Darwinian july 2017 by Darwin College, Cambridge

SUMMER 2017

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A behind the scenes look at the Darwin Lecture Series Two New Research Fellowships Established Glasses for the Masses

Meet the Cambridge Scientist on the verge of curing Multiple Sclerosis

News for the Darwin College Community

A Message from Mary Fowler Master The College is in good spirit and thriving. The gardens are glorious, the river calm and the DarBar hums. As I walk around the College and see students studying, I often wonder what is in those laptops - A discovery that may change the world? - Or perhaps a new insight into an ancient puzzle? With almost seven hundred graduate students studying almost everything under the sun - the future is being written, here, on this quiet backwater. Many congratulations to two Fellows who have received royal awards: • Jane Francis on her appointment as Dame Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, in recognition of her services to polar science; • Larry Sherman on a Swedish knighthood – Commander of the Swedish Royal Order of the Polar Star, in recognition of his services to criminology theory. Turning to academic awards to our Fellows: •

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Mary Fowler, Master. Photo credit:Sir Cam

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Richard Henderson was awarded the Copley Medal, the oldest medal of the Royal Society, for his contributions to electron microscopy of biological materials; Russell Cowburn was the Royal Society’s Clifford Paterson Lecturer for his achievements in nanomagnetics; Tanya Hutter, was awarded a highly competitive L’Oréal-UNESCO Fellowship for Women in Science for her work developing new sensors to use in the critical care of head injuries; Larry Sherman received a lifetime award from the American Society of Criminology, and Yale’s Wilbur Cross medal; And finally we congratulate Anne FergusonSmith and Chris Bishop on the recent announcement of their election as Fellows of the Royal Society.

As you know the College was deeply saddened by the death of Professor Sir Patrick Sissons at the end of last year, Patrick was Regius Professor of Physic, and made great contributions to the understanding of kidney disease and viral infections, but we honour him also as a pillar of the College. In his memory we will be establishing a Research Fellowship in Infection and Immunity. We are very grateful to the Evelyn Trust for their financial contribution, which will enable us to appoint the first Patrick Sissons Research Fellow to start in 2018. I am also pleased to be able to announce that we have elected the first David Mackay Research Fellow. Dr Adrian Weller will take up his Fellowship in October. Thank you to the Isaac Newton Trust for their support. On the ground here, the first signs of Bradfield Court are now marked out. This project, to renovate the Old Granary, and build a multi-purpose public room, is made possible by very kind donations from alumni, which are being matched most generously by Trinity College in memory of Sir John Bradfield. John was their Senior Bursar and a key figure in the establishment and first fifty years of Darwin College. Darwinians are also generously adding to the scholarships, travel and other funds that support our students and community. I thank you all. We are making good progress on several accommodation projects with extra student rooms coming into use next year. Longer-term projects are also in train as we plan for further increases to our housing stock. In several of these projects we are working with other Colleges, and I should say how much we appreciate these collaborations. Provision for our students is a priority – they are the future, and it is for them that the College runs. The Darwin College Lecture Series goes from strength to strength. Many of you will have attended this year’s lectures on ‘Extremes’ and been taken by Andrew Fabian to the furthest edge of the cosmos, and by Emily Shuckburgh to the extremes of climate. The series ended with a moving lecture from war fronts by Lyse Doucet of the BBC. How precious is our own peace.

Next year the theme is ‘Migration’ and Professor Sir Andre Geim, winner of both Nobel and Copley medals, will be lecturing on ‘Migration in Science’. “Panta rhei” said Heraclitus – everything flows. As I look out across the river, sometimes the water is slow-moving, warm, busy in summer; sometimes cold and in flood, flowing faster. Beside the river the College community stands firm, growing with the flow of new people and fresh ideas. Near the bridge to the Small Island, between the path and the water, the ancient vine and fig tree grow together, rooted strongly, giving shelter and fruit. One of George Washington’s favourite quotations was from Micah and Zechariah:

“to be able to invite neighbours to sit under the vine and the fig tree, in a place of peace, where no one shall be afraid.” There is a photo of George and Maud Darwin with their baby Gwen (later Gwen Raverat) taken in 1886 by that vine and fig tree. I trust that a century hence, passing students will still be reaching out to pluck a grape or taste a fig.

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A behind the scenes look at the Darwin Lecture Series

The Darwin College Lecture Series has entertained and enlightened both Town and Gown for 31 years. It has become a much loved fixture on the University and community calendar with many people attending year after year. The variety of topics means that each January to March there is always something new and wondrous to learn. So it is strange then, that the College hasn’t until now published a ‘behind the scenes’ account of how a series is put together. The articles in this section will, we hope, go some way to address this. But to start, let us remind ourselves of how it all began. The conception and first year of the Darwin College Lecture Series By Arnold Burgen (former Master) I had a most interesting and enjoyable time as Master from 1982 to 1989 but the most important activity during that period was undoubtedly the start of the Darwin College Lecture Series. The intellectual life of the College since the time of Sir Moses Finley had been enhanced by seminars, conferences and lectures, notably the prestigious Annual Darwin Lecture which was instituted in 1977, but the proposed Lecture Series represented a new activity of great importance. At a meeting of the Governing Body on 5th December 1983 it was decided to set up a new sub-committee of the Education and Research Committee to consider possible future lecture activity. The committee was composed of the Master, Vice-Master (Hugh Mellor), Andrew Fabian, Derek Bendall, Adrian Gill, Paul Ries (who acted as Secretary) and a graduate member, Donald Smith. Dr Gill departed from the College after the first meeting when the committee was augmented by Peter Gathercole and Philip Johnson-Laird. The committee discussed several kinds of activity including major conferences, but preferred a series of small symposia or a series of lectures. They noted that Wolfson, our sister college in Oxford, had a successful scheme in which there was a regular lecture each week during one of the terms, and this seemed a useful model to follow. The committee envisaged a set of eight lectures given weekly in one term. It was important

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that they should be interdisciplinary between the humanities and the sciences and hence needed to be readily understandable by non-specialists, and would be focused around a common theme. They would be known as the Darwin College Lectures and would also be published in book form. It was initially proposed that the lectures would be given in the college Hall in Lent Term on Fridays at 5pm, followed by discussion. The committee then gave thought to topics and, after discussion with colleagues; it was decided to focus on ‘Origins’, a theme with obvious relevance to the College. After consultation with the Fellowship this format was accepted. Professor Fabian agreed to act as the organiser and to be editor of the publication. By May 1985 we had identified speakers and the first series was planned for 1986. Dr Mellor wrote an introduction to the series and the list of speakers was: Martin Rees: The origins of the universe David W Hughes: The origin of the Solar System Lynn Margulis: The origin of Life Ilya Prigogne: Origins of Complexity David Pilbeam: The origin of man John Maynard Smith: Origins of social behaviour Ernst Gellner: Origins of societies John Lyons: Origins of Language By the time the speakers had agreed to participate it was realised that the space available in the College Hall might not be adequate and, fortunately, it was possible

“By the time the speakers had agreed to participate it was realised that the space available in the College Hall might not be adequate and, fortunately, it was possible to book the Lady Mitchell Hall.” to book the Lady Mitchell Hall. There had been thoughts about having a discussion after the lecture and, in the event, this was dropped. So on 16th January 1986 an audience which filled the hall heard the first lecture, when Professor Rees confidently proclaimed that the universe had begun in a Big Bang some 13 billion years ago but without man, who had to wait for a while. As we proceeded through the lectures the time of origin of the subject became progressively more recent and uncertain. For instance, it was very unclear as to when a recognisable man had evolved from a primate and even more unclear as to when he began to make sense out of vocal noise and expletives to create a language. The large audience continued throughout the series and it was obvious that it had found a place in the Cambridge calendar and was an unexpectedly great success.

As had been agreed the Cambridge University Press undertook to publish a text of the lectures in which some of the authors could develop the subject beyond what was possible in an hour, and the volume was ably edited by Professor Fabian. The book sold well and was even translated into Italian and, much later, into Japanese. Many years later, podcasts of the lectures were made available on the web and widely accessed. The organising committee was so confident of the success of the venture that they had already developed the programme for the second series long before the first lecture was delivered. The subject chosen was ‘Man and the Environment’, and Professor Ron Laskey undertook its organisation. It was an excellent and prescient choice. Among the subjects covered were human impact on future climates, exhaustible resources, famine, the future of forests and of animal populations, and the observation of the environment from space. An excellent range of topics was thus encompassed, all of which are still vigorously discussed now. It was clear the Darwin College Lecture Series was a going concern, but I don’t think that anyone would have forecast that they would be as vital and popular after so many years. The Series continues and indeed has not run out of steam. They have become an established part of the Cambridge scene in Lent Term. Adapted from an article first published in ‘Darwin College: A 50th Anniversary Portrait’

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The 27th Lecture Series ‘Life’ poster

The evolution of the Darwin College Lecture Series By Andy Fabian (Emeritus Fellow) I have been involved in the Darwin College Lecture Series since the start, organising the first one, ‘Origins’, the tenth, ‘Evolution’, the 20th, ‘Conflict’, the 24th, ‘Darwin’, and the 27th, ‘Life’ (the last three jointly with Martin Jones and Willy Brown). For most of that time I have chaired the Education and Research Committee which oversees the Lecture Series. By the end of 32nd Series in 2017 over 250 lectures had been given since 1986. The Oxford lecture series which prompted us at the start involved several lectures all in one specific academic discipline each year. In Darwin we take a topic, usually a single word, that can serve as an umbrella for a wide range of topics. We try hard to cover the physical, biological and social sciences as well as the humanities through separate lectures within a single series. The interdisciplinarity of the Series is a strength, a uniqueness and yet a problem for publication. Cambridge University Press have supported us throughout by publishing each lecture series but have always told us that booksellers don’t know how to market such volumes. Is ‘Origins’ astronomy (the cover has a galaxy), human evolution (there’s also a skull), social science or biology? Personally, I rather like collections of disparate interesting topics, in the same way that reading the book reviews section of a weekend paper is pleasurable as well as informative. The books of the series are available online. Much effort has been put into producing high-definition video of

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the lectures themselves, which can be found on our website or can be downloaded from iTunes U. We aim to enlist the very best communicators as speakers and that shows by the high quality of the talks. The series has become the largest public lecture series in Cambridge, with typically 300 to 500 plus in attendance. It is with thanks to donations by Richard and Anne King that the series has continued over the last few years, and there has also been an enormous amount of sustained effort and help given by Fellows and graduate members of the College. At the centre of the communications, the Master’s secretary of the time, first Joyce Graham and now Janet Gibson, has acted with the attention and enthusiasm necessary for the sometimes fraught activities which make for a successful series. So who are the speakers? Among other stellar speakers we have had eleven Nobel Prize winners so far, including some of the best, and some of the worst speakers! Martin Rees started the series off with ‘The origin of the Universe’ (we’ve always been ambitious in scope) and also closed the tenth with ‘The Evolution of the Universe’. Robert May also spoke twice (‘Animal Population Changes’ and ‘Beauty and Truth’) and Noam Chomsky did ‘Language and the Mind’ to an overflowing lecture hall. Adapted from the original article published in ‘Darwin College: A 50th Anniversary Portrait’.

