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T H E C L A R E N D O N C H R O N I C L E

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1 THE CLARENDON CHRONICLE – Newsletter of the Clarendon Scholars’ Association

The editorial staff of the Clarendon Chronicle would like to thank the Scholars, especially Tom Evans and Curtis Winter, for taking time to share their stories with us.

In an ongoing request to all current and former Clarendon scholars, we encourage you to submit stories and accomplishments. Much like this issue of the Clarendon Chronicle, your stories are sure to inspire your fellow scholars, alumni, and the University community.

Finally, everyone involved with the Clarendon Chronicle would like to thank Erica Lombard for all of her contributions. She has served as the designer and as an editor for three years. Her service has been invaluable, and publication would not be possible without her.

Lucas Greder

EDITOR’S NOTE

IN THIS ISSUE

Chief Editor: Lucas Greder | Designer & Editor: Erica Lombard | clarendonchronicle@gmail.com

T H E C L A R E N D O N C H R O N I C L E

3-4 | THE BLUE PLANET

9 | THE GLOBAL SCHOLARS NETWORK LAUNCHES 10 | GATES-CAMBRIDGE SWAP 11-12 | CLARENDON SCHOLARS’ COUNCIL PROFILES

2 | MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

7-8 | GSS 2014: DARE TO DIFFER5-6 | AN INTERVIEW WITH C.W. WINTER

Volume 3 Issue 3 – Trinity Term 2014 2

Dear Scholars and Alumni,

It is with Baroness Susan Greenfield’s words of the last Clarendon Lecture on creativity still in the front of my mind that I am writing these opening phrases.

Three necessary conditions for creativity that were mentioned in the fascinating talk triggered something in me, in particular, time, confidence, and stimulation. My

thought was that this is precisely what Clarendon provides.

The first two elements of our Scholarship are often mentioned: the fact that it offers us the time and freedom to pursue our interests and backs our self-confidence by acknowledging our past achievements and expected potential. I would like to say a few words about the third, however, as it has more of a danger of being overlooked—we have each other as a source of inspiration.

When it comes to creativity, there is a balance to be found in stimulation. We need to be challenged by some degree of novelty, but want to avoid information overload. Our community is unique in realising this balance. We are simultaneously as diverse as it gets, representing over fifty different countries and all departments of the university, and strikingly homogenous, through our shared unusual fascination with our fields of study and commitment to the highest academic standards.

In my opinion, our community offers us the perfect laboratory for creativity. It can help us all relate seemingly disparate ideas across cultures and disciplines. That is, after all, one of the fundamentals of creativity: disassembling an idea and reintegrating some of its parts in a different context.

We have another fantastic term behind us, with a programme ranging from concerts and plays, via various talks and wine receptions, to a ‘happiness workshop’, given by our always enthusiastic Clarendon Alumnus Spencer Heijnen. Particularly notable as well, this term, has been our involvement with other international scholarship communities through a fantastic Global Scholars Symposium and our first swaps with the Gates Scholars from Cambridge, providing a special combination of personal and academic stimulation.

With the end of year in sight, I hope to see many of you over the summer and wish those who are going away a wonderful break. In case you are finishing your time in Oxford or have already left a while ago, I wish you all the best for the future and look forward to welcoming you back soon in our community, whenever you are in town!

For now, I am very excited to introduce to you this new edition of the Chronicle. It is a good example of both our diversity and cohesion as a community. Enjoy!

Matthijs Vákár

2014 President of the Clarendon Scholars’ Association

Message from the President

11-12 | CLARENDON SCHOLARS’ COUNCIL PROFILES

3 THE CLARENDON CHRONICLE – Newsletter of the Clarendon Scholars’ Association

AAs part of a team of researchers from the University of Oxford and Exeter University, Clarendon Scholar Tom Evans used the Hubble Space Telescope to study exoplanet HD189733b (an exoplanet is a

planet outside our solar system). Using the telescope at the precise moment when the planet passed behind its star, the researchers were able to make recordings that ultimately allowed them to calculate the colour of the planet as it would appear to our eyes—cobalt blue. By measuring the colour they actually measured how the atmosphere reflects starlight as a function of wavelength, which provides information about its compositional makeup.

