Search Results for: careers

Posted on Around Campus, Careers, Events, News

RCSA and RCSU double up on careers’ panels as jobs market gets tougher!

Following the successful pilot of a BioChem Soc careers’ panel organised jointly by the RCSA and RCSU in 2025, January saw a doubling up of panels to help RCS students cope with the current, tough jobs market.

RCSU VP Education Jacob Eyre working with the RCSA team of Mike Munroe and Sylvia Watson had organised two panels this year. One for the Physical Sciences held on January 20th and one for the Life Sciences held a week later on the 27th.

Using the successful panel format from last year, the RCSA had assembled two excellent groups of alumni volunteers to share their career journeys and answer questions with RCS student audiences covering first years all the way up to post grads.

Both events were lively, with students keen to get insight into how to get the best possible career opportunities at a time when competition for jobs is stiff. In total the panels had over 250 students in attendance reflecting the high interest and excellent marketing by the RCSU team.… Read more...

Posted on Around Campus, Events, News

BioChemSoc/RCSA careers’ evening delivers!!

With support and encouragement from both RCSU and the Faculty, the RCSA and the RCS BioChemSoc, held a very successful careers’ panel evening on Tuesday 11th February in the Sir Alexander Fleming Building on the South Kensington campus.

The event was jointly organised by BioChemSoc and RCSA presidents, Matthew Romero and Mike Munroe. Working together, they assembled a large group of undergraduate Biochemistry and Life Science students to hear the career stories of an exciting panel of eight RCS alumni (again mostly Biochemists or Life Scientists). The alumni panel, pictured above, consisted of Jamie Alldridge, Menelik Chen-Lee, Thomas Davis, Alex Ramirez, Noel Si-Tou, Dominique Kleyn, Jennie Munroe and Robert Pinchen and covered a wide range of age/experience cohorts as well as a fascinating array of careers including: patent law, consultancy, project management, start-ups, big tech, teaching and product safety.

Following a brief (five minute) overview of their academic backgrounds and careers, the panel went on to answer a series of pre-set questions from the students.… Read more...

RCSA’s Careers Support

Careers Panels

The RCSA offers careers support and networking to our students. We put on Careers Panels early in the year, where alumni come to talk about the careers they have embarked on and answer questions from students who will soon be entering the world of work. In January of 2026 we held two, one for the Physical Sciences and a second, held a week later, for the Life Sciences.

The RCSA Young Professionals

Amongst our mentoring initiatives we established the group variously known as Young Professionals’ Network (YPN), Imperial Young Professionals (IYP) or, as we prefer to call it, the RCSA Young Professionals (RCSA-YP).

IYP / RCSA-YP is a community of ex-Imperial mentors and undergrads, creating a network through career mentorship and socials. To date, we’ve held dozens of career workshops and mentored Imperial undergraduates to land some of the most coveted roles in Finance, Consulting & Tech.… Read more...

Posted on Annual Dinner, Careers, Events, News, RCSA Trust

RCSA double up with two sparkling alumni events on the same day!

The recent Great Exhibition Road Festival (GERF) weekend (June 5-7) saw a busy and enjoyable London visit for many RCS alumni! The highlight was the RCSU/RCSA joint Summer Dinner at the London Postal Museum. 130 RCS students and alumni got into their best outfits and gathered at the underground WC1 location of the London Postal Museum’s Mail Rail venue. This outstanding and atmospheric space had dining tables in amongst the museum exhibits and right next to the driverless, narrow gauge underground Mail Rail, The diners enjoyed a superb three-course meal and wine, followed by speeches and an award ceremony. The excellent key note speech was by RCS alumnus Jamie Alldridge who spoke passionately about his time at Imperial and offered insights and advice for current student wanting to make the most of their time at college and to be successful in their chosen careers. RCSU president Jack Swires then presented 12 students and alumni (pictured above) with various RCS colours awards.… Read more...

Posted on Around Campus, Events, News, Projects & Campaigns

President’s Autumn Message

The RCSA needs your help again!

Dear fellow RCS alumni,

[UPDATE: Dates of career panels confirmed: Physical Sciences on 20th of January, Life Sciences on 27th of January.]

I trust you all enjoyed a wonderful summer.

As we transition into another academic year at Imperial College, it’s time for the Royal College of Science Association gear up support for and engagement with the current crop of RCS students.

You will know already from our very busy Royal College of Science Association website how active the RCSA has been in recent years and it is crucial we sustain this momentum!

This time, instead of seeking donations or following up on memberships, we’re asking for a bit of your time and direct participation! We are calling for volunteers to help with two specific projects we are planning for the new academic year.

