{"id":62,"date":"2025-12-17T12:23:34","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T12:23:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/emp-student-news\/?p=62"},"modified":"2025-12-17T12:23:34","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T12:23:34","slug":"meet-your-emp-head-of-school-silvia-ramos-perez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/emp-student-news\/2025\/12\/17\/meet-your-emp-head-of-school-silvia-ramos-perez\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Your EMP Head of School \u2013 Silvia Ramos Perez"},"content":{"rendered":"

We hope you are all settling\u00a0in to\u00a0life at the University and have enjoyed your first term with us. We thought this would be a fantastic opportunity to now introduce you to your EMP Head of School,\u00a0<\/span>Dr Silvia Ramos Perez<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0Take a look\u00a0at the interview below to find out more about Silvia and their role at Kent.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Can you tell us a bit about your journey to becoming Head of School?<\/span><\/b>
\n<\/span>I arrived at the University of Kent as a lecturer in 2013. I love teaching and research, so it was the perfect job! Since very early in my career at Kent, I have also held administrative roles alongside my other duties:\u00a0Research group leader, Director of Postgraduate Studies for Physics and Chemistry, Director of Studies for Physics and Astronomy, Head of the School of Physics and Astronomy and, since last year, Head of the School of Engineering, Mathematics and Physics (EMP). Now that I oversee work across all areas\u00a0of EMP, I am grateful for the insight I gained in my\u00a0previous\u00a0roles!<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are your top priorities for the school this academic year and why?<\/span><\/b>
\nThe core priorities do not really change from year to year.\u00a0I want to make sure we provide excellent teaching for our students\u2014teaching that opens doors and opportunities for them in their future careers\u2014and that their time studying at Kent is enjoyable and transformative. It is\u00a0very important\u00a0to me that the\u00a0School\u00a0is a \u201cgood home\u201d for all members of our community,\u00a0students\u00a0and staff alike, a place where everyone feels respected and valued. I am also very conscious of our responsibility to deliver excellent scholarship,\u00a0research\u00a0and professional practice across all our subjects. Finally, we have a responsibility to make a positive contribution to our local communities, so impactful outreach features highly too on my list of priorities.\u00a0The specific measures to deliver these goals may change\u00a0in order to\u00a0adapt to\u00a0particular needs\u00a0or demands, but the ultimate aims\u00a0remain\u00a0consistent.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are you most proud of in your school, and are there any specific achievements?<\/span><\/b>
\nWithout a doubt, our community. We have fantastic students who make us constantly proud with their creativity, resilience, and willingness to learn\u00a0new ideas, new skills and to push the boundaries of what we know and can do. And we have amazing academics\u2014an example of commitment, hard work, high professional\u00a0standards\u00a0and\u00a0a great source\u00a0of knowledge! I have tremendous respect for all of them and feel privileged to work with them.
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

What is one thing that students might be surprised to learn about you?<\/span><\/b>
\nFor my research, I study the properties of materials using synchrotron light and other microscopic probes (if curious, check\u00a0<\/span>this<\/span><\/a>). Time to work at these facilities is\u00a0allocated\u00a0competitively, and experiments are scheduled to run continuously for several days, 24 hours a day.\u00a0Despite the fact that\u00a0we work in teams and many of the measurements can be pre-programmed to run unsupervised for a while, work hours can still get\u00a0very long\u2026 I completely blame my caffeine addiction on this.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s\u00a0your favourite spot on campus and why?<\/span><\/b>
\nGulbenkian. I love the fact that we have a caf\u00e9, a cinema, a\u00a0theatre\u00a0and a concert hall all in one place. And it is always buzzing with activity.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Is there a student success story that has inspired you in your career as Head of School?<\/span><\/b>
\nMany! But they are not my stories to tell\u2026 Every time I\u00a0witness\u00a0the challenges and\u00a0difficulties some of our students face and overcome to complete their studies, it makes it all worth it. To be honest, every time I am in a classroom and I see a few faces light up because they have understood something new and fascinating, that makes it worth it too.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What one piece of advice would you give students during their time at university to maximise their academic success this year?<\/span><\/b>
\nRemember that if you have a question, it is worth finding an answer. If it is an academic question, great! Feeding your curiosity is what higher education is about and an essential part of what you need to do to succeed in your studies. If it is about any other aspect of your life at university, that is also critical to ensuring your time here is fulfilling. And there is a network of support ready to help you. Just ask<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We hope you are all settling\u00a0in to\u00a0life at the University and have enjoyed your first term with us. We thought this would be a fantastic … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74978,"featured_media":67,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[978,124],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/emp-student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/emp-student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/emp-student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/emp-student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74978"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/emp-student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/emp-student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/emp-student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62\/revisions\/68"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/emp-student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/emp-student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/emp-student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/emp-student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}