Professor Alice P. Gast, an internationally renowned academic leader, scholar, and researcher, became President of Imperial College London on 1 September 2014. Prior to her appointment at Imperial, Professor Gast was the 13th President of Lehigh University, Pennsylvania, USA, from August 2006 to August 2014. Other leadership roles include serving as the Vice-President for Research and Associate Provost and Robert T. Haslam Chair in Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 2001 - 2006. Professor Gast’s academic interest is in surface and interfacial phenomena, in particular the behaviour of complex fluids. She has co-authored numerous scientific publications and a classic textbook on colloid and surface phenomena. She was a professor of chemical engineering at Stanford University from 1985 to 2001 and affiliated with the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory. Professor Gast is a member of a number of international advisory committees and boards including the Board of Trustees for the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia; the Academic Research Council for the Singapore Ministry of Education; and the Global Science and Innovation Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of Malaysia. She is a United States Science Envoy to the Caucasus and Central Asia. In 2012, she was appointed to the board of directors of Chevron Corporation. Professor Gast was educated at the University of Southern California and Princeton University.

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