UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE GRADUATION 2021 Welcome to your Club Wherever you go, For nearly 200 years alumni have chosen to take up membership of a spacious and elegant private club stay connected. in the heart of London. The Oxford and Cambridge Club in Pall Mall is the perfect place to meet for a drink, entertain friends and colleagues in magnificent surroundings, play squash, take a break, host a party or just find a quiet corner to prepare for a meeting. A thriving social scene, sports facilities, a lively calendar of events including talks, tastings, dinners and balls, an exceptionally well-stocked library, extensive wine THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE cellars and more than 40 bedrooms mean our members use their club for recreation, relaxation COLLECTION and business - and now you can too. For details on membership or a ONOTO.COM tour of the Club house, please visit www.oxfordandcambridgeclub.co.uk or call 020 7321 5103 Oxford and Cambridge Club @oandcclub OC Varsity Ad A4 Landscape.indd 1 23/03/2021 20:04 CONTENTS Message from Downing Lucy Cavendish Sidney Sussex 3 the V-C 32 College 50 College 68 College News Emmanuel Magdalene St Catharine’s 7 34 College 52 College 70 College Fitzwilliam Murray Edwards St Edmund’s Colleges 36 College 54 College 72 College Christ’s Girton Newnham St John’s 20 College 38 College 56 College 74 College Churchill Gonville & Pembroke Trinity 22 College 40 Caius College 58 College 76 College Clare Homerton Peterhouse Trinity Hall 24 College 42 College 60 78 Clare Hughes Hall Queens’ Wolfson 26 Hall 44 62 College 80 College Corpus Christi Jesus Robinson Keep in 28 College 46 College 64 College 88 touch Darwin King’s Selwyn 30 College 48 College 66 College CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR GRADUATION You are now a valued member of the Cambridge alumni community, with access to exclusive services and benefits Find out more alumni.cam.ac.uk Alumni book club College benefits Alumni email Handshake Cambridge Alumni groups Journals and online resources Alumni festival Podcasts and webinars CAMCard University Library CONGRATULATIONS! Congratulations on all you have achieved. You have earned your degree, and can now look ahead to a bright future. In the most challenging period in living memory, you have demonstrated great talent and tenacity, and made friendships that will nourish you throughout your life and career. None of us could have predicted your unusual Cambridge experience. As a cohort, you coped admirably with the uncertainty and the limitations of the pandemic. You proved once again the resilience and determination of our Cambridge community. You join a community of more than 300,000 alumni around the world — take advantage of their support, and remember that you will always be welcome at Cambridge. Your teachers, friends and families are all incredibly proud of you. Your graduating class is now poised to go out and change the world. On behalf of the Collegiate University, I wish you all the very best. Professor Stephen J Toope June 2021 3 Feeling nostalgic about your days at Cambridge and want to continue your learning journey? Join our global community and explore our range of flexible, part-time courses at the Institute of Continuing Education, with a 25% fee concession for University of Cambridge Alumni. Online and in-person. www.ice.cam.ac.uk/camcard CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR GRADUATION! % 20OFF ALL BOOKS FOR CAMBRIDGE ALUMNI SIMPLY PRESENT YOUR CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY ID IN STORE EVEN IF YOU MOVE AWAY, WE’RE STILL HERE TO HELP. JUST CONTACT THE BOOKSHOP BY PHONE OR EMAIL TO PLACE YOUR ORDER AND RECEIVE YOUR DISCOUNT 1 Trinity Street, Cambridge CB2 1SZ 01223 333333 [email protected] Offer can’t be combined with other promotions Illustration by Richard Briggs CONGRATULATIONS NEWS DOUSE 360 LUCINDA BRCL/ROW ON YOUR GRADUATION! % 20OFF ALL BOOKS FOR CAMBRIDGE ALUMNI SIMPLY PRESENT YOUR CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY ID IN STORE EVEN IF YOU MOVE AWAY, WE’RE STILL HERE TO HELP. JUST CONTACT THE BOOKSHOP BY PHONE OR EMAIL TO PLACE YOUR ORDER AND RECEIVE YOUR DISCOUNT 1 Trinity Street, Cambridge CB2 1SZ 01223 333333 [email protected] Offer can’t be combined with other promotions Illustration by Richard Briggs 7 Announcing the move in his annual address to the University, Professor Stephen J Toope, Vice-Chancellor, said: “The University is responding comprehensively to a ZERO-CARBON FUTURE pressing environmental and moral need for action with an historic announcement that demonstrates our determination to seek solutions to the climate crisis. We will approach with renewed confidence our collaborations with government, industry and research partners around the world as together we work for a zero-carbon future.” Students and staff have contributed to the divestment decision by keeping the issue on The University of Cambridge aims to divest