It doesn’t all just happen - Organising the Darwin College Lecture Series By Duncan Needham (Dean) The process of organising a Darwin College Lecture Series is usually as follows. Two years before the planned series, the Master solicits suggestions from the Fellowship for broad themes that may be addressed from across the spectrum of academic disciplines, as well as by speakers from outside the academy. The theme must be broad enough to accommodate the Arts and the Sciences. It must also be sufficiently focused to hold the series together. The Education and Research Committee, chaired by former Vice-Master and Darwin lecture series stalwart Professor Andy Fabian, considers the resulting submissions, whittling them down to two that are considered in depth at the Committee’s Lent meeting. The Committee selects a winner and charges two sponsoring Fellows with confirming eight speakers before the end of that academic year’s Lecture Series. This is so the Master can announce next year’s theme and the speakers after the final lecture of the preceding series. This year’s series was slightly different. The idea of a series on ‘Extremes’ had been in the air for some time, awaiting a couple of Fellows to bring it to fruition. It was such an obviously good idea that Julius Weitzdörfer and I were delighted to take up the challenge. After presenting our proposal at the Education and Research Committee in early 2015 we were given our marching orders – have eight speakers (four women, four men, four from the Arts, four from the Sciences) confirmed by the end of the 2016 series on ‘Games’. That we ended up with five men and three women can be blamed on Brexit (more of which below).

The first few weeks are in many ways the most fun. You can let your imagination run wild, fantasizing about which of your heroes to invite (many hours passed with me wondering whether former England cricketer Freddie Flintoff could hold a Cambridge audience for an hour on ‘Extreme Bowling’). There are also frustrations. I spent some not inconsiderable time running a ‘personality’ to ground, trying to avoid his agent and the inevitable request for an appearance fee (other than reasonable travel expenses and a modest royalty fee on the eventual book, we do not pay our speakers). At this point, Andy Fabian gently deployed more than 30 years experience overseeing the Darwin lectures, advising us that ‘celebrities tend to be a pain and usually say no in the end anyway’ (this was not true of any of our final speakers!). We heeded this advice and after downloading a large number of TED-talks, Royal Society Lectures, etc to make sure our proposed speakers were up to the mark, the number of celebrities on our list declined in favour of academics who a) do this sort of thing for a living and b) are able to commit more than a year in advance. Of course, Andy had seen all this many times before and it is a credit to his patience and good nature that he waited so long for us to learn this for ourselves.

“Having a serving Home Secretary on the roster would raise security issues that would need to be ironed out with the University as soon as possible.”

Left: Setting up the Emily Shuckburgh lecture. Pictured from top (clockwise): Espen Koht, Emily Shuckburgh, Markus Kalberer and Tony Cox. Photo credit: Andrzej Bugaski Right: Duncan Needham

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By the start of the 2016 series on Games we had seven of our eight speakers in place. So it was with some relief, and some surprise, that the Master informed us in February that she had mentioned our series to one of her neighbours, the then-Home Secretary Theresa May, and that Mrs May had agreed to give a talk on ‘Dealing with Extremism’. This raised the stakes. Having a serving Home Secretary on the roster would raise security issues that would need to be ironed out with the University as soon as possible. Such a high profile speaker might also change the complexion of the series. One of the few things that would raise the stakes even further would be a visit from a serving Prime Minister. And this was precisely the prospect we faced when Mrs May succeeded David Cameron as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on 13 July 2016, following the Brexit referendum. Surely the Prime Minister would have more pressing concerns than our lecture series? Apparently not. Our enquiries to No. 10 were met with the reply that Mrs May was a woman of her word and as we have subsequently learned on Brexit, a promise is a promise (so far, at least). This led to much scratching of heads and conclaving in the Newnham Grange Seminar Room. Who would need to be involved in a Prime Ministerial visit? What level of security would be required? Would this fundamentally change the nature of the series? Fortunately, as well as the Domestic Bursar (whom, with ample military experience of security issues, I have rarely seen so animated), we had the University’s Junior Proctor (and Ceremonial Officer) Tim Milner, recently elected to the Fellowship, to guide us. But before we got too involved in the minutiae, the call came through from No. 10. The Prime Minister would be busy invoking Article 50 in March 2017 and we should start thinking about a replacement. Thankfully, Professor David Runciman, head of the Department of Politics and International Relations here in Cambridge, stepped in at very short notice to give a wonderful talk on Mrs May’s original topic ‘Dealing with Extremism’. In some respects, once the speakers have confirmed, the co-conveners take a step back (albeit a temporary one – there is still a book to be edited). The Darwin lectures are some of the best-attended events in the Cambridge calendar and nothing is left to chance. We are extremely fortunate, therefore, in the number of College staff and fellows who, like Andy Fabian, have been running the series for years. Crucial to the smooth running of the process (as with so much within College) is College Registrar Janet Gibson who makes all the detailed arrangements with the speakers. There are posters to be designed, printed, and put up around town in the weeks before Christmas. There is equipment to be assembled by Computer Officer Espen Koht. There is film to be shot by Dr Tony Cox and his willing band of student camerafolk. There are audiences to be ushered under the watchful eye of another former Vice-Master, Dr Roger Whitehead – very important when we regularly attract crowds of over 600. There are distinguished guests to be

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fed and watered by our talented catering team. Finally, there are guests to be introduced and thanked by our Master, Professor Mary Fowler. Despite all this highly professional organization, the first night of the series reminded me of hosting a teenage party. The invitations have gone out and the drinks have been procured. But will anyone turn up? Having attended numerous Darwin lectures, I knew how well attended they were and dreaded letting the side down. We need not have worried. The first lecture featured Darwin’s own Dr Emily Shuckburgh, fresh from publishing her latest volume with HRH the Prince of Wales, entertaining a full house with some rather gloomy climatic prophesies delivered atop a very large map of the Arctic. The second lecture saw Professor Nicholas Taleb entertaining an even fuller house (including two overspill lecture theatres) on ‘Extreme Risk Engineering’. Professor Taleb is one of the few individuals that can credibly claim to have predicted the 2007 financial meltdown. His provocative talk went down particularly well with the younger audience that week, and we enjoyed a lively discussion over dinner afterwards in College. Our third lecture could not have been more topical, as Professor Runciman outlined the different outcomes when conspiracy theorists (like President Trump) assume power as opposed to extremists (like Sinn Fein). The answer, in what was becoming a theme of the series, was sobering. Power usually softens the edges of extremists. But it confirms conspiracy theorists in their existing prejudices and patterns of behaviour. We were upon the ocean wave for our fourth lecture as Extreme Rower Roz Savage, accompanied by a series of video clips of varying intimacy, described her voyages around the world, alone, in a row boat. In week five we ventured even further, into space, as Andy Fabian bowed out with a marvelous lecture on ‘Extremes of the Universe’. We saw stars being born, merging, growing old and dying. The following week we were back in the political arena as Professor Matthew Goodwin of the University of Kent described the recent resurgence of the Far Right in European politics. Professor Goodwin explained why those of us who focus on the economy failed to predict the outcome of the Brexit referendum. It wasn’t the economy, stupid. It was cultural, more particularly the cultural impact of recent immigration on formerly settled communities (some not so far from us here in Cambridge). Either way, the Far Right does not appears to be going anywhere soon. The gloom lifted the next week with Professor Sarah Harper of the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing. As Professor Harper pointed out, more than half of British girls born today can expect to live beyond a hundred. This comes with serious consequences for our economy and the duration of our working lives, but confirmation that we are all living longer brought a collective smile to what felt like a slightly older audience that week. If Sarah Harper had managed to cheer us up for a week, the

Janet Gibson putting up a lecture poster. Photo credit: Sir Cam

BBC’s Lyse Doucet brought us back to earth with some harrowing footage from the war in Syria in her lecture on ‘Reporting from Extreme Environments’. It was a great honour to follow so many distinguished colleagues in co-organizing a Darwin lecture series. It was mostly also a great pleasure, although the hardest part – editing the volume – is still to come. Despite Andy Fabian’s warning about inviting celebrities we invited a couple anyway, one of whom (Professor Taleb) accepted within an hour of receiving the email, while the other (Lyse Doucet) found time within what must be a punishing schedule as the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent to provide a spectacular finale to our series. And how David Runciman manages to fit in running the University’s Politics and International Relations department between writing all those articles in the London Review of Books and Talking Politics podcasts is beyond me. So I did get to meet some of my heroes after all.

The team attending to the details By Janet Gibson (College Registrar) Janet is heavily involved in the organisation of every Lecture Series and the day to day running of each lecture, as was Joyce Graham before her. Janet’s duties are vast and varied, in the lead up to the series she invites potential speakers to talk. Once speakers have agreed to participate she will put together a programme of events, all relevant contracts

and informs each guest speaker what is expected from them both as a speaker, but also as a guest of the college. Speakers are paid a nominal sum for their lecture and chapter for the book. They are welcome to stay in college accommodation and extend their trip if they would like. Publicity is a very important part of Janet’s role, after all without marketing there would be a speaker talking to an empty auditorium! Advertising is split into two distinct parts, the first, which has happened since the very first lecture, involves designing posters and then placing them around Cambridge to rest on railings alongside a myriad of competing posters. Fliers are also sent to all local schools, colleges, libraries and University departments and institutions. The second (and more modern) advertising stream is on-line. Janet puts biographies of the speakers and abstracts on the Darwin and University websites. She is also a wiz on social media, regularly updating Facebook and Twitter before and throughout each series. Following each lecture there is a reception and dinner in college for which Janet organises the guest list and the table plan. You would have thought that her job would then be over, but after the series has finished there is the huge task of putting together the Series Book. Much of the administration for this falls on Janet’s desk – she will liaise with each speaker to get a written piece and appropriate illustrations in a timely manner, after all the book must be published before the start of the next year’s series…… and so it begins again!

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Chester White and Espen Koht talking before a Lecture Photo credit: Sir Cam

Espen Koht (Computer Officer) Espen has been ‘technical support’ for the lecture series since Alan Blackwell and David MacKay were chosen to organise the 2002 series entitled ‘Power’, Alan and David having fulfilled the role before that. Since then Espen has relished the integral part he plays in the series, with every year bringing its own unique challenges and rewards. In 2002 the technical support was fairly simple to provide - making sure every presentation was at its best by giving advice on PowerPoint and other ‘slide show’ presentations. As time has gone on, and technology and the lecture series have evolved, Espen is much more heavily involved in digitally streaming the series – both on-line (ITunesU and the University Streaming Media Service), but also to overspill halls. The Cambridge community, both town and gown, look forward to every series and there are a growing number of people who attend every lecture each year. In fact, all lectures operate an overflow system. There is no ticket system and as the lectures are free to enter it is impossible to predict which talks will be the busiest, so Espen ensures that every lecture is streamed into the overspill hall. Of course the overspill audience are not in the same room as the speaker, but they can still enjoy the ‘live’ presentation, and have the pleasure of hearing the lecture as part of a large audience. Espen delights in the unique experience each lecture provides and enjoys meeting the lecturers. No matter how famous they are the speakers are always nervous

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about talking to a Cambridge audience. Some speakers even leave their PowerPoint presentation to the very last minute –this year one decided to do a presentation only after seeing the previous lecturer on ITunes U the day before! As ever, Espen was on hand to help pull this together – with only moments to spare!

