annual-report-2009-report

Annual Report 2009

Contents Foreword An overview of our 800th Anniversary Opening doors Great expectations Expanding horizons Making an impact on health Making an impact on the environment Shaping policy and debate Making an impact on the economy Connecting with the world Recognising achievement Charting progress

01 02 04 08 12 16 20 24 28 30 34 39

Annual Reports of the Council and the General Board

41

Reports and Financial Statements

56

Cover photograph: Nigel Luckhurst 800th Anniversary light show

Foreword Celebrating the past, transforming the future

This past academic year has been one of celebration.

Through public performances, discussions and workshops described overleaf and throughout this Report, we have celebrated 800 years of transformative discoveries and ideas.

It has also been a time to reflect on what has made these achievements possible.Time and again, we have seen through this examination of Cambridge’s rich history that the complex journey from inspiration to impact requires the finest of minds, a modicum of resources and a great deal of freedom.

The 800th Anniversary, then, has also been about supporting teaching and research with a view to the long-term future, because world-changing discoveries and ideas do not happen to order. In a fundamentally important way, Cambridge’s alumni, friends and partners are underpinning academic freedom through their gifts to the 800th Anniversary Campaign, which has now raised over £900 million.

I hope that this Report will provide you with a snapshot of a year in the life of a University 800 years young and deeply engaged with the modern world.

Professor Alison Richard Vice-Chancellor

Foreword 01

An overview of our 800th Anniversary In marking our 800th Anniversary, we aimed to strike a balance between academic achievement and celebration, to pay tribute to the past, celebrate the present and leave a legacy for the future.

(Above) A light show was accompanied by a worldwide bell-ringing ceremony to mark the beginning of the 800th Anniversary.

02 University of Cambridge Annual Report 2009

The Anniversary has been marked by dozens of smaller events throughout the year as well, many of them supported by a 2009 Fund for this purpose. More than 40 events were supported by the 2009 Fund, including Cambridge Cantat 800, a week-long choral festival in April; a celebration of the University’s famous ADC Theatre; a solar car race across Australia; and the launch of a student-built rocket.

The 800th Anniversary began officially on 17 January, the first Saturday of Lent Term. A spectacular light show featuring images from the University’s history was projected onto the Senate House and Old Schools.

The celebrations in Cambridge coincided with a worldwide bell-ringing event.Three churches in central Cambridge – Great St Mary’s, St Edward King and Martyr and St Andrew the Great – performed a new work for bells composed for the occasion

by Clare College alumnus Phil Earis.The sound of bells celebrating the University’s octocentenary also reverberated across the world as churches in the USA, Japan, Syria, Canada, India and Australia helped to mark the occasion.

Cambridge Ideas, a series of audio and video productions, presented Cambridge’s cutting-edge research together with comment and opinion on matters of global significance.

Downing College alumnus and illustrator Quentin Blake made his own unique contribution to the anniversary celebrations, with a mural entitled ‘Cambridge 800: An Informal Panorama’. Described as “Cambridge’s answer to the Bayeux Tapestry”, it measures approximately 70 feet in length and consists of 15 original drawings depicting different episodes from the University’s history.The finished work was donated to the city’s main hospital, Addenbrooke’s, and was unveiled in September.

In July, two more large 800th Anniversary events took place. More than 9,000 members of University and College staff and their families celebrated the University’s 800th Anniversary with a Summer Garden Party in the Botanic Garden. One of the major events of the 800th Anniversary year, the Garden Party was a joyous event, featuring a wide range of entertainment, musical and educational activities.

University staff and students, members of the local community and academics from around the world all took part in a ‘Letters to the Future’ project by writing to their opposite numbers 100 years from now.

The letters were sealed in a ceremony witnessed by Her Majesty The Queen in November, to be opened in 100 years’ time on the occasion of the University’s 900th Anniversary.

Four days after the Garden Party, the BBC Proms celebrated the 800th Anniversary with a sold-out concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Some 240 singers from 16 College choirs were joined onstage by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, baritone Simon Keenlyside and organist Thomas Trotter, all of whom studied at Cambridge.The evening’s repertoire was by composers associated with the University including Ralph Vaughan Williams, Charles Villiers Stanford and Ryan Wigglesworth.

The life and work of Charles Darwin was also celebrated throughout the year, marking 200 years since his birth and 150 years since the publication of On the Origin of Species.Taking place from 5 to 10 July, the Darwin 2009 Festival featured talks, discussions, performances, workshops, exhibitions and tours.

(Below) A special BBC Proms concert at the Royal Albert Hall on 22 July 2009.

Chris Christodoulou

The final event of the Anniversary took place in January 2010, exactly 12 months from the start of the celebrations. For three evenings beginning on Saturday 16 January, a light show designed by world-renowned light artist Ross Ashton was projected onto iconic central Cambridge buildings. Spectators followed a circular route from Senate House Yard, down Senate House Passage and into the grounds of King’s College, where another piece of light art was projected onto the Gibbs Building, as well as onto Cambridge’s most famous landmark, King’s College Chapel.

An overview of our 800th Anniversary 03

Opening doors Cambridge is determined to play to the full its part in raising educational aspiration and widening participation and, this year, has invested more than ever in outreach activities.

(Above) Mr Jon Beard, Director of Undergraduate Recruitment.

04 University of Cambridge Annual Report 2009

Around 12,000 prospective students visited Cambridge for the annual Cambridge Open Days; and 235 sixthformers from all over the UK took part in the Cambridge University Students’ Union (CUSU) shadowing scheme, attending and participating in supervisions, lectures and social events. A group of prospective mature students participated in a pilot shadowing day specifically designed for older students, also run by CUSU. All of these activities are complemented and enhanced by many initiatives led by the Colleges.

The University received a record number of undergraduate applications in 2008, with over 15,000 people applying for its courses. Computer Science saw the largest increase at 53%, Philosophy 43% and Architecture 30%.The proportion of UK students from the state sector admitted in the 2007/08 admissions cycle rose four percentage points to 59%, the highest proportion of maintained sector admissions since 1981.

Changes to the University’s bursary scheme, application process and entrance requirements might have contributed to this surge in applications.

Cambridge has raised the parental income thresholds at which students qualify for full and partial Cambridge Bursaries, discontinued the use of a separate Cambridge Application Form, and removed the entrance requirement of a language qualification at GCSE.

In this past year, too, a record number of students from ethnic minorities gained places at Cambridge.

The University’s GEEMA (Group to Encourage Ethnic Minority Applications) programme marked its 20th anniversary this year. At the time of its creation in 1989, it was the first programme of its kind in UK universities and has been the forerunner of many widening participation and access initiatives. Since its inception, admission figures for ethnic minority students have shown an increase of more than 10%.

The University is deeply committed to the principles that no UK student should be deterred from applying because of financial constraints, and that no student should have to leave because of financial difficulties.Today, Cambridge has one of the most extensive bursary schemes in the UK: 1,833 bursaries were awarded for the academic year 2008–09.

Cambridge ambassadors Around 100 current students registered an interest in the University’s student ambassadors project, CAMbassadors, which involves students in a range of recruitment and widening participation activities to encourage a greater number of academically able state school pupils to apply to Cambridge.

Summer schools Almost one third of the world’s countries were represented at this year’s International Summer Schools, held at the University’s Institute of Continuing Education.The largest such programme since 2000, it welcomed 1,160 students from 62 countries, participating in 163 courses. Study themes included such diverse topics as ‘Atoms to galaxies’, ‘History and memory’, ‘Paint and passion’, ‘Shakespeare’s stagecraft’, and ‘War and society’. Many students submitted work on the topics covered by the programme from which they will be able to gain credit from their home institutions towards a degree.

(Below) Teachers from south and central England spent 24 hours in Cambridge learning about student life at a residential conference organised by a group of College School Liaison Officers.

(Below) ‘Physics at work’ gives young students the opportunity to come face to face with some of the world’s finest physicists with the aim of demystifying the subject.

Kelvin Fagan, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge

Alex Buxton

Opening doors 05

This year, Cambridge became the European Coordinating Centre for the Amgen Scholars Europe Programme.The Programme will select more than 100 undergraduate students from across Europe to engage in hands-on summer research programmes under the guidance of academic scientists at three top European universities. More than 50 undergraduates from 15 European countries converged on Cambridge for a symposium to launch this two-year pilot scheme, which aims to mirror the prestigious and highly successful American programme.

Inspiring teachers The Colleges’ and University’s programmes to encourage a diverse pool of applicants also encompass activities for teachers from the state sector. More than 200 state school teachers and Higher Education (HE) advisers attended a three-day residential conference at the University, the largest event of this type for teachers within nearly a decade. In addition, a ‘Target Teachers’ conference invited teachers and HE advisers to stay at seven of the Cambridge Colleges: Christ’s, Downing, Homerton, Jesus, Pembroke, Peterhouse and St Catharine’s. All came from state schools and colleges located within the areas covered by these seven Colleges under the Area Links Scheme, through which every area of the UK is now formally linked with a Cambridge College.

