wolfson college oxford, plans and prospects august 2012
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F O R A L U M N I A N D F R I E N D S
Contents
A message from our Acting President,
Professor Christina Redfield 1
Research in progress: Insights into
two new Research Clusters 3
The year so far: College events 8
Student activities 12
Fundraising aims 14
Meet some of our scholarship
students 16
Ways to support Wolfson 18
Communications:
How to keep in touch 20
Introduction
Dear Wolfsonians,
For the last few months the visible pace of change in the College has
quickened. Construction on the Leonard Wolfson Lecture Theatre is well
underway and the final building shape is beginning to appear. We are on
target for its completion in Hilary term next year. Elsewhere in College other
building works are progressing well. Temporary kitchens started operation
at the beginning of June while the Colleges original kitchen is removed.
The plan is to have the new kitchen and servery in operation before the
beginning of next term. Lastly, the renovation of B-block, including the bar,
began on 1 July. Kitchens and baths will be modernized, plumbing and
wiring updated and most rooms made en suite. It is an exciting yet
challenging time in College, and all staff are working hard to make sure daily
operations and activities continue to run smoothly.
The Alumni Relations and Development office has also seen a lot of change
this year. Alex Talbot left us for the Princes Trust in January and Katie
Watson and Anna Johnson have joined the team. We have also merged
the College alumni data with the Universitys in order to simplify our work, to
offer a more joined-up service to alumni, and to take advantage of the
growing possibilities available with electronic communications.
A considerable investment has been made in the College website in order
to reflect the significant increases in academic activity in the College
through the burgeoning achievements of the Academic Clusters, which are
described in some detail in this edition of Plans and Prospects.
In spite of builders everywhere, the College is a happy place. Admissions
for 2012/13 are on target, guest nights and formal halls are full, the Boat
Club has had an impressive year of achievements and we are in touch
with increasing numbers of alumni. Our ambitions continue to grow and
in spite of the global financial and political uncertainties of the times, the
College goes from strength to strength.
William J Conner, Development Director
Plans andProspects
WOLFSON COLLEGE OXFORD
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IN OUR RESEARCH CLUSTERS AND
ELSEWHERE, the Colleges academiclife continues to thrive. In the past year
appointments have been made to
University Lectureships in subjects as
diverse as Classical Philology,
Migration Studies, and Physical
Climate Science. These new Fellows
will join the College in the autumn. In
the next few months appointments will
be made to at least five further posts
associated with Wolfson including the
Blavatnik Professorship of Global
Health and Public Policy, and a
University Lectureship in Soft
Functional Nanomaterials. In October
2011 we welcomed over 200 new
graduate students, and more than 20
new Research Fellows have joined the
College in the past year. The
importance of Research Fellows at
Wolfson has been recognized by the
appointment of Professor Harvey
Brown as Research Fellows Liaison
Officer, to encourage their academic
development and to help them to
integrate into the academic life of the
College.
As a Professor in the Laboratory of
Molecular Biophysics within the
Department of Biochemistry, my
ambition during my six-month stint as
Acting President is to raise the profile
of science within the College and to
foster collaboration within College,
both amongst scientists and between
scientists and non-scientists.
Wolfsons Research Clusters (featured
on pp. 3-7) are an important vehicle
for this, providing a mechanism for
collaboration across wide-ranging
disciplines. The sciences are already
represented in some of the established
academic clusters including Digital
Research and Quantum Foundations,and Im delighted to report on a
number of new areas we are
exploring; these include clusters
looking at climate-related issues and
at the area of magnetic resonance,
where Wolfson has a strong and long-
standing tradition.
This years Wolfson Lecture series on
Climate Connections will, I hope, serve
as a catalyst to spark the formation of
a research cluster in this important
and topical area. The recent
appointment of Dr Andrew Wells as
UL in Physical Climate Science will
complement the interests of other
Wolfson scientists including Ros
Rickaby (Professor of Biogeochemistry)
and Anthony Watts (Professor of
Marine Geology & Geophysics).
Professor Barbara Harriss-White
(Emeritus Fellow, featured on p. 7) is
also carrying out a research project on
the impact of Indias informal
It is my pleasure, in my role as
Acting President while Hermione
Lee is on research leave, to
update you on recent College
developments.
A messagefrom the Acting President
Christina Redfield
In October 2011 we welcomed over
200 new graduate students, and
more than 20 new Research
Fellows have joined the College in
the past year.
WOLFSON COLLEGE OXFORD . PLANS & PROSPECTS . 2012 . 1
Academic agenda
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economies on climate change and Dr
Benito Mller (Supernumerary Fellow)
has an interest in the equitable sharingof the burden of climate change
impacts between the developing and
industrial countries, so there is much
of common interest.
Wolfson's link to magnetic resonance
goes back to the early days of the
College, when Sir Martin Wood (a
former Fellow and now an Honorary
Fellow) founded Oxford Instruments,
the first substantial spin-off company
of Oxford University. The high-field
super-conducting magnets created by
Oxford Instruments have had a major
impact on the development of all areas
of magnetic resonance, which most
people are familiar with in the context
of MRI, widely used in hospitals.
In Audrey Woods history of Oxford
Instruments entitled Magnetic Venture,
she describes an order in 1976 by the
Oxford Enzyme Group for a 10.5 Tesla
magnet. In 1978, Oxford Instruments
delivered this magnet, which reached
an even higher field of 11 Tesla(1H frequency of 470 MHz). I arrived in
Oxford in 1980 and many of the NMR
spectra included in my 1984 PhD
thesis were collected using this 470
MHz NMR instrument. Oxford
Instruments continued to have a major
impact on biomolecular NMR in
Oxford; we had the first spectrometers
in the world operating at 600, 750 and
950 MHz all thanks to super-
conducting magnets made by the
company.
