Wolfson: Plans & Prospects 2021

PLANS & PROSPECTS 2021
WOLFSON’S END TO CARBON EMISSIONS • STUDENT ACHIEVEMENTS • ALUMNI REFLECTIONS
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Summer 2021
Contents
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16
18
22
24
Decarbonising Wolfson
Our actions to achieve a zero-carbon estate
Leonardo Da Vinci
Zooming in on his life and character
Scroll through Poetry
Jon Stallworthy Poetry Prize winner announced
The Natural Choice
Simon Dowell tackles wildlife extinction
Intellectual Delights
Chiara Marletto’s breakthrough research
College news 4-9
Student profiles 12-15
Alumni lecture 16-19
Alumni profiles 22-25
Development report 26-27
Financial report 28-29
Huw David
Development
Director
Femke Gow
Communications
Officer
Lisa Heida
Communications
Assistant
Clare Norton
Development
Officer
All information is believed to be correct at the time of publication (July 2021). Every effort has
been made to verify details and no responsibility is taken for any errors or omissions, or any
loss arising therefrom.
Unless otherwise stated all images © Wolfson College, University of Oxford. Every effort has
been made to locate the copyright owners of images included in this record and to meet their
requirements. The publishers apologise for any omissions, which they will be pleased to rectify
at the earliest opportunity.
Compiled by Femke Gow, Lisa Heida, Huw David and Clare Norton.
Cover photo by Anju Sharma 2021.
Many thanks to all our members who have contributed to our publications.
Published by Wolfson College
Copyright 2021 Wolfson College
Wolfson College, Linton Road
Oxford OX2 6UD
Telephone: +44 (0)1865 274 100
digicomms@wolfson.ox.ac.uk
www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk
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Credit: Anju Sharma
Welcome
Sir Tim Hitchens
President
Wolfson has, from its earliest days, prided itself on being progressive. Egalitarian decision-making in an Oxford too
full of hierarchy; an open prospect across the River Cherwell rather than closed cloisters; allotments and raised
beds for students and fellows; a nursery from our earliest days. As the environmental movement was just getting
going, we purchased the meadows across the river to preserve them forever and stop them being turned into a
University Science Park. So we’ve always been an early adopter and pioneer.
But one area where successive Presidents and Governing Bodies have scratched their heads is the fact that our
buildings were designed before the 1970s energy crisis - gloriously open, but frighteningly wasteful of energy. This
used to be primarily a matter of cost, but is now above all a question of climate change. We have to face the facts:
our architecture makes us one of the most energy inefficient colleges in Oxford.
Over the last ten years we have done as much as we could to reduce emissions. New builds were done to the best
standards. Solar cells were installed on the roof of the main building, and gardens on the roof of the Academic Wing.
We preserve our biodiversity, particularly the meadows, as a site of special scientific interest. We have disinvested
from the fossil fuel industry. We serve more vegan and vegetarian meals than fish and meat based meals. We
encourage video conferencing rather than flights, and are introducing electric vehicles and charging stations. Even so,
emissions from our estate remain stubbornly high, and our dream of becoming zero-carbon felt unreachable.
Last year we won a grant from the government to conduct a full professional survey, which revealed that we have
a twenty-year carbon footprint of 24,000 tonnes of CO 2
. To bring that down to zero, we need to triple glaze
our windows; install air source heat pumps and get rid of old gas boilers; re-seal the roof; and install as many
photovoltaic cells on the roofs as possible. The report set out the cost of achieving zero-carbon on the estate: a
seemingly impossible sum of about £14 million.
But after extensive and quiet preparation (it’s a very competitive area), the College was awarded this spring a £5
million government grant to help us undertake the programme, which we’ve matched with more than £3 million
from the College’s own funds. This will enable us to reduce our emissions on the main site by 75% over the next
year. We’re looking to other supporters to provide the remaining £6 million; our aim is to be well on the way to a
zero-carbon estate by 2024, and to complete the project by 2030 at the latest. You can read more detail in Richard
Morin’s Financial Report on page 28; much of the credit for this must go to him.
This should place Wolfson among the most progressive colleges in the world, and I know that more students and
researchers will choose us because of what we have been able to achieve. Current students and Fellows have told
me how proud they are to be a member of the College making this happen. I hope you agree, and that you may wish
to be part of the project.
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College News
Farida Shaheed delivers 2020 Sarfraz
Pakistan Lecture
New Scientist features Wolfson
Fellow Chiara Marletto’s
groundbreaking research
The physicist’s powerful new book
exploring counterfactuals, The Science
of Can and Can’t, gained global attention
with extended coverage in New Scientist
magazine.
