Plans & Prospects 2024

50
YEARS
ON THE CHERWELL
PLANS & PROSPECTS 2024
THE FIGHT AGAINST CANCER • HEALING THE PLANET • LESSONS FROM THE ANCIENT WORLD
1

Summer 2024
Contents
12
16
18
22
24
Healing the Planet
Dr Susan Graham
Political Lessons from the Ancient Past
Thomas Gavin
From Silence to Sound
Dr Kate Kennedy
Egyptian Fossils
Professor Hesham Sallam
Early Warnings
Dr May Sallam and Dr Aneesh Aggarwal
College news 4-7
Development report 26-27
Financial report 28-29
Huw David
Development
Director
George Mather
Communications
Officer
Isobel Holling
Communications
Assistant
Alice Marsh
Senior Development
Officer
All information is believed to be correct at the time of publication (July 2024). Every effort has
been made to verify details and no responsibility is taken for any errors or omissions, or any
loss arising therefrom.
Unless otherwise stated all images © Wolfson College, University of Oxford. Every effort has
been made to locate the copyright owners of images included in this record and to meet their
requirements. The publishers apologise for any omissions, which they will be pleased to rectify
at the earliest opportunity.
Compiled and typeset by George Mather, Isobel Holling and Huw David.
Cover photo by John Cairns.
Many thanks to all our members who have contributed to our publications.
Published by Wolfson College
Copyright 2024 Wolfson College
Wolfson College, Linton Road
Oxford OX2 6UD
Telephone: +44 (0)1865 274 100
digicomms@wolfson.ox.ac.uk
www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk
2

Credit: John Cairns
Welcome
Sir Tim Hitchens
President
1974 was a miserable year for many. The global economy was tanking after
the oil price shock. Politics in the UK (two elections) and the US (Watergate)
had hit what felt like rock bottom. Ireland was then experiencing the height
of the Troubles.
But fifty years ago there were also signs of confidence in the future. Astronauts set a new record for the longestever
manned space mission. The foundations were laid for what would become the internet. And in Oxford, rising
on the banks of the River Cherwell, a newly-completed, modernist campus was preparing to welcome students and
researchers for the first time. 1974 quite literally put Wolfson on the map, as the Powell & Moya buildings provided a
permanent home to the first college to give postgraduates and postdocs top billing. It was one of our founder Isaiah
Berlin’s proudest achievements.
Wolfsonians have made endless fond memories in this wonderful setting, and we continue to build on that foundation.
Young families have found a safe and friendly home at Wolfson, which this year benefited from the transformation of
our playground. Our evenings have often been the occasion for unforgettable concerts in the Auditorium and Bar,
and this spring saw the complete renovation of our music practice rooms for the use of all our talented musicians.
Countless friendships have been forged over late-night conversations and games in the Lower Common Room, which
will see a mid-century modern facelift this summer. Each of those projects was accomplished thanks to generous
philanthropy from members of the wider Wolfson community. These places matter to us all.
We know we are lucky. People all around the world find themselves in incredibly difficult situations, facing impossible
personal choices. The College continues to provide a safe haven for students and fellows to think deeply, meet those
with different perspectives, and to learn tolerance as well as how to speak out respectfully. We are grateful that so
many graduate students of the highest quality continue to apply to Oxford and to find a home at Wolfson.
Offering financial support to the best of those students remains a priority. Thanks again to our generous members,
we are expanding the range of our scholarships and bursaries. Let me mention, among many, the Ellen Rice Fund
for Ancient World studies, building on our great expertise in that field and honouring one of the College’s most
committed fellows. I’m also delighted that, thanks to Tim and Elaine Rolph, we will be offering scholarships in climate
change, expanding our commitment to the environment in the same year our decarbonisation work was completed.
I’m using this fiftieth anniversary to travel further afield than during an average year. At Easter, I was delighted to see
members of the Wolfson community in New York, Washington, and in the Bay Area around San Francisco. I was
lucky enough to experience an earthquake in New York, and to fly through the solar eclipse across the Midwest! I’ve
travelled north of the border to see alumni and friends in Edinburgh. And in September I’ll be heading to ‘the other
place’, to visit Cambridge and the Wolfsonians who live and work in the Fens. Wherever I go I come across fascinating
individuals who care very much about their Wolfson association and who are making a distinctive mark in their field.
In 1974 I was a twelve-year-old boy going to school in south London, just starting to get a feel for the world I was
about to enter. We’ve all come a long way since those days. But our connections with the places which made us, and
provided the space for us to become who we wanted to be, are unique and worth prizing. Thank you for being part
of the Wolfson community.
3

College News
Wolfson Student Receives Orwell
Prize for Reporting Homelessness
In the summer of 2023, Wolfson
College DPhil student Freya Marshall
Payne (GS 2020—) was awarded the
inaugural Orwell Prize for Reporting
Homelessness.
The Orwell Prizes are the UK’s most
prestigious prizes for political writing.
Established on the ninetieth anniversary
of the publication of George Orwell’s
Down and Out in Paris and London
(1933), the Prize for Reporting
Homelessness recognises and rewards
the empathic spirit of Orwell’s vivid
reportage, encouraging evidence-led
reporting and a re-examination of the
debate around homelessness. Freya,
who won joint first place alongside the
journalist Daniel Lavelle, received the
4
Susan Walker Awarded Kenyon Medal
In 2023, Dr Susan Walker FSA,
Emeritus Fellow of Wolfson College and
Honorary Curator of the Ashmolean
Museum, received the British Academy’s
prestigious Kenyon Medal, awarded
annually in recognition of work in the
fields of classical studies and archaeology.
Dr Walker, who joined Wolfson in
2004, received the award for pioneering
new approaches to classical art and
archaeology, and for her instrumental
role in forging strong bonds between the
museum and university sectors.
award in recognition of her reporting
for The Guardian and an original essay
submitted for the occasion. Alan
Rusbridger, former Guardian editor
and chair of the judging panel, praised
the “powerful, hard-won use” to which
Freya put her own experiences, “coming
to recognise her own experience of
insecure housing was a form of hidden
homelessness.”
Turing-Gandy Bursaries
Wolfson is pleased to announce plans
for new bursaries in Computer Science
and Logic, thanks to the sale of volumes
from the library of Alan Turing (1912-
1954) bequeathed to the College by his
friend and student Robin Gandy (1919-
1995). Gandy became a Governing Body
Fellow in 1970, and upon his death
generously left his entire estate to the
College.
New AI Techniques
Recent advances in artificial intelligence
have required processing power to
double every 3.5 months, which is
becoming difficult to sustain with
conventional computer chips. In
response, Supernumerary Fellow Harish
Bhaskaran’s team is developing a firstof-its-kind
technology that uses light to
process data at high speed. The strides
made by Professor Bhaskaran could
provide a 10,000% increase in energy
efficiency and computer density.
Royal Society Honours
Wolfson Fellows
Each year, the Royal Society recognises
oustanding contributions to research
through its awards and medals. Of
the 25 awards made in 2023, three
honoured Fellows of Wolfson College.
Sir Tony Hoare
Royal Medal (Physical)
for groundbreaking
contributions
to computer
programming.
Sir Chris Whitty
Royal Medal (Applied)
for his pivotal role
in ensuring the UK’s
Covid-19 response
benefited from the
best evidence.
Artur Ekert
Milner Award
and Lecture 2024
for pioneering
contributions to
quantum computing
and communication.

