Roll of Honour
Arts Graduate Medic
The following elections and awards have been made:
Elizabeth Ingall, after taking a First in English Language and Literature, went on to gain a distinction in the Cambridge Graduate Course in Medicine, and is now working at Addenbrooke’s Hospital.
Johnny Hon Peking University Scholarships
Ziyin Mai Zhibo Qiu
E. M. Burnett Prizes on the Results of University Examinations Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic Alison Bonner Katherine Miller Archaeology and Anthropology Jennifer Woodhead Education
Rita Kidd
Mathematics Luis Matos Konstantinos Koumatos Medicine
Elizabeth Ingall Udara Kularatne Alastair Proud
Philosophy Guy Campos Russian
Martina Bielawski
Helena Powell Prize for Religious Studies
Julia Schoettl
Life Fellow
John Raffan
New Fellows Quondam Fellows Professor John MacBeath Dr Gilly Carr New appointments Dr Jeremy Toner Rev’d Dr Philip Raymont PHG (Population Health and Genomics) Foundation Lecturers Lecturer in Philosophy Dr Stephen John Lecturer in Social Sciences Mr Adam Bostanci Lecturer in Law Mr Amit Pundik Nidhi Singal, Research Fellow, has been appointed University Lecturer in Education
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
December 2007 Issue 7
Starting medicine as an arts graduate was, I found, a little like setting off on an Alpine trek only to find you’d forgotten to pack walking boots. The world of pre-clinical medicine with its logarithms, its ligaments, its bugs, and its bones, didn’t seem to accommodate someone more used to writing soul-searching essays on the social validity of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. My challenge was to adapt to this new currency of ‘factual learning’.
Clinical medicine was a different ball game and one in which I found myself much more at home. Theories could be put into practice. Complex disease mechanisms could be contextualised in a world beyond the textbook. Communication skills and the ability to empathise became paramount. I suppose you could say that it has only been through my interactions with the patients themselves that I can do two things: first, firmly applaud the definition of medicine as both art and science; and second, firmly appreciate my career change.
Hughes entrepreneurs win award Hughes Hall PhD students Shamus Husheer, Lydia Ferguson and Oriane Chausiaux were part of the winning team of four at the Cambridge University Entrepreneurs Business Plan Competition: Where Angels Dare 2007. The team pitched their business idea to a panel of local investors in a thrilling finale, winning the £10,000 Angels’ Prize and £5,000 3i Entrepreneurship Prize.
Laurence Garrett from 3i with Shamus Husheer, Lydia Ferguson, Oriane Chausiaux and Scott Mackie
Their company, Cambridge Temperature Concepts Limited, has developed a medical device for measuring body temperature accurately and conveniently over several weeks, which can be applied to a number of markets, including conception assistance and general healthcare. Shamus and Oriane, having recently completed their PhDs, are now working full time on the business. The grant, as well as other sources of funding they have obtained over the past 2 years, including the Downing Enterprise Business Plan Competition (£20,000) and an East of England Development Agency Grant (£17,000), will fund a prototype trial. If the trials are successful, funding will be sought at the start of 2008 to finance production and distribution. For more information, see www.temperatureconcepts.com
Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion Nigel Brown, Hughes Hall City Fellow, has won a Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion. Nigel was presented with the award by the Queen at Buckingham Palace in July, along with other winners.
News from Hughes
A woman of many achievements ... …who prefers to think of them as meeting challenges. Doreen Simmons, Hughes Hall, 1953–1954, was born in Nottingham in 1932. She read Classics and Theology at Girton before her PGCE at Hughes, and is now a freelance writer and editor, actress, recording artist, folksinger, percussionist, and professional sumo commentator. She likes to travel with a purpose, and has camped in Iceland, observed penguins in Antarctica, and helped to build houses in Mongolia. She has lived in Japan since 1973, and is a generous donor to Hughes. • What do you think are your greatest achievements? I don’t think in terms of achievements – I tend to think in terms of challenges, and if I get through, then I reach a new level. But the single most important life changing event was getting into Girton, and being a small part of the University of Cambridge. It was the culmination of so many experiences, so much work, and help from two teachers in particular. When I came up in 1950 women had only been admitted as full members for two years. At a different level, and many years later, I was on ‘Mastermind’. It was a challenge: the solo walk out to the black chair, and sitting there under all the lights. But I overcame fear, and came out of it feeling, “I will never be truly afraid of anything else again.” That experience cured me of my stage fright. Now, when I’m going onstage, or waiting to sing a solo, I get a pleasant excitement that sharpens me up, but not the abject state of nerves I used to get.
