Faces of UCL: Spotlighting our health trailblazers

Meet the staff, students, alumni and partners who have developed life-saving cures, vaccines and diagnostic tools, transformed patient care, challenged stigma, widened access to medical education, and who continue to fight for fairier, more equitable healthcare systems around the world. 

We are also recognising those who supported our communities through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, six years after the first lockdown. Explore their stories, from operational staff who stayed on to support our communities to researchers and clinicians who rapidly applied their expertise to inform vaccine development, advise government, support patients and families and redeploy staff to the NHS. 
 

Meet the health changemakers

• Gregory Gregoriadis (1934-2026), professor at the UCL School of Pharmacy, who's discovery that encasing medicines in fat droplets could help them move through the body, paved the way for the COVID-19 vaccine 50 years later. 
• Ruby Wang, doctor who worked on the frontlines of the COVID pandemic in London and Beijing. WItnessing systems under strain, Ruby grew determined to push for solutions that transcend political, cultural and geographical divides.
• Alan Weston, Operations and Stores Supervisor who has been keeping UCL moving for 32 years, and who remained on campus with his team during COVID to ensure vital research continued uninterrupted.   
• Marcella Ryan-Coker, UCL alumna (Global Health and Development) and the first female orthopaedic surgeon in Sierra Leone, working to build a trauma care system where access to treatment is not determined by a patient’s ability to pay. 
• Ashley Slanina Davis, PhD student, mental health advocate and Student’s Union’s Education Officer 2019-2020, who championed fairer policies and more compassionate systems when students needed it most.
• Ajit Yoganathan, UCL alumnus (Chemical Engineering), who's groundbreaking cardiac technologies have transformed treatment and care for adults and children with heart disease, saving millions of lives worldwide.
• Anne Johnson, co-founder of UCL’s Institute for Global Health, who transformed policy and understanding of sexual health, working on the HIV front lines and setting up the landmark National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (NATSAL).
• Katherine Woolf, Professor of Medical Education Research at UCL, who's work to better understand and address inequity and discrimination in medical education has led to widespread policy change.

Meet all the Faces of UCL who are transforming health and healthcare.

All these stories and more are celebrated in our Faces of UCL, which is running throughout 2026. Recognising the achievements of our diverse, global community of staff, students and partners – past and present – Faces of UCL explores the stories of people who have improved lives, built communities and continue to shape a better future. 

Meet the Faces of UCL

The Faces of UCL campaign includes a new, purpose-built search page. You can use the free-text search or browse Faces by category, faculty and department, and theme. You can also see some of our Faces at the UCL200 exhibition, Two Centuries Here. 

More Faces will be revealed each month so watch this space!