Once a Caian... 9-12 Issue 12
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EVENTS AND REUNIONS FOR 2017/18 ISSUE 17 MICHAELMAS 2017 GONVILLE & CAIUS COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE Commemoration of Benefactors Lecture, Service & Feast . Sunday 19 November First Christmas Carol Service (6pm) . Wednesday 29 November Second Christmas Carol Service (4.30pm) . Thursday 30 November Michaelmas Full Term ends . Friday 1 December Varsity Rugby Match . Thursday 7 December Choir singing Carols in City Hall, Hong Kong . Monday 18 December Choir singing Carols at Victoria Concert Hall, Singapore. Tuesday 19 December Lent Full Term begins . Tuesday 16 January Development Campaign Board Meeting. Thursday 22 February Second Year Parents’ Hall . Thursday 15 & Friday 16 March Lent Full Term ends . Friday 16 March MAs’ Dinner . Friday 23 March Master and Master Elect visit to Australia and New Zealand . Wednesday 4 – Saturday 14 April Telephone Campaign begins . Saturday 7 April Annual Gathering (2004, 2005 & 2006) . Saturday 7 April Easter Full Term begins . Tuesday 24 April Stephen Hawking Circle Dinner. Saturday 12 May Easter Full Term ends . Friday 15 June May Week Party for Benefactors . Saturday 16 June Caius Club May Bumps Event . Saturday 16 June Graduation Lunch . Thursday 28 June Annual Gathering (1968, 1969 & 1970) . Friday 29 June Caius Choir UK concert tour . June/July Admissions Open Days . Thursday 5 & Friday 6 July Caius Choir Germany concert tour . September Alumni Weekend . Friday 21 – Sunday 23 September Annual Gathering (up to & including 1966). Saturday 22 September Development Campaign Board Meeting. Tuesday 25 September Michaelmas Full Term begins . Tuesday 2 October Commemoration of Benefactors Lecture, Service & Feast . Sunday 18 November ...always aCaian Our First Woman Master-Elect A New Boathouse for CBC Editor: Mick Le Moignan A fourteenth Nobel Prize for Caius Editorial Board: James Howell, Dr Anne Lyon, Dr Jimmy Altham, Design Consultant: Tom Challis Speeding up McLaren & Rolls-Royce Artwork and production: Cambridge Marketing Limited Gonville & Caius College Trinity Street Cambridge CB2 1TA United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)1223 339676 Email: [email protected] www.cai.cam.ac.uk/alumni Registered Charity No. 1137536 ...Always a Caian 1 Dan White Dan From the Master This is really the ‘women’s issue’ of Once a Caian... because for the first time we have more stories about women Caians than men. The good news is that, for the first time in 670 years, from October 2018, we will have a woman Master. The best news is that the Master-elect is Dr Pippa Rogerson (1986). As Pippa herself told The Daily Telegraph, ‘It shouldn’t be a big deal – but it obviously is!’ For myself, I can now rest easy in the knowledge that Pippa will be a wonderful Contents custodian of Caius and will, I am sure, take the College to new heights of excellence Yao Liang Yao in education and research. Hill James There are other reasons for celebration – the Nobel Prize in Physics won by Professor Michael Kosterlitz (1962), the third Gas Turbine Award won by Professor Rob Miller 4 8 12 (2001) for his work in developing the jet engines of the future for Rolls-Royce, and the opening of our splendid new Boathouse – but we have also suffered many sad losses this year – Sir Douglas Myers (1958), one of our greatest benefactors, (see Once a Caian... Issue 15, pages 14-15) Sally Yates, executrix of the estate of Lord Peter Bauer (1934), and a number of Caians who have left extraordinarily generous bequests, Professor Patricia Crone (1990), Derek Ingram (1974), John Chumrow (1948), another Nobel Prize winner, Professor Roger Tsien (1977), Jonathan Horsfall-Turner (1964) and several more. Their gifts will add enormously to the College’s options in the future. Keith Heppell Keith We have commissioned a small team of experts to take a close, analytical look at our future. They asked students, staff, Fellows and friends of the College to outline their vision for our 700th year and they have produced a thought-provoking report, 14 22 24 Caius2048, which will be considered by the General Meeting of Fellows in October. At a time when governments all over the world seem to be more concerned with their own survival than the future of the planet, it’s surely appropriate for responsible academic institutions like ours to seek to fill the gap with a little intelligent planning and forecasting of our own. The bottom line, as they call it, is refreshingly positive. In addition to the significant bequests already mentioned, Dr David Secher (1974) and his team in the Bursary and James Howell (2009) and his team in the Development Office have been doing a magnificent job in building an Endowment to future-proof the College. 