The magazine for the staff of the University of Cambridge
michaelmas term 2015
Building expertise: why Africa matters Back from caring: help for academics page 5
Fiction to fact: what scientists read page 8
michaelmas term 2015 | UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE Newsletter | 1
snapshot contents © The estate of Ronald Searle. Photograph: © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Obsessed with drawing... is the title of the Fitzwilliam Museum’s exhibition on Cambridge-born artist Ronald Searle. His work – from fictional girls school St Trinian’s to political caricature and war art – was fuelled by childhood visits to the Fitzwilliam, and this exhibition draws on a recent gift of the artist’s work presented to the museum by his children. Runs to 31 January 2016.
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Back from help for caring: academic s
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6-7 Cover feature 8 Behind the scenes George Eliot and AS Byatt are among the novelists whose work has influenced Cambridge scientists. In a new series of films, Novel Thoughts, Jessica Penrose discovers more about academics’ reading habits. 9 People 10 Prizes, awards and honours 11 Small adverts
patrick o’hare
Front cover: Eva Namusoke, a Ugandan PhD student at the Department of History. Photograph: Nick Marchant
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newsletter
The Newsletter is published for the staff of the University of Cambridge and is produced by the Office of External Affairs and Communications. If you have a story, or ideas for ways we can improve the publication, please get in touch. Tel: (3)32300 or email newsletter@admin.cam.ac.uk. Managing Editor: Andrew Aldridge Editor: Becky Allen Design: Creative Warehouse, Cambridge Printer: Printerbello, Cambridge Contributors: Becky Allen and Jessica Penrose
Newsletter online
www.cam.ac.uk/for-staff
ge miChael
5 Making a difference Every year, the University’s Returning Carers Scheme provides £300,000 to enable returning carers to relaunch their research careers. Becky Allen looks at how it works – and the difference it makes.
british antarctic survey
Pulling power: A life-sized sledge dog cast in bronze has taken up residence outside SPRI while its home at the British Antarctic Survey is renovated. The statue was commissioned in 2009 to commemorate the husky dog teams which supported Antarctic researchers from 1945 and 1994, and will return to Madingley Road in five years.
The magazin
2-4 News round-up
Corpse flowers: Despite the stench of rotting flesh that it uses to attract carrion beetle pollinators, the titan arum or corpse flower attracted more than 10,000 visitors when it bloomed at the Botanic Garden in July. Flowering is rare, last happening here more than a decade ago. The flower weighs at least 15kg, making it one of the largest singleflowering structures in the world.
Fresh from the field: The Division of Social Anthropology has run a photographic competition to showcase its graduate students’ field work since 2013. This year’s entries include Patrick O’Hare’s images of Montevideo’s informal waste recyclers (right), which won first prize, John Fahy’s photos of Hare Krishnas in West Bengal, and Jonas Tinius’s pictures of a refugee theatre project in Germany. See more at www.socanth.cam.ac.uk.
Cover Across Cambridge, academics, admin staff and students are working with African colleagues to build Building expertise why africa : matters world-class, research-led universities in Africa. Becky Allen finds out how uniting them under the Cambridge-Africa banner can help.
Fiction to what scienfact: tists read
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WHAT’S NEW
Your comments and contributions are always welcome. Please send them to the Editor at newsletter@admin.cam.ac.uk
JONATHAN SETTLE
Educational journey: the University of Cambridge Primary School opened its doors to pupils in September, an important step in establishing a new, vibrant community at North West Cambridge. Work on the school started in November last year and has a phased completion, with pupils in Reception, and Years 1 and 2, joining at the start of the academic year. The second phase of the building is expected to be finished in December and, when complete, the school will accommodate 630 pupils. It is the first building to open as part of the development. Headteacher James Biddulph said: “Our teachers and staff have been working extremely hard in anticipation of the new building opening, and the arrival of the children completes the school community as we start on our learning journey.” In addition to providing an inclusive and high-quality primary education for local children, the school will offer unique training and research opportunities through its close relationship with the faculties and departments of the University. For more information on the North West Cambridge Development visit www.nwcambridge.co.uk.
Beware online flat scams House hunters are being warned about bogus advertisements for rental accommodation after a University researcher almost fell for an online scam. Dr Sophie Van Der Zee moved to Cambridge in 2013 as a postdoc in the Computer Laboratory’s Security Group, where her research involves online deception. “I found a beautiful and affordable place to live on Craigslist,” she said. “Although the flat seemed a little too good to be true, I contacted the landlord. Only when he asked for my deposit via Western Union, I knew for sure I was dealing with a scammer.” Van Der Zee decided to treat the experience as a research opportunity and, with Dr Richard Clayton and Professor Ross Anderson, examined how such scams operate, whether people fall for them, and how scammers dupe flat hunters into transferring money.
