Oration by the Vice-Chancellor

Home , Francesco Billari, Marian Dawkins, Patrik Rorsman, Rajesh Thakker

WEDNESday 15 october 2014 • SUPPLEMENT (1) TO No 5072 • Vol 145 Gazette Supplement

Colleagues and friends of the University, illustrating some of the ways in which it is of the Highland Infantry. Passing through thank you for joining me at the start of woefully wide of the mark, but to go further his home station on his way to the front another academic year. The annual oration and even to argue that life as it is lived – still in 1918, he threw out on to the platform by the Vice-Chancellor is something I with that capital L – needs and increasingly a matchbox, addressed to his wife and regard as a pleasurable duty. That’s not a depends on what good universities do. containing a message. A fortnight later, quality one can ascribe to all duties, and I Not so much Life, our most dangerous RSM Cavan was killed in action. It was only am grateful for the opportunity it provides competitor, perhaps, as Life, our most when one of his descendants uploaded the to share some thoughts with you about our valuable partner. matchbox and message to the Great War University; a gratitude amplified by your Archive website that his full story came Before I explore the many direct benefits apparent willingness to come and listen. to light. That last poignant message reads that Oxford’s scholarship brings to the simply: ‘Dear wife and bairns, off to France, In my Oration a year ago, I took the world, I want to make one thing clear. You love to you all, Daddy.’ Now, I can’t quantify opportunity to look inwards, to ‘hold a are not about to hear a hymn of unqualified the impact of our uncovering, archiving and mirror up to the University’ and to take praise to impact. At Oxford, we reserve the contextualising that story. I certainly can’t stock of our academic achievements and right to investigate subjects of no practical put a price on it. Yet we as a community aspirations as one of the world’s leading use whatsoever. are better for the knowledge, particularly centres of learning and research. This Karl Marx wrote: ‘Mankind only sets itself as we struggle to comprehend a world morning, I plan to look outwards rather than such problems as it can solve.’ Well, Karl was exploding into war 100 years ago and the inwards, and to focus less on our teaching wrong about that as he was about lots of resulting devastation of millions of lives. Our and research in themselves, and more on things. Oxford is almost defined by its ability improved understanding is a public good. what we as a University contribute to the to set problems with no apparent solution. wider world as a result of them. Hence my There will be many occasions when we are To take one example: whatever became of title: Oxford and the Public Good. challenged about the real-world benefits the dinosaurs? of our work. When someone asks: ‘What is I want to reflect with you on the public Well, it seems they shrank. Dr Roger Benson the earthly use of knowing that?’ we should value of Oxford: the benefit that flows to and his colleagues in the Department of be strong enough, and confident enough, others from who we are, what we do, and Earth Sciences recently estimated the body to reply: ‘You know, I’ve absolutely no idea how we do it. And if, in the course of these masses of 426 species of dinosaur. The what use it might be. But isn’t it fascinating?’ reflections, I manage to say something of team, along with international partners, wider interest and relevance about the And, sometimes, it’s the learning with found those evolutionary lines which special importance and value of higher no apparent practical use that yields the reduced fastest in size had the greatest education in the world of the 21st century, greatest benefit.B ack in the 1920s, two survival success. There are 10,000 species well, I shall consider I have not entirely members of the English Faculty, one from of dinosaur alive and around us today – only wasted my time or, more importantly, yours. Magdalen, one from Pembroke, would talk we call them birds. late into the night, exploring their mutual It was our celebrated Public Orator, Richard Now, unless you’re a budgerigar wishing to interest in Norse mythology. From those Jenkyns, at Encaenia this year who stated trace your family tree, that information is of beginnings, C S Lewis and J R R Tolkien in the course of a typically mordant review precisely zero practical value. Yet it’s brilliant both wrote a series of books loved the world of the worldly achievements of Oxford research and, somehow, I feel better just for over, which have inspired film franchises alumni: ‘Life – always our most dangerous knowing it. grossing more than $6.5bn at the box office. competitor.’ He captures neatly that too- As a consequence here in Oxford, there familiar perception of the academic world A new book this year, Hidden Stories of are now tours around the two authors’ having little if anything to do with life, the First World War, drew on two Oxford favourite haunts, one corner of Waterstones certainly life as it is lived; life with a capital L. University crowdsourcing projects, the is devoted to their works, and it is almost Great War Archive and Europeana 1914– Well, this morning I want to try not just impossible to get a seat in The Eagle and 1918. One such ‘hidden story’ was that of to take issue with that perception by Child on a summer’s evening. Now, Lewis Regimental Sergeant Major George Cavan

