Warwick celebrates philanthropy on the 29th of May, each year, to honour The 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust, which helped found the University and continues to support us to this day. On the 27th and 28th of May 2021, we held our first Giving Day – a 36-hour online fundraising challenge for students and research.

Together, more than 300 of you raised an amazing £246,894 and the research area that attracted the greatest number of gifts over Giving Day was antimicrobial resistance.

Thank you once again to everyone who donated. You can watch the livestream content shown on the day at https://29may.warwick.ac.uk.

Name: Dr David Stirling (PhD Biosciences, 1974-78)

Area of support: Antimicrobial resistance

What giving means to me: After completing my PhD at Warwick, I moved to the U.S. and co-founded the pharmaceutical company Celgene. I have many fond memories of studying at Warwick, supervised by Professor Howard Dalton, and wanted to give back to support an area of research that I think is critically important. I chose to pledge my $250,000 donation on Giving Day to inspire my classmates to support our University.

Our new Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Building (IBRB) is now complete, bringing to life the University’s commitment to delivering world-leading research in neuroscience, microbiology and infection, cell biology, disease models, and supporting and facilitating interdisciplinary biomedical research of the highest quality.

Thanks to a £250,000 grant from the Wolfson Foundation, The Wolfson Tissue Mechanobiology and Human Disease Laboratory will be a crucial part of this innovative research environment. The next generation of academics can train and collaborate to understand the origins of diseases of the body and brain, with the aim of finding new ways to extend healthy life spans.

Name: Paul Kihiko (BSc Biological Sciences, 2016-19)

About me: I'm studying Medicine at Keele University after taking part in the Warwick's Undergraduate Research Support Scheme (URSS) in 2018. The scheme enables undergraduate students to carry out an interdisciplinary summer research project and receive a bursary to support them while they complete this.

The impact of URSS: The two learning objectives of my project were learning how to conduct and analyse Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) experiments and learning how to extract and synthesise DNA from bacteria. The crucial skills I gained from this experience were critical thinking, statistical analysis and data analytics. As I continue with my studies in Medicine, I'll definitely use these skills within patient care in making good clinical decisions. This experience has also sparked my interest in possibly specialising in pathology.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have an unprecedented effect on societies, communities and economies worldwide, and is recognised as both a health and an economic crisis.

In response, Warwick has established an Institute for Global Pandemic Planning (IGPP), combining world-class expertise to develop comprehensive solutions for global leaders struggling to respond to the health, social, economic and psychological impacts of pandemics.

Through the Institute, an interdisciplinary response group of Warwick’s experts will be rapidly mobilised to advise governments and establish a robust pipeline of doctoral students to expand worldwide scientific leadership on managing pandemics.

The first six of our 30 new PhD pandemic research scholars will start at Warwick this autumn. They will be part of a new network of international PhD students who will act as ambassadors for our scientific approach and feed key learnings back into their respective countries.

Dr Nicole Robb leads a team of biologists working on influenza and coronavirus based in the Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Building and is involved in the PhD programme.

“Over the last two decades, viral outbreaks have become more and more frequent and they’re increasing in severity,” she said. “Having a group of scientists and students who can tackle future pandemics is incredibly important.”

Alumni Clive Gillmore (MSc Management Sciences, 1979-82) and Keith Skeoch (MSc Economics 1978-79) are the principal donors behind the PhD scholarships, and we would like to thank them for their support.

Learn more about the IGPP by watching the following video: https://youtu.be/WRT65f33lls.

About me: I'm studying for a PhD in sustainability science as part of the Leverhulme-TRANSFORM Doctoral Scholarship Programme. The programme aims to train a new generation of transdisciplinary leaders who are able to address current and future sustainability challenges. My research to date has focused on renewable energy solutions for use in rural areas in South America, broadening my perspective on the critical implications of sustainability transitions, particularly in developing countries

My inspiration: As a sustainable energy advocate, I'm looking forward to academic opportunities to produce knowledge that can contribute and hopefully enhance the undergoing transition to a cleaner global energy regime. I'm very grateful to the Leverhulme Trust for enabling me to undertake this important research.

Scholarship: Feuer International Scholarship in Artificial Intelligence

About me: I enjoy engaging with work that contributes to general progress in the fundamental mathematical sciences, but that also has a measured and beneficial outcome for society; for this reason, I incorporate ideas of fairness, privacy and ethics into all of my research. In my downtime, I enjoy cooking (particularly Sichuan and Levantine cuisines at the moment), composing experimental music, and mountain biking and hiking around the UK.

My proudest achievement so far: Being interviewed on BBC evening news and NPR radio, amongst others, as a lead on one of our Covid-19 projects. I have also enjoyed working with some of my closest collaborators at Oxford on a paper that was accepted to my favourite conference. I’m looking forward to presenting this paper offering fundamental contributions to Bayesian learning.

Learn more about the Feuer International Scholarships at: www.warwick.ac.uk/services/dc/schols_fund/scholarships_and_funding/feuer

Our planet is facing a climate emergency and Warwick is playing its part to help. As an international institution of research and learning, with deep connections to society and industry, we are leading by example across our campus, our community, our research, and teaching.

Through supporting a new research training pathway for sustainability science, your gifts will create a greener, cleaner, safer world for us all.

