Plans & Prospects 2023
Plans & Prospects is the annual magazine for alumni and friends of Wolfson College at the University of Oxford. We hope that you enjoy reading about life here at Wolfson, and welcome your feedback or article suggestions for next year's issue.
Plans & Prospects is the annual magazine for alumni and friends of Wolfson College at the University of Oxford. We hope that you enjoy reading about life here at Wolfson, and welcome your feedback or article suggestions for next year's issue.
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PLANS & PROSPECTS <strong>2023</strong><br />
WORLD-CHANGING RESEARCH • STUDENT ACHIEVEMENTS • ALUMNI REFLECTIONS<br />
1
Summer <strong>2023</strong><br />
Contents<br />
12<br />
14<br />
16<br />
20<br />
22<br />
The healing power of movement<br />
Brennan Delattre, DPhil Psychiatry<br />
On the road<br />
Pedr Charlesworth, DPhil Materials Science<br />
Quantum entanglement and reality<br />
Dr Vlatko Vedral<br />
Curiosity and risk<br />
Dr Katya Kovalchuk<br />
A global citizen<br />
Dr Mootaz Salman<br />
College news 4-7<br />
Student profiles 12-15<br />
Wolfson London Lecture 16-19<br />
Fellow profiles 20-24<br />
Development report 26-27<br />
Financial report 28-29<br />
Huw David<br />
Development<br />
Director<br />
Alex Fels<br />
Development<br />
Officer<br />
George Mather<br />
Communications<br />
Officer<br />
Judith Palmer<br />
Communications<br />
Assistant<br />
All information is believed to be correct at the time of publication (July <strong>2023</strong>). Every effort has<br />
been made to verify details and no responsibility is taken for any errors or omissions, or any<br />
loss arising therefrom.<br />
Unless otherwise stated all images © Wolfson College, University of Oxford. Every effort has<br />
been made to locate the copyright owners of images included in this record and to meet their<br />
requirements. The publishers apologise for any omissions, which they will be pleased to rectify<br />
at the earliest opportunity. Compiled by George Mather, Femke Gow, Judith Palmer, and Huw<br />
David. Cover photo by John Cairns. Printed by Seacourt Printers, a beyond carbon neutral<br />
printer that uses no water or VOC contaminants and produces no landfill waste.<br />
Many thanks to all of our members who have contributed to our publications.<br />
Published by Wolfson College<br />
© <strong>2023</strong> Wolfson College<br />
Wolfson College, Linton Road<br />
Oxford OX2 6UD<br />
Telephone: +44 (0)1865 274 100<br />
digicomms@wolfson.ox.ac.uk<br />
www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk<br />
2
Credit: John Cairns<br />
Welcome<br />
Sir Tim Hitchens<br />
President<br />
It’s always important to remember that the heart of the Wolfson community is the sheer variety of extraordinary<br />
people who emerge from here. Three alumni come to mind in particular, each so different, working in such varied<br />
fields; but equally fascinating and compelling.<br />
Karim Khan was a DPhil candidate at Wolfson; he left to serve on a number of international tribunals and was last<br />
year appointed as the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. This year, on 22nd February, he issued a<br />
warrant for the arrest of Vladimir Putin on charges of the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.<br />
Tim Palmer completed his Oxford DPhil on General Relativity from Wolfson in 1977. He shifted from outer space to<br />
inner space, building weather prediction models (he is responsible for the modern weather forecasts by percentage<br />
likelihood of rain) as well as key climate change models. This year he received the highest accolade from the Royal<br />
Astronomical Society, its Gold Medal; he lectured back at Wolfson this summer.<br />
Sara Paretsky was a Visiting Scholar at Wolfson in 1997. She is one of America’s leading crime writers, having<br />
published twenty-one novels in the V. I. Warshawski series set in her home city of Chicago. “VI” is a hard-boiled<br />
Chicago woman fighting both crime and social injustice. I was lucky enough to meet Sara while in Chicago this Easter,<br />
having just finished reading her latest novel (Overboard, told against the backdrop of the windy city emerging from its<br />
pandemic lockdown).<br />
One of the great pleasures of my job is to meet those who started here and became eminent. Another is to know<br />
those who are setting off from here now, and who look set to change the world. How do we help them reach their<br />
potential?<br />
First, we continue to search for scholarships to ensure that all those who are qualified to study at Wolfson can find<br />
the funding to do so. Too often outstanding individuals have to go elsewhere or cannot take up the offer of a place<br />
because of financial constraints. Second, we know that the experience of a new student, especially one arriving in<br />
the UK for the first time, is significantly enhanced by living in college in their first year. We have 300 or so rooms on<br />
offer, but that still means we can’t give a room to every new arrival. I want to redress that, and we have just received<br />
permission to construct a new Garden Building with fifty new bedrooms on what is now the South Car Park.<br />
And third, the pandemic has taught us that physical and mental wellbeing are critical to resilience and success at<br />
Oxford. We offer a great community, wonderful grounds, a talented welfare team, and a small and dated gym. We<br />
want to supplement that with an outstanding wellbeing centre and designs for that – to be built around the current<br />
squash courts and next to our playing fields – are currently with the planning authorities. Again, more on that in due<br />
course.<br />
Balancing an intellectual environment, a built environment, and a social environment: that’s the way to support our<br />
extraordinary students and help them go out and change the world - just as Karim, Tim and Sara have done. Thank<br />
you for being part of that process.<br />
3
College News<br />
Above: Hallucinations by Amaia Salazar Rodriguez<br />
Wolfson’s first Arts Prize winners announced<br />
Congratulations to the top three winners<br />
of Wolfson’s first Arts Prize, whose<br />
artwork will now be displayed around<br />
college. The competition opened in<br />
April and invited visual art entries from<br />
members of the Wolfson community<br />
in the form of painting, drawing,<br />
photography, textiles, sculpture and even<br />
experimental film. The entries were<br />
judged by a panel of experts from our<br />
artistic community.<br />
New & reinstated research clusters<br />
Law in Societies<br />
A new permanent interdisciplinary<br />
Research Cluster, ‘Law in Societies’, was<br />
established at Wolfson in 2022 with the<br />
aim of bringing together scholars with<br />
an interest in the rules, both formal<br />
and informal, by which social order<br />
has been organised in different times<br />
and in different cultures. Reflecting<br />
on the most pressing contemporary<br />
issues, the cluster will facilitate the<br />
exchange of legal and social science<br />
expertise to tackle questions of human<br />
rights and international law in military<br />
engagements, regulation and governance<br />
of environmental resources, access to<br />
justice and informal means of problem<br />
solving, the emerging culture of<br />
transnational laws and the regulation of<br />
the digital domain, and other aspects of<br />
the law.<br />
4<br />
The first prize was given to Hallucinations<br />
by Amaia Salazar Rodriguez, second to<br />
Barbara Harriss-White for Ypres-Reims-<br />
Raqqa-fascist-Toledo and third to Jean<br />
Kearney for Exploring the borders.<br />
Among those highly commended were<br />
Harram Khurram, Kathrin Fischer,<br />
Catherine Hauk, Rebecca Gowers,<br />
Clara Tuffrey and Martino Bardelli. The<br />
youngest artist, Demara Skach Groiser<br />
(age 6), received a special mention.<br />
Mind, Brain and Behaviour<br />
Reinstated in January <strong>2023</strong>, the Mind,<br />
Brain and Behaviour Cluster will once<br />
again provide a platform for members<br />
of the college community interested in<br />
the mind and brain and their interactions<br />
with the body and environment, drawing<br />
on the expertise of scholars across<br />
neuroscience, neurology, psychology,<br />
ethology, zoology, pharmacology, and<br />
psychiatry.<br />
Its work will mainly centre on ‘mutual<br />
tutorials’, where two experts from<br />
different backgrounds explain their<br />
research to each other in front of other<br />
cluster members. The goal is for each<br />
expert to communicate the interest<br />
of their research to the other, so<br />
cluster members can forge connections<br />
between the various strands of research<br />
conducted by members of the college.<br />
New Fellowships in<br />
2022/23<br />
Professor Nobuko Yoshida<br />
Governing Body Fellow<br />
Christopher Strachey Chair of Computer<br />
Science at the University of Oxford,<br />
Nobuko is an EPSRC Established Career<br />
Fellow and an Honorary Fellow at<br />
Glasgow University. Her main research<br />
interests are theories and applications of<br />
protocols, specifications and verifications.<br />
Professor Rachel Wood<br />
Governing Body Fellow<br />
Associate Professor in Radiocarbon<br />
Science in the School of Archaeology,<br />
Rachel’s research centres on radiocarbon<br />
dating. Having investigated the timing of<br />
Neanderthal disappearance in Spain and<br />
the spread of farming into South East<br />
Asia, she is now exploring applications in<br />
ecology and wildlife forensics.<br />
Professor Pablo Mukerhjee<br />
Governing Body Fellow<br />
Professor of Anglophone World-<br />
Literature, Pablo teaches and researches<br />
on imperialism and colonialism,<br />
postcolonial theory and literatures,<br />
environmental humanities and world<br />
literatures.<br />
Zero Carbon project wins<br />
Preservation Trust Award<br />
We are delighted to announce that<br />
Wolfson is now a two-time winner of an<br />
Oxford Preservation Trust Award.<br />
Every year, the Oxford Preservation<br />
Trust awards prizes to buildings and<br />
environmental projects which make<br />
an outstanding contribution to the<br />
character of Oxford. This year, Wolfson<br />
won a plaque for the trust’s Green<br />
category for our newly decarbonised<br />
estate, having received an award in 2021<br />
for our Buttery redevelopment.<br />
The award once again recognises<br />
Wolfson’s world-leading efforts on<br />
sustainability. The President, Sir Tim<br />
Hitchens said, “thanks to the support of<br />
the government grant, the College’s own<br />
input, and the expertise of architectural<br />
and engineering consultants, we’ve<br />
turned a 1960s building into a place fit<br />
for the 21 st century. We’ve shown that<br />
one of Oxford’s biggest emitters can<br />
become net zero.”
