Alumni newsletter, spring 2022

In this edition, the University’s new ageing research is launched into space, Guild presidents meet to mark their 50th anniversary and you can read another of our alumni memories from Diane Roome. We also share graduation photos for our Class of 2020, whose delayed graduation ceremonies finally took place in December and January.

Liverpool ageing research launched into space

The University of Liverpool’s MicroAge experiment, which could help people live longer, healthier lives, was successfully launched to the International Space Station recently.

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Chancellor Colm Tóibín named Laureate for Irish Fiction

University of Liverpool Chancellor Colm Tóibín has been named Laureate for Irish Fiction by the Arts Council of Ireland. He took over the laureateship from Sebastian Barry, who followed inaugural Laureate Anne Enright. His three-year term began last month.

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Professor Cheng-Hock Toh CBE to stand for President of RCP

Professor Cheng-Hock Toh, professor of haemotology at the University of Liverpool and a recent recipient of a CBE, has announced he will be standing for President of the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) when voting opens in March.

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The Kick it Out Scholarship for Football Industries MBA candidates

Sky and Kick it Out have partnered with the University of Liverpool Management School to offer scholarships to four students from under-represented ethnic groups applying for the Football Industries MBA programme, beginning in September 2022.

For further information, please visit the dedicated webpage here.

Alumni and staff honoured in the Queen's New Year Honours 2022

The University of Liverpool is proud to share the achievements of University alumni and staff who were recognised in the New Year Honours 2022 in January this year.

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Dr Benedict Michael awarded prestigious lectureship for work on COVID-19

Dr Benedict Michael (MBChB 2006, PhD 2015) has been awarded the 2022 Royal College of Physicians Linacre Lectureship for his work on the neurological complications of COVID-19.

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Interview with Emma Nolan, Head of IP Commercialisation at the University of Liverpool

As the University of Liverpool’s research commercialisation activity goes from strength to strength, with eight new spin-out companies formed and a further four in the pipeline, we talk to Emma Nolan, about the process, the new companies, and their importance to the local economy.

Read the full interview

Prestigious ‘For Women in Science’ Young Talent Award for Liverpool-based cancer researcher

Lois Okereke, a PhD student at the University of Liverpool and The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust has been named a laureate of the 2021 For Women in Science Young Talents Awards for Sub-Saharan Africa by Fondation L’Oréal and UNESCO.

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University launches new brain cancer fundraising campaign

The University of Liverpool has launched a new Gliobastoma (Brain Cancer) Fund which has been set up to support ground-breaking research into immunotherapy, a pioneering new treatment for glioblastoma.

Read more and find out how you can support

Enda Neill’s Liverpool legacy gift to support leukaemia research

In January this year, the University of Liverpool’s School of Medicine was heartened and honoured to receive a legacy gifted by the late Enda Mary Neill in loving memory of her relative Tony. The gift was to be used to support leukaemia research, and intended for the Dean of the School of Medicine, Professor Hazel Scott, to use at her ‘absolute discretion and direction’.

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Artworks by Liverpool alumni to be auctioned in aid of local children’s charity

Local street artist and University of Liverpool alumnus Paul Curtis (BSc Hons Geology & Physical Geography 2000) and honorary graduates Yoko Ono Lennon (Hon LLD 2001) and Willy Russell (Hon LittD 1990) have all donated pieces to be auctioned in aid of Alder Hey Children’s Charity later this month.

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Alumni and Friends Telephone Campaign returns for 2022

After taking a break due to the pandemic, our Alumni and Friends Telephone Campaign is back for spring 2022! Kicking off in March, the campaign will run until the second week in May. A team of students will call more than 9,000 of you to find out about your time at Liverpool, what you’ve been doing since graduation and seek your support for our Student Experience Fund. This is an excellent opportunity for current students to understand more about life after Liverpool, and we are really thankful to everyone who takes part.

Research fellows supporting global heritage preservation

Benedicta Gokah and Shreya Pai are academic researchers at the University of Ghana and Mysore School of Architecture, India respectively. The Virtual International Fellowships programme supports researchers like Benedicta and Shreya to directly preserve our shared global heritage.

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Professor Anne Merriman's pioneering work in Africa

Alumna Professor Anne Merriman MBE (MCommH 1982) was recently featured on ITV news for her pioneering work and research into palliative care in Africa.

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Alumni memories: ‘My life in music’ by Diane Roome

In the next of our 'Alumni Memories' series, alumna Diane Roome (Combined Honours 1977) shares her memories of arriving in the musical metropolis of Liverpool in 1973 and all of the experiences student life brought with it.

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Alumni Memories: The Comecon Football Team by Stuart Nickson

Alumnus Stuart Nickson (BA Hons Economics 1962), shares his fond memories of playing football at Liverpool and hopes his memories will help refresh the memories of his former peers.

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Guild Presidents past and present meet on campus to mark 50-year anniversary

Alumnus and former Guild President Chris Graham (BA Hons History 1973) is marking 50 years since he served as the President of the Guild of Undergraduates this year. To celebrate this special anniversary, Chris was welcomed back to visit the University campus, to meet with current president Bertie Woodcock and for a tour of the Guild 50 years on.

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An afternoon with Dr Amir Khan

School of Medicine alumnus Dr Amir Khan (MBChB 2004) went back to his roots in early October, when he took the stage at the Liverpool Literary Festival to speak about his Sunday Times Bestseller The Doctor Will See You Now and read excerpts from this year’s Great Reads competition.

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Classes of 2020 and 2021 celebrate their graduation ceremonies in-person

As you will know, graduation is a special day for our talented graduates to celebrate all they have achieved with their loved ones. Over the past few years, our Classes of 2020 and 2021 graduates have worked extremely hard through difficult times, so to see them celebrate gaining their degrees in person has been wonderful. Their rescheduled ceremonies will continue until July 2022.

