College Record 2019

Alumni and Friends
DR HUW DAVID
INTRODUCTION
In 2018-19, the
generosity and
commitment of
Wolfson’s alumni and
friends were once again
to the fore in College
life. A major fundraising
effort appealed for
donations to provide
academics at risk with
a temporary safe place
at Wolfson to continue
their academic work and
research. Thanks to the support of more than 100
alumni and friends and a substantial benefaction
from an anonymous donor, the campaign raised
more than £300,000 and will see Wolfson host
at-risk academics for at least the next six years.
The College also received major donations to
support academic research in the College’s
Ancient World cluster and at the Oxford Centre
for Life-Writing, and for scholarships in physics
and quantum computing. A significant legacy from
the estate of Andrew Watson helped the College
to refurbish the Buttery as a space for College
receptions, meetings, and meals.
Events in Oxford and London brought alumni
together to renew friendships and to hear about
Wolfson’s cutting-edge academic research. At the
annual London Lecture, Tarje Nissen-Meyer (GBF)
conveyed the many applications of seismology
to a rapt audience: from understanding how
elephants communicate to determining the
chances of extra-terrestrial life in Jupiter’s icy
moon Europa. A Christmas drinks reception
drew more than one hundred Wolfsonians
to Lancaster House, home of the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office. One a baking hot day
in June, a record number of alumni returned to
College for the annual Gaudy and Syme Legacy
Society lunch, enjoying coffee and pastries in the
President’s Garden, a tour of a special exhibition
of nineteenth-century Japanese prints from Gillies
McKenna (GBF), and a meal in the renovated and
thankfully cool Buttery.
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Further afield, Sir Tim Hitchens travelled to
Shanghai and Shenzhen and returned to Tokyo,
where he met alumni and friends at the Oxford
University reunion and spoke on diplomacy, soft
power and the reputation of Britain’s universities.
In visits to Lahore, Mumbai and Delhi in January
with Matthew McCartney (GBF), the President
outlined to current and prospective donors
Wolfson’s expertise in South Asia studies and the
college’s ambitions to establish new scholarships
for Indian and Pakistani students.
In the Alumni and Development Office itself
there was both continuity and change. Bill Conner
retired as Development Director in April 2019
after more than a decade of outstanding service.
The well-wishers who filled the Common Room
to bid him farewell and good luck in his move
to Cambridge reflected upon the transformative
effect of philanthropy at Wolfson during the past
decade: the many new scholarships, the Academic
Wing, the Leonard Wolfson Auditorium, and
the thriving research clusters, from the Ancient
World to Quantum Physics. Kathie Mackay,
Senior Development Office, and Clare Norton,
Development Officer, continue to welcome
alumni and friends to Wolfson, express the
College’s gratitude to our many generous donors,
and to organise the superb events that bring
Wolfsonians together in Oxford and beyond.
Before I arrived at Wolfson in April, many friends
and colleagues in Oxford told me that I would
find it the most friendly and welcoming of
colleges. Writing five months into my time here,
I can affirm that they were exactly right: as its
alumni, Fellows, staff and students already know,
Wolfson is a very special place.
COLLEGE RECORD 2019
Photo: John Cairns