Pro-Provost of UCL East to join 'Innovation Cities' this September
Above: Professor Paola Lettieri, Director of UCL East (Courtesy University College London)
Future Cities Forum is delighted that Prof. Paola Lettieri, Pro-Provost of UCL East, UCL's new Campus at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, will be speaking at our 'Innovation Cities' discussion event at Plexal, Here East.
She will be joining our first panel of the morning with Stephen Dance, Head of the Commercial Adviser Team, Infrastructure & Projects Authority, Kirsten Lees, Partner, Grimshaw, Nuala Gallagher, Director of Corporate Development, Liverpool City Council and Michael Wiseman, Head of Office Leasing, Life Science and Innovation at British Land.
Paola is Professor of Chemical Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering Sciences at UCL. She is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) and a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (FIChemE). She joined the Department of Chemical Engineering in 2001 as a Research Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the first female engineer to be awarded a RAEng Fellowship. Prior to this, she spent 5 years at BP Chemicals, Sunbury.
Her research interests are in Fluidization and Life Cycle Assessment, with applications to the chemical, petrochemical, nuclear and energy sector. She was the recipient of a prestigious Senior Research Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering and The Leverhulme Trust for her work on nuclear waste management. She has authored over 250 papers and 7 book chapters. She is co-author of a book published by Springer on Fluidized bed reactors: processes and operating conditions.
She is a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers. She is a member of the International Expert Group on LCA for integrated waste management.
UCL East's campus is opening in two phases. One Pool Street opened in autumn 2022 and features a range of uses, including student accommodation, academic, retail, community and public engagement uses.
The design of One Pool Street encourages innovative academic programming, as well as a range of events and activities. Performances, exhibitions, workshops and lectures will contribute to a lively and creative learning atmosphere. In addition to a centre for Robotics & Autonomous Systems, it houses the Urban Room, a major public and community space, but also School for Creative and Cultural Industries spaces - namely, a Slade studio and London Memory Workshop. Meanwhile, the People and Nature Lab uses the Park as a 'living lab', and the Global Disability Innovation Hub has relocated here from its previous base at Here East.
The lower levels of the building also feature a cafe and shop to cater to both the public and UCL students and staff.
The second phase of UCL East campus called Marshgate features predominantly academic spaces, but also includes retail, community and engagement uses.
At the heart of the building is a central atrium that is openly accessible to encourage inclusivity and community engagement, with the use of 'Fluid Zones' at ground and first floor level to draw people into the building. Floor space above these levels has been designed to encourage collaboration and engagement between academic uses through largely open plan and circulatory spaces.
Marshgate houses spaces for the Advanced Propulsion Lab, the Manufacturing Futures Lab, Engineering at UCL East, the Institute for Materials Discovery at UCL East and The Bartlett at UCL East, as well as the Institute of Finance and Technology and the Global Business School for Health, which will cater to leading professionals' needs. The Institute of Making, a multidisciplinary research club for those interested in the made world, will also occupy space on the ground and first floor levels. The School for Creative and Cultural Industries facilities comprise a media lab, an object-based learning laboratory, and a suite of conservation facilities.
Below: the new Marshgate building - UCL East campus - on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (courtesy Stanton Williams)