View photographs from the ceremonies here

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Events

International Women's Day at the University of Liverpool

To mark International Women's Day 2022, the University is holding a range of events including some highlighted below. To see our full events programme, please visit our dedicated webpages here.

We're also celebrating Women's History Month all March, you can discover the achievements of our inspiring female experts and their research as well as explore the alternative campus map created by our students here.

School of Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Computer Science panel talk

Tuesday 8 March 2022, 2-3pm, online

To celebrate this year's International Women's Day, the School of Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Computer Science will host an online panel discussion focusing on the theme #BreakTheBias, and ideas centred around what challenges women face when studying and/or working in STEM-related areas.

Register now

Women in Music

Saturday 12 March 2022, 11:30am, The Tung Auditorium

The day features a diverse line-up of speakers including music agent Catherine Le Bris, video and sound artist Myriam Boucher, cultural sociologist Dr Monique Charles, production manager and sound engineer Ema Gazdik.

Register now

Join us at a Postgraduate Open Event

Wednesday 9 March 2022 and 21-25 March 2022

We recognise that your aspirations demand world-class opportunities. And, our postgraduate programmes offer you just that! Find out more by coming along to our campus in Liverpool for our Postgraduate Open Evening on Wednesday 9 March 2022.  Or alternatively you can join us online at our Virtual Postgraduate Open Week from the 21-25 March 2022.

Jamaica Making: The Theresa Roberts Art Collection

19 February - 9 July 2022

Jamaica Making: The Theresa Roberts Art Collection exhibition showcases the vibrancy and variety of contemporary Jamaican art since the country’s Independence in 1962. The exhibition features over thirty artworks from the extensive private collection of Jamaican-born entrepreneur and philanthropist Theresa Roberts.

The exhibition is curated by Dr Amanda Draper from the Victoria Gallery & Museum and alumna Dr Emma Roberts, Associate Dean for Global Engagement and Programme Leader of BA History of Art & Museum Studies at Liverpool John Moores University.

Admission to the exhibition is free and the VG&M is open Tuesday – Saturday, 10am–5pm.

Plan your visit

The Tung Auditorium launch programme

Join us for our launch season at The Tung Auditorium, Liverpool's newest music venue. Headline highlights include Liverpool-born pianist, Paul Lewis. Paul personally selected the Auditorium's new Steinway D grand piano that he will perform on. His cycles of core piano works by Beethoven and Schubert have received unanimous critical and public acclaim worldwide and consolidated his reputation as one of the world’s foremost interpreters of the central European classical repertoire.

To keep updated with all events on at The Tung Auditorium you can join their mailing list at the bottom of their homepage.

View the full programme

Lunchtime Concert Series, spring 2022

Live every Wednesday from The Tung Auditorium, our popular Lunchtime Concert Series is free to attend. The next concert in the spring series will feature Gazelleband, led by pioneering Palestinian oud player Reem Anbar and multi-instrumentalist Dr Louis Brehony.

View the Lunchtime Concert Series

 

Public Lecture Series 2022: Arts, Sustainability and the Climate Crisis

The School of the Arts are hosting a special public lecture series focusing on arts, sustainability and the climate crisis. Lectures will be held in the Paul Brett Lecture Theatre inside the Yoko Ono Lennon Centre. Enjoy thinking about different aspects of word, image and power in a series of free lectures this spring.

View the series and register for free now

The Good Business Festival

22-24 March 2022

We’re delighted to be supporting Liverpool City Region’s eagerly anticipated in-person event series ‘The Good Business Festival (TGBF).’ The confirmed line-up features some of our very own academic, professional services and alumni community.

Friends of the University of Liverpool are invited to join major brands and inspiring leaders from business, media, music and academia for the world’s largest responsible business festival, held over three days of events running from 22 – 24 March 2022.

You can follow the Research, Partnerships and Innovation team at the University of Liverpool on Twitter for updates: @livunibusiness and search hashtag: #goodbizfest 

Join the movement and register for free today.

Lucrezia Zaina Bequest Lecture 2022 with Dr Simone Brioni

Wednesday 27 April 2022, 5:30-7pm

How is it possible to reevaluate Italian symbols in a more inclusive way that acknowledge the multiple, diasporic and postcolonial perspectives through which Italian culture is created, discussed, appropriated, and kept alive?

In an attempt to give an answer to this question, Dr Simone Brioni's lecture focuses on examples of three collaborative research experiences and artistic endeavors: a reading of how Somali diasporic writers have discussed Dante’s Commedia; a revisitation of Mantegna’s depiction of Black people in his Renaissance paintings; and a closer look at questions of memory, belonging and family heritage in colonial photography.

Register now

Beckett: Confined Samuel Beckett Drama and Music Festival

Saturday 7 May 2022

Presented by University of Liverpool in association with Unreal Cities, Beckett: Confined explores the politics of closed space as a reading of Beckett for our times. The festival encompasses music, drama and discussion featuring Landmark productions of Beckett’s Catastrophe, Ohio Impromptu, and new productions of Krapp’s Last Tape and Quad.

For more information visit the The Tung Auditorium website

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Catch up with past events

Bringing the world to Liverpool with James Quincey

We were thrilled to have the Chairman and CEO of Coca Cola, James Quincey, a proud University of Liverpool graduate, join us for our series of Bringing the World to Liverpool events.

Watch now

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In Memoriam

In memory of our graduates Tara-Jane Hulligan Zuk (BA Hons 1992, Cert Ed 1994) and Maureen Forbes (MBChB 1959). 

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