61 62 University of Oxford Gazette • Supplement (1) to No 5072 • 15 October 2014

and Tolkien didn’t know that their musings from external sponsors. How could we One cornerstone of the deal is to be the about mythology would lead all to this. be anything other than a landmark in new Centre for Applied Superconductivity, They didn’t have an inkling. It is a classic the regional, national and international housed by the Departments of Physics and example of intellectual curiosity sparking off economic landscapes? Materials. Ever since Sir Martin Wood’s a hundred unexpected developments. early experiments with superconductors Yet my point goes beyond this. Of course, we in the Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford has To take a more recent and seemingly sustain and support the current economic been a trailblazer in this scientific field. unconnected example, a DPhil student, structure of our region. But we are also Now we can put that knowledge to work: in Torsten Reil, was developing computer crucial in building the economy of the computing, in medical scanning, in efficient simulations of nervous systems based on future. This region has expressed the aim energy storage. The vast majority of the genetic algorithms. In other words, a more of becoming a knowledge economy. That UK’s fast-growing concentration of applied natural animation of human and animal sounds like a job for us. superconducting industry lies within a 20- movement. He started to wonder what It is for that very reason that the University mile radius of the spot on which I stand. Our other applications this technology might helped frame two major economic new centre will provide the skills they seek have. Movies perhaps? Video games? I think announcements made this year – the City and the technical solutions to the questions many of you know what happened next. Deal and the Oxfordshire Growth Deal – they pose. Torsten set up a highly successful company, around knowledge-based growth. NaturalMotion, providing animation But our economic involvement does services for major Hollywood pictures – The City Deal will, over time, unleash not end with these ambitious deals. We including the Lord of the Rings films – and an estimated £1.2bn of investment in understand the problems our region faces, a series of best-selling digital games. The infrastructure and innovation. We are a key great and small. Wherever there is an issue company, employing more than 200 people, player in two new innovation centres, part to be tackled, you are likely to find anO xford was sold for more than $500m earlier this of a cluster which also involves our partners researcher working on the solution. The year, with some £30m coming back to the at Harwell and Culham. The first new centre, unlovely Westgate car park, for example, University. All from one Zoology DPhil. the Oxford Bioescalator on the Headington is soon to be demolished. But how will the academic and clinical research campus, will city cope with the loss of 800 of its 2,000 One further example of this kind of be the heart of an innovation ecosystem parking spaces? Our Transport Studies serendipity: Professor Harish Bhaskaran and – a lively, thriving nexus of academics, Unit and Department of Engineering are colleagues in the Department of Materials clinicians, entrepreneurs, investors, working with the city on a sophisticated have been investigating the relationship engineers and the public. Start-up life response. Their study recommends smarter between the electrical and optical properties science enterprises will take their first steps use of the data already available to local of phase-change materials – materials that here and I fully expect to see them grow and government and business, improving can change from amorphous to crystalline move onto larger science parks in the region. traffic management and keeping residents, state. To their surprise, they found that a businesses and visitors flowing around our seven-nanometre-thick layer of one of these The second centre, the Begbroke Innovation city. materials was suitable as an extremely high- Accelerator, will build on Begbroke Science resolution and flexible screen.T he potential Park’s record of success, now home to With economic growth comes greater threat applications are countless – smart glasses, more than 30 start-up companies from to the environment. Our Environmental smart windshields, even synthetic retinas. across the physical and medical sciences. Change Institute is