College News<br />
Wolfson alumnus receives British Citizen Award<br />
On Thursday 26 January at the Palace of<br />
Westminster, 29 individuals from around<br />
the UK were awarded the prestigious<br />
British Citizen Award for exceptional<br />
endeavours which have positively<br />
impacted communities up and down the<br />
country.<br />
Among the 29 honoured was Adam<br />
Tate (2014, MSc Nature, Society<br />
and Environmental Policy) from<br />
Nottinghamshire, who received the BCA<br />
for Services to Healthcare.<br />
In 2014, at the age of 22, Adam was<br />
diagnosed with Fahr’s Disease following a<br />
zip line accident. Fahr’s Disease is a rare,<br />
genetically inherited neurological disorder<br />
characterised by calcium deposits in areas<br />
of the brain that control movement. In<br />
2016 he set up a registered charity, Fahr<br />
Beyond, to support other sufferers and<br />
their families and to provide research.<br />
Fahr’s Disease usually affects those in<br />
their 40’s and above, and being diagnosed<br />
so young inspired him to want to make a<br />
difference.<br />
As founder of Fahr Beyond, Adam<br />
has provided a voice for people with<br />
Fahr’s Disease. Importantly, his work<br />
Above (L-R): TV presenter and BCA Patron,<br />
Nick Knowles, Adam Tate and Rhiannon<br />
Whelan, Head of Retail Operations from<br />
BCA Partner One Stop.<br />
has helped to bring together clinicians<br />
previously working in silos. By showing<br />
there is an appetite for more information<br />
and better care for patients, his work<br />
has led to clinicians working on a UK<br />
diagnostic framework and a management<br />
framework for Fahr’s.<br />
The British Citizen Award was established<br />
in 2015 to recognise exceptional<br />
individuals who work tirelessly and<br />
selflessly to make a positive impact on<br />
their communities and society. The BCA<br />
recognises true community heroes who<br />
might otherwise be overlooked.<br />
DPhil student named on<br />
the 35 under 35 Young<br />
Leaders List<br />
Congratulations to Wolfson cyber<br />
security DPhil Arthur Laudrain, who has<br />
been named one of 35 promising young<br />
minds in the Santander-CIDOB 35 under<br />
35 List. The list recognises the work of<br />
35 people under the age of 35 with the<br />
potential to become future leaders in<br />
their areas of expertise.<br />
Arthur, who is currently on a placement<br />
with the Department of Politics and<br />
International Relations, was also<br />
invited to speak at the Future Leaders<br />
Forum, a platform for the exchange of<br />
ideas among the 35 nominees and an<br />
opportunity for them to discuss key<br />
issues on the global stage.<br />
Arthur spoke on his vision for EU digital<br />
strategic autonomy,<br />
expanding on what<br />
this means for<br />
the EU and how<br />
European policymakers<br />
should<br />
respond to the<br />
challenges of the<br />
digital age.<br />
Wolfson welcomes new staff<br />
Dan Aldred<br />
Academic Registrar<br />
Managing the Academic Office, Dan joins<br />
Wolfson bringing six years’ experience of<br />
academic administration within Oxford.<br />
Alex Fels<br />
Development Officer<br />
Working in the Development Office,<br />
Alex supports alumni engagement,<br />
regular giving, and administration.<br />
Marta Aparicio Sánchez<br />
Front of House Supervisor<br />
Joining us as Front of House Supervisor,<br />
Marta brings with her years of experience<br />
but most importantly a big smile.<br />
Joby Kizhakkayil Joy<br />
Sous Chef<br />
Having learned his trade in Kerala and<br />
worked in the Middle East, Joby is an<br />
integral part of the Kitchen team.<br />
Matthew Reader<br />
Chef de Partie<br />
Matt brings a wealth of knowledge<br />
to the Kitchen team - and a<br />
profound love of country music.<br />
Wyatt Downey<br />
Apprentice Chef<br />
Wolfson’s first catering apprentice,<br />
Wyatt joined the Kitchen team straight<br />
from school at the age of 17.<br />
5
Alumnus Wes Moore<br />
sworn in as Maryland’s<br />
first Black Governor<br />
On 18 January <strong>2023</strong>, Wolfson alumnus<br />
and Rhodes Scholar Wes Moore made<br />
history as he was sworn in as Maryland’s<br />
first Black governor.<br />
The New York Times best-selling author,<br />
Rhodes scholar and former CEO of the<br />
Robin Hood Foundation (an anti-poverty<br />
association based in New York), Wes<br />
Moore’s gubernatorial role represents<br />
the first time he has held public office.<br />
He nonetheless executed an impressive<br />
debut campaign, holding a double-digit<br />
lead in polling before winning the election<br />
against Republican nominee Dan Cox<br />
in November 2022, and garnered the<br />
support of national Democrats and<br />
celebrities including President Biden and<br />
former President Barack Obama. His<br />
inauguration makes him the country’s<br />
third elected Black governor.<br />
While studying as a Rhodes Scholar at<br />
Wolfson, Moore earned a Master’s in<br />
international relations and recently joined<br />
us for an interview and Q&A, which are<br />
both available on our YouTube channel.<br />
Sir Chris Whitty becomes Fellow of the Royal Society<br />
Wolfson Honorary Fellow and UK Chief<br />
Medical Officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty<br />
has been elected a Fellow of the Royal<br />
Society, the UK’s national academy of<br />
sciences.<br />
Professor Whitty delivered the Haldane<br />
Lecture at Wolfson in February 2022, and<br />
was elected as an Honorary Fellow at<br />
Wolfson in May that year. As a graduate<br />
student he read for a BM BCh in Clinical<br />
Medicine (1988) at Wolfson and was<br />
Chair of General Meeting (1990-91). He<br />
also represents the UK on the Executive<br />
Board of the World Health Organization,<br />
is a practising NHS Consultant Physician<br />
at University College London Hospitals<br />
(UCLH) and the Hospital for Tropical<br />
In June, President Sir Tim Hitchens<br />
along with Wolfson staff, students,<br />
and representatives from architects<br />
Original Field and lead contractors<br />
Benfield & Loxley celebrated the<br />
opening of our newly decarbonized and<br />
refurbished Annex building. Not only<br />
does it now run on electricity like the<br />
rest of Wolfson’s original estate, but it<br />
also boasts new kitchens, bathrooms,<br />
windows, and a beautifully landscaped<br />
garden for all to enjoy.<br />
Diseases, and is a visiting professor and<br />
Emeritus Professor of Physic at Gresham<br />
College.<br />
Wolfson completes Annex decarbonization<br />
First acquired by the college in 1983,<br />
having been St Luke’s Home for the<br />
Elderly, the Annex became the home<br />
for the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies,<br />
which later moved to new offices near St<br />
Catherine’s College. The Annex is now<br />
home to our arts and music department,<br />
Above: Annex Garden / Credit: John Cairns<br />
creative fellows, and many students who<br />
can now enjoy the fruits of their newly<br />
refurbished accommodation.<br />
New Margit Pengelly Scholarship established<br />
Alumni news<br />
For a full list of alumni news and<br />
publications, head to:<br />
www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/alumni-news<br />
6<br />
Wolfson College is pleased to announce<br />
the establishment of the Margit Pengelly<br />
Scholarship in support of research into the<br />
diagnosis and treatment of ovarian cancer.<br />
The award has been established thanks to<br />
the generosity of the family and friends of<br />
Margit Pengelly née Kail (1965-2022) in<br />
honour of her life. The announcement of<br />
this gift came on what would have been<br />
Margit’s 58th birthday.<br />
Margit was a stalwart of administration at<br />
Wolfson College over a ten-year period,<br />
playing a key role in the Bursar’s office and<br />
management of the College’s estate and<br />
housing provision. She was much loved by<br />
her many friends and colleagues, for whom<br />
her diagnosis with ovarian cancer in 2020<br />
came as a shock. Her untimely death in<br />
2022 made clear to her loved ones the<br />
importance of research into the detection,<br />
diagnosis, and treatment of this cancer.<br />
The Margit Pengelly Scholarship will serve<br />
as a much-needed source of support for<br />
this crucial research, providing an annual<br />
stipend to one research student for a<br />
three-year period in the first instance.
