Awardees

Professor Poor’s work connects fundamental physics and mathematics to complex electromagnetic wave technologies, shaping essential digital and wireless systems. This has played a vital role in developing today’s cellular networks that transmit images, audio and video at unprecedented rates. His methodologies have also significantly influenced industry standards for mobile, satellite and Internet systems and multiple-antenna technology. His impressive wireless technology patents and his invaluable advice to technology companies has ensured a lasting impact on industry, too. 

Professor Poor is a leading educator – both at Princeton and globally. He has supported over 100 PhD and postdoctoral students, served as Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Princeton University during a decade of growth, and authored an award-winning textbook. In 2020, his publications surpassed 100,000 citations, making him one of the most cited researchers worldwide. 

Professor Poor has been recognised with the John Fritz Medal and the Alexander Graham Bell Medal. He has been elected to the US National Academy of Sciences, the US National Academy of Engineering, as an International Fellow of the UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering, and as a Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London.

Throughout his over 30-year career at Imperial, Mr John Anderson has been instrumental in advancing the university's global standing. One of his first contributions was the creation of Imperial’s Graduate Management Training Scheme. This has successfully attracted a diverse community of talented graduates to vital higher education management roles, ensuring considered leadership across multiple departments. Since then, his own strategic leadership has driven multiple key investment initiatives – from the acquisition and initial development of the White City Campus and North Acton residences to the establishment of the Imperial College Fund as a precursor to the Endowment. Under his stewardship this critical source of discretionary wealth has scaled from £50 million to over £550 million, bolstering Imperial’s financial resilience.

Mr Anderson’s efforts to secure land and develop facilities at White City, in particular, have created a lasting legacy: expanding academic spaces, delivering greater student housing and initiating new innovation hubs. His work directly benefits students, departments and entrepreneurs across Imperial now and well into the future.

Ms Bertolini plays a vital role overseeing student welfare and admissions in the faculty. She demonstrates outstanding commitment to improving services and support for current students and applicants, with a particular talent for creating effective processes that rapidly respond to opportunities or solve issues. For example, by enhancing the personal tutor system she has ensured that students and tutors get the best out of their interactions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she personally established regular contact with any self-isolating students, so they had reliable support during a very challenging time. She is also renowned for bringing innovation to her role and finding novel ways to reach students with advice, such as through Instagram takeovers and podcasts.

Ms Bertolini has been instrumental in achieving the faculty’s high National Student Survey score for mental health support. In 2022, she won the Outstanding Pastoral Care Award at the faculty’s 25th Anniversary Staff Awards.

Professor Cawley’s substantial contributions to Imperial span an incredible four decades. His drive to solve real industrial problems through scientific research has led to major impact in areas from oil and gas production to dental implants. He has collaborated with multiple industrial partners, established technology that drives three spin-out companies, published hundreds of research papers and developed Imperial’s world-renowned Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) research group, which he led for 35 years. He has also lent his expertise to many students and faculty members, particularly in terms of supporting their entrepreneurship. During his time as Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, he helped students to launch successful companies; as Associate Dean for Enterprise, he supported the development of over 20 spin-out companies and established the Imperial Experts Service to mentor inventors and founders. Professor Cawley's efforts have bolstered the reputation of Imperial’s innovation ecosystem.

Professor Cawley is Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society.

Ms Kleyn first joined the Imperial community as an undergraduate student, and was recruited into a career in industry on the ‘milk round’ before returning to complete an MBA in 2005. Since then, she has played an impactful role in supporting technology entrepreneurship throughout the university. She lent her product, business and company development experience to Imperial Innovations, securing grants for incubation, licensing IP and raising investment for spin-outs to support the translation of student and faculty research into new business. She then went on to help shape Imperial Venture Mentoring – an advisory service designed for Imperial founders who show clear intent to launch a company. With her support, the service has mentored over 100 startups and raised over £55 million. As Deputy Chair from inception of the service in 2017, and more recently as Chair, Ms Kleyn has invested hundreds of hours as a leader and a mentor for entrepreneurs. She also served as an active member of Imperial Court from 2016–24, contributing to strategy development for the Imperial start-up community in White City and strengthening the Imperial constitution. Remarkably, she has supported Imperial in these myriad ways while co-founding and serving as Chief Operating Officer of her own Imperial spin-out, Orthonika, now in the final stages of pre-clinical development for a medical device for total meniscus replacement.

Professor Lupton has played a strategic role in enhancing the university’s reputation in medical education. During his tenure, he instigated and implemented a comprehensive curriculum review of the London medical programme as well as introducing a number of new courses. Following the curriculum review there has been a significant improvement in National Student Survey scores particularly in MBBS. He has spearheaded digital education initiatives, tripled curriculum engagement with primary care, developed a medical education research hub and significantly increased the number of students from widening participation backgrounds. He is most proud of the impact he has had on student wellbeing. During the last five years Professor Lupton has made the idea of a new medical school in Cumbria a reality. The Pears Cumbria School of Medicine opened to its first cohort of students in August this year, on time, on budget and with 30% of the students receiving bursaries. He was also a key member of the academic team that built the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine in Singapore.

Professor Hauck is a leading expert in the economics of pandemics, infectious diseases and complex public health interventions. Alongside delivering remarkable academic outcomes through her own work, she also leads an international programme of collaborative research that has positioned Imperial as a global player in health economics. Through her exceptionally generous and supportive leadership style, Professor Hauck has created a powerful community of students, early career researchers, academics and global health partners, including WHO and GAVI. Their work has made a significant impact on low- and middle-income countries during the COVID-19 pandemic and Ebola outbreaks, enabling quicker and more effective responses to health emergencies while creating lasting knowledge for the future. Professor Hauck has also voluntarily organised the Health Economics Seminar series at Imperial, which brings people and disciplines across Imperial together, to learn from each other and to provide opportunities for new research collaborations.

