Annual Review 2010-11

QUALI AAWDURDODOL Gweledigaeth AAWDURDODOL QUALI ANNIBYNNOL THE LEARNED SOCIETY OF WALES CYMDEITHAS DDYSGEDIG CYMRU CELEBRATING SCHOLARSHIP AND SERVING THE NATION BENIGOL DATHLU YSGOLHEICTOD A GWASANAETHU’R GENEDL • YMCHWIL • YSGOLHEICTOD Review • RHAGORIAETH 2010/11 • AWDURDODOL • AUTHOR 2010/11 • EXCELLENC Adolygiad SCHOLARSHIP • • RESEARCH CELEBRATING SCHOLARSHIP AND SERVING THE NATION THE SERVING AND SCHOLARSHIP CELEBRATING EXPERT DATHLU YSGOLHEICTOD A GWASANAETHU’R GENEDL GWASANAETHU’R A YSGOLHEICTOD DATHLU THE LEARNED SOCIETY OF WALES OF SOCIETY LEARNED THE CYMDEITHAS DDYSGEDIG CYMRU DDYSGEDIG CYMDEITHAS INDEPENDENT QUALI AUTHORITATIVE VISION THE LEARNED SOCIETY OF WALES CYMDEITHAS DDYSGEDIG CYMRU CELEBRATING SCHOLARSHIP AND SERVING THE NATION DATHLU YSGOLHEICTOD A GWASANAETHU’R GENEDL Legal Advisers Morgan Cole Solicitors Park Place Cardiff CF10 3DP Auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP One Kingsway Cardiff CF10 3PW. Bankers HSBC Private Bank (UK) Limited 97 Bute Street Cardiff Bay CF10 5PB Registered Address The University Registry King Edward VII Avenue Cathays Park Cardiff CF10 3NS Company Number 7256948 Registered Charity Number 1141526 For more information about the Society, contact: Dr Lynn Williams Chief Executive and Secretary The Learned Society of Wales PO Box 586 Cardiff CF11 1NU (29) 2037 6951 email: [email protected] or visit the Society’s website: http://learnedsocietywales.ac.uk The Learned Society of Wales Review 2010/11 1 President’s Introduction The Learned Society of Wales is Wales’s first The Society will also harness and channel national scholarly academy. Its establishment in May the nation’s talent for the good of our country. It 2010 marks a very important development in the will act as a defender of and protagonist for the intellectual and cultural life of our nation. Until then, we very activities and functions which must surely in this country lacked an academy of learning of the kind underpin the notion of Welsh cleverness, that has long existed elsewhere in the United Kingdom particularly in these difficult times. Our short term and worldwide. This not only meant that Wales’s aim is to establish the Society both as a recognised intellectual capability was not properly represented or representative of the world of Welsh learning promoted on the international stage; it was also the case internationally and as a source of authoritative, that its people, politicians and policy-makers, and scholarly and critical comment and advice on policy businesses did not have access to well-researched, issues affecting Wales. scholarly and objective advice on issues of key importance in the way that those in other countries have As the pages that follow show, we have had. Now, we have a learned society that, over time and enjoyed an encouraging first year. We have been properly-supported, can do much to emulate the great able to begin to develop an exciting programme of academies of London and Edinburgh, as well as those lectures and other events. During our Inaugural that flourish across Europe, in North America, and Election Cycle, we have elected a very strong beyond. cohort of new Fellows, to add to the list of excellent Founding Fellows on whose initiative the Society was established. We have been accorded charitable status. And we have made our first sally into the area of public policy debate with the issue of our paper on the funding gap and the Welsh Assembly Government’s support for our universities. In all of this, the generous pump- priming support of the University of Wales has been indispensible and we have also received valuable help from other sources, for example, the universities in Wales that have hosted our events. But 2010/11 is only the start. The Learned Society of Wales will reach full maturity only over many years, the range of its activities will necessarily be built up gradually over time, and its plans must therefore focus on the long term. It has much to do – and will need the support not only of its Fellows and the academic community in Wales, and also of society more widely, if it is to fulfil the ambitions that it has set for itself. I look forward to reporting on progress in future annual Reviews. Sir John Cadogan The Society’s guiding ethos is Celebrating Scholarship and Serving the Nation. Our aim is to celebrate, recognise, safeguard and encourage excellence in every one of the scholarly disciplines and in the professions, industry and commerce, the arts and public service, so that Wales should come to be seen Sir John Cadogan CBE DSc FRSE FRSC PLSW FRS widely and justifiably, as a small but clever country. Inaugural President 2 The Learned Society of Wales Review 2010/11 Launching the Society, May 2010 The Society’s origins: the lead-up to the Launch The establishment of a national academy of learning had been a subject of interest and discussion in Wales for some years prior to the launch of Society in May 2010. But the idea was