Many SEMS staff were recognised this year at the Annual Faculty of Science and Engineering Celebration on the 10th December 2025. Congratulations to all the nominees for this wonderful recognition of your fantastic contributions to QMUL. Amongst the many nominations we are very pleased to announce that the following six staff were the recipients of faculty awards:

Dr Eldad Avital and Dr Karen Shoop were both recognised with “Outstanding Contribution to Student Experience and Education Excellence”. Eldad’s was recognised for his contribution as a programme director of the Aerospace streams and Karen was recognised for her contribution as a programme director of the DICE stream which came out top of the NSS league table this year.

Dr Xuekun Lu was awarded the “Outstanding Contribution to Research Award” for his research contributions in the development of electrochemical energy devices. The award recognised both his recent grant successes including the award of a European Research Council Consolidator Grant and his fantastic research publications in high impact journals.

Dr Paddy Cullen was awarded the “Outstanding Contribution to Research Impact Award” in recognition of his work on reducing methane emissions from natural gas-powered ships, through a QMUL led venture, Methanox. Paddy is the CEO of the company during the launch phase and has taken a leave of absence to concentrate on this role. The company was founded in collaboration with Prof Paul Balcombe also from SEMS.

Two of our team were awarded the “Vice-Principal’s Award for Collegiality in Research and Education”. Dr Stefaan Verbruggen and Dr Christopher Chapman were both commended for their excellence as co-leads of the Bio-Engineering Programmes, their brilliant education delivery and research excellence. Stefaan has also recently been awarded a European Research Council Consolidator Grant.