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KING’S Summer 2013 Magazine for Members and Friends of King’s College, Cambridge PARADE celebrating 500 years of the chapel: the countdown begins a new approach to teaching the social sciences Professor Sir Geoffrey Lloyd on spending his $1 million prize KING’SWELCOME WELCOME TO THE Provosts past (and future) SUMMER EDITION As King’s prepares to welcome new Provost Michael Proctor this autumn, Librarian Peter Jones reflects on the heretics, alchemists or this issue, I spent an hour with Professor Sir Geoffrey Lloyd, who and necromancers who have held the post in times past. was recently awarded the $1m Dan David Prize for his contribution to The first two Provosts at King’s (William King William nominated Sir Isaac Newton F Millington and John Chedworth, since you as Provost in 1689. If we never had the our understanding of the modern legacy of the ancient world (see interview, pages ask) are best described as inquisitors. benefit of Newton as Provost, we ended up 4 and 5). Geoffrey’s work has always Apart from heading the College, their main as custodians of his alchemical papers, spanned a wide range of subjects, and his claim to fame is that they both tried, in thanks to Keynes’s bequest in 1946. interdisciplinary approach is increasingly the end successfully, to convict Bishop One Provost was reputed to be a being recognised as the most fruitful way Reginald Pecock of heresy. He lost his necromancer – Roger Goad. He survived to conduct research. bishopric for the crime of writing in English. forty years in office from his election in 1570 The trend can be seen, for example, In the 16th century, several Provosts despite the plots of junior Fellows to remove in the revolution in the way the social themselves were condemned as heretics. him. In the 20th century his tomb in the sciences are taught at Cambridge. From George Day, for example, was denounced Chapel was opened to reveal only a boar’s October, undergraduates on the new by the Fellows when he told them off for tusk, which certainly would have confirmed Human, Social, and Political Sciences refusing to say masses in Chapel. the Fellows in their belief in his tripos will have an opportunity to explore a John Cheke (pictured) wizardry. broader variety of topics in their first year was, by contrast, a Provosts have been (see page 10 for details). strong Protestant, obsessed with the During our conversation, Geoffrey but made the need to build, told me that as an undergraduate the mistake of from Robert greatest influence on him had been other supporting Hacomblen, undergraduates. Several members told Lady who graduate student Katie Fitzpatrick the Jane same thing when she spoke to them as Grey as part of the King’s Telephone Fundraising Queen, Campaign (TFC). Peer-to-peer learning using is one of the many great benefits of the the Cambridge supervision system, which the TFC seeks to maintain. Clare Lynch, Editor Provost’s Lodge to further the completed plot. He was the Chapel, to sent with Lady John Adams, who Jane to the Tower of narrowly escaped London, but at least he prison for debt after came out alive. spending all his income on what It was less dangerous to be a heretic became the Gibbs Building. Bernard after the 17th century, and some modern Williams used his legendary powers of Provosts have teased the faithful with persuasion to argue for a circular library impunity. Edmund Leach used radio in the Fellows Garden. Provosts of King’s broadcasts to compare Trobriand Islanders have nearly always made an impact outside to the worshippers in King’s Chapel, sharing the College as well as in, and nearly three- as they did improbable beliefs in virgin birth. quarters of them have ended up in the Some King’s Provosts have dabbled Oxford Dictionary of National Biography in the occult. John Argentein, physician (look them up!). to the Princes in the Tower and to Henry Now we welcome Michael Proctor (a King’s Parade is published by VII’s son Arthur, sought the elixir of life by Trinity man like Newton, but this time King’s College, Cambridge CB2 1ST. alchemical means – failing to do his royal elected by the Fellowship), who succeeds +44 (0)1223 331 313 patients much good, we must assume. Ross Harrison in October. We wish them [email protected] We nearly had another alchemist when both well. www.kings.cam.ac.uk Inset photograph: Plaster cast of medal showing portrait of King’s Provost John Cheke UK Registered Charity Number: 1139422 2 KING’SJRFs Flora Willson Junior Research Fellow It’s almost a truism to say nobody listens to Flora’s interests often take her outside modern opera anymore. But contemporary academia and she’s regularly invited to handwringing that new