BAME Champion

I am excited to be a member of the EDI (Equality, Diversity & Inclusivity) committee to promote its values across the department.

Saf Mendez  - PhD Student

I am in my first year of my PhD and would like to take this opportunity to officially introduce myself to the department. I am excited to be a member of the EDI (Equality, Diversity & Inclusivity) committee to promote its values across the department. 

My background is in materials engineering and I am 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 (Carmalt-Parkin group). 

Having worked at 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. 

I aim to create a safe space for minority students and offer any support or guidance to the best of my ability. I will be setting up a drop-in-session on Teams every 2 weeks if anyone would like to chat, or if there are any worries or concerns that you would like to voice. However, please do not hesitate to email me if you have any questions or would prefer to chat privately.  

It is important to educate ourselves and others on understanding the struggles faced, and not take our privilege for granted. It is also important to encourage BAME people to join this institution and to bridge any attainment gap between white and BAME/BIPOC students. Diversity is a key attribute to high performing teams! 

Lastly, if you have any event ideas, resources, speakers or workshops that you would like to see, or anything else you would like to see, please drop me an email. Together, we can make this department thrive.