William Charnley Scholarships William Charnley’s generous donation will support two annual Law Scholarships for the next five years, worth £1000 each. They are open to all LLM and PhD law candidates who name Hughes Hall as their first choice of College, though preference will be given to applicants resident, or intending to practise, in the United Kingdom. The College is anticipating an excellent pool of candidates over the coming years. The first two William Charley Law Scholars will join Hughes Hall for the 2008-09 academic year.
Nigel Brown, OBE Nigel Brown, Hughes Hall City Fellow, was awarded an OBE in the New Year’s Honours list for services to business and the community in Cambridgeshire. Last year he received an individual Queen’s award, and he will be High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire for 2010/2011.
Research success Hughes Research Fellow, Sovan Sarkar, is part of a team researching a new drug for the neurodegenerative disease known as Huntington’s. The team have identified for further investigation a number of candidate drugs which encourage cells to ‘eat’ the malformed proteins that lead to the disease. This initial success was reported in the journal Nature Chemical Biology.
Fellowship Congratulations to recent Hughes student, Dr Mohammed El-Shafie, on being elected a Fellow of Robinson College.
Roll of Honour The following elections have been made:
New Fellows Honorary Fellow
Judge Evan Wallach
Pfieffer Fellow
Dr Johnny Hon
Fellow
Professor Theresa Marteau
Research Fellow
Dr Rafael Dinner
Fellow Commoner Annemarie Young Quondam Fellow
Stephen Allott
Hughes Hall University of Cambridge Hughes Hall Cambridge CB1 2EW Tel: +44 (0)1223 334898 Fax: +44 (0)1223 311179 Email: contact@hughes.cam.ac.uk Web: www.hughes.cam.ac.uk
June 2008 Issue 8
Nigel Brown, OBE
Hughes Hall Boat Club Black Tie Dinner Rowers are a strange lot, writes Jeff Cook These men and women spend whole winters sitting on a contraption called an ‘erg’, punishing their bodies in order to develop enough stamina to race in a sport where the body’s absorbed oxygen is usually exhausted within the first 500 metres. Why would any intelligent person intentionally pursue such misery? For the parties. Think about it. Misery loves company. Company loves a party. Rowing then really is only a great party waiting to happen. It must follow that the best rowing parties are thrown by those crews which suffered the most misery during the race season. Hughes Hall (with Lucy Cavendish) had an embarrassment of riches last season, having won the Pegasus Cup as the highest achieving College club. Clearly then, the Annual Black Tie Dinner on 7 March, born of misery, sustained by wins, and fuelled by champagne, was a testament to the suffering of the respective crews, and was a smashing success. The Hughes Hall Boat Club is grateful to Jeff Cook for his recent donation of an erg machine and a welcome injection of cash. The women’s crew would also like to thank HSBC for sponsoring their training kit.
Pat Story pays tribute to…
Professor Richard D’Aeth, President of Hughes Hall 1978–84, Honorary Fellow 1984–2008 When Richard (Dick) D’Aeth was elected President, he found a College which had already begun to expand and diversify. However, the future of the College remained uncertain: the phasing-out of the one year BEd course meant the immediate loss of 20 students out of a total of 110; and, in the longer term, if Hughes Hall was ever to become a full College of the University, it had first to proceed from its insecure status as an Approved Society of the University to that of an Approved Foundation. The criteria were not altogether clear, but the College certainly had to demonstrate high academic standards in a variety of subjects and continuing financial viability. Dick D’Aeth proved to be an inspired choice to carry out this daunting agenda. The immediate problem of replacing the BEd students was solved by recruiting students entering the new Clinical School, and LLM students. By also admitting students studying for higher degrees in a variety of subjects, Dick both raised the academic standing of the College and continued the process of diversification. He also enhanced the research profile of the College by acquiring further funding for the influential medical project on the early years of parenthood, and promoting a trail-blazing study of the care of the elderly in the community. A cause dear to his heart was the future of small rural schools. He not only secured the necessary funding for a research project, but was personally involved in writing the report published in conjunction with the Ministry of Education. His previous experience in universities abroad had given him an international perspective and led to his encouragement of overseas students and academics to study in Britain. This interest, and his friendships with many scholars abroad, continue to enrich the life of Hughes Hall to this day. By 1983 it was felt that sufficient progress had been made to enable the College to
Margaret Wileman turns 100! Hughes Hall is helping Margaret to celebrate her centenary on the 19 July, 2008.