In her book, Marletto delves
into everything from gravity to
consciousness, exploring a vast class of
properties so far untouched by science
and looking not only at what is true but
what could be true - the counterfactual.
She explains, “The quantum theory
of computation originated as a way
of deepening our understanding of
quantum theory, our fundamental
theory of physical reality. By applying
the principles we’ve learned more
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Farida Shaheed, Pakistani sociologist
and human rights activist, gave a lecture
entitled ‘The Politics of Propriety:
Feminist Actions, Culture & Cultural
Rights in Pakistan’. A writer and
campaigner for over 25 years, Shaheed
became UN Special Rapporteur in
the field of cultural rights in 2012. She
fosters policies and projects designed in
culturally sensitive ways to support the
rights of marginalised sectors, including
women as well as religious and ethnic
minorities.
broadly, we think we’re beginning to
see the outline of a radical new way to
construct laws of nature.” A Research
Fellow working in Oxford’s Physics
Department, Marletto is also an active
member of Wolfson’s Quantum Cluster
and New Frontiers Quantum Hub.
> Turn to page 24 for an in-depth
interview with Chiara Marletto
Wolfson AMREF group buys Buffalo
Bikes
The Wolfson AMREF (Africa Medical
and Research Foundation) group have
bought three ‘Buffalo Bicycles’ from
World Bicycle Relief to support rural
African communities where lack of
transportation is a constant challenge.
The bikes are particularly durable, built
to withstand harsh conditions in rural
areas in developing countries.
Ato Quayson becomes Head of
Stanford University’s Department of
English
An expert on African, postcolonial
and world literature, Quayson was
a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson
before holding professorships at the
universities of New York and Toronto.
Honours for Wolfson alumni &
friends
Wolfson congratulates Aamer Sarfraz,
Guy Poppy and Keith Willett on their
recent appointments by the Queen in
recognition of outstanding services in
their respective fields.
Guy Poppy
CB for services
to Food Safety &
Security as Chief
Scientific Adviser to
the Food Standards
Agency.
Keith Willett
Knight Bachelor for
services to the NHS
as National Director
for Emergency
Planning and Incident
Response.
Aamer Sarfraz
Member of the
House of Lords for
services to business
and philanthropy.

Generous legacy endows Oxford-Ullendorff Graduate Scholarship in Semitic Philology
Thanks to a generous legacy from Dina
Ullendorff, the widow of Professor
Edward Ullendorff, Wolfson has been
able to fully endow a scholarship in
Semitic Philology, one of the College’s
specialist fields.
Professor Ullendorff (1920-2011)
was a renowned authority on Semitic
languages. Educated in Berlin, Jerusalem
and Oxford, he held academic posts
at the universities of St Andrews and
Manchester. He also held the Chair of
Semitic Languages at SOAS and was
appointed Emeritus Professor of Semitic
Languages and Ethiopian Studies on his
retirement in 1982. Ullendorff was a
Fellow of the British Academy and the
Accademia Lincei, an Honorary Fellow
of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and
Jewish Studies, and a long-term member
of Wolfson College.
The Oxford-Ullendorff Graduate
Scholarship in Semitic Philology is open
to all applicants applying for the MSt in
Classical Hebrew Studies.
Martin Goodman, Professor of
Jewish Studies and close friend of the
Ullendorffs, comments: “The legacy from
Dina Ullendorff, who died in 2019 at
the age of 99, commemorates the work
of her husband Edward to whom she
was married for 68 years. The legacy
fulfils Edward’s determination to ensure
future scholars continue to study
Semitic Philology to which he devoted
his life.”
Wolfson welcomes new staff
Jessica Dunham
Senior Development Officer
Jessica manages College fundraising
programmes, relationships with global
alumni and current donors, and
oversees the Syme Legacy Society.
Femke Gow
Communications Officer
Femke curates and manages print and
digital content that broadcasts Wolfson’s
reputation as a progressive college with
a vibrant academic community.
Michael Godfrey
Head Chef
Michael brings balance to our menus
in line with the College’s sustainabilty
policies, backed by experience at top
academic institutions.
Diane McKay
Accommodation Manager
Diane manages the allocation of
Wolfson’s accommodation for
students and guests.
Chris Licence
Estates and Health & Safety Manager
Chris handles compliance with
Health & Safety regulations and
delivery of new building works.