More than 100 maths teachers from schools in disadvantaged areas took part in a series of workshops designed to equip them with ideas and techniques to teach their subject in more creative and challenging ways.These Teacher Inspiration Days were part

(Below) Local school children working with a team of students from University Spaceflight.

06 University of Cambridge Annual Report 2009

of the Fast Forward Mathematics programme, funded by a $1.2 million gift from The Goldman Sachs Foundation and run by the University’s Millennium Mathematics Project and Cambridge Admissions Office.The project provides lectures and workshops on subjects ranging from code-breaking to calculating risk.The first year’s cohort of over 40 students finished their third residential course this year and is now receiving e-mentoring and support, while a second cohort has now entered the programme.

Easing the transition A new Transkills project has been set up to facilitate the transition of first-year undergraduates from school to university, so that they can take full advantage of the educational opportunities provided immediately on arrival and up to the end of their first year.

In addition, the PREP Course helps undergraduates settle in to their new surroundings and lifestyle.The Course provides extra support to a group of first-year undergraduates before term begins, helping them adjust to the academic demands they will face and providing them with a support network.

A team of students from University Spaceflight worked with local school pupils to send four teddy bears into space as part of an initiative to engage children in science and engineering. Dressed in special spacesuits designed and made by 11- and 12-year-old pupils, the Teddy-nauts spent two hours and nine minutes in flight from the launch site in Cambridge, reaching the Edge of Space at heights of more than 30,000 metres.

(Below) Teddy-nauts in flight 30,000 metres above the earth.

The University has recently completed an internal review of its continuing education provision.The Institute of Continuing Education is one of the oldest such institutions in the country and plays a major role in the University’s commitment to community engagement and lifelong learning, ensuring that its academic strengths and resources are made available to as many interested learners as possible. Dr Rebecca Lingwood, who succeeded Professor Dick Taylor as Director of the Institute of Continuing Education in October 2009, will continue to expand the Institute’s offerings to extend the reach of Cambridge’s scholarship internationally.

Student diaries Cambridge is a centre of international excellence because it is a meritocratic place. Perhaps no one is better placed to convey this message than those who have just discovered it for themselves, and the diaries of several of these new students have been featured this year on the University’s website.They make for entertaining, and sometimes moving reading and send out an important message.“I’d like to get involved in helping with access and outreach work while I’m at Cambridge,” writes Matthew Green.“I believe it’s really important to get the message across that Cambridge is for all. If it hadn’t been for my dad and my teachers, like a lot of other people I wouldn’t have thought Cambridge was a place for me, and that would have been a huge mistake.”

(Below) Three students take a break at an International Summer School at the University’s Institute of Continuing Education.

Opening doors 07

Great expectations Cambridge expects great things of its students.

In turn, they can expect some of the best teaching and research supervision in the world, within a unique collegiate environment where intellectual and personal growth flourish.

(Above) Professor Roel Sterckx has become the first Joseph Needham Professor of Chinese History, Science and Civilisation.

08 University of Cambridge Annual Report 2009

Several new professorships and lectureships have augmented the strength and scope of teaching and research provision at Cambridge. Professor Paul Cartledge has become the first holder of the A G Leventis Professorship of Greek Culture.The first such post in Classics to be endowed at Cambridge since World War II, it will focus on the study of 1,000 years of Greek cultural achievements and highlight their enduring influence on society today. In his inaugural lecture in February 2009, Professor Cartledge examined common misconceptions about the Ancient Greeks, and the influence of Hollywood in misshaping our understanding of their civilisation, yet also inspiring enthusiasm to study it.

A new lectureship in Jewish Studies has been made possible by a joint Jewish-Muslim benefaction.The Polonsky-Coexist Lectureship in Jewish Studies is thought to be the first Jewish Studies teaching post at a major UK university funded jointly by organisations linked to the two faiths. Its holder will carry out teaching and research designed to deepen understanding of Judaism, and to examine its relationship with the other Abrahamic faiths, Christianity and Islam.

Dr Jude Browne has become the first Frankopan Director of Gender Studies.The post provides leadership for Cambridge’s influential Centre for Gender Studies, which tackles key issues ranging from global development to the impact of biomedical advances.

Professor Roel Sterckx has been appointed as the first Joseph Needham Professor of Chinese History, Science, and Civilisation.The endowment of this prestigious professorship in the Department of East Asian Studies was marked by a landmark public lecture, which explored how deeply embedded assumptions about China as a historically continuous and unified civilisation have overshadowed our understanding of its complexities.

Pilkington Prize winners Twelve of the University’s very best teaching talents were honoured at the annual Pilkington Prize awards ceremony, including Professor Mike Majerus, who was awarded a posthumous prize. Professor Majerus of the Department of Genetics, was an archetypal Cambridge scientist: a natural teacher who leaves behind a lasting legacy in his field, not only through his immense research contribution, but in his pioneering teaching and mentoring of the evolutionary biologists of tomorrow.

Dr Matthew Juniper is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Engineering Energy Group. A gifted and dedicated teacher, he has been at the forefront of adopting new technology to animate his lectures on fluid mechanics. It is largely due to his efforts that the popularity of fluids as a specialist area for students has grown significantly in recent years. He has developed a new type of online resource to supplement his lectures and clarify difficult aspects of the course.

Dr Peter Mandler, a Reader in the Faculty of History, has also been making use of new online materials to enhance his teaching. Dr Mandler has made extensive use of CamTools, by using digital images from archives, oral history, journalism and documentaries, in order to introduce students to cutting-edge historical research.

Dr Simon Taylor is a Lecturer at Judge Business School whose students testify to his flair for communication.

His greatest accomplishment to date is the pioneering design and implementation of the Masters of Finance – a course that has won plaudits from the finance industry and attracted some of the very brightest and best students in finance to the University.

Dr Kate Plaisted-Grant is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Experimental Psychology.

As Undergraduate Director of Teaching for the Department, she has played a pivotal role in securing accreditation for the Cambridge course from the British Psychological Society.

Dr Helen Smith, a University Associate Lecturer in the Department of Anaesthetics, has successfully brought together clinicians from a wide range of specialities to develop a coherent, exciting course of study which has won accolades from the General Medical Council.

The innovative programme for the final year of the Cambridge clinical curriculum enables students to experience all aspects of emergency medicine, anaesthetics and intensive care.

Professor Kenneth Siddle, Professor of Molecular Endocrinology at the Institute of Metabolic Science, has led the reorganisation of graduate education programmes, significantly updating and enhancing the structure of the various doctoral and postdoctoral courses.

Great expectations 09

The scheme will also give Cambridge greater freedom to assign the AHRC awards, and greater responsibility for managing the five-year portfolio. Cambridge was one of the most successful applicants to this Scheme, receiving an 11% share of the sum awarded nationally.

Dr Charles French, a Reader at the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, has developed the interplay between archaeological theory and practice – a cornerstone of the study of Archaeology at Cambridge and under his leadership, practical work has now become embedded across the archaeology curriculum.His pioneering work in geoarchaeology and the microscopic study of sediment structures, has proved key in providing insights about our past, enthusing generations of students with excitement about archaeology in the field.

The Pigott Scholars Programme for UK graduates studying in the arts, humanities and social sciences has been created thanks to a gift of £2 million from Mark Pigott Hon OBE. A benefaction from BP International Limited will provide postgraduate student study awards and undergraduate prizes and awards in the fields of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Engineering and Physics; and QUALCOMM has supported graduate students pursuing Business Studies, Engineering and Computing.

The other Pilkington Prize recipients were: Professor Andrew Thomason, Professor of Combinatorial Mathematics, Faculty of Mathematics; Dr Julia Riley, Lecturer, Faculties of Physics and Chemistry; Dr Martin Ennis, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Music; and Mrs Haruko Laurie, Senior Language Teaching Officer, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies.

The Colleges continue to ensure that Cambridge provides its students with outstanding facilities and resources. Campaign gifts to the Colleges this year ranged from an exceptional anonymous donation of £5 million to Girton College that will underpin teaching and student support in the long-term, to the creation of a Teaching Officer post in Economics at Clare College, made possible by the combined generosity of over 400 alumni.

Student support A number of new developments this year have helped to maintain and enhance the University’s ability to offer financial support to students from around the world, so that access to its world-class education is based on talent alone.

The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) has announced that the University will be guaranteed funding for over 580 PhD and MPhil students in the arts and humanities for the next five years, secured through a grant of £23 million.The Block Grant Partnership Scheme will enable Cambridge to allocate funding for five annual cohorts of postgraduate students, supporting high quality research and training.

