ISSUE NO.17 april 2011 Floreat Domus BALLIOL COLLEGE NEWS Special Feature: More than money Three Balliol Old Members talk about aid work People-powered politics Master on the move Stop Press: Election of New Master Balliol College is very pleased to announce that it has offered Contents the Mastership of the College Welcome to the 2011 to Professor Sir Drummond Bone (1968), MA DLitt DUniv edition of Floreat Domus. (Glas) FRSE FRSA, and he has accepted. The formal election will be in Trinity Term. contents page 28 Putting Margate Professor Bone will take up the back on the map post this October. For more page 1 College news The new Turner Contemporary information, go to www.balliol. page 6 Women at Balliol gallery, involving three Old Members ox.ac.uk/news/2011/march/ election-of-new-master page 8 College success page 30 In the dark without page 9 Student news nuclear power? Roger Cashmore and David Lucas page 10 Student success discuss the future of nuclear power Special feature Page 20–23 Page 39 A map of the heart page 12 page 32 Great adventurers 50th anniversary of Denis Noble’s The amazing trips made by Sir ground-breaking paper Adam Roberts and Anthony Smith Talking science page 13 page 33 Bookshelf in the centre of Oxford A selection of books published page 14 The Oxford by Balliol Old Members Student Consultancy page 34 Master on the move: page 15 The Oxford conversations around the world Microfinance Initiative Andrew and Peggotty Graham talk about their round-the-world trip Features Development news page 16 People-powered politics page 36 Balliol’s 750th Sophie Petrou talks to Ricken Patel, anniversary – securing Executive Director of Avaaz Balliol’s future An interview page 37 Strong support for page 18 Page 12 Pages 34–35 with Hugo Dixon Balliol’s Annual Fund in 2010 Jack Moreton Burt interviews Hugo page 38 Re-launch of Alumni Dixon, founder of Breakingviews and Friends website and the new Alumni Network page 20 Special feature: More than money page 39 Balliol’s Historic Three Balliol Old Members talk Collections Centre about their careers in aid work page 40 The William Westerman page 24 Plain living and Pathfinders Programme high thinking page 40 Imaginative bursaries Owain Williams celebrates 100 help students at Balliol years of the Chalet des Anglais page 41 The Rogers family page 26 Documentary and Balliol College Boat Club makers of Balliol Rebecca Whiteley discusses page 42 Benefactors to Balliol influential documentaries as a departure from the norm, owing to the fact Publication details Editorial that it’s our current master’s last year, the first two pages have been handed over to him. then, as usual, there is my name is sophie petrou and i’m the new editor of a wealth of impressive achievements, exciting projects Editor: Sophie Petrou, Publications Floreat Domus. i joined the staff at balliol in september and interesting developments at balliol for you to read & Web Officer 2010 as publications and web officer. prior to this i about in this issue. articles include a follow-up to the Design: Richard Boxall Design Associates worked in a variety of publishing roles including writing Print: Hunts thirtieth anniversary of women at balliol (page 6); and editing graduate careers magazines; designing and Editorial advisory board: Nicola Trott, an interview with Hugo dixon (1984), former editor editing marketing magazines and journals; writing web Seamus Perry, Adam Swift of the Financial Times and founder of breakingviews content and editing interactive dVds for the dfe. i’m (page 18); and a four-page special feature by three old very happy to be working at beautiful balliol – i hope to members in the field of aid work (page 20). Contact details refresh and update the publications where i can but also Floreat Domus (just like the college’s Annual to continue to deliver the best and most interesting news Record) relies on news from both current and old from the college and its members. Balliol College, members, so please do send me anything you feel i am grateful to staff and fellows (dr nicola trott in Broad Street, would be of interest or make a good article: i would Oxford OX1 3BJ particular) for alerting me to news and potential stories love to hear from you. please also send me your for this edition and to the old members who have Telephone: +44(0)1865 277768 thoughts about the magazine – topics discussed or contributed pieces. it was also great to discover talented Email: [email protected] those you would like to see in future issues. i hope you and reliable students who were keen to write articles and Website: www.balliol.ox.ac.uk enjoy this issue. to find that the pieces submitted were lively and, without Cover picture: exception, well written. Sophie Petrou, Editor