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Wolfson receives colourful paintings by local artist Morris ‘Charlie’ Chackas
Wolfson is very grateful to Chackas’
long-time friends Jane Moir and
Gerard and Elisabeth Ledger for their
generosity in donating 18 paintings to
be on display around the College.
Morris Chackas, known as Charlie,
was born in London in 1916 and began
to paint in earnest after he left the
Army in 1945. Working from a studio
on Woodstock Road, north Oxford,
his influences were broad, ranging
from African art and Japanese flower
arrangements to Cézanne, Matisse, de
Staël and William Scott. His aim was to
play with objects in space, and create a
relationship between space and colour.
Chackas’ paintings are also included in
the art collections of Pembroke, Keble,
and St Hugh’s colleges.
President Biden appoints Eric
Lander as top scientific adviser
Eric Lander (DPhil Maths, 1979) was
sworn in as Director of the Office of
Science and Technology Policy and a
member of President Biden’s cabinet
in June 2021. A geneticist, molecular
biologist and mathematician, Lander
was described by Biden as “one of the
most brilliant persons I know” and as
someone who has “changed the course
of human history” through his work to
map the human genome.
Karim Khan elected Chief Prosecutor
of the International Criminal Court
Karim Khan, who read for a doctorate
in law at Wolfson (1998), has been
elected chief prosecutor of the
International Crime Court (ICC). Khan
is a specialist in international criminal
law and international human rights law.
He was called to the bar in England and
Wales by Lincoln’s Inn in 1992, and later
became Assistant Secretary-General of
the United Nations and served as the
Special Adviser and Head of the UN
Investigative Team for the Promotion of
Accountability for Crimes Committed
by Da’esh/ISIL in Iraq (UNITAD).
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College News
Wolfson Buttery wins Oxford Preservation Trust Award for Best Small Project
Every year the Oxford Preservation
Trust awards prizes to buildings and
environmental projects that make
an outstanding contribution to the
character of Oxford. Among the 51
entries for the 2020 awards, Wolfson’s
Buttery project won the prize for Best
Small Project.
The refurbished Buttery designed
by BGS Architects links it and the
Old Lodge to the Academic Wing,
which opened in 2016. The design
complements Wolfson’s original
architecture by Powell & Moya, and
blends in with more recent College
buildings such as the Leonard Wolfson
Auditorium.
Wolfson alumnus sets up Black
British scholarship
Richard Oreffo (DPhil Clinical
Medicine, 1983) has launched a major
scholarship programme committed
to eradicating the financial and racial
barriers for socially and economically
disadvantaged Black British students
attending UK universities. The Cowrie
Scholarship Foundation aims to fund
100 undergraduate places in partnership
with leading universities and businesses.
Oreffo is Professor of Musculoskeletal
Science at the University of
Southampton, where he is co-founder
of the Centre for Human Development,
Stem Cells & Regeneration.
Wolfson bids farewell to longserving Fellows
This year, in addition to the normal
rounds of departures and arrivals, we
bid farewell to some of our especially
long-serving Governing Body Fellows.
Julie Curtis, Martin Goodman and Jon
Austyn have collectively served Wolfson
for 98 years.
All three have embodied Wolfson’s
interdisciplinary, collaborative, and
intellectually curious character; they
have placed their mark on the story
of the College; and they have each
been elected Emeritus Fellow, so we
know they will continue to be actively
involved in College life. We wish them,
and all those who are moving on, great
success in their next incarnations.
Professor Julie Curtis
Julie joined in 1991, specialising in
writers of the early Stalin period, then
became Professor of Russian Literature.
Professor Martin Goodman
Martin also joined in 1991, focused on
the Jews of the Roman Empire, and
became Professor of Jewish Studies.
Professor Jon Austyn
Jon was appointed Lecturer in
Transplant Immunology in 1983, and
became Professor of Immunobiology.
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Materials Science boosted with endowed travel award
Thanks to a generous legacy from Fay
Booker, widow of Dr Roger Booker,
Wolfson has endowed an annual travel
award to support students in Materials
Science.
The Roger and Fay Booker Award will
enable recipients to attend a scientific
conference or undertake laboratory
work. Roger Booker, who died in
2017, was a Governing Body Fellow of
Wolfson between 1975 and 1994 and
Vicegerent from 1987 to 1989. After
becoming an Emeritus Fellow on his
retirement, he continued his research in
the Department of Materials.
Timothy Ferris appointed as NHS Director of Transformation
Leading doctor Timothy Ferris
(MPhil Social Anthropology, 1988)
was appointed as the NHS’ Director
of Transformation in March 2021.
