10 December 2024
Distinguished guests and inspirational figures hosted by King's during 2024
This year King’s has played host to influential figures including four Nobel prize winners, an Olympic medallist, an award-winning novelist, an acclaimed set designer, a lauded poet and leading politicians from all around the world.
During 2024 King’s has welcomed a wide range of inspirational figures and leaders in their fields who have shared their insights, expertise, personal stories and creativity with our staff, students, academics and external visitors to our campuses. Here are just some of the many distinguished guests who have joined us at King's this year:
Four Nobel prize winners visited the university in 2024, offering fascinating glimpses into their career journeys and pioneering research. In January Professor Giorgio Parisi, joint winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics, was awarded an honorary degree in Mathematics at King’s Winter Graduation. The following month, Nobel Prize laureate and eminent figure in the realms of electrical engineering and lasers, Professor Gérard Mourou delivered the annual Wheatstone Lecture. July saw Pierre Agostini, the 2023 Nobel Prize Winner for Physics, visit the Department of Physics where he shared meditations on fame in science and the future of attosecond physics. And in July Dr John Jumper, one of the winners of the 2024 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, came to King’s the day after the announcement to talk to students.
In February, international law and human rights barrister Amal Clooney spoke about Freedom of Speech in International Law including how journalists today face unprecedented threats and how states are increasingly criminalising speech.
During March, The Princess Royal, in her role as Chancellor of the University of London, met with researchers, clinicians and collaborators of the UNITY Project to learn about the introduction of non-invasive, low-cost portable MRIs to sub-Saharan African and South Asian countries.
In May the London Defence Conference played host to politicians, military experts, academics and policymakers from around the world including the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Radek Sikorski, the Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti and the Australia’s Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd.
The event also heard from UK politicians including Secretary of State for Defence at the time Grant Shapps, and Oliver Dowden, who was Deputy Prime Minister. Attendees also heard from John Healy MP and David Lammy MP, the current Secretary of State for Defence and Foreign Secretary respectively, who at the time held the Shadow roles and spoke about Labour's commitment to security and defence.
That same month saw former Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon outline the need for “urgent reform” of the powerful Security Council to stop political wrangling from preventing action on major humanitarian crises.
June saw leaders from the Private Equity and investment industry including Johannes Huth, Partner and Chairman of KKR Europe, the Middle East and Africa visit King’s Business School to discuss the role the industry might play in the world in the future.
In July, the UK Secretary of State for Education, the Rt Hon Bridget Phillipson MP, spoke at the 12th Education Embassy Conference, held at King's, about the importance of international students to the UK higher education sector, and the value of international partnerships to the Government’s aims to create opportunity for all.
Author, actor, broadcaster and comedian Stephen Fry visited in September to deliver the inaugural lecture of the Living Well With Technology series from the Digital Futures Institute, during which he warned that development of Artificial Intelligence and emergent technologies should not be left solely to tech companies.
Celebrated Olympic medallist and King’s Alum Dina Asher-Smith returned to the university in October to open our new academic year.
Es Devlin, who has designed sets for numerous theatre productions and two Olympic ceremonies, created an installation on the Strand featuring portraits of 50 Londoners who have experienced forced displacement. The opening event in October for Congregation in St Mary Le Strand Church was attended by the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan.
In November, poet and novelist Sir Ben Okri read his poem ‘I Sing the Spirt Fantastic’, to launch ‘Vital Signs: another world is possible’, a Science Gallery London exhibition looking at how our wellbeing is connected to the health of the natural world.
On a similar theme, acclaimed author Amitav Ghosh presented the Global Cultures Institute annual lecture, in which he explored how climate change is upending traditional global power balances and leading to higher levels of militarisation.
Meanwhile, students in King’s Business School were given leadership lessons from the Premier League thanks to a talk by Crystal Palace football manager Oliver Glasner.
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting MP and the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology Peter Kyle MP met with King’s researchers to learn about a new total-body PET scanner that could transform drug discovery and diagnose serious illnesses earlier.
And the same month, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton spoke about the challenges of leading the UK’s Royal Air Force in today’s complex geopolitical landscape.
As the year drew to a close Professor Jim Skea, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and Rt Hon Patricia Scotland KC, 6th Commonwealth Secretary General, spoke in December at a COP29 Outcomes Forum about what was achieved at this year’s global climate summit and looked ahead to ambitions for COP30.
These are just a selection of the distinguished guests we hosted at King's this year and we are looking forward to hosting many more thought-leaders, inspiring individuals and acclaimed speakers in 2025.