Dean's update
15 Apr 2019
Message from Graham Lord
Dear Colleagues
You may be aware that each year thousands of alumni and supporters generously donate to the University. Their donations have a huge impact all over campus from research projects, to the hundreds of students who are supported by donor-funded scholarships, to the buildings they study and learn in. Last week the University welcomed its donors to campus for a Celebration of Philanthropy which is an opportunity to thank donors – from those who give £5 a month to transformational life-time gifts and those who choose to leave a legacy to the University.
It was fascinating to learn about the wide-ranging impact that donations have at the University, and to meet students, staff and researchers who benefit from this generosity, such as Anya Golder who is a donor-funded PhD student in Ovarian Cancer research. One of our medical students, Mohammed Hossain, who received a scholarship through the Manchester Access Programme – which supports many FBMH students - spoke about his desire to become a researcher in Stroke. He said the opportunity would never have been possible for him without the donor-funded scholarship.
I was involved in inaugurating new donors into the President’s Circles of Philanthropy which recognise the contributions of our most significant benefactors. The two circles are named after key figures in the University’s philanthropic history: The Beyer Circle, named for the engineer Charles Frederick Beyer, honours those who gift more than £100,000 to the University; and the Langworthy Circle, named for the business man and politician, Edward Ryley Langworthy, honours those who have committed over £1 million to the University.
Our Faculty will benefit greatly from three new Langworthy level gifts. Brothers, and retail pharmacy entrepreneurs, Dr Yakub Patel and Dr Anwer Patel from Bolton, have bestowed a transformative gift that will help us to establish a world-leading cancer research centre on the site of the Paterson Research Building that was destroyed by fire in 2017. The replacement building, which will soon be considered by Manchester City Council planners, will drive a new model of integration of basic discovery, translational and clinical research, drawing on our strengths in genomics, health economics and clinical informatics - all fundamental to delivering changes in clinical pathways to benefit patients.
It was a pleasure for me to deliver an oration in honour of the venture capitalist Jon Moulton and The J P Moulton Charitable Foundation. The Foundation, which supports clinical research, has chosen to support research here for many years. Thanks to Jon’s interest in patient impact and clinical trials, we’ve seen great strides taken towards effective treatments for illnesses such as asthma, allergy, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, endometrial cancer, lung cancer and heart disease. The impact of Jon’s generosity is vast and significant. He’s devoted considerable time and resource to supporting a wide range of medical research, and, through his steadfast commitment, is helping to improve survival rates and quality of life.
Stuart Allan, our research domain director for Neuroscience and Mental Health, gave an oration in celebration of Neil Dickson MBE and The Brain Tumour Charity. Neil has worked tirelessly to support research in this field of medicine. As you’ll know, the Faculty has a bold ambition to deliver global impact for people affected by cancer and other major diseases, and The Brain Tumour Charity is playing a pivotal role in helping us achieve this vision. Through a landmark donation, The Brain Tumour Charity is enabling us to establish a Chair in Neuro-Oncology, bolstering our expertise in brain cancer and surgery in unprecedented ways.
New Beyer donors supporting our Faculty priorities were also inaugurated at the ceremony: The Onside Youth Zones founder, and investor and philanthropist, Bill Holroyd CBE DL, and The Holroyd Foundation which promotes health, welfare, education and opportunity with an emphasis on young people, and alumnus David Brierwood and his wife Sandra, are supporting development of the Paterson into a world-leading cancer research centre; and James Corsan, representing The Jean Corsan Foundation, has made a donation to support a PhD student with a focus on therapeutic targets for Dementia and Motor Neurone Disease.
It was a truly humbling experience for me to meet these altruistic donors and to have the opportunity to talk once again to returning Langworthy Circle members, Michael Oglesby and Sir Norman Stoller whose philanthropic support to the University have been momentous. For much of my academic career I’ve been involved with trusts and foundations which are critical supporters of research in the UK. But I’ve had less involvement with individual donors and so having the opportunity to talk to people about their motivations for gifting such transformative gifts to the University was very special.
I was also delighted to attend the inaugural Lister Lecture given by Matt Hepworth in the Division of Infection, Immunity & Respiratory Medicine. Matt is a Wellcome Trust and Royal Society Sir Henry Dale Fellow and Lister Institute of Preventative Medicine Research Fellow. Work in his lab is focuses on understanding how the immune system keeps us healthy at ‘barrier’ sites such as the lung and gastrointestinal tract. The Lister Institute of Preventative Medicine supports early career independent investigators in developing new lines of research outside of their core research programme. The award was presented by Sir Alex Markham, the Chairman of the Institute and he commented on the critical mass that we have in a number of areas of basic bioscience, such as Immunology.
This sort of funding is important because it allows talented early career scientists working on fundamental biological questions to take academic risks in new avenues of research in a relatively unconstrained manner. In the current climate of justifying and planning the outcomes of our research before we have actually done it, this is a far-sighted approach from the Lister Institute and one that I hope other funders will take note of.
I hope you have an enjoyable Easter break when it comes!
All the best, Graham