College News<br />
Dame Hermione Lee receives GBE in <strong>2023</strong> New Year Honours List<br />
Dame Hermione Lee was appointed<br />
Dame Grand Cross of the Order of<br />
the British Empire (GBE) for services to<br />
English Literature in the <strong>2023</strong> New Year<br />
Honours List, the first to be awarded<br />
by HM King Charles III. President of<br />
Wolfson between 2007 and 2017,<br />
Dame Hermione Lee is a multi-awardwinning<br />
literary biographer and critic,<br />
whose work includes biographies of<br />
Virginia Woolf (1996), Edith Wharton<br />
(2006), Penelope Fitzgerald (2013),<br />
and Tom Stoppard (2020). She was<br />
previously Goldsmiths’ Professor of<br />
English Literature at New College, is<br />
a Fellow of the British Academy and<br />
the Royal Society of Literature, and an<br />
Honorary Member of the American<br />
Academy of Arts and Sciences.<br />
In 2011, she founded the Oxford<br />
Centre for Life-Writing here at<br />
Wolfson. She was made a CBE in 2003<br />
and a Dame in 2013. She is currently<br />
working on a biography of the writer<br />
Anita Brookner.<br />
Junior Research Fellow wins A. Noam Chomsky Global Connections Award<br />
Dr Jamie Lachman, Wolfson JRF and<br />
research associate at the Centre for<br />
Evidence Based Intervention, has received<br />
a 2022 A. Noam Chomsky Global<br />
Connections Humanitarian Award from<br />
the STAR Scholar Network.<br />
Dr Lachman’s research focuses on<br />
the implementation and efficacy of<br />
programmes that improve child and<br />
family wellbeing in low- and middleincome<br />
countries. During the COVID-19<br />
pandemic, he co-led an emergency<br />
response to support parents, resulting<br />
in the development of digital parenting<br />
programmes now used by millions in over<br />
35 countries worlwide. Dr Lachman and<br />
Emeritus Fellow Professor Lucie Cluver<br />
were presented with an O²RB Excellence<br />
in Impact Award recognising their work.<br />
Dr Lachman currently leads the Global<br />
Parenting Initiative, a five-year, $22 million<br />
project expanding the evidence and<br />
impact of parenting interventions in the<br />
Global South.<br />
Above: The Garden Building / Credit: Penoyre & Prasad<br />
<strong>Plans</strong> for new on-site accommodation approved<br />
Wolfson has received planning permission<br />
from Oxford City Council for a new<br />
three-storey accommodation building,<br />
to provide on-site housing for a further<br />
50 students. Once complete, this will<br />
allow the college to house 70% of its<br />
postgraduate students on site.<br />
The building will sit on the current<br />
location of the south car park, adjacent<br />
to the original Grade II listed Powell &<br />
Moya buildings. Designs for the new<br />
block have been completed by Penoyre<br />
& Prasad architects, who devised the<br />
recent masterplan for the college estate.<br />
The designs include en-suite bedrooms,<br />
communal spaces and kitchens on each<br />
floor. Landscaping plans feature layered<br />
planting inspired by traditional hazelcoppice<br />
woodlands, an avenue of fruit<br />
trees, and meadow flowers and grasses.<br />
The College is now exploring options for<br />
funding the new building.<br />
Get in touch!<br />
We love hearing about your<br />
professional and academic<br />
milestones. If you’ve got news, please<br />
send it our way so we can share it.<br />
You can email us at<br />
digicomms@wolfson.ox.ac.uk,<br />
or tag us on social media.<br />
7
Student Awards & Achievements<br />
Each year, Wolfson students reap the rewards of their hard work and enthusiasm with recognition at both College and University<br />
level through various awards and grants. Here’s a roundup to celebrate the energy and talent of our community.<br />
Tejo Jehart<br />
DPhil Engineering<br />
Science<br />
Wolfson High Profile<br />
Support Grant<br />
Michail Mavrogiannis<br />
DPhil Cardiovascular<br />
Medicine<br />
Wolfson High Profile<br />
Support Grant<br />
“I am honoured to have received<br />
recognition from Wolfson<br />
College, which supported me<br />
in participating in the British<br />
University Karting Championship”<br />
“Being part of the Basketball team<br />
was a great honour and I’m thankful<br />
for Wolfson’s support. Plus, we beat<br />
Cambridge (three times).”<br />
Talah Anderson<br />
DPhil Asian and<br />
Middle Eastern<br />
Studies<br />
Shuchita Grover<br />
MPhil Tibetan and<br />
Himalayan Studies<br />
Khyentse-Pritzker<br />
Scholarship<br />
“I have been awarded a Research<br />
and Curatorial Fellowship at the<br />
Metropolitan Museum of Art to<br />
work on the Assyrian Sculpture<br />
Court Pigment Project.”<br />
“The Scholarship from the Tibetan<br />
and Himalayan Studies Centre is<br />
both financial support and<br />
motivation to work harder. I’m<br />
grateful to be a recipient.”<br />
8
College News<br />
Stallworthy<br />
Poetry Prize<br />
The annual competition was set up<br />
in memory of the late Professor Jon<br />
Stallworthy (1935-2014), poet and<br />
Fellow of Wolfson College, and is open<br />
to any student currently enrolled in<br />
postgraduate studies at the University of<br />
Oxford. The funding for the prize was<br />
provided by generous donations from<br />
Jon Stallworthy’s many friends<br />
and admirers.<br />
The prize is awarded for the best poem<br />
in English verse not exceeding 40 lines<br />
in length, in <strong>2023</strong> on the subject of<br />
‘Disgrace’. The value of the prize is<br />
£1,000, and entrants are permitted<br />
to submit up to three poems. The<br />
judges for this year’s award included<br />
the Oxford Professor of Poetry, Alice<br />
Oswald.<br />
The award ceremony took place in<br />
the Leonard Wolfson Auditorium on<br />
18 January where the winning poem,<br />
‘Trente et Quarante’, by Jennifer Kim<br />
was announced along with the runnerup<br />
Paul Norris (Brasenose). The other<br />
shortlisted poets were Eliza Browning<br />
(St Hugh’s), Jordan Maly-Preuss<br />
(Merton) and Eira Elisabeth Murphy<br />
(Mansfield).<br />
Trente et Quarante<br />
After Lucian Freud’s The Big Man (1976),<br />
painted to repay his gambling debts.<br />
In Monaco, I’m afraid<br />
you’ve lost the grand tableau again<br />
and fled to our narrow suite above the tabac.<br />
The Big Man who came brawling upstairs<br />
neck tight in a howling ring<br />
leans now in your weary armchair, waiting to be made whole.<br />
Out of the corner, in drunk atonement, you pull your tricks:<br />
palette knife, hog bristle,<br />
eight tubes of lightfast oil.<br />
If you asked, I could tell you how you will make me.<br />
Sink his dark suit into the room<br />
until every wrinkle struggles away.<br />
Burn the impossible mirror white.<br />
Suppose his flesh in peach and vermilion<br />
worked up in crests that knuckle under your brush.<br />
Last, where the light lands pale and arrogant, mark it –<br />
pitch his forehead in Cremnitz, tumble it down his jowls,<br />
whorl in opal the moon atop his chin.<br />
I am your long apology,<br />
your loss lured into the gorgeous.<br />
Your expert hand slips varnish over my cadmium skin.<br />
Rouge gagne et la couleur:<br />
The game is fixed for you now<br />
as you strike out your due on my angled face.<br />
How spare, how silent the room must be to hear<br />
the panting of your bristle against linen<br />
every hue belonging to him before I can become myself.<br />
Credit: John Cairns<br />
About the winner:<br />
Jennifer Kim is an MSt student in the History of Art and Visual Culture at<br />
Exeter College. Her dissertation research focuses on twentieth-century British<br />
portraiture and the nature of debt. She graduated summa cum laude with an<br />
undergraduate degree in Anthropology from Harvard University in 2017. Her<br />
work has previously been published in the Harvard Advocate.<br />
9
Annex Refurbishment<br />
Following hot on the heels of the decarbonisation of Wolfson’s original Powell & Moya buildings, the winter of 2022-<br />
23 saw the renovation of another key Wolfson building to zero-carbon emitting standards. The Annex, on the corner<br />
of Linton and Chadlington roads at the entrance to college, has been home to many generations of Wolfson students.<br />
Not only is it now fully powered by electricity like the rest of Wolfson’s estate, it also boasts brand new kitchens,<br />
windows, lights, carpets and flooring, plus a newly landscaped garden for all to enjoy. Before and after photos show the<br />
transformation and summarise the key enhancements.<br />
1<br />
4<br />
10
2<br />
,<br />
1<br />
Windows - the old windows,<br />
which were metal-framed, singleglazed,<br />
inefficient and poorly<br />
functioning, have all College been replaced News<br />
with modern, thermally efficient<br />
uPVC alternatives, which also<br />
look more appealing.<br />
2<br />
Insulation - increasing the thermal<br />
performance of the building was<br />
a priority for the project and an<br />
essential enhancement required<br />
prior to decarbonising the heating<br />
system; by adding new external<br />
insulation, the aesthetics have also<br />
been vastly improved.<br />
3<br />
3<br />
4<br />
Security - continuing our security<br />
enhancement project, advanced<br />
access control systems have been<br />
installed on the main entrance to<br />
the building.<br />
Internal refurbishment -<br />
improvements to comfort,<br />
functionality, and general amenity<br />
within the Annex were a key goal<br />
of the internal refurb project;<br />
the old 1970s style kitchens have<br />
been replaced with ultra-modern,<br />
space efficient replacements,<br />
lighting has been modernised,<br />
carpets have been changed<br />
and redecorations have been<br />
completed.<br />
Credit: John Cairns<br />
11
12<br />
“What drew me<br />
to neuroscience,<br />
psychology<br />
and psychiatry<br />
is wanting<br />
to facilitate<br />
connecting<br />
existing resources<br />
to the people<br />
who need them. ”
The healing power of movement<br />
Student profile<br />
Chatting with first-year psychiatry DPhil student and Oxford University salsa coach Brennan Delattre, it’s tempting to book<br />
yourself into your nearest dance class. Brennan is the first holder of the Rachel Conrad Scholarship for the study of Clinical<br />
Depression, a unique endowed scholarship established in 2021 thanks to a generous legacy from Reuben Conrad CBE, a longtime<br />
member of Common Room. Her passion for helping others heal through movement is infectious and, with future plans to<br />
work with the NHS on reducing waiting times for mental health patients, Brennan’s is certainly a career to watch.<br />
DPhil Psychiatry, 2022<br />
Back in Minnesota, where I’m from, my<br />
aunt helped with cotillion. It was really<br />
social and etiquette training dance - not<br />
quite big southern belle dresses. When I<br />
was about 10 years old, they didn’t have<br />
enough young girls in my age category,<br />
so my aunt persuaded me to sign up.<br />
When I started it meant white gloves<br />
(and not really wanting to touch the<br />
boys), but as it was a family thing I stuck<br />
with it, and I ended up teaching when<br />
I was just 16. I continued right through<br />
to when I was 18 before I went off<br />
to Middlebury College in Vermont to<br />
study neuroscience. It was there that I<br />
got really into swing dancing and also<br />
capoeira (a dancelike martial art from<br />
Brazil, performed to the accompaniment<br />
of call-and-response choral singing and<br />
percussive instrumental music) which<br />
I discovered through my orientation<br />
trip for my undergrad. Members of<br />
the university were teaching it in<br />
Portuguese and I went in with no prior<br />
knowledge or experience and just really<br />
fell in love with it. I studied abroad in<br />
Brazil and I was lucky enough to see<br />
capoeira performed by people of many<br />
sociodemographic backgrounds, races,<br />
and genders.<br />
People would walk into these capoeira<br />
classes and they would walk out saying<br />
that they felt better. And I started<br />
hearing people tell me stories of how<br />
“capoeira saved my life” or “it helped<br />
me get through my divorce”. I was<br />
studying neuroscience at the time and I<br />
