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MESSAGESMaster’s ReportAS WE BEGIN TO THINK ABOUT OUR FIFTIETHANNIVERSARY IN 2012, I feel our Founders would bemore than pleased with the results of their initiativesthis year. How many colleges could claim in their reviewa Pulitzer Prize and two Olympic medals in the samebreath? We were delighted when Dan Howe, RhodesProfessor of American History here for fifteen yearsuntil his retirement, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize forWhat Hath God Wrought: The Transformation ofAmerica, 1815-1848, which offers a panoramicnarrative of the dramatic changes that took place inAmerica at this time. I will return to sport in a moment.Another of our historians, Professor RichardCarwardine, is to be presented with the BicentennialEdition of The Order of Lincoln as a result of hisseminal work on the sixteenth president of the UnitedStates. Dr Angela Brueggemann is the 2008 Europeanrecipient of the Robert Austrian Research Award invaccinology for her work on streptococcus pneumoniaeand Dr Richard Berry has been awarded a DaiwaAdrian Prize (in recognition of significant Anglo-Japanese scientific collaboration in biological physics).Dr Richard Bailey achieved the distinction of havinghis work dating the Hofmeyr skull recognised by Timemagazine as one of the top ten scientific discoveriesof 2007. We were also immensely pleased when SirNicholas Stern, Honorary Fellow and former Tutor inEconomics, became Lord Stern of Brentford. His report,The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review,is regarded internationally as a landmark work.This year has seen a number of departures fromCollege. Professor Jose Harris retired after nearly thirtyyears of service as a Fellow in History, although we areunsure what the term retirement will mean in Jose’scase and are confident that her prodigious scholarlyactivities will be unperturbed by the label. Mr DaveBeynon retired from the Lodge, where he had givensterling service to all, and we also said goodbye to ourlibrarian, Mrs Sally Collins, who has overseen the recataloguingof all 50,000 volumes on to the singleOxford system. Professor Duncan Wu, who claims theunique distinction of having been an undergraduate,postgraduate, Junior Research Fellow and TutorialFellow of the College, moved to Georgetown Universityin Washington, and Dr Michael Spence to the Universityof Sydney as Vice-Chancellor. Professor Angela McLeanmoves to All Souls College and we are sorry alsoto lose Drs Tadié, Kwint, Powles and Wheeler.Fortunately, there are arrivals to report too, andDr Shepherd-Barr as a Tutorial Fellow in English,together with Drs Whittaker, Thomson and Spenerhave reinforced the Fellowship.How manycolleges couldclaim in theirreview aPulitzer Prizeand twoOlympicmedals ...2 /A MESSAGE FROM THE MASTER