Alumni gather to celebrate graduation milestones

The Physics Class of 1965 gather with Imperial's fire engine mascot Jezebel to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their graduation

Former classmates gathered across South Kensington on Saturday 20 June to celebrate the milestone anniversaries of their graduation.

Physics Class of 1965

Alumnus Edward Fortune sent this update from his recent class reunion, celebrating the 50th anniversary of their graduation:

“We gathered  on Saturday 20 June, almost 50 years to the day after finishing our final exam. 17 alumni made an early start to our reunion by meeting in the Eastside Bar on Friday for an informal evening, before 35 of us plus partners renewed our acquaintances in the Physics Building (now renamed the Blackett Laboratory).

Head of Physics, Professor Jordan Nash, welcomes alumni in the Common Room

Our group of about 50 met in the Physics Common Room. We were welcomed by Head of Department, Professor Jordan Nash, who emphasised the present international nature of the world-renowned department. We had a tour around some of the state-of-the-art research laboratories with Professors Lesley Cohen, Sergei Lebedev and Roland Smith, and with Paul Brown, Mechanical Instrumentation Workshop Manager. Some of us remembered making screwdrivers in our first year, not all successfully, with no computers in sight.

Alumni explore the labs on tours of their old department

Before lunch, we welcomed Emeritus Professor Sir Tom Kibble, then a young lecturer who probably had to endure paper darts from us, now honoured for his work that helped to predict the Higgs Boson. Meeting old friends and reminiscing followed aided by some excellent catering. We came from USA, South Africa and Europe as well as the UK. Others with whom we are in contact, are elsewhere in the world. Many continued in Physics reaching prominence in their fields, others of us have used our skills, learnt in that building, differently. We are older and greyer and we have seen life. These few hours recreated the atmosphere of those three years in the early sixties when we were starting out.

On our way out we called in at the Main Lecture Theatre. That was where all 120 or so of us first met for a lecture which was the first of his series in the Theory of Errors given by Professor (subsequently Lord) Blackett. Photographs were then taken outside with the surprise guest, fire engine mascot Jezebel.

A number of us went for a pint or a coffee to the nearby Queens Arms where we found an Electrical Engineering reunion taking place. They were only celebrating 45 years or so.

Our thanks go to the organisers, Jordan Nash and the team including the students who showed us round on their day off, to Linda Jones for the organisation, the alumni office for the name badges and photographer and to the catering staff for the food, so helping us to revisit our lives 50 years ago.”

Thank you to Carole Sunderland (Wade), Edward Fortune, Christine Bickerstaff (Willis) and Gordon Sellers for their roles in organising the reunion. The full gallery of photos from the day is available on Flickr or on the alumni Facebook page.

Electrical Engineering Class of 1970

Simon Maddison (Electrical Engineering 1970, Computing 1973) reports from his reunion:

"45 years on and the consequences of decisions made by some dimly recollected EE staff member nearly half a century ago are still clearly in evidence today, like the traces of a Roman road stretching across a modern landscape. Yes, it was the arbitrary if systematic assignation of first year lab partners based on alphabetic order that resulted in personal bonds and friendships that have lasted to this day. Other seminal friendships were formed in group projects, notably those overseas ones organised by Sinclair Goodlad, with most of the Zambia and Venezuela teams present. This time we had some 20 classmates along with WAGS and HABS, making a total of some 35 in all.

Our first major reunion was at 25 years, and we have met in groups large and small every year since with the major events every five years, punctuated by euphemistically described ‘planning’ meetings in between, where, as on 20 June, we spend a good deal of time together catching up on news and having some beers followed by an evening meal. This year we started with an excellent tour of the Royal Albert Hall, then a very jolly afternoon starting at the Queens Arms and moving on to the Union Bar. Sporting recent unofficial alumni garb Suzanne Flynn (nee Jones) and Simon briefly swapped shirts, reinforcing that old tag that it looks even better on a man, or was it vice versa? Thanks to the good offices of Suzanne we rounded off celebration of this special year with a formal(ish) and lively dinner at the RAF Club in Piccadilly.

Although many of us are now retired, many remain active in combinations of part time and volunteer work, and sufficiently vigorous still to make the effort to attend from as far as New York and Switzerland. Still plenty of interesting stuff to talk about!

Planning as ever was an important if brief engagement, the consequence primarily being a decision to make the next ‘big’ event a little sooner than five years! Perhaps when we are around our 70^th birthdays!!"

The full gallery of photos is available on Flickr and on the alumni Facebook page.

Chemical Engineering Class of 1995

Meanwhile, the Chemical Engineering Class of 1995 gathered with their families in South Kensington for their own reunion. 

"Someone said to me that it was like we’d never been apart" said Becky Andrew. "We picked up the conversation as if 20 years had never happened. It was lovely to have everyone's families there and very interesting to see the variety of careers that people had gone on to after we all completed the same degree."

The full gallery of photos is available on Flickr and on the alumni Facebook page.

 

MSc Management Science Class of 1984 

MSC Management Science alumni gather outside Imperial College Business School

The MSc Management Science Class of 1983-1984 gathered on Friday 19 June to celebrate their 31 year reunion.

The cohort was welcomed back to the Business School by Dean G. “Anand” Anandalingam and given a quick tour of the campus by the Business School’s Head of Alumni Relations, Nicola Pogson before heading to Ognisko on Exhibition Road for dinner.

Alumnus Smadar Gabbay, one of the key organisers of the event, had forwarded a copy of the class’ year book to the Alumni Relations team, so copies could be made for those attending (setting off whoops of laughter at their former selves).

“You know you have moved on" said Smadar, "but your memories of your cohorts are still as they were 30 plus years ago. Once you get over the initial shock, we were back to our old selves – laughing at old memories, sharing confessions and re-igniting friendships.”

Read the full event report and view the photo gallery on the Business School's website.