Our ambition is to nurture a new generation of transdisciplinary leaders who are able to address current and future sustainability challenges. We are testing the real-life implications of creating a sustainable future and tackling the practical challenges of getting there, for every member of society.

Warwick already offers an undergraduate and Masters course in Global Sustainable Development and a new PhD programme led by the Institute for Global Sustainable Development, enabled by the Leverhulme Trust and hosted in the School for Cross-faculty Studies, will begin in 2021. This cohort of students will also be embedded within a larger network of researchers working on sustainability from across Warwick’s departments and interdisciplinary research centres.

Scientists and engineers from Warwick are working on the WorldF3rst, the first racing car designed and manufactured from waste material.

How can we support the birth and development of healthier children? The Centre builds on the University’s existing expertise in early life research by aiming to pioneer research into the formative factors in our lives.

The Centre’s scope starts before pregnancy with research into parenthood planning, egg and sperm production, and early embryo development, extending to research into physical and mental health disorders in the first five years of life.

Your support will enable a cross disciplinary approach, bringing together expertise from leading clinicians, mathematicians, engineers, software designers, childhood development specialists and lab-based practitioners. Partnering with industry and the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, the Centre will accelerate the development of new clinical tests and treatments and support education and training of healthcare staff.

Find out more at www.warwick.ac.uk/go/cfel.

Warwick is committed to growth, particularly in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.

As part of that vision, we are planning to create a new science campus that fosters multi-disciplinary and crosssector collaborations, inspiring future generations of scientists and engineers, and preparing students for technologyoriented careers in a 6G-enabled world.

With your support, we can grow and strengthen our world-class research and education, with state-of the art facilities where innovation will flourish. We will expand our partnerships and collaborations, and create an inclusive, inspiring, interdisciplinary environment for our students, staff, and visitors.

The Science Precinct will be so much more than a collection of laboratories and buildings, it will be a space where brilliant minds can work collaboratively to solve some of the biggest global challenges of today. At its heart, the development aims to maximise our existing strengths and capabilities, whilst adapting to new opportunities arising from rapid advances in data science, machine learning, and automation.

Learn more at www.warwick.ac.uk/about/strategy/challenges/stemgc

Warwick Boring, a team of student and alumni from across STEM disciplines, have made the finals of the most prestigious tunnelling competition in the world this summer. They will travel to LA to take part in the contest hosted by Space X entrepreneur Elon Musk. Thank you to the alumnus who generously gave £60,000 to support their efforts.

Scholarship: Wolfson Postgraduate Scholarship

About me: I completed my PhD in History at Warwick in 2015, writing a thesis on responses to flooding in England between 1500 and 1700. In 2016, I took up a permanent lectureship in early modern history at the University of Manchester and was awarded the 2017 Harold Grimm Prize for the Best Article on the Reformation. Here I continue to teach, supervise my own PhD students and research on the environmental history and historical geography of early modern Britain.

How my scholarship helped me: Wolfson’s funding opened lots of doors for me as a student and gave me the space and scope to aim high. The History department at Warwick taught me everything about how to be a historian and a colleague.

History can inspire the future. At Warwick we want to ensure that lessons from the past are shared and enjoyed by younger generations, in an ever more global and challenging world.

Your support is helping create a new Centre for Ancient Greek Culture and Society, a hub of excellence and experience offering world-class teaching and research opportunities, collaboration with Greek institutions and public engagement.

The Centre will be based within the new Faculty of Arts Building, which will be completed this year.

Visit https://warwick.ac.uk/giving/projects/ancientgreekcultureandsociety to watch our video and learn more.

Cancer research at Warwick continues to focus on four main areas: understanding cancer, improving diagnosis, developing new therapies and contributing to clinical trials.

An interdisciplinary approach is key and the team are building on our research strengths in different disciplines, ranging from biomedical research to work in Chemistry, Engineering and Mathematics.

This year, your gifts have helped support the team to move into the new IBRB building (see above). There, researchers are working to understand the ‘basic science’ of how molecular and cellular changes make cancer cells grow and spread around the body.

During the pandemic, a team of virologists have adapted their research looking at links between cancer and the Epstein Barr Virus, which causes chronic fatigue syndrome and glandular fever, to examine the virus’s effect on Covid-19. This research could improve outcomes for patients affected with long Covid.

The Wolfson Foundation has supported PhD scholarships in the Humanities at Warwick and other leading universities since 2012, awarding more than £20 million to 300 scholars. Thank you to the Foundation for renewing their support for the scholarships for the 2021/22 academic year.

About me: I'm a PhD scholar working with both the Department of Computer Science and Warwick Medical School. My research focus is improving the diagnosis of head and neck cancer using digital pathology and machine learning. By studying the cells from biopsies, I'm looking for patterns to tell us how patients will respond to therapy. This is an example of using technology for personalised, precision medicine and I hope my research will result in improved outcomes for cancer patients.

My proudest achievement: In my first-year study is successfully chairing a lab meeting. That was the first time that I used English to host an academic discussion, and it was also my first time presenting in front of my colleagues about my work.

Technology that can detect cancer tumours through patients’ skin with highprecision robotic surgery is to be developed for use in hospital settings for the first time in a project led by Warwick.