Alumni blog

Dilani Selvanathan – Alumni Profile

(Degree Apprenticeship in Digital Technology Solutions (Software Engineer) BSc, 2021

In terms of the future, I want to combine my passion for robotics and space and work in the space industry. I want to create technology that can advance human civilisation in outer space and I want to learn more about what is out there in the universe. 

Alumni profile - Mary Ojo

(History BA, 2017; MA, 2019)

My time at Queen Mary showed me that I am at my best when serving others, so I plan and hope to engage with organisations delivering innovative solutions, to solve complex issues, for the public good.

Vidicha Chunilal – Alumni Profile

(Pharmaceutical Chemistry BSc, 2018; Clinical Drug Development MSc, 2019)

Queen Mary has made me realise that no matter your socioeconomic background, all students are equally exposed to all kinds of opportunities. No matter your background, origin or socioeconomic status, every person can achieve their goals in life.

Alumni profile - Amandeep Kaur Gill 

(Pharmaceutical Chemistry MSci, 2019)

Being among the first generation in my family to go university is quite a proud feeling, for myself and my family. All of the hard work my parents have put into raising me and encouraging me to pursue my dreams has been brought to fruition. 

Alumni profile - Arda Awais

(Design, Innovation and Creative Engineering BEng, 2017)

At Identity 2.0, the company I co-founded, we create accessible spaces for people to explore the data that they give away online because we’re fed up with people feeling powerless about the misuse of their data.

Alumni profile - Nicholas Paduano

(Finance MSc, 2020)

It is not easy when you come from another country and you are not yet fluent in the new language. But I have met such nice colleagues who became my friends later on who helped me integrate and build up a new social life.

Alumni profile - Kerri Dixon-Jones

(Law LLB, 2006)

Although Mental Health Law is a world away from the type of work I do now, that role was fundamental in teaching me about people and hard work and I am forever grateful for my manager Kate for her mentorship and friendship. It was the training Kate gave me that has made me successful in each role I have had since.

Alumni profile - Sheba Remy Kharbanda

(Law and Politics BA, 2001)

I arrived in the US right after 9/11 so my work with Amnesty was documenting the stories of people caught up in the post-9/11 Patriot Act sweeps. These people were largely South Asian, which threw me into a really confusing space. I knew the stories of my family, I knew my dad and grandparents were refugees, that my mum was in the generation that settled Southall and put it on the map in terms of immigrant towns in London. But it wasn’t my story, it was an inherited story.

Alumni profile - Hayley McCloskey

(Mathematics BSc, 2019)

I love working in the Tech industry. I have had so many amazing opportunities. I love that you do not need to be technical to work in the industry either. I love being able to do both: be somewhat technical but also client facing. 

Alumni profile - Marcus Chown

(Physics BSc, 1980)

I have stroked bats (they purred) behind the scenes on channel 4’s Sunday Brunch. I have given a talk in a glass-bottomed boat in a shark tank at Brighton sea life centre. I have been on a train through the Australian outback on a book tour and I have been chased off of BBC Radio 4’s Loose Ends by legendary rock drummer Ginger Baker, who didn’t like me mentioning the term “big bang”...