Selwyn College has marked the completion of another phase of its multi-million pound development plan.

The creation of a £7.5 million student accommodation block, complete with 40 en-suite bedrooms and nine shared kitchens, was made possible by benefactors Dr Chris and Mrs Ann Dobson, who donated £5 million to the project through the Ann D Foundation. Downing College has completed a £7.2 million, 160-seat theatre, funded by the Howard Foundation. The building is designed to minimise heat loss and reduce noise pollution via ground-source technology to provide heating and cooling, and solar panels to generate hot water.

(Below) Twelve of the University’s very best teaching talents were honoured at the annual Pilkington Prize awards ceremony.

Michael Cameron

10 University of Cambridge Annual Report 2009

Partnerships with international institutions are also making an immense contribution to Cambridge’s ability to support students from around the world, and maintain the diversity and vibrancy of its graduate community, of whom over 50% come from overseas.The Cambridge Overseas Trust and the University of Central Asia have established a co-funded scholarship agreement to fund two graduate students each year at Cambridge.The scheme aims to bring some of the best students from Central Asia to study at the University. A Dr D C Pavate Fellowships scheme has been launched to enable graduates from India to undertake a Fellowship

at Sidney Sussex College. Successful candidates undertake a four-month period of study each at Judge Business School, the Centre for International Studies and either the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics or the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy.

An agreement between the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), Cambridge Overseas Trust and Cambridge Commonwealth Trust has resulted in the launch of a scholarship scheme to bring outstanding graduate students from member countries of the IDB to Cambridge.The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust have also signed a scholarship agreement, which will enable five outstanding Sikh students to pursue a Masters degree or PhD in subjects relevant to the development of higher education in Punjab.

The Manmohan Singh Scholarships have been established to provide full funding for undergraduate study at Cambridge. Named in honour of India’s Prime Minister, the Fund has been supported with gifts from: Sir Evelyn and Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild through their family trust, the Eranda Foundation, and from the Bharti Foundation.The University of Cambridge 800th Anniversary Scholarship Programme has been created for students from Pakistan. It provides full funding, covering fees and means-tested maintenance, for undergraduate study at the University.

Both scholarship schemes are being supported by additional funding from Cambridge Assessment, the parent organisation of University of Cambridge International Examinations (CIE), the awarding body that offers Cambridge O-Levels and International A-Levels.

(Below) A new student accommodation block for Selwyn College.

Great expectations 11

Expanding horizons Several initiatives have been launched this year, helping to ensure that research and teaching at Cambridge remains alive to the issues of the day and the needs of tomorrow.These investments in resources and infrastructure are producing fertile environments for new thinking, discovery and innovation, across a wide range of academic subjects.

(Above) Professor James Wood, the first Alborada Professor of Equine and Farm Animal Science.

12 University of Cambridge Annual Report 2009

In a major new development of the way that politics and international relations are studied, a new combined Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) was launched in May 2009. POLIS brings together these closely related fields, and their complementary strengths in teaching and research. As well as building on existing strengths in political thought, international security, political economy, European studies and comparative politics, the Department will develop new research areas and expand its teaching. A new MPhil in Politics began this year, and another in Modern South Asian Studies will launch in 2010. Such is the significance of this pooling of strengths and resources across related specialisms that a new building is planned to house POLIS, the related interdisciplinary centres that specialise in regional studies, and the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH).

Research, Frankfurt, have uncovered the secret of night vision in nocturnal animals, while two Physics of Medicine researchers have been awarded grants from the prestigious Human Frontiers of Science Programme (HFSP).

The Centre for the Physics of Medicine was officially opened this year, bringing together researchers working at the interface of the physical, life and clinical sciences.They include four new lecturers in biomedical physics, Drs Pietro Cicuta, Jochen Guck, Julian Huppert and Ullrich Keyser. Under the direction of Professor Athene Donald, winner of the 2009 L’Oréal UNESCO Women in Science Award (Europe), this state-of-the-art development comprises laboratory space and core facilities for researchers from across the disciplines.

Although the Centre is still in its infancy, results and rewards are already being seen: researchers working with scientists from the Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, and the Max Planck Institute for Brain

The Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, rated the best in the UK in the Government’s 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), is planning to move to a state-of-the-art facility on the West Cambridge site. Co-proximity with other science departments, including the Cavendish Laboratory, will provide enhanced scope for the pioneering multi-disciplinary approach to research that has come to define Cambridge.The Department has been further strengthened by the endowment of a Professorship

by Tata Steel, which will help to maintain Cambridge’s strong record of contributing significantly to industrial materials technology, and to academic leadership at an international level.

(Below) The Centre for the Physics of Medicine.

(Below) An architect’s impression of what the new Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy’s facility may look like.

Despite being Europe’s second-largest country, Ukraine has been a relatively unknown quantity in British universities.This year, thanks to a generous gift to the 800th Anniversary Campaign, a new course in Ukrainian Studies was launched in the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages. Under the leadership of Dr Rory Finnan, in close collaboration with the Cambridge Committee for Russian and East European Studies and with CRASSH, this initiative aims to deepen the understanding of the language, literature and culture of this country of major geo-political and cultural importance.

Expanding horizons 13

Strengthening relationships The University and Infosys Technologies Ltd, India, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish collaborative research ventures.The agreement involves the Departments of Engineering and Architecture, Judge Business School’s Centre for India and Global Business, and the School of Biological Sciences. It is another aspect of the strengthening relationship between the University and India, and will create exciting opportunities to bring together leading experts from academia and industry. Professor Jaideep Prabhu, the first Jawaharlal Nehru Professor of Indian Business and Enterprise, undertook a fourvenue lecture tour in India to officially launch the new Centre for India and Global Business.

The University’s Queen’s Veterinary School Hospital has opened an extension to its cancer treatment facility. It is one of only three centres in England that can offer radiotherapy to animal patients, and the only one that can treat horses and larger animals.The new facilities mark the first phase in the development of a Comparative Oncology Programme within the University.Working in collaboration with the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Research Institute, this new programme will enhance cancer research in pet animals with findings being translated into human cancer research.The Veterinary School has been further boosted by the appointment of James Wood as the first Alborada Professor of Equine and Farm Animal Science. In this new role, Professor Wood will lead the management and development of the equine and farm animal section of the School while conducting his research into infectious diseases, including swine flu and African horse sickness.

New centres of research A new Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) in Nanoscience has been launched to equip the next generation of researchers with the skills and experience to become nanoscience entrepreneurs by turning basic science research into future applications.The DTC offers a unique opportunity to bring together research expertise and best training practise. Funding of more than £6 million from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council will support over 50 PhD students in a four-year postgraduate training programme spanning a range of disciplines.The interdisciplinary programme provides access to innovation and business courses through Judge Business School, and draws together academics from Physics, Materials Science, Electrical Engineering and Chemistry.

14 University of Cambridge Annual Report 2009

A new Centre for Islamic Studies opened in Cambridge this year, funded by a generous benefaction from the Alwaleed Bin Talal Foundation.Through in-depth research and public outreach aimed at fostering a deeper understanding between Islam and the West, the HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre of Islamic Studies will initially explore Muslim identities in the UK and Europe.

Research excellence rewarded Five Cambridge scientists have been awarded grants from the European Research Council’s (ERC) panEuropean Advanced Grants scheme in recognition of their scientific excellence and track record of significant research achievements.The grants, worth a total of approximately £8 million over five years, have been awarded to Professors Graeme Barker (Archaeology), Sir David Baulcombe (Plant Sciences),Tony Cheetham (Materials Science and Metallurgy), Daan Frenkel (Chemistry) and Dr Alan Tunnacliffe (Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology).

A further five scholars have received £1.2 million funding to undertake research that collectively spans five millennia of civilisation.The project ‘Civilisations in Contact’will provide insight into pre-modern world history and provide fresh perspectives on the world today. Funded by the Golden Web Foundation, the results of the research will be available online through the Golden Web system when it launches in 2011.

Other significant awards include £1.5 million to Professor Graeme Barker, Department of Archaeology, for ‘Cultural transformations and environmental transformations in North African prehistory’; and nearly £900,000 to Professor Aldo Rustichini, Faculty of Economics, for research into the ‘Endocrine and neural basis of financial decision-making and market instability’. This award is one of the University’s largest Economic and Social Research Council grants in Humanities and Social Sciences.

A donation from The Bonita Trust is supporting a new study exploring Charles Darwin’s impact on attitudes to gender and sexuality.The Darwin and Gender Project will make available Darwin’s private and largely unpublished writings and correspondence relevant to gender, and will also fund an education officer to work with schools. Overseen by the Darwin Correspondence Project, this initiative will enable the wider public to gain insight into the factors and influences that shaped Darwin’s ideas on gender and, in turn, influenced Victorian society, and their continuing relevance today.