used to think I was going to be a clinical<br />
psychologist, but that came with the<br />
difficulty of needing to pick a country,<br />
or a state because it’s really difficult to<br />
get re-certified between places. And as<br />
someone who loves to travel, it didn’t<br />
make a lot of sense to me.<br />
I really love research and my background<br />
is neuroscience. I consider myself more<br />
of a social psychologist and somebody<br />
who’s interested in intervention efficacy,<br />
but in socially-based interventions to<br />
supplement pharmacologically-based<br />
interventions. So as I was learning<br />
about neuroscience whilst also watching<br />
people in capoeira walking in and out of<br />
these classes feeling better, I began to<br />
wonder if that’s something that could be<br />
harnessed into an intervention? What<br />
is it about capoeira? Is it the singing? Is<br />
it the dancing? Is it the interpersonal<br />
movement in synchronisation? What is<br />
it and how could that then be used to<br />
benefit people en masse?<br />
Its potential as an intervention is huge,<br />
because it’s cost-effective, non-invasive,<br />
and really quite accessible. As my PhD<br />
has progressed I have moved from<br />
capoeira to salsa dance, after interviews<br />
revealed a preference in young people,<br />
but the active component I’m most<br />
interested in is the co-operative<br />
movement, as it seems like a really<br />
important avenue for research. This is<br />
especially true given the current mental<br />
health crisis that we’re in following the<br />
pandemic.<br />
Currently, if you try to find mental<br />
health care through the NHS, waiting<br />
times are really long. There’s research<br />
that shows that as you wait, you will get<br />
Above & Left: Brennan as coach for the<br />
Oxford University Salsa Society /<br />
Credit: BubbleGum Media<br />
worse and you will most likely do worse<br />
in treatment once you get it. There are<br />
low-intensity interventions already in<br />
use, like exercise or guided self-help, but<br />
there are also a lot of people who are<br />
teaching things like salsa and capoeira in<br />
the community. Our theory is that these<br />
things could be helpful in the same way<br />
as other low-intensity interventions. If<br />
the evidence backs the hypothesis, we<br />
could then connect existing resources<br />
in the community to an existing need,<br />
getting people off the waiting list in a<br />
way that could be really beneficial for<br />
them and the healthcare system.<br />
What drew me to neuroscience,<br />
psychology and psychiatry is wanting to<br />
better understand how humans work,<br />
but also to facilitate connecting existing<br />
resources to the people who need them.<br />
Dance has been so good in my own<br />
life and I have anecdotally wandered<br />
through the world hearing similar stories<br />
from lots of other people internationally.<br />
So if the research my PhD is based on<br />
says that it would be useful to have<br />
something like this as part of NHS<br />
treatments, then that would be amazing.<br />
13
On the road<br />
If you’ve seen the OxBikes pre-loved bike depot here at college, which<br />
aims to address the city’s high demand for bikes and its termly bike<br />
waste problem, you’ll be pleased to learn that Wolfson DPhil student<br />
Pedr Charlesworth is one of the brains behind the operation. Here, he<br />
tells us how his global cycling adventures shaped his approach to the<br />
annual cycles of academia and work and his involvement in OxBikes.<br />
DPhil Materials Science, 2020<br />
How reading The Moods of Future Joys by<br />
Alastair Humphreys in my first year of<br />
university shaped my direction<br />
My first cycling trip was when I was<br />
doing my undergraduate degree in<br />
Bristol. I was half-involved in the cycling<br />
team but more committed to my<br />
DJ-ing at the time - until I overheard<br />
a conversation on a bus between two<br />
mates talking about how one of them<br />
went cycling through Norway over<br />
the summer. I liked the idea, did some<br />
research, and settled on Sweden for a<br />
slightly less hilly adventure. On this trip,<br />
I read a book called The Moods of Future<br />
Joys by Alastair Humphreys about how<br />
the author rode around the world for<br />
four and a half years and never took a<br />
plane. At the time, I was on my first little<br />
three-week cycling holiday.<br />
That book started my cycling snowball<br />
and by the time I came to the end of<br />
my undergrad, I didn’t know if I wanted<br />
to go on to do a PhD anymore. I hadn’t<br />
found anything I was incredibly passionate<br />
about in chemistry, and I felt like I’d just<br />
be doing a PhD without any meaningful<br />
thought or direction. So I spent the third<br />
14<br />
year of my degree working, and teaching<br />
lectures in the mornings and evenings as<br />
part of a special course I was on, which<br />
meant I had enough money to travel for a<br />
little while.<br />
My idea was to try to ride a bike from<br />
London to Sydney in 12 months. It all<br />
got cut short because of COVID-19, but<br />
until that point I was very locked into<br />
a 12-month mindset, as many of us are<br />
through education and work. I thought<br />
if I was going to travel, I’d give myself a<br />
year. Everything was all blocked out and<br />
planned. But when I got about six months<br />
into that trip, my mindset really started to<br />
shift as I travelled through Central Asia.<br />
Meeting a kid called Jake from Montana<br />
in Khorog, Tajikistan<br />
Well into my travels by now, I was in<br />
the ‘stans, a congregation of mountains,<br />
stepped grassland and desert tucked<br />
between India, Russia and China.<br />
Overlanders, people who travel by car,<br />
motorbike or bike, come here with a<br />
partner or a few friends for a oncein-a-lifetime<br />
trip after a great deal of<br />
preparation and with all the right gear.<br />
It all revolves around a route called<br />
the Pamir Highway, which is part of<br />
the journey that people do to get to<br />
Mongolia. It was on this well-travelled<br />
route that I met 17-year-old Jake, who<br />
had spent the summer working on his<br />
parents’ farm before flying from Montana<br />
to Kyrgyzstan on his own. With only<br />
three previous motorbike rides under his<br />
lean teenage belt, he bought a bike from<br />
a Scottish guy at a market for $1,000<br />
and decided to ride all the gnarliest<br />
routes without a care in the world.<br />
He was just a kid with a motorbike<br />
and no safety measures other than a<br />
spanner (which wasn’t even adjustable).<br />
When I asked him what he would do if<br />
something went wrong, he said he’d just<br />
figure it out. He’d ask for help, he’d find<br />
a hostel, he’d find a solution. And I just<br />
loved his mentality. Here we all were,<br />
with our expensive bikes, pre-planned<br />
routes and backup plans and there was<br />
Jake, saying he’d just figure it out. Maybe<br />
that’s a luxury only a 17 year-old boy can<br />
afford, but it really revitalised a feeling in<br />
me of just letting things be.<br />
When I came back to the UK, I<br />
appreciated so many things but I also<br />
had a different sense of this block-year<br />
university and grad scheme thinking we<br />
have. I fall straight back into it some<br />
ways when I’m here, but I do think that<br />
experience with Jake, and a few other<br />
moments on that trip, allow me to bring<br />
a different perspective to my life in this<br />
highly organised society that we live in.<br />
I feel less fear of the unexpected, more<br />
open to strangers and unpredictable
Student profile<br />
“As an entrepreneur, there’s<br />
a genuine fear of failing.”<br />
encounters. I found it such a healthy<br />
mindset to adopt while living in an<br />
incredibly privileged place, studying<br />
amongst amazing people, and just being<br />
safe day to day.<br />
When OxBikes took off<br />
I think that mentality is partly what I’ve<br />
tapped into to keep driving OxBikes<br />
forward. As an entrepreneur, there’s a<br />
genuine fear of failing. So again it’s about<br />
pushing past that. We’ve got to put<br />
ourselves in that position and just say<br />
why not? I got involved in OxBikes in my<br />
second year at Oxford. We provide love<br />
for bikes that get thrown away. Oxford<br />
is a very transient place, with people<br />
coming and going, needing bikes when<br />
they’re here and then wanting to get rid<br />
of them when the academic year is out.<br />
There’s apparently a tradition amongst<br />
leavers to ride their bike to the Radcliffe<br />
Camera on their last day in the city<br />
and just set it free because they know<br />
someone will take it.<br />
There’s a clear need in this city to<br />
organise the chaos around bikes, and<br />
when I joined OxBikes, all we had were<br />
a few bikes from Trinity College and we<br />
were just checking them over and selling<br />
them on. We built up slowly from there.<br />
We started to build a website with<br />
some makeshift code that made sure<br />
we weren’t selling duplicate bikes – that<br />
was the level at the time. We were<br />
running a few ads on Facebook and,<br />
next thing you know, I got a call from<br />
someone saying they’d seen an ad and<br />
wanted to invest. So then we wanted to<br />
buy 100 more bikes, which would triple<br />
our fleet at the time. We’d make sure<br />
they were in good functioning order<br />
then sell or rent them on.<br />
Then one day I was just sitting on the<br />
bus driving through London on the day<br />
of the marathon. I get a notification<br />
every time we make a rent or sale,<br />
and on this 10-minute bus journey, my<br />
phone was buzzing non-stop and I just<br />
couldn’t believe it. People were actually<br />
interested in this funky little website<br />
we’d made. It was just a case of pulling<br />
things together bit by bit until it really<br />
became something.<br />
Since then, we’ve been pitching at the<br />
Saïd Business School for more funding,<br />
and there’re are few different directions<br />
we want to go next. We want to get<br />
into more colleges and we’d like to get<br />
to Cambridge. I want it to be like the<br />
AirBnB of bicycles. When you travel to<br />
Amsterdam or Copenhagen, you could<br />
rent a bike from someone who lives<br />
there.<br />
It’s ideas like this that make you wonder,<br />
why hasn’t anyone done this sooner?<br />
15
Quantum entanglement<br />
and reality<br />
You probably already know that, at subatomic scales, we enter the strange world<br />
of quantum physics, governed by counterintuitive laws very far from the classical<br />
mechanics of the human-scale world. But did you know that quantum physics provides<br />
our most complete description of reality, and that we can even observe quantum<br />
effects in living creatures? Professor Vlatko Vedral, a Governing Body Fellow, brings us<br />
up to speed on his research into the “ultimate logic of everything”.<br />
Vlatko Vedral<br />
Vlatko Vedral (BSc, PhD, Imperial<br />
College) is a Professor of Quantum<br />
Information at Oxford. He has<br />
published over 400 research papers<br />
on various topics in quantum physics<br />
and quantum computing and is<br />
one of the Clarivate Highly Cited<br />
Researchers. He has given numerous<br />
invited plenary and public talks during<br />
his career. These include a specialised<br />
talk at a Solvay meeting (2010) and a<br />
popular one at the International Safe<br />
Scientifique (2007). He was awarded<br />
the Royal Society Wolfson Research<br />
Merit Award in 2007, the World<br />
Scientific Medal and Prize in 2009,<br />
the Marko Jaric Award in 2010 and<br />
was elected a Fellow of the Institute<br />
of Physics in 2017 and a member of<br />
the European Academy of Sciences in<br />
2020. He is a consultant to the World<br />
Economic Forum on the Future of<br />
Computation. Vlatko is the author<br />
of 4 textbooks and 2 popular books<br />
(Decoding Reality and From Micro to<br />
Macro). He gives regular interviews to<br />
the media and is actively engaged in<br />
popularisation of physics in pieces for<br />