Others have continued the legacy
established by Sir Martin Wood. Peter
Jezzard, Professor of Neuroimaging
and Co-Director of the Oxford Centre
for Clinical Magnetic Resonance
Research, was a Research Fellow at
Wolfson from 2000 to 2003. Both
nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)
and electron spin resonance (ESR)
spectroscopy have been used to
demonstrate the potential of a
quantum computer. Andrew Briggs, an
Emeritus Fellow and member of the
Quantum Foundations Research
Cluster (www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/
academic/clusters/quantum-
foundations), and his collaborators use
ESR in their studies of quantum
information processing. All of this
suggests that magnetic resonance
would be a natural field for the
development of a new research cluster.
Full details of the Colleges busy
schedule of lectures and academic
activities can be found on the website
(www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk) .These are
open to alumni and we very muchhope to welcome some of you back to
College to participate in these events.
MRI sagittal view of the Acting President's
head. This was taken by Caroline (Lindy) Rae
in 1997 as part of a research project she was
conducting while she was a Non-Stipendiary
Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College
(1993-1997). Caroline Rae is currently a
Professor of Brain Science at the University of
New South Wales in Sydney.
22.3 Tesla magnet (950 MHz) located in the
Department of Biochemistry, University of
Oxford. This magnet was produced by Oxford
Instruments and installed in 2005. The 950
MHz spectrometer that is based around this
magnet is the highest-field solution-state NMR
spectrometer currently in operation in the
United Kingdom. It is used by Professor
Redfield's research group and many other
researchers to study biologicalmacromolecules in solution.
2 . WOLFSON COLLEGE OXFORD . PLANS & PROSPECTS . 2012
Academic agenda
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This is a unique environment among
Oxbridge colleges and has led to the
development of interdisciplinaryresearch clusters that draw on the
outstanding scholarly strengths and
interests at Wolfson. Eight clusters
have been established and funded;
others are still in development. Full
details of each are available at
www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/clusters
Two of the more recent clusters are
the Digital Research Cluster and
the South Asia Research Cluster.
The first recognizes that the World
Wide Web has significantly changed
the way much academic research is
conducted, and provides a focus for
research activity across the disciplines
that use the web as their primary
platform, so that sharing approaches
and experience can be mutually
beneficial.
The South Asia Research Clusterrecognizes the importance of this
region, which many believe holds the
key to global social development in the
twenty-first century. Encompassing a
fifth of the worlds population, the
region is home to the worlds largest
democracy and the second most
dynamic economy, and boasts a
dizzying cultural, religious, and
linguistic richness.
Research Clustersat Wolfson
At Wolfson, students working toward
research degrees, Research Fellowsand Governing Body Fellows in
humanities, science, social science
and medicine interact on many levels.
With a constituency of international
graduate students from more than fifty
countries, equally strong in the arts andsciences, multi- and interdisciplinary
dialogue is part of our life.
WOLFSON COLLEGE OXFORD . PLANS & PROSPECTS . 2012 . 3
Wolfson Research Clusters
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The Wolfson College Digital Research Cluster is creating a centre of
excellence in the application of Web technologies that will both
support the work of College members and provide a University
focus for activities in this area. It will promote and support
disciplinary and interdisciplinary work for which the web is the
primary medium of communication, where semantic enhancement
of information and the creation of linked data are the norm, and
where open data licensing is common practice. In doing so it will
draw on the remarkable success of the Colleges CLAROS Project,
an initiative that integrates information about classical art objects
from academic centres across Europe and presents them in a
single unified searchable and browseable interface to scholars and
members of the global public. Formally launched in May 2011,
CLAROS is the result of cross-disciplinary collaborative research
that borrowed Semantic Web-linked data technologies developed
for biological genomics research and applied them to similarly
heterogeneous distributed datasets relating to classical art.
The Digital Research Clusters research interests will be focused in
three areas:
Scholarly data integration and public access to
information, as exemplified by the CLAROS Project.
Semantic enrichment of scholarly communication, using
the full potential of web technologies to enrich journal articles
and other forms of scholarly communication, and to facilitate
the open publication of the datasets underpinning researcharticles.
Provenance and workflows, enabling the origins and
methods of creation of open data to be recorded, so that those
wishing to re-use them are enabled to do so.
The Cluster will have a number of project streams, all involving
cross-divisional and international collaboration. Five of these are
highlighted here to give some insight into the scope of the
Clusters work.
CLAROS and Tibetan Studies
The Digital Research Cluster is taking
the CLAROS approach to digital
integration and working in
collaboration with institutions with
complementary interests. For
example, the University of Virginia's
Institute for Advanced Technology in
the Humanities incorporates a Tibetan
and Himalayan Library Project. By
linking their place names and geo-
coordinate data to the large
collections within CLAROS, and then
mapping these on to Google Earth,
the Cluster can provide the
international research community with
a valuable tool. There are also
possibilities to collaborate with the
British Librarys International
Dunghuang Project, creating links to
their Central Asian data and to the
Himalayan manuscripts that Wolfsons
Tibetan and Himalayan Studies Centre
wishes to digitize for the web.
Voice recognition technologies
Automatic voice recognition
technologies are still quite limited, but
there are a number of promising
projects that offer limited but usefultools. These include the tagging of
Digital Research Cluster
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Wolfson Research Clusters
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sound recordings with keyword
metadata so that they can be
searched in a similar manner to theway in which text files can be
searched. The Clusters goal is to
develop open-source tools that can
provide open, accessible and useable
indices of broadcast and other sound
recordings. Achieving this will create a
major breakthrough for research
across disciplines; from humanities to
politics, and from social science to
finance. By doing so under open
licences, the Cluster expects to
facilitate future research projects
currently unfeasible because of
copyright restrictions.