Keith Keppell

(Above) Rosemary Clarkson, Bonita Research Assistant (left), and Dr Alison Pearn, Assistant Director, Darwin Correspondence Project, with letters relating to the Project.

Expanding horizons 15

Making an impact on health Translating research into therapies is a process that, necessarily, takes many years. Based on a firm foundation of pioneering pure research, interdisciplinary collaboration and powerful partnerships, the University has this year continued to make advances in medical research that could revolutionise treatments and patient care within a lifetime.

(Above) Professor Peter Jones, Head of the Department of Psychiatry.

16 University of Cambridge Annual Report 2009

The University’s pre-eminence in medical science was reaffirmed in April when the Department of Health designated Cambridge University Health Partners (CUHP) as one of just five Academic Health Science Centres (AHSCs) in the country. AHSC status recognises partnerships between world-class universities and leading NHS organisations that together have the potential to compete globally and to enhance the process of translating research breakthroughs into patient care. CUHP is a formal alliance between the University of Cambridge, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, and Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Leadership in applied health research A £23 million partnership, funded by the National Institute for Health Research and linking the University with NHS trusts led by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, is set to improve mental health care in the region.The Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) will undertake high-quality applied research under the directorship of Professor Peter Jones.

Working at the front line of the NHS, researchers will develop new ways of translating research findings into patient care and clinical practice. Many departments of the University are involved in this interdisciplinary initiative, including the Engineering Design Centre (part of the Department of Engineering), the Department of Psychiatry, Judge Business School, the Institute of Public Health and the General Practice and Primary Care Unit.

Stem cell advances The launch of the Anne McLaren Laboratory for Regenerative Medicine (LRM) on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus marks the second phase of the Cambridge Stem Cell Initiative.The LRM will focus on human stem cell medicine and will enhance the University’s capacity to deliver novel clinical treatments through stem cell research. Scientists working on the biology of stem cells will be able to interact with clinicians as they work to take advances in research through to the treatment room.The LRM will help to consolidate the University’s leading role in this growing area of medical research, which has the potential to have a massive impact on human health.

Although huge strides have been made in stem cell research in recent years, scientists still have only a basic understanding of the cell’s unique ability to develop into any of the different types of cells in the body.

Researchers from the University’s Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research have now pinpointed the final step in a complex process that makes embryonic stem cells pluripotent.This latest research has uncovered the exact biological role of a protein named Nanog.These findings have important implications for efforts to harness the power of stem cells for medical applications.

(Below) Nanog embryos. Researchers from the University’s Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research have uncovered the exact biological role of a protein named Nanog.

Jose Silva

Tackling obesity GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has signed a unique partnership agreement with the University to create an ‘Academic Incubator’, which will tap into leading-edge thinking at the University to optimise the early clinical development of new GSK medicines for obesity and addictive disorders.The agreement brings together University experts in neuroscience and metabolic science, providing academic scientists with the freedom to publish results arising from their work on incubator projects and directly involving them in developing medicines for patients.

undertake multidisciplinary studies to better understand how different diets affect the secretion of gut hormones and how the brain responds to these hormones to regulate appetite, energy expenditure and body weight.The project will provide vital understanding that will help with the development of effective new strategies to prevent and treat obesity.

The University Metabolic Research Laboratories and the MRC Centre for Obesity and Related Metabolic Diseases are co-ordinating a new European research consortium, EurOCHIP, which has received a grant of three million Euros to conduct research into the escalating obesity epidemic.The consortium will Making an impact on health 17

Jakub Wawrzyniak, Cambridge schistosomiasis research group

Scientists at Cambridge, in collaboration with researchers in America, have also identified a crucial signalling pathway in brain stem cells that may be critical to the development of new therapies.

Known as Wnt, this pathway controls how and when brain stem cells develop into cells which repair damaged tissues in neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis.

New discoveries Cambridge scientists have also made a major breakthrough in understanding how the brain controls the onset of puberty.Working with scientists in Turkey they have identified the crucial role that the hormone Neurokinin B plays in regulating puberty.Their discoveries herald the potential for new treatments for sex hormone dependent diseases such as prostate cancer, new approaches to contraception, and new treatments for children with delayed or abnormal puberty.

In cancer research, Cambridge scientists have discovered the reason why some women can develop resistance to the common breast cancer treatment, Tamoxifen. Researchers at the Cancer Research UK 18 University of Cambridge Annual Report 2009

(Above) A Ugandan parasitology team, who are also involved in THRiVE, are using a village school classroom as a temporary laboratory to microscopically screen stool samples for schistosomiasis, hookworm and other parasitic worm infections, as part of the collaborative studies being carried out with University of Cambridge researchers.

Cambridge Research Institute have discovered for the first time the mechanism by which Tamoxifen operates.

Two new regions of the human genome linked to breast cancer have also been found by an international team of scientists led by Cambridge researchers.The team has now identified 13 genetic regions with common genetic changes that alter breast cancer risk.

As more regions are found it will be possible to create tests for combinations of genes that significantly increase the risk. Such tests could help doctors make better decisions about prevention, diagnosis and treatment for women who are more likely to develop breast cancer.

A new mechanism has been discovered that may explain why pancreatic cancer patients are often

resistant to a common chemotherapy treatment.

In mice studies, pancreatic cancer was shown to be resistant to chemotherapy because tumours tend to have poor networks of blood vessels, making it harder for drugs to reach the tumour.

Other research has located a region of DNA which, when altered, can increase the risk of ovarian cancer.The discovery is the result of eight years of investigations and is an important step towards being able to identify and treat women at greater risk of the disease.

Scientists at the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute have uncovered a completely new route by which leukaemia develops.This discovery will help scientists find new and better ways to treat people with the disease.

Cambridge scientists have pinpointed a rearrangement of DNA that causes around two-thirds of all cases of pilocytic astrocytoma – the most common brain tumour in five to 19-year-olds.Very little is known about the causes and genetics of childhood brain tumours, but this significant discovery could provide leads for creating better treatments and make diagnosis of the disease more accurate.

DNA sequencing The University has been named as one of just three genetic research hubs being created by the Medical Research Council to provide scientists with access to cutting-edge resources for DNA sequencing.The Eastern Sequencing and Informatics Hub, based at the Biomedical Campus at Addenbrooke’s, will work in partnership with other regional institutions.The hub will ensure that scientists can capitalise on advances in DNA sequencing, enhancing the UK’s competitiveness in this progressive area.

Cambridge Immunology has been launched to showcase the University’s strength and depth in immunology research.The new initiative will bring together numerous groups working in this diverse field, capitalising on current strengths and raising visibility of Cambridge’s expertise to a wider world.

(Below) The assembled multidrug efflux pump spans the inner and outer membranes and intervening periplasmic space, to eject harmful antibiotics from inside the bacterium out into the environment.

Courtesy of Vassilis Koronakis and Colin Hughes

Cambridge researchers have also uncovered the final piece in the jigsaw revealing the structure of ‘efflux pumps’ which allow Salmonella and other diseasecausing bacteria to develop resistance to antibiotics and other drugs.The researchers have spent two decades studying the structure and function of these pumps and have now elucidated the structure of the final component, enabling them to see more clearly how the bacteria evade antibiotics and develop resistance. Supported by the Wellcome Trust, the research has the potential to illuminate new strategies to prevent resistance to antibiotics.

Institute for Infectious Diseases of Poverty (IIDP).

Both will draw on the expertise of Cambridge scientists and academics, who will provide training, mentoring and supervisions.

A new method for diagnosing sickle cell disease has been found by researchers from Cambridge and Oxford Universities.This new test would be cheaper and easier to use than existing methods and provides a simpler alternative for use in developing nations.

Each year 200,000 infants are born with sickle cell disease in Africa, while the condition affects 15,000 people in the UK. Cambridge is participating in the Wellcome Trust’s new African Institutions Initiative that aims to strengthen health research in Africa.

Cambridge will be involved with two programmes in the initiative:Training Health Researchers into Vocational Excellence in East Africa (THRiVE) and the Making an impact on health 19

Making an impact on the environment From architecture to zoology, the University is intensively engaged in research into sustainability, climate change and conservation, with real-world outcomes and solutions.

(Above) Dr Michael Ramage of the Department of Architecture.

20 University of Cambridge Annual Report 2009

Cross-disciplinary research An Energy Efficient Cities Initiative was established this year with a £2.9 million grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.The initiative brings together 30 researchers from across the University, as well as other external academic and industry partners, with the aim of strengthening the UK’s capacity to address energy demand reduction and environmental impact in cities through cross-disciplinary research.