Wolfson College Becomes the First Zero Carbon Higher Education Institution in the UK
In December 2023, following two years
of retrofitting works, Wolfson College
became the first Higher Education
Institution (HEI) in the UK to achieve
net zero carbon emissions. While many
other universities and HEIs in the UK
have pledged to reach net zero by 2030,
Wolfson has made this a reality today,
proving that historic estates can adapt to
the demands of the present.
Seeing the growing urgency of the
climate crisis, in 2020 the College voted
to accelerate its decarbonisation plans
and embarked on works to eliminate
carbon emissions from its operations,
whether these derived from fossil fuels
we burn ourselves (e.g. from burning gas
for heating) or from fuels burned on our
behalf (e.g. from electricity production).
Achieving such radical change on a Grade
II-listed estate, and on such a short
schedule, was no mean feat. Working
with Original Field Architects, engineers
Max Fordham LLP and main contractors
Benfield and Loxley, the College replaced
approximately a thousand panes of glass
with specially engineered triple glazing to
cut heat loss. The old gas boilers were
replaced with a district supply network
of seven air source heat pumps – the
first of its kind in the UK. This vital work
is projected to save more than 24,000
tonnes of CO 2
over the next 20 years.
Wolfson’s decarbonisation project has
so far received multiple awards, including
the Vice Chancellor’s Environmental
Sustainability Award, the OxProp Fest
sustainability award, and an Oxford
Preservation Trust Award.
50 Faces of Wolfson
To mark the 50th anniversary of Wolfson’s move to its current site on the banks of
the River Cherwell, the College commissioned an exhibition of ’50 Faces of Wolfson’,
highlighting the diverse community of fellows, staff, and students here. The photos
are currently on display in the main buildings and in Berlin Quad, and a selection are
below.
Maria Ambrosio
DPhil student in Social Intervention
and Policy Evaluation
Ping Lu
Postdoctoral Researcher in Clinical
Machine Learning
Lama Jabb
Supernumerary Fellow in Tibetan &
Himalayan Studies
Sir Richard Sorabji
Honoury Fellow
Sol Wilkinson
Maintenance Technician
Michael Godfrey
Head Chef
5

New Playground Completed at Wolfson
March 2024 marked the completion
of a brand-new playground for the use
of families and nursery children at the
College, made possible by a generous
donation. Following twenty-five years
of faithful service, the old equipment in
the College grounds was replaced with
a bespoke playground featuring monkey
bars, a rope bridge, slide, balance beam,
new swings and a basket swing for the
use of our youngest members. The
playground was officially opened over
the Easter weekend with a celebratory
Teddy Bears’ Picnic, organised by
Wolfson’s new Teddy Bear Liaison (and
Estates Manager) Ray Upton.
Ellen Rice Fund Established
A major gift has established the Ellen
Rice Fund to support graduate students
and Junior Research Fellows at the
College working on the ancient world.
The fund is named in memory of Dr
Ellen Rice, whose association with
Wolfson began in October 1978. A
classicist specialising in the culture and
history of ancient Greece, Rome and
Ptolemaic Egypt, Ellen served Wolfson in
a wide variety of roles during her time at
the College: as Senior Research Fellow
and member of Governing Body (1988-
2020), as Domestic Bursar (1994-2004),
as Dean of Degrees, Fellow Librarian,
Fellow Archivist, and finally as Emeritus
Fellow (2020-2023). The fund was
established in Ellen’s honour following
her untimely passing in April 2023,
thanks to a generous donation by her
husband, Professor Jim Kennedy (GBF,
1970–2003; EF, 2003–). The fund will
support graduate students and Junior
Research Fellows undertaking fieldwork,
museum or library study and conference
attendance related to the study of the
history and archaeology of Greece,
Rome, and Ptolemaic Egypt.
Music Practice Rooms Refurbished
Thanks to a recent donation from alumni
Linda Tan and Nikolai Schwabe, the
music practice rooms in Berlin Quad
have been fully refurbished for the use
of all Wolfson’s talented musicians. Not
only are the music rooms kitted out with
drums, keyboards, guitars and amplifiers,
but they are now equipped with new
soundproofing which allows members to
practice without disturbing those in the
nearby library or accommodation. The
gift has allowed us to maximise the use
of this fantastic resource, as the music
rooms are now available for use twentyfour
hours a day, seven days a week.
6

College News
Boat Crew and Blades Reunited
Dr Tania Shew Appointed as First Isaiah Berlin Junior Research Fellow
In October 2023 Dr Tania Shew joined
Wolfson as the inaugural holder of the
Isaiah Berlin Junior Research Fellowship.
Dr Shew is a historian of ideas focusing
on women’s suffrage. Her work analyses
the struggle for women’s voting rights
from the perspectives of intellectual and
transnational history.
The Isaiah Berlin Junior Research
Fellowship is a new, permanently
endowed College fellowship created
from the amalgamation of small
donations received over many years.
The College is grateful to the many
alumni and friends whose generosity has
endowed the post.
In summer 2023, the College welcomed
back members of the victorious Boat
Club crew of 1972 to celebrate their
achievements and continued support,
fifty-one years on from their triumph
on the Thames. Captain Simon
Harrison (GS 1969-72) and Hubert
Zawadzki were joined over video call
by crewmates Janet Berg (cox), Alan
Bamford, Samuel Guttenplan, Guy
Parkhurst, Brendan Buckley, and Michael
Casey in Berlin Quad for the occasion,
which brought Wolfson College Boat
Club’s first blades-winning crew together
with the 2022-23 captains, Anna Jones
and David Geldbach, and reunited Dr
Harrison with his trophy blade.
New Wolfson Governing Body Fellows for 2023/24
Frédérique Duyrat
Director of Collections and Keeper of the
Heberden Coin Room, Ashmolean Museum
Liam McNamara
Keeper of the Department of Antiquities,
Ashmolean Museum
Meron-Martin Piotrkowski
Associate Professor of Ancient Jewish
History
Ester Hammond
Professor of Molecular Cancer Biology
Jesus Lizana
Associate Professor in Engineering Science
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Stallworthy
Poetry Prize
2024
This year’s Stallworthy Poetry Prize
was awarded to MSt student Riley
Faulds for his poem ‘Selfslip’.
Each year, students currently enrolled
in a postgraduate course at Oxford
University submit poems in English
verse in a bid to win the Stallworthy
Poetry Prize, established in 2016 by
Wolfson College in conjunction with
the Faculty of English in memory of the
late Professor Jon Stallworthy, poet and
Fellow of the College.
The prize was permanently endowed
thanks to the generosity of Jon’s many
friends, colleagues and admirers.
The prize is awarded for the best poem
in English verse not exceeding 40 lines
in length, on a theme set by the judging
panel. This year’s theme was ‘Borders’.
As per tradition, the prize was awarded
on 18 January to mark Stallworthy’s
birthday.
Commenting on Riley’s winning poem,
A.E. Stalling, the current Oxford
Professor of Poetry and head of the
judging panel, said: “Migration is perhaps
one of the most ancient and, ironically,
‘defining’ of human activities, yet walls
being built at national borders, to
exclude one set of people and, in theory,
protect another, cost human lives, and
have the unforeseen consequence of
interrupting millennia-old migratory
patterns and paths of wildlife at a time
when nature needs more consideration
from us, not less. ‘Selfslip’ addresses not
only the shifting border of the estuary,
but how such shifting land/water is the
site of some shifty human activity. Out
of the landscape evolve questions of
who belongs where, what belongs to
whom. The poem even finds its way
into addressing larger issues of climate
change and shifting sea levels, all without
devolving into the didactic or the heavyhanded.”
About the winner
Riley Faulds is studying for an MSt in World Literature. His writing has previously
been published in Australian literary journals, but in his own words, he saves
the best poems for birthday cards. An “environmental scientist in the streets
and a poet in the sheets,” Riley admits he would probably write a lot more if he
didn’t spend so much time looking for his pen, or fishing notebooks out of the
washing machine. When not studying or pen-searching, he loves to kitesurf, hike,
play hockey, and daydream of his favorite places in the south-west of Western
Australia, his home.
8

Selfslip
Make the journey to Bouvard, taking the long
way round the estuary’s southern end, where
sun shocks and hazes at the crest of tallest hill, on
its track over forest and lakes, to an ocean of sand.
Arriving, the greeting sight is unexpected: two men are
perched by a campfire at the edge of autumn water.
Suspicion—people use these frontages of brown water
for diverse ends. Some traipse shallows in long
slaughter, heaving crabs fromwith weed to mar
evening with cookfires, crushing evidence in sand
above the mud line. These men, though, wear
dryness, watching stratified cloudset, on
which pale orange holds, in pre-retribution.
Walk barefoot to them, over puddled water
gathered by rain and topography onto greyed sand—
oncebush oncegrass and now, for a stretching long
while, duckdug rabbitcratered precarity, where
samphire has inched from inbeside estuary, to far
beyond what hightide lines once were and are.
Careful of these figures, hunched in confident nonownership
of the edge. This is not their where
and that intensifies felt right to it. Land by water
is always slipping states—without vastlong
roots and rhizomes to remake soil of saltsand
‘stability’ and ‘property’ are simple mythsand
in this eroding estuarine liminality, edges are
only dictated by mindwork and moon. In long
treeshadow, these men may well be sitting on
what will soon also be territory of water
and a new tragedy of commons—one where
all living things must still, or more, beware.
Crumbled certainty (where ends who owns sand?)
leads to urgent claim of all claimable, waterheld
or weed. In sketched ownership, why are
you justified to dole tough move-ons
to those implicated no more than you? Long
for men by water to not actually be there,
outlines longfaded or illusively sand.
Your instincts are shifting. Go on.
9