Previously Chief Executive of the
not-for-profit Massachusetts General
Physicians Organization and a Professor
of Medicine at Harvard Medical
School, Ferris founded the Center for
Population Health, which champions the
use of prevention and data to improve
health, reduce inequalities, and save lives.
In his new role, Ferris leads the NHS’
Transformation Directorate, bringing
together the NHS’ operational
improvement team and digital arm
(NHSX) to maintain the pace of
innovation seen during the pandemic.
Dr Ferris says, “The successful NHS
vaccine programme and development of
new therapies for Covid-19 has shown
that the NHS can be hugely agile and
innovative. I look forward to playing my
part in ensuring that the NHS continues
to stay at the forefront of developing
and adopting new technologies and
treatments to improve health and
treatment.”
Wolfson scientists discover how to
alter ripening of tomatoes
Wolfson Fellow Paul Jarvis and alumna
Najiah Mohd Sadali (DPhil Plant
Sciences, 2014) have discovered how
to change the process of ripening in
tomatoes. Published in Nature Plants,
their research provides a theoretical
basis for how we can improve the shelflife
of fruit.
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George Smith awarded Royal Society
Prize
Wolfson’s second-ever JRF, Smith
received the Society’s Armourers
& Brasiers Company Prize in 2020.
He pioneered the development of
engineering alloys, making profound
contributions to basic understanding
and industrial applications. He became a
Fellow of the Royal Society in 1996.
Yannis Assael named on Forbes 30
Under 30 list
Yannis Assael (MSc and DPhil Computer
Science, 2013) has made this year’s
Forbes 30 Under 30 list for science and
healthcare in Europe. A Senior Research
Scientist at Google Deepmind, Assael
co-developed a lip-reading model that
outperformed humans during his DPhil
at Wolfson.

College News
Women’s rowing team takes Headship of the River
Following their triumph in 2019’s Summer Eights competition, Wolfson’s women’s First VIII won 2021 Torpids, Oxford’s first
rowing competition for nearly two years. In four days of exciting racing, the crew bumped their way up the rankings every day,
taking the crowning position of Head of the River on the final day of racing for the first time ever in Torpids. This was only the
second time in the history of women’s Torpids that a crew had bumped each day to reach the Headship.
Wolfson College Boat Club entered a record eight crews in total: three in the men’s divisions and five in the women’s. The men’s
First VIII retained their status as perennial contenders in Division One.
Wolfson Fellows lead significant Covid-19 research
Two Governing Body Fellows at
Wolfson have made significant
discoveries in different areas of
Covid-19 research.
Paul Aveyard (below left), Professor
of Behavioural Medicine, led a study
that found people with certain chronic
respiratory diseases have a much lower
chance of developing severe Covid-19
than previously thought. Unlike previous
studies of people hospitalised with
Covid-19, the research showed the risk
for those with asthma and Chronic
Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
(COPD) is only modestly higher
than for those without. There was no
evidence linking asthma with a higher
risk of death from Covid-19.
Paul Harrison (below right), Professor
of Psychiatry, found that one in three
Covid-19 patients might develop a
severe mental health or psychiatric
condition within six months of
contracting the virus. According to the
study of more than 230,000 mostly
US-based coronavirus patients, anxiety
(17%) and depression (14%) were the
most prevalent diagnoses of mental
health disorders after Covid-19.
Get in touch!
We love hearing about your
professional and academic milestones.
If you’ve got news, please send it our
way so together we can help your
valuable work get the recognition it
deserves.
Email us at:
digicomms@wolfson.ox.ac.uk
And tag us on social media.
Alumni news
For a full list of alumni news and
publications, head to:
www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/alumni-news
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Wolfson, naturally
Thanks to a £5m government grant and the College’s investment of more than £3m of our own
resources, the work towards a carbon-neutral estate begins this summer. Whether you’re a resident or
visitor to College, you’ll notice a big difference in everyday life at Wolfson – we hope you’re as excited
about the transformation as we are. Here are the main things to look out for:
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College News
1
The new air-source heat pumps
in the garage area mean all
rooms will be warmed with
renewable heat.
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Once rooms are up to the
right temperature, triple-glazed
windows will keep them that way,
all year round!
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Resealing the roof will help put
a stop to any leaks while keeping
our buildings well insulated.
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When the sun shines, the
electricity flows: more rows of
photovoltaic solar panels will line
the roofs.
Credit: Vortex Drone Company
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Trial and Triumph
Annet Nakkazi is determined to change the world through cancer research. She tells us about her journey from a village in
Uganda to Oxford, where she’s currently finishing her Master’s degree in Radiation Biology.
