To commemorate the College’s bicentenary in 2023, we’re showcasing 200 ‘Birkbeck Effects’ which capture the incredible stories of our vibrant and diverse community, highlighting their achievements and impact on the world. 

Gillian Bates is a Professor of Molecular Neuroscience and a co-discoverer of the causes of Huntington’s disease, a late-onset brain disorder that leads to uncontrolled movements, emotional problems and cognitive difficulties.   

She completed her postgraduate study in MSc in Biomolecular Organisation at Birkbeck where she was awarded a Master of Science degree in 1984. 

Her interest in human genetics, and the possibilities of identifying the mutations causing genetic diseases, led her to work as a research assistant in 1983, where she then carried out her PhD on the molecular genetics of cystic fibrosis. In 1987, she continued her research as a postdoctoral fellow to work on Huntington’s disease. 

In 1998, she was awarded the Royal Society Glaxo Wellcome Award jointly with Stephen Davies, for the discovery of the cause of Huntington’s Disease. She was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1999, the European Molecular Biology Organisation in 2002 and the Royal Society in 2007. 

To commemorate the College’s bicentenary in 2023, we’re showcasing 200 ‘Birkbeck Effects’ which capture the incredible stories of our vibrant and diverse community, highlighting their achievements and impact on the world. 

Brougham was a British statesman and was the London Mechanics’ Institute’s leading orator, playing a significant role in its establishment and survival. In 1826, he founded the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge which published information to people who were unable to obtain formal teaching or who preferred self-education.   

His book on education became the ‘Bible’ for everyone involved in educating working people.  He argued that only “tyrants “and other “bad rulers” should be terrified by “the progress of knowledge among the mass of mankind”.  

In Parliament, Brougham was a tireless champion of workers’ education and believed that mass education was essential for political reform.  He also played a prominent role in passing the 1832 Reform Act, which introduced major changes to the electoral systems of England and Wales, and the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act. 

Brougham holds the House of Commons record for non-stop speaking in 1828 when he spoke for six hours on law reform. 

To commemorate the College’s bicentenary in 2023, we’re showcasing 200 ‘Birkbeck Effects’ which capture the incredible stories of our vibrant and diverse community, highlighting their achievements and impact on the world. 

Helena Kennedy KC is one of the UK’s most distinguished lawyers and has spent her professional life advocating for the least represented in society, championing civil liberties and promoting human rights.  

Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws was elevated to the House of Lords as a peer in 1997 and has acted in many of the most prominent British criminal cases of the last 30 years, including the Brighton bombing attack on the British cabinet, the Guildford Four Appeal and the Michael Bettany espionage case.  

As chair of the Further Education Commission into Widening Participation, she produced the seminal Learning Works 1997 (aka the Kennedy Report), which led to changes in government policy in further education and has been hailed as a turning point in efforts to close the education divide in the UK. 

Baroness Kennedy was made a Fellow of Birkbeck since 2021 and was commended during her oration for sharing Birkbeck’s ethos of promoting higher education for everyone, and not only the privileged few. In 2023, she participated in King Charles and Queen Camilla’s coronation at Westminster Abbey, carrying the Queen Consort’s Rod with Dove.  

To commemorate the College’s bicentenary in 2023, we’re showcasing 200 ‘Birkbeck Effects’ which capture the incredible stories of our vibrant and diverse community, highlighting their achievements and impact on the world. 

Geraldine Sundstrom is a managing director and portfolio manager at investment management firm PIMCO, the world’s biggest bond fund manager and a passionate advocate for increasing the visibility and empowerment of women in finance and committed to building a portfolio of investments that support a green recovery.     

She is a prominent figure in the hedge fund industry and was formerly a partner and portfolio manager at Brevan Howard Asset Management LLP, where she was responsible for leading the Emerging Markets Strategies Fund, which invests in interest rates, currencies and bonds. With over twenty years investment experience, Geraldine has also held positions at Moore Capital and Citigroup.  

She has been referred to as “The Hedgefund Superstar”, by the London Evening Standard and “the most prominent woman in the famously secretive world of hedge funds” by The Times. Geraldine has said that she follows the motto of “winning by not losing” when it comes to managing investor portfolios. 

Geraldine graduated with an MSc in Finance from Birkbeck in 1998 and in 2010 received the 100 Women in Hedge Funds European Industry Leadership Award. 

To commemorate the College’s bicentenary in 2023, we’re showcasing 200 ‘Birkbeck Effects’ which capture the incredible stories of our vibrant and diverse community, highlighting their achievements and impact on the world. 

James Lovelock is best known as the originator of the Gaia hypothesis, the idea that the Earth is a self-regulating system, with that evidence forming Gaia theory. Among his numerous and notable inventions are the electron capture detector, making possible the detection of ozone-damaging CFC gases, and the microwave oven.  

James studied chemistry at Birkbeck College, just before the start of the Second World War, and in 2008 was made a Fellow of the College. He was brought up a Quaker and indoctrinated with the notion that God is a still, small voice within. 

He was viewed as one of the UK’s most respected independent scientists and never officially retired, taking daily two-to-three-mile walks until his later years, and publishing his book Novacene, an argument for the emergence of a new age from existing artificial intelligence systems, just before his hundredth birthday. 

James died in 2022, on the day of his 103^rd birthday and, besides his scientific achievements, will be remembered as an environmentalist with his research highlighting some of the most recent environmental issues such as the destruction of the ozone layer and global warming.

To commemorate the College’s bicentenary in 2023, we’re showcasing 200 ‘Birkbeck Effects’ which capture the incredible stories of our vibrant and diverse community, highlighting their achievements and impact on the world. 

Helen, a scientist and astronaut, is renowned for being the first British person in space and the first woman to visit the Mir space station. She excelled at science, being the only girl in her class to take physics and chemistry and was awarded a PhD in chemistry at Birkbeck in 1987.  

Two years after completing her studies at Birkbeck, Helen responded to a radio advert asking for applicants to be the first British space explorer. She was selected on the basis of her strong scientific background and capacity for learning foreign languages. Her eight-day mission to the Mir space station, in 1991 at the age of just twenty-seven, involved medical and agricultural experiments, photographing the British Isles and a radio hookup with British schoolchildren.  

She has served as a role model for many young people, which has resulted in numerous schools naming houses and buildings after her as well as holding annual Sharman science events. 

Helen is now president of the Institute of Science and Technology and has written two books, including a children’s book, The Space Place. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), the year following her space mission.