MAN-10265 MAGAZINE.indd - Mansfield College - University of Oxford

Principal’s Welcome
At last! I have fi nally discovered why, with my otherwise
irrelevant background in the control of infectious diseases,
I was elected Principal of the College. No, happily there have
been no epidemics whilst I have been here, but a student
exam howler, reported in the Times Higher Education,
explains that “Control of infectious diseases is very important
in case an academic breaks out.”
Actually, three of our academics have broken out recently and
have scaled the dizzy heights of academia, to be awarded the
title of Professor, by the University, in recognition of their
outstanding research and teaching. Ros Ballaster, Fellow and
Tutor in English, becomes Professor of Eighteenth Century
Studies; Steve Biller, Fellow and Tutor in Physics, becomes
Professor of Particle Physics; and John Sykes, Professorial
Fellow and Tutor in Materials Engineering, becomes Professor
of Materials. Indeed, Mansfi eld’s small Fellowship can now
boast a grand total of twelve Professors and we expect shortly
to welcome one more, when an appointment is made to
the newly-established Chair of Energy Materials, which will
be associated with the College. Come to think of it, such a
cluster of ‘cases’ could reasonably be called an ‘epidemic’
of excellence.
Talking of which, our students excelled themselves
academically, this year. Over 93% of our fi nalists achieved
either a First Class Honours degree (14) or an upper second
(50). No one achieved less than a 2.2. Nine of our fi nalists
won University prizes for outstanding performances in the
fi nal examinations. These were in English, Law, Materials
Science, Physics and Oriental Studies. And 12 of our students
received Distinctions in their fi rst Public Examinations.
As far as our graduate students are concerned, their numbers
are slowly expanding – we now have 53 – and we can
truthfully say that Mansfi eld plays a full part in support of
postgraduate study in the University. In recent years our
graduate students have become more and more involved in
College life, with the MCR/SCR dinners now a very popular
feature of each term. As we build up the cultural activities
within the College, we aim for even greater involvement of
our graduate students, to the benefi t of the whole Mansfi eld
community.
In this Edition…
1 Principal’s Welcome, Contents
2-3 Senior Tutor, JCR & MCR
Presidents, Bursar: Reports
4 Access at Mansfi eld
6 Personnel changes: SCR/staff
7 Law Society and PPE Society
8 Women at Mansfi eld
9-12 Fellows’ articles
The three new Non-
Stipendiary Junior
Research Fellows
who have joined us
this year are adding
further lustre to that
community. They are:
Drs Carl Anderson,
Jörn Dunkel and
Nilu Goonetilleke,
each with a brilliant
research record already
established.
13 Feature: Mansfi eld Sports Past
and Present
16 From the archives:
the changing landscape of
Mansfi eld College
17 Alumni Relations
and Development Report
19-28 Alumni articles and news
Diana Walford presents Paul Ruddock
with his Bancroft Fellowship on 16th
June 2008
Records of a different
kind are being made by our Development Offi ce, thanks
to the huge generosity of our alumni. During the all-toobrief
time that Paul McCarthy was with us as Development
Director, some £1.2m was raised for our 125th Anniversary
Appeal, with a target of £2.8m by 2011, the year of our
Anniversary. Paul has now, regrettably, left the College, but
the Appeal goes on! Please help if you can.
As far as gifts are concerned, all gifts are delightful, but very
large gifts are absolutely delightful (with apologies to Lord
Acton)! So it was with great pleasure that the Governing Body
acknowledged Paul Ruddock’s recent magnifi cent donation,
and his many years of support for the College, by electing
him to a Bancroft Fellowship (see photograph). Paul read
Jurisprudence at Mansfi eld and graduated with First Class
Honours, the fi rst Mansfi eld Law student to do so. Since
then, his career has taken him into the realms of high fi nance,
but his love of art, particularly medieval sculpture, has led
him to the Chairmanship of the Board of the Victoria and
Albert Museum. Paul’s philanthropy, towards the V&A,
towards his old school and to Mansfi eld, is inspirational; and
his wife, Jill, too, is a tireless fund raiser for good causes; we
were delighted that she was here, with Paul, at the Bancroft
Fellowship award ceremony and dinner.
Times are undoubtedly hard for everyone at the moment,
but the College’s affairs are, happily, going against the trend,
and we are making very good progress on all fronts. I hope
you will enjoy reading about some of our successes in this
edition of the Magazine. ●
29 Obituaries
31 College events
32 Mansfi eld Association
33 Exam results
Back cover: events calendar 2009
Designed by: Holywell Press Ltd., Oxford
Edited by: Emily Henderson, Stephen Blundell, Katherine Morris
We welcome suggestions and contributions from our readers. Please contact the Development Offi ce (see back cover) for further information on any item in Mansfi eld.
Cover image: Keiko Ikeuchi
1 MANSFIELD COLLEGE MAGAZINE