Wolfson in 1974
An Exhibition
This year marks the 50 th anniversary of the opening of the College’s current
site on the banks of the River Cherwell. As part of the celebrations, Professor
David Zeitlyn and Dr Chihab El Khachab have curated a small exhibition on
Wolfson life in the 1970s. The exhibition features early construction pictures,
original college paraphernalia, and captures the moments spent at Wolfson
by some of our alumni. We would like to thank all of the ‘First Wolves’ who
shared their wonderful pictures and memories with us.
Above: Christchurch Regatta fours 1975.
Photo: Jennifer Coghlan.
“Our main purpose in curating ‘Wolfson
1974’ was to give college members, past
and present, a sense of life at Wolfson
in 1974 when the College’s current site
was opened.
Above: Flooding of the Cherwell and College
Harbour, 1974. Photo: Manuel Hulliger
Left: Eights Week 1975.
Photo Jennifer Coghlan.
The exhibition was commissioned by
Sir Tim Hitchens, as part of our 50th
anniversary celebrations for the opening
of the Wolfson buildings. The broad
idea was to display what we had in our
college archives from the 1970s, but we
wanted to go a little further as curators.
In addition to the official college charters
and the well-known building plans by
Powell & Moya, we thought it would be
interesting to collate some photographs
from alumni who went to Wolfson
during this period, and to show part of
the College’s original wares - including
original scarves, shirts, and crockery. We
selected some alumni photos to print
and display along the walls of the Levett
Room, and we took care in displaying
the College’s materials in glass cases. The
result is a brief insight into the different
materials that made life in Wolfson what
it was in 1974 and have shaped it into
the College we know and love today.”
By David Zeitlyn and Chihab El Khachab
10

Above: Wolfson College Harbour. Photo: Elmars Krausz.
Above: Daniel Gilbertson and Christine Slann, punting on the
River Cherwell. Photo Daniel Gilbertson.
Below: Pat and Francis Ng after the christening of their son,
joined by fellow Wolfsonians. Photo: Jennifer Farley Smith.
Left: C Block, Wolfson College.
Photo Manuel Hulliger.
11

Healing the Planet
After completing her DPhil at Wolfson in 2014, Dr Susan Graham co-founded Dendra Systems, a start-up tackling
environmental degradation across the globe. Dendra uses drone technology, big data and artificial intelligence to
rehabilitate environments affected by industry, invasive species and loss of biodiversity, achieving results more than
ten times faster than would be possible using traditional methods. By meticulously mapping ecosystems and seeding
plant species from the air, Dendra works to restore crucial habitats, sequester carbon and restore the balance of
our natural world.
Plans & Prospects spoke with Susan in June about the path that led her from studying healthcare technology at
Wolfson to engineering solutions to heal the planet – and where she might go next.
You were at Wolfson from 2010
to 2014 studying for a DPhil in
Biomedical Engineering. You
made the Forbes ‘30 Under 30’
list two years later. Could you
tell us about the path from your
doctorate to where you are now?
The path maybe started earlier than
my time at Wolfson, but when I was at
Oxford I was surrounded by amazing
people with ideas and energy and
passion – whether that was in rowing,
or the DPhil or just in the general
community – and that really supported
my passion for entrepreneurship. I got
the bug when I was a child, and finding
myself in the middle of people who
were prepared to bounce ideas around
and build things, I started a number
of fun ventures while at Oxford. And
at Wolfson you’re always surrounded
by beauty and nature – there’s the
meadows, there’s the river where you
can punt up to the pub, all that kind of
thing. That setting is always a reminder
of the value of the natural world. It’s
there, in your subconscious.
When Dendra came together in 2014,
the team started meeting in and around
Oxford and kept bouncing those ideas
off one another, and because of the
company’s mission we needed multiple
viewpoints and to surround ourselves
with different people with different
ideas. That’s what really allowed us to
create the company.
You mentioned that you founded
Dendra Systems in 2014. What’s
the big problem that Dendra was
created to solve?
Biodiversity loss is more than ten times
higher than it has been in the last ten
million years, atmospheric carbon
dioxide is going up and up and up, and
land degradation is putting enormous
pressures on livelihoods across the globe.
In 2014, it felt like there was no end
to the doom and gloom – and this was
back when carbon dioxide concentration
was below 400 parts per million, which
was quite an important line for us [as of
April 2024, mean concentration stood at
427ppm]. The rate of land degradation
was higher than the rate of land
restoration. We looked at this array of
complex challenges and said, if we could
just coordinate ecosystem restoration at
scale, then it would solve each of these.
So let’s just do that!
We asked ourselves, who’s restoring
nature at scale? How can we help these
people? And as we started speaking to
environmental teams around the world,
we would ask them just one simple
question: how do you restore nature
today? As the answers came back, they
revealed that these teams were relying
on the old methods: steel cap boots,
high-vis vests, pen and paper. They were
going out into the field and carrying
out the planning, the monitoring and
interventions – and all manually. It was
no wonder they couldn’t scale their
processes, and no wonder the failure
rates that plague these projects were
so high. It’s so complex, so challenging.
To me, as an engineer, I was just baffled.
They didn’t even have an iPhone. They
didn’t have any technology. That’s where
our mission was born. Our mission
was to build a platform that empowers
nature’s restoration at a global scale and
to rebalance the natural world.
Ten years on, you’ve built
a platform to rehabilitate
ecosystems right across the
world, using drones and big data
to make targeted interventions
and plant native species at scale.
Do you think there’s reason to be
optimistic about the restoration
of nature?
Absolutely. The thing is that the people
working to restore ecosystems are very,
very smart. When you give them a new
tool, new data and a platform, they
know exactly what to do with it. They’ve
been working on this land for decades,
so when you give them something, they
don’t need much training before they’re
ready to use it. We’re working with big
companies who are investing millions of
dollars to restore tens of thousands of
hectares of land. And when communities
are shown the challenge, they take it up
and say, ‘great, we’re going to use these
tools to address the problem.’
I live by one rule: as long as we’re not
breaking a law of physics, it can be done.
So when people say, ‘this is too hard’,
I say, ‘well, are we breaking a law of
physics?’ Because if we’re not, it’s not
too hard. It can be done.
12

Student profile
“When I was at
Oxford, I was
surrounded by
amazing people
with ideas and
energy and
passion.”
For her work with Dendra
Systems, Dr Susan Graham has
featured on the Forbes ’30 Under
30’ list, received the Australian
Advance Award for Emerging
Leader, and was a finalist for
the 2020 Pritzker Emerging
Environmental Genius Award.
13

Left: A Dendra seeding drone flying in Australia.
“Over the last
decade we’ve
built the world’s
largest database
for biodiversity
and machine
learning.”
Below: Flora photographed by drone and
highlighted by Dendra’s artificial intelligence.
The whole Wolfson community
has been committed to climate
action for many years now, and
there’s huge appetite among
our students for careers in the
climate sector. What would
you say to current students
considering careers in the climate
space? Can they expect to join
companies working to tackle
the problem, or should they be
prepared to found their own, as
you’ve done?
Oh, both! And take every opportunity
in between. If you’ve got the
entrepreneurial bug, then go for it. They
say that the best time to plant a tree
was 20 years ago, and the second-best
time is today. I’d approach this in the
same way: if you see a challenge and you
want to start a business to solve it, then
do it today. In the UK, you can start a
company in a weekend. You can register,
you can file a patent, you can set up
a website, and if you’re surrounded
by friends, you can set it up very
quickly. I’d highly encourage that. But
not everybody needs to be a founder.
There are a whole range of ways to get
involved with dynamic companies doing
work in the climate space, from joining
as an early employee who catalyses the
beginning and shares some of the initial
risk, all the way through to bringing your
expertise to a maturing company and
guiding it through new challenges.
I’d also say that the market has really
shifted since we founded Dendra. We’re
now in a position where investors
and ecologists are coming together to
develop new ventures and make change
happen, which is leading to huge growth
in career opportunities. Particularly
in the last four years, there’s been an
enormous improvement in investor
education in the biodiversity space, and
there’s a much better understanding of
nature overall and nature technologies.
At Dendra, we’re very proud that we’ve
brought a lot of ecologists, biologists,
14