taken forward in a practical way only in 2008 when a group of independent scholars, representing the major academic disciplines, came together in a wholly spontaneous and voluntary initiative to address and make good the lack of a national academy in Wales. They established themselves into a Shadow Council for what they decided should become The Learned Society of Wales. During 2009, the Shadow Council identified further scholars of high calibre (almost all of whom were Fellows of the Royal Society or of the British Academy) who, along with the original group, became the Society’s Founding Fellows. Sir John Cadogan was elected by the Fellows to be the Society’s Inaugural President in February 2010 and, having operated in shadow form for some months before then, on 18 May of that year, with the support of the Welsh Assembly Government, the Society was established on a formal basis, through its incorporation as a company limited by guarantee. The Launch Ceremony, 25 May 2010 Addresses of greeting were given by: On 25 May 2010, just one week after incorporation, the Professor John Harries FInstP FRMetS, Professor Learned Society of Wales was formally launched during an of Earth Observation, Imperial College, London; enjoyable and well-attended ceremony held at the Chief Scientific Adviser for Wales (elected FLSW, Reardon Smith Theatre, in the National Museum Cardiff. 2010/11) Founding Fellows were greeted by the Society’s President Professor Geoffrey Boulton OBE DSc FGS FRSE and, before signing the Roll of Fellows (which had been FRS, University of Edinburgh; General Secretary commissioned from Gwasg Gregynog), were introduced to of the Royal Society of Edinburgh an enthusiastic audience of specially invited guests which included representatives of other British learned societies, Sir David Davies CBE DSc FREng FIET FLSW FRS, of Welsh and other higher education institutions, and of formerly: Vice-Chancellor, University of the Welsh Assembly Government. Loughborough; President, Royal Academy of Engineering; Professor Susan Mendus FLSW FBA, University of York; Vice-President (Social Sciences) of the British Academy Professor Dame Jean Thomas DBE CBE FMedSci FLSW FRS, University of Cambridge; Vice- President and Biological Secretary of the Royal Society Mr Paul Loveluck CBE JP, President of the National Museum Wales The Launch culminated in the Inaugural Speakers and Founding Fellows at the Launch Ceremony Presidential Address by Sir John Cadogan. The Learned Society of Wales Review 2010/11 3 The Society’s Founding Fellows Professor Sydney Anglo FSA FRHistS FLSW FBA Professor Susan Mendus FLSW FBA Professor Huw Beynon DSocSc AcSS FLSW Professor Derec Llwyd Morgan DLitt FLSW Sir Leszek Borysiewicz KBE FRCP FRCPath FMedSci FLSW FRS The Baron (Kenneth O) Morgan of Aberdyfi DLitt Sir John Cadogan CBE DSc FRSE FRSC PLSW FRS FRHistS FLSW FBA Professor Richard Carwardine FRHistS FLSW FBA Professor Prys Morgan FRHistS FSA FLSW Professor Thomas Charles-Edwards FRHistS FLSW FBA Professor Michael O’Hara FRSE FLSW FRS Professor Ian Clark FLSW FBA Professor David Olive CBE FLSW FRS Professor Stuart Clark FRHistS FLSW FBA Professor John Wyn Owen CB FRGS FHSM FRSocMed Professor Marc Clement FIEE FLSW FLSW Professor David Crystal OBE FLSW FBA Professor Roger Owen FREng FLSW FRS Professor Sir Barry Cunliffe CBE FSA FLSW FBA Professor John Pearce FLSW FRS Professor Martin Daunton LittD FRHistS FLSW FBA Sir Keith Peters FMedSci FRCP FRCPE FRCPath FLSW Sir David Davies CBE DSc FREng FIET FLSW FRS FRS Professor Wendy Davies OBE FSA FRHistS FLSW FBA Sir Dai Rees DSc FRSC FRCPE FMedSci FSB FLSW FRS Professor Robert Dodgshon FLSW FBA Professor Keith Robbins DLitt FRSE FRHistS FLSW Professor Kenneth Dyson AcSS FRHistS FLSW FBA Professor Charles Stirling FRSC FLSW FRS Professor Dianne Edwards CBE ScD FRSE FLSW FRS The late Professor Eric Sunderland CBE FIBiol FLSW Sir Sam Edwards FLSW FRS (ob. 24 March 2010) FLSW Professor Richard Evans DLitt FRHistS FRSL FLSW FBA Professor Dame Jean Thomas DBE CBE ScD FMedSci Professor Robert Evans FLSW FBA FLSW FRS Professor Roy Evans CBE FREng FICE FIStructE FLSW Professor Sir John Meurig Thomas DSc ScD FRSE FLSW Professor The Baroness (Ilora) Finlay of Llandaff FRCP FRS FRCGP FLSW Sir Keith Thomas FRHistS FLSW FBA The late Baron (Brian) Flowers of Queen’s Gate in the City Professor M Wynn Thomas OBE FLSW FBA of Westminster Kt DSc FInstP FLSW FRS Professor Steven Tipper AcSS FLSW FBA (ob. 25 June 2010) Professor John Tucker FBCS FLSW Professor R Geraint Gruffydd DLitt FLSW FBA Professor Kenneth Walters DSc FLSW FRS Dame Deirdre Hine DBE FFPHM FRCP FLSW Professor Peter Wells CBE DSc FREng FMedSci FIET Professor Christopher Hooley FLSW FRS FinstP FLSW FRS Sir John Houghton CBE FLSW FRS Professor Alasdair Whittle FLSW FBA Professor Graham Hutchings DSc FIChemE FRSC FLSW FRS The late Professor Sir David Williams QC DL FLSW Professor Geraint H Jenkins DLitt FLSW FBA (ob.

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