Tony Cox (Emeritus Fellow) and Markus Kalbere ( Fellow) Dr Tony Cox and Professor Markus Kalberer orchestrate a number of students or associate members to help with the filming the lecture. The volunteers attend a training session and the camera crew are in place each week to operate the cameras so that a video of the lecture can be put online the following week. Dr Cox and Professor Kalberer also help Janet with setting up Lady Mitchell Hall, they then meet with the speakers to run through their lecture, audio visual presentation and video introduction. And Dr Whitehead is the chief usher…

Crowd control By Roger Whitehead (Emeritus Fellow) The annual Darwin Lecture Series has been one of the great success stories in the first 50 years of the life of the college, but it was not at all clear that this would be so when the first programme was conceived. The Lady Mitchell hall, the largest in the university, with a capacity of 500, was booked, but a 3-line whip was issued to the

fellowship to all sit at the front to avoid embarrassing the speaker should the room be only sparsely filled. In the event it was a sell out and we quickly had to devise an efficient but friendly means of handling large crowds. Right from the beginning we wanted this venture to be a contribution not just to the university fraternity but to the citizens of Cambridge in general. I know how intimidating it can be for non-members of an organisation to enter seemingly hallowed ground. It was for this reason Chester White, Noelle L’Hommedieu and myself began over 30 years ago what has become the almost ritualistic practice of actively welcoming people as they arrive for the lectures. ‘Regulars’ tell me each year it is like coming back to a club, but our main aim has always been to ensure new people, especially the young from other universities and surrounding schools, also to feel at ease. Many college members are actively involved in seating people each week, graduate students, fellows and emeritus fellows as well as key university support staff. Usually this is an uncomplicated, pleasant task, the main difficulty comes when the speaker proves to be especially popular. My colleagues have become especially adept at asking people to ‘budge up’ to make more space, but the time comes when we have to close the Lady Mitchell Hall doors and ask people to go across to one of our overflow theatres to watch via closed circuit television. Understandably this is not always popular especially for the young who have just emerged from lectures or others who have arrived by car but could find nowhere to park. The continuing good name of the College can depend on how diplomatically this is handled. The great popularity of the 2017 series created many opportunities for us to refine such skills!

Darwin College Lecture Series 2018:

Being ‘on the door’ offers an excellent barometer for me to measure the popularity and perceived relevance of any given lecture and how it has fitted in to the series as a whole. I am frequently greeted with people’s expectations about a lecture when they arrive and to their conclusions at the end. There can be little doubt that the success of the Darwin lecture series has been the original inspirational concept of choosing an intellectually challenging topic and then viewing it from a variety of different perspectives. It intrigues many that the organisers are able to integrate disciplines as diverse as the sciences, literature, the visual arts and philosophy. To me it symbolises the main value of a college, the opportunity to develop lateral thinking.

19 JANUARY Immigration and Freedom Professor Chandran Kukathas London School of Economics

Roger Whitehead welcoming lecture goers Photo credit: Sir Cam

Migration 19 JANUARY Black and British Migration David Olusoga Historian and Broadcaster

2 FEBRUARY Migration of Molecules Professor Petra Schwille Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry 9 FEBRUARY Refugee Migration Filippo Grandi UN High Commissioner for Refugees 11

16 FEBRUARY Disease Migration Professor Eva Harris University of California, Berkeley 23 FEBRUARY History of Migration Law Professor Alison Bashford University of Cambridge 2 MARCH Migration in Science Professor Sir Andre Geim Nobel Laureate, University of Manchester 9 MARCH Animal Migration Professor Ian Couzin Max Planck Institute for Ornithology

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From the Development and Alumni Relations Office

If you regularly visit the College you will know that our office (an old student bedroom) overlooked The Old Granary. We have now outgrown that room, and although we miss the fabulous view, our new office caters better for three people. If you are in Cambridge, please do come and see us – we are now housed in 1 Newnham Terrace. We very much hope to extend a welcome to you soon. Talking of which, a reminder that the College offers accommodation for the use of alumni. We have seven guest rooms (five twin, one double and one single). Currently the charge for bed and breakfast begins at £45.00 per night for the single, and the en-suite rooms are priced at no more than £100 per night. For more information, email guestrooms@darwin.cam.ac.uk.

Above: The Alumni Garden Party in June Photo credit: Sir Cam

he Development and Alumni Relations Team is very small here at Darwin. In fact, throughout Collegiate Cambridge it is possibly the smallest College team. Until recently, we were two part time members of staff and the Bursar doubled up as Development Director. Our diminutive size has good points, we have a very diverse work portfolio and necessarily, we all know what each other is doing, meaning we can (and do) work closely on all aspects of the work. Of course, we are also very aware of the downside – we don’t have the time to be as proactive as we would like and some vital areas of the essential work of a Development Office take a back seat. This has all changed with the recent appointment of Samuel Venn as Development Director; his role is to put a strategy in place for the foreseeable future. He will enhance the work we already carry out and hopes to develop our fundraising programme to raise vital money for student support, awards, scholarships, fellowships and our lovely buildings. I know that you will warmly welcome him into our community.

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Thank you to everyone who gave to the 2016/17 telephone campaign. The callers were really encouraged by the positivity and enthusiasm displayed for Darwin. The telethon had two fundraising objectives – to raise money for the Bradfield Court project and also to secure funds for student support, specifically the student hardship fund. To date, we have had pledged £35,000 to the building project and £30,000 for student support. If you pledged, but have not yet donated please use the donation form enclosed with this newsletter or alternatively give on-line by following the link on our homepage. We offer our heartfelt thanks to everyone who has donated in the past year. Here is where you asked for your gifts to be allocated and the money received to date: Gifts by fund July 2016 to June 2017 Where most needed John Bradfield Court (inc. buildings and grounds) David Mackay Fellowship Patrick Sissons Fellowship Student Support (inc. Student Travel Bursary) Philosophy Studentship fund

£38,000 £173,000 £76,000 £118,000 £22,500 £500

We have held a busy events programme in the last few months, both in College and around the world. The Master has hosted dinners in Cambridge, Canberra, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Vancouver and Düsseldorf. The Bursar has also been to London and Edinburgh. The Master and Bursar very much enjoyed meeting alumni

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at dinners both formal and more relaxed, and were fascinated to hear reminiscences from alumni about their time in College whether it be from 1966 or 2016! Future events are listed on the back page of this publication, but will include visits to New York, Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai. If you are in any of these places and would like to help with a venue or in any other way please do contact us, we would love to hear from you. More locally we thank the Darwin College Society who continue their sterling work by organising diverse and interesting events in and around Cambridge. These happen once every couple of months and are always well attended, so do keep an eye on our website for details. The Development and Alumni Relations Team consist of: Samuel Venn, Development Director development.director@darwin.cam.ac.uk Sophia Smith, Deputy Development Director development.office@darwin.cam.ac.uk Gideon Emmanuel, Alumni Officer alumni.office@darwin.cam.ac.uk

We welcome a new member of the Development Team Sam Venn, the new Development Director writes:

’m very pleased to be joining Darwin College as the new Development Director. Darwin is very clearly a welcoming and open College, and I’ve certainly been made to feel very much at home in the short time I’ve been here. Building on the excellent work that has been done already by several bursars, as well as by colleagues in the Development and Alumni Office, my principal task is to increase Darwin’s philanthropic income, as well as to strengthen the world-wide community of Darwin alumni and friends. By way of my background, I studied at the University of Durham, where I took a BA in Theology in 2002. I’m frequently asked if I chose theology with a view to going into ordained ministry; actually, my

Left: Sam Venn, Development Director. Photo credit: Andrzej Bugaski main reason for choosing to read theology was the breadth of the subject material, and the range of academic disciplines that are combined in this one subject. Subsequently, a short spell attempting a PGCE made me realise very quickly that I was not cut out to be a teacher, and that I had better chose a different career fast! Moving to Cambridge, I worked in fundraising and alumni relations for a number of Colleges, (Christ’s, Trinity Hall, and Girton), and most recently, Clare College, where I was Deputy Development Director for four years. My work at Clare revolved chiefly around securing major gifts and legacy pledges, and I was tasked with raising money for student bursaries and studentships, teaching fellowships, and for buildings. Outside of work, I can often be seen rowing on the River Cam (I row for a ‘town’ club named after the Champion of the Thames pub). I also enjoy exploring wine shops, watching films, and hillwalking when the opportunity presents itself. It’s clear to me that Cambridge needs to be able to provide more for its postgraduates. In particular, we need to ensure that postgraduate study, especially in arts subjects, does not become solely the preserve of the rich: we also need to ensure that there is sufficient accommodation provided for graduate students. Helping Darwin secure the support to meet these, and other, challenges, is very much my task for the coming years. I’m honoured to be joining Darwin, and I very much look forward to meeting and working with many of you – the Darwin community – in the years ahead!

SUMMER 2017

News

John Bradfield Court: an Update Mysterious goings on around the Old Granary building and yard over the last few months have been the subject of feverish speculation. The presence of a small drilling rig, and of personnel in chemical protection gear, gave rise to rumours of an oil strike which would transform the College’s finances, and of Darwinian zeal in scientific enquiry manifesting itself in conduct in the College of dangerous experiments unlikely to be permitted elsewhere. Calmer heads realised that these were nothing more than the necessary preliminaries for the start of the real work this summer on the creation of the John Bradfield Court – the complete refurbishment and conservation of the Old Granary itself and the construction in the yard of the Bradfield Room. The drilling found nothing more than twelve metres of river silt and gravel, to the disappointment of our archaeologists, and some of the building materials which had been used in the Old Granary in the sixties, potentially hazardous when disturbed, were safely removed.

The scheme will see the refurbishment of the student accommodation in the heritage listed Old Granary and the creation of a new single storey free-standing pavilion building between the Old Granary and Silver Street to provide a multipurpose meeting, study and social space. Planning permission was obtained in 2016, with the new building enthusiastically supported by the City’s Design and Conservation Panel of heritage and architecture experts. The detailed design has been completed and the scheme is being tendered for the construction work. Completion is scheduled for October 2018. The response to the College’s appeal for donations in support of the project has been magnificent. The appeal for £500,000 was launched in early 2016 and over 90% has been raised. We thank Trinity College for its support with the matching of the donations made, pound for pound, and with a further £1m gift. We are delighted that this scheme to remember Sir John Bradfield – Senior Bursar of Trinity College and the prime mover in the foundation of Darwin and its growth in the first 50 years – is moving towards realisation. This would not have happened without the very prompt and very generous giving by many of you now reading this magazine. The College is deeply grateful. John Dix, Bursar

Cambridge University Honorary Degrees conferred on two Darwinians In June this year the University conferred honorary Doctorates of Science on two Darwinians. We congratulate them both. Professor Janet Rossant, a developmental biologist, is President of the Gairdner Foundation and Professor of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto. She was for many years Research Director of the Hospital for Sick Children (Sick Kids) in Toronto. Janet, a physiology PhD student (matriculating in 1972), was a contemporary of Mary Fowler’s and they remain friends. Rowing was a passion and she was renowned for being the best cox on the river. After her PhD she moved to Oxford, to a JRF at Wolfson, and then having met her Canadian husband Alex Bain (PhD Chemistry 1972) at Darwin, on to Ontario.

Right: The late Sir John Bradfield, the John Bradfield Court is named in his honour

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in 1972 - 3, and among other things won gold in the FISA World Masters Championships in the double sculls in 2014.

Top left: Janet Rossant and Eric Maskin with the Master (centre).