Their results suggest the best defence is to cut and paste parts of the advert into a search engine. “If your perfect Cambridge apartment is also advertised in Brighton and even New York, you’re likely to be dealing with a scam,” she warned. The University’s Accommodation Service confirmed that several University members and visitors have lost considerable sums of money in these scams. “Scam websites often feature real properties, but the people advertising the accommodation do not own them. Before viewing, prospective tenants are asked to pay an upfront fee, which is supposedly refundable, but never is,” said Nicky Blanning, Head of the Accommodation Service. “Our advice is never to send money upfront to a potential landlord – unless the property is from our website – and if in doubt, contact us.” ➔ www.accommodation.cam.ac.uk. michaelmas term 2015 | UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE Newsletter | 3
what’s new
Equipment database: it’s good to share More than 2,400 items of equipment and 64 facilities have been added to the Cambridge Equipment Sharing Project database since the scheme’s launch three years ago. As well as equipment at Cambridge, the database provides access to 237 facilities across its partner institutions at Oxford, Imperial College London, UCL and Southampton, and the project is linked to the National Equipment Portal, which holds records of over 10,500 pieces of equipment across 43 UK institutions. The project was set up in 2012 in response to changes in how research grants fund equipment. “Funders expect equipment to be used more efficiently,” explained Dr Christopher Wilkinson, Cambridge Equipment Sharing Project Manager. “Universities must check if there is an opportunity to share equipment
with internal departments and other institutions prior to submission of grant applications.” Open to all current members of staff, PhD, MRes and MPhil research students, the database is accessed via Raven log-in, and users coordinate agreements directly with equipment owners. “Each record contains a detailed description of the item or facility, a photograph for reference, a contact name, email address and telephone number, with details about the item’s availability and location,” he said. The database is becoming increasingly popular,
with the number of small research facilities listed doubling from 32 to 64 during the first half of 2015, and users are delighted with what it enables. As well as helping individual researchers locate vital equipment, the database encourages collaboration at Cambridge and beyond, and highlights Cambridge’s commitment to sharing. “That may be beneficial when grant applications are considered by research grant funders,” Wilkinson said. “Sharing also helps cut waste, reduce consumption and
aid recycling, the University’s carbon footprint and legal compliance.” The project is important for the University, too. It is proving useful to the Environment and Energy Section, which is keen to identify labs that could benefit by exchanging old freezer equipment for more energy efficient models under its free Freezer Exchange Programme. And by knowing what equipment is available, the database makes it easier to plan research projects and helps students and researchers locate alternative sources should an item of equipment fail or become unavailable. It also provides greater transparency for publicly funded resources, and ensures that Cambridge is best placed to secure funding at a time of tightening research budgets. ➔ www.equipment.admin.cam.ac.uk. ➔ http://equipment.data.ac.uk.
New fundraising campaign goes live vect
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Last month saw the successful launch of the new philanthropic campaign for the University and Colleges of Cambridge. With a £2bn goal, the campaign focuses on Cambridge’s impact on the world and will further enable the University to address critical global challenges. The launch weekend of 16-18 October saw Cambridge transformed as banners adorned lampposts and posters sprung up on railings across the city, featuring the campaign’s theme ‘Dear World… Yours, Cambridge’. Passengers stepping off the train at Cambridge station were met by a poster reflecting on the transformative power of ideas generated here. More than 300 donors, supporters and guests attended a variety
of sessions across the weekend, beginning in the Colleges on Friday night and ending with a brunch at the Fitzwilliam Museum on Sunday morning. Saturday culminated with events in the Senate House, King’s College Chapel and Trinity hosted by the Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor and the campaign co-chairs, Mohamed El-Erian and Harvey McGrath. A new campaign website, www.cam.ac.uk/YoursCambridge, went live at the start of the weekend, with the campaign messaging rolled out across the University’s social media platforms. More than £500m of the campaign’s fundraising goal has already been secured. Priorities include greater support for graduate students, transforming