Professor Cabral studies soft materials like soaps, macromolecules, and particles to understand how they mix, separate and change over time. His work enables these materials to be designed and improved for real-world applications, developing more sustainable formulations with greater performance, from detergents to antimicrobial surfaces, membranes for water purification or soft robots. He combines his own scientific rigour and expertise with an unwavering commitment to the professional and personal development of his team. He is known for being an exemplary supervisor who fosters a research environment that encourages curiosity, innovation and inclusion. His ability to break down complex concepts, offer insightful feedback and provide constructive challenges means his students excel in their own work. He also ensures they have opportunities to collaborate with international academics and in close partnership with industry, present at conferences and engage in interdisciplinary and outreach projects. Many of his team members have gone on to secure prestigious academic and industry positions, a testament to the exceptional foundation he provides as a supporter, mentor and friend.

Dr Fung is an innovative thinker who has made exceptional contributions to medical education at Imperial. Responding thoughtfully to challenges faced by students, she carefully designs programmes that target the improvement of clinical skills and readiness for medical practice. She also contributes to educational research and the evidence base that underpins best practice. 

Dr Fung developed an effective new programme to support medical students’ prescribing skills and knowledge, which led to Imperial topping the league table in the national Prescribing Safety Assessment. 

Dr Fung also founded the ‘Dr. Me Project’, a widening participation and health promotion outreach programme where medical students and doctors are trained to teach self-care in local primary schools. The innovation and impact of the project has led to national media coverage and several national awards.   

In addition, Dr Fung founded a national organisation, ‘ESLIH’ (Empowering Student Leadership in Healthcare), which supports healthcare students from all backgrounds to access leadership education and opportunities. The ESLIH conference is the first of its kind to provide financial support for students from widening participation backgrounds to attend, and aims to improve equality, diversity and inclusion in healthcare leadership.

Mr Abe is a remarkable student who has been heavily involved in outreach throughout his degree. From his first year of studies, he has supported many events and summer schools and created three new initiatives to support the recruitment of students of black heritage. As Student Ambassador, he is also credited with having revolutionised the African Caribbean Society's outreach work. He pioneered their first Outreach Conference – a day-long event that allowed prospective state school students of black and mixed black heritage to learn more about Imperial, explore campus and experience inspiring talks and workshops. He also participates in the Imperial STEM Futures programme, working with children aged 9–18 to offer subject insights and provide application support. He is a passionate advocate for widening participation with a personal determination to ensure no young person like him is prevented from reaching their full potential at Imperial.

As a medical student, Dr Bola balanced the demands of his medical degree, and later as a clinician, with his role as Founder and Chair of the British Indian Medical Organisation – the UK’s first and largest national platform for British Indian medical students and doctors. Established in 2020 to tackle the lack of representation, community, and equitable access to mentorship, this initiative has since supported over 9,000 people through more than 300 national events spanning 80 countries. Under his leadership, the Organisation has spearheaded the UK’s first free Royal College-endorsed surgical skills programme, delivering suture kits and workshops to 54 aspiring surgeons. During the pandemic, Dr Bola also ensured continuity of medical education, organising 43 online teaching sessions benefiting over 4,000 students globally. He also recently launched the Medics in Finance Association to help medical students explore alternative careers in finance and consulting. Within one month, the MFA attracted 200+ members and hosted five workshops with leaders from BCG and McKinsey. His work has been acknowledged with the International Diana Award for humanitarian impact and the Akindolie Medical Scholarship for work with minoritised communities.

Ms Milan conducts research on de-risking investment in carbon capture and storage and manages this complex work alongside international climate negotiations. In 2021, she was chosen as a young leader to represent Lebanon at the UN’s Climate Change Summit, PreCOP26, and Youth4Climate in Milan and New York. She was then appointed as a Climate Ambassador by the Global Youth Council Network and the World Bank, and recognised as one of the five most promising climate leaders in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) by UNDP Climate in Jordan. At COP27, she was featured as one of the top 20 sustainability thinkers in the region by the Posterity Institute. She has been invited to participate in multiple high-level climate events, including as Lebanon’s official negotiator at COP29, where she translated her research for global policy and advocated for the use of AI to promote inclusivity and diversity at the negotiation table. Gaining the moniker of the ‘Inclusive Climate Diplomat’, Ms Milan has established herself as a strategic thought leader and inspiring advocate for meaningful participation in climate action.

Miss Spiteri is developing a medical device to prevent pressure ulcers. She balances this important work alongside passionate disability advocacy as Imperial College Union’s Disabilities Officer. In this role, she has made a huge impact on staff and students alike through multiple initiatives, blogs and support for best practice. For example, she organised a panel event featuring a GB Paralympian to break down misconceptions around disability and amplify insight into the lived experiences of disabled students. She has also pushed for reforms in the PhD viva process, ensuring accessibility is now embedded into assessments to directly address the needs of disabled and neurodivergent postgraduates. She has delivered presentations on neurodiversity to increase staff awareness on inclusive practices and pushed for improved accessibility for the Union’s Welcome Fair. She also ran the powerful "Things I Wish You Knew" campaign, which gathered anonymous submissions from disabled students about their experiences and will serve as both testimony and guidance for Imperial staff, the Union and students. These examples represent just some of the incredible ideas, events and support she delivers – going far beyond the remit of her Union role.