During correspondence about other matters in 2015, Helen mentioned that she was thinking of taking part in the 2017 World Masters in Auckland, having recently come back to rowing. I immediately booked her for the mixed doubles event and set about finding others to row and train with for the single sex events. Helen lives in Philadelphia and I live in Cape Town so we would have to be satisfied with a day’s training together just before the regatta. Professor Eric Maskin is an economist and co-winner, along with Leonid Hurwicz and Roger Myerson, of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Economics “for having laid the foundations of mechanism design theory.” In the last year of his PhD at Harvard Eric came to Cambridge to study with Frank Hahn and was a visiting student at the College from 1975-76.

Suffice it to say that Helen won a gold in her main event and I won a silver. In the mixed doubles, we managed a bronze and had an enormous amount of fun, 42 years after we last saw each other. Such is the Darwin bond.

Darwin’s World Masters ‘Go DarWIN!’ Brian Christie (LLM 1971) writes: The World Masters Games is an international multisport event held every four years open to all age groups beyond young adulthood. This year it was held in Auckland, New Zealand. About 25,000 athletes took part, one of the largest sport events of its kind. Brian Christie (Darwin 1972) and Helen McFieSimone (Darwin 1969) both attended the rowing events, held at Lake Karapiro near Cambridge (Cambridge NZ, that is!) from 23 to 28 April 2017. Helen was a keen member of the DCBC and a rowing Blue in 1971 - 2 and went on to achieve many honours in the rowing field, including being a member of the British rowing team in 1975 - 6 and winning gold in the FISA World Masters Championships in the single sculls and the quad in 1991.

Left: Brian Christie and Helen McFieSimone proudly show their medals.

Brian coached the Cambridge womens’ eight for a short while in 1972, rowed for Darwin in the bumps

SUMMER 2017

News

Two New Research Fellowships Established We celebrate the lives of two Darwin fellows with two new research fellowships which have been established in the last year. Out of the sadness of the loss of David MacKay, Regius Professor of Engineering, and Patrick Sissons, Regius Professor of Physic have emerged two wonderful initiatives to support research in the fields in which David and Patrick made their immense respective contributions. In each case funds donated by a great many family, friends and colleagues at and following the funeral and memorial services, have been added to a major donor grant, to enable research fellowships at Darwin to be established. David MacKay Newton Fellowship Professor Sir David MacKay FRS (1967–2016) was appointed as the first Regius Professor of Engineering in 2014, having previously been the first Chief Scientific Advisor to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and Professor of Natural Philosophy in Cambridge. David joined Darwin College as a Research Fellow in 1992, having been awarded the Royal Society Smithson Fellowship, then in 1995 he was elected as a Fellow on his appointment as Lecturer in the Cavendish Laboratory. His expertise and interests were very broad, from information theory, physics and mathematics and far beyond and he is renowned worldwide for his work on energy sustainability. His book Information Theory, Inference and Learning Algorithms was an instant classic and astonishing in its depth. His second book Sustainable Energy Without Hot Air was downloaded over half a million times within a few years of publication, has been translated into eleven languages, and said by Bill Gates to be the best book for understanding clean energy. (A full obituary appeared in the Autumn 2016 edition of ‘The Darwinian’).

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The Isaac Newton Trust has made a grant which, with the funds raised by the family and the College, has enable the appointment of Dr Adrian Weller as the first David MacKay Newton Fellow. Adrian joins the College in October 2017. The fellowship was conceived to support research in any area drawing on mathematics and information theory, including, but not limited to, applications in sustainability, policy or technology that follow on from David’s work. Adrian is a senior researcher in The Computational and Biological Learning Laboratory of the Machine Learning Group at the University of Cambridge. Much of his academic research relates to graphical models but he is also very interested in other areas including: finance, intelligence (natural or artificial), scalability, reliability, interpretability, fairness, privacy, ethics, law, social policy, networks, deep learning, reinforcement learning, music and methods for big data. He is a faculty fellow at the Alan Turing Institute, an executive fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, and is affiliated with the Centre for Science and Policy, and the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk.

Left: Professor Sir David McKay Right: Professor Sir Patrick Sissons

Patrick Sissons Evelyn Trust Postdoctoral Fellowship Professor Sir Patrick Sissons (1945 – 2016), was a brilliant clinical scientist, academic strategist and administrator, who conducted pioneering research into kidney disease and infectious disease. He became Regius Professor of Physic in 2005. The Sissons-Sinclair laboratory in Cambridge— named jointly with Professor John Sinclair — has been at the forefront of research into virus latency and reactivation. He was elected a Fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge in 1988. He was a Founding Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, served on the Medical Advisory Board of the Gairdner Foundation in Canada, was Distinguished Visitor of Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research and crucially served on the Medical Advisory Committee at the Evelyn Trust. (A full obituary appeared in the Autumn 2016 edition of ‘The Darwinian’). The Evelyn Trust is a Cambridge-based grantmaking charity supporting medical research and health projects, it has provided foundation funding alongside many generous donations from private individuals and others to enable the College and the

Clinical School to establish a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the areas of Immunology, Inflammation and Infectious Disease. The first fellow will be appointed to take up the fellowship in 2018.

The College is delighted to add two further stipendiary research science fellowships to the existing three humanities posts (the Adrian, Finley, & Lloyd Dan David fellowships). However the real work is only beginning as, unlike the existing endowed fellowships, the two latest additions have funding only for the initial appointments. The work to raise the very substantial sums required to put these two onto a permanently endowed basis is underway. The College acknowledges with boundless gratitude the generosity of all those who have given to these initiatives to date, and we can all draw inspiration from the memories of David and Patrick which the new research fellows will evoke as they embark upon their research.

SUMMER 2017

People

Ron Laskey Emeritus Fellow

hortly after Ron’s appointment to the Charles Darwin Professorship of Embryology at the early age of 37, Cesar Milstein (Nobel Prize 1984 for Physiology and Medicine encouraged Ron to take up a Fellowship at Darwin College. His wife Ann, had already been a member and had previously introduced him to the college, and ever since it has become a central part of their social life. They both found in Darwin an atmosphere that was spouse-friendly, non-hierarchical, and encouraged students and fellows to socialise with each other. And the College was sometimes the venue for Ron’s impressive talent in song-writing and singing with his guitar, a gift that has enlivened not only College occasions, but other events outside Cambridge, and even outside the UK. Shortly after he joined Darwin in 1982, he was awarded an FRS, which was only the beginning of a series of prizes recognising his scholarly and other contributions. One of the most notable is the award in 2009 of the Royal Society Royal Medal for his “pivotal contributions to our understanding of the control of DNA replication and nuclear-protein transport, which has led to a novel screening method for cancer diagnostics.” Then, in 2011, Ron received a CBE for services to science, and, only three years later, was awarded the most prestigious “Cancer Research UK Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research Prize.” Further recognition occurred during his career not only directly for research, but also for another vital activity. Namely, he co-founded with five other scientists – including John Gurdon (Nobel Prize for Medicine 2012) – the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research Campaign Institute in 1991, now known as the Wellcome Trust/ Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute. Then, in 2001, he set up the Medical Research Council Cancer Cell Unit, and was its director for ten years until his retirement. Not only a most gifted researcher but also an effective administrator of new institutes – Ron has also devoted himself to the teaching of students who will become crucial to the research of the future. For him, it is vital to recognise the importance of teaching in evaluating scientific careers: “We need to remember that the quality of tomorrow’s researchers depends on the quality of today’s teachers. Without a high standard of university teaching, we cannot expect to sustain a high standard of academic research.” Many students fostered by Ron over

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his long career will recognise this commitment, which they experienced themselves, and which became so important for their own development. Both an undergraduate and a graduate at Oxford, Ron worked with John Gurdon on his DPhil in Zoology. By conducting experiments in cloning frogs, they found that adult cells can actually be reprogrammed. After a post-doc at London’s Imperial Cancer Research Fund, Ron came to Cambridge in 1973 for a research position,

Ron Laskey (right) receiving his lifetime achievement award in cancer research prize in 2014. Ron remembers... ‘Above my desk I have a quotation from the French philosopher Andre Gide, which reads, “One does not discover new lands without agreeing to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.” I also recommend scrutinizing the results that don’t make sense. Very often the biggest advances come from unexpected results, which force us to open our minds to new possibilities. This has been true of much of my group’s work, and especially true of the work that has had the greatest impact. ‘It is equally important to look for opportunities to exploit the results of basic science. While it is notoriously difficult to design applied science projects, it’s perfectly feasible to look for opportunities for exploitation whilst pursuing basic questions. Methods we invented to improve detection of radioisotopes arose in this way. To explain the difficulty of anticipating opportunities to exploit basic science discoveries I quote the extraordinary experience of my father-in-law who developed a method for extracting penicillin from cell lysates during the Second World War. He used a metal ion and quaternary ammonium salts to precipitate the metal salt of the weak acid penicillin and this was used nationally for a few months, but then superseded. Fifty years later he was asked to write a Citation Classic paper for the journal Current Contents. He asked why, as no one had used the method for decades. However, under the declassification of secret literature, it emerged that his method had been inverted and used extensively in the 1940s, but secretly to purify uranium and plutonium with a purpose far removed from his altruistic aim of purifying penicillin.’

again working with John Gurdon who had moved to the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, where Francis Crick and Sidney Brenner were their joint division heads. Ron worked in the MRC Lab for ten years until he was offered the Charles Darwin Chair and moved to the Department of Zoology. After moving to the University, he set up a new Tripos subject in Natural Sciences – Molecular Cell Biology (now renamed “Cell and Developmental Biology” – which began informally in 1984 and as a full Tripos subject in 1989.

Ron has also made contributions to Darwin in the midst of his other work: he organised two lectures series, “The Fragile Environment”, and “The Changing World” in the 1980s and 90s, and he also lectured in two series on the topics of “DNA” and “Life.” At the end of the series on Life, he delighted the audience by singing a song that summarised the series satirically, accompanied by his guitar. Looking back, he says his overwhelming feeling is of “enjoying enormously the excitement and fun of research in cell biology and enjoying equally the enormous pleasure of being a member of Darwin College.”

SUMMER 2017

Glasses for the Masses An Anthropologist’s Attempt to Improve Access to Vision Care... Everywhere By John Friedman

hen I began my studies as a severely myopic doctoral candidate in the Department of Social Anthropology (Darwin 1998), I envisioned a future academic career as a university professor, as teacher and researcher. I went on to achieve that ambition and now, nearly fifteen years on, I remain one of the resident anthropologists at Utrecht University’s honours college, University College Roosevelt, in The Netherlands. What I didn’t at all anticipate, however, was that my doctoral research on political imagination and the post-apartheid state in southern Africa would eventually lead me toward the field of global eye health, optometry and, of all things, optics. As part of my DPhil requirements I was obliged, like all social anthropologists, to undertake an extensive period of fieldwork in support of my research project. Following two years of coursework and supervision in Cambridge, I moved to a small town in northwest Namibia, near the Angolan border, where I lived for the next fifteen months. Considered one of the remotest parts of the country, Kaokoland is known for its beautiful and barren landscapes, and for the semi-nomadic pastoralists who reside there. As an American, and now European, I have never had much of an issue correcting my otherwise disabling visual impairment. I began wearing contact lenses at the age of twelve, and thereafter had no further need for glasses, that is, until I began my fieldwork some two decades later. Kaokoland is a dusty and dry part of an already arid country, and, soon after my arrival there, intense eye irritation forced me to set aside my contact lenses in exchange for a pair of new glasses, which I acquired at the nearest optician’s shop... 550 kilometres away!

