EDI Team

The EDI Committee meet monthly and work proactively within the department to embed equality and diversity practices.

2023 -2024 Committee Members

Dr Rebecca Ingle	Co-Chair
Dr Derek MacMillan	Co-Chair
Rezwana Akhter	Committee Secretary
Claire Gacki	PSS Working Group Leader
Crosby Medley	PSS Working Group Leader
Mark Issacs	Harwell Rep.
Dr Tamara Alhilfi	Culture Working Group
Dr Samson Khene	Culture Working Group
Dr Adam Clancy	PDRA Working Group Leader
Dr JL Kiappes	PGT Working Group Leader
Dr Guanjie He	PGR Working Group Leader
Dr Sam Cassidy	Widening Participation Lead
Dr River Riley	LGBTQI+ Champion
Angelica Dunkley	PGT Working Group Student Rep

The EDI Committee is currently committed to the following race pledges:

Develop a new mentoring scheme – the mentoring scheme will be for Early Career Researchers and we aim to open this up to PhD students to encourage them to stay on in academia and help bridge any BAME Attainment Gap. Training will be provided to both mentors and mentees. Evidence for where mentoring has been successful is in the advancement of women academics in the department who have received active mentoring from senior colleagues (both male and female). Hence, our aim is to expand this success in all areas of diversity to our early career researchers and PhD students.
Continue to review student recruitment practices to encourage inclusivity and increase diversity across our student body. This will include ensuring that outreach and engagement activities are reaching underrepresented groups. With the increased use of remote activities, our aim would be to expand outreach activities to underrepresented groups in urban areas such as Bradford and Manchester. We would also look to potentially develop some summer internships after the successful teaching and remote internships this summer.
The recruitment process for staff positions. Previously, we proactively targeted female researchers in an effort to expand the numbers of women applying for academic positions, which was successful (7 out of 10 recent lecturer appointments in chemistry were female). We will attempt to proactively target BAME researchers in future positions and we will look to trial the use of a Fair Recruitment Specialist in one appointment round.
Expand the EDI committee with a targeted role. The Culture working group of the committee has an LGBTQ+ Champion and a Wellbeing Champion we will aim to expand this to also have a BAME Champion. The LGBTQ+ Champion enabled an active network to be developed in the department so we would work with the BAME Champion to develop a similar network for this underrepresented group.

2021-2022 Members

	Claire Carmalt Co-Chair and Staff Working Group Leader	As Head of Department, I take responsibility for ensuring that systems are in place that encourages a family-friendly, inclusive and supportive culture in order to improve the working life and careers of all and that equality culture is owned by all in the Department.
	David Rowley Co-Chair and UG Working Group Leader	I am a physical chemist, specialising in atmospheric processes that affects our environment. I am involved in chemistry outreach and joined the EDI committee to help maintain diversity in research, teaching and awareness of environmental issues.
	River Riley LGBTQI+ Champion Culture Working Group
	Tamara Alhilfi Culture Working Group Leader	I am a Teaching Fellow in Experimental Synthetic Chemistry. I joined the EDI Committee to help address the 'leaky pipeline' associated with women in academia and also the BAME attainment gap for home students. I am also involved with LGBTQ+ charities outside the committee. I believe firmly in the benefits of diversity wihin a team and how this contributes to the growth of society as a whole.
	Claire Gacki PSS Working Group Leader	I am the Chemistry Technician in the Teaching Lab. I joined the EDI Committee because I want everyone to feel equal and included in whatever path they take, especially in Science. I don't want anyone to think they can't achieve something because of their gender, ethnicity or socioeconomic background.
	Saf Mendez BAME Champion Culture & PGR Working Group	I am a PhD Student currently working in the Materials Chemistry Centre at UCL. My work revolves around energy storage systems and synthesising vanadium-based cathodes for high-performance aqueous zinc-ion batteries. Having worked in various research settings, I have seen the underrepresentation of BAME (Black & Minority Ethnic) / BIPOC (Black, Indigenous & People of Colour) clearly. I have even witnessed ignorant and offensive language from peers and superiors, both intentional and unintentional, in work environments. This must change.
	Dr Derek MacMillan PGT Working Group Leader	I am an organic chemist with particular interest in the study of glycosylated proteins (proteins with sugars attached). I joined the EDI committee to perhaps highlight the pressures acting on working (academic) parents in bringing up their kids, particularly working dads."
	Dr Yang Xu PGR Working Group Leader	I am a lecturer in electrochemical energy storage and interested in developing battery electrode materials and battery chemistries. I joined the EDI committee and am involved in the working group of postgraduate research students, with the aim of building an inclusive environment for our students to achieve their goals and bringing the benefits of diversity and equality to everyone in the department.
	Leila Negahdar Harwell Working Group Leader	I am Marie-Curie Fellow in the Department of Chemistry based at Harwell campus, UCL. I joined the EDI Committee to help improve the interactions of Harwell campus with main UCL Chemistry campus and to ensure the staff based at Harwell are integrated with those at the main campus.
	Janis Romanopulos PGT Working Group	I am a master’s student on the MRes Organic Chemistry: Drug Discovery course and I joined the EDI committee to represent postgraduate taught (PGT) students within the department. I hope to raise awareness about EDI issues among PGT students and ensure the department maintains and improves its inclusive practices, especially the ones that are related to PGT courses.
	Sam Ackerley PGR Working Group	I am a second-year PhD student working in the Chemistry Department and UCL School of Pharmacy. My PhD project is looking at targeted drug delivery from nanocomposites using MRI as a way to track drug release. I also sit on the EDI committee in Pharmacy and have recently joined the Chemistry EDI committee. I want to support our department in being as inclusive as possible and make a positive difference.
	Blake Parker Undergraduate Student Representative	I am a second-year undergraduate chemist with a preference for organic chemistry. I joined the EDI committee to help improve and voice an undergraduate viewpoint on EDI issues within the department. I also hope to make strides towards a time when people feel they can achieve anything they want to regardless.
	Crosby Medley PSS Working Group	I am the Chemistry Teaching Laboratory Operations Manager/ Technical Safety Officer. I joined the EDI Committee to help the department with its effort to provide a positive and supportive working environment for staff and students.
	Rebecca Ingle PDRF Working Group Leader	I'm a lecturer in physical chemistry interested in developing and using ultrafast X-ray and optical spectroscopies to study photochemical processes. I have joined the EDI committee to promote the interests and improve the working environment for our postdoctoral research associates.
	Lily Ellis-Gibbings PDRA Working Group	I am an Australian working as a PDRA in Chemistry, studying how molecules are formed and destroyed in space and the atmospheres of exoplanets. I am very passionate about inequality, representation and work-life balance, and help run the chemistry and light seminars as well as events for postdocs. I joined the EDI committee to push for a better working environment for all in the Chemistry Department.
	Hunaida Bhabha PGT Working Group	I am a Master's student on the Chemical Research MSc at UCL. I hope to provide insights from my experiences as a Postgraduate BME Muslim Women to effectuate positive change in the department. I believe opportunity should be for all. After all, a diverse department is a strong one!!'
	Tom Ashton PDRA Working Group	I am a PDRA in Chemistry in electrochemical energy storage, developing new materials and understanding how they operate on an atomic scaled using synchrotron-based techniques. I joined the committee as I am a keen advocate for equal opportunities regardless of ethnicity, gender, beliefs or socioeconomic background

2020 - 2021 Members