New Scientist, Scientific American and<br />
major UK and overseas newspapers.<br />
16<br />
Isaac Newton, who discovered what<br />
we now call classical physics, thought<br />
that everything is made up of particles.<br />
However, various aspects of light<br />
could not be explained if light was<br />
also made up of particles. Ultimately,<br />
James Clerk Maxwell - standing on the<br />
shoulders of Huygens, Young, Faraday<br />
and many others - proved that light is<br />
actually an electromagnetic wave. At<br />
that point the world (still classical) was<br />
understood to be made up of two kinds<br />
of entities, particles (constituents of<br />
matter) and waves (things making up the<br />
electromagnetic field).<br />
Then came Albert Einstein who<br />
(seemingly, but not really) reverted back<br />
to Newton and said that light is, after all,<br />
made up of particles (photons), though<br />
he did admit that they can also behave<br />
like waves (which is how we can account<br />
for the interference of light). This was<br />
the beginning of quantum physics.<br />
Finally, Louis de Broglie hypothesized<br />
that material quantum objects (such as<br />
electrons) can also behave like waves.<br />
This led to a unification (everything<br />
is a wave and a particle) and inspired<br />
Bohr to talk about complementarity,<br />
namely the fact that all entities can<br />
manifest their particle-like or wave-like<br />
nature depending on how we “look at”<br />
(experiment with) them. This is at the<br />
heart of the famous wave-particle duality<br />
of quantum systems.<br />
So, then, what is the right ontology<br />
when it comes to reality? Is the world<br />
made of particles or waves or things<br />
that sometimes behave like particles or<br />
waves? According to quantum physics,<br />
everything is actually made up of waves.<br />
But these are quantum waves (or<br />
q-waves for short), meaning that the<br />
entities that are doing the waving are<br />
what Paul Dirac called q –numbers (as<br />
opposed to the ordinary c-numbers, “c”<br />
being classical). This picture emerged<br />
through the work of Heisenberg, Mott,<br />
Schrödinger and Everett (all standing on<br />
the shoulders of William Hamilton).<br />
Let me explain why everything is a<br />
q-wave and why this presents us with<br />
the best picture of reality at present.<br />
First there was a problem. If particles are<br />
waves, the key phenomenon to explain<br />
in the 1920s was the observation of the<br />
alpha-particle decay in a cloud chamber.<br />
This experiment seemed to present a<br />
paradox for quantum physics.<br />
An alpha-particle is a Helium nucleus<br />
(two protons and two neutrons) and<br />
it sometimes gets ejected in a nuclear<br />
decay of a larger nucleus. A cloud<br />
chamber was a great invention to<br />
observe such particles (worthy of several<br />
Nobel Prizes), though nowadays you can<br />
make one in 15 minutes in your own<br />
house with everyday kitchen utensils<br />
(there are many YouTube videos on<br />
this). The idea, as the name suggests, is<br />
to have a particle travel through a gas<br />
that can readily be ionized by collisions<br />
with the particle. As the particle collides<br />
with the gas molecules, it ionizes
Alumni lecture<br />
17<br />
Credit: Freepik
Will a quantum logic of<br />
“everything everywhere<br />
all at once” prevail or will it be<br />
replaced by something else?<br />
Below: Professor Albert Einstein / Credit: Getty Images<br />
them in succession. Ionisation attracts<br />
neighbouring gas which condenses<br />
around the ionized molecules. Therefore,<br />
the travelling and colliding particle leaves<br />
a track of condensed vapour in its wake.<br />
So far so good, but the problem was<br />
that the tracks are always straight<br />
lines. If, as quantum physics suggests,<br />
everything is a wave, why do we get<br />
straight lines from alpha-particles? Why<br />
not concentric circles, just like waves<br />
spreading in a pond when we throw a<br />
stone in it?<br />
The explanation was provided by<br />
Neville Mott in 1929. He actually set<br />
the scene for what is now called the<br />
Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum<br />
mechanics (which should actually<br />
be called “Everything is a Q-Wave<br />
Interpretation”). Mott said that a single<br />
particle simultaneously traverses all the<br />
tracks in all directions (as a wave would),<br />
meaning that all trajectories exist in a<br />
superposition and at the same time. A<br />
single alpha-particle takes all the paths<br />
simultaneously and in all the directions,<br />
it’s just that when we look at it, we can<br />
only see one of these trajectories.<br />
The reason for this is that even though<br />
everything is a q-wave within which<br />
things exist at the same time, when we<br />
interact with this q-wave we can only<br />
reveal some of its aspects, one at a time<br />
(this is where Heisenberg’s Uncertainty<br />
comes from). But we ourselves are<br />
also a collection of q-waves. It is<br />
when our q-waves correlate with the<br />
q-waves of the alpha-particle that<br />
c-numbers emerge. These correlations<br />
between q-waves are called quantum<br />
entanglement and so the classical<br />
world owes its existence to quantum<br />
entanglement. In quantum physics,<br />
even a collision between two particles<br />
is actually described as an interaction<br />
between two q-waves. This constitutes<br />
our most accurate description of<br />
nature, called quantum field theory. A<br />
particle in this theory is just one stable<br />
configuration of the underlying q-wave<br />
(or, a single excitation of the quantum<br />
field, in a more formal language of<br />
quantum field theory).<br />
Erwin Schrödinger, in lectures given<br />
towards the end of his life, clearly spelt<br />
out the same picture that everything is a<br />
q-wave. He advocated this view not only<br />
because it avoids the confusion arising<br />
18
Alumni lecture<br />
Above: Dr Vlatko Vedral<br />
Below: Sir Isaac Newton / Credit: Pixabay<br />
from the dualistic wave-particle language,<br />
but also because it contains no collapses<br />
of the wave-function, no abrupt<br />
discontinuities due to measurements and<br />
no quantum jumps (he was particularly<br />
keen to avoid quantum jumps, about<br />
which he said that if they turned out to<br />
be true he had wished he was a plumber<br />
and not a physicist).<br />
How far have we tested this q-wave<br />
picture? Schrödinger of course envisaged<br />
a by-now legendary experiment leading<br />
to a cat being simultaneously dead and<br />
alive, much like the alpha particle takes<br />
two different paths at the same time.<br />
But Schrödinger’s thought experiment<br />
is too hard to do simply because more<br />
complex objects are exceedingly hard to<br />
control quantum mechanically. However,<br />
all subatomic and atomic particles,<br />
and even some simple molecules, are<br />
capable of existing in many states at<br />
once. There is evidence that some more<br />
complex chemical processes are also<br />
fundamentally quantum mechanical. And<br />
now, we are starting to experiment with<br />
living systems.<br />
My colleagues and I have performed a<br />
sequence of experiments to entangle a<br />
single living bacterium to light, as well as<br />
another set of experiments to combine<br />
a tardigrade with two superconducting<br />
quantum bits. These experiments<br />
succeeded in showing that living systems<br />
can behave quantumly, though they are<br />
still very (very) far away from the states<br />
Schrödinger had in mind.<br />
Will a quantum logic of<br />
“everything everywhere all at<br />
once” prevail or will it be replaced<br />
by something else? We don’t have<br />
a clue at present, though all bets<br />
are still on quantum physics in<br />
the foreseeable future. And it is<br />
extremely exciting for humanity<br />
to be in a position to grapple with<br />
the fundamental mysteries of the<br />
universe in order to understand<br />
the ultimate logic of everything.<br />
19
Curiosity and risk<br />
Dr Kateryna Kovalchuk is a Ukrainian medieval historian whose research focuses on Byzantine legend. She<br />
joined Wolfson College in 2022, her two-year stay made possible thanks to the generosity of the many alumni<br />
who responded so generously to our Giving Day appeal for at-risk scholars in May 2022. She sat down with our<br />
Communications Team to discuss her work for an edition of Wolfson’s Pivot Points podcast.<br />
Visiting Scholar, 2022<br />
Dr Kateryna Kovalchuk values her<br />
curiosity. Without it, “everything<br />
becomes insipid.” Curiosity, she says,<br />
is “quintessential” to her research into<br />
the legends and myths of Byzantine<br />
civilisation; but as becomes apparent<br />
over the course of our conversation, for<br />
Kateryna, curiosity isn’t something that<br />
can safely be indulged in the security of<br />
the library. The way Kateryna describes<br />
it, her curiosity involves real risk, and<br />
has led her into the unknown on more<br />
than one occasion over the last three<br />
decades.<br />
Coming of age in post-Soviet Ukraine,<br />
Kateryna’s first academic passion was<br />
for the literatures of ancient Greece and<br />
Rome, and she recalls how she would<br />
have stayed in Lviv to pursue a doctorate<br />
in Classical Philology were it not for a<br />
series of chance encounters. A brochure<br />
caught her eye in the library one day,<br />
“and flicking through the pages, I saw<br />
the programme in medieval studies, and<br />
my heart started pumping. I melted.”<br />
She had been working as amanuensis to<br />
20<br />
one of her professors, who at the same<br />
moment was contacted by colleagues<br />
in Hungary seeking a deserving student<br />
to enrol on a medieval studies course.<br />
Circumstances had conspired to direct<br />
Kateryna’s attention towards the world<br />
of the Byzantine Empire, famous for<br />
its lavish iconography, mosaics and<br />
intricate goldwork, and origins shrouded<br />
in myth; her curiosity was hooked. In<br />
the first of many migrations, she found<br />
herself studying at the Central European<br />
University in Budapest. “It was extremely<br />
hard, excruciatingly hard, because it<br />
was the first time I had done something<br />
in English,” she tells me, “the level of<br />
scholarship was higher. I was deprived of<br />
sleep. But it was absolutely fascinating.”<br />
At the time, travelling abroad to study<br />
was an unheard-of rarity, and it meant<br />
leaving behind family for the first time.<br />
But Kateryna took the risk, and she<br />
speaks fondly of her years in Budapest:<br />
the department was welcoming, tightknit<br />
and egalitarian, with her professors<br />
insisting on students calling them by<br />
their nicknames, and the intensity of the<br />
programme encouraged close friendships<br />
among the students. Her curiosity had<br />
paid off. Kateryna is keen to emphasise<br />
that curiosity isn’t an easy thing to<br />
come to terms with; even in her early<br />
career, regularly moving countries took<br />
its toll. “I did have to make choices, and<br />
they were hard choices.” Judging from<br />
the intertwined strands of her life and<br />
research, Kateryna’s academic curiosity<br />
has been a source of strength in the<br />
face of the enormous challenges she,<br />
her communities, and her home country<br />
have had to confront in the last few<br />
years. It has given her ways to live with<br />
what she calls “bewilderment,” quoting<br />
the poet Rumi; sometimes even to<br />
embrace it.<br />
Kateryna’s work principally concentrates<br />
on Byzantine narratives of church and<br />
monastery foundations. Nowadays, she<br />
says, we have a tendency to dismiss<br />
the more fanciful accounts set down<br />
in the manuscripts: “they are based on<br />
events, people, coordinates that exist
Alumni profile<br />
Above: Kateryna working as an interpreter<br />
with the OSCE at the war area in Donbas,<br />
Eastern Ukraine<br />
Right: Taken in May 2012 at Dumbarton<br />
Oaks, Harvard Research Centre<br />
Left: During a first trip to Oxford as a visiting<br />
doctoral student at Keble College, Oxford<br />
