Carly Howett: Exploring the outer solar system with space robots

Remembering William R. Miller

The Hall was very sad to receive the news that William (Bill) Miller, CBE, KStJ, MA (Oxon), DCs (h.c), DMA (b.c) passed away in September 2020 in New York. Bill was a great friend of the Hall, having come up in 1949 to read PPE.

As a student Bill was tutored by the former Principal, John Kelly, and was an active member of the Oxford Union, the University Bach Choir and the University Music Society.

After graduating, Bill joined the pharmaceutical industry and rose to become Vice-Chairman of BristolMyers Squibb, based in the USA, but with worldwide responsibilities, not least for research. He was recognised as one of the leaders of the pharmaceutical industry, taking senior positions in its professional organisations.

Despite his busy and highly successful international career, Bill remained strongly committed to the Hall. He was an incredibly generous donor to the Hall and endowed Tutorial Fellowships in Biochemistry, Neuroscience and Experimental Psychology and Economics, and Junior Research Fellowships in Molecular Aspects of Biology, and Management. He funded graduate awards and supported the Centre for the Creative Brain. He also made a major contribution to student accommodation, enabling the building of the W.R. Miller Building on Dawson Street, which was opened in 2004.

As well as being an Honorary Fellow of St Edmund Hall, Bill was on the Board of Americans for Oxford and a former Vice Chairman, a member of the Chancellor’s Court of Benefactors, and a named Distinguished Friend of Oxford.

Bill was very active and interested in the Hall until the end of his life. He was a true gentleman and will be greatly missed by all. Below are some of the grateful recipients of Bill’s support and friendship.

“Bill was the consummate Aularian, who believed that establishing a Teddy Hall community in the United States was important and, being Bill, actually did something about it. He hosted the first New York Dinner, a gathering of a handful of Aularians at his club, in 1982, and under his consistent persuasion it grew in 38 successive years to an annual gathering of as many as 80 Aularians celebrating each other and the Hall.

One of our number remarked, on hearing the very sad news that Bill had passed away, Bill was ‘a Teddy Hall giant.’ Another described him as ‘a towering figure among Aularians everywhere, especially here in the States.’

Anyone who ever met Bill would know he would have quickly rejected any notion that he was a ‘giant’ or a ‘towering figure’ in the Teddy Hall community. But, in fact, that’s exactly what he was. More importantly, Bill was a decent, kind, gracious and dignified gentleman. And, as even better proof that he was a through and through Aularian, Bill was also absolutely wonderful company at the dinner table, an excellent friend to all of us, and could deliver a near perfect imitation of Kelly.”

Bob Gaffey (1975, Jurisprudence) Isabelle and Lucy were recipients of the William R. Miller Postgraduate Award, which comes in the form of a rent-free College room for one year.

Isabelle Lemay (2020, International Development)

“Thanks to this award, I could focus on my studies more peacefully knowing that my rent was covered. The Hall provided me with a large room at Brockhues Lodge, surrounded by trees and flowers, and it made my year so much more enjoyable. Having accommodation secured was particularly welcome due to the pandemic. As an international student who had never been to Oxford before, it brought me peace of mind to know that the accommodation aspect of my new life in Oxford was taken care of during my first year of study, and that I had a place to stay as soon as I arrived.” Lucy Kissick (2016, Environmental Research - Earth Sciences)

“Having a beautiful and quiet space to live and work absolutely made my year, and I was overjoyed with my accommodation. I had my own bird table outside of the window, which sparked a whole new hobby in birdwatching for me. I was fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of a nuthatch: a shy but common robin-sized bird, with a black band like a bandit’s across its eyes.

I genuinely believe my time in that little flat changed my whole time in Oxford by removing the worry and expense of one year’s accommodation.”

Professor Stuart Ferguson (Emeritus Fellow and former William R. Miller Fellow in Biochemistry)

“I still clearly remember Justin Gosling asking me if Biochemistry was the closest subject, taught by tutorial fellows, to the business of the pharmaceutical industry where Bill was a leading figure. I said ‘yes’ and since that time, I have been aware of what Bill did for the College, not only by endowing the Biochemistry Fellowship but also in supporting so many other things.

I remember sitting next to Bill at a fundraising dinner when he bid up the prices for memorabilia in a postprandial auction, to an extent that he ended up buying many of the lots himself. I suspect that what he liked best about Biochemistry was that two students achieved blues for cricket (his passion) and first class degrees, the probability of which was very close to zero, which complemented his pride that his nephew, Andrew, had also gained blues for cricket at the Hall whilst studying Biochemistry.” Professor David Bannerman (William R. Miller Fellow in Neuroscience and Experimental Psychology)

“Unfortunately, I only had the privilege of meeting Bill Miller on one occasion which is something I deeply regret.