co-ordinating AgileOx – a A patent has been filed and the team are in The new centre will focus on advanced partnership exploring how our county’s the early stages of exploring the commercial sectors, including robotics, nanomedicine, strengths in the green economy can give applications. None of this was ever intended pharmaceuticals, and supercomputing. a distinctive, sustainable identity to our – it’s purely a by-product of the drive to growth ambitions. Social responsibility Both new centres aim to address a particular know. is also strong in Oxfordshire, now the problem for the knowledge industries, UK’s first Social EnterpriseC ounty. With At the end of the children’s classic The cheerfully known in the trade as the ‘valley our colleagues at Oxford Brookes and Phantom Tollbooth, the bored little boy of death’. The valley is that gap between our respective student hubs, we have Milo turns to the Princesses of Rhyme and having an idea for an invention and anyone created the Oxfordshire Social Enterprise Reason and complains: ‘Many of the things actually wanting to invest in it. Through our Partnership to foster and support local I’m supposed to know seem so useless, I centres, science entrepreneurs will receive enterprises with a social mission. The can’t see the point of learning them at all.’ training, networking and mentoring on humanities too are playing their part. The Princess Reason replies: ‘Whenever how to bridge this difficult gap. Even if they The historic country houses of our region you learn something new, the whole world do walk through the ‘valley of death’, they – Blenheim, Highclere, Stowe – are an becomes that much richer.’ I agree with the should fear no evil. economic strength as well as a cultural asset. Princess. And her words should be kept in The Oxfordshire Growth Deal sets out an Through the Thames Valley Country House mind as I turn to the more tangible benefits inspiring vision: a spine of interconnected Partnership, our historians, literary scholars of Oxford’s scholarship. knowledge industries running from and others are aiming to improve visitors’ To state that the University is a major Bicester to Harwell; a £100m investment experience, working with those who economic resource is, in one sense, to state in transport, skills and homes with a target preserve, protect and interpret these great the obvious. The collegiate University is of 5,700 new jobs. Again, this cannot houses and estates. the biggest employer in the county with happen without the knowledge, expertise If these various projects have a theme, it is more than 16,000 staff. Its combined and innovation which Oxford University joining the dots – working out what data and annual turnover exceeds £2bn. Our research provides. systems all the players in our local economy brings in more than £400m of income have at their disposal and then making sure University of Oxford Gazette • Supplement (1) to No 5072 • 15 October 2014 63

they talk to each other. A smart city, if you the aspirations of a community of local digital medicine revolution. The creation will. That’s why we and the City Council are secondary school students. It’s so much of the Target Discovery Institute and the scoping a wider project to establish what a easier to dream when you know other kids Big Data Institute, announced last May, smart, 21st-century Oxford will look like. across your region share those dreams. will enable the creation of large data sets for scientific research.T he UK, with its Another strategic priority for the University Notable successes of the Deanery’s first National Health Service, is powerfully is the stewardship of our ever-expanding year include a research project at Cherwell positioned internationally to compile and collections, and not just for the way they School, exploring how children develop take advantage of such massive data sets underpin the teaching of our students their scientific understanding.A n imagined which will enable researchers to develop and the output of our researchers. Our futures project gave an invaluable insight new insights into who develops illness, why museums, the Bodleian Library and the into the hopes and ambitions of Year 9 they do so, and, ultimately, how we can treat Botanic Garden are also central to the pupils, including why some aspire to them. city’s public engagement. The Ashmolean university – and why some don’t. Several Museum, the Pitt Rivers Museum and the colleges and other central and subject Big data is just one area of medical activity Oxford University Museum of Natural departments of the University are playing where Oxford can make a practical, History are the three most-visited university an increasing role in the Deanery’s global, difference. Indeed, we have has museums in the world. The Ashmolean’s development. Now we intend to build been doing so for decades, with health local importance was recognised in July it, ultimately to a partnership of some partnerships established in more than 30 by the presentation of the Freedom of the 30 schools across Oxfordshire, taking in different countries, many of them in the City of Oxford to Professor Christopher primary schools as well. We also know that developing world. With the support of major Brown, whose directorship and vision have others are closely watching the Deanery’s funders, such as the Wellcome Trust, the defined the museum’s transformation in development in the UK, in Norway and in Medical Research Council, the Li Ka Shing recent years. We also appreciate that not Denmark. Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates everyone can visit Oxford. The University’s Foundation, Oxford’s researchers are in the At some point, most NHS patients in digitisation programme is extending our front line of the fight against malaria, HIV/ Oxfordshire will come into contact with an collections’ reach by the day, bringing AIDS, tuberculosis and many other diseases. Oxford University medic. Practical benefits thousands of books, historical artefacts Current recommended treatments for for individuals in Oxfordshire include access and cultural objects to millions of people malaria, dengue shock syndrome, typhoid, to outstanding clinical practice informed by worldwide. melioidosis, TB meningitis, diphtheria high-quality research across almost every and leptospirosis are all based on work Perhaps the most important underlying conceivable healthcare field.O ur expertise conducted in Oxford’s Tropical Medicine factor for any regional economy is the spans cancer care, dementia, heart disease, Laboratories. Around the world, senior quality of its education. We live in a time of diabetes, rheumatology, stroke prevention, Oxford scientists are living and working in immense, and rapid, educational change. arthritis and osteoporosis, to name just a the communities most severely affected The new generation of free schools and few. by these terrible diseases. Our overseas academies has achieved some remarkable Last year, our already-vibrant partnership laboratories employ some 1,500 permanent results in the summer just past. Many of with local hospitals was extended when staff and work with local institutions to their students have just joined us this term the Department of Health announced the build their research capacities. New threats in Oxford, and we wish them well. formation of the Oxford Academic Health emerge all the time, as the devastating However, in helping address the challenges Science Centre (OxAHSC), including outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa facing Oxford’s secondary schools, we have not only the University and the Oxford has shown. Recently two global alliances chosen a different path. We believe that our University Hospitals NHS Trust, but have formed to address this growing education expertise should be available to also Oxford Brookes University and the tragedy, with Oxford in the vanguard of both. children across our city, regardless of ability Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. Trials of potential new treatments are being or background. For all its success, this is not The strengths of these four partners in fast-tracked in West Africa as we speak, led something the academy model can readily research, education and healthcare are of by Dr Peter Horby of the Centre for Tropical deliver. For that reason, there is no Oxford vital importance in ensuring that the people Medicine and Global Health and ISARIC, the University Academy but rather a broader, of Oxford and Oxfordshire are served with International Severe Acute Respiratory and more inclusive initiative, the Oxford facilities, treatment and clinical care of the Emerging Infection Consortium. Meanwhile Education Deanery. highest possible standard. the Jenner Institute, under the directorship of Professor Adrian Hill, is spearheading the Since last November, the Deanery has been But, of course, the benefits of our immense effort to find a safe and reliable vaccine to offering an enhanced partnership, putting strength in medicine extend beyond the guard against the disease. our resources and expertise at the disposal regional. Oxford’s Medical Sciences Division of a group of 11 schools in the city. Led by has been adjudged for some four years to be As the Ebola outbreak has demonstrated, our Department of Education, the Deanery the foremost medical school in the world. we do not know in advance what precisely is a multi-layered framework, involving Indeed, on the basis of its research income, the global problems of the 21st century educational research, initial teacher the division alone would be the fourth- will be. With more people alive today than education and continuing professional largest university in the United Kingdom. in the whole history of the species, strains development. It promotes collaboration And here I move on to the wider practical on resources and ecosystems are certainly among schools, rather than competition benefits that we deliver to the country and likely – as are further consequences of between them. It links our trainee teachers the world. our own development, such as antibiotic with local secondary schools, it links use, carbon emissions and digital One important theme of the OxAHSC all of our academic research with those communication. But we cannot simply will be big data and the delivery of the schools, and, most vitally, it aims to raise 64 University of Oxford Gazette • Supplement (1) to No 5072 • 15 October 2014