from all direct and indirect investments in the agenda over several years. fossil fuels by 2030 as part of the University’s plan to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2038, more than a decade before the date set by the UK Government. Ben Margolis, Undergraduate President of the Cambridge Students' Union, said: “This The £3.5 billion Cambridge University Endowment Fund — one of the biggest of its is a landmark decision for which students, staff and the Students' Union have been kind in Europe — intends to ramp up investments in renewable energy as it divests campaigning for years.” from fossil fuels. This package of measures backs up the University’s climate change initiative, This latest plan puts Cambridge at the head of the race to become the first university Cambridge Zero, which aims to use its world-leading teaching, research and vast endowment of its kind where greenhouse gas emissions from the activities of all network of global collaborations to influence urgently needed systemic change. investments balance out at zero. 8 a direct consequence of Albert Einstein’s NOBEL general theory of relativity.” MANN LLOYD Einstein himself did not believe that PRIZE black holes really existed. But in January 1965, ten years after Einstein’s death, Penrose proved that black holes really can form and described them in detail. Professor Sir Roger Penrose, Honorary His ground-breaking article, published in Fellow and alumnus of St John’s College, January 1965, continues to be viewed as and honorary doctor of the University, the most important contribution to the jointly won the 2020 Nobel Prize in general theory of relativity since Einstein. Physics for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the Penrose shares the 2020 Physics Nobel general theory of relativity. He is the with Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez, 110th affiliate of the University to be who developed methods to see through awarded a Nobel Prize. the huge clouds of interstellar gas and dust to the centre of the Milky Way. According to the Nobel Prize website: “Penrose used ingenious mathematical methods in his proof that black holes are Speaking ahead of the academic year, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stephen RECORD J Toope congratulated the staff and Colleges who had worked tirelessly to INTAKE ensure that every student who met their offer was able to secure a place to study at Cambridge. The collegiate University welcomed a He added, “I am also proud that we record number of new undergraduates, have the highest ever number of state with the intake more than 10% bigger school students arriving this year as well than 2019. as greater numbers from economically Almost 400 students, who met the disadvantaged backgrounds, underlying conditions of their offer following the our commitment to providing equality of issue of revised exam results based on educational opportunity.” their teacher assessed grades, were admitted. No student was required to PROFESSOR SIR ROGER PENROSE BY DAVID MONNIAUX DAVID BY PENROSE SIR ROGER PROFESSOR defer entry to 2021. 9 SEQUENCING COVID-19 The Cambridge led COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium has now sequenced over 452,000 SARS- CoV-2 viruses as of April 2021. “It’s really important to have eyes on the virus genome wherever you live, because the virus is evolving in every population all around the world,” said Professor Sharon Peacock who leads the consortium. “Genomics is an essential partner to vaccine effectiveness and where necessary, to their redesign to take account of variants of concern that avoid the immune response generated LLOYD MANN LLOYD by natural infection or vaccination.” VIRTUAL VOLUNTEERING NICK SAFFELL Students volunteering with Student Community Action The Christmas Present Campaign saw students donating (SCA) continued to support clients during the pandemic, close to 60 gifts to clients. “We felt it was really despite not being able to engage in face-to-face important for the campaign to go ahead and it’s great to activities. see that this year has been as successful as any other,” said SCA Student President Vanessa Chuang. Seventy students were matched with vulnerable adults and children as part of a new project called Anxiety SCA’s latest initiative involves volunteers celebrating Slayers. Students provided video sessions, phone calls or the birthdays or special achievements of clients by letters to help alleviate social isolation. performing a surprise song, poem or rap over a video call. At the height of the pandemic SCA was supporting 80 “This has been a difficult year for many and so treasuring individuals virtually a week. Students also delivered the highlights feels more important than ever,” said Olivia more than 100 food parcels and over 40 prescriptions Taylor, Publicity Officer for SCA. “When I look back on to vulnerable families, homeless charities and sheltered my time in Cambridge, many of the memories I will smile housing.