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the Biomedical Campus into a global centre, expanding West Cambridge as an international science and innovation hub, attracting more world-leading academics, and enriching the unique environment of the Colleges as central to Cambridge’s academic community and success. The University’s previous campaign, which closed in 2011, raised £1.2bn. “Philanthropy underpins the scale of our ambition by allowing us the space to innovate, free from the constraints of political and economic change,” said Vice-Chancellor Professor Leszek Borysiewicz. “It has a critical role in developing many of our innovative partnerships, as well as allowing institutions, academics, researchers and students the freedom to follow
their intellectual Dear W curiosity.” I’ve h orld, for a ad an ide diagra a Executive m. Director of Alumni Relations and Development Alison Traub Thin added: “This like it k you m ight /love Y o u campaign rs, Jo it /both. hn Ve nn is a tribute to Collegiate working – every College and School is involved in how this story will be told. It provides a framework for engaging donors, alumni and academics, and gives us an opportunity to come together to secure the future of Collegiate Cambridge.” ➔ For more information, visit: www.cam.ac.uk/YoursCambridge. John cam. Venn (Gon ac.uk /Yoursville & Ca Camb ius Co llege ridge 1853), logicia n and
philos ophe r
making a difference
Launched in 2013, the Returning Carers Scheme has helped dozens of Cambridge researchers get their research careers back on track. Geochemist Dr Alexandra Turchyn talks to Becky Allen about the challenges of returning from maternity leave and why she credits the scheme with her promotion
Dr Alexandra Turchyn remembers when the email announcing the new Returning Carers Scheme (RCS) dropped into her inbox. For Professor Jeremy Sanders, who piloted the scheme in 2012, it was designed to improve the gender balance of academic staff by ensuring more women were eligible for promotion. For Turchyn, it was a lifeline. “When the email arrived in September, I was two months into my maternity leave,” she recalls. “I was going to be returning to my lab – and a mountain of work – in October, and when I read the email it felt like the University was sending me a lifeline.” The scheme provides funds to help returning carers re-establish their research profiles and kick-start academic activity after a significant period away from work. And it was exactly what Turchyn needed. “For me and many women, the biggest challenge of returning from maternity leave is time management – having enough hours in the day to get everything done,” she says. “Until I went on that maternity leave I was doing 10 to 12 hours lab work a week. It was work that had to get done – like weighing samples from collaborators and getting them into the mass spectrometer – but it was work that didn’t require me to do it, and time that I no longer had.”
“It shows that small pockets of money used in the right way can be a powerful way to support women in challenging careers”
Chris Loades
Caring for the carers
Deciding that an extra pair of hands would make all the difference, Turchyn applied for £8,600 from the RCS to employ an assistant for 25 hours a week for six months. “I was awarded the money and that winter transformed my career,” she explains. “Since I finished my PhD in 2006, I had published two or three papers a year. That winter I published six. I just sat and wrote and cleared my desk.” Having boosted her publication record, she felt confident enough to apply for promotion to Reader last year. And as well as securing promotion, the RCS changed the way she saw herself. “The scheme helped me manage my time better. Being on top of things meant that – for the first time – I could see myself as a group leader, not just someone working in a lab and trying to keep everything together,” she says. “And I credit it with putting me in a position to apply for promotion last summer.” According to HR Business Manager Sarah Botcherby, Turchyn’s success is a great illustration of what the scheme is for and the difference it can make. But, she says, it’s not only for women returning from maternity leave. “The scheme is open to anyone who has taken time off for caring over the last five years. We encourage men to apply too, and those who may have had to
work reduced hours in order to care for an elderly parent, for example.” Since the scheme was launched across the University in 2013, it has attracted 184 applicants, 135 of whom have been successful. With a budget of £300,000 a year, the scheme funds applications of up to £10,000, which researchers have used for research support, to attend conferences, purchase equipment not covered by other sources of funding and buy out teaching. Turchyn believes the scheme shows that modest amounts of money targeted correctly are a powerful way to support women in challenging careers. “There are unique challenges when you’re trying to balance a career with children or other caring responsibilities. Caring leave falls disproportionately to women, and women are haemorrhaging from these careers,” she says. “The question is, what can we can do to plug the gap? My success with the scheme shows it doesn’t take much money to right the ship. I think it’s an ingenious scheme.”
Find out more For more information, including dates of the next round of funding, visit www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/hr/ policy/carer.
