A Gift from Bill & Roselies: New Science Building

Bill and Roselies Hemming supported the next generation of STEM students at UEA. 

The legacy of Bill and Roselies Hemming has helped to build the New Science Building on the UEA campus, ensuring that the University remains at the cutting edge of science education into the future.

Bill and Roselies’ daughter, Christine Hemming, said, “My parents both enjoyed their time working at the University. They found meaningful work and the opportunity to meet new people and make new friends. After my father died, my mother decided that a gift to UEA would be a good way to give back to a younger generation who don’t have the opportunities she enjoyed.”

Their gift of £100,000 funded the completion of the building, which is a space fundamentally designed with 

cross-disciplinary learning at its heart. Students are learning in labs that closely resemble those in the leading biomedical research institutions we have at Norwich Research Park. 

A teaching room has been named in the couple’s memory as a permanent reminder to staff, students and visitors of the instrumental difference made by their generosity. 

Bill and Roselies Hemming

Bill Hemming joined UEA’s finance department in 1969, with roles in research grant funding and the accounts of the senior common room wine cellar.

Roselies, meanwhile, managed the reprographics department of the library from 1970. Here, she got to know many of the students and staff of the University, including Professor Hubert Lamb, whose research at UEA established the study of climate change as a serious research subject and inspired Christine’s decision to support the New Science Building.