Michaelmas 2017 · No. 96
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE · CAMBRIDGE The Letter Michaelmas 2017 · No. 96 Cover photo: The Chapel Choir sing motets on New Court Lawn, Corpus Christi Day, June 2017. Photo: Elizabeth Abusleme. The Letter (formerly Letter of the Corpus Association) Michaelmas 2017 No. 96 Corpus Christi College Cambridge Corpus Christi College The Letter michaelmas 2017 Editors The Master Paul Davies Brian Hazleman Assisted by John Sargant Contact The Editors The Letter Corpus Christi College Cambridge cb2 1rh [email protected] Production Designed by Dale Tomlinson ([email protected]) Typeset in Arno Pro and Cronos Pro Printed by Lavenham Press, Lavenham, Suffolk on 90gsm Sovereign Silk (Forest Stewardship Council certified) The Letter on the web http://www.corpus.cam.ac.uk/about-us/publications/the-corpus-letter News and Contributions Members of the College are asked to send to the Editors any news of themselves, or of each other, to be included in The Letter, and to send prompt notification of any change in their permanent address. Cover photo: The Chapel Choir sing motets on New Court Lawn, Corpus Christi Day, June 2017. Photo: Elizabeth Abusleme. 2 michaelmas 2017 The Letter Corpus Christi College Contents The Society Page 5 Domus 8 The College Year Senior Tutor’s report 11 Leckhampton life 12 Bursary matters 13 College staff 14 The Chapel 15 Music 17 The Libraries 19 Development and Communications 20 The Chapel Choir tour to Singapore, New Zealand and Hong Kong 22 Features, addresses and a recollection The Ahmed Lecture 24 Commemoration of Benefactors Address (Alison Smith, Emma Wilson) 33 Commemoration of Benefactors Address 2015: a postscript 37 The Boutwood Lecture (Onora O’Neill) 38 John Mere Commemoration Sermon (Ian MacFarland) 42 New Court – under the grass (Peter Carolin) 49 Then and Now(Lucy Hughes) 51 The Fellowship News of Fellows 54 Visiting Fellowships 55 A Visiting Fellow discovers Biblical Treasures 56 A South Pacific scholar investigates a tranquillising beverage 57 Fellows’ publications 58 Research Associates The Research Associates programme 62 A Research Associate’s research project 63 continued on page 4 3 Corpus Christi College The Letter · Contents michaelmas 2017 Postgraduates Arthritis in a dish (Sampurna Chakrabarti) 65 Resilience to drought in East Africa (Peadar Brehony) 66 Approved for PhD 68 Prizes and Awards 69 Societies Nicholas Bacon Law Society 74 The Bene’t Club 75 Lewis Society of Medicine 76 Pelican Poets and Writers 77 The Fletcher Players 78 RAG and Charitable Fundraising 79 Gravediggers 80 Sports clubs The Corpus Challenge 81 Corpus Blues 82 Mixed Lacrosse 83 Ladies Netball 84 Squash 84 Hockey 84 MCR Football 85 Cricket 85 Swimming 86 Rowing 87 Badminton 89 Rugby 89 Alumni Letters 91 News of Alumni 93 Alumni Publications 95 Corpus Christi College Association 97 Beldam and MacCurdy Dinners 100 Dining and Guest Room Privileges 100 In Memoriam 102 4 michaelmas 2017 The Society · The Letter Corpus Christi College The Society( as on 1 November 2017) Master Mr Stuart Laing, MA MPhil Fellows Dr Christopher J B Brookes (Tutor for Advanced Students) Pure Mathematics Professor Christopher J Howe, ScD Plant and Microbial Biochemistry Professor Alison G Smith Plant Biochemistry Professor Paul C Hewett(Food and Wine Steward) Cosmology and Astrophysics Professor Nigel E Simmonds Jurisprudence Professor Mark Warner, FRS Theoretical Physics Dr Patrick NR Zutshi, FSA (Graduate Tutor) Arts and Humanities Professor Christopher M Kelly, FSA (President, Keeper of the College Pictures and Fine Furniture) Classics and Ancient History Dr David Greaves Computer Science Professor Simon Godsill (Tutor) Statistical Signal Processing Professor Emma C Wilson (Tutor) French Literature and the Visual Arts Dr Hugh P C Robinson Neuroscience Dr Paul A Kattuman Economics Dr David A Sneath (Graduate Tutor) Anthropology of Political Economy Dr Keith A Seffen Structural Mechanics Professor James A Warren (Tutor) Ancient Philosophy Ms Elizabeth Winter, MA (Development & Communications Director) Ms Sarah Cain, MPhil English Dr Michael Sutherland (Tutor for Admissions) Physics Professor Pietro Cicuta Biological Physics Dr Barak Kushner Modern Japanese History Dr Marina Frasca-Spada (Senior Tutor) Philosophy, History and Philosophy of Science Dr Shruti Kapila History Mrs Susan Ainger-Brown, FCMA (Second Bursar & College Treasurer) Dr Philip Bearcroft, FRCP, FRCR Clinical Medicine Dr John Carr (Graduate Tutor) Plant Sciences Dr Emma Spary (Tutor) History Dr Judy Hirst (Dean of College) Chemistry Dr Jonathan Morgan (Vice-President, Tutor) Law Dr Pontus Rendahl Economics Dr Ben Pilgrim Organic Chemistry Dr Sarah Bohndiek (Graduate Tutor) Physics 5 Corpus Christi College The Letter · The Society michaelmas 2017 Dr Ewan St John Smith (Tutor, Graduate Tutor) Pharmacology Dr Drew Milne (Keeper of the Lewis Collection) Poetry and Drama Dr Jo Wilmott( Tutor, Praelector Rhetoricus, Keeper of the College Plate) Classics Mr