Beyond the PDF Enhancing
scholarly communication in the
digital age
The Cluster is working directly with
publishers to bring about a revolution
in scholarly publishing involving the
creation of machine-readable
vocabularies that permit semantic
enhancement of scholarly articles and
the references that link them. This will
take scholarly information currently
available in PDF format which simply
mimics the printed page and provide
opportunities for innovative interactivity
between author and reader. The bigger
objective is to liberate reference texts
from the constraints of copyright
protection by working with publishers
to get subscription-access articles
added to the corpus of open-accessarticles, thus widening access to them.
Research data publication
Once the results from a research
project have been published in peer-
reviewed journal articles, standard
practice among academics is to move
on to the next project, while original
datasets rot in forgotten directories on
the hard drives of departed post-
doctoral students. Cluster members
are working to change this, by
developing tools that facilitate the
management and publication of
research datasets, particularly those
that underpin research articles. They
aim to facilitate the creation of rich
metadata to describe them, and create
bi-directional semantic links between
the papers and their datasets. Cluster
members are also working on the
development ofresearch objects,
functional information aggregations of
papers and their associated datasets
that contain all the necessary
information to make the contents
meaningful.
Open Research Reports
As recently highlighted by an editorial
in The Lancet, leading academic
journal publishers have withdrawn free
access to medical journals from
developing countries such as
Bangladesh, regarding them now as
wealthy enough to afford
subscriptions. This limitation stifles
medical education and research, and
compromises disease treatment. The
Wolfson Digital Research Cluster
intends to create and publish freely
available Open Research Reports in
Infectious Disease that will summarize
key facts and conclusions containedwithin important research articles
published in subscription-access
journals. Cluster members aim to
make this concept and methodology
generic, so that it can be reapplied in
other domains such as climate change
and education, with particular benefits
in developing countries.
The Digital Research Cluster also plans
a number of activities designed to
promote its work and draw in scholars
interested in engaging with it. The first
is a Digital Methods Incubator to
encourage developments relating to
wide-ranging digital and web-based
research methods and services and to
help develop scholars own skills in
using them. A yearly Digital Methods
Incubator Summer School and
HackFest will bring to the College
leaders, students, and developers in a
particular area of digital research for a
mid-summer week-long un-
conference to exchange ideas,
techniques, and results, and
participate in a hands-on hackfest of
software development around a
particular theme, service, or dataset.
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Roundtables, a contemporary South
Asian film series, and lectures from
distinguished visiting scholars and
leading public figures.
The South Asia Research Cluster will
engage in significant interaction with
other Wolfson Clusters, both by
geographical association with the
Tibetan and Himalayan Studies
Centre, and with the emerging Climate
Research Cluster, through a two-year
research project investigating the
effects of Indias informal economy on
climate change, further details of
which are on the Research Projects
page of the SARC website
http://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/clusters/
south-asia/research-projects.
The regions history, society, politics,
and economy inspire an intensity and
depth of debate that the cluster, under
the leadership of Professor Barbara
Harriss-White, aims to explore to the
full, in effect, to become a laboratory for
ideas in social science and humanities.
By setting up the South Asia Research
Cluster, Wolfson has enhanced an
interdisciplinary environment that
attracts students from the region
working across a range of disciplines
and subjects relating to their culture.
This includes students and researchers
from South Asia, not all of whom will
necessarily be students of South Asia.
However, a College Cluster in South
Asian studies allows them to become
part of larger conversations on research
in their home regions, giving them a
sense of ownership and opening up
possibilities for fruitful intellectual
exchange and cooperation.
The College has hosted a stream of
international workshops and
conferences convened by the
Contemporary South Asian Studies
Programme at Oxford. Topics have
included Global India with Warsaw
University; Finance and Ecological
Services funded by the British Council;
Market Town and Market Society,
funded by Indias IFMR Trust; and The
Agrarian Question and Non-
Parliamentary Politics, funded by the
ESRC. The College has also provided
funds for a series of Work-in-Progress
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Wolfson is already a special base for South Asian studies in Oxford.
Since the 1980s it has been college home to a number of
outstanding anthropologists, Sanskritists, Tibetologists, Buddhist
Studies specialists, and their students. In setting up the South Asia
Research Cluster (SARC), Wolfsons vision is to create a portal into
Oxford University for this region and to make this the natural college
home for South Asian Studies in Oxford. There has already been a
significant step-change, with many scholars of South Asia at Wolfson
already researching a wide range of topics including development
economics, anthropology, public health, international politics, religion
and economic change, and political sociology.
South Asia Research Cluster
http://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/clusters/south-asia/research-projectshttp://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/clusters/south-asia/research-projectshttp://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/clusters/south-asia/research-projectshttp://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/clusters/south-asia/research-projects -
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Further initiatives on the
horizon
The Digital Research and South Asia
Clusters are among the most recent
examples of research clusters. They
join a growing family of clusters at
various stages of development
including:
Oxford Centre for Life-Writing
Ancient World Research
Cluster
Tibetan and Himalayan Studies
Centre
Quantum Foundations
Law, Justice and Society
Collectively they have added a
significant new dimension to life at
Wolfson a dimension the College is
keen to enhance further. In April 2012,
the Research Cluster in Law, Justiceand Society was launched with a panel
discussion entitled Europe on the
Brink?, at which European Commission
insiders and European experts
assessed the economic, political, and
constitutional implications of the
Eurozone crisis. The Clusters purpose
is to promote an understanding of the
role of law in society and its creation
recognizes Wolfsons long-standing link
with the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies
and the Foundation for Law, Justiceand Society.