The researchers note that just because HD189733b is blue does not mean that it is like Earth. In fact, HD189733b is a gas giant like Jupiter, but orbiting ten times closer to its star than Mercury does around the Sun. The planet is locked in a position where only one side faces the star, with dayside hemisphere temperatures of about 1,000°C. These high temperatures are thought to generate

Astronomer and Clarendon Scholar Tom Evans helps to determine, for the first time, the colour of an exoplanet

The Blue Planet

Area of sky (A. Fujii)A wide field image of the region of sky in which HD 189733b is located. In this image we can see the asterism of the "Summer Triangle" a giant triangle in the sky composed of the three bright stars Vega (top left), Altair (lower middle) and Deneb (far left). HD 189733b is orbiting a star very close to the centre of the triangle.

A note from Tom Evans: Without the financial assistance the scholarship provided, it simply wouldn’t have been an option for me to come to Oxford to do a DPhil (I’m from Australia). Through the Clarendon community, and Oxford University more broadly, it’s also been great to get to meet such a diverse group of people from all over the world, studying every type of subject.

a cloud of silicate particles high in the atmosphere that get blasted around the planet at speeds of 1km/s by ultra strong winds. With many questions remaining about the atmosphere of HD189733b, the team remains committed to gaining a better understanding.

Adapted from http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/science_blog/130711.html

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Blue planet (NASA, ESA, M. Kornmesser)

5 THE CLARENDON CHRONICLE – Newsletter of the Clarendon Scholars’ Association

Photographs on the following page taken by C.W. Winter while researching his dissertation film in Japan.

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What were you doing before coming to Oxford?

I came to Oxford from the United States where I had been living in Los Angeles since doing my Master’s in Fine Art. My master’s thesis was a hybrid fiction/non-fiction feature length film called The Anchorage (www.theanchoragefilm.com) that was released in 2010. It was a film that premiered at Film Festival Locarno where it won a Golden Leopard for Best Film. It then won Best Independent/Experimental Film of the Year at the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards. It was named one of the Ten Best Films of the Year by critics at Cinema Scope, Variety, Senses of Cinema, Film Comment, and IndieWire. And it was named Best First Film of the Year by The New York Times. This led to being able to tour with the film for about a year to a good number of film festivals and museums before the film’s theatrical release. This was then followed by the opportunity to be a visiting artist/lecturer at a number of institutions including Harvard University, University of Tokyo, CalArts, La Fémis, UCLA, and UC San Diego.

What drew you to Oxford and what does Clarendon mean to you?

I came to Oxford to do a DPhil in Fine Art because I was looking to do research in a demanding program with a strong emphasis on contemporary theory. And Oxford’s Ruskin School of Art has provided me with just what I was looking for. Oxford also gives me the chance to study across a breadth of disciplines including music, neuroscience, economics, and philosophy as an invaluable complement to my fine art research. I find that often people will speak of cross-disciplinarity in vague

platitudes that, at the end of the day, don’t amount to much in practical terms. But being a part of the Clarendon society and getting to know such an interesting group of peers from arrayed disciplines has already had a clear, direct, and meaningful effect on my research in several unexpected ways. Specifically, friendships with peers working in economics, neuroscience, and music have sent my research in directions that I may not ever have considered on my own. So I feel pretty grateful for the chance to be a part of this great group of people.

What does your DPhil entail?

For my written dissertation, I’m focusing on the now common perception—however valid—of our living in a time when our attention is sped up, fractured, and interrupted at a greater rate than ever before. And so I’m researching historical and contemporary attention—both fractured and sustained—via art, film, music, philosophy, economics, and cognitive science.

As mine is a practice-led art degree, this means that I both write a dissertation and make work as part of a studio practice. For the art component of my degree, I will be making my second narrative feature length film. I will shoot it in a rural, mountain village in Japan—a place I’ve been visiting for a number of years. And, as with my first film, it will complement my research as an exploration of immersive time, long duration, and sustained experiments in looking and listening.

Being at Oxford frees me to focus on nothing but my research, writing, and making. And none of that would have been possible without the Clarendon. So it’s pretty wonderful to have this opportunity.

an interview with C.W. WINTER

7 THE CLARENDON CHRONICLE – Newsletter of the Clarendon Scholars’ Association

2014 Global Scholars Symposium:

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The 7th Annual Global Schol ars Symposium (GSS) took place from 15 –18 May. The aim of this inspiring weekend was

to engage scholars across disciplines and from various back grounds in thoughtful conversations leading to collective action. Around 150 scholars from nine different scholar ship pro grammes, representing over 20 universities in the United Kingdom, gathered together in Oxford at Rhodes House to focus on issues that persist in challenging our world. From

the open ing address by Justice Joseph Williams, who was joined by members of the New Zealand indigenous group Ngãti Rãnana, to the closing panel session by Toby Ord, Hannah Gay, and Karen Cannard, delegates were treated to an array of speakers who have passionately worked to challenge global injustices, accepting that oftentimes making an impact means needing to ‘Dare to Differ’.