works never get give talks at venues such as the Barbican, a chance to become part of the operatic English National Opera, Glyndebourne and canon is nothing new. As musicologist Flora the Royal Opera House, and has appeared Willson argued in her PhD, 19th-century several times recently on BBC Radio 3. opera critics were just as concerned that She says: “I love having the opportunity to opera was a dead art form. communicate an academic understanding “It’s an old situation,” she says. “In the of opera to audiences who are often hugely 19th century, there was the same anxiety enthusiastic about particular works but who that audiences were only interested in going may feel they know less about the historical to see the old classics that everyone knew.” and cultural context.” Flora read music at Selwyn before She’s also working on a critical edition moving to King’s College London for her of Les Martyrs, a Parisian grand opera PhD. She’s using her JRF to examine how written by Donizetti in 1840. In 2014, the opera fits into the broader cultural history edition will be performed and recorded of the 19th-century city, focusing on (for Opera Rara) by Sir Mark Elder and the Paris and London. Flora’s work is strongly Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. interdisciplinary, so she values the lively When she’s not in the library or the opera intellectual environment at King’s. house, Flora is a keen runner and recently “My research overlaps considerably completed the Cambridge Half Marathon with other disciplines, including literary in the snow in 1 hour 33 minutes. “Having “I really value the opportunity studies and the history of technology,” grown up on the edge of the Pennines, I for exchange with academics she says. “So I really value the opportunity sometimes miss having hills around,” she for exchange with academics working on says. “But there’s no doubt that Cambridge working on related subjects from related subjects from different disciplines.” is a fantastic place for running!” different disciplines.” Mark Ainslie Junior Research Fellow Industry uses about a third of the world’s Japanese at the University of Adelaide (such electricity, around two thirds of which is joint degrees are quite common in Australia). consumed by electric motors. New JRF He says: “Languages and science use Mark Ainslie is looking at ways to make different parts of the brain and I find it such machines smaller, lighter and quite therapeutic to put aside physics and more efficient by using high-temperature equations to study Japanese.” superconducting materials. Prior to King’s, Mark spent time in industry “Superconducting materials offer zero to in Adelaide before winning a scholarship near-zero resistance to the flow of electrical from the Japanese government to do a current when cooled below a particular Masters in Engineering at Tokyo University. cryogenic temperature,” he says. “And they He says the experience gave him a good feel can carry much higher current densities for industry’s concerns, but the course gave than conventional materials.” him a taste for academia that convinced him An Australian, Mark did his PhD at King’s his interests lay in research and teaching. under Tim Flack and decided to remain at Mark plans to take a research trip to “Everyone’s an equal here, the College for his JRF because he likes its Japan in the next year, to meet up with old and although we’re all serious sense of community. colleagues doing similar research to his “Everyone’s an equal here,” he says. own and foster new collaborative links. academics, it’s quite laid back, “And although we’re all serious academics, “The field of applied superconductivity which suits my personality and it’s quite laid back, which suits my is highly multi-disciplinary,” he says. “One cultural upbringing.” personality and cultural upbringing.” As an of the advantages of academic life is the undergraduate, Mark combined an Electrical ability to collaborate and travel to other Photograph by Briony Whitehouse & Electronics Engineering degree with a BA in labs all over the world.” 3 KING’SRESEARCH Comparative Importance Eighty this year, Honorary King’s Fellow Professor Sir Geoffrey Lloyd has just won the Dan David prize for his wide-ranging scholarship. Here, he reflects on the importance of King’s in his intellectual development – and reveals what he plans to do with the money. By Clare Lynch “I was at a ingsman Geoffrey Lloyd is “gobsmacked”. think to be rather important to the world in which we live.” He’s just been awarded the 2013 Dan David So the kinds of questions Geoffrey has been wrestling very philistine award, which comes with $1m prize with in recent years include: how did academic public school, money.