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The experience opened my eyes in more ways than one. I began to realise, for example, that hardly any of the people living in Kaokoland were wearing glasses. Was this because they didn’t need them, or because they couldn’t access them? Furthermore, I understood suddenly the extent to which my life would have been completely different had it not been for that simple, concave lens that enables me to see, and live in, the world around me. What would my life look like if I had been born and raised in Kaokoland, where there are no opticians, and no eye glasses?

“The implications of this silent epidemic, for both the individuals affected and the world as a whole, are quite staggering.” The high incidence of uncorrected refractive error, otherwise known as (uncorrected) short- and farsightedness, is not limited to the people of northwest Namibia, not by a long shot. Some estimates suggest that 2.5 billion people require, but cannot acquire, a pair of eye glasses. More than ninety percent of them live in low- and middle-income countries where there are hardly any eye health professionals, especially in rural areas. For those that can reach the eye doctor, the high cost of glasses presents another major obstacle. The implications of this silent epidemic, for both the individuals affected and the world as a whole, are quite staggering. Children who cannot see clearly do not achieve their learning potential. Recent studies show that the provision of glasses to children improves learning by 33-50% per year. Those with glasses learn more, stay in school longer and increase their chances for a productive and healthy life. Similarly, adults who do not see clearly do not achieve their economic potential. Clear vision increases people’s earnings, and increased earnings

beside a physicist at a formal hall, listening to one of those fantastic Darwin Lectures, talking in the pub with friends who were undertaking research in other university departments – had prepared me well for such a diverse intellectual and professional space.

reduces poverty. In fact, uncorrected visual impairment costs the developing world economies more than $400 million per annum. For drivers, clear vision improves road safety for themselves, their passengers and pedestrians. Across Africa, for example, auto accidents are a leading cause of death, and poor vision is a leading cause of car accidents. As for the senior citizens who cannot see clearly, they lose part of their independence, as well as the ability to enjoy activities such as reading and sewing or weaving. People over the age of sixty represent a rapidly growing age demographic globally, and almost all of them require vision correction. When an older person has a pair of glasses, they work longer, enjoy life more fully, and continue to make contributions to family and society. Seven years after having earned my degree at Cambridge, and already well into my teaching career in the Netherlands, I finally published my monograph on people and the state in northwest Namibia (2011, Berghahn). Shortly around that time, I also learned about an innovative new strategy to try and address the problem of uncorrected visual impairment. What if we could design and mass produce a pair of glasses that did not require a trained eye doctor to prescribe, and could be so inexpensive to produce that even the world’s poorest people could afford a pair? Recollecting my own experiences in Kaokoland, and finding myself ready to embark upon a new research project, I decided to join a team of optical physicists, production engineers, designers, optometrists and global health specialists to work on the idea. To my surprise, I felt quite comfortable working so far outside my original field of formal training. Even though I hadn’t realised it at the time, many of the everyday interactions I had had at Cambridge – sitting

And now, five years later, our 20/20 project (www. the2020project.info) – a consortium made up of an NGO, a charitable foundation, and a social enterprise – is mass producing and distributing the FocusSpec adjustable focus glasses, as well as developing even newer technologies to help close the visual divide. Our adjustable focus spectacles utilise an innovative lens technology that allows one to easily alter the strength of the lens through the simple turn of a dial, not so unlike a pair of binoculars. Each individually adjustable lens consists of two inversely-shaped optical elements, placed exactly behind one another. The strength of each lens changes when the two elements shift relative to each other. With its extensive power range (from -5,0 to +4,5 dioptres), the FocusSpec corrects approximately 90% of all refractive errors. In addition, its ease of use means that a lay person can be trained quickly to perform vision screening for others, and instruct them in the selfadjustment and fitting of the spectacles. Currently, a pair of FocusSpecs can be produced for a very reasonable price, but we hope that as the project scales we will be able to supply a pair of glasses for less than a pint of beer. To date, our project has distributed more than 100,000 pairs of glasses to people in more than 50 countries. But given the scope of the problem globally, we are not yet able to make even a dent in relation to the need. For this reason, we are trying to partner with as many other organisations and people as possible. Our central question is no longer how to design or produce such glasses, but rather ‘how can we distribute 1 million glasses per year?’ And this is shaping up to be an even greater challenge. John Friedman has an MPhil and DPhil in Social Anthropology and attended Darwin College. He is Associate Professor of Socio-cultural Anthropology and Development at University College Roosevelt / Utrecht University, and co-founder of The 20/20 Project. He can be contacted at john@ the2020project.info

SUMMER 2017

Meet the Cambridge Scientist on the verge of curing Multiple Sclerosis The amazing work of Dr Su Metcalfe which could literally change the world

brain and the spinal cord, causing an array of physical and mental side effects including blindness and muscle weakness. At the moment there’s no cure, but Su and her company, LIFNano, hope to change that. “Some people get progressive MS, so go straight to the severe form of the disease, but the majority have a relapsing or remitting version,” she says. “It can start from the age of 30, and there’s no cure, so all you can do is suppress the immune response, but the drugs that do that have side effects, and you can’t repair the brain. The cost of those drugs is very high, and in the UK there are a lot of people who don’t get treated at all.” But now a solution could be in sight thanks to Su, who has married one of the body’s cleverest functions with some cutting-edge technology. The natural side of the equation is provided by a stem cell particle called a LIF. Su was working at the university’s department of surgery when she made her big breakthrough: “I was looking to see what controls the immune response and stops it auto-attacking us,” she explains. “I discovered a small binary switch, controlled by a LIF, which regulates inside the immune cell itself. LIF is able to control the cell to ensure it doesn’t attack your own body but then releases the attack when needed.

arwin alumna Dr Su Metcalfe (1965, PhD Pathology) is sitting quietly reading through some documents in the lobby of the Judge Business School when I arrive for our interview. It would be easy to walk right past her and not know you were in the presence of a woman who could be on the verge of curing Multiple Sclerosis.

“That LIF, in addition to regulating and protecting us against attack, also plays a major role in keeping the brain and spinal cord healthy. In fact it plays a major role in tissue repair generally, turning on stem cells that are naturally occurring in the body, making it a natural regenerative medicine, but also plays a big part in repairing the brain when it’s been damaged. “So I thought, this is fantastic. We can treat autoimmune disease, and we’ve got something to treat MS, which attacks both the brain and the spinal cord. So you have a double whammy that can stop and reverse the auto-immunity, and also repair the damage caused in the brain.”

MS, an auto-immune condition which affects 2.3 million people around the world, attacks cells in the

Presumably Su, who has been in Cambridge since she was an undergraduate but retains a soft accent

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from her native Yorkshire, was dancing a jig of delight around her lab at this point, but she soon hit a snag; the LIF could only survive outside the cell for 20 minutes before being broken down by the body, meaning there was not enough time to deploy it in a therapy. And this is where the technology, in the form of nano-particles, comes in. “They are made from the same material as soluble stitches, so they’re compatible with the body and they slowly dissolve,” says Su. “We load the cargo of the LIF into those particles, which become the delivery device that slowly dissolve and deliver the LIF over five days. The nanoparticle itself is a protective environment, and the enzymes that break it down can’t access it. You can also decorate the surface of the particles with antibodies, so it becomes a homing device that can target specific parts of the brain, for example. So you get the right dose, in the right place, and at the right time.” The particles themselves were developed at Yale University, which is listed as co-inventor with Su on the IP. But LIFNano has the worldwide licence to deploy them, and Su believes we are on the verge of a step-change in medicine. She says: “Nano-medicine is a new era, and big pharma has already entered this space to deliver drugs while trying to avoid the side effects. The quantum leap is to actually go into biologics and tap into the natural pathways of the body. “We’re not using any drugs, we’re simply switching on the body’s own systems of self-tolerance and repair. There aren’t any side effects because all we’re doing is tipping the balance. Auto-immunity happens when that balance has gone awry slightly, and we simply reset that. Once you’ve done that, it becomes self-sustaining and you don’t have to keep giving therapy, because the body has its balance back.” LIFNano has already attracted two major funding awards, from drug firm Merck and the Government’s Innovate UK agency. Su herself is something of a novice when it comes to business, but has recruited

cannily in the form of chairman Florian Kemmerich and CEO Oliver Jarry, both experienced operators in the pharma sector. With the support of the Judge Business School, the company hopes to attract more investment, with the aim of starting clinical trials in 2020. “The 2020 date is ambitious, but with the funding we’ve got and the funding we’re hoping to raise, it should be possible,” says Su. “We’ve got everything we need in place to make the nano-particles in a clinically compliant manner, it’s just a case of flicking the switch when we have the money. We’re looking at VCs and big pharma, because they have a strong interest in this area. We’re doing all our pre-clinical work concurrently while bringing in the major funds the company needs to go forward in its own right.” Immune cells have been a big part of Su’s career, and as we talk, her passion for her subject is obvious. “I wanted to understand something that was so simple on one level but also so complex,” she says. “The immune cell is the only single cell in the body that is its own unity, so it functions alone. It’s probably one of the most powerful cells in the body because it can kill you, and if you haven’t got it you die because you haven’t got it.” And MS may just be the start for LIFNano. “MS is our key driver at the moment, but it’s going to be leading through to other major auto-immune disease areas,” Su adds. “Psoriasis is high up on our list, and diabetes is another. Downstream there are all the dementias, because a LIF is a major health factor for the brain. So if we can get it into the brain we can start protecting against dementia.” Now that would be something. Article adapted and reproduced with the kind permission of Matt Gooding and ‘Cambridge Business magazine’ www.cambridge-news. co.uk/business. First published in June 2017.