michaelmas term 2015 | UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE Newsletter | 5
TReND
cover feature
African academy Every year, for the next five years, five African students will embark on PhDs at Cambridge as part of a new initiative under the Cambridge-Africa programme. As the first students arrive, Becky Allen discovers why the University’s engagement with the continent is so important – for Africa and for Cambridge
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It’s October and the new academic year brings with it an influx of new PhD students. Among them this year are five PhD students from Ghana, Nigeria, Niger and South Africa, and Cambridge-Africa’s project manager Dr Pauline Essah is delighted. What so excites Essah is not where the students are from, but how they are funded. Because these are the first of 25 PhD students who over the next five years will be fully funded by the Cambridge Trust and the University, an investment in capacity-building in Africa worth £3.5m. “Having scholarships that we can rely on for African students for the next five years is amazing,” she explains. The aim of the studentships – and the Cambridge-wide CambridgeAfrica programme – is to help build Africa’s own world-class, research-led universities to work on solutions for the continent’s challenges. To do so, African universities need to develop and retain internationally competitive researchers with access to the best facilities. Without them, African universities cannot mentor the next generation of young researchers and
sustain successful, competitive research environments. It’s a vicious circle Essah knows well – because it mirrors her own story. Ghanaian in origin, she came to Cambridge for her MPhil and PhD. After postdoctoral research she went on to help initiate Cambridge-Africa. “What stopped me returning to Africa was having new knowledge and new skills that I knew I couldn’t use effectively there. If I went back, it would be primarily as a teacher, not a researcher,” she recalls. “As Africans, we generally want to give something back, no matter where we are. After seven years in the lab, doing something that anybody could be doing, I decided to do something for Africa.” Essah approached Professor David Dunne who, for the past 25 years, has worked with African partners on neglected tropical diseases such as schistosomiasis, and Professor James Wood of the Department of Veterinary Medicine, who works on emerging infectious diseases with the University of Ghana. They agreed that to strengthen research capacity in Africa, the continent needed more PhDs, embedded in a network that provided them with
research opportunities in African universities, focused on African priorities. “Together with our African partners, we came up with the model of supporting African PhD and postdoctoral researchers through the provision of mentorship by Cambridge researchers, particularly based with our key institutional partners at Makerere and the Ugandan Virus Research Institute (UVRI) and the University of Ghana,” she explains.
Left: insect neuroscience summer school, Tanzania Right and below (bottom pictures): students at Africa Day, organised by the African Society of Cambridge University Below, top: workshop on neglected tropical disease, Ghana
The new PhD students are just one part of Cambridge-Africa, which since 2013 has covered Cambridge’s long-standing engagement with Africa. Initiatives include the Wellcome Trust-funded Makerere-UVRI Infection & Immunity Training Programme (MUII) and Training Health Researchers into Vocational Excellence (THRiVE); the CambridgeAfrica Partnership for Research Excellence (CAPREx), funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Isaac Newton Trust; the Alborada Trust Research Fund; and the Wellcome Trust-Cambridge Centre for Global Health Research. Bringing together these initiatives under a Cambridge-Africa banner was a key move for the University, says Dr Toby Wilkinson, Head of the International Strategy Office: “There was a strong feeling that Cambridge was doing a lot in Africa but not making the most of its connectivity.” While the change may seem semantic, the move should help projects become more sustainable. “Often, if the University badges something as an institutional priority, this attracts support and funding that standalone projects lack,” he says. In Cambridge, the new approach is generating a genuine academic buzz, as well as helping the University meet its mission. In Africa, it can play a key role in nation building. “There isn’t a single advanced developed economy that doesn’t have good universities,” says Wilkinson. “So part of the strategy is to enable African researchers to become internationally competitive in their own right.” African PhD students and postdocs at Cambridge are already having an impact. One such is Dr Annettee Nakimuli, who studied medicine at Uganda’s Makerere University, where she specialised in obstetrics and gynaecology. Supported by a MUII fellowship, she did her
“The amount of work that a few scientific tourists like me can produce isn’t enough. We need world-class, indigenous African research”
nick marchant
Connecting projects
PhD with Professor Ashley Moffett at Cambridge, looking at the genetic risk of pre-eclampsia in Ugandan women. A major cause of maternal and neonatal mortality, pre-eclampsia rates in Africa are significantly greater than in developed countries. Some researchers think this adverse trait is preserved in African populations because it may protect against placental malaria. By unpicking its genetic basis in Africa, mothers and babies across the world will benefit. Dunne’s own field of parasitology also shows that answers to many global problems lie in African questions. The worms he works on affect one third of the world’s population, but the immunological responses they provoke provide an important way of studying the high levels of allergy now affecting the developed world.
Answers to global questions “You cannot understand immune responses by looking at the peculiar situation of allergy in the developed world. You have to study worms in rural African populations where these immune responses developed over millions of years,” he explains. “I’ve worked on worms and allergy for 30 years, but the amount of work that a few scientific tourists like me can produce isn’t enough. We need worldclass, indigenous African research.” As well as academics, CambridgeAfrica is an umbrella for students and admin staff. Each year, the student-led Cambridge Development Initiative takes between 30 and 40 Cambridge students to work with Tanzanian students on health, engineering, education and entrepreneurship projects in Dar es Salaam.
