CATZ FELLOWSDr Tommaso PizzariTutor in Zoology, awarded Philip Leverhulme PrizeThe <strong>College</strong> extends its warmest congratulations to Tommaso Pizzari,who has been awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize. The prize, worth £70,000,commemorates the contribution made to the work of the Leverhulme Trustby Philip, Viscount Leverhulme (the grandson of the Trust's founder).Approximately twenty-five prizes are awarded each year to outstandingscholars – usually under the age of thirty-five – whose substantial contributionsto their particular field of study have been recognised at national andinternational level and who are expected to continue to excel in the future.Tom has been awarded his prize for research undertaken on sexual selection.Sexual selection is a pervasive biological processthat leads to the evolution of extravagant traitssuch as the chorus of birds, crickets or frogs, thetrain of the peacock, the antler of the stag, andflashy sports cars, or anything else that givesan edge in the competition for reproductivepartners. Understanding the mechanismspromoting such extravagant sexual strategiesnot only provides a unique insight intoDarwinian evolution, but is also critical tomanaging better reproduction in populationsthreatened by extinction, to improving thewelfare of domestic species, and to controllingpopulations that could otherwise become a pest.It is also important that we understand sexualselection if we want to address fertility problemsand the spread of sexually-transmitted diseasesin human societies.My work studies different aspects of sexualselection and the way male and femalestrategies co-evolve with each other. I amparticularly interested in the evolutionaryramifications of female sexual promiscuity whichpromotes competition between the ejaculates ofdifferent males and enables females to controlpaternity by biasing sperm utilisation. Using acombination of experimental work, physiologicaland molecular tools, and the promiscuous fowlGallus gallus as a model species, we have beenable to show that both males and females usesophisticated – and often counteracting –strategies of sperm utilisationto maximise their reproductive success.The Philip Leverhulme Prize will launch myresearch towards the next level, and will enableme to branch out in exciting new directions.These include the use of genomic and proteomictools to study molecular evolution of sexuallyselected genes, the application of networktheory to capture the dynamics of sexualnetworks within populations, and the mergingof kin selection and sexual-selection theory toidentify the conditions leading to evolutionaryconflict or cooperation between the sexes.The Philip Leverhulme Prizewill launch my researchtowards the next level, andwill enable me to branch outin exciting new directions.54/DR TOMMASO PIZZARI
CATZ FELLOWSDan HoweEmeritus Professor of American History, winner ofthe 2008 Pulitzer Prize in HistoryTaking 900pages to coverthirty-threeyears of thehistory of onecountry doesseem rathergenerous ...One morning last April I went off to give a lecture andcame home to find my answerphone full of messages.They turned out to be from friends congratulating me onhaving won the Pulitzer Prize in History. After listeningto them, I thought, ‘Can I believe this? I haven’t heardanything from the Pulitzer people themselves.’ So I askedmy editor at Oxford University Press, New York. She replied,‘Oh, yes, it’s true. They don’t notify the winners directly;they hold a press conference and post the outcome ontheir web site.’ And so it proved. In June, my wife and Iattended an award ceremony at Columbia University in NewYork. And in July the Master hosted a delightful reception in<strong>College</strong> to celebrate the prize with other Fellows.The Pulitzer Prizes are awarded annually: several forjournalism and six of them for books (fiction, non-fiction,poetry, drama, biography, and history). Mine came forWhat Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America,1815-1848, a volume in The Oxford History of the United<strong>St</strong>ates series.A fat book, What Hath God Wrought is aimed (like theothers in its series) at both an academic audience and thegeneral literate public. Taking 900 pages to cover thirtythreeyears of the history of one country does seem rathergenerous, but I plead in extenuation that I cover manydifferent kinds of history: social, political, economic andintellectual. The history of literature, law, drama, and musicall appear. The title comes from the message sent bySamuel F B Morse to demonstrate his new electric telegraphin 1844, though it also illustrates the importance of biblicalreligion and, in a larger sense, the providential sense oftheir country’s destiny held by many Americans at thetime. Innovations in transport (the first locomotive in theUnited <strong>St</strong>ates was imported from England in 1828) andcommunications (the telegraph was invented independentlyin Britain by Charles Wheatstone) integrated a vast nationthat expanded to California during these years. Reformmovements, like technology and commerce, crossed theAtlantic: antislavery was particularly momentous, butonly one aspect of a ‘benevolent empire’ of internationalreligious philanthropy. A war at the beginning of the story(with Britain) and at the end (with Mexico) allow me totreat military history.My next project (God willing) will be a history of the warbetween the United <strong>St</strong>ates and Mexico that will treat bothsides of that all-too-neglected story.ST CATHERINE’S COLLEGE 2008/55
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The Year2008St Catherine’s Colleg
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CONTENTSContentsMaster’s Report 2
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