Julia Goodfellow was the first woman ever to lead a UK research council, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), to which she was appointed chief in 2002. Her scientific interests centre on biomolecular research into the role of water in protein structure, an important area for understanding the source of a number of human diseases.

She began her career in crystallography as Professor of Biomolecular Science at Birkbeck in 1995 and was promoted to Vice Master in 1998. She was elected Universities UK president from 2015 to 2017, the first woman to hold the role. She has also variously been Vice-Chancellor of the University of Kent and Chair of the British Science Association. In 2010 she was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for her services to science.

Joanna Bourke is Professor Emerita of History at Birkbeck and a Fellow of the British Academy. She is also the Professor of Rhetoric at Gresham College. Bourke is the Principal Investigator of an interdisciplinary Wellcome Trust-funded project entitled ‘SHaME’ (Sexual Harms and Medical Encounters, which explores medical and psychiatric aspects of sexual violence).

Joanna’s first book was “From Husbandry to Housewifery, a history of female labour in rural Ireland in the nineteenth century”. After writing a book on the British working classes in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (“Working-Class Cultures in Britain 1860-1960”), her interests turned to the experiences of men and women in wartime. After a number of books on the cultural history of modern warfare (including “Dismembering the Male” and “An Intimate History of Killing”), she turned to the history of the emotions (especially fear: a book entitled “Fear: A Cultural History”) and to the history of rape (“Rape: A History from the 1860s to the Present”).

In 2022, her book 200 Years of Radical Learning for Working People was published, as part of the commemoration of Birkbeck’s bicentenary.

Jean Floud (a member of a longstanding Communist family and the aunt of Birkbeck economic historian Roderick Floud) was relief secretary for the International Student Service.

She pleaded with Birkbeck to take more Polish, French, Belgian, and Czech refugees. The fact that the College did accept many either by offering free places or the remission of fees is indicated by the fact that, in 1940, one quarter of Birkbeck students were refugees.

Jacqui Oatley is one of Britain’s leading sports presenters and commentators with almost two decades of experience. Jacqui made history in 2007 as the first female commentator on Match of the Day and has also been the lead commentator on Sky Sports’ coverage of the FA Women’s Super League and presented EFL on Quest as well as darts for ITV Sport.

She completed the ‘Introduction to Journalism’ course at Birkbeck College and was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2016 New Year Honours list for services to broadcasting and diversity in sport. The award was in recognition of her work behind the scenes championing the role of women working in football as well as the promotion of the women’s game. She is a Women in Football ambassador and serves on the national committee of the Football Writers’ Association.

Jacqui was a BBC commentator on the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee procession in 2012.

Jack is an Olympic Silver medallist and a retired British rower. He is the son of Olympic rower Peter Beaumont and has worked to broaden the appeal of rowing to more diverse communities.

He won European Championships bronze in 2015, is a former World under-23 medallist and made his own Olympic debut at the Rio 2016 Games, during which he undertook an undergraduate degree in Criminology at Birkbeck- studying in the evenings after a full day’s training.

He now works in business development and sales and has spoken of inspiring the next generation as he diversifies his career path: “I wanted to work for a company that was doing something that would improve people’s lives.”

On a mission to showcase rowing to communities who might otherwise not be exposed, he says, “Rowing is a small community and it is a sport that could definitely be more diverse, like Birkbeck was. I’ve been visiting rowing clubs and schools to show my medal and share my experiences. The more we can showcase rowing, the better.”

JJ Bola is a writer, poet and advocate for refugees. His second novel, The Selfless Act of Breathing, interrogates  themes through the lens of mental health and is being adapted into a feature-length film.

After arriving in the UK as a refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and growing up on a council estate, JJ worked as a youth worker, supporting young people with behavioural and mental health problems. He privately maintained a passion for writing, crafting poetry in his spare time.

JJ pursued his talent by studying Creative Writing at Birkbeck. He has since published further poetry collections and novels that incorporate themes from his family background and experience as a youth worker: “I’m fortunate to have a unique lens on the world that reflects my many conflicting identities — refugee, anglophone, francophone, Black, working-class. With my work, I hope to offer an alternative perspective on issues across lines of race, class, ethnicity and sexuality.”

JJ is also a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Ambassador and advocates for the importance of education in society.

John Desmond was one of the most eminent scientists in molecular biology and is widely regarded as the founding father of the science of science, the sociohistorical study of science. He would go on to pioneer the use of x-ray crystallography but his interests took him beyond the field of science to socio-political issues.

The physicist, nicknamed “Sage” for his encyclopaedic knowledge, was appointed professor of physics at Birkbeck College, London in 1938 but at the onset of the Second World War he was called for service duties. After the war, John Desmond resumed his professorial duties at Birkbeck, setting up the Biomolecular Research Laboratory in 1948.

As well as groups working on organic crystals and proteins, he had others working on computers, the structure of cements (buildings and building materials were a life-long interest), and the structure of water. Rosalind Franklin later joined him to start work on virus structure, which she continued with Aaron Klug.

Driven by political and sociological developments, Irish-born John Desmond, a Marxist, co-founded the World Peace Council and during the second world war, encouraged the College to introduce midday lectures aimed at the general public to reverse what he called the “intellectual blackout in London”.

Isobel Armstrong has been one of the most powerful, dynamic and inspirational figures in literary and cultural studies over the last three decades. In 1989 Birkbeck recruited her from Southampton for the then Department of English at Birkbeck. She oversaw a period of unprecedented renewal and expansion for the Department of English.

Since the time she joined, English has doubled in size according to every measure. Her impact was felt far beyond the Department of English. She established a Master’s course in Gender, Society and Culture, the first cross-faculty Master’s course in the College. In 1995, she also began an important initiative to develop the recruitment and support of international students in the College.

Her book Victorian Poetry appeared in 1993 and immediately established itself as the one completely indispensable book on the field. She published an anthology entitled Nineteenth-Century Women Poets, coedited with Joseph Bristow, which changed the face of nineteenth-century literary studies, making available the work of dozens of fine, fascinating female poets that had previously been forgotten and inaccessible to students.

After a ten-day solo journey from war-torn Aleppo, Syria, to Calais, Ishmael Hamoud spent 13 months in the Calais jungle alongside thousands of other migrants. Eventually, the Dubs Amendment (a policy by Lord Alf Dubs, himself a child refugee in WWII) allowed him legal passage to the UK and secured him a home with foster parents.

Ishmael applied to Birkbeck’s Compass project, allowing him to study a fully funded Access to Higher Education course, where he studied hard and proved bright enough to progress directly into the second year of a Bachelor’s in Global Politics and International Relations.

He has been interviewed on British TV about his experiences and undertaken work experience in Parliament with Lord Dubs. He has said: “I eventually want to become a politician, like my father. My dream job would be working for the British Foreign Office in Middle East Policy.”