The College boasts a robust
research culture which it seeks to
share with the rest of the Oxford
community, our alumni and the
wider public. The welcoming
culture of the College has proven a
strong platform from which the
research cluster strategy benefits.
Meet Professor Barbara Harriss-
White
An Emeritus Fellow at
Wolfson, and Emeritus
Professor of Development
Studies, I direct an ESRC-DFID funded
research project on technology,
employment and greenhouse gases in
Indias informal economy. I am a political
economist and field-economist with
interests in the social ordering and state
regulation of the market economy (studied
through the production and distribution of
basic commodities in various regions of
South Asia and through four decades of
field-research on a small market town and
its rural hinterland), as well as its
casualties (hence research into gender
discrimination, poverty, destitution,
malnutrition/ alcoholism, disability, social
discrimination, and ageing).
I am now interested in
energy and materials in the
food economy.
Professor Harriss-White is formerly a
director of Oxfords Department of
International Development, Queen
Elizabeth House, and founder-director of
the Contemporary South Asian Studies
Programme in the School of Area Studies.
Perhaps most importantly, the
Cluster aims to provide substantial
financial support for students from
South Asia and for students and
scholars interested in South Asian
studies. The College believes that
setting up this Cluster not only
formalizes its rapidly growing
reputation and capacities in South
Asian studies but will enable it to
leverage outside funds and provide
unique advantages for its new,
young, and expanding research
community.
PLANS & PROSPECTS . 2012 . 7
Clockwise from top: Paddy fields near
Chinglepet, Tamil Nadu, 2012; Professor
Harriss-White; Arni Town, Tamil Nadu (all
images Professor Harriss-White: portrait
photograph by Gilman and Soame)
Wolfson Research Clusters
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Of all the people in this
room tonight Im probably
the luckiest in having
known the individuals
who have made Wolfson College the
distinguished place it is today.
First and foremost, my good fortune
was through friendship with Isaiah
Berlin and his wife Aline for more
than fifty years. Its precisely fifty years
ago that Isaiah took me on my first
visit to Israel with Nicholas Nabokov,
Raimund von Hofmannsthall and
Isaac Stern. We went around Israel in
the good old days listening to music
in kibbutzim. From then on he guided
and helped me throughout my life, as
an undergraduate at Oxford, years
later at the National Gallery, and he
was the most wonderful Trustee of
our Foundation, Yad Hanadiv. You all
have memories and stories of Isaiah,
let me just tell you one short story.
Before he died I once asked him
rather seriously whether he was
alarmed, concerned, about death.
He paused and then he said No, not
at all; probably the only thing Ill miss
is Francis Haskells conversation.
One thing Im certain of. All of us
who knew Isaiah miss him, his
conversation, his brilliance, indeedeverything about him.
Excerpts from Lord Jacob Rothschilds Speech at Spencer House:
Now a very different character: Isaac
Wolfson, whose commercial success
made the creation of Wolfson College
possible.
Its hard to imagine two human beings
more different than Isaiah Berlin and
Isaac Wolfson. I was lucky enough to
have known Isaac Wolfson pretty well.
He was nothing less than the most
brilliant and successful entrepreneurial
genius and trader in the UK in the
post-War period, and again I learnt so
much from him.
There are three other people here
tonight. Isaac Wolfsons
granddaughter, the daughter of
Leonard, Janet de Botton, a chip off
both blocks, her grandfather and
father. She combines both her
grandfathers humour and shrewdness
with her fathers conservatism and
attention to detail. Im also very happy
indeed that Estelle, Leonards wife is
here.
Finally. Hermione Lee. The future of
Wolfson College is in the best possible
hands. Ive just been reading her
brilliant biography of Virginia Woolf, a
particular interest to me with its
references to my maternal grand-mother Mary Hutchinson, a key figure
in Bloomsbury life and a friend, up to
a point, of Virginia Woolf.
I think Isaiah, Isaac, and Leonard
would certainly have approved of our
meeting in this beautiful room tonight
not least because of the magnificent
portrait of King David by Guercino
which recently returned to this house
having previously been here for some
250 years. Its a nice coincidence that
over the mantelpiece theres a
transcription of the painting by
Hamilton of Guercinos Saul and
David showing David in his youth.
I am delighted that Spencer House
should be the place where Wolfson
College is holding this
event tonight.
Thank you so much.
WOLFSON COLLEGE OXFORD . PLANS & PROSPECTS . 2012 . 9
Its hard to imagine
two human beings
more different than
Isaiah Berlin andIsaac Wolfson.
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Events and activities
L Tibetan Buddhist
kung fu nunsdemonstrate their
skills on the College
lawns.
I Graham Avery,
Honorary Director-
General of the
European
Commission
introduces the Panel
Discussion at the
Inaugural Event of
the Law, Justice and
Society Cluster, 19th
April 2012.
L Novelist and
Libyan exile Hisham
Matar delivering a
lecture for the
Oxford Centre for
Life-Writing.
IAlan Hollinghurst
in conversation with
Hermione Lee,
Oxford Centre forLife-Writing.
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Events and activities
J College President
Hermione Lee
welcoming Wolfson
alumni to Lincoln's
Inn.
K Sculptor and
Honorary Fellow
Sir Anthony Caro
discusses his
fifty-year career.
J His Holiness the
Gyalwang Drukpa
discusses
Mindfulness
meditation with Mark
Leonard.