MSc Radiation Biology, 2020
Why did you choose Oxford?
I grew up in a village with my
grandmother, not knowing Oxford
University existed. My uncle bought me
the Oxford English Dictionary and I
remember wanting to learn every word
inside. In 2015, I got the Ashinaga Africa
Initiative Scholarship (AAI), and I went
to the University of Tsukuba in Japan. I
met various interns, some of them from
Oxford, and I discovered its reputation
as one of the best universities in the
world. I remember thinking, “No way,
I don’t fit there. I can’t apply.” But
then I received information about the
Commonwealth Scholarship. I was told
I could apply, but I’d have to choose
between three universities: Manchester,
Glasgow and Oxford. I chose Oxford
and got accepted within a week.
How did you find out about Wolfson?
When applying, I wasn’t even aware
that colleges existed. I asked the
University to choose one and they
picked Wolfson. There are so many
things I love about this College. Wolfson
provides opportunities to students to
help develop their skills, and I love that
Wolfson engages everybody. We’re like
a family.
How did the pandemic affect your
experience at Oxford?
The one thing I have really missed is
having classes in person, and not being
able to play sports. I wanted to learn
new skills and challenge my brain. I
wanted to get out of my room and
connect with other people, but it hasn’t
been a problem really, because I knew it
was necessary.
You research cancer management
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and how infections are linked
to cancer. How do you create
awareness around the necessity of
hygienic environments?
What I do specifically is educate kids.
I noticed that educating kids from a
young age helps society. I fundraise
for donations for things that promote
hygiene, like handwashing facilities, and
then teach children that washing your
hands after visiting the toilet is very
important. I can’t explain to them what
cancer is, but at least I can teach them
best practices.
What inspired you to get into cancer
research?
When I was young, I lost my sister to
leukemia. I remember no one knew why
she was crying. I come from a village
where most people are uneducated,
so when someone gets a tumour, they
think they are bewitched. They go to
traditional healers or witch doctors,
which just worsens the situation
because the longer you delay actual
treatment, the more the tumour grows.
After losing my sister, and then losing
my auntie to breast cancer, I thought,
“This is serious. I have to do something
about it.”
I started reading about cancer and felt
that I had to be one of the researchers
who are trying so hard to eradicate this
disease. That’s where everything started.
And now here I am.
Who inspires you?
There are so many people who inspire
me. In science, there’s Jennifer Doudna
and Emmanuelle Charpentier who
got a Nobel Prize for discovering
CRISPR-Cas9, a technology that can
edit our DNA. They show us that
women can run the world. I grew up
with people telling me, “Ladies don’t do
sciences. Sciences are for men.” I don’t
understand that - we are all capable
of doing great things. Just give us the
support we need. I want to eradicate
the idea that science is just for men.
As a woman of colour, do you think
that there is any difference in your
experience?
Not really. Maybe I’m just a happy
person who takes life so simply. I don’t
focus on that. Because separating
myself from other people, or them
separating from me, doesn’t contribute
to the world. If I’m going to be a
good researcher in cancer, I need to
acknowledge that. Cancer doesn’t see
colour. In the end we all have the same
DNA.
We need each other. It’s all about us
coming together, to respect each other.
If you could go back to the beginning
of the academic year, what would
you do differently?
Perform better. When I first came here,
I slept so much. Maybe I should have
used that time to read more. I would
have contributed much more in class,
would’ve used that time to organise
discussion groups with my classmates.
However, it was a difficult time during
the pandemic.
What’s your next step?
Actually, I’ve got some good news. I
applied for a DPhil and got accepted at
Wolfson. Once the funding is confirmed,
I’ll be over the moon!

Student profile
“Cancer doesn’t
see colour. In
the end we all
have the same
DNA.”
The Commonwealth Shared
Scholarships are for candidates
from selected Commonwealth
countries for full-time Master’s
study. These scholarships
enable talented and motivated
individuals like Annet to gain
knowledge and skills.
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The Long and Winding Road
World Cup rugby player and MSc student Nick Civetta has travelled an unpredictable road
to find himself at Wolfson studying energy systems. With his athletic discipline and green
interests, Nick represents the modern values that beat at the heart of the Wolfson community.
MSc Energy Systems, 2020
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Student profile
Rugby has been an anchor for Nick
since his undergraduate days at the
University of Notre Dame, where he
studied civil engineering. He grew up
in a liberal suburb in New York and
struggled to find his feet at a Catholic
university away from home. When
a friend suggested he try rugby, he
quickly found his niche and immediately
recognised the impact the sport could
have over his life.