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Darwin College Register 2017 Year of Admission shown in brackets VISITOR The Right Honourable Lord THOMAS of CWMGIEDD (Roger John Laugharne), Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales MASTER Christine Mary Rutherford FOWLER, MA PhD FRAS FGS FRCGS; (2012) VICE-MASTER Martin Kenneth JONES, PhD; (2001); George Pitt-Rivers Professor of Archaeological Science, Division of Archaeology DEAN Duncan James NEEDHAM, PhD; (2013); Associate Lecturer, Faculty of History DEPUTY DEANS Matthew Russell JONES, PhD; (1992); Reader in Information Systems, Judge Business School Sara Theresa BAKER, PhD; (2012); University Lecturer in Psychology and Education, Faculty of Education BURSAR John Tannatt DIX, LLB; (2014) DOMESTIC BURSAR Matthew Stuart EDWARDS, MA; (2012) COLLEGE SECRETARY Julian Graham EVANS, MA; (2014); Secretary, School of Humanities and Social Sciences DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Samuel Oliver VENN, BA; (2017) PROFESSORIAL AND OFFICIAL FELLOWS Simon John SCHAFFER, MA PhD; (1984); Professor of History of Science, Department of History and Philosophy of Science Sir Harshad Kumar Dharamshi Hansraj BHADESHIA, PhD FREng FRS; (1985); Tata Steel Professor of Metallurgy, Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy Adrian Thomas GROUNDS, DM FRCPsych; (1987); Honorary Research Fellow, Institute of Criminology Andrew Mawdesley PITTS, PhD; (1990); Professor of Theoretical Computer Science, Computer Laboratory François -André PENZ, PhD; (1995); Professor of Architecture and the Moving Image, Faculty of Architecture; Director of Studies in Architecture Carol Elspeth Goodeve BRAYNE, CBE MSc MD FRCP FFPH; (1995); Professor of Public Health Medicine, Cambridge Institute of Public Health Anne Carla FERGUSON-SMITH, PhD FRS FMedSci; (1997); Arthur Balfour Professor of Genetics, Department of Genetics Christopher Michael BISHOP, PhD FRS FRSE; (1998); Director, Microsoft Research Cambridge Torsten KRUDE, PhD; (2000); University Senior Lecturer, Department of Zoology John Harold NILSSON-WRIGHT, PhD; (2001); University Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Alan Frank BLACKWELL, PhD; (2001); Professor of Interdisciplinary Design, Computer Laboratory Emily Fleur SHUCKBURGH, OBE PhD; (2001); Deputy Head, Polar Oceans, British Antarctic Survey

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Paul Andrew ROBERTSON, PhD; (2003); University Senior Lecturer, Department of Engineering Mark Edmondus Jan DE ROND, DPhil; (2006); Professor of Organisational Ethnography, Judge Business School Michael Edwin AKAM, DPhil FRS; (2006); 1866 Professor of Zoology, Department of Zoology Dénes SZŰCS, MA PhD; (2007); University Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology Carl Edward RASMUSSEN, PhD; (2008); Professor of Machine Learning, Department of Engineering Nicholas John COOK, PhD FBA; (2009); 1684 Professor of Music, Faculty of Music Lawrence W SHERMAN, PhD; (2009); Wolfson Professor of Criminology, Institute of Criminology Markus KALBERER, PhD; (2010); Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry, Department of Chemistry Christopher Guy SANDBROOK, PhD; (2011); Senior Lecturer in Conservation Leadership, Department of Geography Russell Paul COWBURN, PhD ScD FRS; (2011); Director of Research, Cavendish Laboratory Thomas Jeffrey MILEY, PhD; (2011); Lecturer in Political Sociology, Department of Sociology Jonathan Luke HEENEY, PhD ScD; (2012); Professor of Comparative Pathology, Department of Veterinary Medicine Jan Dietrich Karsen LÖWE, PhD FRS; (2012); Research Leader, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology Panayiotis ANTONIOU, PhD; (2012); University Senior Lecturer in Educational Leadership and Evaluation, Faculty of Education Paul Stuart ANDERSON, PhD; (2013); University Lecturer in Middle Eastern Studies, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Paul Joseph LEHNER, PhD FRCP FMedSci; (2013); Professor of Immunology and Medicine, Cambridge Institute for Medical Research Dame Jane Elizabeth FRANCIS, DCMG PhD; (2013); Director, British Antarctic Survey Eric WOLFF, PhD; (2013); Royal Society Research Professor, Department of Earth Sciences Fiona Eve KARET, PhD FMedSci; (2014); Professor of Nephrology, Cambridge Institute for Medical Research Christine VAN RUYMBEKE, Doctorate, Université Libre de Bruxelles; (2015); Ali Reza and Mohamed Soudavar Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies; College Praelector Ines BARROSO, PhD; (2015); Senior Group Leader, Metabolic Disease Group, Sanger Institute Simone Nicole WEYAND, PhD; (2016); Group Leader, Department of Biochemistry Xin CHANG, PhD; (2016); University Senior Lecturer in Finance, Judge Business School Timothy Nicholas MILNER, MA; (2016); Senior Pro Proctor (2016-17), Ceremonial Officer, University of Cambridge; Deputy College Praelector Angela Mary WOOD, PhD; (2016); University Lecturer in Biostatistics, Department of Public Health and Primary Care Aylwyn Olav SCALLY, PhD; (2016); Group Leader, Department of Genetics Julia DAVIES, PhD; (2016); Head of Transport Group, Department of Plant Sciences Daniel Haskell WEISS, PhD; (2017); PolonskyCoexist Lecturer in Jewish Studies, Faculty of Divinity Maha ABDELRAHMAN, PhD; (2017); Reader in Development Studies and Middle East Politics, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

Alexandra BRINTRUP, PhD; (2017); University Lecturer in Digital Manufacturing, Institute of Manufacturing VISITING FELLOWS Nicholas HARDY, DPhil; (2016); Munby Research Fellow in Bibliography, University Library RESEARCH FELLOWS Daniele BIASCI; (2014); Marie Curie Fellow, Cambridge Institute for Medical Research Julius Friedlieb Wiesengrund WEITZDORFER, LLB LLM; (2014); Charles & Katharine Darwin Research Fellow, Faculty of Law Golam M KHANDAKER, PhD; (2014); Wellcome Trust Intermediate Clinical Fellow, Department of Psychiatry Benjamin David RAYNOR, PhD; (2015); Moses and Mary Finley Research Fellow, Faculty of Classics, Fellow Librarian James David Gordon POSKETT, PhD; (2015); Adrian Research Fellow, Department of History and Philosophy of Science Tanya HUTTER, PhD; (2015); Henslow Research Fellow, Department of Chemistry Marieke MUR, PhD; (2015); Postdoctoral Researcher, MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit Johannes KNOLLE, PhD; (2015); Postdoctoral Researcher, Cavendish Laboratory Krishnamoorthy Chandrasekaran SIVARAMAKRISHNAN, PhD; (2015); Research Associate, Computer Laboratory Thomas Joseph MAGUIRE, PhD; (2015); Research Fellow, Department of Politics and International Studies Arthur Dale DUDNEY, PhD; (2016); Leverhulme Early Career fellow, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Alison MACINTOSH, PhD; (2016); Postdoctoral Researcher, Division of Archaeology Kristen E CRANDELL, PhD; (2016); NCBS-Cambridge Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Zoology Daniel Matthew STORISTEANU, PhD; (2016); Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Medicine Tao LIU, PhD; (2016); Research Fellow, Department of Chemistry Jenny ZHAO, PhD; (2016); Lloyd DanDavid Research Fellow, Needham Research Institute Rita PANCSA, PhD; (2016); Postdoctoral Researcher, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology Alexandra (Sandy) SKELTON, PhD; (2016); Research Associate, Department of Engineering Miltos ALLAMANIS, PhD; (2017); Postdoctoral Researcher, Microsoft Research Cambridge HONORARY FELLOWS Christopher Michael Paley JOHNSON, MA PhD; (1978) Sir Arnold Stanley Vincent BURGEN, MA MD FRCP FRS; (1982) Sir Geoffrey Ernest Richard LLOYD, PhD FBA; (1985) Sir Michael Francis ATIYAH, OM PhD (Hon) ScD FRS FRSE FMedSci FREng; (1992) Jeffrey William EDINGTON, BSc PhD DSc; (1998) Amartya Kumar SEN, CH MA PhD (Hon) LittD FBA FRSE; (1998) Michael Charles SHEPPARD, MA DPhil; (2000) Sir Charles Antony Richard HOARE, DSc FRS; (2001) Ekhard Karl Hermann SALJE, PhD FRS; (2002) The Honourable Robert Anthony RAYNE; (2004)

The Lord REES of LUDLOW (Martin John), OM PhD (Hon) ScD FRS; (2004) Bernard Michael de Lerisson CAZENOVE; (2005) Dame Jean Olwen THOMAS, DBE MA ScD FRS FMedSci; (2007) Robert Hughes JONES, PhD; (2008) Stephen John KEYNES, OBE; (2010) Simon Hastings BITTLESTON, PhD; (2013) Christopher Martin DOBSON, DPhil ScD FRS FMedSci; (2014) Sir Alan Roy FERSHT, PhD FRS FMedSci; (2014) Sir Gregory Paul WINTER, CBE PhD FRS FMedSci; (2014) Nicola Margaret PADFIELD, MA DipCrim DES; (2014) Robin Wayne CARRELL, PhD FRS FMedSci; (2015) Olga KENNARD (Lady BURGEN), OBE (Hon) ScD FRS; (2016) Janet ROSSANT, CC PhD (Hon)ScD FRS FRSC; (2017) EMERITUS FELLOWS Abraham David YOFFE, ScD; (1964) Philip Murray Jourdan MCNAIR, PhD DPhil; (1965) Reginald Frederick William GOODWIN, MA PhD MRCVS; (1966) Donald James WEST, MD LittD; (1967) Bruce Anthony NEWTON, ScD FRCPath; (1968) George Thomas GÖMÖRI, MA BLitt; (1969) Chester WHITE, MBE TD MA BM PhD; (1969) Paul RIES, MA PhD; (1973) Roger George WHITEHEAD, CBE MA PhD FIBiol;(1973) Elisabeth Somerville LEEDHAM-GREEN, MA PhD; (1973); Honorary Archivist Peter Furneaux FRIEND, MA PhD; (1974) Nicholas JARDINE, MA PhD; (1975) Dean Ullathorne HAWKES, MA PhD RIBA; (1976) Richard HENDERSON, PhD FRS; (1981) Ronald Alfred LASKEY, CBE PhD FRS; (1982) Nicholas James Bertram Alwyn BRANSON, MA PhD; (1983) Janine Delysia BOURRIAU, MA FSA; (1983) Andrew Christopher FABIAN, OBE MA PhD FRS; (1983) Leopold Eftimios Anagnostis HOWE, MA PhD; (1986) Richard Ashton KING, CBE MA FBIM; (1986) Mohammad Munawar CHAUDHRI, PhD; (1990) Kathleen Michelle WHEELER, PhD; (1990) Karalyn Eve PATTERSON, FRS FMedSci FBA; (1991); Honorary Wine Steward Margaret CONE, PhD; (1992) John Robert COOPER, PhD; (1993) Kiyoshi NAGAI, PhD FRS; (1993) Jennifer Alice CLACK, MA ScD FRS; (1997) Richard Anthony COX, ScD; (1999) William Arthur BROWN, CBE MA; (2001) Peta Margaret STEVENS, MA; (2001) Peter John BRINDLE, MA MPhil FCMI FinstD; (2001) Felicia Adina HUPPERT, PhD; (2002) Ian MCCONNELL, MA PhD MRCVS FRCPath FRSE; (2003) Christopher CULLEN, MA PhD; (2005) Philip DAWID, MA ScD; (2007) DISTINGUISHED ASSOCIATES Dame Diana BRITTAN, DBE Mr Edward CHAPLIN, CMG OBE Dr Hermann HAUSER, KBE FRS FREng FInstP CPhys Professor Jill KER CONWAY, AC Professor Sheila LEATHERMAN, CBE The Right Honourable Lord JUDGE (Igor), Commissary of the University

SENIOR MEMBERS Ms Saumya BALSARI; Dr Paolo CAMPANA; Institute of Criminology Mr Amir CHAUDHRY Dr David FELLER; Research Operations Office Dr John GABBAY; Cambridge Institute of Public Health Professor David GANZ Dr Bartek GLOWACKI; Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy Dr Stefan GRAF; Department of Medicine Dr Anthony HOTSON; Centre for Financial History Professor Nicholas HUMPHREY Dr Daniel JONES; British Antarctic Survey Professor Adrian KENT; Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics; Director of Studies in Mathematics Professor Andreas KONTOLEON; Department of Land Economy Dr Richard LANGFORD; Cavendish Laboratory Dr Noelle L’HOMMEDIEU Dr Celia MARTINEZ; Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute Dr Derek MATRAVERS; Open University Professor Arokia NATHAN; Department of Engineering Dr Seán Ó HÉIGEARTAIGH; Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities Dr David PEARSON; Dr Anna PETRUNKINA; Department of Medicine Professor Gloria PUNGETTI; Chairman, Darwin College Alumni Society Mr Nebojsa RADIC; The Language Centre Professor Nicholas RAWLINSON; Department of Earth Sciences Professor John RUST; The Psychometrics Centre Professor Stoyan SMOUKOV; Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy Dr Daniel WUNDERLICH; School of Arts and Humanities POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH AFFILIATES Dr Angela GONCALVES; Sanger Institute Dr Beth AHERN; Department of Psychology Dr Ksenia GERASIMOVA; Department of Land Economy Dr Celine MERLET; Department of Chemistry Dr Nitzan PERI-ROTEM; Department of Sociology Dr Paula MACGREGOR; Department of Biochemistry Dr Shahin TAVAKOLI; Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics Dr Jessie HITCHCOCK; Department of Medicine Dr Soeren URBANSKY; Faculty of History Dr Lorena ESCUDERO; Cavendish Laboratory Dr Ruth HINDSHAW; Department of Earth Sciences Dr Aya BEN-YAKOV; MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit Dr Annette SCHEFFER; British Antarctic Survey Dr Anna PROTASIO; Sanger Institute RESEARCH ASSOCIATES Dr Will ALSTON; Institute of Astronomy Dr Domagoj BARETIC; MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology Dr Ana BELEN-MARIN; Division of Archaeology Dr Dario BRESSAN; Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute Dr Sara CAVIOLA; Department of Psychology Dr Lincoln COLLING; Department of Psychology

Research Interests: Include the application of machine learning and natural language processing to software engineering and programming languages.