I Groundbreaking
for the new Leonard
Wolfson Lecture
Theatre.
J Fireworks night at
Wolfson.
WOLFSON COLLEGE OXFORD . PLANS & PROSPECTS . 2012 . 11
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many back. For some, this was their
first visit to Wolfson College in almost
30 years!
Feedback from those who came to
dance and feast was overwhelmingly
positive, with many promising to visit
us again in December 2012. On behalf
of the 2011 Winter Ball committee I
thank everyone who attended and
made the Ball the occasion it was.
All that remains to be said is bring on
2012!
For the first time in the Colleges
history, the 2011 Ball Committee
decided to let the members of Wolfson
College vote on the theme for this
years Winter Ball. The overwhelming
majority of respondents chose a
1920s-inspired Speakeasy.
Gangsters and molls from Wolfson
College and beyond were welcomed in
to a College transformed, to the playful
sound of swing music. Wolfsons
unique hideaway spaces meant that
guests could discover (with a
prohibition-era thrill?) the pop-up vodka
luges, cocktail bars and coffee lounges
concealed around the site. Guests
were entertained with an interactive
assassins game, lessons in the
Charleston and other popular 1920s
dances, a silent disco, and a hog roast.
Whilst holders of non-dining tickets
enjoyed imbibing bootleg liquor from
the Duke of Cambridge, holders of
dining tickets were treated to a
champagne reception in the UCR and
three-course meal of smoked salmon
salad, cannon of roast venison with
root vegetables and lemon posset in
the Hall, which had been festooned
with hundreds of fairy-lights.
In conjunction with the Wolfson
Development Office, this years
Committee invited alumni to the WinterBall, and we were glad to welcome so
by Ball Treasurer, Katrina Witt
12 . WOLFSON COLLEGE OXFORD . PLANS & PROSPECTS . 2012
Student activities
A winter ball
Clockwise from top:
Wolfson in snow; dining guests enjoy the
champagne reception in the UCR; a three-
course dinner in hall; a glowing balloon
transforms Berlin Quad.
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Wolfson College Boat Club (WCBC)
has had another exceptional year.
Michaelmas Term saw the arrival of
over 30 novices to The Wolfpack,
competing in Christ Church
Regatta in November and then in
their first taste of bumps racing at
Torpids in February. WCBC was
ranked the 3rd most successful
college Boat Club in Oxford at
Torpids, bumping twelve other
crews in total. The Womens 1st VIII
won blades by bumping Mansfield,
Osler House, Balliol, and Keble
colleges to finish third in Division 2.
The Men's 1st VIII finished fifth in
Division 1, having bumped up three
places. There were outstanding
performances also from W2 and
M2 who were only defeated byklaxons or 1st VIII crews.
Success at Torpids was despite the fact
that several of our members have been
training with the University crews.
Congratulations to Jill Betts and Aurlie
Cunod who were in the winning Oxford
Womens Lightweight crew, and to Amy
McLennan who was in the winning
Oxford Womens Reserve crew. We
were also proud to see Tyler Spencer
stroke the Mens Lightweight crew. We
were delighted that they were able to
join us for Summer Eights. Here again,
Wolfson Boat Club had great success,
under glorious sunshine. No fewer than
six of our boats competed in this year's
races. The Women's 1st VIII bumped
New College and moved up to the Head
of Division II, narrowly missing out on
catching Keble College in one of the
weeks most exciting races! Our Men's
1st VIII retained their highest ever
position of fourth in Division I, closing in
on Christ Church each day and leaving
University College far behind.
Special kudos go to the Men's 2nd VIII
for bumping three out of the four days,
making it five straight years that they've
recorded at least three bumps. The
Women's 2nd VIII was only beaten by
misfortune and klaxons, and is currently
the third fastest 2nd boat in the ranks.
Excellent performances from the 3rd
boats proved the consistency and
dedication of the entire Boat Club.
Overall, Wolfson crews got 7 bumps
and gained 3 net places, tying them for
9th place out of the 35 boat clubs.
This year we have also been glad to
build relationships with many friends and
alumni of the Boat Club. Torpids dinner
was attended by alumni from 1984
through to 2008 and we were proud
that Mark Pottle gave this years Iffley
Dinner Speech on the history of the
Boat Club. Friends of the late Bernard
Henry have donated generously to the
Boat Clubs equipment fund this year,
which is now in a position to buy a scull
in Bernards name. We continue to look
for long-term external sponsorship to
support the Boat Club in 2012-13, and
welcome enquiries from any interested
companies ([email protected]).
Follow WCBC on facebook Wolfson
College Boat Club, Oxford or via our
website www.wolfsonrowing.org
WOLFSON COLLEGE OXFORD . PLANS & PROSPECTS . 2012 . 13
Student activities
PullingtogetherAbove: Jill Betts and Aurlie Cunod.
Left: Wolfson Women's 1st VIII storming down
the river.A Report from Wolfson College Boat Club
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This year our fourth the Wolfson Development
team has been focusing on making sure we can
stay in touch with our alumni more effectively. We
have switched to a new and much better
database for storing information. This means that
if you would like to tell us about what you have
been up to recently, or share your experiences of
Wolfson and your thoughts about its future, we
can keep a much fuller record. We want to know
more about our alumni, and your lives beyond
College; your past experience of Wolfson and
your expectations for its future continue to be
relevant to everything we do.
Better data facilities also mean that we
are more easily able to send invitations
to Wolfsons lectures and events, and
to keep you updated with publications
like this one. We are fortunate in
having such a large number of
Wolfsonians to communicate with
there are more than 5,500 of you,
living in all parts of the world.