• What have you enjoyed most of your many experiences? Most of the really satisfying things have happened since I turned 70. The most memorable was singing with the British Embassy Choir, summer 2006, in We are the Burning Fire by Howard Goodall. The highlight for me was the final song ‘She Moved through the Fair’ which I sang as a solo, folk-style. After the ghost’s final unaccompanied line “It will not be long, love, till our wedding day”, every performance ended in complete silence. Each audience seemed to hold its breath for a minute or so, then broke into applause. That has to be one of the most incredible experiences I’ve ever had. • What advice would you give to Hughesians embarking on their careers? The best advice I can think of is: find out what you do well, and enjoy doing – then get yourself into a situation where you can do it. It took me years to get into the first of the jobs I do now; but each time I had a change I was a little nearer, or adding another skill. I didn’t have a clear, precise vision of a future career, but each step opened up new possibilities. And: if you are already in the perfect job, but somebody asks you to do something different, give it a try.
• What’s next on you r agenda?
Just to go on as I am now, for as long as possible. Life is so good that I can’t imagine anything better.
Calling all Alumni THE HUGHES HALL SOCIETY
Send us your up-to-date email address so that we can keep in touch with you. Everyone who has been a student at Hughes Hall is automatically a member of the Hughes Hall Society, but you need to register in order to get online access.
December 2007 Issue 7
Doreen Simmons, relaxing for a change
Development Office We’re very pleased to announce that Hughes now has a Development Office, with the important work of coordinating College development plans, maintaining contact with alumni and seeking donations and funding. Head of Development, Annemarie Young, is an experienced publisher who was previously Editorial Manager for Primary Publishing at Cambridge University Press. Her deputy, Hannah Fogg, is a music graduate and worked in Magdalene’s Development Office after graduating from Sidney Sussex. Contact them at development@hughes. cam.ac.uk or +44(0)1223 334895
Buy books and help Hughes! You can help Hughes every time you shop at Amazon. Go to the Alumni site (www.hughes.cam.ac.uk/hhs/), log on and click on the Amazon logo on the home page. 4% of the purchase price comes back to the College as a general donation – at no expense to you! Hughes Hall is an Associate of amazon.co.uk
Register online at http://www.hughes.cam.ac.uk/hhs/contact-form.html
Longer versions of some of the articles in this newsletter can be found on the Hughes Hall website: www.hughes.cam.ac.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; or on the web at www.hughes.cam.ac.uk/hhs Photographs courtesy Michael Derringer, Ray Godwin, and contributors Printed in England.
Newsletter of the Hughes Hall Society
Visit of the Visitor HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, College Visitor and Chancellor of the University, came to Hughes in April to mark the granting of the Queen’s Royal Charter and our transition to full College status. The visit was a splendid day, relaxed and friendly. The Duke planted a fir tree in honour of the occasion, and met 52 students who had enthusiastically signed up for the event. The Duke’s visit ended with lunch alongside the students in Hall. And the fir tree is thriving!
John Raffan Charles Moseley paid tribute to Vice President John Raffan at his retirement dinner.
John Raffan’s retirement prompts many feelings, chief of which are both admiration and regret: ‘Hamlet without the Prince’. It is very difficult to imagine Hughes Hall without John’s kindly and wise presence. John’s achievements have been huge. He had a full teaching and research life in his department, and for two decades was Senior Tutor. During that time he oversaw the momentous changes that made possible the College as we know it now. His relationship with students was excellent, and he was tireless in the furtherance of their interests as well as their good behaviour. And so, regret. I personally owe him a great debt. He was a hard act to follow, as the students told me when I arrived. We shall miss a tireless colleague who had a way of making people work together. We shall miss him as a benign and hard working Vice President. We Tutors will miss his experience, his sense of proportion and his reassuring confidence that most problems could be solved with goodwill on both sides. Let us hope we have learned from him, even if it is unlikely we can ever equal him. A bursary fund has been established in John’s honour.
HRH the Duke of Edinburgh, with the President, talking to students before lunch
Symposium for Sara Melville A symposium was held at Hughes Hall in July to honour the invaluable contribution that Vice President Dr Sara Melville has made to research into the trypanosome genome, the parasite responsible for the devastating disease known as sleeping sickness. The disease is widespread in sub Saharan Africa, affecting hundreds of thousands of people every year, in the poorest communities, and killing 100 Vice President Sara Melville each day. There are no vaccines against the parasite, and most drugs to treat the disease have dangerous side effects, or are scarce in the countries most heavily affected. The success of the genome analysis project will enable more effective treatments to be developed. Sara’s early work in the Pathology Department in the 1990s laid the foundations for the project. The African trypanosome genome network was formed in 1994 by the World Health Organisation, and Sara was instrumental in pulling the research community together into a coherent network, and securing funding. The results were published in Science in 2005, together with the Leishmania and South American trypanosome genome projects. The symposium was organised by Sara’s colleagues in the Pathology Department, and attended by senior researchers from the international network. They all paid tribute to her indefatigable and visionary role in helping to establish and nurture the network, which has led to the successful provision of data crucial to advancing a cure.
December 2007 Issue 7