The Royal College of Science Union (RCSU) is a student union and science outreach organisation at

Imperial College London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

which represents over 3,000 students in the university's Faculty of Natural Sciences. It manages the student societies for the departments of Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Biology. The RCSU runs Science Challenge, a national science communication competition, and publishes the Broadsheet science magazine.

History

The RCSU was founded in 1881, following the creation of the

Royal College of Science The Royal College of Science was a higher education institution located in South Kensington; it was a constituent college of Imperial College London from 1907 until it was wholly absorbed by Imperial in 2002. Still to this day, graduates from th ...

in the same year. The RCS was established to support training of the non-Earth Sciences within the

Royal School of Mines The Royal School of Mines comprises the departments of Earth Science and Engineering, and Materials at Imperial College London. The Centre for Advanced Structural Ceramics and parts of the London Centre for Nanotechnology and Department of Bi ...

which had been founded in 1853 following the merger of the

Royal College of Chemistry The Royal College of Chemistry: the laboratories. Lithograph The Royal College of Chemistry (RCC) was a college originally based on Oxford Street in central London, England. It operated between 1845 and 1872. The original building was designed ...

with the Government School of Mines and Science Applied to the Arts in 1853. The RCSU was briefly disbanded for a few years in the early 2000s following the College's decision to split up the Sciences Faculty into separate Faculties of Physical and Life Sciences, with the RCSU at the time deciding to follow suit, splitting into the Physical Sciences Union and the Life Sciences Union. In 2006 however, following the College's decision to re-merge the faculties, the presidents of the two constituent unions, Kilian Frensch and Mariko Tavernier, proposed to re-merge the two student unions, with the new union named the ''Royal College of Science Union'' following a popular vote. The re-merged RCSU was first led jointly by Kilian Frensch and Mariko Tavernier for the remainder of the college year, before Jad Marrouche became its first sole president the following year, and is currently led by Stefano Fiocca.

Science Challenge

The RCSU Science Challenge is a scientific writing competition created in 2006 by the presidents of the newly-reformed RCSU, Kilian Frensch and Mariko Tavernier. It was run by Jad Marrouche, who became RCSU president the following year. Initially only for students of Imperial College, from its second year it was expanded and made open to schools students from across the country. The competition invites notable science communicators to judge the entries, with recent judges including BBC New science correspondent Pallab Ghosh, physicist John Pendry and climatologist Brian Hoskins. The Science Challenge Ambassador is Lord

Robert Winston Robert Maurice Lipson Winston, Baron Winston, (born 15 July 1940) is a British professor, medical doctor, scientist, television presenter and Labour Party politician. Early life Robert Winston was born in London to Laurence Winston and Rut ...

who has judged the overall winner of the competition since its inception. The current Science Challenge chair is Vanessa Madu.

Traditions

The RCSU has a number of traditions, including the chanting of the kangela at bar nights and the sport of

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as ...

ry, guarding a college mascot called ''Theta''. Theta takes the form of a thermometer, chosen as an instrument used by all scientific disciplines. Theta has had a number of incarnations, with the current mascot, Theta Mk.IV being a seven-foot steel thermometer weighing over 100 pounds (45 kg). The RCSU also keeps an 'inviolate mascot' (i.e. it cannot be stolen), which is a

Dennis N-Type The Dennis N-Type is a model of commercial vehicle introduced by Dennis Brothers of Guildford (later Dennis Specialist Vehicles) in around 1905. It was the basis for their early fire engines and trucks. Specification The "N-Type" chassis was c ...

fire engine known as

Jezebel Jezebel (;"Jezebel"
(US) and ) was the daughte ...

. Built in 1916, 'Jez' was donated to the college in 1955 when she finished her working life, and is equipped with 9-litre engine capable of pumping around 500 gallons of water per minute. There is a dedicated

RCS Motor Club The Royal College of Science Motor Club was set up in 1955 to maintain "Jezebel", a 1916 Dennis N-Type fire engine and a mascot of the students of the Royal College of Science, one of the founding three colleges of Imperial College London, in ...

which maintains and takes care of Jezebel. She is involved with charity work and appears at various motor shows.

Kangela

The Kangela is reputed to be an ancient Swahili Fertility Chant oyal College of Science Handbook, 1973first adopted by the RCSU in the middle 1950s as a War Cry on the occasion of Morphy Day. The words are as follows:

Kangela Armadola
Kangela Armadola
Kangela Armadola
Teia, Teia, Teia,
Pakamisso, Pakamisso,
Inkangala, Kubinala,
Watsi, R.C.S.

The word ''kangela'' means "to watch" in Zulu.

References

External links