And in 2013 and 2014, funded by CAPREx, Debbie West-Lewis and a team from the Research Operations Office developed and delivered tailor-made training on research administration at the University of Ghana, Legon and Uganda’s Makerere University. “Setting up a research grants administration office is an overwhelming job,” she explains. “You’re trying to incorporate funders’ requirements, university policies, and ensure that it’s underpinned by sound business practice – but doing so where there is unreliable broadband, and where none of their systems talked to each other.” The training covered everything from contracts, costing tools and record keeping, to giving presentations, creating newsletters and applications. As well as maintaining informal links between the Research Office and their African counterparts, they are passing on what they learned. “It’s about building relationships,” West-Lewis says. “They can contact me any time and I’ll find them the right person to talk to. And they are sharing that information, not only internally but with other African universities.” The challenge now is to ensure that Cambridge-Africa grows and thrives. “It’s a continent with amazing talent,” Wilkinson concludes. “Looking ahead 30 years, Africa is going to be vitally important in all world issues. To remain at the forefront of global research – and contribute to society – Cambridge must be deeply engaged with Africa.”
Find out more Cambridge-Africa www.cambridge-africa.org.
michaelmas term 2015 | UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE Newsletter | 7
behind the scenes
Novel thoughts
Dr Amy Milton takes part in the Novel Thoughts film series, explaining how she has been inspired by Hugh Selby, Jr’s Requiem for a Dream
We may think that scientists inhabit a precisely focused world, far away from the messy realm of stories and the imagination, but a new University film series, Novel Thoughts, shows that there is a bridge between the two. Reading fiction helps scientists to see the bigger picture and be reminded of the complex richness of human experience. Novels can show the real human stories behind the science, or trigger a desire in a young reader to change lives through scientific discovery. They can open up new worlds, or encourage a different approach to familiar tasks. For psychologist Dr Amy Milton, reading Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby, Jr during her PhD had a profound effect on her work. Its bleak portrayal of the downward spiral into addiction spurred her on to complete her thesis on cocaine addiction and to deepen her research into preventing relapse. “The book gave me a real insight into what it’s like for individuals living with addiction. It summed up how addiction, and the consequences of it, has not always been taken seriously as a disease by psychiatry,” she says. As a teenager, Professor Carol Brayne’s love of Charles Dickens and George Eliot opened her eyes to a world in which social inequality had a powerful impact
Literature and science may seem like opposite ends of the spectrum, but reading can have an impact on even the most scientific of brains. A new film series reveals the reading habits of eight Cambridge scientists and peeks inside the covers of the books that have played a major role in their lives. Jessica Penrose reports
on people’s health and wellbeing. She vowed to become a doctor, and is now a leading figure in public health research at Cambridge. Her voracious reading as a young adult helped her understand the importance of seeing the bigger picture, and of finding health interventions that take account of the complexities of people’s lives. For some, a book came along at just the right time. Professor Clare Bryant, of the Department of Zoology, read AS Byatt’s Possession at a crucial point in her early career. Its page-turning portrayal of two historians racing to uncover hidden truths reminded her of the excitement of scientific discovery, and persuaded her not to turn her back on her own research career. Books can have a resonance throughout a scientific lifetime. For early-career researcher Guy Pearson, Thomas Hardy’s Under the Greenwood Tree has fascinating parallels with his own work. It may seem surprising that a story of unrequited love in a small West Country village could mirror the process of cell biology, but Pearson was struck by the similarities between the young protagonist’s pursuit of the beautiful and flighty Fancy Day, and his own pursuit of elusive molecular truths. And Dr Juliet Foster can see that the themes explored in The Madness
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“The book gave me a real insight into what it’s like for individuals living with addiction”
of a Seduced Woman by Susan Fromberg Schaeffer, which she read as a PhD student, still have echoes in her current social psychology research into public understandings of mental illness. Dr Sarah Dillon, now in the Faculty of English, was the first to explore some of these ideas at the University of St Andrews. Much has been written about science’s influence on literature – from Frankenstein to the futuristic worlds of science fiction – but she wanted to find out if the influence happened in the other direction. Did literature have an impact on the world of science? Dillon joined forces with social scientist Christine Knight, and astronomer turned creative writer Pippa Goldschmidt, for the project ‘What Scientists Read’. “What we found was that reading literature and ‘non-science’ books did have an influence on their work in quite surprising ways,” said Dillon. “There were lots of examples of scientists being more open to qualitative research methodologies because of valuing the knowledge that literature, even though it’s not ‘true’, gives you.”