The University’s current portfolio of energy-related research grants is £100 million, and its focus is comprehensive – including putting its own house in order.

Energy Champions have been appointed in all administrative and academic departments of the University in a continuing effort to reduce its own carbon footprint.

A team of students and researchers in the Departments of Architecture and Engineering have been selected to compete in an international competition to design and build the best solar-powered house. One of only 20 teams chosen to compete, their proposal for the Integrated Design of Engineered Architecture (IDEA) Home will showcase developments from across the University when it is unveiled in 2010, including photovoltaic cells, natural ventilation, energy efficient design and computer-based monitoring. Following the competition the house will be used for a further three years as a teaching and research tool.

A five-year research programme led by the Department of Architecture has found that the Government’s policy of concentrating new housing in existing urban areas and on brownfield sites is not working, and could create problems for the future.The £1.5m ‘SOLUTIONS’ study, conducted by five universities, proposes a policy of ‘sustainable suburbs’ which, although they would inevitably encroach on green belt land, would reduce living costs and provide housing in which people wanted to live.

Learning from the past Dr Michael Ramage, a University lecturer in the Department of Architecture, has been involved in the structural design for one of the first zero-carbon homes in the UK.The house, called ‘Crossway’, was built using a technique borrowed from 600-year-old medieval architecture and may prove to be a blueprint for energy-efficient living in the future. A design for a house powered by living algae, drawn up by graduate students, has won a prestigious international competition awarded at the 3rd CIB International Conference on Smart and Sustainable Built Environments.The ‘Algae House’ would use the hydrogen and bio-mass created by the cultivation of algae for sustainable, energy-efficient living.

A bright idea A breakthrough at the University could result in household lighting bills being reduced by up to 75%, via energy saving light-emitting diodes (LEDs) using Gallium Nitride (GaN) – a man-made semiconductor that emits a brilliant light but uses very little electricity.

Until now, the high production costs of manufacturing GaN LEDS have prohibited widespread use of this new technology. But the Cambridge Centre for Gallium Nitride, led by Professor Colin Humphreys, has developed a new way of making GaN that could slash the cost of manufacture by 90%. Based on current results, GaN LED lights in every home and office could cut the proportion of UK electricity used for lights from 20% to 5 % – a reduction equivalent to the output of eight power stations.

Courtesy of Colin Humphreys

(Left) Three green LEDs grown by the Cambridge Centre for Gallium Nitride.

Making an impact on the environment 21

The University has been awarded a £1.4 million Science Bridges Award by Research Councils UK to develop innovative energy solutions.The award, part of a £12 million funding package to be shared between ten UK institutions, will support collaborations between British universities and institutions in China, India and the USA.The Cambridge team will build on existing collaborations with the University of California at Santa Barbara, with the principal research aim of reducing the cost and increasing the efficiency of energy materials such as solar cells.The funding will help to take existing research through to prototype products.

Sustainable Bioenergy Centre The University has been named one of six research hubs in the Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council’s new £27 million Sustainable Bioenergy Centre (BSBEC).The BSBEC Cell Wall Sugars Programme will work to develop strategies to improve plants and enzymes so that more sugars can be obtained from them.These sugars could then be converted to biofuels.

The Centre is a key facility in efforts to make sustainable bioenergy from plants a viable reality and will help to underpin the emerging UK sustainable bioenergy sector. Cambridge will also be an associate member of the BSBEC Perennial Bioenergy Crops Programme.

Energy efficient transport The University’s Environmentally Friendly Engine Programme, which brings together a consortium of academic and industrial partners under the leadership of Rolls Royce, has been boosted this year with the completion of an industrial-grade aerospace gas turbine combustion simulator. Completed as part of the work of the University Gas Turbine Partnership, it is the first of its kind in the UK and one of only a dozen worldwide.

The Cambridge University Eco Racing team designed and constructed a solar-powered car capable of cruising at 60mph using the same power as a hairdryer. With the advice of academic supervisors and industry partners, the 75-strong student team proved the car’s mettle in the World Solar Challenge 2009, a 3,000km endurance race from Darwin to Adelaide.

The car, Endeavour, demonstrates the enormous potential of energy-efficient electric vehicle technologies. It is fitted with an energy-efficient hub motor, a control system to provide battery management and an electric braking system that generates energy.

A series of solar car workshops run for schools throughout the year have given ten and 11-year-olds the chance to design and build their own model 22 University of Cambridge Annual Report 2009

solar cars, giving a small taste of the challenges the team faced.

Biodiversity conservation The Cambridge Conservation Initiative, announced last year, has appointed its first Executive Director.

Dr Mike Rands, formerly Chief Executive of BirdLife International, leads the development of this strategic partnership between the University and the Cambridge cluster of leading conservation organisations to transform global biodiversity conservation.This initiative will create a unique international Conservation Campus bringing together academics, policy-makers and practitioners.This new post was funded by a gift from Arcadia, which has also funded research into evidence-based conservation in the Department of Zoology. In a further significant development within this fast-paced initiative, a new MPhil degree in Conservation Leadership has been established, supported by a generous gift from MAVA – Fondation pour la Protection de la Nature. Based in the Department of Geography, the course will provide a unique learning experience centred on the distinctive collaboration between the six academic Departments (Geography, Judge Business School, Land Economy, Plant Sciences, Zoology and the Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership) and nine conservation organisations that comprise the Initiative.The course will be led by Professor Nigel Leader-Williams, newly appointed as Director of Conservation Leadership, and will admit its first students in October 2010.

(Below) The Cambridge University Eco Racing team’s solarpowered car, Endeavour.

Isil Ayranci

Jenny Mortimer

(Above) Environmentally Friendly Engine Programme. The array of images shows an aero-engine gas turbine burner flame oscillating due to self-excited combustion instabilities at low frequency which is a state termed as ‘rumble’.

(Right) Cell Wall Sugars Programme. A cross-section of the stem of the model plant Arabidopsis, taken using a fluorescent microscope.The cell walls are stained using Calcofluor white (coloured in blue), while cell walls containing the polysaccharide mannan are labelled with a specific antibody (coloured in pink).

Making an impact on the environment 23

Shaping policy and debate The University’s engagement with social, ethical and cultural issues results in new thinking that contributes to public debate, influences policy-making, and enriches our understanding of our world and our place in it.

(Above) Professor Robin Alexander, Director of the Cambridge Primary Review.

24 University of Cambridge Annual Report 2009

The University’s newly launched Centre for Science and Policy (CSaP) brings together the best scientific thinking across all disciplines in order to inform public policy. CSaP will build upon the strengths of the University to inform debate by facilitating contact between policy-makers and scientific experts.

Cambridge has many recognised leaders in a range of disciplines whose expertise can be brought to bear on the increasingly wide range of policy issues where input from science, technology and the social sciences is imperative.

Influencing educational policy The Cambridge Primary Review, funded by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and based at the University’s Faculty of Education, has published Children, their World, their Education, its final report and recommendations, provoking considerable media, political and public interest.The Review, directed by Professor Robin Alexander, is the most comprehensive enquiry into English primary education since the 1967 Plowden Report. Another Cambridge study, What About Us?, a collaboration between the Faculty of Education and the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities, found support for the Government policy of inclusion, teaching students with special educational needs in mainstream settings, but indicated that more needed to be done for effective integration. A further report, Achievement and Inclusion in Schools, written by Kristine Black-Hawkins from the Faculty of Education together with two former Faculty members, has won a top prize at The Special Educational Needs Book awards.

The University’s Centre for Family Research is investigating the psychological well-being of children created by assisted reproduction.This longitudinal study examines relationships within families created by surrogacy, egg donation and donor insemination, and whether and when parents decide to tell their children about their origins.The Fertility Society of Australia Exchange prize was awarded at the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology conference in Barcelona to the Centre for this work.

Sustainability leadership The Cambridge Programme for Industry has been re-named as the University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership.With offices in Cambridge, Brussels, Cape Town, Melbourne, New York and Seattle the Programme will build on its pioneering work with some of the world’s most senior business, public sector and civil society leaders, addressing issues such as climate change, resource depletion and poverty.

(Below) Portrait sculptures of South Asian men and women by British sculptor Marguerite Milward, 1935-38. On display in Assembling Bodies: Art, Science & Imagination, Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology.

In language teaching, the University has become a major partner in a two-year programme to design and develop an online language-learning resource, the Open School for Languages.This national programme is designed to motivate more young people to study languages to GCSE and has been commissioned by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF).The University, in association with Anglia Ruskin University, has also launched a new regional centre offering professional support to the languages community in schools and FE colleges in East Anglia. Links into Languages, a £7 million programme, also funded by the DCSF, is a significant national programme which aims to have considerable impact in the teaching of languages across the secondary sector.The regional centre, Links into Languages East, is one of nine centres across England.

