Wolfson College Oxford, Plans and Prospects August 2012

8/13/2019 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
http://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/http://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/http://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/


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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 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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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


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)



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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.


Its hard to imagine

two human beings

more different than

Isaiah Berlin andIsaac Wolfson.


12/24

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.



13/24

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.



14/24

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


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.


15/24

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


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


16/24

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



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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


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.


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.


The Wolfsondevelopment

team


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.


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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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

[email protected]

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

http://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/messagehttp://m.ox.ac.uk/news/wolfsonhttp://m.ox.ac.uk/news/wolfsonhttp://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/message


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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/

Wolfson College Oxford, Plans and Prospects August 2012

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Transcript of Wolfson College Oxford, Plans and Prospects August 2012