EVENTS AND REUNIONS FOR 2 018 /19 ISSUE 18 MICHAELMAS 2018 GONVILLE & CAIUS COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE Installation of the New Master (Fellows only) . Monday 1 October Michaelmas Full Term begins . Tuesday 2 October Commemoration of Benefactors Lecture, Service & Feast . Sunday 18 November First Christmas Carol Service (6pm) . Wednesday 28 November Second Christmas Carol Service (4.30pm) . Thursday 29 November Michaelmas Full Term ends . Friday 30 November Varsity Rugby Match . Thursday 6 December Caius Choir Alumni Christmas Carols at St George’s Church, Hanover Square, London . Thursday 6 December Lent Full Term begins . Tuesday 15 January Development Campaign Board Meeting . Thursday 26 February Second Year Parents’ Hall . Thursday 14 & Friday 15 March Lent Full Term ends . Friday 15 March Telephone Campaign begins . Saturday 16 March MAs’ Dinner . Friday 22 March Annual Gathering (1990, 1991 & 1992) . Saturday 6 April Master’s Visit to New York . Monday 8 – Friday 12 April Easter Full Term begins . Tuesday 23 April Stephen Hawking Circle Dinner . Saturday 11 May Easter Full Term ends . Friday 14 June May Week Party for Benefactors . Saturday 15 June Caius Club May Bumps Event . Saturday 15 June Graduation Lunch . Thursday 27 June Admissions Open Days . Thursday 4 & Friday 5 July Annual Gathering (1996, 1997 & 1998) . Saturday 6 July Alumni Weekend . Friday 20 – Sunday 22 September Admissions Open Day . Saturday 21 September Michaelmas Full Term begins . Tuesday 1 October ...always aCaian Remembering Stephen Hawking Passing the Caduceus Editor: Mick Le Moignan Reassessing John Caius Editorial Board: James Howell, Dr Anne Lyon, Dr Jimmy Altham, Victoria Thompson Design: Derrin Mappledoram and William Harvey Artwork and production: Cambridge Marketing Limited Women only to Antarctica Gonville & Caius College Trinity Street Cambridge CB2 1TA United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)1223 3396 76 Email: [email protected] www.cai.cam.ac.u k/alumni Registered Charity No. 1137536 ...Always a Caian 1 D a n W From the Director of Development h i t e It’s my pleasure to welcome you to this, the eighteenth edition of Once a Caia n... , in which we mourn the loss of our best-known Fellow, probably the most famous scientist in the world, and mark with gratitude the retirement of our Master and Senior Bursar. Earlier this academic year we also lost Professor Roger Carpenter (197 3). At Roger’s memorial service in June, the President read from one of John Donne’s Devotions upon Emergent Occasions , ‘No man is an islan d... ’. Conten ts D D D a a a n n The College is diminished by such losses, but it continues, now for 670 years. n W W W h h h i i i t t t e e Individuals are shaped by it and play their part in shaping it for a year or three – e or, like our Senior Fellow, Michael Prichard, for almost 70 years. Caius is so much 2 4 8 greater than the sum of its parts because we all remain part of it for the rest of our lives. Once a Caia n... ... always a Caian. The College’s continuity is re flected in our mutual sense of belonging. The main themes of this issue are history and travel. We reappraise the achievements of John Caius (152 9) and William Harvey (159 3); we learn about a Roman theatre and sundial unearthed by our DoS in Classics, Alessandro Launaro (2013); we hear the story of the meeting our man at the UN, Francis Vendrell © H S (1964) had with the fearsome founder of the Taliban in Afghanistan. I report on i o r R m C o a y e m a w l some continuing responsibilities of the College which date back to medieval times. a C r d o l B l e o g u e n o d f S We hear from two young scientists who have been on a life-changing voyage to u r 1122 g 18 20 e o n s Antarctica and we celebrate the rare award of the Pushkin Medal to Professor Polly o f E n g Blakesley, for arranging a rich cultural exchange with Russia. We congratulate l a n d Duncan Maskell (197 9) on his appointment as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne. Closer to home, we marvel at the spectacular winter light show, e-luminate Cambridge , curated by James Fox (2010) and we unveil a multi-million pound plan to equip the College with brand new kitchens fit for the 21st century. About the time you receive this issue, Caius will install Dr Pippa Rogerson as the College’s 43rd Master, the first woman ever to hold the position, only 40 years after 2 A Universal Superhero – remembering Professor Stephen Hawking David Howell Jones (1957), who retires the first admission of women as students and Fellows. Pippa inherits a College that 4 Passing the Caduceus – the Master and Senior Bursar re flect on the past this year as President six years of the Caius Club, at is stronger and surer than ever about its purpose and values – and deeply grateful the Caius Club event for the loyal and generous support it receives from Caians all around the world. 