The Queen's College Newsletter: Trinity Term 2019

THE QUEEN’S COLLEGE
www.queens.ox.ac.uk
News from our students
News from Old Members
New Choir CD
Fellow in Music and Organist Professor
Owen Rees leads early-music consort
Contrapunctus alongside the Choir
in performances of John Taverner’s
masterwork, the Missa Gloria tibi trinitas.
A virtuosic work, it has pride of place in the Forrest-Heyther
partbooks (in the Bodleian Library), and might well have been
heard on Trinity Sunday in the chapel of Cardinal Thomas
Wolsey’s palace at Hampton Court.
Classical Source said: ‘Particularly impressive is the integration
of a warmly blended Queen’s College tone with the brightly
focused voices of Contrapunctus. The students sound every
bit as accomplished as their professional counterparts and
the sopranos are having the time of their lives in the rousing
final sections of the ‘Gloria’ and the ‘Credo’ where Taverner’s
contrapuntal skill is at its most thrilling.’
The CD is available here: http://hyperurl.co/GloriaTibiTrinitas.
Teacher wins award after being
nominated by Queen’s student
Callum Wardle, a first-year student at Queen’s, nominated
his school teacher, Robert Fisher of Blackpool Sixth-Form,
for an Oxford University Inspirational Teachers Award.
Robert is one of 10 winners who received an award this
year.
The Inspirational Teachers Awards are a way of recognising
the importance of school or college teachers in encouraging
talented students to realise their potential and make a
successful application to Oxford. Each year current first-year
Oxford undergraduates from UK state schools or colleges
with a limited history of sending students to Oxford are
asked if they would like to nominate an inspirational teacher.
As part of his nomination Callum wrote:
‘Rob is really the driving force behind
my application to Oxford. If it
weren’t for him, I would never have
realised I had what it takes to
achieve as highly as I have
and wouldn’t have pushed
myself to do so.’
The Spectacle of Illusion
Old Member Dr Matthew Tompkins
(Psychology, 2011) is a professional
magician-turned-psychologist. His new
book The Spectacle of Illusion (Thames &
Hudson) has been published in partnership
with the Wellcome Trust. Its release
coincides with the Wellcome Collection’s
free exhibition ‘Smoke and Mirrors’.
The Spectacle of Illusion is written for
general audiences on the topic of historical and contemporary
relationships between magicians, scientists, and fraudulent
mystics. It features stories of ghost-rapping, mind-reading,
lethal autopsies, full-body-cavity ghost hunts, death-defying
stunts, and death … obeying (?) stunts (that is to say, stunts
where the performers accidentally died). This is a selectively
honest account of lies about the truth about lies, with lots of
weird pictures.
In 2016 Matthew led a study that examined the psychology of
magic: could magicians’ misdirection techniques be used to
make us ‘see’ something that was never there? Read more here:
www.ox.ac.uk/news/2016-08-09-psychologists-magic-makesnon-existent-object-disappear.
Lifetime achievement award
Professor Victor Hoffbrand (Medicine, 1953) has received
the Wallace H. Coulter Award for Lifetime Achievement in
Hematology from the American
Society of Hematology.
Professor Hoffbrand, who
receives the award for his
significant contributions to
haematology in research, patient
care, and education throughout
his 55-year career, said:
‘I am extremely honoured
to receive the Wallace H. Coulter Award for Lifetime
Achievement in Hematology, and I am humbled when I
see the list of the distinguished previous award-winners.
I am particularly delighted to receive an award named
after Wallace Coulter, since it was the ability to count
blood cells that first attracted me to haematology as a
scientific discipline.’
Current student elected President
of the Oxford Student Union
Anisha Faruk (History, 2016) has been elected as President
of Oxford University’s Student Union (OUSU). She has
previously served as the co-chair of the Oxford University
Labour Club and has been the editor-in-chief of the
University’s student newspaper The Oxford Student.
Anisha said: ‘It’s an honour to have been elected to
President of the Student Union. The support I’ve received
from Queen’s students has been amazing. I’m especially
grateful to the current and former members of the JCR
committee that gave me advice and helped to inform my
manifesto. I’m really looking forward to implementing my
policies and providing a voice for the student body.’
Established in 1961 as the Oxford University Student
Representative Council, OUSU aims to facilitate
communication between students and University
officials, as well as between students, local councils,
and the government.
More information about
this year’s winning
teachers and their
students is available
at www.ox.ac.uk/
inspirationalteachers.
Photo © Edmund Blok
Medical School
prize for medic’s
outstanding
progress
Clinical Medical student
Isabella Watts has been
awarded a Hobson Mann Lovel
Scholarship for outstanding
progress on the clinical medical
(Second BM) course.
Izzy said: ‘I feel very lucky to have been supported so well by
my College tutors throughout my degree. They have helped
me hugely with both the bedside and bookwork aspects of my
medical course, both of which are recognised in this prize.’
Hall of Fame
Claire Taylor (Mathematics,
1994) has been inducted
into the International Cricket
Council (ICC) Hall of Fame. She
is the seventh woman overall
and the third female player
from England to be named in
the list.
She said: ‘It’s a great honour
to be inducted into the ICC
Hall of Fame alongside some
of the greatest names of the
men’s and women’s game from
across the world and throughout the generations - players who I
looked up to during my playing career and hold in great esteem.’
Taylor, who scored 1,030 runs in 15 Tests, 4,101 runs in 126
ODIs and 615 runs in 21 T20Is, was named the ICC Women’s
Cricketer of the Year in 2009. She was named the player of the
tournament in the ICC Women’s World Cup 2009 and in the ICC
Women’s World Twenty20 2009. She ended her career with an
average of more than 40 in both Tests and ODIs. She is featured
in the College’s Shining a Light exhibition.
Photo © John Pheasant
High point for Old Member
At 4.25 am on the morning of 18 May 2018 Fergus
McDonald (Mathematics, 1983) summited Mount Everest
(8,848 m) from the Nepalese side. He was accompanied by
climbing sherpa Shebbi. They were fortunate to be alone at
the top for 45 minutes, save for two climbers who arrived
from the Chinese side of the mountain, which gave them
a remarkable opportunity to enjoy the extraordinary view
before beginning their descent.
Fergus said: ‘This was both literally and figuratively the
high point after many years of climbing mountains. It was
certainly challenging but the experience of climbing on and
around the mountain for a month before finally reaching the
top was incredible and unforgettable.’
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