in real life, but the rest is not what we<br />
call the empirical. Historians would<br />
discard these legends on the basis that<br />
they don’t contain facts and details<br />
that are reliable in the conventional<br />
sense.” Yet Kateryna’s work demands<br />
she suspend her empiricism, even if<br />
briefly. She wrote her dissertation about<br />
the legendary origins of Hagia Sofia, a<br />
narrative popularly attested to in more<br />
than eighty manuscripts in Byzantine<br />
Greek, and countless others in Latin,<br />
Persian, Turkish, Old Slavonic and<br />
Georgian. “The legend is what people<br />
actually wanted to hear. This what they<br />
loved, and this is what was welcomed.<br />
And that, in a way, realistically reflects<br />
their mentality, how they saw the<br />
world, how they perceived their past,<br />
how they perceived the past of this<br />
church. Now we differentiate between<br />
historical memory and imaginative<br />
origins; but for them, they didn’t have<br />
this distinction. They couldn’t image<br />
their past without the intrusion of<br />
God, without the appearance of angels<br />
and miraculous events. It was a part of<br />
them.” What sparks Kateryna’s curiosity<br />
is the peculiar accuracy of documents<br />
that relate not to events, but to how<br />
contemporary individuals thought, felt<br />
and operated in Byzantine society.<br />
“I did have to make choices,<br />
and they were hard choices”<br />
Legends, Kateryna says, are just as<br />
important today as they were in the<br />
Byzantine Empire. “I’m confronted with<br />
the same thing in Ukraine, because<br />
people go through the experience of<br />
war, and it traumatises them.” The<br />
same kind of stories – which nowadays<br />
we think of as “urban legends” – are a<br />
means for cultures and communities<br />
to process and retain traumatic<br />
experiences. She describes parallels<br />
between contemporary and medieval<br />
memory (and for interested readers she<br />
recommends Mary Carruthers’ 2008<br />
work The Book of Memory: A Study of<br />
Memory in Medieval Culture). Speaking<br />
to Kateryna, one gets the sense that,<br />
as risky an enterprise as following one’s<br />
curiosity can be, remaining curious<br />
allows one to face those risks. “It’s like<br />
a kind of natural ignition”, she tells me.<br />
“Not everybody has it, but we can<br />
discover something like it. It’s a little bit<br />
of work.” Curiosity encourages us to<br />
seek out new ways of thinking and living;<br />
perhaps it equips us to survive things we<br />
could never have anticipated.<br />
21
How it started<br />
I was an undergraduate at the University<br />
of Mosul, as a clinical pharmacist. I was<br />
fascinated by the idea of developing a<br />
drug. When I was a patient after a road<br />
traffic accident, I saw first-hand the lack<br />
of treatment options for people coming<br />
into A&E with traumatic brain injuries<br />
and oedema, which is the swelling of<br />
the brain. There was one drug being<br />
developed about 70 years ago, but<br />
patients treated with it developed<br />
resistance within 24-48 hours. So I knew<br />
I wanted to work in this space, and for<br />
a while. Returning to Sheffield Hallam<br />
University for a Masters in Pharmacology<br />
and Biotechnology, followed by a PhD in<br />
Cell Biology and Neuroscience, I joined<br />
a team of brilliant people who were all<br />
biochemists, and I found I was always<br />
the one trying to take it from the bench<br />
to the patient. So I decided I wanted to<br />
apply my research. I now focus on central<br />
nervous system disorders, in particular<br />
neurodegeneration such as Parkinson’s<br />
disease and Alzheimer’s using cuttingedge<br />
technologies including developing<br />
humanised 3D models of brain-on-achip,<br />
patient-derived stem cells and gene<br />
editing tools such as CRISPR.<br />
A Global Citizen<br />
A Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson and Group Leader in Cellular Neuroscience,<br />
Mootaz Salman has travelled around the world in the name of research, but has never<br />
forgotten the experience which inspired it all, when he found himself in a hospital bed.<br />
PhD MSc BPharm MRSB<br />
Below: Mootaz after his PhD viva with his supervisors and examiners at Sheffield Hallam<br />
University<br />
22<br />
I feel privileged because my journey<br />
in this field started from the ward<br />
itself, and now I’m on the molecular<br />
and cellular side but the thing I find<br />
important is staying connected to the<br />
human impact of our work. It’s especially<br />
important that our junior scientists keep<br />
this in mind, as they are the ones really<br />
making most of the breakthroughs.<br />
They need to see that they’re not just<br />
dealing with cells, but that the cells<br />
come from people and those people<br />
have families. Giving the current rate of<br />
disease progression, one in two people<br />
will get dementia after the age of 80.<br />
The aggregate societal cost of this is £3.3<br />
billion per year in the UK, with a total<br />
annual economic burden of £20,000 per<br />
household. As the population ages, this<br />
number will increase year-on-year.<br />
We arrange open days and invite<br />
patients to join our research group<br />
for tours to show them that there<br />
are people dedicating time and effort,<br />
spending nights and weekends working<br />
to find cures. I want to give them hope,<br />
but a real one, so that even when they<br />
feel things are slow, they can know<br />
things are happening behind the scenes.<br />
It’s an ongoing process. It’s a journey.<br />
It’s tremendous if you think about how<br />
far we’ve come as a species in the last
50 or 100 years. The things we’re doing<br />
now were just dreams back then. But<br />
I know that’s very difficult for families<br />
and patients to keep in mind. There isn’t<br />
a single family who won’t be impacted<br />
in some way by these diseases and<br />
it’s about time we all come together<br />
as scientists, government and as a<br />
community to do something about it<br />
From Sheffield to Harvard<br />
After my undergraduate degree in<br />
Iraq, I gained exposure to science and<br />
clinical practice in the Middle East. Then,<br />
after my further degrees in Sheffield, I<br />
went on to do my first post-doctoral<br />
fellowship at Harvard Medical School<br />
and Boston Children’s Hospital, before<br />
finding myself here at Oxford.<br />
It’s important for me to count myself<br />
as a global citizen. With my varied<br />
academic experiences in different<br />
parts of the world, I feel I have a good<br />
understanding of what it takes to<br />
communicate and achieve in science<br />
in the East and West. When I was in<br />
Mosul, the clinical aspect there was<br />
quite good, similar to India and Pakistan.<br />
If you look into our NHS here, much<br />
of the leadership is from India, Pakistan,<br />
the Middle East and Eastern Europe.<br />
Yet when I came back to Sheffield for<br />
my Masters and PhD, I could see that<br />
the research facilities available to me in<br />
Mosul were not as advanced as we have<br />
here. Then when I wanted to develop<br />
my independence and take my next<br />
steps, it felt important to go to the<br />
places “where the sausage is made,”<br />
like Harvard and Oxford.<br />
“You need to dream big but<br />
remember the hard work that it<br />
takes to get there”<br />
Below: During his post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School<br />
Alumni profile<br />
It was a big jump to go from Sheffield<br />
Hallam University to somewhere with<br />
such a brand like Harvard or Oxford,<br />
but for me, it’s not about doing branded<br />
science. It’s about doing the right science<br />
with the right people in the right,<br />
supportive environment. It’s all about the<br />
research. If my research question could<br />
be answered better in a different city,<br />
then I’d go there without hesitation.<br />
So for a Yorkshire lad, the red brick, Ivy<br />
League and golden triangle were quite<br />
a scary experience. I think it always<br />
comes down to the motivation of a<br />
person and the support around them,<br />
and I’ve always had such a supportive<br />
team around me. And I was driven to<br />
achieve and leave my own mark. Harvard<br />
was such a stimulating environment, not<br />
just because of the university itself, but<br />
because Boston is such a special city. It’s<br />
a biotech hub of the world with Harvard,<br />
MIT and all the big biotech pharmas.<br />
Everyone’s firing with all cylinders so it’s<br />
a really different pace.<br />
When I came to Oxford, I knew I<br />
had to be associated with a college.<br />
I joined during Covid and what I was<br />
really searching for was a community.<br />
I found that in Wolfson. I was looking<br />
for a college that aligned well with my<br />
vision and values. In my research about<br />
Wolfson, I came across the college<br />
motto: “humani nil alienum,” or “nothing<br />
human is alien to me,” and that’s exactly<br />
23
what I wanted, and that’s what I still<br />
love about it here today. We don’t have<br />
upper and lower common rooms, we<br />
have one mixed room. We don’t have<br />
a high table. I just felt I was amongst<br />
my own people. I felt a shared vision,<br />
common interests, and more or less the<br />
same values.<br />
Above: Mootaz with his Oxford Colleagues<br />
Below: Receiving the Young Neuroscientist of the Year Award from the International Society of<br />
Neurochemistry in Honolulu, Hawaii<br />
Wherever life takes you,<br />
don’t go alone<br />
Regardless of the institution, working in<br />
science research comes with challenges,<br />
setbacks and cumulative achievements<br />
that you simply can’t reach on your<br />
own. Back when I was a PhD student, I<br />
went to my supervisor with a proposal<br />
to work on a huge paper that could<br />
be a game-changer. Like anything<br />
in life, there are certain journals in<br />
academia that are more popular than<br />
others. In the field of science, it’s three<br />
journals called Cell, Nature and Science<br />
(scientists tend to collectively call them<br />
CNS as they are the central nervous<br />
system of science and discovery), and<br />
they were what we were aiming for.<br />
With three main authors, it took us<br />
five years to complete this paper with<br />
contributions from 13 institutions. We<br />
submitted it, and after all that hard<br />
work, we got rejected. It was such a<br />
heartbreaking moment.<br />
But there was something in me that<br />
decided to stand up and not take no<br />
for an answer. We agreed to try again<br />
together and we were determined to<br />
24<br />
earn it. And guess what? We fought, and<br />
got in. It was such a team effort. More<br />
importantly, we currently have a drug<br />
candidate that is about to start phase I/<br />
II human clinical trials. Between the three<br />
of us as authors of the paper, we’ve got<br />
three fellowships, three major honours<br />
and more than 250 citations in just three<br />
years and I am sure that more will come<br />
in the future.<br />
For anyone wanting to go into the<br />
world of scientific research, I’d say make<br />
sure you’re doing it because you are<br />
passionate about it. To be honest, it’s<br />
not the most financially rewarding job,<br />
and many people talk about the cons<br />
of this kind of high-pressure work, but<br />
there are so many pros. It’s like buying<br />
a house; you’re not just paying for the<br />
bricks, you’re paying for the view and<br />
the neighbourhood. For the community.<br />
In science, you’re always surrounded<br />
by people who are motivated, driven,<br />
passionate, and smart. It’s rare to find the<br />
same mass density in other professions,<br />
so it’s such a stimulating environment.<br />
Meeting people, exchanging ideas, and<br />
having your own ideas challenged: these<br />
aren’t just trials to overcome but a<br />
privilege and relief. You need to dream<br />
big but remember the hard work that it<br />
takes to get there. Success is just the tip<br />
of the iceberg, so enjoy the journey and<br />
make some friends along the way.
