The University of Manchester presented its Outstanding Alumna Award 2015 to Lopa Patel MBE on Monday 13th July 2015. Presented by the Faculty of Life Sciences during the annual graduation ceremony, the award recognised Lopa for promoting skills, education and training while running her own business and for encouraging entrepreneurship among women and underrepresented groups. Lopa received an engraved medal (bearing the image of Sir John Douglas Cockcroft who was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1951) from Vice President and Dean Of the Faculty, Professor Martin Humphries. Lopa graduated from the University of Manchester with a Bachelor of Science degree with honours in Biochemistry and Applied Molecular Biology.
Associate Dean, Professor Amanda Bamford read a citation describing Lopa as an “ardent evangelist for the STEM subjects – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – she is a technology ambassador for STEMNET, which aims to encourage more girls to pursue careers in science, and is a former non-executive director of Becta, the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency. Made an MBE for services to the creative industries in 2009, in April 2015 she became the first Asian women to receive the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion.”
In accepting the award, Lopa said that award was special “because it is from my University. Next year will mark 30 years since I graduated and to be honest in many ways it still feels like only yesterday. Every time I visit Manchester, as soon as the University comes into view I feel a sense of homecoming. The University gave me many opportunities and made me the person that I am today.”
She ended by thanking the University “staff and graduates for making the University of Manchester such a special place”.
About the University of Manchester Faculty of Life Sciences
The University of Manchester Faculty of Life Sciences is a world-class research establishment, that is home to more than 1,000 researchers, over 2,000 undergraduate students and has an annual budget in excess of £100 million. The Faculty’s research fields include environmental biology, disease biology, neurosciences, genetics and zoology. There are also world-leading researchers studying vision science and the history of science, technology and medicine.
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For further information visit http://www.ls.manchester.ac.uk/