Wolfson College Record 2021

introduction
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Goodman have all left the Governing Body this year. All deserve much longer
tributes than I am able to offer here. But I am delighted that we have been able to
welcome Julie Cosmidis, Associate Professor of Geobiology, as a new Governing
Body Fellow this last academic year.
We are also pleased to welcome three new Supernumerary Fellows, as we
strengthen our Medical Sciences representation: Steve Gwilym, David Keene, and
Andrew Titchener.
This may also be a moment to express the College’s support and thanks to all
our Fellows in the Medical Sciences, who have played an extraordinary role in the
University’s and country’s approach to the pandemic. Some have been actively
involved in vaccine research; others in the psychological consequences of the
Covid lockdown; others have been working in hospitals, their lives and energy
levels affected deeply by the significant number of hospitalisations. A number were
involved in October in a filmed conversation at College, taking questions from our
community. Others not strictly in the Medical Sciences Division have been playing
an important role. We thank them all.
Other Fellows who deserve special tributes this year include Bettina Lange,
Governing Body Fellow and elected on 17 March as the University Assessor, a role
similar to the Proctors but focussed in particular on issues of welfare and mental
health. It’s an honour for the College that she has been elected to this post, which
she’ll hold for this year.
It would be wrong to end this passage without warm congratulations to Professor
Tony Epstein, Honorary Fellow, regular in the Hall in normal times. Tony marked
his hundredth birthday this year on 18 May with an event in the College garden,
and tributes from his many friends. He continues to be full of life and always
forward-looking. What an admirable philosophy.
This is normally the time of year to sing the praises of Wolfson’s sporting
prowess. For obvious reasons there has been less activity this year – very
much less – than normal. So I would just like to thank those who have kept the
spirit of competition alive in College, with lockdown activity logs and prizes,
the enthusiasm to bring gym equipment out again each time the rules allowed,
and to get people onto the punts and into the sports fields when the gaps in
the regulatory clouds emerged. The sporting stars of this year have to be our
women’s rowing teams, who emerged from the restrictions and played a blinder
at the Summer Eights in Trinity Term. They all did very well, but the Women’s
First Team were exceptional, bumping every day until the last, when they
bumped Hertford and became Head of the River. This means that they hold
college record 2021