University on mission to strengthen links in the States

The university’s vice-chancellor, Professor Sir Keith Burnett, is in the US to meet leading academics and policymakers at the University of Pennsylvania and the Brookings Institute in Washington.

They will discuss Sheffield’s pioneering work to establish the first Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District in the UK.

Sir Keith will also meet alumni of the university, including best-selling author Lee Child, the man behind the Jack Reacher series of thrillers.

His visit will also include the annual meeting of the University of Sheffield in America Board, which is led by chemistry graduate and Nobel Prize-winner Professor Sir Richard Roberts. The University of Sheffield in America charity provides significant grants to the Sheffield Institute of Translational Neuroscience (SITraN) which is pioneering new treatments for motor neurone disease and related neurological conditions.

The charity also helped establish the University’s Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures, set up thanks to a £2.6m donation from Sheffield alumnus Jeremy Grantham and his wife Hanne.

It was set up in 2004 to help former students in the USA stay connected with Sheffield, make new links and connections with each other, and support their university.

In addition to its research, it has offered scholarships for students and fellowships for researchers.

Last year the University of Sheffield in America raised and awarded around $625,000.

The University has 3,500 alumni in the US, including American citizens who came to study in Sheffield and expatriate British graduates.

During his visit, Sir Keith will meet Jonathan Stone, a founder of SITraN, whose father Hyman Stone was an alumnus of the university, graduating in 1923, and the first elected president of Sheffield’s Students’ Union, along with Professor Louise Harpman, the architect and academic who visited the university in February to deliver a lecture to the School of Architecture.

Sir Keith will also have discussions with Sheffield law graduate Jim Grant, better known by his pseudonym Lee Child. He has visited Sheffield on several occasions including to award 50 ‘Jack Reacher Scholarships’.