On Tuesday 16th April, Big School was officially renamed The Lowndes Hall, in honour of William & Madge Lowndes, parents of Professor Robert P. Lowndes, OV 1959.

Robert P. Lowndes started life in Sutton Coldfield in 1940. He grew up on Monmouth Drive with his parents William and Madge Lowndes. Robert’s father ran an insurance company business with offices located on Lichfield Road.

After leaving Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School, Robert completed his PhD doctoral research at Queen Mary College, University of London, and at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge. He then accepted an offer in 1967 of a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship at M.I.T. Robert decided to stay in Boston and accept a professorial position at Northeastern University (NU) in Boston. Robert has held positions as Head of the Physics Department, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Interim Provost, and Vice Provost for Global Relations.

Robert was among the initial group of U.S. professors selected by NASA to perform experiments on moon rocks and accompanying soil samples collected from the moon by Apollo astronauts. Recently, an article was written by Northwestern University exploring what that was like, you can read the article here: https://news.northeastern.edu/2024/04/25/magazine/nasa-moon-rocks/

Through his support, Professor Lowndes has enabled the Learning Resource Centre project to come to fruition and as a school, we are so very grateful.

You can watch a summary of the renaming ceremony here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C58aESBsTDI/?igsh=a29pM3JtdDF0OTFn