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Location: Exhibition Road, London, England, United Kingdom.
Website: www.imperial.ac.uk
Phone: +44 20 7589 5111
Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine
Imperial College London (officially The Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine)[1] is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom, specialising in science, engineering, medicine and business.[5] A former constituent college of the federal University of London, it became fully independent on 9 July 2007, as part of the celebrations of its centenary.[6] It is regarded as being one of the most prestigious universities in the world.
Imperial's main campus is located in the South Kensington (Albertopolis) area of Central London, with additional campuses in Chelsea, Hammersmith, Paddington and Silwood Park. It has one of the largest estates of any higher education institution in the UK.[8] Imperial is organised into four main faculties within which there are over 40 departments, institutes and research centres.[9] Imperial has around 13,500 students and 3,330 academic and research staff and had a total income of £765 million in 2011/12, of which £314 million was from research grants and contracts.
Imperial is consistently ranked among the top universities in the world, ranking 5th in the world (and 3rd in Europe) in the 2013 QS World University Rankings and 8th in the world (and 3rd in Europe) in the 2012 Times Higher Education World University Rankings. In a corporate study carried out by The New York Times, its graduates were one of the most valued in the world.[13] There are currently 14 Nobel laureates and two Fields medalists amongst Imperial's alumni and current and former faculty.
Imperial is a major centre for biomedical research and is a founding member of the Francis Crick Institute and Imperial College Healthcare, an academic health science centre.[16] Imperial is a member of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the Association of MBAs, the European University Association, the G5, the League of European Research Universities, Oak Ridge Associated Universities and the Russell Group. It forms part of the "golden triangle" of British universities.
History of Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine:
The origins of the constituent elements of Imperial can be traced back to the College of St Gregory and St Martin at Wye, which was originally founded by John Kempe, the Archbishop of York, in 1447 as a seminary, with an agricultural college being established at Wye in 1894 after the removal of the seminary.
The medical schools of Charing Cross Hospital, Westminster Hospital and St Mary's Hospital were opened in 1823, 1834 and 1854 respectively.
The Royal College of Chemistry was established by private subscription in 1845 as there was a growing awareness that practical aspects of the experimental sciences were not well taught and that in the United Kingdom the teaching of chemistry in particular had fallen behind that in Germany. As a result of a movement earlier in the decade, many politicians donated funds to establish the college, including Benjamin Disraeli, William Gladstone and Robert Peel. It was also supported by Prince Albert, who persuaded August Wilhelm von Hofmann to be the first professor. William Henry Perkin studied and worked at the college under von Hofmann, but resigned his position after discovering the first synthetic dye, mauveine, in 1856. Perkin's discovery was prompted by his work with von Hofmann on the substance aniline, derived from coal tar, and it was this breakthrough which sparked the synthetic dye industry, a boom which some historians have labelled the second chemical revolution.
His contribution lead to the creation of the Perkin Medal, an award given annually by the Society of Chemical Industry to a scientist residing in the United States for an "innovation in applied chemistry resulting in outstanding commercial development". It is considered the highest honour given in the industrial chemical industry.
The Royal School of Mines was established by Sir Henry de la Beche in 1851, developing from the Museum of Economic Geology, a collection of minerals, maps and mining equipment.
He created a school which laid the foundations for the teaching of science in the country, and which has its legacy today at Imperial. Prince Albert was a patron and supporter of the later developments in science teaching, which led to the Royal College of Chemistry becoming part of the Royal School of Mines, to the creation of the Royal College of Science and eventually to these institutions becoming part of his plan for South Kensington being an educational region.
The Great Exhibition was organised by Prince Albert, Henry Cole, Francis Fuller and other members of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce as a celebration of industrial technology and design. The Great Exhibition made a surplus of £186,000 which was used to found the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum which were all built in the area to the south of the exhibition, nicknamed Albertopolis, alongside the Imperial Institute.
The Royal College of Science was established in 1881. The main objective was to support the training of science teachers and to develop teaching in other science subjects alongside the Royal School of Mines earth sciences specialities.
The Imperial Institute was created in 1887 to celebrate Queen Victoria's Jubilee with the intention of it being a scientific research institution exploring and developing the raw materials of the Empire countries. The building was constructed in South Kensington between 1888 and 1893. It had a central tower (the Queen's Tower), smaller towers at the east and west end, a library, laboratories, conference rooms and exhibition galleries with gardens at the rear.