In due course, we look forward to
offering a Netcommunity feature
through our new database, which will
make it even easier for you to stay in
touch with your fellow alumni around
the world.
This year has been another very
positive one for Wolfson fundraising,
particularly in our successful efforts to
secure major gift funding for a numberof our new Research Clusters.
FundraisingNews & aims in 2011-12A message fromWilliam J Conner, Director of Development
14 . WOLFSON COLLEGE OXFORD . PLANS & PROSPECTS . 2012
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We have eight clusters established
and funded, with three more in
development. These are now activelydisseminating their research to a wide
audience. Last term, the Oxford Life-
Writing Cluster held a series of
prestigious lectures, featuring eminent
literary figures such as Man Booker
Prize-winning novelists Alan
Hollinghurst and Hisham Matar.
Climate Change has been the topic
for this terms Lectures. The Law,
Justice and Society Research Cluster
gave us a thought-provoking inaugural
event in April, looking at the situation
in Europe and the implications for the
future of the European Union.
Behind these successes are the
individual contributions of Wolfson
academics, at all stages of their
careers.
We can support our students and
academics as a direct result of the
generosity of our alumni, and so wed
like to begin by thanking those of you
who give. You are making a difference,
as you will see from the student
statements on the next page.
Whatever your history in donating to
College, we hope that you can help
us, now and in the future. This section
of our magazine will provide an outline
of our goals, and make the case for
alumni giving and its all-important role
in student support.
With warmest thanks,
William J Conner
Development Director
At the heart of Wolfson fundraising is our effort to secure small,
regular gifts from our largest support base our alumni and
friends. The support which you give to Wolfson is the lifeblood of
our Annual Scholarship Fund. It greatly improves our chances of
securing funding from Trusts, Foundations, and Corporations. Your
contribution encourages others to give.
What is the Annual Scholarship
Fund?
As a former Wolfson graduate, you
already know the value of a research
degree, and it is these higher degrees
that are most under threat in the
current environment. In order to
continue to attract the brightest
students and thereby retain our
reputation for research excellence, we
must be able to offer attractive
support packages to applicants.
The Fund is the pool of money
Wolfson accumulates each year for
student support. We have over 580
current students, and so it is
unsurprising that Wolfson spends in
excess of 500,000 per annum in
supporting them.
Despite this expenditure, too many of
our students remain underfunded. In
the last few years, funding from
research bodies in the UK and
overseas has diminished sharply. We
want to be able to do much, much
more to ease our students financial
anxieties.
By creating the Annual Scholarship
Fund we are able to pool alumni gifts,
and through this pool attract
matching grants which can effectively
triple that money, increasing the
number of available scholarships foroutstanding students.
50 Scholarships for our 50th
Anniversary a Four Year Plan
In our last edition of Plans and
Prospects (October 2011), we
described our main goals for
increasing our Annual Scholarship
Fund, in the lead-up to Wolfsons 50th
Anniversary in 2016.
We have an ambitious but achievable
goal of doubling our number of
scholarships by this date; 50 for our
50th Anniversary. These will provide
support for students across a wide
spectrum of academic disciplines,
building a solid foundation for the
future.
Would you be willing to become
a donor for the first time?
When we articulate our case for
support, we are sometimes asked a
simple question; how far can my
money really go? The answer is, a
long way!
If every alumnus were to make a gift at
a level that suited them, we could do
great things. For example, a monthly
contribution of 10 from each alumnus
would create 660,000 in available
funding. Taking into account Gift Aid
from the UK government and other
available matched funding, this would
provide us with more than 1,000,000
to support our scholarshipprogramme.
Wolfson Colleges fundraising aims
WOLFSON COLLEGE OXFORD . PLANS & PROSPECTS . 2012 . 15
Fundraising forstudent support
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This is an ideal, and we have realistic
goals in mind, which would do
wonders for student support at thepresent moment.
We would like to increase the number
of donors giving small, regular gifts.
Just 400 alumni supporters makingthis commitment every year would
make a great difference.
We hope that you will consider helping
us meet these aims. Our students are
more eloquent than we could ever bein making their case for support, so
well leave the last word to them!
provide an atmosphere of calmamongst the bustle of Oxford life. I can
say with absolutely certainty that my
doctorate would not have been
possible without the assistance of my
scholarship and, again, am so thankful
to have had this opportunity.
Megan Robb DPhil student in
Oriental Studies
The Wolfson Graduate Bursary made
it possible for me to come to Oxford,
which was one of the best decisions I
have ever made. I am currently on field
research in India, taking intensive
language courses in Urdu to improve
my ability to translate texts for my
thesis.
Wolfson Colleges fundraising aims
Meet some of Wolfsons currentscholarship recipients
Karina McHardy DPhil student in
Public Health
I am currently in the third and final year
of my DPhil in Public Health. My time at
Wolfson College has been nothing short
of transformative. I know that I will
continue to benefit from the unique
skills, knowledge and experience
gained throughout these years for the
rest of my personal and professional life.
I have found Wolfson to be a
consistently exciting, engaging,
diverse, and supportive environment
as I have progressed through this
degree. I am proud to be associated
with the College and particularly valuethe egalitarian ethos that can help
Last year I was co-captain of theWolfson Womens Boat Club rowing
team, and it was a phenomenal
experience. Rowing at Wolfson has
taught me how to challenge myself,
lead others to approach challenges,
and deal with failures. All these
experiences have contributed to
helping me grow as a person and
indirectly make doing my academic
work even more of a pleasure.
Researching and writing a DPhil is
difficult work, as I am sure many of our
alumni will know! It is motivating and
encouraging to be able to come home
after a long day to a solid, supportive
community of friends at Wolfson.
