 The original chair was held by Sydney Russ in 1920. That was followed by Eric Roberts and then James Tate. After James Tate came John Clifton and then Roger Aldage and then myself in 2011. When I took over the Joel chair in 2011 I instigated a series of lectures which we've called the Joel Lectures and those have taken place on an annual basis. The Joel chair is the world's oldest endowed chair in medical physics so that carries with it a certain prestige and for our department to be the home of such a chair is a great honour for us and it also puts the department in touch with its own history and to celebrate that Joel chair through the annual Joel Lecture is really important to the department. It helps forge our own identity. In the 1920s the most important problem in those days was the treatment of cancer where physics could play a significant role. Medical physics was really established at that stage primarily to look after x-ray applications inside the hospital and in those days x-rays had not long been invented, 20-odd years and isotopes were regularly being used so it needed somebody with a physics background in order to make sure it was being done safely. Prior to the 1960s medical physics had really concentrated on x-rays both for imaging and also in the use in radiotherapy. Throughout the 60s and 70s and afterwards we started seeing other new techniques making an impact. I think of ultrasound imaging for example became a big clinical technique in the 1960s, MRI in the 1980s and the other of course major advance in medical imaging came from the advent of computers. I think it's interesting to reflect how far we've come since the days of Sydney Russ, the world's first medical physicist and our future we're now looking at the development of wearable systems, personalized medicine, the use of AI and interpreting data sets which seems like a world away from those first x-ray images but is all an example of innovation being driven by physicists and engineers for healthcare technologies. An example of that from some years ago is the functional electrical stimulator work that enabled Julie Hill who was paralyzed to actually cycle around the UCL Quad. These are examples of where we're embedding engineering to improve the quality of life but also in some cases to save lives also. I think we've seen the pace of growth increase so the number of new techniques is increasing all the time, it's accelerating, there are new innovations occurring all the time and the growth has continued to accelerate particularly from that period. This is a really exciting time to be working in medical physics and biomedical engineering. The birth of our discipline started with the discovery of x-rays and their ability to image the human body and now we're imaging biology and the human body at scales that are unimaginable. By understanding and appreciating the history of the department it can help bond us together as a unit and through Robert's research into the history of the Joel Chair has helped solidify that identity that we have in our link to our past and the link particularly to the creation of the Joel Chair.