predict specific questions and plan our the Irish Question is that the Irish kept the UK had dropped 10% in two years. research agenda to fit. changing it.’ That is equally true of many of The story provoked considerable political the world’s knottier problems. The trouble reaction. The immigration minister, James What is needed, for those complicated with trying to spot winners in research is Brokenshire, interpreted the figures as environmental, governance, medical, fiscal that the world has a nasty habit of moving evidence that government policies to and technological challenges, is a wide base on while you are looking the other way. cut non-EU migration had not affected of data and research and thinking to provide There are rare examples of very specific businesses’ ability to recruit highly skilled properly informed responses to problems questions generating very specific answers; migrants because of the EU’s large pool of as they arise, to set up suitably resilient but once you get to that point commercial such workers. Vince Cable, Mr Brokenshire’s models, to create the tools that will begin to sponsorship is easy enough to find. It is the government colleague, saw the data as move to solutions. background work which produces the banks proof that policy based on a net migration So how does that look in a university like of data, and those skilled individuals who target is backfiring. I do not intend here to Oxford? It involves using decades’ worth of can provide the necessary expertise when intrude on a coalition family dispute. What research into electrolysis in the Department the Governor of the Bank of England has a is important is that neither side questioned of Chemistry to produce safe drinking water problem. the underlying evidence. The Observatory’s from the Yellow River in China; it is using success is now proving a model for other Let me turn to my second example: complex mathematical models to ensure countries, with Germany among those flooding. Many of you will remember the that the appropriate levels of uncertainty are interested in establishing a similar research events of 2007. After the wettest June on built into climate change forecasts; it is the resource. record the rain just kept coming. By 23 July, accumulated experience of vaccine trials at 50,000 households in Gloucestershire Wherever I travel in the world, particularly the Jenner Institute which is exactly why were without electricity, and, by the 24th, in China and India, one question persists. they were called upon to lead on testing the 420,000 homes in the Gloucester area Why has the UK adopted a visa system so Ebola vaccine. had no drinking water. Local authority hostile to student entry? I do my best to But Oxford’s contribution to the public good workers were simply overwhelmed by the answer but, frankly, the question baffles does not just rest with providing research scale and complexity of the problem. In me as well. For the first time in decades, the and solutions for these big scientific and the fallout that followed, the University of number of international students at our technical problems. It lies with improving Oxford, funded by NERC and working with universities has dropped, most markedly the whole structure of governance and the University of Gloucestershire, set up a from India. Why are we doing this to them international relations. training programme for emergency and local – and to ourselves? The excellence of UK authority workers to develop their capacity Higher Education is, in crude material Let me give three examples. In 2007, with to deal with these situations. Called Project terms, an attractive commodity in the banks across the western world facing FOSTER (rather brilliantly, if you remember world market. Why, at a time of continued collapse, Paul Klemperer, Edgeworth the nursery rhyme), simulations and the economic constraint, are we limiting Professor of Economics here in Oxford, took latest thinking on the behaviour of floods one of our most effective generators of a call. On the line was the Governor of the are used to educate front-line staff about overseas revenue? Migration Observatory Bank of England. History does not record if what could go wrong, and why and where. research has shown that the public do not he reversed the charges. I don’t think things That is evidence-based policymaking in automatically think about students when were quite that bad. Nevertheless, the Bank practice, and the University of Oxford is they think about migration. ‘Study’ is the