Alumni lecture
Above: Drone photography of State Forest in the Collie Basin
in Western Australia.
Above: A Dendra technician performs preflight checks on an aerial seeding
drone.
marine biologists and others onto our
team who we’ve then retrained in data
science, machine learning, marketing, and
various other areas. It was something
I learned to appreciate at Oxford: in
my DPhil lab, we had scientists and
medical doctors coming together to
generate solutions and look at longterm
outcomes, rather than examining
a specific component of the problem.
By using that interdisciplinary approach,
I think we were able to solve more
complex problems and open up new
opportunities.
What’s next for you and for
Dendra? What challenges do you
think you’ll face in the future and
where do you plan to go from
here?
Over the last decade we’ve built the
world’s largest database for biodiversity
and machine learning with imagery,
which is really exciting because it
effectively gives us superpowers. We
can now see nature that was previously
unseen – and some of the imagery I
just love. We applied our AI to look for
eagles, for instance, and I zoomed in on
one of them in flight – but it was looking
up, and I had this feeling that it was
looking at me, and I was looking at it.
Einstein once said ‘look deep, deep into
nature, and then you will understand
everything better.’ That’s something
that we keep doing; it’s about achieving
that depth of insight at scale. Every time
we scale up, from 100 hectares to 1000
hectares to 10,000 hectares to 100,000
hectares to a million hectares, each step
requires new thinking and sometimes
new models and new data architectures
and different approaches, but by having
a great team with superpowers, they’re
able to achieve that.
One final question – you were also
Captain of Wolfson College Boat
Club during your time here. How
did you manage to fit that in on
top of everything else?
I was laughing about this the other day,
because most days I’d wake up and go
to the river to row, and then I’d cycle
up the hill to work on my research, and
then I would sleep under my desk for
fifteen minutes to get a power nap in,
and then go back to my research. I had
co-founded OxBump [an app showing
weather and river conditions for rowers
in Oxford] with the men’s captain, and
we’d work on that at night, and then I’d
go to sleep and wake up and do it all
again. It was fun and I absolutely have
fond memories. It was such a great time
and I met amazing people who I’m still in
touch with, even though they’re spread
all over the world.
Thanks very much for speaking
with us, Susan.
Readers interested in finding out more
about Dendra Systems and their work can
visit their website at dendra.io.
15

Political Lessons from the Ancient Past
Thomas Gavin is a fourth-year DPhil student at Wolfson, and a recipient of the Lorne
Thyssen Scholarship in Ancient World Studies, generously funded by the Augustus
Foundation. Thomas recently gave Plans & Prospects an insight into his research
into homonoia, or concord, in the ancient world, and the lessons it might hold for
international relations today.
16

Student profile
In the early 2nd century CE, the
philosopher Dio Chrysostom delivered
an oration at Nicomedia in northern
Turkey. Although the occasion was
his receiving of local citizenship, his
speech mostly concerned Nicomedia’s
relationship with its neighbour, Nicaea.
Nicaea and Nicomedia had been
longtime rivals, struggling over the
various titles and honours granted by
Roman officials. Rather than squabbling
like children, Dio proclaimed that the
cities should instead cooperate and aim
for concord (homonoia) between their
two communities. Less than a century
later, the city of Laodicea minted a series
of coins proclaiming friendship with
Ephesus, a larger metropolis about 175
kilometres west. The coins themselves
are typical of cities in the Roman
Empire – one side depicts Commodus,
the current emperor, while the other
shows the patron god of the city,
Zeus Laodiceos, paired with Artemis
of Ephesus. The legend stresses the
concord between the Ephesians and the
Laodiceans, a common theme in Roman
provincial coinage.
Above: Coins minted at Laodicea proclaiming friendship with Ephesus.
Credit: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Münzkabinett/Reinhard Saczewski; Inv. No. 2353691.
“Ultimately, my focus is on subjected
communities, and how individuals within
those communities conceived of and coped
with political subordination.”
Both of these examples illustrate a
concern with cooperation between
Greek communities, a theme widely
evidenced across the Graeco-Roman
world. This has fascinated me for the
past few years: why did a rhetoric
of cooperation emerge so strongly
under the Roman Empire? Whom did
it benefit? How did it affect the ways
in which Greek cities under Roman
hegemony related to each other and to
the imperial power?
My interest in this area was piqued
during my undergraduate studies at St
Anne’s College – I was taught Roman
history by a tutor who specialised in
the ancient Greek world, and it was
the way his own interests influenced
his teaching that led me to straddle
the two worlds of the Greek-speaking
eastern Mediterranean and the Latin
imperial centre. But he also showed me
the importance of a holistic approach
to history, stitching together different
kinds of evidence to form a fuller picture
of what life in the Roman Empire was
really like, as opposed to focusing on a
single aspect of historical inquiry. This
has meant that my own research has
ironically necessitated a good deal of
cooperation, working with specialists to
get to grips with epigraphy, numismatics
and archaeology.
Wolfson has been an ideal place to work
on this research. I’m incredibly grateful
not only for the financial support of the
Lorne Thyssen scholarship (which has
enabled study that would otherwise
be impossible), but also for Wolfson’s
focus on bringing together scholars from
a range of disciplines and at all stages
of their academic careers. Wolfson’s
support of research networks like the
Ancient World Research Cluster and the
Ancient Anatolia Network has meant
that my doctoral study has been far less
isolated, allowing me to have regular
conversations with other researchers
that have profoundly influenced the
direction of my research. I try to
emulate this collaborative ethos in my
own practice and a key highlight of
the last few years was organising the
‘New Voices on Anatolia’ conference in
September 2023 with Fiona Phillips and
Oliver Clarke, bringing together a group
of early career researchers working on
various aspects of Anatolian history
and archaeology, from Late Iron Age
cooking tools to 19th century Ottoman
archaeology.
Roman history does not exist in a
vacuum, and the questions I’m interested
in have clear relevance beyond my
own period. Ultimately, my focus is
on subjected communities, and how
individuals within those communities
conceived of and coped with political
subordination, a theme which clearly
has relevance to other historical
periods and modern times. Modern
international relations theory has had
a strong focus on the conditions that
give rise to international cooperation,
and a study of the ancient evidence for
political concord can illuminate ways of
encouraging international cooperation
today.
The fact that similar concerns animate
both current political theorists and
ancient Greek writers in the distant past
provides a powerful impetus for my
work at Wolfson – modern interests
often have their roots in the ancient
world, and so study of ancient history
can bring our own assumptions and ways
of thinking into particularly sharp relief.
17

From Silence
to Sound
A writer, cellist and BBC broadcaster, in 2024 Wolfson’s annual London
Lecture was delivered by Dr Kate Kennedy at the magnificent Lincoln’s
Inn in the City of London, where she spoke on her forthcoming book,
Cello: A Journey through Silence to Sound (Bloomsbury, August 2024).
The book explores the lives of four cellists who suffered various forms
of persecution, injury and misfortune, and investigates the complicated
relationships a musician can have with their instrument. Plans & Prospects
spoke with Kate about the many and varied things a cello can mean, and
how her immersion in life-writing at Wolfson has allowed her to open up
new frontiers in her research.
Credit: Alice Marsh
Dr Kate Kennedy
Dr Kate Kennedy is a biographer, librettist and broadcaster. She specialises
in twentieth-century music and literature, the First World War, women’s
composition and writing, and illness narratives. She is a Supernumerary Fellow of
Wolfson College, Weinrebe Director of the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing, and
Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. She is also a regular broadcaster on the
BBC, particularly Radio 3. Her award-winning biography Dweller in Shadows: A
Life of Ivor Gurney was published by Princeton University Press in 2021. She has
previously held research fellowships in both Music and English at the University
of Cambridge, and has published widely on the arts.
As a child, I asked if I could learn guitar.
My junior school headmaster told me
there wasn’t any space in the guitar
group, but that a cello was basically the
same thing, but sideways, so I could
have one of those. I fell in love with it
instantly. I spent most of my teenage
years in Bristol Central Library listening
to LPs and reading all the books I
could find on music – and then I got a
scholarship to a specialist music school,
where I would practise for seven hours a
day, firmly set on becoming BBC Young
Musician of the Year.
That was how, at the age of eighteen,
I permanently injured my arm. I was
pushing far too hard and had no
understanding of tendonitis or the
dangers of over-practising. The injury
was bad enough that a life spent
exclusively as a professional musician
was now out of bounds – so although I
started life as a professional cellist, it led
instead to an academic career in which
I have found ways to express how I feel
about music and writing through books
and through radio. My new book, Cello:
A Journey through Silence to Sound, is the
most recent leg of that journey, and
emerged from trips I’ve taken across
Europe with my cello, where I put on
my biographer’s hat and asked: what
does a cello mean to a player? And
what happens when that relationship is
complicated?
The book draws together a wide
constellation of incredible, often
eccentric people, each with a unique
relationship with the instrument. One
example that is especially dear to my
heart is what I call the ‘Bee Cello’ –
which is also possibly the most peculiar
instrument I have ever encountered.
A brilliant physicist at Nottingham
Trent University, Martin Bensick, who
happened to be an expert on the honey
bee, found a cello in a skip and installed
a hive inside the instrument. There are
thousands upon thousands of bees living
inside the cello, and they fly in and out
of the f-holes. When they do, they find it
hard to get back in, and so they land on
the strings and ‘play’ it, plucking at them
constantly. It now sits in an orchard,
and so the wind vibrates the strings,
too. These sounds are inaudible to the
human ear, but if you put a microphone
on the bridge you pick up this incredible,
perpetual duet between the instrument
and nature. I played Bach on the cello
to see what the bees did: it turns out
Right: Kate Kennedy playing the cello.
Photo: Kate Kennedy.
18