Student Support<br />
Wolfson 1966 Fund<br />
Take a seat for Student Support<br />
Will you help students by sponsoring a chair<br />
in the Dining Hall to support<br />
The Wolfson 1966 Fund?<br />
Scan here to find out more<br />
25
A year in Development<br />
and Alumni Relations<br />
Development Director Huw David reflects on a year of both continuity and change, in<br />
which Wolfsonians continued to invest in the relationships, research and resources at<br />
the heart of our community, whether at Linton Road or further afield.<br />
As we begin the long vacation, it’s<br />
satisfying to reflect back on what the<br />
President referred to in his recent<br />
Foundation Dinner speech as “a normal,<br />
extraordinary year” at Wolfson. Normal<br />
in the full resumption, for the first time<br />
in three years, of the regular patterns of<br />
lectures, seminars, lunches and dinners<br />
that are the hallmark of Wolfson life;<br />
extraordinary for the accomplishments<br />
of our students and fellows, the<br />
generosity of our alumni and friends, and<br />
the progress of our decarbonization and<br />
other building projects around College.<br />
Once again, Wolfson benefitted from<br />
remarkable philanthropic support. For<br />
the Zero Carbon project, the Wolfson<br />
Foundation’s grant of £500,000 enabled<br />
us to complete the replacement of<br />
the remaining single-glazed windows in<br />
our original Powell & Moya buildings.<br />
From September, Wolfson will have<br />
Oxford’s first electric minibus thanks<br />
to a donation of £86,000 from an<br />
anonymous alumnus, eliminating many<br />
tonnes of diesel emissions as it shuttles<br />
back and forth to Broad Street. With<br />
Wolfson’s crest emblazoned on the side,<br />
it will also be a powerful embodiment<br />
of the College’s commitment to clean<br />
energy and, we hope, a catalyst for other<br />
institutions to electrify their fleet.<br />
While the Zero Carbon project has<br />
specialised in transforming Wolfson’s<br />
hidden infrastructure – the heating,<br />
plumbing and electrics that make the<br />
College run – other building projects<br />
have a much more visible impact. Over<br />
the winter, the Private Dining Room and<br />
Coffee Room were amalgamated and<br />
comprehensively redecorated to create<br />
a bright modern space overlooking<br />
Harbour Quad. The Levett Room, as<br />
it is now named in gratitude for the<br />
generosity of Honorary Fellow Christian<br />
Levett, has become an outstanding<br />
space for events, art exhibitions, and<br />
entertaining. Two other projects in the<br />
26<br />
coming months will similarly transform<br />
much used but tired spaces, both thanks<br />
to exceptional gifts: the Music Practice<br />
Rooms underneath the Marble Hall and<br />
the Lower Common Room. Across<br />
the Cherwell, in Wolfson’s floodplain<br />
meadows, the generosity of the Aspen<br />
Foundation in memory of the late Sir<br />
Martin Wood is restoring and enhancing<br />
the biodiversity of these SSSI grasslands.<br />
Wolfson’s vibrant research clusters have<br />
also attracted some tremendous gifts.<br />
For the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing,<br />
we are hugely grateful for two donations<br />
of £100,000, one from the Dorset<br />
Foundation and one from an anonymous<br />
benefactor, and for the support of<br />
OCLW’s many friends in sustaining<br />
its outreach work with disadvantaged<br />
communities and neurodivergent young<br />
people. The new Law in Societies<br />
cluster revived Wolfson’s longstanding<br />
expertise in sociolegal studies thanks to<br />
significant philanthropic support. We<br />
were once again indebted to Honorary<br />
Fellows Lorne Thyssen for enabling<br />
so much outstanding research under<br />
the Ancient World Research Cluster’s<br />
aegis and Simon Harrison for his<br />
remarkable support for the Boat Club,<br />
towards our planned new Sports and<br />
Wellbeing Centre, and for scholarships<br />
in Physics and Quantum Computing.<br />
In January we established the Baruch<br />
Spinoza Scholarship in solar physics,<br />
named in honour of the Enlightenment<br />
philosopher and inspiration to Isaiah<br />
Berlin, thanks to a kind gift from alumnus<br />
Matthew Levy.<br />
Physics – of the quantum kind – was at<br />
the heart of this year’s London Lecture<br />
given by Vlatko Vedral, of which more<br />
can be seen across the centre pages<br />
of this magazine. Attended by a rapt<br />
capacity audience at the House of<br />
Lords, it was one of several memorable<br />
alumni events throughout the year.<br />
September’s alumni reception in College<br />
Credit: Femke Gow<br />
was for the first time preceded by a talk,<br />
livestreamed for Wolfsonians across<br />
the world, on ‘The Unfolding Story of<br />
the Hittite Empire and its Collapse’ by<br />
Christoph Bachhuber. Our Christmas<br />
reception at the Oxford & Cambridge<br />
Club in London as ever brought together<br />
alumni of many eras. And following<br />
three years of Covid confinement to<br />
British shores, the President and I were<br />
delighted to travel to the US in March<br />
to meet alumni and friends in Chicago,<br />
Washington, New York and Boston,<br />
where a drinks reception brought<br />
Wolfsonians from across New England<br />
together at Tufts University thanks to<br />
the kindness of Tufts’ President Tony<br />
Monaco and his wife Zoia Larin Monaco,<br />
an alumna.<br />
With a full programme scheduled for<br />
<strong>2023</strong>-24 we look forward to meeting<br />
you on our travels or to welcoming you<br />
back to College soon. Thank you again<br />
to everyone whose generosity, at all<br />
levels, helps to make Wolfson the special<br />
place it is.<br />
Would you consider supporting<br />
Wolfson’s students by establishing<br />
a bursary or scholarship?<br />
Please contact Dr Huw David,<br />
Fellow and Development Director,<br />
to discuss how your support<br />
can help Wolfson’s students and<br />
postdocs thrive.<br />
E: huw.david@wolfson.ox.ac.uk
Development<br />
Above: The President Sir Tim Hitchens and the former Vice-Chancellor Professor Dame Louise Richardson<br />
celebrate Wolfson’s Zero Carbon Project. / Credit: John Cairns<br />
Wolfson 1966 Fund<br />
Supporting expertise, today and tomorrow<br />
From climate change to global<br />
pandemics, never has the world needed<br />
expertise more than now. Since<br />
Wolfson’s foundation in 1966, our<br />
students and post-doctoral fellows have<br />
made ground-breaking discoveries and<br />
brought fresh light to bear on some of<br />
the world’s most intractable challenges.<br />
As Oxford’s most international and<br />
family-friendly college, Wolfson is a<br />
special place in which to study, learn<br />
and live. But we want to do more to<br />
help our students and post-doctoral<br />
fellows thrive – and your support will<br />
be essential in doing this. That’s why<br />
the Wolfson 1966 Fund is dedicated<br />
to providing direct support for our<br />
students and post-docs through<br />
scholarships, research and travel awards,<br />
hardship bursaries, and better library,<br />
sports and nursery facilities.<br />
If you would like to support today’s<br />
students and postdocs through the<br />
Wolfson 1966 Fund or to find out<br />
more, please visit:<br />
www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/wolfson-<br />
1966-fund<br />
Arrivals and departures Syme Society Newsletter<br />
In July 2022 we welcomed Alex<br />
Fels as Development Officer. In<br />
May we bade farewell to Jessica<br />
Dunham, who joined the central<br />
university after two years as Senior<br />
Development Officer. In the<br />
Communications Team, Femke Gow<br />
left Wolfson to move to Nairobi,<br />
Kenya, and we welcomed George<br />
Mather as her successor<br />
as Communications Officer.<br />
The Syme Society commemorates<br />
one of Wolfson’s most<br />
distinguished fellows and<br />
benefactors, Sir Ronald Syme.<br />
Those who pledge a bequest to<br />
Wolfson in their will and notify<br />
the College are invited to join the<br />
society, and to a summer lunch at<br />
Wolfson. For further information,<br />
please see wolfson.ox.ac.uk/<br />
leave-legacy.<br />
Wolfson’s termly e-newsletter,<br />
The Wolfsonian, offers alumni and<br />
friends regular updates on College<br />
news and events. If you’re not yet<br />
on the mailing list but would like<br />
to be, please contact the Alumni &<br />
Development Office at<br />
alumni.office@wolfson.ox.ac.uk.<br />
We’ll be happy to forward you the<br />
latest edition and sign you up so<br />
you don’t miss the next one.<br />
27
Financial Report<br />
College Bursar Richard Morin reflects on Wolfson’s achievements in a challenging financial year, and looks ahead to some of the<br />
exciting developments being made possible by the generosity of alumni and friends.<br />
This has been another challenging year<br />
for the College finances as inflation has<br />
continued to spiral and the increase<br />
in the cost of borrowing has brought<br />
about the inevitable write down of<br />
investment values. Nevertheless, the<br />
underlying health of the College finances,<br />
along with our prudent and cautious<br />
approach, has enabled us to just about<br />
balance the books once again. Thanks<br />
to the kindness of alumni and others<br />
we have continued our decarbonisation<br />
programme and have managed to<br />
establish a new, permanently endowed<br />
research fellowship in memory of Sir<br />
Isaiah Berlin. This endowed fellowship<br />
has been created from the amalgamation<br />
of small donations received for this<br />
purpose over many years, and shows<br />