Dr Giorgio DIVITINI; Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy Dr Jonas GELDMANN; Department of Zoology Dr Ivor GUINEY; Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy Dr Katja HOFMANN; Microsoft Research Cambridge Dr Miranda JONES Dr Priyanka JOSHI; Department of Chemistry Dr Mustafa KAMAL; Department of Engineering Dr George LANSBURY; Institute of Astronomy Dr Dmitry MAZUNIN; MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology Dr Andrew MEIJERS; British Antarctic Survey Dr Elizabeth MONIER; Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Ms Veronique SAMSON Dr Kelvin ZHANG; Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy

Kristen CRANDELL (NCBS-inSTEM-Cambridge Postdoctoral Fellow) Department: Insect Biomechanics Workgroup, Department of Zoology Research Interests: Involve exploring the consequences of mechanical constraints. The application of engineering principles to human and animal locomotion yields accurate and testable assessments of the physical limits of an organism, which provides limits and pressures in evolutionary ecology. Arthur DUDNEY (Leverhulme Early Career Fellow) Department: Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Research Interests: The Leverhulme-funded project “Making Persianate People: Histories of Persian Literary Education Beyond Iran” will provide a history of Persian-language literary education with the aim of better understanding the Persianate (the Persian language-using) world.

VISITING ASSOCIATES Professor Wenzel GEISSLER; Division of Social Anthropology Dr Daisuke IKEMOTO; Faculty of Economics

NEW MEMBERS OF THE FELLOWSHIP 2017 ACADEMIC YEAR

Tao LIU (Schlumberger Research Fellow) Department: The Grey Group, Department of Chemistry Research Interests: Research interests include batteries, fuel cells and solar fuels

This year we are pleased to have inducted the following people to the Fellowship. Welcome to them all, their input into the College is very much appreciated. FELLOWS Xin CHANG Department: University Senior Lecturer in Finance, Judge Business School Research Interests: Corporate finance, especially capital structure, mergers and acquisitions, and equity valuation.

Alison MACINTOSH Department: PAVE Research Group, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology Research: Skeletal biomechanics, functional adaptation, human morphological variability, phenotypic plasticity, postcranial osteology

Simone WEYAND Department: Research Group Leader, Department of Biochemistry Research Interests: Research focuses on obtaining insights into the molecular mechanisms and cell biology of human neurotransmitter transporters and G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs).

Rita PANCSA Department: Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Medical Research Council Research: The functional benefits of regulated protein unfolding leading to the exposure of cryptic disordered regions. Sandy SKELTON (Charles & Katharine Darwin Research Fellow) Department: The Use Less Group, Department of Engineering Research: Sandy is an environmental economist with an interest in the motivations and trade-offs associated with greater material efficiency and demand reduction. She is a Research Associate on the Whole System Energy Modelling project exploring the welfare implications of reducing demand, and improving the characterisation of demand in whole system energy models.

Timothy MILNER Department: Ceremonial Officer, Vice-Chancellor’s Office Responsibilities: Oversees and advises on ceremonial matters including Degree Congregations and University Sermons. Samuel VENN Department: Darwin College Development and Alumni Relations Office Responsibilities: Overseas the Development Office, to increase Darwin’s philanthropic income, and strengthen the world-wide community of alumni and friends.

Dan STORISTEANU Department: Doctoral researcher in Medical Sciences Research: Novel strategies that pathogens including cytomegalovirus and Staphylococcus aureus use to manipulate or exploit the immune system.

RESEARCH FELLOWS Miltos ALLAMANIS (Microsoft Research Fellow) Department: Post-Doctoral Researcher, Microsoft

Jenny ZHAO Department Needham Research Institute Research: Main areas of interest include ancient Greek and early Chinese philosophy, and crosscultural comparative studies on the classical traditions. HONORARY FELLOWS Olga KENNARD OBE (Hon)ScD FRS Biography An expert crystallographer who used X-ray diffraction to investigate organic and biological molecules. In particular, her work extended our understanding of alternative structures of DNA. Olga is dedicated to the advancement of chemistry and crystallography for the public benefit. Dr Janet ROSSANT C.C., Ph.D., F.R.S., F.R.S.C Biography A Senior Scientist in the Developmental & Stem Cell Biology program at The Hospital for Sick Children and is a Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics, and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Toronto. Her research centres on understanding genetic control of normal and abnormal development in the early mouse embryo. VISITING FELLOWS Nicholas HARDY Munby Visiting Fellow in Bibliography Department: Faculty of English Research: Main research interests are in the history of criticism, late humanism, and the study of the Bible in the seventeenth century. His current project is a study of vernacular biblical translation, concentrating on the King James Bible (1611).

GRADUANDS PRESENTED JULY 2016 – MAY 2017 ScD: Physics and Chemistry: Tahir KHAN PhD: Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic: Eoghan AHERN Bede’s understanding of the natural world: from the cosmic to the local. Applied Mathematics: James MATHEWS Mathematical modelling of noise generation in turbofan aero engines using Green’s functions. Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics: Davide GEROSA Source modelling at the dawn of gravitationalwave astronomy. Doran KHAMIS The acoustics of sheared viscous flow over impedance linings. Francois PEAUDECERF The role of spatial structure in microbial mutualisms of model associations between algae and bacteria. Archaeology: Sarah CLEGG Capturing the standards: capacity systems in their social and economic context in third millennium BC Mesopotamia.

SUMMER 2017

Asian and Middle Eastern Studies: Lulu ZHANG Ellipsis in Chinese and its acquisition by second language learners. Astronomy: Richard WOLSTENHULME Three-point phase correlations in cosmology. Biochemistry: Kate CAMPBELL Metabolic cooperation in a synthetic yeast community. Lucia De Fatima LIMA CORREIA The role of SOX2 in the initiation and maintenance of squamous lung cancer: generation of novel in vitro and in vivo models. Anne-Louise MILLER The role of Sall4 in embryonic stem cells and development. Michael MÜLLEDER A functional metabolic map about amino acid metabolism on the genomic scale. Nyasha MUNJOMA Lipidomics studies and the synthesis of stable isotope labelled lipid standards using Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Stephen ROWDEN The interface between electrochemistry and genetics: wiring into photosynthetic gene expression. Biological Science: Iosif ALEXANDROU The role of phosphatidyl-inositol-4monophosphate 5-kinases in phosphoinositide 3-kinase signalling. Filmon EYASSU Computational modelling of metabolic disorders of the mitochondrion. Daniel HOUSLAY Unravelling the signals that coordinate PI3K activation in phagocytic cells. Ewan Roderick JOHNSTONE An evaluation of cancer subtypes and glioma stem cell characterisation. Unifying tumour transcriptomic features with cell line expression and chromatin accessibility. Maryia KARPIYEVICH The ubiquitin coat of cytosol-invading salmonella. Michael MENDEN In silico models of drug response in cancer cell lines based on various molecular descriptors. Vagheesh NARASIMHAN Health and population effects of rare gene knockouts in adult humans. Jessica NOAD Linear ubiquitin and cargo selection in antibacterial autophagy. Chemical Engineering: Akin ALI Understanding the cleaning of greasy polymerized food soils. Matthew TOWNSEND The adaptation and utilisation of micro-capillary film for the analysis of biomolecules. Chemistry: Tine CURK Modelling multivalent interactions. Timothy ROSSER Immobilised molecular catalysts for photoelectrochemical solar fuels synthesis. Classics: Matthew SCARBOROUGH The aeolic dialects of ancient Greek a study in historical dialectology and linguistic classification. Clinical Biochemistry: Naomi Claire PENFOLD Developmental programming of obesity and the reward system by maternal diet-induced obesity.

Darwinian THE

Computation, Cognition and Language: Christian BENTZ Adaptive languages: an information-theoretic account of linguistic diversity.

Robert FOY Machine learning applications in prediction of transcriptional regulation. Geography: Jan Laurens GEFFERT Improving species distribution models for commercially important marine species on a global scale. Akanksha Abhay MARPHATIA Predictors and consequences of variability in secondary educational attainment in rural India: a life course approach. Sang-Ju YU The complexity of waterfront regeneration: a case study of Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

Computer Science: Naruemon PRATANWANICH Probabilistic latent variable modelling for integrated biological data. Development Studies: Ngan Vu Trang DINH The young people of Vietnam and how they see the world. Natalya NAQVI Essays on the political economy of financial systems and economic development.

Haematology: Steven WOODHOUSE Synthesising executable gene regulatory networks in haematopoiesis from single-cell gene expression data. Yahui YAN Structural understanding of prorenin, angiotensinogen and the release of angiotensin.

Earth Sciences: Alexander MASKELL Migration and iteraction of CO2-brine through caprocks and reservoirs: lessonns from the naturally leaking Green River CO2 accumulation, Utah. Diana SHER Mixing in gravity currents.

History: Carolyn COBBOLD An investigation into the introduction and use of coal-tar derived dyes to colour food, 1856-1914.

Economics: Teodora BONEVA Essays on empirical microeconomics. Konstantin MATTHIES Economics of risk and information: theoretical and experimental contributions. Frederik TOSCANI Essays in development economics and political economy.

History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine: Iris MONTERO SOBREVILLA Transatlantic hum: natural history and the itineraries of the torpid hummingbird ca. 1521 – 1790. Eoin PHILLIPS Making time fit: astronomers, artisans and the state, 1770-1820.

Education: Aditi BHUTORIA Do financial education interventions for women from poor households impact their financial behaviours? Experimental evidence from India. Lisha O’SULLIVAN Preschool children’s social pretend play: it’s developmental trajectory and the role of adult involvement. Xiaofei SHI Reconceptualising crossover picture book: a cognitive approach to crossover picture books and readers’ engagement with them. Chenyan XU Metacognition and children’s second language acquisition in China.