Alumni lecture
19

Left: The ‘Bee Cello’.
Photo: Kate Kennedy.
“How do you
play Schumann
to SS guards,
many of whom
are now some
of the most
infamous figures
in history?”
Below: Kate Kennedy and Tim Hitchens at the
London Lecture. Photo: Alice Marsh.
they go quiet because they’re listening
through vibration.
There are, of course, much more
sombre stories to be told. In the book
I discuss the lives of two players caught
up in the Holocaust, one who survived
and one who didn’t. My work on Pal
Hermann, a brilliant cellist killed by the
Nazis in 1944, consisted of following his
footsteps across Europe and trying to
trace his cello, which disappeared after
his death. I tried to restore something
of his absence and fill the silence with
sound, working with his family and
playing his music. In the case of Anita
Lasker-Wallfisch, who survived, she was
taken to Auschwitz as a sixteen-year-old
girl and when she arrived, she happened
to tell the woman who was tattooing
the number on her arm that she played
the cello. And the woman said, my
God, you’re saved! Because the cellist
and the camp orchestra is dead, there’s
an instrument, but there’s no bassline.
And that’s how she became the cellist
of Auschwitz, and it saved her and her
sister’s life. Anita is still alive today (she
is 98 this year), and I had the privilege
of speaking with her, exploring what
it means to play in such an appalling
situation, and what the cello meant to
her. How do you play Schumann to SS
guards, many of whom are now some of
the most infamous figures in twentiethcentury
history?
Cello marks something of a departure for
me as a writer. In the past, my work was
exclusively written in the third person,
and I maintained a safe distance from
my subjects. But over the last decade
I’ve enjoyed a unique immersion in lifewriting
thanks to my work at the Oxford
Centre for Life-Writing (OCLW) here
at Wolfson. Writing can be isolating,
private business, but we’ve created a
bubble where the very best writers can
come together to swap ideas. Amongst
institutions of this kind, we’re like the
New Yorker: very few can hold a candle
to what we do, and we continue to
grow. Being surrounded by wonderful
writers who are prepared to reveal
themselves, particularly through memoir,
gave me permission to talk about myself
without feeling that I was some ghastly
egomaniac who banged on about herself
all the time. OCLW, and the support of
Hermione Lee and that of her successor
Tim Hitchens, has allowed me to
develop my understanding of biography
and to build the fantastic community we
have at OCLW today.
20

Alumni lecture
Above: Pal Hermann with his Gagliano cello, now lost.
Photo: Kate Kennedy.
Above: Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, playing a Ventapane cello.
Photo: IWM.
My work with OCLW made me realise
that my injury, while it isn’t a big part of
my life all these years on, could be a way
to relate to others who had suffered
something similar. It’s only because I
revealed myself in the course of my
writing that others working through
injury opened up and talked about their
lives. I would never have put myself in a
book before.
At the moment I’m making a series
of radio programmes called Healing
Musicians, where I speak with people like
the cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, whose
neck injury suddenly ended a 40-year
international career. I spoke with an
amazing horn player in America who
injured her lips and could no longer
play. I met the principal cellist of the
Berlin Philharmonic, who injured his arm
gardening and now has to tie his bow
to his hands with the inner tubing of a
bicycle tyre, lashed on like pink spaghetti.
These people have never spoken about
these things until now. Musicians don’t
talk about not being able to play because
they wouldn’t get booked, or because it’s
psychologically difficult. All of a sudden,
thanks to my work with OCLW, I found
I was becoming spokesperson for quite
a difficult set of concerns. When these
programmes air, I get hundreds of emails
and letters from people who have had
similar experiences. It has really brought
home to me the value of life-writing for
my research.
I now constantly work between two
genres, music and literature, and I’m
interested in how we can tell life stories
other than through the familiar cradleto-grave
narrative on the printed page.
What music can you write? What visuals
could you use? What about movement?
Recently I’ve started working with War
Horse director Tom Morris to turn
Cello into a theatre performance, called
Silence to Sound, which will be staged at
Wigmore Hall in London in September.
The performance will combine acted
visuals and cello performances of brandnew
music written for the occasion. I
would love to have the Bee Cello there
on the day – we’ll see whether the
theatre agrees!
The book ends with another kind of
hybrid intervention. I’ve been working
with W.E. Hill & Sons, the greatest
instrument makers in the world
(who are responsible for working
on all Stradivarii), to produce what
is essentially a flatpack cello. These
instruments are designed to be shipped
to children across the world who
wouldn’t otherwise be able to play.
Remarkably these are conservatoirequality
instruments, although they
don’t take long to make, and can easily
be customised. We went back to the
drawing board to create something that
used recycled materials and a reimagined,
pyramidal design to provide quality
instruments at low cost. The first batch
will go to the fantastic Youth Orchestra
in Uruguay and we hope to get funding
to roll the programme out to other
places in the world. We’re calling it the
‘Open String Challenge’, and it seemed a
fitting way to close the book: the project
is about creating new stories and shaping
new lives in and around music, making
sound where there was once silence.
Perhaps all life-writing does something
similar, in the end.
For more information on Cello: A
Journey through Silence to Sound
and to order your copy, please see
the Bloomsbury website. Silence to
Sound: The Show will take place at
3pm on 29 September, and all details
are available on the Wigmore Hall
website.
21

Egyptian Fossils
Egypt has long been known for spectacular archaeological finds – but buried far beneath the remains of
Ancient Egyptian civilization lie the fossilized traces of the animal life that, millions of years ago, called the
region home. While investigations have been uncovering fossils in Egypt for many years, until recently
much of this research was conducted by foreign scientists, as was long the case with Egyptology. The
scientist responsible for bringing the discipline to Egypt in the last decade is Wolfson alumnus Professor
Hesham Sallam, founder of the Mansoura University Vertebrate Palaeontology Centre, a one-of-a-kind
institution in the Middle East. Hesham is widely recognised as having established the study of vertebrate
palaeontology in Egypt and has won many accolades for his work. Plans & Prospects spoke to Hesham
about his ongoing research, his efforts to expand the field, and how he’s inspiring the next generation of
Egyptian palaeontologists.
22

