Alumni share their experiences at the Alumni Weekend 2015

Over 900 alumni and their guests attended the Alumni Weekend on 9 and 10 May 2015.

The packed programme of alumni events included tours behind-the-scenes of Imperial landmarks, interactive science sessions for kids, football, fencing, a drinks reception in the Union bar, cream tea with the President and alumni speaker sessions.

Watch President Alice Gast welcome alumni to a private preview of the Imperial Festival’s main Research Zone on Saturday morning in the video below:

Alumni shared their memories of Imperial, and their weekend highlights, in an IC Radio Feature and in the below video:

Alumni speakers

Gruff Davies

For the first time, alumni speaker sessions were introduced to the programme. Gruff Davies (BSc Physics 1991, PhD 1994) is an inventor, novelist and the CEO of Kwiziq.com, a software programme that uses artificial intelligence to teach languages.

Gruff explored what A.I. is capable of today, and how machine intelligence will play an increasing role in our education, helping students globally to learn more effectively. 

Johnny Kwan

Johnny Kwan (BEng Chemical Engineering 1978, MSc Management 1979) followed with a talk about his career, from his studies at Imperial to his time as President of China’s biggest chemical production company BASF China, and his increasing interest in social innovation business. 

Celebrating milestones

Milestones alumni (who graduated in a year ending in ‘5’) were the focus of the reunion activities and alumni volunteers organised class reunions for nine different groups across the weekend with varied programmes including departmental tours which allowed alumni to revisit their old classrooms. 

One of those reunions, organised by Maribel Anderson, brought together 25 of the 65 members of the Civil Engineering Class of 1985. Drummond Modley explained that the group had gathered in their old classroom for the first time in 30 years to catch up. Of those present, ten (five of them women) took up engineering careers in water supply, dams, oil and gas, rail, bridges, houses. The others went into retail, banking, venture capital, commerce, accountancy, IT, the Army, and the media. Between them the group had 48 children and had visited about 75 countries for work.

Drummond said “We had a splendid time meeting each other again and visiting old haunts.” 

Civil Engineering Class of 1985

Alumni who graduated in 1945, 1955 and 1965 attended a Celebratory Milestones Lunch, hosted by President Alice Gast and Vice President (Advancement) Sarah Porter Waterbury in the Director’s Suite at the Science Museum.

Alumni from 1945, 1955 and 1965 at the Celebratory Milestones Lunch

See the full photo galleries from the lunch and other milestones reunions, or start planning your own milestone reunion for 2016 on our website. 

Re-living a memory

Desmond Kearns (Mining 1965) and Norman Price (BSc Physics 1964) celebrated their reunion at the Alumni Weekend by re-enacting their starring roles on the cover of a 1965 Imperial College Carnival record. 

Produced to help raise funds for the Notting Hill Housing Trust, the back of the record proclaims: “You are now the proud possessor of a rare and valuable collector’s item, the third Carnival Record (worth at least 9d. in the Portobello Road). This disc, which has been carefully coated with black plastic for lasting protection has been cut in the new exclusive Morrophonic Sound (with the extra added ingredient, BSc).”

Desmond, former President of the Royal School of Mines Union, and Norman, former President of the Imperial College Union, were joined in the original image by Dave “Yogi” Bishop, President of City & Guilds Union at the time, and Kish Sadhvani, former President of the Royal College of Science Union.

Dave was sadly unable to attend the Alumni Weekend as he was holidaying in Italy, and the group were unable to get in touch with Kish, so Peter Chase, current Treasurer for the CGCA and Serena Yuen, current President of the RCSU were drafted in to represent their organisations. Ben Warnick, current RSMU President, was also on-hand to meet his predecessor. 

Desmond said: “Norm and I enjoyed being able to out-jump our 50-years-younger successors, and only wish that Yogi Bishop and Kish Sadhvani could have participated as well. Of course, they may have feared that we would be too much competition for them!”  

You can see the original record cover, as well as the re-creation in the slideshow below:

Make your impact on Imperial

The support of our generous alumni makes possible all the achievements we celebrate at the Imperial Festival. To join our growing donor community, please make a gift today to invest in Imperial’s future and shape the next generation of scientists, engineers, doctors and innovators. Everyone making a donation in celebration of the Alumni Weekend 2015 will be entered in a prize draw to win one of our exclusive Imperial Lions.

Be part of the pride – join our donor community!

Share your feeback

One of the reasons the Festival and the Alumni Weekend have grown so healthily in the last four years is because of the insightful, helpful and above all honest feedback we have received from all those involved. Please help us evaluate the impact of this year’s events so we can identify their effect on everyone involved, and so we know what works and what we might improve for future years. If you attended either the Festival or the Alumni Weekend, please complete this short feedback survey by 26 May.

If you have other friends, family or colleagues who visited the Festival, please could you invite them also to complete the Visitor survey, which is suitable for all ages. All respondents are in with the chance of winning £50 voucher to spend in the Science Museum shop.