While pursuing rugby at college
level, Nick moved to California for
an MS in Geotechnical Engineering
at UC Berkeley. During his studies
on the sunny west coast, the climate
crisis shook his eastern hometown
as Hurricane Sandy ripped through
New York in 2012, with the Rockaway
Peninsula at the heart of the area’s
most devastating destruction. Working
at an engineering firm at the time, Nick
undertook disaster relief work to assess
the affected communities and damage
to buildings. “That was the first time the
climate crisis fully grabbed my attention.
In the back of my mind, it triggered
something. This is a serious issue.”
“Coming into Oxford, I
think everyone has imposter
syndrome.”
At the same time, Nick’s performances
on the pitch were getting real
recognition. Aware of his potential,
he took up an opportunity to play
abroad and spent the next ten years
playing professional rugby, while staying
engaged in engineering through research
positions along the way. Nick moved
between the US, Italy, France and the
UK, with his first tastes of English
rugby in Newcastle and Doncaster.
This sparked a steep learning curve
that heightened his game, and he went
on to play in the 2019 Rugby World
Cup in Japan for the US national team
- a life-long personal goal. This led to
a position playing in France, but the
experience was cut short by Covid. He
spent lockdown in Brittany with his
fiancée, and the break from his fastpaced
sporting career prompted him
to direct his focus back to sustainable
engineering.
Oxford was always on Nick’s radar
with several of his rugby colleagues
having had fantastic experiences here.
“When I was looking at courses, I came
across this one and it was perfect. It’s
engineering, economics, policy – it’s
all the multidisciplinary aspects of
our energy systems and how they’re
interlinked. It’s technical and a little
business-oriented too.”
But starting that journey was no easy
feat. “Coming into Oxford, I think
everyone has imposter syndrome, but
mine was warranted. I hadn’t written
a paper in ten years.” After securing a
place at Wolfson and starting his course,
his worries quickly dissipated.
“I think Wolfson’s a place where I can
be very comfortable. There’s so much
variety already. My course colleagues
are all incredible and have such varied
backgrounds, and that makes me very
excited to get more involved in College
life. With the restrictions, I’ve just had
a taste of how good the full experience
could be. I also noticed that Wolfson
divested in fossil fuels, which many
other colleges haven’t. That’s a huge step
and shows a lot of leadership.”
Now balancing his academic career with
his position on the University rugby
team, Nick leans into the discipline
he learned through his professional
sporting career. “I think there’s
something to be said for the confidence
you get from feeling physically capable
of doing something. When you’re
pushing the boundaries of what you can
accomplish, you’re also pushing mental
boundaries and that’s hugely valuable.”
Halfway through his course, Nick now
has an idea of what he wants to achieve
once he graduates. “I know I can’t go
into my career saying “I’m going to
stop climate change”, even though that
is the overarching goal. I think small
wins are important, and I want to
build something that will help create
a sustainable future. Whatever I do in
the next few years, it’s not going to be
just rugby. After I graduate, I’m going
to look for internships and business
opportunities in the US and the UK so I
can see what I can make of this degree.
I want to put myself in a really strong
position to start something full-time,
either as an entrepreneur or with
renewable development firms.”
With his green vision and varied
pursuits, Nick is sure to tackle some of
today’s most pressing issues head on.
15

Leonardo da Vinci
and National Identity
This year’s annual Wolfson London Lecture was one
to remember as we captured history through the
defining tool of 2021 - the humble Zoom conference.
Guest speaker Dr Matthew Landrus, Supernumerary
Fellow of Wolfson College and the History Faculty,
captivated the audience with compelling detail on
Leonardo da Vinci’s diffusion across European national
identities through his character and life’s work.
Credit: Matthew Landrus. The Mona Lisa, 2001
Dr Matthew Landrus
Matthew Landrus, Supernumerary Fellow of Wolfson and the History Faculty,
examines intersections of the practical arts and natural philosophy between
the 14 th and 18 th centuries. As a specialist on the working methods and
intellectual interests of artists and engineers, he addresses cross-disciplinary
solutions to investigative and inventive developments in the histories of ideas,
science and technology. This work addresses histories of artisan notebooks
and the art academy. As well as a specialist on Leonardo da Vinci, Landrus also
studies Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, historiography, paradoxes in visual culture,
and histories of aesthetics, figural proportions and colonial culture.