Alumni profile
My first time on an airplane was in 2006.
I was headed to the UK from Egypt after
being granted an Egyptian scholarship
to study vertebrate palaeontology – an
academic discipline that was entirely
lacking at Egyptian universities at that
time. After arriving in the UK, my
supervisor suggested Wolfson College as
a base for me, which turned out to be a
great choice.
While researchers had been uncovering
fossils in Egypt for well over a century,
until very recently paleontological
research in Egypt was primarily
conducted by foreign scientists. This
meant that, in 2010, when I graduated
from Oxford with a doctorate in
palaeontology, I became the first
foreign-trained Egyptian in the discipline
for decades, and went on to become
the face of vertebrate palaeontology in
Egypt. After returning home, I set up the
country’s first vertebrate palaeontology
training programme at Mansoura
University (Mansoura University
Vertebrate Palaeontology or MUVP).
From the beginning, this programme has
been structured on the foundations of
scientific research and administration
that I learned during my time at Oxford,
and is now one of the most significant
research programs in the Middle East.
MUVP is dedicated to educating the
next generation of Egyptian vertebrate
palaeontologists, expanding awareness
of Egypt’s paleontological resources
for public outreach and training, and
undertaking collection, preparation,
study, and curation of Egypt’s fossil
vertebrates. As part of my current
position at the American University
in Cairo, I am helping to build a new
vertebrate palaeontology facility and
accompanying research programme
which will offer the first international
undergraduate field course for
studying the natural heritage of Egypt’s
vertebrates.
I carefully select my students based on
their passion for palaeontology and
science, not according to any other
criteria. Before the establishment of
my research programme, there were
no female Egyptians in the field of
vertebrate palaeontology and culturally
it was hard for most female scientists to
do fieldwork. I have worked tirelessly to
put an end to these limitations and have
developed a programme that promotes
female scientists. I have worked with
many female students, several of
whom have been awarded grants from
international meetings of professional
palaeontologists. I am proud that I can
say that all of my students, male and
female, have contributed as lead-authors
of published scientific articles.
“We uncovered
the remains of a
herbivorous dinosar
that shed light on the
interconnectedness
of ecosystems in our
distant past.”
Over the last 13 years, I’ve had the
privilege of training and collaborating
with brilliant Egyptian students and
colleagues with whom I’ve embarked on
expeditions into the Egyptian deserts,
unearthing and documenting astounding
discoveries. We uncovered the remains
of Mansourasaurus (named in honour
of my home university, Mansoura
University), a herbivorous dinosaur,
which provided critical insights into
ancient animal dispersal between Africa
and Europe just before the non-avian
dinosaurs faced extinction, and shed
light on the interconnectedness of
ecosystems in our distant past. We
also discovered the oldest fully aquatic
primitive whale found in Africa, Tutcetus,
named in honour of the ancient Egyptian
king, Tut. These projects and others
have not only improved understanding
of prehistoric life in Africa, but have also
helped to popularize palaeontology in
the Middle East and put the Sallam Lab
on the map.
As a result of these discoveries, I was
granted the Figure of the Year award
in 2019 from my home university
and was selected to be a member
of both the National Committee for
Geological Sciences and the Egyptian
Young Academy for Sciences. In 2022
I was promoted to the position of
full Professor, becoming the country’s
first Egyptian professor of vertebrate
palaeontology. In 2023, I was honoured
to receive the prestigious Robert
Lynn Carroll Award that is granted in
recognition of outstanding scholarly
excellence in the discipline of vertebrate
palaeontology by the Society of
Vertebrate Palaeontology.
As a DPhil student at the University
of Oxford, I learned that my scientific
output is always improved by working
as a team, by sharing practical and
technical knowledge with others, and
by public outreach to communicate
the significance of my work. I was also
trained to be a creative problem solver,
which has helped me negotiate the
obstacles of my scientific discipline,
academia, and many other contexts in
my life. Importantly, I learned never to
relent when facing major challenges.
Since leaving Wolfson and returning
to Egypt, I have mainly been focused
on training the next generation of
Egyptian vertebrate palaeontologists,
and establishing and developing
dynamic and active paleontological
research programs at different Egyptian
institutions. I am currently devoted not
only to supervising talented Egyptian
postgraduate students, but also to the
education of young Egyptian students
from kindergarten up. This dedication
stems from my profound belief in the
need to cultivate the next generation
of Egyptian scientists who will continue
to advance palaeontology and scientific
discovery. My journey, like the fossils
I study, has been marked by layers of
growth, discovery, and evolution.
23

Above: Genetically-modified fallopian tube organoids (highlighted in green). Image: May Sallam, Ovarian Cancer Laboratory.
Early Warnings
Following her untimely death from ovarian cancer in 2022, after a decade of service to the College, family and friends
of Margit Pengelly (née Kail) generously established a fund at Wolfson to support research into the condition. Their
donations are now helping to fund critical work that has the potential to detect cases at their earliest stages and
improve survival rates. Plans & Prospects caught up with two scientists, Dr May Sallam and Dr Aneesh Aggarwal, whose
ground-breaking research at Oxford’s Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine has been made possible thanks to the
generosity of the Wolfson community.
With over 300,000 women diagnosed
annually worldwide, ovarian cancer
ranks as the eighth most common
cancer among women, and the fifth
leading cause of cancer-related deaths
in women globally. But the disease is
often hard to detect, as its symptoms
are non-specific and can easily be missed
by patients and healthcare professionals.
When diagnosed at its earliest stage, the
five-year survival rate for ovarian cancer
stands at around 93%, but the illness is
rarely caught in time. 70% of cases are
detected only at Stage III or IV, when the
cancer has already metastasised. Despite
advances in treatment, prognosis for
many patients remains poor, and the
average five-year survival rate is lower
than 40%. The best blood tests available
have been proven to be ineffective for
screening programmes, and waiting times
for specialist appointments have doubled
in the past twenty years.
All of this underscores the critical need
for early detection methods. Improving
outcomes for patients urgently requires
better screening technology that can
catch the disease at its earliest stages,
and this is the critical juncture where
Wolfson has targeted the Margit Pengelly
Fund. Researchers like Aneesh Aggarwal
and May Sallam at the Weatherall
Institute at Oxford University are
working to develop a next-generation
test that can identify ovarian cancer at
its earliest stages, where the tumour can
be easily removed through surgery or
can even be treated in its pre-cancerous
phase. Testing, coupled with innovative
new treatments, could prevent the
suffering of thousands of women in the
future.
May Sallam
I have been fascinated by the human
body since childhood, when it was
sparked by my love of drawing. It was in
my fifth year of medical school, however,
that I encountered stem cells for the first
time. These remarkable cells, capable of
regenerating tissues and organs, are the
progeny of the cells that initially form
us, and under the influence of different
chemical factors can transform into
distinct organs. I realised these incredibly
powerful cells lay behind the anatomy
that I had come to appreciate first as a
child, and subsequently as a practising
doctor, and I was particularly intrigued
by the possibility of using stem cells to
grow vital organs like the liver, kidneys,
and brain, potentially saving thousands
of lives.
Following my PhD, and driven by a desire
to make a meaningful impact in the field
of cancer research, I moved to Oxford
to take up my current role as a postdoctoral
researcher in stem cells and
24

“Improving patient outcomes
urgently requires betting
screening technology.”
focused my attention on ovarian cancer
at the Ovarian Cancer Laboratory at
the Weatherall Institute, working under
Professor Ahmed Ahmed. In particular,
I wanted to take advantage of the fact
that stem cells can be both superheroes
and villains: on the one hand, they have
the incredible ability to heal us, but
on the other they can become deadly
cancers.
My interest has been put to good
use at Oxford, as our research group
uses ‘superhero’ stem cells to create
‘organoids’ – tiny, simplified versions of
organs that mimic the complexity of
human tissues better than traditional
cell lines or animal models. This is also
an opportunity to take advantage of
the villainous side of stem cells, though.
Using CRISPR-Cas9 technology, which
makes use of a protein naturally found in
bacteria as part of their immune defence
against viruses, we can edit the genome
of these organoids to make them similar
to ovarian tumours. This allows us to
study how cancer starts, understand
what drives tumour growth, and identify
potential markers for early detection.
The Ovarian Cancer Laboratory is
one of the largest research groups
dedicated to ovarian cancer prevention
and treatment, and I am truly honoured
to be part of such an impactful team. I
am also proud to be a part of Wolfson,
which I joined thanks to the support
of the Margit Pengelly Fund in 2023.
The College has provided me with
an inclusive community of students,
graduate researchers, post-doctoral
scholars and fellows. I really do feel
valued and inspired to make a difference.
Aneesh Aggarwal
I joined the Ovarian Cancer Cell
Laboratory as a DPhil researcher after
losing my mother to ovarian cancer
during my medical training at Cambridge.
Working under Professor Ahmed
Ahmed and Dr Mara Artibani, I’m now
part of a research group that aims to
change the landscape of how this disease
is diagnosed, prevented and treated.
‘Ovarian cancer’ is something of a
misnomer. In truth, it should be called
‘fallopian tube cancer,’ as it was recently
discovered that the disease in fact
originates in the vessels that connect
the ovaries to the uterus. For years,
this misconception held back research
into the diagnosis and treatment of the
condition, as the old laboratory models
were effectively targeting the wrong
cells. These models also overlooked
critical aspects of the progression of
the disease, including how the cells send
signals to one another. To fight ovarian
cancer, what we need are accurate
models of the disease that will show
us exactly what to look for when we
run tests on patients, making use of the
latest technology. The Margit Pengelly
Fund is helping to provide the resources
I need to make this a reality.
Our lab is using cutting-edge techniques
to grow mini fallopian tubes on culture
dishes. We isolate individual fallopian
tube cells from surgical specimens, and
then use a compendium of specialised
chemicals to grow three-dimensional,
healthy organoids that produce, utilise
and secrete the chemicals you would
expect to see in a fallopian tube in
a healthy patient. We then edit the
genome of the organoid to put it into a
‘pre-cancerous’ state – which is where
my research comes in.
The key to detecting ovarian cancer
is understanding how the disease
progresses. I have developed a variety of
techniques that allow us to finely control
the genetic modifications we make to
the mini fallopian tubes in our lab. This
means that we can slowly turn the dial
on a simulated ovarian cancer – moving
from ‘healthy,’ to ‘early pre-cancerous,’
to ‘late pre-cancerous,’ and ultimately to
‘cancerous.’ This means we can identify
the early warning signs at every step of
the way, such as particular molecules
that we should look for in future blood
tests. This is absolutely vital to improving
patient outcomes, as there may be as
much as a twenty-year interval between
the very first changes to cells in the
fallopian tubes and the onset of cancer,
giving doctors the time to intervene.
As I refine my techniques, I hope that
we will be able to increase the specificity
of the test by isolating exactly which
cells will become cancerous, and which
will not. It might be that there is a highly
specific ‘cell of origin’ for ovarian cancer
that could be identified very early on.
In theory, the technique could even be
applied to other cancers. The benefits
for public health could be enormous.
If you would like to contribute to the
Margit Pengelly Fund and the work of the
Ovarian Cancer Laboratory, please contact
Alice Marsh (alice.marsh@wolfson.
ox.ac.uk) in the Wolfson College Alumni
and Development Office. We would be
delighted to hear from you.
25