needed to inject liquidity into the financial exceptionally well placed to deliver the least frequent answer given when the public system, but in a way that was reliable and skills and information necessary. are asked what they consider the motives fast. Working with Professor Ken Binmore, for migration to be. Student migration and using the mathematics of geometric Crucially, we are committed to conducting simply isn’t an issue for them and there are reasoning, they came up with something research without fear of, or respect for, few votes in restricting overseas student called the ‘Product Mix auction’: a device vested interests; to making our findings numbers. There are signs that this reality that worked then, and continues to be used available to all sides on a particular issue. is beginning to dawn across the political by the Bank of England to this day. How they then interpret that evidence is spectrum; something to be welcomed and up to them. Nowhere is that principle more Such stories are rare, of course, and can encouraged ahead of the election. vital at present than for my third example – feel more like Hollywood scripts than the the field of immigration, looking likely to be I hope very much that my three examples real world of research. But they further just about the most contentious issue in the have given some sense of what universities underline my point that we need a critical run-up to the general election next May. like Oxford can bring to complex political mass of the research, the data, the thinkers and policy challenges, ones that defy the and the debates which will provide the That’s why the work of our Migration temptation to reach for simple or simplistic nursery-bed for solutions. Nobody working Observatory, part of the Centre on Migration, answers. In essence, we can provide the on geometric reasoning dreamed this Policy and Society, is so crucial. Created to data, the understanding and the analysis to might keep the money coming out of the broker an increasingly fractious debate, underpin arguments and possible solutions cash machines one day. The mathematics the Observatory now stands established as for the problems we all face. underlying it had been done for a a trusted evidential platform on which all completely different reason. It has been said parties can base their arguments. And I’m It is my strong contention and firm belief many times in the field of research, but it pleased to say there are signs that the quality that Oxford, and not just Oxford, produces needs to be said again and again. You cannot of debate is improving. huge public benefit: benefit far beyond the always spot winners. The historians present very substantial intrinsic value of our world- In July, the Financial Times led on an will be familiar with the old observation leading teaching and research. And it is also, Observatory study showing that the number about the Irish Question: ‘The trouble with sadly, benefit which far outstrips the level of of new highly skilled migrant workers in public investment in our sector. University of Oxford Gazette • Supplement (1) to No 5072 • 15 October 2014 65

Latest OECD figures show UK public Our endeavours have enjoyed external The Revd Professor Martyn Percy, Professor investment in higher education at 0.9% recognition, and over the course of the past Sir Rick Trainor and Sir Gordon Duff. of GDP – below the OECD average and year Professors Dorothy Bishop, Marian As mentioned earlier in the Oration, one of the lowest in Europe. The situation Dawkins, Liam Dolan, Patrik Rorsman, Professor Christopher Brown has retired in research and development is equally Rajesh Thakker and Anthony Watts have as Director of the Ashmolean Museum. dismaying. The government’s own figures been elected as Fellows of the Royal Society; We thank him for his outstanding and show R&D falling to 1.72% of GDP in 2012. Professors Francesco Billari, Susanne transformative tenure, and welcome his Almost all of our competitors’ figures are up: Bobzien, Georgina Born, Gavin Flood, successor, Dr Alexander Sturgis, previously China to 1.84%, the EU average to 2.06% and Henrietta Harrison, Stephen Smith, Cecilia Director of the Holburne Museum, Bath. We the US a mighty 2.79%. Trifogli and Sarah Whatmore, and Dr Susan bid farewell also to Dr Timothy Walker, who Brigden, have been elected as Fellows of the Underinvestment in higher education is a has retired as Director of the Botanic Garden. British Academy; Professor Paul Newman false economy. Analysis by the Campaign In February of this year, Richard Ovenden has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal for Science and Engineering recently was appointed as Bodley’s Librarian, in Academy of Engineering; and the Academy quantified the link between economic succession to Dr Sarah Thomas. of Medical Sciences has elected as Fellows growth and public spending on science and Professors Richard Cornall, Anke Ehlers, This year has seen the retirement of many engineering research. A