that even the smallest of donations can<br />
grow into something substantial and<br />
important over time.<br />
The adjustment in asset prices because<br />
of the increase in the cost of borrowing<br />
28<br />
has resulted in a substantial fall in the<br />
value of our investments, with both<br />
public and private equity, as well as<br />
property, being challenged by the<br />
changing landscape. A predicted sharp<br />
drop in inflation has yet to happen, but<br />
it is still generally believed that inflation<br />
will diminish by the end of this calendar<br />
year (as a result of lapping itself if for<br />
no other reason), and, of course, this<br />
assumes no other major catastrophes<br />
befall the economy.<br />
One of the saddest impacts of the<br />
current cost of borrowing is that we are<br />
no longer able to raise the £14 million<br />
that we had hoped to raise through<br />
the private markets to fund a new<br />
‘Garden Building’ to accomodate 50 new<br />
student rooms on our south car park.<br />
The design has now been completed<br />
and planning permission achieved, and,<br />
originally, we had intended to borrow<br />
the money and service the debt through<br />
the income that the new rooms would<br />
have generated. The rise in the cost<br />
of interest rates unfortunately means<br />
that this is no longer possible, and we<br />
are therefore looking at other options,<br />
including fundraising, to fund the finance<br />
gap. It would be terrific to be able to<br />
complete this important project, as it<br />
would enable another 50 students to<br />
live on site and be immersed in the full<br />
Wolfson experience.<br />
We have also been working on<br />
completing the design for a new sports<br />
and wellbeing centre, and we hope to<br />
submit this for planning permission in<br />
the coming months. This work has been<br />
instigated and supported by the kindness<br />
of a generous donor, to whom the<br />
College will be eternally grateful. While<br />
full funding is not yet in place for the<br />
building phase, we are hopeful that more<br />
funds can be raised and construction can<br />
start as soon as finances allow.<br />
With the value of our investments
Financial report<br />
“This has been an incredible<br />
and challenging programme<br />
of work for the College”<br />
Credit: John Cairns<br />
having fallen by around 4% over the<br />
last 12 months, the College’s buying<br />
power has been reduced, especially<br />
when set against inflation of 10%,<br />
but with very careful budget and cost<br />
management we achieved a small<br />
surplus at the end of the last year: that<br />
small surplus was committed to the<br />
extensive decarbonisation programme<br />
as per Wolfson’s five-year plan. The<br />
decarbonisation programme is almost<br />
complete, with the whole of the main<br />
site now zero carbon emitting, with<br />
no fossil fuel heating. Our houses in<br />
Garford, Linton and Chadlington Roads<br />
are also almost fossil fuel heating free,<br />
with the last few properties being<br />
insulated and having heat pumps installed<br />
this summer. This has been an incredible<br />
and challenging programme of work for<br />
the College, and so many people have<br />
told me how proud they are to be a<br />
member of a college so committed to<br />
being truly zero carbon at a time when it<br />
is most needed.<br />
Having reached net zero this year<br />
and having completed the current<br />
programme of decarbonisation works,<br />
we are now looking for funding for the<br />
next stage, which will be to increase the<br />
number of photovoltaic panels on our<br />
flat roofs, so we can generate more of<br />
our own electricity locally. We also need<br />
to put more insulation in place in the<br />
remaining uninsulated parts of Wolfson’s<br />
estate and want to buy a large storage<br />
battery so that we can draw down<br />
electricity from when it is available in its<br />
greenest form and store it for later use.<br />
There is also work underway in College<br />
amongst staff, fellows and students<br />
to reduce our own individual carbon<br />
footprints wherever we can.<br />
We are currently offsetting those<br />
residual individual carbon footprints,<br />
as well as the carbon footprints of<br />
our operations, by reinvesting in green<br />
initiatives at the College.<br />
Other, smaller projects completed<br />
across College include the refurbishment<br />
of the Private Dining Room through<br />
the kindness of a donor (now renamed<br />
the Levett Room), and the purchase<br />
of an electric minibus (again through<br />
the kindness of a donor), which is due<br />
to arrive in September and will ensure<br />
carbon free travel for our members<br />
between the College and town.<br />
So, despite all of the challenges, there is<br />
much to be pleased about in terms of<br />
the progress being made. The day-today<br />
running of the College continues<br />
to be blessed by an amazing team of<br />
managers and staff who look after us all<br />
so very well. Our Head Chef, Michael<br />
Godfrey, an award winning international<br />
executive chef, and his team, including<br />
Sofia Miron Sardiello, recently promoted<br />
to be the new College Steward,<br />
continue to produce the most dazzling<br />
catering experience, and an environment<br />
in which the academic magic continues<br />
to happen.<br />
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@wolfsoncollegeoxford<br />
Join us on social media for events, news and inspiration<br />
Pivot Points Podcast #5:<br />
Shaharzad Akbar: Human rights in<br />
Afghanistan - a feminist journey<br />
58 retweets<br />
Wolfson now has a fleet of Voi electric scooters<br />
docked outside the front of College<br />
2.9K views<br />
Pakistani journalist Cyril Almeida delivers Wolfson’s<br />
annual Sarfraz Pakistan Lecture<br />
175<br />
@JurassicWorld Dominion films in<br />
the LWA #JeffGoldblum #SamNeill<br />
Credit: Jason Tong<br />
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Make a gift<br />
Scan the QR code with your<br />
phone camera to make a<br />
donation to the College online<br />
Supporting Wolfson<br />
Gifts allow Wolfson to offer scholarships to reduce the cost of studying in Oxford, travel<br />
awards to facilitate students’ research, bursaries for students who encounter unexpected<br />
financial hardship, and much more.<br />
Online giving<br />
Our recommended method – if you<br />
are resident anywhere except the<br />
USA, please donate online at www.<br />
development.ox.ac.uk/wolfsoncollege.<br />
You can set up regular giving<br />
there, or make a single gift with a credit<br />
or debit card.<br />
In the USA, you can donate tax<br />
efficiently through Americans for<br />
Oxford (AFO), the university’s 501 (c)<br />
(3) charitable organisation, at www.<br />
oxfordna.org/donate.<br />
Giving by post<br />
You can use the donation form enclosed<br />
with this magazine or download the<br />
form at www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/<br />
make-gift. Please send the form to<br />
the Wolfson Alumni and Development<br />
Office, Wolfson College, Linton Road,<br />
Oxford, OX2 6UD.<br />
Tax efficient ways of giving<br />
Depending on where you live and<br />
whether or not you are a taxpayer, there<br />
are several ways you can increase the<br />
value of your gift to the College.<br />
UK taxpayers<br />
Please make sure to cover your donation<br />
under the Gift Aid scheme to increase<br />
the value of your gift by 25%, courtesy<br />
of HM Customs and Revenue. Higher<br />
rate tax payers will get a further<br />
deduction from their taxes.<br />
USA taxpayers<br />
Gifts to Wolfson in the United States<br />
can be made through AFO. Gifts to AFO<br />
qualify for an income tax deduction to<br />
the full extent allowed by law. Gifts can<br />
be made online at: www.oxfordna.org/<br />
donate or by cheque sent to Americans<br />
for Oxford, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, 32nd<br />
Floor, New York, NY 10110. Please<br />
include clear instructions that your gift<br />
is for Wolfson College, including postal<br />
address (Linton Road, Oxford, OX2<br />
6UD).<br />
Continental European residents<br />
Tax efficient giving is available through<br />
the Transnational Giving Europe Scheme.<br />
For full information, go to:<br />
https://donate.transnationalgiving.eu/<br />
landing/wolfson_college<br />
Canadian taxpayers<br />
The University of Oxford is recognised<br />
by the Canadian Revenue Agency<br />
as a prescribed institution under<br />
Section 3503 of the Canadian Income<br />
Tax Regulations. On receipt of your<br />
donation, we will ensure that you<br />
are sent a receipt for Canadian tax<br />
purposes.<br />
Wolfson is a registered charity, no. 1141446<br />
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Upcoming events<br />
Saturday 23rd September <strong>2023</strong><br />
Wolfson Alumni Lecture & Drinks Reception<br />
Thursday 12th October <strong>2023</strong><br />
Annual Wolfson Art Tour with Sir Tim Hitchens<br />
Thursday 26th October <strong>2023</strong><br />
Japanese Dance: “Rey Camoy” by “Nanika Tarinai”<br />
Thursday 2nd November <strong>2023</strong><br />
Syme Lecture<br />
Thursday 16th November <strong>2023</strong><br />
Sir Ben Bradshaw MP on Religion in British Politics<br />
Thursday 23rd November <strong>2023</strong><br />
Sarfraz Pakistan Lecture<br />
Thursday 30th November <strong>2023</strong><br />
Oxford Lieder Concert<br />
Tuesday 5th December <strong>2023</strong><br />
Wolfson Alumni Drinks in London, Oxford and Cambridge Club<br />
All events in College unless otherwise specified.<br />
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