Check out the GSS website (globalscholars.co.uk) for more informa-

tion about the 2014 pro gramme as well as to connect with the Global Scholars Network (GSN) —and join in the movement to action as we collaboratively take on these global issues to improve our world.

—Elizabeth Nye

Dare to Differ

9 THE CLARENDON CHRONICLE – Newsletter of the Clarendon Scholars’ Association

On 15 March 2014 nearly 100 current and former scholars from different UK universities gathered in Oxford to mark

the launch of the Global Scholars Network (GSN). Centred on a series of “Idea Café” format innovation workshops, Scholars representing different scholarships from across the UK came together to discuss and develop their ideas for potential areas of action. The event also included talks and breakout sessions with the Idea Cafés serving as a way to facilitate discussion.

The event started with a warm wel come to Rhodes House by Warden Charles Conn. Opening remarks were then provided by University of Oxford Vice-Chancellor Professor Andrew Hamilton who was very enthusiastic about GSN’s prospects as a launch pad for new cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional teams

of innova tion. Rhodes House hospitality was present throughout the event, especially during the breaks where the Ideas Cafés were held over fine refresh ments and elegant snacks. As designed, scholars used these breaks as an opportunity to pitch their ideas to small groups, which helped scholars gain traction around their ideas.

The speakers included two members of Oxford’s Said Business School, Stephan Gutzeit and Dr Hiram Samel. Both speakers discussed the scholarship around creativity and social entrepreneur ship. The third speaker, Barbara Harell-Bond, founder of Oxford’s Refugee Studies Centre, gave an enlightening talk on the issue of refugees.

The event also had several smaller seminars on homelessness, mental health issues, climate change, combining ethics and effectiveness, and disaster related migration.

A workshop titled “Accessing Capital as an Entrepreneur” provided by Nathan Nagel, CEO of Neuro-Bio Ltd., was also enthusiastically attended by many scholars, especially those who look for ward to founding their own enterprises in the future.

Overall, the event was able to pack an intense program in a lively format, where scholars made new connections during the breaks, workshops and the special drinks reception held at Rhodes House a day before the event on 14 March. GSN has emerged as a great platform for networking for scholars and it aims to develop a greater online presence with the establishment of an online journal, GSN Review. We wish all the best to Global Scholars Network in bringing scholars together and turning their ideas into action!

—Anjul Khadria

The Global Scholars Network launches

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Much like the Rhodes Scholar reception held earlier this year, the Gates Swap events were implemented by this year’s Council as a way to encourage interaction with other scholarship organizations.

The Gates Swap included home and away legs, with the Gates Scholars entertaining a group of Clarendons on the away leg from 8–9 March. The visit to Cambridge began with a magnificent reception at the Gates Room, the den of the Gates Scholars, followed by punting, visits to various Colleges, and a send-off with sumptuous dinner.

Clarendon Scholars returned the hospitality with the home leg, which was held over the weekend of 3–4 May. The events included a brunch at the Great Hall of Christ Church—a favorite of the Gates Harry Potter lovers. Brunch was followed by stops at Oxford museums, colleges, the Bod, and some time at the colourful Holi festival.

—Anjul Khadria

Building a relationship with Gates Scholars

Gates-Clarendon Swap

11 THE CLARENDON CHRONICLE – Newsletter of the Clarendon Scholars’ Association

President: Matthijs VákárCurious about almost all branches of academia, Matthijs tries hard to work across boundaries of traditional disciplines, using modern mathematical and logical methods as his main tools to study problems from physics and linguistics. During his DPhil, he will be an undercover mathematician in the computer science department. True to his Dutch origins, he’s a water and snow sports enthusiast. As this year’s president, Matthijs is both excited and humbled to have the opportunity to engage with our fantastic community and to represent it to the university and the outside world.

Secretary: Claudia VadebonceourClaudia is starting a DPhil in Public Health, with a particular interest in weight gain in university students. She is originally from Canada where she completed a Bachelor of Science followed by a Master of Public Health at McGill University. She is an avid traveler who remains sportive; she has joined running and rowing teams here in Oxford.