The Hall in early spring by Sophie Petrou floreat domus balliol college news college news single good quality hardback (with in the case of balliol, at least, some pretty drastic and, for many, i am sure we should warmly From the unwelcome effects on bookshops). welcome it. the evidence is that, these ‘tablets’ are already video as institutions become more recorders and real-time data permeable and so more open to Master manipulators, while also being the scrutiny, those that perform best devices on which to consume or to will be those where the external produce films, lectures, webcasts and face and the internal discussion By Andrew GrAhAm books and then multicast to all-and- hold together. two recent books, sundry or selectively. no one knows How by dov seidman and High Sadly for me, this is the last Floreat issue of my exactly where this will take us, but Performance with High Integrity by Mastership. I will write more in the Annual Record. i can see at least one direction, ben Heineman (both are balliol For now, what I want to say first and foremost is how already manifest, that i believe is alumni) describe precisely this likely to continue. point. most of the time, balliol’s greatly I have enjoyed being Master. Often demanding, the new communication is internal processes and workings are occasionally stressful, but frequently enormous fun: cheap, easy, reaches anyone consistent with the high principles above all, it has always, always, been stimulating and anywhere, decentralised and hugely to which we aspire and the external interesting. Indeed, one of the greatest pleasures for difficult to control. these factors image we project, so we can only me and for Peggotty has been getting to know so many make all organisations far more gain from being more open. and, if permeable. the impact of wikileaks our procedures do not display high of you so much better, and, as described in ‘Master on on the formerly secret world of standards, they ought to and we the move’ (page 34), we have been spending much of diplomacy is the most dramatic should change them! this term doing precisely this. current example. being inevitable permeability, in the sense of does not, of course, make it desirable. linking balliol more closely with no doubt you will be expecting me at minimum, even the supposedly its old members, is also clearly to say something about tuition fees inevitable change can be slowed beneficial. You want to know what and i do so below. However, what down (or speeded up). decisions we are doing; we want to tell you is most on my mind is how much remain to be taken. given this, what and the new technology is making our communication with you has The Master in his study do we think about permeability? this ever easier. changed and, very probably, will go on changing, and some of the implications of this for balliol. The College and its Alumni when, in 1997/98, i first became responsible for balliol, email traffic was still in its infancy. podcasts, blogs and tweets were not even words, social networks had nothing to do with technology, and no college business was ever conducted electronically. today we have email newsletters, webcasts, and our own online alumni social network (see page 38), not to mention the constant refreshing of the website. furthermore, balliol has been well to the fore in many of these newer communication changes. the oxford internet institute (the first multi-disciplinary research institute in the world looking at the social implications of the internet) largely came into being through my efforts and those of the then president of the MCR. Voices from oxford, an organisation that specialises in high-quality webcasts from oxford university, is a balliol creation – from which i now do my termly webcast of balliol news; plinkart (a mobile phone application for identifying paintings) is the first ever uK company to be purchased by google. it was set up by two oxford graduate students, one of whom was from … yes, you’ve guessed it … balliol. there is plenty to come. soon an ipad (or its successor), providing access to all the books and libraries in the world, will sell for less than a issue no.17 a p r i l 2 0 1 1 1 college news two recent initiatives illustrate what i mean. one is our online alumni network. if you have not yet signed up, please do so (www.balliolnetwork. com). the other is the creation of the balliol interdisciplinary institute, the BII (www.balliol.ox.ac.uk/BII). as well as doing what it says on the tin (encouraging current members of balliol to work on projects that bring together different disciplines), we hope that our alumni will be able to keep informed about BII activities and, if they wish, to participate in and contribute to some of the discussions.