Find out more To watch films from the Novel Thoughts series, visit http://tinyurl.com/qgbo99a.
people obituary
The Reverend Professor Owen Chadwick “As ViceChancellor he steered the University through two years of great turbulence” “As Master of Selwyn he was exceptional” “As a scholar his range was bewildering. You can still buy 20 different books by him on Amazon”
Owen Chadwick (1916-2015) has already received many obituaries from around the English-speaking world, including the New York Times. The insistent themes of these obituaries are the extraordinary range of his interests and achievements, and the exceptionally modest and self-effacing manner in which he faced the world. As Master of Selwyn for 27 years (1956-83) he was exceptional both for raising the standing of the College, for presiding over a fellowship without factions or feuds, for entertaining informally and frequently, for knowing all the students, and seeing himself as there for the college staff – as a priest he baptised their babies, married their children, buried them. Members of staff with things on their
mind could ask him to have lunch with them in the Hat and Feathers and find the same attention and compassion as a troubled Fellow or student. As Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History (1956-68) and Regius Professor (1968-83) he taught a huge range of courses without trying to change what history was taught or how it was examined. As Vice-Chancellor (1969-71) he steered the University through two years of great turbulence (‘the student revolution’), modestly democratising structures. Meanwhile he was personally responsible for the reforms of governance of the Church of England and its constitutional relationship with the UK Parliament in his widely praised Chadwick Report (1966-70). He was so distinguished as a scholar
that he was elected President of the British Academy (he had been elected Fellow in 1962 at the early age of 46) and served as President from 1981-85, overseeing its move from near Regent’s Park to the current site off Pall Mall, and instituting the vital fellowships schemes in the humanities. Other marks of distinction were the award of the Wolfson Prize for History and an Order of Merit by the Queen. As a scholar his range was bewildering. He wrote on everything from the mind of John Cassian, a theologian who wrote on either side of AD 400, to the relationship between Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust, and the Churches and the Cold War. You can still buy 20 different books by him on Amazon. He wrote on broad canvases – as in his textbook on the Reformation, which was published by Pelican more than 50 years ago and is still in constant use, his study of the papacy since the French Revolution, which remains influential, and his two-volume history of the Victorian Church, as timeless as a Victorian hymn. He also wrote wonderful vignettes, such as Victorian Miniature, a study of a Norfolk village seen through the very different diaries of the parson and the lord of the manor, and Mackenzie’s Grave, a wonderful yarn of a muscular missionary bishop who stumped off into the African jungle and vanished, occasioning a massive imperial manhunt. All his work was concerned with flesh-and-blood people, especially churchmen, wrestling with the world as it was, rather than as they would have liked it to be. His younger brother Henry was almost as remarkable, the only man in modern times to be Head of House in both Oxford (Christchurch) and Cambridge (Peterhouse) and indeed Regius Professor of Divinity in both universities. They were a remarkable pair. More than 500 attended Owen’s funeral in Great St Mary’s; the memorial service next year (2pm, 30 January 2016 at Great St Mary’s) will be even more busy. A great and a good man. John Morrill, Professor of British and Irish History and Fellow of Selwyn. Other tributes at www.sel.cam.ac.uk.
michaelmas term 2015 | UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE Newsletter | 9
prizes, awards and honours
Awards
Professor Lisa Hall
Dr Charlotte Lemanski
Professor George Efstathiou
Professor Sanjeev Goyal
matt alexander
➔ Professors John Aston and Richard Samworth (Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics) have been elected Fellows of the American Statistical Association. ➔ Professor Sabine Bahn (Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology) has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology. ➔ Dr Richard S K Barnes of the Department of Zoology has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa and an Honorary Professor in the Department of Zoology & Entomology at Rhodes University, South Africa. ➔ Professor John Barrow (Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics) has been awarded the 2015 Dirac Gold Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics. He has also been elected to an Honorary Fellowship at Van Mildert College, Durham University. ➔ Heba Bevan, a PhD student in the Department of Engineering’s Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC), has won the 2015 Constructing Excellence in London and the South East Innovation Award for her project UtterBerry. ➔ Seven Cambridge academics have been elected to the fellowship of the British Academy: Professor Cyprian Broodbank (McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research); Professor Gareth Fowden (Faculty of