Treasurer: Jerome SimonsJerome is a first-year MPhil student in economics and wishes to focus on empirical and theoretical macroeconomics. Before coming to Oxford, he worked for the United Nations and the World Bank after graduating with degrees in Mathematics and Physics from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. In his free time, Jerome can be found rowing or playing the saxophone.

External Relations Officer: Anjul KhadriaAnjul Khadria is a first-year DPhil student at the SABS-IDC Doctoral Training Centre at the University of Oxford. Anjul is from Nagaon, a small city in Assam, India. He did his B.Tech in Biotechnology from the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Rourkela, India and his master’s at University College London (UCL). Along with being the External Relations officer of the Clarendon Scholars’ Council, he also serves as an Executive Director of the Global Scholars Network (GSN). Anjul is interested in nanomedicine and has conducted research on drug delivery systems. In his free time, Anjul likes to play cricket and watch movies.

Alumni Officer: Dewei JiaDewei is a third-year DPhil student at Pembroke College reading Biophysics at the Life Sciences Interface Doctoral Training Centre. She was born in Xi’an, China, the famous Chinese old capital, which is home to the Terracotta Army of Emperor Qin and the start point of the Silk Road. She loves to travel and is a music fan. As the alumni officer, she wants to engage with current scholars and Clarendon alumni to build up a strong and supportive alumni network.

Clarendon Scholars’ Council 2014 ProfilesWe are proud to introduce ourselves to you as the 2014 Clarendon Scholars’ Council. You will find a short profile of all of us below. Please feel warmly encouraged to contact us at any point during the year if you want to be involved or have any suggestions, complaints or comments for the Council!

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IT Officer: Chico CamargoChico Quevedo Camargo is a first-year DPhil student in Oxford, at the Systems Biology DTC, at Brasenose College. He comes from Brazil and is always keen on learning new approaches to what is around him, especially in science and art. His academic interests reside in applying mathematics to answer questions in fields where it is not commonly used, such as biology and social sciences, with some special interest in population dynamics and self-organisation. When he is not searching for answers to his questions, scientific or not, he enjoys spending time with music--be it listening, singing, playing, or writing.

General Councillor: Julian JiangJulian is a first-year DPhil student in Materials at Hertford College, which is famous for the Bridge of Sighs. As General Councillor in this year’s committee, he will be in charge of the academic events. He is keen to organise talks given by the academics in the university or by the scholars themselves!

General Councillor: Karine YukiKarine is a first-year MPhil student in the Oxford Department of International Development. Before coming to Oxford, she completed a double BSc degree in Physics and Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As General Councillor in the Clarendon Council, she will be heavily involved in the organisation of social and career-related events for our community. Originally from Brazil, Karine often gets asked whether she has a side career as samba dancer or soccer player (the answer is no).

General Councillor: Benjamin PopeBen grew up in Sydney and studied for his undergraduate and master’s degrees at the University of Sydney. He has always had as much passion for the humanities as for science, and came late to astrophysics from a background primarily in Classics. A year at Berkeley and Honours research in Hawai’i brought him back to astronomy and solidified his love of light and optics. When Ben’s not doing science, you can usually find him drinking tea and talking about Vikings.

Officer (Treasurer): Deborah AndersonDeborah is a first-year DPhil in Management Studies, with an interest in the politics of the internationalization of accounting standards as well as accounting for sustainability. She is originally from the United States. Prior to coming to Oxford, she worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers and earned degrees in Philosophy, Accounting and Tax. She enjoys running and myrmecology.

Officer (General Councillor): George QianGeorge is a DPhil student in the Department of Engineering Science. Before coming to Oxford, he completed a degree Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College in London. He grew up in New Zealand, a small and beautiful country famous for producing amazing rugby players (go All Blacks!) and having ten times as many sheep than people. As one of the more recent members of the Clarendon Council, his role as a general councillor involves organizing social events, among other tasks.

Editor-in-Chief of the Clarendon Chronicle: Lucas GrederLucas is pursuing a DPhil in Medical Sciences where he studies the molecular mechanisms underlying how functional adult-type hematopoietic stem cells are made in the developing embryo so that this knowledge can be applied to the generation of blood stem cells in a culture dish. Lucas is from Minneapolis, MN, USA where in the years leading up to his time at Oxford he spent time working as a Research Assistant while also earning a law degree.

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