Tim Harvey-Samuel MA (Bursar) Dr Aaron Rapport Politics The Revd Dr Andrew Davison Theology Dr Alexis Joannides Clinical Neurosurgery Dr Vickie Braithwaite Biological Sciences Dr John David Rhodes (Warden of Leckhampton) Film Dr Anastasia Kisil (Sultan Qaboos Fellow) Mathematics Dr Fumiya Iida Engineering Dr Rune Damgaard Molecular Biology Mr Nicholas Danks MA Music Dr Rhiannon Harries Modern Languages Dr Felicity Hill Medieval Studies Dr Sam Behjati Medicine Dr Ioan Stefanovici (Microsoft Research Fellow) Computer Science Dr Sebastian Pike Chemistry Professor David Abrahams Mathematics Ms Anastasia Berg (Donnelley Fellow) Philosophy Mr Felix Grey (William Cook Fellow) Economics Dr Harriet Soper Economics Dr Melle Kromhout Music Life Fellows Dr Michael K Tanner The Revd Roger W Morgan Dr Peter Eggleton Dr John T Dingle, ScD Professor Nigel E Wilkins Professor Sir Hew FA Strachan, FRSE, FBA Dr Fred W Ratcliffe, CBE Professor Peter B Carolin, CBE Professor Haroon Ahmed, ScD, FREng Professor Sergio Pellegrino, FREng Professor Jean-Pierre Hansen, FRS Professor William Horbury, FBA Miss Diane Dawson, MA Dr Brian Hazleman, FRCP Professor Paul Davies Professor Sir Paul Mellars, ScD, FBA, FSA Professor John Hatcher, LittD Dr Mara I Kalnins Professor Christopher M Andrew Professor Craig D Mackay Professor Jonathan G Haslam, FBA Dr Richard A McMahon Professor Andrew C Harvey, FBA Dr Ruth Davis Dr Christopher FR de Hamel, FSA 6 michaelmas 2017 The Society · The Letter Corpus Christi College Honorary Fellows Professor Sir Tony Wrigley, DLitt, FBA Professor Haroon Ahmed, ScD, FREng The Rt Hon Sir Martin Nourse, PC Sir Peter Marshall, KCMG Lord Sutherland of Houndwood, KT, FBA, FRSE The Rt Hon Sir Murray Stuart-Smith, KCMG, PC, QC, MA Sir Richard Armstrong, CBE, FRSE Professor Sir Colin B Blakemore, ScD, FRS Sir Ronald Hampel General Lord Ramsbotham of Kensington, GCB, CBE Dr John C Taylor, OBE, FREng, FIPA Dr Richard Henderson, FRS Sir Alan Wilson, FBA, FRS Mr K Natwar Singh, MA Mr Shaharyar Khan, MA Admiral Sir James Burnell-Nugent, KCB, CBE The Rt Hon Sir Terence Etherton, PC, QC, MA Sir David Omand, GCB Professor Karol Sikora Sir Mark Elder, CBE Sir Hugh Roberts, GCVO, FSA Dame Jacqueline Wilson, DBE The Rt Hon Baroness Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, GBE, PC Professor Andrew Hopper, CBE, FRS, FREng The Rt Hon Lord Hodge, QC Guild Fellows Mr Neil Westreich, MA Mr Michael Gwinnell, MA Ms Shawn Donnelley Mr Richard Wright, MA, DL Mrs Laura Young Mr Liong Seen Kwee Mrs Wai Phin Kwee Sir Andrew Cook Kt Dr Louis Cheung Dr Hong Siau 7 Corpus Christi College The Letter · Domus michaelmas 2017 Domus We were just about to send the Letter material to the designer when news came in of the award to Dr Richard Henderson, alumnus and an Honorary Fellow of Corpus Christi, of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, jointly with Jacques Dubochet of Lausanne and Joachim Frank of Columbia University, New York. Richard Henderson is described as the father of cryo-electron microscopy, a technique for making freeze-frame images on a molecular scale. The President of the Royal Society said that not a single aspect of structural biology was untouched by the invention. Our only previous Nobel Laureate is Sir George Thomson (Master 1952–62), and we are immensely proud of Richard Henderson’s achievement, on which we congratulate him most warmly. We can note with pleasure that another Corpus Christi Fellow features indirectly in Richard Henderson’s honour: Dr Judy Hirst’s model, a multi-coloured L-shaped structure, described in an article published in Nature last year, featured in the background when the Nobel Prize announcement was made in Sweden on 4 October (https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=fuVu3elWRXc ~ 6.15 min). My first draft ofDomus was written – before the happy news above was announced – to the accompaniment of heavy machinery in the New Court as we start the Old House Project with the installation of a new electricity substation and the conversion of C staircase into a series of tutorial and social spaces for students. More about that anon... Mastership election Our main domestic news is of the election of Professor Christopher Kelly as Master of the College, to take over from me when I leave at the beginning of August next year. Christopher will be well known to many of you: he has been a Fellow of the College since 1994, with a continuous record of directing studies and supervising in Classics, has served as Senior Tutor, and is currently President. You may also have seen the statement he issued immediately after his election. I speak for all in warmly welcoming Christopher’s election, and I wish him well in what must surely be one of the best jobs in the world! I have no doubt that the College will flourish under his leadership. Now is not the time for me to indulge in retrospection, since I have very nearly a year to go, but perhaps the editor of next year’s Letter will allow me a little space for reflection.