  1. Careers evenings. Our very successful Biochemistry/Life Sciences careers panel evening back in January this year (see Careers Evening with the Royal College of Science Association) was enjoyed by both the alumni and students, proving invaluable for students navigating their career paths!
… Read more...
Posted on Annual Dinner, Events, News, RCSA Trust

President’s Christmas Message

Dear Fellow RCS Alumni,

First of all, season’s greetings and hope all is good with you and your families as we come to the end of another year. This has been an amazing year for the RCSA with lots of good stuff going on that you will see in the content below and on our website and media feeds https://rcsa.org.uk/ but it is important to say right up front that the Association still has some major challenges ahead and we need more help from you, our alumni!

Our biggest challenge, I believe, is our membership! Thank you to those of you (in your hundreds) who are paid up members but there are literally tens of thousands of RCS alumni out there who are not members. What can we do about this? Firstly, please check that your membership is up to date and that direct debit payments have not expired to help us get an accurate list of up-to-date members.… Read more...

Posted on News, Outreach

RCSA work with Imperial College FoNS School Outreach Team to trial new programme

Mike Munroe RCSA president (centre) with year 12 and 13 students from St Joseph’s College, Ipswich after his talk. David Kemsley (far right) St Josephs Student Futures Advisor and Simon Stevenson Chemistry Teacher and Head of Year 12 (far left)

The RCSA are keen to support the outreach initiatives of our alumni and have teamed up with the Imperial College FoNS Schools’ Outreach team to pilot a new approach.

RCSA President Mike Munroe worked with Simon Foster, Faculty Outreach Manager at FoNS to prepare a presentation to the 6th Form at St Joseph’s College Ipswich.  Dave Kemsley, the Student Futures Adviser at St Joseph’s College helped set up the event as part of the schools’ regular career’s guidance programme. Mike Munroe gave a presentation to about eighty year 12 and 13 students on STEMB (science, technology, engineering, maths and business) careers in the Flavour and Fragrance industry and included a section on Imperial College prepared by Simon Foster. This section included an overview and introduction to Imperial as well as guidance and advice on entry requirements, how to prepare for interviews, personal statements and other general good advice.… Read more...

Outreach

Mike Munroe RCSA president (centre) with year 12 and 13 students from St Joseph’s College, Ipswich after his talk. David Kemsley (far right) St Josephs Student Futures Advisor and Simon Stevenson Chemistry Teacher and Head of Year 12 (far left)

We can all agree that outreach is a laudable activity. In the RCS context, outreach is primarily the practice of visiting and interacting with young people who might not otherwise come across the full story of the wonders of science, or might not appreciate the potential of science for a fulfilling tertiary education leading to a rewarding and remunerative career. These young people might also need some guidance with their choices of GCSE and ‘A’ level subjects to ensure they meet the pre-requisites for the degree course they aspire to. And of course, a few pointers in case their chosen institution might be Imperial College, may not go amiss either.

But outreach also encompasses the more general public, assisting the ‘man in the street’ with his/her appreciation and understanding of science.

Our members tell us they think outreach is important, the College and our faculty are always urging the Association and our members to assist in their their outreach efforts, and our student members get actively involved in outreach also.… Read more...

Posted on News, RCSA Trust

The RCSA Prize

Try as we may, we just couldn’t separate the two wonderfully talented RCS women that were our top nominations for the prestigious 2023 ‘RCSA Prize‘. So, as has happened on three previous occasions, BOTH candidates were awarded the prize.

At a brief ceremony in front of Queen Victoria’s statue on Commemoration Day, Professor Richard Craster, Dean of RCS (or Dean of FoNS if you want to be terribly modern), and Mike Munroe, President of the RCSA, shared the officiating duties and presented Bilgesu Aydin from Physics, and Vanessa Madu from Mathematics with their their framed certificates and with cheques for £300.

The occasion is captured in the photograph above and you can see, from left to right, Mike Munroe (RCSA President), prize winner Vanessa Madu, Professor Richard Craster, (Dean of RCS), prize winner Bilgesu Aydin, and Oscar Farrell (RCSA Hon Sec).

Our members will recall that the RCSA Prize was instigated in 1997 and awarded annually at Commemoration Day to a student “who has excelled academically and made a great all-round contribution to the College“ and Bilgesu and Vanessa certainly fit the requirements.… Read more...

News: From here, there and everywhere.

Dr Keith Arundale

BSc(Physics), ARCS, MSc(Applied Optics), DIC,*

(Physics 1971-74, Applied Optics 1975)

We are delighted to hear from Keith, our RCSA President from 1996 to 1998. He tells us he remains happily married to his American Wife, Kathy, who is a critical care and A&E nurse and who originates from Pittsburg, USA. Keith and Kathy live in Windsor, Berkshire with their three cats.

But Keith particularly wanted to share this news with us: “On 22 October 2025 eight postgrads and their partners from the Applied Optics MSc class of 1975 held their 50th reunion at Imperial with lunch at Ognisko (opposite college main entrance) followed by a tour of the Huxley and Blackett Physics labs with a talk from Prof Christopher Dunsby, Professor of Biomedical Optics in their original lecture room, andcfinishing off with a reception in the Physics Common Room”.

Look at the photo below and you’ll spot Keith 6th from left to right.… Read more...