Divinity); Professor Robert Gordon (Department of Italian); Professor Sanjeev Goyal (Faculty of Economics); Professor Peter Mandler (Faculty of History); Professor Joachim Whaley (Department of German and Dutch); and Professor Michael Mann (Department of Sociology). ➔ Thang Bui, a PhD student in the Department of Engineering has been awarded a Google European Doctoral Fellowship for his research into speech technology. ➔ Professor Nicholas Cook (Faculty of Music) has been awarded the Gheorghe Dima Music Academy’s degree of Doctor Honoris Causa. ➔ Professor Judith Driscoll (Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy) has been awarded the Joule Medal by the Institute of Physics. ➔ Four Cambridge researchers have been awarded medals by the Royal Society. Professor George Efstathiou of the Institute of Astronomy won the
Professor John Barrow
Dr Hugh Hunt
10 | michaelmas term 2015 | UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE Newsletter
Hughes Medal for his outstanding contributions to our understanding of the early universe. Professor Benjamin David Simons (Department of Physics) won the Gabor Medal for research which has revolutionised our understanding of stem cell behaviour in vivo. The Clifford Paterson Medal and Lecture went to Professor Russell Cowburn (Department of Physics) for his remarkable academic, technical and commercial achievements in nano-magnetics, and the Francis Crick Medal and Lecture to Dr Madan Babu Mohan of the MRC LMB for his major and widespread contributions to computational biology. ➔ Professor Sir Richard Evans of the Faculty of History has been awarded the Leverhulme Medal and Prize for Humanities and Social Sciences by the British Academy. ➔ Professor Robert Foley (Department of Archaeology & Anthropology) has been awarded this year’s Fabio Frassetto International Prize by the Academia Nazionale dei Lincei in Rome. ➔ Dr Hugh Hunt of the Department of Engineering has been awarded the 2015 Royal Academy of Engineering Rooke Award for outstanding contributions to the public promotion of engineering. ➔ The IEEE has awarded Professor Frank Kelly (Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics) its Alexander Graham Bell Medal in recognition of his outstanding contributions to telecommunications. ➔ Dr Charlotte Lemanski of the Department of Geography has been awarded the Royal Geographical Society Gill Memorial Award for early-career achievement in the field of urban geography. ➔ Dr Joe Moshenska and PhD student Clare Walker Gore of the Faculty of English have won two of this year’s BBC New Generation Thinker Awards. They will spend one year working with Radio 3 presenters and producers to develop their ideas into broadcasts and will make regular contributions to the network throughout the year. Moshenska’s work includes the philosophical history of tickling; Gore’s PhD is on disability in Victorian literature. ➔ Dr Roy D Patterson of the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience has been awarded the Silver Medal of the Acoustical Society of America. ➔ Professor Nigel Peake of the Department of Applied Mathematics and
Theoretical Physics has received the 2015 Aeroacoustics Award of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. ➔ Professor Chris Pickard, who joined the Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy on 1 August, has been awarded the Rayleigh Medal by the Institute of Physics. ➔ Professor Barry Rider (POLIS) has been awarded the Order of Honour (First Class) by the Government of the Republic of China for his outstanding achievement in promoting international cooperation in combating transnational crime. ➔ Professor Sir John Meurig Thomas (Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy) was awarded the Zewail Gold Medal in Molecular Science 2015 at this year’s American Chemical Society Convention. He has also been awarded the Blaise Pascal Medal for Materials Science by the European Academy of Sciences, and the Menaleus Medal of the Learned Society of Wales. ➔ The University has been shortlisted in two categories for the National Green Gown Awards. Professor Jeremy Sanders (Department of Chemistry) has been shortlisted for the leadership award, and shortlisted in the research and development category is a project from the Department of Plant Sciences investigating the use of energy-saving LEDs in plant growth facilities. ➔ Professor Henning Sirringhaus (Department of Physics) has been awarded the Faraday Medal by the Institute of Physics for transforming our knowledge of charge transport phenomena in organic semiconductors as well as our ability to exploit them. ➔ The 2015 Queen’s Birthday honours included a knighthood for Professor Harshad Kumar Dharamshi Bhadeshia (Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy) for services to science and technology. The following were made CBEs: Professor Chris Gilligan (Department of Plant Sciences) for services to plant health in the field of epidemiology; Professor Lisa Hall (Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology) for services to higher education and to sport; Professor Anthony John Holland (Department of Psychiatry) for services to psychiatry; Professor James Anthony Jackson (Department of Earth Sciences) for services to environmental science; and Dr John Bradley (NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre) for services to health research.
