(FAO Academics - please share this with any of your students who may not have seen this previously)
Dear Staff, Students and Alumni,
Yesterday was Doctors’ Day when our finalists find out their results. It was a pleasure to be out there congratulating our newest doctors in London and to send all our congratulations to their peers in Malta. It's great to see our young people celebrating their success and we will mark their achievements in the near future at QM Degree Day, both in London and in Malta and at Rites of Passage at St Paul’s in July. Well done to all of you!
My deepest thanks to all our staff, students, alumni and the BLSA for all the support and help you give our students everyday
As we enter a period of well-earned rest over the holiday break, I wanted to let you know about things we will be doing together in the future.
Thank you to all who attended and spoke at the fantastic QM-Barts 900th Symposium on 23 March 2023. We recorded all of the talks, which were a fabulous testament to 900 years of caring for the sick and poor of our Nation. This mission is something you all have, do or will contribute to personally. We will shortly share links with all staff, students and alumni for you to view the talks at your leisure.
We have just agreed as part of the 900th Celebrations to do a Nature conference in partnership with Barts Life Sciences and Barts Health that will bring scientists and clinicians from around the world together with our own excellent research in a two and half day celebration of top flight science including both senior and early career researchers. As part of the conference we’ll host evening events with posters and opportunities for networking with top scientific talent.
After Easter we will continue our Estates-wide master-planning and commence the absolutely vital £20 million maintenance programme in the John Vane Science Centre at Charterhouse Square. The planning group for this includes Institute Directors and Managers at Charterhouse and they will set the priorities for the works. I am acutely aware that the water supply should come through the pipes rather than through the walls and any cell cultures should be stores in the hoods and not on the ceiling. I know reinstatement of this building will require more than the initial investment and we have put a marker down for additional sums to get the building back to the standard we all want and need.
Alongside that, we are working with our partners at the Medical College of St Bartholomew’s Hospital Trust toward a 100 year plus lease so we can look at a potential new building in the future.
At Whitechapel we will proceed with New Ways of Working which is about agile use of our space, and a pilot for the scheme will be run over the rest of 2023. Warm thanks to everyone at the Blizard for trail-blazing this for Queen Mary and our Faculty.
We have completed preparation for final submission of our Planning Applications for the 92,000 square metres of Life Sciences Estate with an expectation to obtain a decision by this autumn. This will provide the home for our Precision Healthcare University Research Institute directed by Claudia Langenberg.
On Wednesday 12 April please join us in the Shield to celebrate Rob Bennett’s 14 years of service to Medicine and Dentistry as Faculty Director of Operations. Francesca Gliubich will become Interim FDO from 17 April 2023 and a formal process will begin to make a substantive appointment. If you would like to join the celebrations on 12 April please let the organisers know at vp-health@qmul.ac.uk.
We will advertise for the Barts Cancer Institute Directorship to replace Nick Lemoine considering both internal and external applications. We will be assisted by Veredus in the head hunting process for this post.
Our search for a new Dean for Research Impact will also commence shortly with applications welcomed from internal candidates. This is a pivotal role in the Research Strategy Group supporting Amrita Ahluwalia and FMD in preparing Impact Case Studies for the next Research Excellence Framework.
I want to end by wishing you all a restful break with your friends and loved ones over the coming days. I look forward to working together on all the exciting projects mentioned above.
Best wishes,
Mark CaulfieldVice-Principal for Health