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Spectra - the impact

Spectra is the new home for the School of Physics, Engineering and Computer Science. It opened to staff, students and the public in September 2024, in time for the beginning of the new academic year.

Bringing together the University’s physics, engineering and computer science departments, facilities, equipment and knowledge into one place for the first time, the £100m, five-storey building is the largest structure on the University’s College Lane campus following six years of building work.

An incredible, cutting-edge facility, Spectra is transforming the learning, teaching and research experience within the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) for our students and staff, but also has the equipment needed for our academics to progress ground-breaking research.

It advances the University’s capacity to partner with local, regional and national businesses, particularly within aerospace, engineering, bioscience and other STEM areas, to support their needs, and together develop and innovate economically viable research and products.

The construction and equipment fit-out of Spectra was made possible by a group of generous funders and supporters. We are incredibly grateful to all of them.

Our Spectra Donors

Major Donors

Wolfson Foundation

Garfield Weston Foundation

Dinwoodie Charitable Company

Secomak Ltd

Muhammad Shahid Hanif, Khurram Akhtar, Programmers Force and Shufti Pro

Josephine Connell OBE DL

Sir Gerard Newman Scholarship Fund

KANE

Sir Brian May

Patrons

  • Professor Mo Alavijeh
  • Abeer Hassan Salem Al-Qaisi
  • Joseph Chua
  • Richard A Coleman
  • Dr. Diane Crann MBE
  • Professor Alan Davies
  • Vincenzo De-Bellis
  • Dr. Lynn Drummond FRSE
  • Fulcrum Infrastructure Management Ltd
  • Neel Ghai B.Eng (Hons), MSc (Eng Res), IEng, MRAeS
  • Helen Goddard and Hollie Bacon
  • Dr. Wei Ji Department of Computer Science
  • Emeritus Professor Peter D Lines and family
  • Professor Quintin McKellar CBE
  • Oluwatoyosi E. Mohammed
  • Ganapathipillai Natkunan (Civil Engineering 966–70)
  • Terry Neville OBE UHFellow
  • Rupa Patel
  • In memory of Vimalkumar Dahyabhai Patel
  • Psychreg
  • Ajibola Tobi Lawal
  • Heather Tymms
  • Dr Jon Walmsley
  • Scarlett Xiao
  • Felix Zhu

Supporters

  • Mayowa Adebanji
  • Olusoji Solomon Adeyemo
  • Ademola Akinpelu
  • In Memory of David Lewis Aldred
  • Modupe Temitope Allen
  • Deaconness Daisy Amisu
  • Mawa-Julia Bagate
  • Aditi Balaji
  • Steven Larry Dela Cruz Ball
  • Kate Bellingham
  • Tracey Braddick BSc (Hons), HPCA Chairman 1986–87
  • Solomon Daniel Brown (ITMB BSc Virtūs et Honos)
  • Dr. Keith Cameron
  • Melissa K. Chinyemba
  • Lee Song Choong
  • Lionel and Thea Clarke
  • Comet Road Army!
  • John Cooper and Linda Keddie, Hatfield friends 4ever
  • In Memory of Andrew Curl
  • Heide Da Silva Rodrigues
  • Dr. Giseli de Sousa and Dr. Jean E. Martina
  • Dr. Carolyn Devereux
  • M.A.H. (Marc) Dix, MSc
  • Otylia Iyobosa Eguavoen
  • Kim Everitt
  • James L G Fiddy
  • Philip G Fulton
  • Malcolm Green
  • GSS Piling Ltd
  • Tony Harvey (Mechanical Engineering 1970–74)
  • Julia Hubble
  • Aamir Iftikhar and Poly Pack
  • Pegah Janbakhsh
  • Glen Kelly
  • Zain Khan
  • Kok-Keong Loo and Alison Loo
  • Stephen K Lui
  • Golrokh Mahdavi
  • Luisa Masi
  • Osama Masood (PAK)
  • Professor Daniel McCluskey
  • Alan Paul McGinlay
  • Roy Mills
  • Tony Monaghan (Computer Science 1970–74)
  • Paul Morton
  • Samuel Abam Nortei Nortey
  • Christopher Notton BSc (Hons)
  • Bob O’Brien (Computer Science 1978–82)
  • Dr. Henry Okonu
  • Ed Okungbowa
  • Eseosa Olumeko
  • Sir Patrick Otty
  • Hardik Vimalkumar Patel
  • Pratik Ajitbhai Patel
  • Dr. Jeffery Quaye OBE
  • Craig and Sophie Sears-Black
  • Omini Sophia
  • Dr. Steve Stott
  • Thomas James Street (Ind. Eng. 1974–78)
  • Kevin Taverner
  • Sever Tudor
  • Jon Urwin
  • Adam Wasfi
  • Dr. Martin Wheatman
  • Dr. Stephen Clayton Whittle
  • John Wilmot
  • Arbaaz Zakir
  • Joanne Zarb

Our donors contributed to Spectra for a variety of reasons: some of them have kindly explained why.

I chose to donate because my daughters live in St Albans, and I thought they’d like to see where I went to university.

Lionel Clarke

Civil Engineering 1966

I’ve chosen to donate to the Spectra Wall because any engineers and scientists, when they walk past that wall and see my name, they can feel reassured that there’s a place for all women within STEM

Kim Everitt

Automotive Engineering with Motorsport 2018

I chose to donate to the Spectra Wall because I believe in the transformative power of education and research. As a mental health researcher, and the founder of Psychreg, I understand the importance of state-of-the-art facilities, nurturing innovation and academic excellence.

Dennis Relojo-Howell

Research Methods in Psychology 2013