2011 Hertford College Magazine (Issue 91)

The Middle Common Room
President: J. Rubén Gómez Castellanos
Secretary: Andrew Tickell
Treasurer: Geoffrey Nelson
J. Rubén Gómez Castellanos
The new academic year commenced
with the Freshers’ Fortnight, which
saw the new members of the MCR, over
ninety of them this year, welcomed into
Oxford and Hertford. The events prepared
to help Freshers integrate into their new
community included guided tours of College,
dinner at Hall, President’s drinks in
our fine MCR, the Octagon, and on this
occasion a Wine and Cheese Evening
that was made peculiar by the shooting
in our premises of the sci-fi film X-Men:
First Class. Two further events deserve a
special mention, the Jazz and Cocktails
Night and, of course, the Matriculation
Ball in Hall. Being a Fresher myself two
years ago, I admit that Freshers’ Fortnight
will be a part of anyone’s stay in Hertford
that will be remembered most fondly,
and my thanks go to all the members
of the MCR that made it possible, especially
to Geoff Nelson, Andrew Tickell,
Edwin Simpson, Daniel D. Jordan, Mark
Larsen, Hannah Boulding and all members
that took time from their schedules
to make us all feel welcomed and at home.
The social and cultural scene of Col-
HERTFORD COLLEGE MAGAZINE
Hertford year: MCR
lege was greatly enriched thanks to the
many activities that took place both in the
MCR in the main college site as well as in
the Common Room of the Graduate Centre.
In the latter premises, Friday nights
in Trinity Term were made more enjoyable
thanks to our Arts Rep, Ivo Gruev,
whose efforts brought us back the Movie
Nights. In Catte Street, the Octagon
was host to some of the most important
events of the year, including Waugh Night,
Burns’ Night and the Exchange Dinners
with some of our fellow colleges, including
Christ Church, Keble, St. Antony’s,
Lady Margaret Hall, St. Peter’s, Wadham,
St. Cross, Oriel, Brasenose and a first this
year Fitzwilliam College (Cantab). And
the academics of the MCR were no less developed
thanks to the Academic Soirées of
this year, flawlessly organized by our Academic
Affairs Rep Matthew Powell. Michaelmas
Term hosted Tom Brodie, DPhil
in History and Senior Scholar, speaking
on ‘The Catholic Church and Nazism’;
Hilary Term saw another of our Senior
Scholars, Charles Copley, DPhil in Astrophysics,
on Big Science (the importance of
large scale scientific projects in the economic
development of countries); Trinity
Term brought us Prof. Robert Miller on
‘Developing a Clinical Research Program
in Hadron Therapy at the Mayo Clinic’.
Academically, the MCR can be proud to
host some of the most promising researchers
of the future. We have been happy to
see many DPhil and Master degrees completed
and our old friends moving on to positions
around the world, like Dr Eleftheria
Pappa, DPhil in Classical Archaeology,
awarded a Veni subsidy by the Netherlands
Organisation for Scientific Research
to conduct postdoctoral studies at the University
of Amsterdam, and Dr Cristopher
Ballinas Valdés, DPhil in Politics, now at
the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de
53.