one-off, 5% increase Gary A Ford, Fiona Powrie, Paul Riley and other distinguished colleagues who have in government R&D spending of £450m John Stein. contributed to the University’s intellectual would increase market-sector output by life over the years: Dr Elizabeth Adams; £90m per year, every year. Further, CaSE Since this time last year, Her Majesty The Professor Robert Allen, Professor of Recent found that universities which receive Queen has made the following awards to Social and Economic History; Professor higher levels of public funding also generate members of the University: the Order of Sudhir Anand, Professor of Quantitative more research income from business, Merit to Professor Martin West; knighthoods Economic Analysis; Dr JeffreyA ronson; charities and international sources. In short, to Professors Colin Blakemore, Paul Collier, Professor Andrew Ashworth, Vinerian private investment should complement John Pethica, Peter Ratcliffe andR ichard Professor of English Law; Professor John Government research funding, and not be Sorabji, and also to Dr Noel Malcolm; the Baines, Professor of Egyptology; Professor perceived as an alternative. DBE to Professor Frances Kirwan; CBEs to John Barton, Oriel and Laing Professor of the Professors Martin Biddle, Marian Dawkins, And, to be fair, that message does appear Interpretation of Holy Scripture; Dr Helen and John Kay; OBEs to Ceridwen Roberts to have been getting through. This time Bergen; Professor Martin Brasier, Professor and John Simpson; and MBEs to Karen last year, Sir Andrew Witty’s review for of Palaeobiology; Professor John Broome, Hewitt, Dr Damian Jenkins and Dr Marios BIS acknowledged that universities have White's Professor of Moral Philosophy; Papadopoulos. ‘extraordinary potential to enhance Professor Garry Brown; Mrs Kathryn economic growth’. One interesting proposal Other recognition has been received by the Bunch; Professor David Charles, Professor was for world-class universities to lead UK newly knighted Sir Paul Collier, who was of Philosophy; Professor David Coleman, collaborations delivering international awarded the British Academy President’s Professor of Demography; Professor Richard technological advantage in specific sectors Medal. The British Academy also gave its Darton, Professor of Engineering Science; – the so-called ‘Arrow Projects’. Sir Andrew Rose Mary Crawshay Prize to Dr Hannah Professor Shamita Das, Professor of Earth calls for £1bn to be invested over the Sullivan of the Faculty of English, and the Sciences; Dr Christopher Davies; Professor course of the next parliament. As the CaSE Serena Medal to Professor Chris Wickham, John Day, Professor of Old Testament calculations demonstrate, a sum on this Chichele Professor of Medieval History. The Studies; Dr Irina Dianova; Dr Paul Dresch; scale would offer the prospect of substantial Royal Society gave the Sylvester Medal to Professor William Dutton, Professor of return to the UK economy. Professor Ben Green, Waynflete Professor Internet Studies; Professor Thomas Earle, of Pure Mathematics, the Royal Society King John II Professor of Portuguese These are encouraging noises, but it is PfizerA ward to Dr Faith Osier of the KEMRI Studies; Professor Anne Edwards, Professor still all too rare to hear higher education Wellcome Trust Research Programme, and of Educational Studies; Professor David described, accurately, as just about the most the 2015 Francis Crick Lecture to Dr Rob Edwards, Professor of Engineering Science; important investment a nation can make Klose of the Department of Biochemistry. Professor Russell Egdell, Professor of on behalf of its citizens, especially when Sir Marc Feldmann and Sir Ravinder Maini Inorganic Chemistry; Professor Karin those citizens are living in a knowledge- of the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology Erdmann; Dr Sebastian Fairweather; based global economy. That’s why I have were named 2014 Canada Gairdner Award Professor Valpy Fitzgerald, Professor of somewhat limited expectation, come the winners. Professor Alex Halliday, Head International Development Finance; general election, that properly developed of the Mathematical, Physical and Life Professor Peter Franklin, Professor of Music; policies on higher education (as opposed to Sciences Division, has been elected as the Dr Peggy Frith; Dr Bernard Gesch; Professor vainglorious point-scoring on past crimes next Physical Secretary and Vice-President Guy Goodwin, W A Handley Professor of and misdemeanours) will take up much of the Royal Society. Psychiatry; Professor Paul Harvey, Professor of the politicians’ time or attention. That’s of Zoology; Professor Richard Haydon, sad, because it is exactly the sort of issue on Three Heads of House who over many years Professor of Mathematics; Professor Edward which a real effort to find a new, meaningful have made great contributions to the life of Higginbottom, Professor of Choral Music; Dr consensus between the parties would be the collegiate