This community, together with the
funding that Wolfson has generously
afforded me, has made my time in
Oxford an absolute pleasure.
Ben Sorgiovanni DPhil student in
Philosophy
Wolfson is a terrific college, which
caters extraordinarily well to its
community of graduates. The
Colleges facilities are first-rate, but
above all its the friendly, informal
atmosphere which, in my experience,
really sets it apart. The environment is
incredibly supportive. As a graduate
student at Wolfson you have
numerous opportunities to discuss
your research and ideas with students
and academics working in a wide
range of disciplines.
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Im fortunate enough to be a recipientof the Wolfson College Isaiah Berlin
Scholarship. I can honestly say that I
wouldnt be completing my DPhil at
Oxford University if it werent for the
support which this scholarship
provides. It is quite literally invaluable.
It also means that while Im at Oxford
Im able to pursue my research single-
mindedly, without having to fit my
studies around paid work.
Hear more from our Senior
Tutor and students about the
need for student support at
Wolfson (http://podcasts.
ox.ac.uk/scholarship-
opportunities-wolfson-video) .
William J Conner
Development Director and Fellow
William Conner has been in charge of
Wolfsons Development programme
since the Office was first established in
2008. He is pleased to be joined by
two new members of staff this year.
Anna Johnson
Development Officer
In January Alex Talbot left the
Development Office for pastures new
after three years at Wolfson.
Anna Johnson joined us in March this
year as the new Development Officer,
having recently been awarded her DPhil
in English Literature from Brasenose
College. Alongside her studies, she
spent several years working as Assistant
to the current Vice-Chancellor, Professor
Andrew Hamilton. She is delighted to be
in charge of the Annual Fund, and has
greatly enjoyed overseeing Wolfson's
successful telephone fundraising
campaign this June which reached its
40,000 target in gifts and pledges.
Katie Watson
Development Assistant
In September we appointed a
Development Assistant to help with the
general running of the Development
Office. Katie Watson has experience in
running a busy office and has helped to
orchestrate the transfer to the new
Development and Alumni Relations
System (DARS). She has also been
involved in organizing our two major
London events over the past year,
including a lecture from the President,
Professor Hermione Lee, at Lincolns
Inn in October 2011 and our
Celebration of Wolfson College at
Spencer House in March.
Wolfson Colleges fundraising aims
The Wolfsondevelopment
team
WOLFSON COLLEGE OXFORD . PLANS & PROSPECTS . 2012 . 17
Anna Johnson and Katie Watson pictured in
front of our recognition board, naming
Wolfson donors.
http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/scholarship-opportunities-wolfson-videohttp://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/scholarship-opportunities-wolfson-videohttp://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/scholarship-opportunities-wolfson-videohttp://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/scholarship-opportunities-wolfson-videohttp://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/scholarship-opportunities-wolfson-videohttp://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/scholarship-opportunities-wolfson-videohttp://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/scholarship-opportunities-wolfson-videohttp://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/scholarship-opportunities-wolfson-videohttp://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/scholarship-opportunities-wolfson-video -
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1 2
3
4
Online giving
THIS IS OUR RECOMMENDED
METHOD, BECAUSE IT MAKESTHE GREATEST DIFFERENCE
BY FAR.
If you live in the UK or anywhere except the USA,
please donate online at our special website
www.giving.ox.ac.uk/wolfson.You can set up
regular giving there, or make a single gift with a
credit or debit card. Or, if you live in the United
States, you can donate online through Americans
for Oxford atwww.oxfordna.org/giving_how.htm.
Giving online works for your convenience and
allows us to focus on maximizing the benefit of
your donation. Online giving also allows Gift Aid to
be added automatically, substantially increasing
the value of your donation. For details, see the
section on tax efficient ways of giving.
Online banking
You can use online banking to
make a single gift from yourbank account. (Click here for our
online donation page)
By phone
If you live in the UK or anywhere
except the United States, for a
secure, single gift card payment
over the phone, please call
Anna Johnson in the Development Office on
+44 (0) 1865 611041, or if you live in the United
States, you can call the team at Americans for
Oxford on (212) 377-4900 for a secure, single gift
card payment, or to set up a regular giving plan
using a credit card.
By post
You can find a pdf donation form
on our website here to print and
return to us.
18 . WOLFSON COLLEGE OXFORD . PLANS & PROSPECTS . 2012
Wolfson Colleges fundraising aims ways to support Wolfson
Supporting WolfsonFour simple ways to make your giftWe have a range of payment methods to make giving easy according
to your preference: online, over the phone, or by post.
http://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/development/donatehttp://www.giving.ox.ac.uk/wolfsonhttp://www.giving.ox.ac.uk/wolfsonhttp://www.oxfordna.org/giving_how.htmhttp://www.oxfordna.org/giving_how.htmhttp://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/development/donatehttp://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/development/donatehttp://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/development/donatehttp://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/development/donatehttp://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/development/donatehttp://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/files/attachments/UK%20Donation%20Form_0.pdfhttp://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/files/attachments/UK%20Donation%20Form_0.pdfhttp://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/files/attachments/UK%20Donation%20Form_0.pdfhttp://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/files/attachments/UK%20Donation%20Form_0.pdfhttp://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/development/donatehttp://www.oxfordna.org/giving_how.htmhttp://www.giving.ox.ac.uk/wolfson -
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Wolfson Colleges fundraising aims
UK taxpayers
Please make sure to cover your
donation under Gift Aid so that your
gift becomes 25% greater at no cost
to yourself (the difference is paid by
the Inland Revenue, as we can reclaim
the tax at the standard rate). The Gift
Aid scheme, combined with matched
funding from the UK government, can
as much as double the face value of
your gift.