Shaping policy and debate 25

The year 2009 saw a renewed focus on the importance of manufacturing for the national economy, something the University has long recognised through the work of its Institute for Manufacturing (IfM).The IfM, part of the Department for Engineering, has this year moved into a new £15m Arup-designed home on the West Cambridge site.The building will create an international centre for industrial innovation, its design reflecting and enhancing the IfM's integrated crossdisciplinary approach to global industrial issues. One of the best current examples of this integrated approach is the IfM's Emerging Industries Programme.This multidisciplinary programme addresses the national challenge of turning high-quality science and technology research outputs into new industries, products and services. It seeks to understand how new industries emerge, how they can be supported from inception through to a point at which industrial infrastructure could be introduced, and how scientific breakthroughs can be translated into businesses that create jobs and generate wealth for the UK. A new look at alcohol Funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is supporting a large inter-disciplinary collaboration which aims to shed light on the practices, rituals and attitudes surrounding intoxication. Dr Phil Withington in the Faculty of History has drawn together a network of over 50 individuals from 27 different institutions in order to pool expertise across disciplines, geographies and time-periods. Five members of the network, including Dr Withington, were recently asked to submit reports to a Parliamentary Health Committee considering the problems associated with alcohol abuse.

Major exhibitions Cambridge hosted a number of major activities and exhibitions to mark 200 years since the birth of Charles Darwin and 150 years since the publication of On the Origin of Species. As part of an international Darwin Festival, some of the world’s foremost thinkers, writers and scientists gathered in Cambridge to celebrate the life and work of Darwin, and to debate his enduring influence.The Fitzwilliam Museum staged its largest ever exhibition, Endless Forms, which revealed the little-known influence of Darwin’s revolutionary theories on artists of the 19th century and explored the interchange between art and science. Record numbers of visitors made the exhibition one of the most successful in the Museum’s history; more than 40,000 people visited in its first eight weeks and total visitor numbers exceeded 90,000.

26 University of Cambridge Annual Report 2009

At the University Library, an exhibition entitled A Voyage Round the World: Charles Darwin and the Beagle Collections featured manuscripts, books and correspondence including the original letter offering Darwin a place on the Beagle and an original sheet from the manuscript of On the Origin of Species.

The University’s Botanic Garden created a special ‘Thinking Path’ so that visitors could follow in Darwin’s footsteps, recreating his daily routine as he journeyed round his own garden to deliberate on his observations and research.

In an online poll, A Brief History of Time by Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, Stephen Hawking, was voted as the publication most likely to have the same impact for future generations as On the Origin of Species.

During one of his visits to Cambridge this year, the University Chancellor, HRH Prince Philip The Duke of Edinburgh, unveiled a bronze statue of Charles Darwin as an undergraduate at Christ’s College. Seated on a bench in First Court, Darwin is portrayed gazing across to his former rooms, which have been restored to look as they would have done in his day.

A major exhibition at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology explored our attitudes to the human body through different time periods, cultural contexts and disciplinary perspectives, as well as the technologies through which bodies are made visible.The exhibition was part of an ambitious research project that explores how and why, over millennia, people’s attitudes to and beliefs about the human body, and their concepts of beauty, change. Alongside the Museum’s extraordinarily rich permanent holdings, new works were commissioned including a unique collection of body maps painted by the Bambanani Women’s Group in Cape Town, documenting the lives of women with HIV/AIDS; and a soundscape of recordings from deep within the body (see image on page 25).

(Above) The Endless Forms exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum.

(Left) Randal Keynes, the great-great-grandson of Charles Darwin at the Darwin Festival.

Shaping policy and debate 27

Making an impact on the economy The University’s research has a direct impact on business practice and the economy. Moreover, University spin-outs not only have transformative technological or clinical impact, but also make a major contribution to the regional, national and global economy.

(Above) Ms Teri Willey leads Cambridge Enterprise Limited.

28 University of Cambridge Annual Report 2009

Cambridge Enterprise Limited, the University’s commercialisation office, has achieved income in excess of £18 million over the last two years, demonstrating how Cambridge ideas are reaching the public through commercial channels. It also has an active portfolio of 499 licence agreements with third parties committed to the commercialisation of Cambridge ideas. Despite difficult economic conditions, Cambridge Enterprise has seen more than £62 million invested into 22 of its portfolio companies within the past year and four spin-out companies in the clean tech area – companies that are working on products or processes that balance high productivity and efficiency with reduced energy consumption, costs and pollution – have received £12 million in funding.This includes an investment of £5.1 million into Metalysis Ltd, enabling the company to develop further its environmentally friendly production methods for tantalum and titanium alloys. In total, University spin-outs have raised more than £475 million in follow-on investment and grant funding, further demonstrating the economic appeal of Cambridge ideas.

A new home for Cambridge Enterprise The East of England Development Agency has invested £2 million in the University’s Hauser Forum, which will provide a new home for Cambridge Enterprise as well as a state-of-the art enterprise hub to encourage and facilitate innovative collaborations between academics, start-up enterprises and established businesses.This investment will augment the £8 million already donated by the Hauser-Raspe Foundation.The main structure of the £15.7 million development on the West Cambridge site was finished this year, and the buildings will be occupied in early 2010.

Nurturing innovation As part of further efforts to facilitate and encourage innovation, the University of Cambridge Discovery Fund has been launched to provide vital pre-licence, pre-seed and seed investment for science-based ventures in the crucial early stages of innovation.

This evergreen seed fund is a unique renewable resource giving donors the opportunity to support the University many times over.

Cancer Innovations category, Medical Futures Awards), and Sentinel Oncology (ERBI Biotech Regional award, Discovery and Development category).

Over the past decade, researchers in the Neurosurgery Unit of the Department of Clinical Neurosciences have been developing software as an aid to monitoring patients in neurological intensive care.The intensive care multimodality monitoring system (ICM+) has now been licensed by Cambridge Enterprise as a research tool to medical researchers in over 30 centres worldwide.

CamSemi, a spin-out from the Department of Engineering, has established itself as the leader in the development of energy-efficient power circuits.

In October 2008 the company celebrated the shipment of ten million chips from its first product line.

Knowledge exchange Knowledge exchange is becoming increasingly important and Cambridge will lead a consortium of universities awarded £2.2 million as part of an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council scheme to take an integrated approach to knowledge transfer.The initiative will ensure that discoveries across partner institutions are fully exploited and will create an environment in which knowledge transfer is valued and encouraged.

A new UK Innovation Research Centre has been set up by the Centre for Business Research at Judge Business School and Imperial College Business School, London.

The Centre will lead research into how innovation can make businesses more competitive, improve public services delivery and help the UK meet the social, environmental and economic challenges it faces. It will actively disseminate its work through a ‘Knowledge Exchange Hub’. The new Centre builds on the extensive expertise in the two partner organisations and brings together leading scholars in the field. In addition to their research, members of both institutions are involved in developing business practice and policy advice in the fields of innovation and knowledge exchange at national and international levels.

Cambridge Enterprise’s portfolio of promising new companies heralds exciting times ahead: 11 of these companies picked up more than 20 awards, including accolades for CamSemi (UK National Microelectronic Institute Startup of the Year), Horizon Discovery (Best Business Proposition for gene-engineering platform GENESIS™ and Best Drug Discovery award, Making an impact on the economy 29

Connecting with the world The University is committed to sharing its knowledge and ideas across the academic spectrum, and to forging connections with the world at the local, national and global levels. Increasingly, this is facilitated through digitisation, and the University is accelerating its deployment of this technology.

(Above) Dr Mark Turin leads the World Oral Literature Project.

30 University of Cambridge Annual Report 2009

For eight centuries, Cambridge’s glorious tradition of music-making has resonated around the world, enriching lives and advancing intellectual understanding of what music means. An 800th Anniversary concert was held as part of the BBC Proms series at the Royal Albert Hall. More than 5,000 music lovers and Cambridge alumni, including HRH The Prince of Wales, enjoyed performances by a convocation of College choirs and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.The Britten Sinfonia also premiered a composition by Ryan Wigglesworth in Krakow, Poland, made possible by a grant from the University’s 800th Anniversary Fund.

Festival success In honour of the Anniversary, the annual Science Festival celebrated ‘Centuries of Science’ by presenting more than 160 events over two weeks, including handson experiments, lectures and debates.The event attracted more than 25,000 visitors to Science on Saturday – the centre-piece of the festival, and 530 pupils from 30 different schools within a 70-mile radius of Cambridge attended the Science Master Classes.

visitors of all ages with the chance to understand more about the world we live in, and attracted more than 8,000 attendees over the course of two weeks.