Popular for over 500 years as a
Renaissance polymath and thinker,
Leonardo da Vinci’s legacy developed
as a feature of civic and national
identity. A number of his paintings,
drawings, inventions, and notebooks
have helped shape the identities of
collections, collectors, and national
histories. Recently at Wolfson, in
Oxford and beyond, these national
interests in Leonardo were revisited in
lectures, exhibitions and publications
associated with his quincentenary
death anniversary in 2019, and two
years earlier, discussions of the most
expensive painting sold at auction: a
Salvator Mundi attributed to Leonardo.
Although known as an exceptional
Florentine painter in the 1470s, his role
16
in statecraft began when Lorenzo di
Medici sent him on a diplomatic mission
in c. 1482 to the Sforza Court in Milan
with a gifted teenage musician, Atalante
Migliorotti, to play and present to the
Duke a lira da braccio (medieval fiddle).
Heads of state sought Leonardo’s advice
and work as artist and engineer, court
poets praised him, for Cesare Borgia
he was “our distinguished and beloved
court architect and engineer general”,
and Raphael painted him as Plato in
his famous School of Athens. Less than
two decades after Leonardo’s death,
an anonymous author known as the
‘Anonimo Gaddiano’ wrote his earliest
biography. That text is still somewhat
emblematic of historical accounts of
the artist, though it notes mathematics,
rather than painting, first among his
skills, and hereby focuses on the
attractive intellectual:
“He was so rare and universal a man
that one could say he was a product
of both nature and miracle – not only
because of his physical beauty, which
was well known, though also because of
the many rare talents of which he was
master. He was skilled in mathematics
and no less in perspective; he made
sculptures and far surpassed all others
in drawing. He had wonderful ideas, but
he did not paint many of them, because,
they say, he was never himself satisfied.
… He was most eloquent in speech,
Figure 1 (right): Leonardo da Vinci, the brachial
plexus, c. 1508, pen and ink over black chalk. Royal
Collection, RCIN 919040r

Alumni lecture
17

Figure 2: Bronze medal, by Hérard and Monnaie
de Paris, with Leonardo’s profile (obverse) and
wreath over quill and paintbrush (reverse), 1669
“He was so rare
and universal a
man that one
could say he
was a product
of both nature
and miracle.”
Figure 4: Bronze medal by Johnson for the tenth
International Congress of Navigation in 1905.
and played the lyre well… He enjoyed
the company of the common people
and was extremely good at making
waterworks and fountains and other
caprices…” (Cod. Magl. XVIl, 17).
A few months after Mohammed bin
Salman was appointment as Crown
Prince of Saudi Arabia in June 2017,
he won at auction a Salvator Mundi
painting for £326 million, which
Christie’s referred to as a fully
autographed Leonardo that had been in
the collections of three kings. But only
a relatively small group of people had
seen this remarkably restored painting
in person for more than a few minutes
and not much is known of its history.
Recent evidence indicates that this
purchase is part of a plan to develop a
new national identity for Saudi Arabia
that will attract investment and tourism,
and will include new museums and
tourist destinations.
In 2019, Leonardo was again in the
international spotlight, as numerous
events, activities and academic meetings
marked the 500th anniversary of his
death, especially in Italy, France and
the UK, where there are significant
collections of his work. Whereas there
are usually a few books on Leonardo
each year, he was the subject of over
250 books in 2019. In Oxford, there
were Leonardo exhibitions at Wolfson,
the Ashmolean and the Bodleian.
Wolfson’s Library exhibited facsimiles
of Leonardo’s notebooks, early editions
of his Treatise on Painting, and books
published during his two previous
death anniversaries in 1819 and 1919,
some of which coincided with events of
national interest, such as the attempted
restoration of Leonardo’s Last Supper in
the early 19 th century, and the theft and
return of his Mona Lisa in 1911-14.
At the Bodleian’s Weston Library,
several drawings by Leonardo welcomed
viewers into the exhibition, Thinking 3D:
books, images and ideas, from Leonardo
to the present. These examples, from
the Bodleian and national collections,
demonstrated the roles of threedimensional
concepts on paper and in
models for understanding geometry,
18

Alumni lecture
Figure 3: Banknote, Dos Colones, 27 August 1936, Banco
Internacional de Costa Rica, printed by Waterlow & Sons
limited, London (1810-1961), in circulation from 1931 to
1936
Figure 5: Banknote, 500 Lire, Bank of Naples, printed by Bradbury Wilkinson
& Co. in Holborn (London), 1896 and 1906
astronomy, architecture and anatomy.