USA residents
Please use the online giving method. It
enables you to make a tax-deductable
gift through Americans for Oxford, a
501(c)3 charity. You are entitled to a
federal income tax deduction of up to
50% of your adjusted gross income
for cash gifts, and can also secure the
UK government matched funding.
European residents
There are special arrangements for
tax-effective giving in many European
countries. Details can be found at
http://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/
transnationalgivingeurope.
Canadian taxpayers
All gifts are tax-creditable, and a
receipt can be provided on request.
Please become a College
Benefactor
We know that you have many claims
on your time and attention. However,
we hope that this appeal from your
College will encourage you to take
part and give to the 2012 Annual
Fund. Please give as generously as
you can to help us exceed our targets.
We thank you enormously for
whatever you can do.
William J Conner
Fellow and Development Director
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: +44 (0)1865 284333
Anna Johnson
Development Officer
Email:[email protected]
Telephone: +44 (0)1865 611041
Chair campaignSince the arrival of our beautiful newDining Hall chairs, we have run a
successful campaign, asking alumni to
sponsor and name a chair. Many have
now been spoken for, but it is still
possible to stake a claim! For a
donation of 300 you can choose a
name or phrase which will be engraved
on a brass plaque, which will then be
permanently displayed in the back of
your chair. This is the perfect way to
support the College refurbishment
programme. It also provides a unique
gift opportunity for landmark occasions
such as birthdays, anniversaries, and
graduations, or to honour the memory
of a loved one.
Sponsors of chairs who are UK tax
payers are asked to Gift Aid their
donation, so that we can reclaim 384
including tax, making your gift go
further.
Please contact Anna Johnson on
+44 (0)1865 611041 or by email at
for more information on how to
sponsor and name a chair of your own.
Tax efficient waysof givingAccording to where you live and whether you are a taxpayer or not,
there are several ways you can make your gift worth much more to
your College, at no extra cost to yourself.
http://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/transnationalgivingeuropehttp://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/transnationalgivingeuropehttp://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/transnationalgivingeuropehttp://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/transnationalgivingeurope -
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Staying in touch
We take pride in the
achievements of our alumni
long after graduation, and
aim to stay connected with
our fellow Wolfsonians,
wherever they are in the
world. We can offer you agreat many opportunities to
engage with the College and
with your peers, both in
person at our alumni events,
or through the content and
communications channels
available online.
Wolfson Online
Wolfsons website continues to evolve
to reflect the ever-increasing academic
activity at the College, and in order to
host a number of interactive features.
We hope that these will bring you closer
to the news that interests you. Our
new-look homepage features some of
the developments of which we are most
proud, and which you can hear allabout in the Presidents video message
(www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/message).
Theres a new events calendar to give
an at-a-glance view of all the
academic, cultural, and social events
happening in College, and youll find
news of all the latest research
breakthroughs and academic
achievements on the homepage, and
on the research cluster micro sites
within the Academic Life pages.
For those who prefer their news on
the go, theres also a Twitter feed forinstant updates, and you can easily
keep an eye on all the latest news and
events at Wolfson through our Mobile
Oxford site at
http://m.ox.ac.uk/news/wolfson/
Communi
20 . WOLFSON COLLEGE OXFORD . PLANS & PROSPECTS . 2012
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Your professional network
of College colleagues
You may already know of Wolfsonians
Worldwide, where nearly 1,000
members past and present post
stories and keep in touch, but you can
also benefit from the professional
networking opportunities afforded by
our LinkedIn group of over 600
Wolfson alumni. Whether youre
looking for an expert opinion, seekingto recruit trusted talent, advance your
own career, or simply want feedback
on your latest project, just visit
www.linkedin.com and search
Wolfson College Oxford to join your
College colleagues and tap into a rich
resource of expertise and experience.
Updating your details
As always, we are eager to know if
your details change, and you can
update your personal information
here www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/
development/alumni-pif. Alternatively,
please call our Development Team on
01865 611041 to request a hard copy
of the form by post.
Catch up with Wolfson
podcasts
If you arent able to participate in the
academic and cultural events at
Wolfson in person, you can easily catch
up at the Wolfson Podcasts channel,
where a wealth of audio and video
content of eminent speakers from the
worlds of art, literature, politics and
philosophy is available to download.
Recent highlights include a frankassessment of the Eurozone crisis from
the Honorary Director-General of the
European Commission, Booker-Prize
winning author Alan Hollinghurst in
conversation with College President
Hermione Lee on the art of biography
and fiction, and renowned sculptor and
Wolfson Honorary Fellow Sir Anthony
Caro in conversation with Art Historian
Tim Marlow.
As part of ourcommitment to open
access, Wolfson
podcasts are also
available on iTunes
U, a free site of
educational
resources for
enquiring minds
around the world,
which has received
over 1 million
downloads to date.
cations
http://www.linkedin.com/http://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/development/alumni-pifhttp://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/development/alumni-pifhttp://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/development/alumni-pifhttp://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/development/alumni-pifhttp://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/search?terms=wolfsonhttp://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/search?terms=wolfsonhttp://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/search?terms=wolfsonhttp://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/search?terms=wolfsonhttp://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/development/alumni-pifhttp://www.linkedin.com/ -
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The Development Office. Wolfson College . Linton Road . Oxford OX2 6UD
William J. Conner, Development Director . [email protected]
Anna Johnson, Development Officer . [email protected] . +44 (0)1865 611 041Katie Watson, Development Assistant . [email protected] . +44 (0)1865 611 042
lf k
http://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/http://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/