A year in Development
and Alumni Relations
Development Director Huw David reflects on a fiftieth anniversary year that has seen engagement from the Wolfson
community around the world.
Recent commemorations of Wolfson’s
“50 Years on the Cherwell” have been
a timely reminder of the generosity that
built Wolfson. The college was born
through the philanthropy of the Wolfson
and Ford foundations, and each decade
since has seen transformative gifts
shape the college. In the early 1990s the
Gandy Buildings were created through
the philanthropy of the mathematician
and fellow Robin Gandy; in the 2000s
the Catherine Marriott block allowed
Wolfson to accommodate many more
students on site; in the 2010s, the
Leonard Wolfson Auditorium gave the
College a world-class lecture hall.
2023-24 was no different. Fifty years
on from their opening, Wolfson’s
buildings and estate have once again
benefited from the generosity of alumni
and friends. An anonymous gift of
£400,000 last summer helped speed
the completion of Wolfson’s landmark
decarbonization project; a legacy of
£220,000 from John Wells, one of
the College’s first students, enabled
the installation of heat-pumps and
insulation on Wolfson’s Linton Road
accommodation. The Music Practice
Rooms reopened after a thorough
refurbishment made possible by the
kindness of alumni Linda Tan and Nikolai
Schwabe. The playground was renovated
with new equipment for children of all
ages, thanks to a generous anonymous
donation. As I write, the Lower
Common Room is being transformed
through the support of former Visiting
Fellow Derek Boyd, recapturing its
original mid-century modern aesthetic.
Wolfson’s research clusters have likewise
received wonderful support this year.
The Cross-Disciplinary Machine Learning
(XML) cluster was awarded a grant
of $300,000 from Microsoft, while a
donation of $150,000 from the BAND
Foundation has initiated vital research
into epilepsy in the developing world,
with the launch of the Centre for Global
Epilepsy associated with the Mind, Brain
26
and Behaviour cluster. Grants from
the Pritzker family and the Khyentse
Foundation enabled the College to
offer vital scholarships and bursaries in
Tibetan & Himalayan Studies.
We are again indebted to Lorne Thyssen
for his continuing support of the Ancient
World research cluster and graduate
scholarships, and to Simon Harrison for
his generosity towards Wolfson’s Boat
Club, sports, and physics and quantum
computing. In October, we will welcome
another recipient of the Ken and
Veronica Tregidgo Scholarship in Atomic
and Laser Physics. The Oxford Centre
for Life-Writing once more benefitted
from the steadfast support of the
Dorset Foundation and launched a new
programme on ‘Writing Jewish Women’s
Lives’ thanks to the philanthropy of
Visiting Scholar Vera Fine-Grodzinski.
Life-writing took centre stage at this
year’s Wolfson London Lecture at
Lincoln’s Inn. OCLW’s Weinrebe
Director, Kate Kennedy, spoke about
her forthcoming book Cello: A Journey
through Silence to Sound, a project
described on the centre pages of
this magazine. Alumni at the annual
reception in College in September were
treated to a compelling talk by David Ray
on “Time for a Change: Considerations
of Time and Sleep for Medicine”, which
was anything but sleep-inducing.
The 50th anniversary celebrations were
an inducement to reconnect with alumni
far and wide. In April, the President and I
visited alumni and friends in Washington
and New York, where Wolfsonians
from across the East Coast gathered for
a drinks reception hosted by current
student Olga Berg at her Upper West
Side residence. On the West Coast we
met alumni tackling challenges from
sustainably harvesting rare minerals from
superheated brine to increasing health
insurance coverage, in meetings in San
Francisco and Silicon Valley.
Closer to home, Wolfson ventured
‘north of the border’ for the first time
for an alumni reception in Edinburgh in
June, kindly made possible by Honorary
Fellow Andrew Miller. At the end of
September, we visit the Fens for our
first event in Cambridge, at Darwin
College where alumnus Mike Rands is
the Master. Before then, nearly 100 of
the students, staff and fellows who came
to Wolfson in its earliest days, between
1967 and 1974, will return to College
for the ‘First Wolves’ reunion on 7
September.
We are always delighted to meet alumni
around the world and to welcome you
back to College, to hear about your time
at Wolfson and the influence it has had
on your lives and accomplishments since.
Thank you again to everyone whose
generosity, at all levels, helps to make
Wolfson the special place it is.
Huw David
Development Director
Would you consider supporting
Wolfson’s students by establishing
a bursary or scholarship?
Please contact Dr Huw David,
Fellow and Development Director,
to discuss how your support
can help Wolfson’s students and
postdocs thrive.
huw.david@wolfson.ox.ac.uk

Development
Supporting the College
After half a century spent on Linton Road, thousands
of graduate students and researchers have now
passed through Wolfson’s doors – living, working and
raising families on the banks of the River Cherwell.
In honour of the 50 th anniversary of the College
buildings, will you help the next generation of
Wolfsonians make their mark by donating to the
Wolfson 1966 Fund, our flagship scheme for student
support? Make a gift to the 1966 Fund here:
tiny.cc/wolfson-1966-donate
Legacies large and small have been instrumental
in making Wolfson what it is today: welcoming,
intellectually inspiring and supportive, both
academically and personally. By remembering
Wolfson in your will, you can make a lasting
contribution for generations to come. For
more information about legacy giving,
please scan the QR code below, or contact our
Senior Development Officer, Alice Marsh, either
by telephone or email:
+44 (0)1865 611041
alice.marsh@wolfson.ox.ac.uk
tiny.cc/wolfson-legacy
Arrivals and departures Cherwell Society Newsletter
2023 saw the arrival of Senior
Development Officer Alice
Marsh, who joined Wolfson
from the British Museum. The
Communications team also
welcomed Izzy Holling, who joined
Wolfson from Antidote PR after the
departure of Judith Palmer.
Everyone who has pledged a bequest
to Wolfson in their will, and
notified College of this, is invited to
join the Cherwell Society, renamed
this jubilee year in celebration of
the College’s geographic fortune
on the river. Each year members
are invited to a special lunch and
programme of afternoon activities.
Wolfson’s termly e-newsletter,
The Wolfsonian, offers alumni and
friends regular updates on College
news and events. If you would like
to join the mailing list, please cotact
alumni.office@wolfson.ox.ac.uk.
We’ll be happy to forward you the
latest edition and sign you up so
you don’t miss the next one.
27