University, as well as to their John Hodgson; Professor Clive Holes, Khalid of immense benefit – benefit, of course, own colleges, have retired over the summer: bin Abdullah Al-Saud Professor for the Study to the students and to the universities The Very Revd Christopher Lewis as Dean of of the Contemporary Arab World; Professor of the future, but also, as I hope to have Christ Church; Frances Cairncross as Rector Christopher Hood, Gladstone Professor of demonstrated this morning, hugely of Exeter; and Sheila Forbes as Principal of St Government; Professor John Iles, Reader in beneficial to the public good. Hilda’s. They are succeeded respectively by Zoology; Dr Gerd Islei; Professor Nicholas 66 University of Oxford Gazette • Supplement (1) to No 5072 • 15 October 2014

Jelley, Professor of Physics; Professor Alan I would also like to mention those Finally, we pause to remember the Knight, Professor of the History of Latin colleagues who have retired from important contributions of those colleagues who America; Professor Basil Kouvaritakis, administrative, library or service posts have died in retirement over the past Professor of Engineering Science; Professor in the University: Mr Charlie Beesley, Mr year: Professor John Albery, Miss Jocelyn Donna Kurtz, Professor of Classical Art; Michael Brooks, Mr Nigel Brown, Mrs Ruth Allard, Dr Frederick Atkins, Dr Syd Bailey, Professor Steffen Lauritzen, Professor of Brown, Mrs Janet Buckland, Ms Helen Miss Dorothy Barratt, Dr Philip Beckett, Statistics; Professor James Malcomson, Bull, Mrs Linda Clover, Mr Clive Dalzell, Mr Royston Beesley, Mr William Bell, Professor of Economics; Professor Herbert Mr Stewart Deakin, Dr David Dongworth, Dr Michael Brock, Professor Marilyn Marsh, Professor of Educational Studies; Mr Robert Dunn, Mr Samuel Ellis, Mrs Butler, Professor Iain Campbell, Mr James Professor Ken Mayhew, Professor of Brigitte Farries, Dr Brian Gasser, Mrs Alison Campbell, Professor Lorna Casselton, Mrs Education and Economic Performance; Dr Gater, Ms Anne Gerrish, Mrs Marilyn Sally Chilver, Mrs Paula Cook-Mozaffari, Michael Murphy; Dr Laura Newby; Professor Goulding, Mrs Jill Grieveson, Mrs Patricia Mr Peter Crane, Dr David Dressler, Dr John Michael Noble, Professor of Social Policy; Hill, Mr Alan Hodgson, Mr Frank Hunt, Mr Enos, Professor Ellis Evans, Mr Michael Professor David Norbrook, Merton Professor Michael Inman, Ms Maureen Jackson, Mr Flinn, Professor Noel Gale, Dr Edward Gill, of English Literature; Dr Peter Northover; Christopher Jenkins, Mrs Diana Kelsall, Miss Mr David Gilson, Dr David Goldey, Professor Dr Sima Orsini; Dr Katharine Parkes; Mr Helen Langley, Miss Valerie Lawrence, Mr Chelly Halsey, Mr Peter Hayward, Professor Robert Pinches; Professor Jane Riddoch; Robert Laynes, Dr Keith Lewis, Ms Lidia James Higginbotham, Mr Peter Hill, Mrs Professor Brian Ripley, Professor of Applied Lozano, Miss Angela MacCarthy, Mr Peter Ann Hunt, Mr Arfor Jones, Dr Lucas Kamp, Statistics; Professor Christopher Rowland, Meredith, Ms Diana Naumann, Mr Tom Dr Barbara Kennedy, Mr Andrew Knox, Mr Dean Ireland's Professor of Exegesis of Holy Payne, Mr David Powell, Miss Mary Ann Peter Lewis, Dr Norman McCrum, Dr Piers Scripture; Professor Jeremy Saklatvala, Robertson, Mr Colin Ryde, Mr Anthony Mackesy, Dr Angus Marks, Professor Anna Professor of Cell Signalling; Professor Robert Sanderson, Mrs Susan Simkin, Mrs Olive Morpurgo Davies, Mr Michael Morris, Mrs Service, Professor of Russian History; Thomas, Mr Christopher Thompson, Mr Denise Mulvey, The Revd Professor Ernest Professor Boudewijn Sirks, Regius Professor Timothy Vincent, Mr Donald Warden and Mr Nicholson, Dr Donald Olleson, Dr Christina of Civil Law; Dr John Sloan; Professor Penny Robert Wyatt. Roaf, Mr Derek Robinson, Mr Peter Shaman, Smith, Reader in Engineering; Professor Mr Philip Smith, Mr Thomas Stewart, Dr This year the University community has lost Thomas Snijders, Professor of Statistics Stephen Stokes, Dr Joan Thirsk, Mr Latimer valued colleagues whose early deaths have in the Social Sciences; Mr Charles Stiller; Tuke, Dr Jean Whatley, Dr Vivian Williams, been a source of great sadness: Dr Philip Professor David Stirzaker; Professor Jeremy Dr Fred Wright and Dr GeoffreyY oung. Brown, Research Scientist at the Nuffield Thomas, Professor of Ecology; Professor Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences; Christopher Tuckett, Professor of New Dr Jonathan Burgess, Postdoctoral Research Testament Studies; Dr Jon Whiteley; Assistant at the Department of Engineering Professor Mark Williams, Professor of Science; Dr James Naughton, University Clinical Psychology; Professor Hugh Lecturer in Czech; Professor David Porter, Williamson, Regius Professor of Hebrew; Senior Researcher at the Department of Professor Bernard Wood, Professor of Earth Zoology; and Dr Corri Waitt, Research Sciences; Professor John Woodhouse, Assistant at the Department of Zoology. Professor of Geophysics; and Professor Simon Wren-Lewis, Professor of Economics.