Land Economy: Pablo SALAS BRAVO The effects of uncertainty in the technological transitions of the power sector. Endogenous emission scenarios up to 2050. Management Studies: Melanie MILOVAC Initial impressions of entrepreneurs are shaped by implicit beliefs about affect and entrepreneurship. Materials Science: Alexey BANNYKH Superconducting heterostructures with magnetic and non-magnetic interfaces. Stephen CROXALL 3D FIB-SEM tomography of nickel-base superalloys. Abhijeet Laxman SANGLE Nonostrutured SrTiO3 for strongly enhanced tunable microwave and photocatalytic performance.

Engineering: Ujwal BONDE Robust object instance recognition from depth data. Zhi CHEN Simulation of partially premixed turbulent flames. Jiahuan CUI Numerical investigation of disturbed flow environment impact on low pressure turbines. Joel GALOS Lightweight composite trailer design. Hong GE Developments in Bayesian nonparametric modelling. Alexander MATTHEWS Scalable Gaussian process inference using variational methods. Theerawat RUNGUPHAN Investigation on the use of burnt colliery spoil as aggregate in low to normal strength concrete.

Medical Genetics: Xiaoting WU Autophagy regulates Notch degradation and modulates stem cell development and neurogenesis. Medical Science: Kamila JOZWIK The mechanisms of a pioneer factor FOXA1 function in breast cancer. Tarra PENNEY Local food availability, diet and obesity: development and empirical testing of a complex theory.

Genetics: Melissa ANTONIOU-KOUROUNIOTI Sumoylation and phosphorylation of topoisomerase 2α C-terminal region affect the protein’s localisation and interaction with mitotic chromatin.

Medicine: Hayley BRODRICK Using whole Genome Sequencing to investigate the prevalence, transmission and evolution of healthcare associated pathogens in a long-term Care facility. Radu RAPITEANU Elucidating HIV1-Vpu function through genetic and proteomic screens. Arianne RICHARD Studies of genetic variation in the tumour necrosis factor cytokine and receptor superfamilies in autoimmunity and autoinflammation. Music: Jiaxi LIU The performance and perception of violin glides. Pathology: Maximilian BLANCK Investigating TNF-induced cell death in the mammary gland. Andrea Konstanze SCHOTT Analysis of the effects of Toxoplasma gondii on the host cell phosphoproteome and the proteome of extracellular vesicles secreted by infected cells. Matthew WAKE A high-throughput screening strategy for the discovery of novel small molecule STAT3 inhibitors. Pharmacology: Sonja DUNBAR An investigation into the intrinsically disordered binding partners of β-catenin. Philosophy: Carlo ROSSI Endurance theory: an examination and defence. Physics: Pascal BUGNION Few-body insights into many-body physics. Rene KIST Charge transport and recombination in organic and inorganic solar cell materials. Daniel MOLNAR Quantum states in Bismuth based sulphur materials. Clare RUMSEY Observing galaxy cluster mergers with AMI. Plant Science: Jessica FONSECA DA SILVA Effects of land use change on biodiversity and nitrous oxide emissions in the Brazilian Cerrado. Politics and International Studies: Shane GUY The establishment and some consequences of the combined threat reduction and associated programmes. Psychology: Vaishali MAHALINGAM Who can wait for the future? Individual differences in delay discounting. Physiology, Development and Neuroscience: James BUTLER Optogenetic induction of theta-nested gamma oscillations in the enthorhinalhippocampal system in vitro. Polar Studies: Claire WARRIOR Rekindling histories. Families and British Polar exploration.

Public Health and Primary Care: Chantal BALASOORIYA-SMEEKENS The role of emotions in time to presentation with symptoms suggestive of colorectal cancer. Maria (Marleen) LENTJES Dietary supplement use and health, particularly cod liver oil and coronary heart disease, in the population-based EPIC-Norfolk cohort. Social and Developmental Psychology: Iva CEK Modernizing the implicit association test. Zoology: Ramona MÖGLING Evolution of human seasonal influenza viruses; intrinsic and extrinsic fitness. Erik VAN BERGEN Exploring patterns of ecological diversification in mycalesine butterflies. MASt Applied Mathematics: Loren Everett HELD Felix KRESS Matthew MCLEAN Sergi NAVARRO ALBALAT James LIDSEY MBA Business Administration: Donald ADITYA Kokou ADOKOU Kay ALANDY DY Sameer BAROOVA Ekaterina BESCHASNOVA Neil DUBEY Liting FANG Jorge GARCIA-MORENO VILLARREAL Siddharth JOSHI Yuki KITAOKA Noriaki KODERA Kelly McMAHON Nurul Iman MOHD ZAMAN Grant MORGAN Julia NELSON Kaede SAKATA Willem Frans SCHOL Denis TERPANOV Mark WALLACE Yun ZOU Masashi ODA Zihui XU MEd Education: Andrew WILLIAMSON Jacqueline MEDHURST MFin Finance: Andre GORDILHO Benjamin HERRERA VERGARA Tadaaki IKOMA Eugenio LOPEZ David SAGAN Utkarsh SHARMA Lu YU MLitt History: Alan WAIN MPhil: Advanced Chemistry Engineering: Anouk L’HERMITTE Geoffrey VAN RYNEVELD

Epidemiology: Blake THOMSON Holly TIBBLE

Archaeology: Francesca CALARCO Maxwell LÓPEZ Hailey PERELMAN Architecture and Urban Design: Emily CARMICHAEL Arthur TRIEU Assyriology: Grace TRIBBLE Biological Anthropological Science: Simon MOORE Biological Science: Zhen DU Michael SCHERM Juan David SCHNETTLER FERNANDEZ Conservation Leadership: Michelle COOPER Leonor FISHMAN Martine GODER Oluwabunmi JEGEDE Isabel VIQUE BOSQUET

Economic and Social History: Markus BLOCK Leah BRAMWELL

Education: Ibrahima DIALLO Nisha PAREKH Xiao WANG

Environmental Design Option B: Mangyuan WANG

Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic: Samantha NICHOLLS

Environmental Policy: Amina KADYRZHANOVA

Scientific Computing: Mark JOHNSON Michael O’NEILL Social Anthropology: Megan FENNELL Samantha PRIMIANO Sociology: Henrike DIESING Auska Hareli OVANDO MALDONADO

International Relations Option 1A: Brady DEARDEN

Theology and Religious Studies: Elizabeth HARE

Latin American Studies: Audrey BIRNER Eléonore HUGHES

Theoretical and Applied Linguistics: Marie DOKOVOVA Rachael HOLBORN Urban Bruno ZIHLMANN

Medical Science: Susannah BRAIN Margaret WESTWATER-WOZNIAK

Engineering: Abraham AUDU Hanxiao CUI

Real Estate Finance: Mo Lam LEE

Technology Policy: Onyeka Emmanuel AKPAKWU Neha DOSHI Alexandros PAMNANI Amanda WEIS

Materials Science and Metallurgy: Max HUTCHINS

Energy Technologies: Sarah SAHLI

Public Policy: Holly HEINRICH Hannah McCARTHY Sara Peters

International Relations and Politics: Suzy CONWAY Carlos Adolfo GONZALEZ SIERRA Jiaoli (Jenny) YANG

Management: Tsz Fung Henry CHAN Gunce KAYA Jan KOKAVEC Miryana KOSTADINOVA Chen Tong LEE Pern Jie QUAH Giulio ROSATI Waleran TOULEMONDE

Economics: Lianjiang LU Maureen MACISAAC Iuliia MATOSHCHUK

American Literature: Laura DANNEHL

Primary Care Research: Lucy GERZA

Machine Learning, Speech and Language: James REQUEIMA William TEBBUTT Alexander YAKUB

Economic Research: Sandra BAQUIÉ Eray TURKEL Jian WEN Jin Deng Keith CHAN

English Studies: Zhexi ZHANG

History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine: Alissa Michelle ARON Nathan COFNAS Haris DURRANI Pedro FEIJO Daniel OTT Edwin ROSE Clemens Arthur SCHWANINGER Katelyn SMITH Joseph WU

Innovation, Strategy and Organization: Niklas LINDLBAUER

Earth Sciences Nahum CLEMENT

African Studies: Emily BARNER

Political Thought and Intellectual History: Ian GRAFFY

Industrial Systems, Manufacture and Management: Thomas BURGE Luis CONTRERAS Guilhem DELORME

Development Studies: Doreen ASIMADU Pauline COSTE Oliver DEED Ravleen GAMBHIR Corinna HORNWALL Francesco Maria MORETTINI Michael NOLAN Sarah O’NEILL

Advanced Computer Science: Jack HOPKINS

Historical Studies: William Philip GEORGE Conor HEFFERNAN

Human Evolutionary Studies: Tove LIND

Criminology: Atasi GHOSH Oliver MOOREY Samuel ROBERTS

Engineering for Sustainable Development: Justin ADKINS Byeronie EPSTEIN Suganya PASKARAN

European Literature and Culture: Alexandra FRIZE-WILLIAMS

Planning Growth and Regeneration: Richmond EHWI Deborah FIATUI Hatem HATEM Tiancheng LI Hao TAI

Master of Research Sensor Technologies and Application: Tiesheng WANG Graphene Technology: Cyan WILLIAMS Jack BATEY Alexander CASALIS DE PURY Future Infrastructures and Built Environment: Eftychia DICHOROU Ultra Precision Engineering: Nadeem EL GABBANI Stem Cell Biology: Anne-Louise MILLER

Medieval History: Calum SAMUELSON Modern British History: James DOWSETT Modern European History: Lucy RODRICK Giovanni ZENATI Nuclear Energy: Haoyang CHEN Philosophy: Joseph O’CONNELL

SUMMER 2017

Alumni Events in 2017–18 2017 Saturday 23rd September Alumni Family Lunch All alumni and their families are welcome. Drinks will be in the gardens (if the weather is good) and lunch in the dining hall. Venue: Gardens and Hall Saturday 14th October Alumni Reunion dinner in Leeds, following the University ‘Global Cambridge’ day. Friday 3rd November Darwin College Society Guest Night Alumni and their guest(s) are invited to Guest Night; a very special night with excellent food and wine. Venue: Dining Hall

Saturday 25th November Alumni Reunion dinner in Paris, following the University ‘Global Cambridge’ day. Saturday 7th December (provisional) Alumni reunion event in New York.

2018 Friday 12th January to Friday 2nd March Darwin College Lecture Series. All alumni welcome, if you would like to attend formal hall afterwards please contact Alumni Relations Team. Venue: Lady Mitchell Hall

March 2018 (provisional, final dates and locations to be confirmed) Alumni Reunion receptions and dinners in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Friday 11th May 2018 Alumni Reunion Dinner for matriculation years 1975-1985 and 2000-2010. Venue: Dining Hall and Richard King Room Friday 15th June 2018 Darwin College Society Reunion Dinner during formal hall, and drinks afterwards. Venue: Dining Hall and Richard King Room

Friday 9th March 2018 Darwin College Society Reunion Dinner during formal hall, and drinks afterwards. Venue: Dining Hall and Richard King Room

Editors: Sophia Smith, John Dix The editors especially welcome short articles, pictures and news from all our alumni but particularly those overseas. Correspondence to: darwinian@darwin.cam.ac.uk To sign up for our ebulletin use this link: eepurl.com/pLzBH or scan our QR code Cover and back page images Photo credit: Matt Bilton