Calling all Alumni Dick D’Aeth in his garden
submit an application for Approved Foundation status. Here Dick’s powers of clear thinking and organisation, his meticulous attention to detail and capacity for sheer hard work were invaluable. Because of his expertise he was asked to continue as President for a year longer than his original appointment. An initial application was unexpectedly turned down on grounds that the original constitution of the College did not allow for full selfgovernance. So Dick and his colleagues immediately undertook the onerous task of devising a new constitution. By the time Dick retired in 1984, the revised application was complete, and the status of Approved Foundation was granted the following year. Dick spent a long and happy retirement in Devon, in close touch with his daughters, Gillian and Nicki, and his grandchildren. After his death in February this year Gillian wrote, ‘His time at Hughes Hall was one of the happiest and most fulfilling of his life, and he derived huge pleasure in knowing that it became a full College, and moved from strength to strength. He was always delighted to hear that scholars from abroad had such affection and respect for the College, and kept in touch.’ We owe a great debt to Dick D’Aeth and it is good to know that he lived to see his work come to fruition.
We will soon have a new database, enabling us to keep in touch with you more effectively. There will no longer be a separate Hughes Hall Society website, so no need to remember a pin number. Everyone who has been a student at Hughes Hall continues to be a member of the College. Just make sure we have your address so that we can invite you to events and generally keep in touch. Contact us on development@hughes.cam.ac.uk or +44(0)1223 334895
Help Hughes as you buy books You can help Hughes by shopping at Amazon through the Hughes Hall website. Go to the Library page of the Hughes Hall website and click on the link at the top of the page (http://www.hughes.cam.ac.uk/?section=abo ut&page=library). 4% of the purchase price comes back to the College as a general donation – at no expense to you!
News from Hughes June 2008
Issue 8
Space to Study Enthusiasm for the new library … … from the Librarian I can’t wait to see Hughes Hall’s students benefiting from the new library. It will provide a much needed increase in student study spaces. In the existing library, only ten study carrels are available; the new library will provide a total of seventy study spaces spread over two storeys. There will also be a variety of different study spaces to suit students’ personal preferences, including a quiet study area on the ground floor, computer Artist’s impression of the new library. Building work starts in earnest workstations, and a group study area with IT facilities on the on the 16 June and the new library will be open in January, 2009. first floor. Computer network facilities will be available. The new library will provide an essential increase in available shelving, to allow for future expansion of the book stock. This is also a pressing, immediate need: the library is full to capacity, and for the past three years the required expansion space for our growing stock has only been obtained by removing study spaces from the library. There will be floor to ceiling windows overlooking the garden. The building has been designed to provide a comfortable, well insulated and well ventilated working environment which is wheelchair accessible. An environmentally controlled archives and rare books room will accommodate the valuable and unique Ohtake collection, a collection of rare books and fine bindings generously donated by Professor Masatsugu Ohtake, and the College Archives, which go back to the nineteenth century. Items from the Ohtake collection will be displayed in the library. All in all, the new library will provide the pleasant study area and improved facilities which are urgently required by Hughes Hall’s students, and which will be enjoyed by students for years to come. Diana Hutchison, Under Librarian
… the MCR representative
… the students
The new library will benefit all students. One particularly useful element of the design is the group study area, where students can have valuable discussions, with learning resources close at hand.
It will be brilliant to have improved library facilities. I feel lucky that it’s happening during my time at the College. Lydia Keen, Social and Political Sciences undergraduate
It will be brilliant to have a large library dedicated to study, designed especially for students. The new library will make a big impact on students’ lives and what they get out of being at Hughes. Emily MacDonald, Graduate Medic
It’s good that Hughes Hall will get the library it deserves. I particularly appreciate the quiet study area, and the group study space and the storage for anatomical models will be great. The new library promises to bring Hughes Hall into the 21st century. Adam Newson, Graduate Medic
Students will really enjoy having a larger, well-lit library. Having the computer facilities and the book stacks linked will be much more convenient for students. Lovely, really nice. Natasha May, Classics undergraduate
Rhodri Mansell, PhD student
Hughes Hall is an Associate of amazon.co.uk
News from Hughes is edited by Annemarie Young Design by Andy Wilson (andy@andywilson.biz) Contact us with your news at Hughes Hall, Cambridge CB1 2EW; by email at development@hughes.cam.ac.uk Photographs courtesy Michael Derringer, Sophie Pickford, Ray Godwin, and contributors Printed in England
Newsletter for Hughes Hall members
Rhodri Mansell, Diana Hutchison and Assistant Librarian, Lorraine Scannell, look at the new plans.
I’ll be really pleased to have more study space and WiFi access. Zhanna Rakitina, MPhil in Management
The new library looks spacious with an excellent amount of work space. It’s a very exciting development, well designed and thought out. Faye Sharpley, Graduate Medic
The new library is able to go ahead because of the generous contributions of alumni and friends of the College, but further support is still needed.
June 2008
Issue 8