2 The First Woman – Master-elect, Dr Pippa Rogerson (1986) 4 A Boathouse for All Seasons – the opening ceremony Top speed I shall enjoy my final year as Master of Caius in the knowledge that our College is in 6 It’s not Rocket Science – or is it? Professor Rob Miller (2001) 217 mph – but why is this good heart and rising above the financial challenges we faced in the early years of 8 A Giant Leap – Nobel Prize winner Michael Kosterlitz (1962) McLaren supercar parking in the this century. For that, we are enormously grateful to you, our loyal Caian supporters. 10 Parting Gifts – the transformative effect of bequests to Caius Great Gate? Once a Caian... is a small token of our appreciation. 12 Anatomy of a Bequest – John Chumrow (1948) The numberplate is a clue. 14 Music into Space for Stephen Hawking’s 75th birthday See page 34 16 Preserving our Heritage... 18 ...and Planning for the Future Professor Sir Alan Fersht FRS (1962) 20 A True Hero – Harold Ackroyd (1896) VC Master 22 Always a Caian – remembering Professor Patricia Crone (1990) 24 Life-changing Bursaries – Sally Yates and Peter Bauer (1934) “Your gift to Caius also counts towards the 26 Thanks to our Benefactors Dear World... Yours, Cambridge Campaign” 34 CaiNotes 36 The Caius Choir on tour in Asia Cover photos by Lucy Ward, James Howell, Keith Heppell and Rattee & Kett 2 Once a Caian... ...Always a Caian 3 Lucy Ward Lucy r Pippa Rogerson (1986) has First, she’d have a good chance of getting a One of the major tasks of her Mastership ‘It’s the College’s role to provide students been chosen by the Tapp studentship. It was a revelation that will be a long-term plan to refurbish the with an environment in which they can be Fellowship, subject to the there were College funds which would cover College Kitchens. A firm supporter of the the best version of themselves. It’s a golden formality of a statutory the cost of a PhD. So she came to Caius in Minimum Dining Requirements, Pippa slice of their lives; three or four years is quite pre-election in April next year, 1986 and started supervising students as well believes Caius students should eat together a short time, but what we do at Caius is to Dto lead the College as Master from the start as doing her own research. and it’s therefore vital to provide good food provide them with a springboard to go of the Michaelmas Term 2018. 1989 was a big year: Pippa handed in her and proper facilities in which to prepare it. forward.’ Pippa will be the 43rd person to hold the PhD thesis, got married in June and was Her view of the Mastership is that it Pippa demands a strong work ethic from office in 670 years, the first woman ever and elected to a Fellowship at Caius in October. requires: ‘not firm leadership as such, but a her own students, advising them to the first Catholic Master since Dr Caius. She Michael Prichard was coming to the end of his more diffuse guidance – of influencing the concentrate on study along with the co- finds these historical curiosities interesting term as Director of Studies (DoS) and agenda, of making sure things are done curricular and extra-curricular opportunities but not central to her role. She has no plans naturally wanted to secure ‘a seamless properly, of considering what the outcomes in Cambridge, but it’s on the subject of to envelop the Chapel in clouds of incense transition’ in the College’s continuing teaching and she has known since her undergraduate of Law. Pippa feels she was ‘jolly lucky, with days at Newnham that ‘the world doesn’t some fantastic mentors’ and ‘joined a strong end if women occupy positions of authority! tradition of teaching at Caius.’ ‘It never occurred to me that women She already had a family connection with would not be Professors or run Boat Clubs. the College, by way of Thomas Rogerson All the portraits in Hall were of women, so (1611), son of the Vicar of Honingham in I took that for granted. I was involved in the Norfolk, and Thomas’s son, Robert (1645) who JCR and rowed in one of the lower boats – became Rector at Denton in Norfolk. In 1642 Thomas was ejected from his living in Monk Soham for being insufficiently orthodox in those Puritan times. She was appointed DoS in Law and University Lecturer in 1990, Senior Lecturer in The First Woman 2001 and Reader in 2017. Once installed as Master, she will retire as DoS but will by Mick Le Moignan (2004) continue supervising: ‘Law is a very important part of what I am and what I do.’ Over the and of course, Newnham had good kitchens past thirty years, she has been the DoS to and decent bathrooms.’ nearly 500 students at undergraduate, Pippa was born and brought up in Suffolk Masters’ and doctorate levels.