Financial Report
College Bursar Richard Morin reflects on a year of financial challenges and achievements.
In the past two years, I have reported on
the financial challenges Wolfon has faced
during the inflation crises and, as I write,
our investment returns are taking quite
a battering again, this time from political
uncertainties as we await the outcome
of the general election. Nevertheless,
things could be worse, and, once again,
well-balanced, cautionary decisions
made over the last few years have given
Wolfson the resilience we need during
these uncertain times.
The value of the College endowment
dipped considerably in real terms in
2022 and 2023. At one time the College
had lost nearly a quarter of its buying
power. However, three things lessened
the blow: our cautionary approach,
which smooths investment returns
over five years to ensure we don’t get
ahead of ourselves with valuations; the
decision to admit an extra 75 students a
year into the College during the fiveyear
decarbonisation funding plan; and a
strong bounce-back in equity valuations
between September 2023 and late-May.
On top of that, our extensive work in
selecting a new investment manager
seems to have paid off as Cazenove,
appointed in September 2023, have
delivered double digit returns so far.
We aren’t out of the woods, of course,
but at least some buying power has
returned.
Wolfson’s finances were also helped
by good management of the operating
budget, including a decision by trustees
in June 2023 to follow the usual process
of raising rent in line with local inflation,
which led to an increase of 13.5%.
Although this was a larger increase than
anyone would have liked, all students
and fellows joining the College had been
warned to expect a large increase, as
the path of inflation seemed clear at
the time, and in the previous year the
College had raised rent by 5% below
real inflation as a result of the cost-ofliving
crisis. Our rental levels remain 20%
below the most expensive equivalents in
other graduate colleges. The good news
is that this year, having taken the pain
last year and given subsiding inflation,
rent will not increase at all.
Finances have also been helped by
excellent budgetary management by the
various heads of departments, including
our Executive Head Chef, Michael
Godfrey, who has done a marvellous job
of turning around the fortunes of the
catering department from an anticipated
deficit of £100k (not uncommon) to a
very respectable surplus of over £200k.
This is a remarkable achievement,
and shows that there is much more
to our Chef than the incredible fine
dining experience that we all enjoy.
The Nursery, which had also struggled
financially over the last few years,
particularly because of the difficulties
in recruiting staff, has also had a strong
turnaround, for which thanks are due to
Nursery Manager, Chantal Griffiths, and
all her team.
Despite our financial challenges, we
have continued to invest in our estate,
funding and completing many projects
over the last 12 months. Our landmark
decarbonization project concluded
in December with the final works to
insulate and install air-source heat-pumps
on our Linton Road properties. We have
re-roofed the family blocks’ outhouses,
which had been leaking for a number of
years and desperately needed repairing.
We have made improvements to the
Credit: John Cairns
Credit: John Cairns
28

Financial report
Credit: John Cairns
heating in the Buttery and the Library,
which was struggling in the winter
because the rooms’ extant infrastructure
did not interface well with our new
high-tech electric heating: this has now
been rectified. You will also notice
the wonderful refurbishment of the
children’s playground which has been
completely rebuilt with modern and
enjoyable equipment thanks to the help
and kindness of a donor. A generous
donor has also stepped forward with
funding for refurbishment of the Lower
Common Room. Now underway, this
project will see a much-improved facility
for our community. The upgrade of the
kitchens and bathrooms in the Robin
Gandy block are now half-way through
and will be completed with funding in
the next financial year.
Our outstanding Home Bursar, Chris
Licence, continues the journey of
improvement across our estate, and
it should be noted with some pride
that Wolfson was awarded by the
Universities UK Code of Practice for
Accommodation (a government led
scheme that sets high standards for
student accommodation and holds us
accountable to them) a 100% mark in
its audit, with no areas for mandatory
improvement. This is an incredible
achievement and a great credit to Chris
and his estates and facilities teams.
You may recall that we have designed an
impressive new accommodation building,
which will provide up to 50 bedrooms,
to be built on the site of the south car
park. Although the cost of borrowing
has meant that we can no longer borrow
to build, we have now decided, with the
support of the Investment and Finance
Committees, that the building can be
funded from our endowment initially
with the rent from the rooms repaying
the money back into the endowment
and the operating budget to fund our
usual activities. However, doing this
does come with a level of risk and strain
to the College finances, and we will
therefore continue our efforts to invite
philanthropists to contribute to lessen
the impact of the £15m cost of the
building on the College finances. The
detailed design of the new building will
be completed over the coming months,
and we expect to start construction
as soon as exams finish in Trinity Term
2025. We are all excited to see this
outstanding new building rise from the
ground.
We have also now completed the design
and obtained planning permission for
a new Sports and Wellbeing Centre,
but, sadly, it simply isn’t possible to
fund that building at this time from
College resources. Nevertheless, we will
continue to seek help and support for
this project in the hope that it will be
able to proceed soon, which would be
another great addition to the quality of
life for students and fellows at Wolfson.
It remains a very exciting time in the
history of Wolfson College.
Credit: John Cairns
29

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Credit: Feiliu Lin

Make a gift - UK
Scan the QR code with your
phone camera to make a
donation to the College online
Make a gift - USA
Scan the QR code with your
phone camera to make a
donation to the College online
Supporting Wolfson
Gifts allow Wolfson to offer scholarships to reduce the cost of studying in Oxford, travel
awards to facilitate students’ research, bursaries for students who encounter unexpected
financial hardship, and much more.
Online giving
Our recommended method – if you
are resident anywhere except the
USA, please donate online at www.
development.ox.ac.uk/wolfsoncollege.
You can set up regular giving
there, or make a single gift with a credit
or debit card.
In the USA, you can donate tax
efficiently through Americans for
Oxford (AFO), the university’s 501 (c)
(3) charitable organisation, at www.
oxfordna.org/donate.
Giving by post
You can use the donation form enclosed
with this magazine or download the
form at www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/
make-gift. Please send the form to
the Wolfson Alumni and Development
Office,Wolfson College, Linton Road,
Oxford, OX2 6UD.
Tax efficient ways of giving
Depending on where you live and
whether or not you are a taxpayer, there
are several ways you can increase the
value of your gift to the College.
UK taxpayers
Please make sure to cover your donation
under the Gift Aid scheme to increase
the value of your gift by 25%, courtesy
of HM Customs and Revenue. Higher
rate tax payers can claim a deduction
from their taxes.
USA taxpayers
Gifts to Wolfson in the United States
can be made through AFO. Gifts to AFO
qualify for an income tax deduction to
the full extent allowed by law. Gifts can
be made online at: www.oxfordna.org/
donate or by cheque sent to Americans
for Oxford, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, 32nd
Floor, New York, NY 10110. Please
include clear instructions that your gift
is for Wolfson College, including postal
address (Linton Road, Oxford, OX2
6UD).
Continental European residents
Tax efficient giving is available through
the Transnational Giving Europe Scheme.
For full information, go to: www.
development.ox.ac.uk/contribute/
worldwide_ giving/index.html
Canadian taxpayers
The University of Oxford is recognised
by the Canadian Revenue Agency
as a prescribed institution under
Section 3503 of the Canadian Income
Tax Regulations. On receipt of your
donation, we will ensure that you
are sent a receipt for Canadian tax
purposes. For full information, go to:
www.development.ox.ac.uk/
contribute/worldwide_ giving/index.
html
Wolfson is a registered charity, no. 1141446
31

Upcoming events
28 September 2024
Alumni Drinks Reception
Darwin College, Cambridge
7 November 2024
2024 Syme Lecture on the Ancient World with Professor Christopher Kelly
14 November 2024
2024 Sarfraz Pakistan Lecture with Professor Nausheen Anwar
21 November 2024
2024 Aris Lecture in Tibetan and Himalayan Studies with Martin Mills
28 November 2024
Song at Wolfson
Events list
3 December 2024
Wolfson Alumni Drinks in London
Oxford and Cambridge Club
4 March 2025
Wolfson London Lecture
House of Lords
5 July 2025
Cherwell Society and Donors’ Lunch
(By invitation only)
All events in College unless otherwise specified.
ALUMNI AND DEVELOPMENT
OFFICE
Wolfson College
Linton Road, Oxford
OX2 6UD
Phone: +44 (0) 1865 611042
Huw David
Development Director
huw.david@wolfson.ox.ac.uk
Alice Marsh
Senior Development Officer
alice.marsh@wolfson.ox.ac.uk
Alex Fels
Development Officer
alexander.fels@wolfson.ox.ac.uk
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