advertisements Advertising on this page is open to University staff. The cost is £15 for a single insertion or £75 for six insertions. Send your copy – up to 70 words – to the Editor at newsletter@admin.cam.ac.uk. We reserve the right to edit contributions. HOUSES TO RENT (UK) ➔ Butley, Suffolk Comfortable, spacious, well equipped cottage with piano in Butley, Suffolk. Available for Aldeburgh Festival, weekends and short breaks throughout the year. Close to Orford, Sutton Hoo, Snape and Minsmere. Sleeps up to eight. Call Miranda on (01223) 357035 or email info@butleycottage.co.uk. More information at www.butleycottage.co.uk. ➔ Cornwall Traditional granite cottage in peaceful countryside between St Ives and Penzance. Sleeps five in three bedrooms, with comfortable sitting room, kitchen-breakfast room and bathroom. Sunny garden and off-road parking. Close to beaches and coves, coastal path, sub-tropical gardens, historic properties. Email Penny on pb29@cam.ac.uk or phone (01638) 507192. Details and photos at www.tinminerscottage.co.uk. ➔ Scottish Highlands Highland holiday cottage with sea view near Helmsdale. Palm Tree Cottage Retreat. Sleeps four to six people (two double bedrooms and two small chair beds suitable for small children). £350 per week
or £820 per month (mention this advert). Sit in front of an open fire, 10 minutes walk to the beach, Wifi, washing machine, dishwasher and breadmaker. Ideal for a writing retreat, golf or fishing holiday. To find out more visit www. palmtreecottageretreat.com, telephone 07954 358174 or email carandlor@yahoo.co.uk. ➔ Southwold, Suffolk 17th century Leman cottage, three bedrooms, well equipped, Wifi, in peaceful countryside. Off-road parking, enclosed sunny garden. Weekly lets in school holidays, flexible short breaks rest of year. Easy walk, cycle or drive to explore Heritage Coast, historic churches and more. Personally managed. One hour 40 minutes drive from Cambridge. For more information and for more cottages sleeping two to eight see www. suffolkcoastalcottages.co.uk or phone Trish Gower on 01502 478078. ➔ Yorkshire Dales Beautifully refurbished cottage at Pateley Bridge on the borders of Yorkshire Dales National Park. Very comfortably furnished. Sleeps up to six in three bedrooms. Underfloor heating and log burner. Courtyard
garden with studio. Linen and towels provided. Excellent local amenities, spectacular countryside and many wonderful places to visit nearby. Prices are £425-£695 per week with short breaks available. For further details and booking visit www. cuckoocottageyorkshire.co.uk/, email cuckoocottageyorkshire@ gmail.com or phone 07528 595295. HOUSES TO RENT (OVERSEAS) ➔ Athens, Greece Beautiful fourth floor apartment with veranda in the city centre furnished to a high standard. Double bedroom, study/living/ dining rooms, kitchen, bathroom. Close to amenities with easy access to University and historical centre. Available January-June (negotiable). Price £400 per month for one, £600 for a couple, including bills. Email Dr Anna Melidoni at amelidon@ebi.ac.uk. ➔ Prodromi, Cyprus Large, spacious, well equipped townhouse in the village of Prodromi, between Latchi and Polis. Small complex (13 properties) with shared pool and private parking. Two double bedrooms. Available
for short and long-term lets. Prices start from £300 per week. For further details and bookings email Bridget on bridgetwoodley@ tiscali.co.uk. ➔ Amalfi Coast, Italy Small B&B in peaceful, traffic-free mountain village above Positano. Ideal for those seeking a quiet mountain retreat with modern conveniences. All rooms ensuite with panoramic sea views of the Amalfi coast. Situated on famous Sentiero degli Dei (Footpath of the Gods). English speaking host. Double room and breakfast from 70 euros per night. Easyjet flights to Naples from Stansted. Phone Penny Marrone on 01954 210681. Further information and photos at http:// ninobb.moonfruit.com. SERVICES ➔ The University Social Club (USC) Bar, restaurant and meeting rooms for all University staff, students and their guests. Come to the USC for a relaxed lunch, a catch up with University colleagues or to meet new friends. Our friendly staff can prepare a range of hot meals, vegetarian dishes and freshly made sandwiches to eat in or
takeaway. We are based by the river at the bottom of Mill Lane, a short walk from the central offices and Colleges. More information at www.socialclub.cam.ac.uk. ➔ Cambridge Lip-reading Group Do you have difficulty hearing? Why not learn some lip-reading in an informal group who really enjoy meeting together. Our qualified teacher is helped by a few of our members. We meet for 30 evenings a year on Wednesdays between 6.45 and 8.45pm during school terms at Mayfield School off Histon Road. Car parking is available. The group is supported by Cambridgeshire County Council. Email enquiries to am148@cam. ac.uk or anh1000@cam.ac.uk. ➔ Expecting a baby? If you are due between November 2015 and March 2016 you may be interested in taking part in the ‘Preparing for Patients’ programme where medical students learn from expectant mothers (no physical examination is involved). If you are interested in hearing more about this opportunity to contribute to the education of our future doctors please contact us. Telephone 01223 769288 or email pregnancy@ medschl.cam.ac.uk.
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michaelmas term 2015 | UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE Newsletter | 11
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