The Open Cambridge weekend offered tours of eight different Colleges, two University museums, Judge Business School, the University Library, and the world’s oldest printing house, Cambridge University Press.Tours were led by volunteers including College porters, bursars, gardeners and graduate students, who all provided a personal as well as historical view of the setting in which they work.The annual Bridge the Gap walk was held as part of Open Cambridge and took participants on a 4.5 mile route through ten Cambridge Colleges and the Scott Polar Research Institute Museum.

The weekend attracted more than 5,000 people.

The University also held its first annual Festival of Ideas, which celebrated the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.The Festival provided more than 200 free events in sites around Cambridge including the University’s world-class museums and galleries.Through events on subjects ranging from the politics of Europe to the impact of Facebook on friendship, it provided

Milton anniversary A year-long programme of performances, lectures and exhibitions to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Milton’s birth culminated this year with a concert of music from his time and readings of his poetry and prose.Tens of thousands of people visited exhibitions displaying rarely-seen papers and drafts written by Milton, attended performances of some of his bestknown works, tuned in online to the first ever live internet reading of his great epic, Paradise Lost, or accessed new web resources designed for everyone from dedicated Milton scholars to those who have never encountered his work before.

(Below) A Festival of Ideas event at the Fitzwilliam Museum.

(Below) St John’s College opened its doors to the public during the Open Cambridge Weekend.

Connecting with the world

31

Access to archives The online collections and resources of the University are becoming increasingly substantial, providing free global access to the University’s unique and extensive collections. For the past two years, a team from the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) has been working to capture and preserve more than 20,000 photographic negatives that document over a century of Arctic and Antarctic explorations. Freeze Frame, a project funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee, has created an unparalleled online archive of images, enhanced further with extracts from personal journals, expedition reports and related e-learning resources.The importance of the work and collections of the Institute has been recognised by the Heritage Lottery Fund, which has awarded nearly £1 million to SPRI.The money will support a major refurbishment project, Exploration into Science, which will see the current galleries redesigned and new space created for additional exhibitions and educational research.The refurbishment is due to be completed by June 2010, in time to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the departure of Scott’s British Antarctic (Terra Nova) expedition.

Preserving cultures The World Oral Literature Project, affiliated with the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, has been set up to safeguard vanishing cultures by documenting endangered oral literatures before they disappear without record.The first phase of the project has provided small grants to researchers working on indigenous cultures that are under threat so they can document oral literature through new digital media.

This includes funding for one project that has recorded 17 hours of ceremonial chanting among the 1,890 people who speak the Barasana language in the Vaupes region of Colombia. Another group of researchers has been documenting the oral texts of the shamans of the Thangmi community in Nepal and India.The vocal repertoire of Tashi Tsering, the last royal singer of the Kingdom of Lo Monthang in Mustang, Nepal, has also been documented.

New online resources A group of undergraduates, graduate students and lecturers from the Faculty of English has joined forces to produce a new outreach website funded with support from the 2009 Fund. Cambridge Authors is a collection of resources relating to ten authors who studied at the University: Christopher Marlowe, George Herbert,William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, Alfred Lord Tennyson, E M Forster,Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, A S Byatt, and Zadie Smith.These resources range from 32 University of Cambridge Annual Report 2009

critical essays to innovative multi-media projects.The site has been designed especially with A-level students in mind – all the authors involved have had their work as set texts at A-level – and features a new collection of short films inspired by Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, created by Jeremy Hardingham, the manager of the Faculty’s Judith E Wilson Drama Studio.

The Faculty of History has also gone online with an interactive virtual classroom which invites visitors to ‘Take a Journey into History’. The virtual classroom provides educational resources for teachers and students complete with online lectures and exercises.

The University was one of the first in the UK to exploit iTunesU and YouTube’s new educational channels, making over 300 lectures, short films and interviews available to a worldwide audience. In the first year, there were over two million views of Cambridge’s content.

As part of the 800th Anniversary celebrations, the University has also launched Cambridge Ideas: a yearlong series of podcasts and films that showcase the diversity of academic expertise and cutting-edge research.The series, designed for broadcast via the internet, includes an exploration of the creative process, revelations about our musical tastes, a Darwin-inspired ballet, and an investigation into team dynamics.

Growing relationships Based at Judge Business School, and working with departments across the University, the Executive Education programme continues to expand and innovate.The extension of courses to the Middle East and Asia is planned and international partnerships are an important facet of this area with key relationships in institutions in China, USA and Australia.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alison Richard, visited China to celebrate 120 years of partnership between China and Cambridge.There are currently more than 130 official academic, industrial and government partnerships in place, spanning many disciplines from language teaching and architecture to materials science, economics and nanoscience. Professor Richard met with senior Chinese Government figures and partner universities, signed historic agreements with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and appeared on China Central Television’s premier interview programme, Top Talk. Premier Wen Jiobao made a return trip to the UK to deliver the University’s prestigious Rede Lecture.

Premier Wen also presented 200,000 electronic books to the University Library, making it a home to one of the world’s largest collections of Chinese monographs.

The gift is one of the largest single donations received in the University Library’s 650-year history and almost doubles the number of electronic books at its disposal.

(Above) Professor Julian Dowdeswell's film The End of the Ice Age is a part of Cambridge Ideas, an ongoing series of audio and video productions that presents the University’s cutting-edge research to a global audience via the internet.

(Below) Wen Jiabao, Premier of the People’s Republic of China, visited the University as part of the University’s 800th Anniversary celebrations and donated one of the world’s largest collections of Chinese monographs to Cambridge University Library.

Connecting with the world 33

Recognising achievement Each year, the University’s staff, students and alumni are recognised for their contributions to society across the academic, cultural, public and private sectors.

Here is a necessarily selective account of some of them.

(Above) Professor Sir John Gurdon was awarded the 2009 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research award for his pioneering work with stem cells.

34 University of Cambridge Annual Report 2009

Royal Society Nine Cambridge academics have been elected as Fellows of the Royal Society: Ross Anderson, Professor of Security Engineering, Computer Laboratory; Jennifer Clack, Professor and Curator of Vertebrate Palaeontology, Museum of Zoology; David Glover, Arthur Balfour Professor of Genetics, Department of Genetics; Christine Holt, Professor of Developmental Neuroscience, Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience; David Mackay, Professor of Natural Philosophy, Department of Physics; Wolfram Schultz, Professor of Neuroscience, Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience; Henning Sirringhaus, Hitachi Professor of Electron Device Physics, Department of Physics; John Todd, Professor of Medical Genetics and Director of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation/Wellcome Trust Diabetes and Inflammation Laboratory, Cambridge Institute for Medical Research; and Burt Totaro, Lowndean Professor of Astronomy and Geometry, Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics.

Professors Ron Laskey FRS, Charles Darwin Chair, Department of Zoology and Joint Director of the MRC Cancer Cell Unit, and Christopher Dobson FRS, John Humphrey Plummer Professor of Chemical and Structural Biology, Department of Chemistry, have been awarded Royal Medals.

Professor Jeremy Sanders FRS, Head of the School of Physical Sciences has received the Davy Medal; and Professor David MacKay FRS, Professor of Natural Philosophy, Department of Physics, has been selected to give the Clifford Paterson Lecture.

British Academy Seven Cambridge academics have been elected as Fellows of the British Academy: Professor Simon Baron-

Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre; Professor Philip Ford, Professor of French and Neo-Latin Literature; Professor Jonathan Haslam, Professor of the History of International Relations; Professor Mary Jacobus, Director of the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities; Dr John Marenbon, Senior Research Fellow of Trinity College; Professor Susan Rankin, Professor of Medieval Music; and Professor John Duncan, Honorary Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience.

Queen’s Honours Two Cambridge academics have been recognised in the Queen’s New Year Honours list. Professor Peter Nolan, Sinyi Professor of Chinese Management, Judge Business School, has been made a CBE for services supporting British business in China and China’s integration into the global economy; and Professor Marcial Echenique, Professor of Land Use and Transport Studies at the Department of Architecture, has been made an OBE for services to Urban and Regional Planning. A further five Cambridge academics were named in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list. Knight Bachelor: Professor Sir David Baulcombe, for services to Plant Science; CBE: Dr Kate Pretty, for services to Higher Education; Professor Lynn Gladden, for services to Chemical Engineering; Stephen Cleobury, for services to Music; OBE: Professor Sheila Rodwell, for services to Health Care. Professor Rodwell sadly died only a few days after her OBE was announced.

Worldwide recognition Drs Emma Wilson, Head of the French Department and a Reader in Contemporary French Literature and Film, and François Penz, Reader in Architecture and the Moving Image in the Department of Architecture, have received the prestigious Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques in recognition of their sustained contribution to the dissemination of French culture (Left) Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Master of the Queen’s Music, was commissioned to write a new piece for symphony orchestra and chorus which was premiered at the Cambridge University Musical Society’s May Week Concert in King’s College Chapel.