6 Windows of Opportunity – our man at the UN: Francis Vendrell on the last day 8 Si Monumentum Requiri s... Michael Prichard’s magnum opus on Caius of the May Bumps, leaving 12 Heartbeat – one of our first and greatest scientific researchers: William Harvey no room for doubt about 14 A New Challenge – Duncan Maskell leaves Cambridge for Melbourne which College 16 Classics for a New Age: Alessandro Launaro digs Ancient History he supports 18 Cambridge e-luminated – by James Fox, a man of many colours James Howell (200 9) 20 Why Antarctica? Two Caians on a unique leadership programme Director of Development 22 To Russia with Love – Rosalind Polly Blakesley wins the Pushkin Medal 24 Kitchen Refurbishment – a vital undertaking for the College “Your gift to Caius also counts towards the 26 Thanks to our Benefactors Dear Worl d... Yours, Cambridge Campaign” 34 CaiNotes 36 Advowsons and Livings – James Howell revisits some of the College’s historic responsibilities Cover photos by Alessandro Launaro, Sir Cam, Maddie Mitchell and James Howell e it h W n a D 2 Once a Caian... ...Always a Caian 3 L u c the nature of black holes, those forbidding y To the world at large, W a prisons which were once supposed to be so r d Stephen Hawking (196 5) deep and dense that no matter, nor even was a legend, an light, could ever escape from them. Lecturing to alumni in Cambridge, thirty years ago, inspiration and the Stephen wondered fancifully if black holes most celebrated might be a gateway to another universe, but then he found a chink in their armour: since scientist of our they emit radiation (now fittingly known as age, who defied Hawking Radiation) he showed that even black holes must inevitably shrink and fade medical science to away in the course of time. As his student fulfil his own destiny. and friend, Professor Fay Dowker, pointed out, in an eloquent tribute at his funeral in To Caians, he was also Cambridge, ‘This brilliant, creative, transformative discovery means that black w the most loved and w w holes – objects made of pure spacetime – . g o z e obey the same laws of thermodynamics treasured member of our r o g The Dean, the Revd. Dr Cally Hammond (2005) leads the procession into Great St Mary’s Church, followed . c that govern chemical reactions and steam o m by six Caius Porters carrying Stephen’s coffin College family. engines’. Time was a constant fascination for Royal Society, to call for urgent action on Notwithstanding his public persona and ost of us need pen and Stephen. In 1963, when he was 21, the climate change, which he saw as the most the statesmanlike support he gave to serious paper or a calculator doctors who first diagnosed his amyotrophic serious threat to our planet and human causes, Stephen was also a family man and to solve any but the lateral sclerosis (or Lou Gehrig’s disease), existence. dedicated to his children and grandchildren. simplest mathematical gave him two years to live. Stephen added 53 Space travel was another fascination. The exceptional stresses he endured would problems. Stephen had years to that estimate – the exact span of his He believed humanity must establish have tested any marriage and his story was Mto carry out incredibly complex calculations Fellowship at Caius. Time was also the subject settlements on other planets – and eagerly sympathetically told in the feature film in his head. His imagination admitted no of his best-selling book, A Brief History of accepted an invitation to experience The Theory of Everything , starring Eddie limits, reaching out to the edges of the Time, which he described as ‘probably the weightlessness in person, on a space travel Redmayne and based on Jane Hawking’s universe and back to the beginning of time. least-read, most-bought book ever’. training course in the USA. For that, he even memoir. After his death, his children chose His disability was a savage personal tragedy, He was generous with his own time, missed the official opening of the Stephen to remember one of his gentler re flections: but it seemed to open windows to other, always ready to encourage anyone else who Hawking Building at Caius by the University’s ‘It would not be much of a universe if it compensatory abilities, denied to lesser had been stricken by a disability. Indeed, he Chancellor, Prince Philip – but filmed a wasn’t home to the people you love’.