I’ve had some great gigs with Graham Construction this year. They have a big portfolio in London, so it was a pleasure to be asked to shoot the refurbishment of the Kathleen Lonsdale Building. The KLB was constructed in 1915 as the first purpose-built Chemistry building for UCL. Over the years it has been adapted to suit different UCL departments, predominantly Earth Sciences, but has also housed groups from across UCL Mathematical & Physical Sciences.

The KLB is home to UCL Earth Sciences and groups from Chemistry, Astrophysics and Mathematics, and was re-opened by Sir David Attenborough on Tuesday 17 April 2018 following an £27.5m renovation.

As part of the celebrations, scientists Professor Paul Bown and Dr. Jeremy Young named a newly discovered ocean plankton species in honour of the BBC’s Blue Planet series production team.

Kathleen Lonsdale was a scientist, Quaker and pacifist, whose ground breaking research in crystallography was conducted at UCL under the shadow of World War II. She was the first woman to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society when, in 1945, it was decided that the term ‘Fellow’ could encompass women. Furthermore, she was the first female President of the British Association.