Recognising achievement 35

and to education. Professor Steve Oliver, Director of the Cambridge Systems Biology Centre and member of the Department of Biochemistry, has been awarded the distinction of being made a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for his groundbreaking work exploring the inner workings of the cell.

Professor Sir John Gurdon has been awarded the 2009 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research award for his pioneering work with stem cells. Professor Gurdon, after whom the Gurdon Institute is named, shares this award with Professor Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University.Together they have opened up new avenues for pursuing aspects of embryonic and adult stem cell research though their discoveries relating to nuclear reprogramming. Professor Gurdon was also a joint recipient of the Lewis S Rosentiel Award for Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Science 2009.

Other notable awards and acknowledgements have gone to: Professor Stephen Hawking, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, who has been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest US Civilian honour; Professor Lord Renfrew from the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, who received the 2009 SAFE Beacon Award in recognition of his role as a champion for cultural heritage; Dr Julian Hibberd of the Department of Plant Sciences, who has been named in Nature as one of the ‘Five crop researchers who could change the world’; and Mary Beard, Professor of Classics, who has won a Wolfson History Prize for her book, Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town.

Cambridge’s ‘Naked Scientists’ continue to go from strength to strength in their efforts to take science to a wider audience.This year they won the inaugural European Podcast of the Year award for their worldleading weekly science radio programme.They were picked as one of five winners by an international panel of judges who selected from a field of over 750 nominations from ten participating nations.

Ed Hutchinson, a third-year PhD student in the Department of Pathology who completed the University’s Rising Stars public engagement course last year, has been awarded the New Researcher Category of the Biosciences Federation Science Communication Award 2008.The Award recognises research-active bioscientists from UK universities or institutes who make an outstanding contribution to communicating science to the public. Other students who have been recognised for their achievements and contributions include Ben Barry, a PhD student at Judge Business School, who received the Canadian Governor General’s Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case Youth Award in recognition of his efforts to change the face of the fashion and beauty industries. He is the first man to be given this title. A Cambridge student-led opera company has won the prestigious Herald Angel award at the Edinburgh Fringe.The Shadwell Opera is among a small number of student groups to win one of the top annual Fringe awards in recent years.

Professor Robert Kennicutt, Director of the Institute of Astronomy, is one of three recipients of this year’s Gruber Cosmology Prize, in recognition of his work in determining that the Universe is around 14 billion years old. Sharing the prize with astronomers Wendy Freedman and Jeremy Mould, his work over the past decade has helped to resolve the long-standing dispute about the value of the Hubble constant, one of the most important measurements in astronomy. Dr Carolin Crawford, also from the Institute of Astronomy, is one of six Women of Outstanding Achievement for 2009 – a title awarded by the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology.

HivioSense, a business conceived by students from the Masters in Bioscience Enterprise Programme, has recorded success in an international business plan competition.The business is aiming to develop and commercialise a novel HIV detection system that can detect the presence of HIV in patients just three weeks after infection. Also concerned with HIV, Stephen Gerrard, an undergraduate Chemical Engineering student based at King’s College, is part of a research team that has been awarded a $100,000 grant by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as part of its Grand Challenge Explorations initiative designed to promote innovation in global health.Their project, A New Way to Prevent HIV Infection during Breastfeeding, will develop and test low-cost filters coated with safe microbicides that can be inserted into the tips of nipple shields.

Cambridge University Press and the Britten Sinfonia have won the International category in the Arts and Business Prize, sponsored by the British Council.The award celebrates partnerships that help organisations reach new audiences and make a global impact.

Sporting success It has been another packed year for sports at the University and – with the exception of the Boat Race – one with some notable successes.The University’s Amateur Boxing Club edged to a close-fought victory

36 University of Cambridge Annual Report 2009

over their counterparts from the Armed Forces (East of England) Select team; and the Cambridge Dancesport team won the national Universities Ballroom Dancing competition for an unprecedented fourth year in a row, securing their victory at the Empress Ballroom, Blackpool.Varsity success came the way of Cambridge in some close-fought matches throughout the year including netball, trampolining and fencing, and a united Cambridge and Oxford sealed the Prentice Cup by their most convincing margin since 1931, as their joint men’s tennis team overcame their Harvard-Yale counterparts on American soil.

Honorary degrees Ten eminent individuals from the worlds of religion, business, science, music, history, philanthropy, politics and economics were presented to the Chancellor, HRH Prince Philip The Duke of Edinburgh at the 800th Anniversary Honorary Degree Congregation at the Senate House.The Honorands were: His Highness Prince Karim al-Hussaini Aga Khan (Doctor of Divinity); Mrs Melinda Gates, Philanthropist (Doctor of Law); Mr Bill Gates (William Henry Gates III), Philanthropist and Chairman of the Microsoft Corporation (Doctor of Law);

Baroness (Shirley) Williams of Crosby, Honorary Fellow of Newnham College, Public Service Professor of Elective Politics Emerita in the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University (Doctor of Law); Professor Elizabeth Blackburn, Professor of Biology and Physiology at the University of California, San Francisco (Doctor of Science); Professor Wallace Broecker, Climatologist, Columbia University (Doctor of Science); Professor Sir Peter Crane, the John and Marion Sullivan Professor in the Department of Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago, former Director of Kew Gardens (Doctor of Science); Professor Amartya Sen, Fellow and former Master of Trinity College, Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University, Nobel Laureate in Economics (Doctor of Letters); Professor Wang Gungwu, University Professor, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong, Historian of China and the Chinese (Doctor of Letters); and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, composer and conductor (Doctor of Music).

This year, the more rarely conferred Honorary MA degrees were given to two people who have made

(Below) The 800th Anniversary Honorary Degree Congregation at the Senate House.

Recognising achievement 37

a significant contribution to the life of the University and the city: Sir Miles Hunt-Davis, who became the Duke of Edinburgh’s Private Secretary in 1993, forging a valuable link between the Chancellor and his University; and Allan Brigham, road-sweeper and well-known and respected local historian and tour guide who campaigns for better knowledge of Cambridge heritage by Cambridge residents.

In April, the Chancellor also presided over a ceremony to admit recent major donors to the University and the Colleges into the Cambridge Guild of Benefactors. 21 new benefactors were admitted to the Guild, bringing the total to over 150 individuals or companies who have made significant contributions to the future of collegiate Cambridge.

Finally, on a rainy summer’s day in July 2009, the sun broke through thick, black cloud to shine on nearly 9,000 members of the University’s staff and their families, at a party in Cambridge’s Botanic Garden.

This special event was held to honour the deep commitment of the University’s staff to Cambridge, to education and to public service.

(Below) Mr Allan Brigham, local historian and Blue Badge guide was awarded an honorary Masters degree for services to the community as a historian.

38 University of Cambridge Annual Report 2009

Charting progress

Undergraduates

Postgraduates

Full-time students 2008*

Full-time students 2008*

Men 5,946

Men 3,292

Women 5,662

Women 2,711

Admission statistics† 0

500

Admission statistics** 1000

1500

0

500

1000

1,762

1500

1,449 2008

2008

1,277

1,078

492

1,517

1,425 2007

1,327

2007

1,023

546

1,554

1,400 2006

2006

1,340

1,114

445

1,630

1,400 2005

1,287

2005

1,167

467

UK maintained UK independent Other and overseas

Home†† Overseas

* Full-time equivalent student load for year of entry as published in Reporter, Special No. 4, Thursday 8 October 2009. † Acceptances by type of school/college by year of entry or deferred entry for the following year. ** Includes all graduate and postgraduate courses by year of entry. †† ‘Home’ includes students from the EU and other overseas countries paying the home rate of fees and students paying the ‘island’ rate of fees.

Charting progress 39

40 University of Cambridge Annual Report 2009

Contacts Information for journalists Communications Tel: +44(0)1223 332300 Fax: +44(0)1223 330262 Email: communications@admin.cam.ac.uk

Information on the 800th Anniversary Campaign Development Office Tel: +44 (0)1223 332288 Fax: +44 (0)1223 764476 Email: enquiries@foundation.cam.ac.uk

Cambridge in America Tel: +1 212 984 0960 Fax: +1 212 984 0970 Email: mail@cantab.org The Cambridge 800th Anniversary Campaign Report 2008-2009 has been published.

If you would like a copy please contact the Development Office. For all other enquiries please contact Communications.

This information is available in other accessible formats upon request.

Email: communicationsservices@admin.cam.ac.uk Tel: +44 (0)1223 339397

Produced by: Communications Services, the Office of External Affairs and Communications, University of Cambridge Written by: Melanie Gardner and Sally Lewis Designed by: Smith Printed by: Cambridge University Press