Lecturer
Department of Medicine

Fourteen outstanding Master’s Scholars Imperial-bound

From a very strong field of 300 applicants, fourteen outstanding students have been awarded Scholarships by the Faculty of Medicine to support their Master’s study and research when they join Imperial in October. Dean’s Scholarships covering fees and a £17,500 stipend were awarded to four exceptional applicants (one home, one EU student and two overseas), while a further ten outstanding students received Faculty Scholarships of £17,500. Of these, two were home students, three EU and five overseas. Many congratulations to our Scholars (listed below).

masters schols“I haven’t been this happy in my life, or maybe I just forgot this level of happiness”
“Thank you very much for this generous support towards my education – I feel short of words to express my gratitude for this award”
“I’m so honoured to have been chosen by the Faculty of Medicine. I appreciate and am humbled by their confidence in my abilities”

Scholars are taking programmes across our Master’s portfolio of 31 courses, from MRes  degrees in Experimental Neuroscience, Cancer Biology, Biomedical Research & Clinical Research (Diabetes & Obesity), through science MSc programmes in Immunology, Human Molecular Genetics, Molecular Medicine, Epidemiology and Paediatrics, to an MEd in Surgical Education and a Master’s in Public Health (Global Health).

masters degsThe awards were the culmination of an e-mail and poster advertising campaign which has seen Master’s applicant numbers increase by 22% over the same time last year, and overseas numbers by 34%.  Many thanks to our very photogenic 2013-14 scholars (in last year’s precursor to the current scheme), who generously agreed to grace the posters, and to PGT Administrator Jim Osborne for designing them.

The success of the scheme meant an enormous amount of work to score 300 detailed online  applications, shortlist 30 candidates for interview, Skype interview each, and decide who would get the Dean’s and who the Faculty awards.  This was made possible with the generous help of Laki Buluwela, Kirsten Dalrymple, Andrew Edwards, Dan Elson, Christine Franey, Gary Frost, Steve Gentleman, Mick Jones, Birgit Leitinger, Mark Sullivan and Ernesto Yague.  Many thanks to everyone.

Awarded Dean’s Scholarships: Louise Kenny (Surgical Education), Auste Kanapeckaite (Molecular Medicine), Iva Filipovic (Immunology), Jennifer Martin (Human Molecular Genetics)

Awarded Faculty Scholarships: Patricio Alzaraz Couret (Paediatrics), Emily Barnes (Cancer Biology), Mei Ran Abellona U (Biomedical Research), Madeleine Hurry (Experimental Neuroscience), Lakshmi Regnier Cadavieco (Molecular Medicine), Viktoriya Nilolova (Experimental Neuroscience), Alison Ower (Epidemiology), Petros Christofides (Epidemiology), Robin Schafer (Public Health – Global Health) and Gala Farooq (Clinical Research – Diabetes & Obesity).

Dr Jane Saffell Faculty of Medicine Academic Lead for PG Courses

14 Faculty of Medicine Master’s Scholarships available

The Faculty of Medicine is offering generous scholarships to students with outstanding academic potential who apply in 2014 for one of the 30 Master’s courses run by its Schools, Institutes and Departments.

There are 4 Dean’s Master’s Scholarships available (full fees plus £17.5K flexible stipend), 2 for Home/EU and 2 for Overseas students, and 10 Faculty Master’s Scholarships (£17.5K flexible stipend), open to both Home/EU and overseas students.  Application is via an online form and the deadline is 31 March 2014.

Please advertise these widely to attract the best students to our courses. Posters such as those below (plus more styles) are available for download.  These can be printed for display in your location and/or sent via e-mail to prospective applicants or contacts in other universities (and overseas) who would be willing to circulate the information to their life science/medicine undergraduates.

If you have any queries about the Scholarships or Master’s courses, please contact Jim Osborne

posters