Interview with Professor Jeremy Kilburn, Queen Mary University of London

I had a privilege to meet and interview Professor Jeremy Kilburn, Vice-Principal and Executive Dean (Science and Engineering) of Queen Mary University of London, while he was in New Delhi in March 2014. Professor Kiblburn is a recipient of Glaxo Award for Innovative Organic Chemistry in 1997, A Leverhulme Trust Research Fellow 2001-2003 and awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree from Ramkhamhaeng University, Bangkok, Thailand in 2008.

Welcome to India, again. I believe you have been to India before, how long ago was it? May I ask what’s the purpose of this visit?
Thank you very much for your welcome and indeed for the very warm welcome I have received throughout my trip to India over the last week. I last came to India almost 25 years ago when I was just starting out as an academic and before that when I was a student. I always had a fantastic time when I travelled – quite extensively – across India, but it was strictly for holidays! This time I am here representing Queen Mary University of London, and visiting various institutions here in India to explore collaborative opportunities both for teaching and research.

What’s QMUL’s USP? Why should Indian academics consider QMUL as a partner?
Queen Mary University of London is one of the UK’s leading research-focused higher education institutions (QS ranked 115th in the world, 19th in the UK), and is a member of the Russell Group. QMUL is a broad-based university with strengths across Science and Engineering and Humanities and the Social Sciences, as well as one of the leading medical schools, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry.

With its roots firmly in the creative and culturally diverse East End of London it has one of the most diverse student bodies in the UK – a distinctive feature of QMUL. We currently have staff and students from more than 150 countries working and studying at our London campus, 46% of our students are from outside the UK and we currently host 326 Indian students – more facts and figures available here.

QMUL has partnerships with 150+ institutions worldwide. We have significant activities, particularly in China, including an award winning Joint Programme with Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications and we are developing our links across Asia and in South America. In particular, we are very keen to develop links in India. Our international collaborations are very much about equal partnerships, whether in teaching, where we offer articulation agreements and joint degrees taught 50:50, or research collaborations and joint research centres, where we look for staff and student exchanges in both directions and equal research funding for both partners.

What would be your advice to an Indian academic looking to partner with QMUL?
Individual academics may follow up on contacts made through publications and conferences, and we would certainly encourage academics in India to make contact on that basis. Institutional visits, such as those that I am making on my trip to India, will lead to a number of contacts, as will reciprocal visits by Indian colleagues to London.

On this trip we are focusing on links in science and engineering and establishing staff and student exchanges, which we hope will lead to funded research collaborations. But with academic strengths across the board in medicine, and humanities and social sciences, we are very much interested in these areas as well.

We now have a team based in New Delhi who help QMUL for recruitment, marketing and establishing potential relationships in India. They could contact Jaspreet Kaur our Regional Advisor.

What’s coming up in QML that we should be keeping an eye on?
QML is in the midst of establishing a unique Life Sciences Institute, linking its East London campuses with partners from higher education, the National Health Service and industry. It will be a truly interdisciplinary initiative and will bring together researchers and external partners in the fields of physical and biomedical sciences, tissue- and bio-engineering, ethics and law, economics, geography and the social sciences, with a focus on personalized medicine and improving health outcomes.

You will be able to find out more about how this and other exciting initiatives are progressing by visiting our website.