On Monday 28th July, we celebrated the achievements of students from our BEng, MEng and PhD programmes at two graduation ceremonies held on campus.

The atmosphere was joyful as we welcomed students' friends and family members to the university, and watched many displays of pride.

We also awarded two fellowships for outstanding engineering achievements.

The first was awarded to Prof John Rose, who this year celebrates 70 years at Queen Mary. Having started as an undergraduate in 1955, he completed his PhD here in 1964 and has continued to teach since then, occupying a position as Head of Mechanical Engineering during the 1990s. Today John still teaches part-time, demonstrating his passion for engineering and sharing his knowledge with new generations. During his career here, John has forged international relationships through sabbatical roles and received revered awards.

In his speech, Prof James Busfield, Deputy Head of School, said: “This year marks the 70th anniversary of John's first walk along the Mile End Road to Queen Mary and since then he has given unstinting continuous service to our great university. We occasionally recognise staff who have given 25 years of service, but I am not aware of anyone in the history of the university who has given so selflessly, honourably and enduringly to the Queen Mary cause.”

Prof Keizo Akutagawa first joined Queen Mary in 1988 as a PhD student from Japan. He studied alongside Prof Busfield in the Soft Matter Group, and his resulting research led to Japanese multinational company Bridgestone becoming the first Japanese manufacturer to supply tyres to Formula One. Keizo has been responsible for more than 20 patents in his career, and he has continued to support Queen Mary through funding PhD studentships and instigating an annual donation from Bridgestone to the University.

In 2020, Keizo joined Queen Mary as a voluntary Visiting Professor whilst taking up a role at Aston Martin. Under his influence, Aston Martin has fully funded two PhD studentships. Since then, Keizo has been active in supporting our successful Formula Student Society, as well as supervising 18 PhD students.

“Throughout all of these interactions he has been the very model of the perfect student, alumni, ambassador and now visiting professor for Queen Mary, over more than a third of a century,” said Prof Busfield.

Congratulations to all of our graduands who graduated this week. After 3, 4 or 5 years of hard work, your commitment has paid off and we wish you all the best for your future careers.