Nevertheless, from this one occasion it was obvious that Bill was a real academic and a real scholar. We chatted for an hour (there were four of us sitting in the dining room of the Old Bank Hotel) and the conversation jumped energetically from schizophrenia to cancer chemotherapy to depression, with many other interesting destinations in between. Bill led the way.

His energy and enthusiasm were boundless, and his depth of knowledge in each of these subject areas was truly incredible. At times it almost felt like a fellowship interview, but certainly the friendliest and most enjoyable of fellowship interviews!”

Admissions and outreach

Luke Maw works in the Admissions Office and leads the College’s outreach, access and student recruitment programmes. He is responsible for the evolution of the College’s outreach programmes, and provides support shaping the College’s strategy with regards to access, equality and diversity.

As the Student Recruitment and Progression Manager, I am responsible for developing the College’s support for both prospective and on-course students. On the prospective student front, I work with the Tutor for Admissions and the Access and Outreach Coordinator to ensure we attract the strongest field of deserving applicants, to ensure that the College makes informed admissions decisions taking into consideration the context of a student’s application. For on-course students, I use students’ examination performance data to monitor their progression through their course, allowing attention to be focused on areas of greatest need. I also lead the College’s Careers Development Programme, aimed at signposting the University’s vast wealth of careers support, facilitating mentoring and networking through our alumni body, and helping students find, select and apply to internships and jobs.

Whilst it has been a unique and challenging year, with lockdowns and school closures serving as significant barriers for outreach, we have remained agile and have moved to developing a varied and engaging set of online resources for the schools and colleges that we work with. Our ‘Applying to Oxford’ video series covered each aspect of the Oxford application process in an engaging and informative way, making use of a green screen to add in graphics, diagrams and other helpful information. The series has garnered several thousand views on YouTube and will continue to serve as a useful resource for subsequent applicants to the University. Alongside this, we have continued to engage with schools where possible, with our Access and Outreach Coordinator, Lizzie, delivering several live talks and workshops over the past year. Our Early Career Teaching and Outreach Fellow, Tom Crawford has also run a number of online talks, as well as the second year of the Teddy Rocks Maths Essay competition, open to all with a passion and flair for writing about mathematical topics for a non-expert audience. This year’s competition attracted over 130 applications, with three winners and nine commended entries chosen. The winning entries can be read at seh.ac/teddyrocksmaths. Tom has also begun work on a series of interviews with undergraduates discussing their dissertations or research projects. So far, we have heard about the drivers of the western Australian climate, how to efficiently process terabytes of data from a radio telescope, and how the cultural identities of Slavic and former Soviet countries are manifested with varying degrees of subtlety in their Eurovision Song Contest entries. These will be shared on YouTube in the coming months.

In 2020 the Undergraduate Admissions Exercise took place entirely remotely, although it seems that the pandemic did little to slow the ever-increasing number of applications that are made to the University each year, with the College receiving more direct applications than ever before. Working with the admitting tutors, and thanks to the wealth of contextual data that is included in applications from UK students, we were able to ensure that offers were made to the most deserving candidates, regardless of background. As a result, the offers made for 2021 entry meet or exceed almost every University target on

The ‘Applying to Oxford’ video series is available to watch on the Hall’s YouTube channel at seh.ac/applyplaylist Recording the ‘Applying to Oxford’ video series which is available to watch on the Hall’s YouTube channel at seh.ac/applyplaylist

school type, gender and disability, and our offer rate for BAME students has remained above the university average for the last five years. A further break down of admissions statistics are included in the righthand column.

Looking inwards, towards our cohort of on-course students, I have been developing the College’s Careers Programme which will provide our students with a wealth of opportunities including bespoke sessions run by the University’s Careers Service, networking and mentoring opportunities with alumni and academics, as well as support with securing a future job through mock interviews and CV workshops. We have already run a number of profession-specific talks and mock interview series, as well as a hugely insightful ‘Careers in Academia’ talk with a panel of tutors from the Hall. We are looking to expand this into a suite of talks, workshops and mentoring opportunities across multiple streams for students in their first, middle and final years of study. We believe we are the only college demonstrating such a holistic commitment to our student body, and are continually looking for ways to develop our provision further.

As the academic year draws to a close, we say goodbye to our Access and Outreach Coordinator, Lizzie Fry, who in September will be starting teacher training on the Graduate Teacher Development Programme at a school in Sussex. I am immensely grateful for the work she has done for the College over the last two years. Her work in the first six months of the 2019/20 year saw us engage with more students and schools than ever before, and her commitment to projects spanning outreach, equality and diversity have contributed a great deal to the College’s development in these areas. We wish her the best of luck in her new career and hope she can return in the future to show students from her new school around the College, without the pressure of having to host the visit herself!

2020 admission statistics

67%

67% of UK offers were to stateeducated students.

53%

53% of offers were to applicants who identify as female.

36%

Offer rate for students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds (Acorn flagged) increased to 36% (the university average is 29%).