Leonardo’s proportional diagram of
the brachial plexus (c. 1508) [Fig 1],
from the Windsor Royal Collection, is
one of approximately 2,100 pages of
Leonardo’s notes and drawings - over
a third of his surviving works on paper
- in several major collections in Britain.
Many of these national treasures were
on display in 2019.
An exhibition at the Ashmolean
Museum on Leonardo and national
identity commemorated 350 years of
his appearance on medals and money,
beginning with the first commemorative
medal in his honour, struck in Louis
XIV’s mint in 1669. Leonardo had been
a French citizen in 1508-12 and in 1517-
19. The 1669 medal [Fig 2] honoured
him as an intellectual: a writer and
innovative artist, noting on the reverse,
“Scribit quam suscitat artem” (he writes
about the art that he revives). One
of a new series of commemorative
medals honouring heroes of France,
this example relates to Louis XIV’s
cultural interests, including the founding
of France’s Royal Academy of Painting
and Sculpture in 1648, the first printed
edition of Leonardo’s and Francesco
Melzi’s Treatise on Painting in 1651,
and the founding of the Prix de Rome
scholarship in 1663 for French painters
and sculptors, and the French Academy
of the Sciences in 1666.
Medals and money honouring
Leonardo and his work mark significant
developments in many countries
including France, Italy, Costa Rica [Fig 3],
Vatican City, San Marino, Portugal and
Poland. He has been remembered on
these ephemera and commemorative
objects as a paragon of painting theory,
scholarly writing, scientific thinking,
biblical representation, architectural
design, navigation, portrait painting,
and engineering design. He has also
been associated with humanist writers,
academies, modern science, Christopher
Columbus and navigation [Fig 4], fascism,
a federation of labour, and university
departments, although he would not
have considered himself an expert or
specialist in any of these areas.
In the 144 years since 1877, medals
and money have included images of
Leonardo or his work in 104 of these
years. The first proposal to include his
portrait on money was in 1869 for a
250 Lire banknote, engraved for the
Bank of Naples by Bradbury Wilkinson
& Co. in Holborn (London). By 1877,
this national bank circulated 200L
Bradbury Wilkinson notes, and in 1881,
100L notes, followed by 500L notes
in 1896 and 1903 [Fig 5]. The Mona
Lisa, more popular after her theft and
recovery in 1911-14, was the face of
a Costa Rican banknote circulated in
1931-36 [Fig 3]. A 50,000L banknote
with Leonardo circulated in Italy in
1967-74, and his Vitruvian Man has been
on the Italian one Euro coin since 2002.
Often representative of local, national,
or international interests, Leonardo’s
portraits, along with his Last Supper,
Mona Lisa, and Vitruvian Man, have
become iconic images for a range of
ephemera associated with national
identity. Commemorative and monetary
ephemera are among the earliest formal
collectibles to honour Leonardo and his
work as national icons.
19

Scroll
through
poetry
This year’s Jon Stallworthy Poetry Prize,
themed ‘Scrolls’, was awarded to Tara
Lee for her poem Kusōzu.
Each year, students currently
enrolled in a postgraduate course at
Oxford University submit poems in
English verse in a bid to win the Jon
Stallworthy Poetry Prize of £1,000.
The competition was established by
Wolfson College and the Faculty of
English in 2016 in memory of the late
Professor Jon Stallworthy, a much-loved
tutor, scholar and poet.
Stallworthy was a Fellow of Wolfson
between 1986 and his death in 2014,
and twice Acting President. Thanks
to the generosity of Jon’s friends,
colleagues and admirers, Wolfson
succeeded in raising £75,000 to endow
the prize as a permanent tribute.
As per tradition, the prize was awarded
on 18 January to mark Stallworthy’s
birthday. Out of forty submissions, six
were shortlisted and recited at the
award event. The jury announced DPhil
candidate Tara Lee as the winner for her
poem Kusōzu, meaning “painting of the
nine stages of a decaying corpse”.
This year’s jury was made up of Oxford
University’s Professor of Poetry
Alice Oswald, and Professor Bernard
O’Donoghue, contemporary Irish poet
and academic. Oswald says, “In the end
we found ourselves most disturbed by
Kusōzu. Perhaps it says something about
our needs after a year of lockdown, but
it was that poem, morbid and unsettling,
that we chose as the winner.”
About the winner
Tara Lee is a DPhil candidate at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where she is
working on William Blake and proto-evolutionary concepts in eighteenth-century
biology. Born in Worcestershire to an Anglo-Chinese family, she grew up in
Hong Kong and completed her BA and MPhil at Queens’ College, Cambridge.
Her poem was inspired by Louise Glück, Buddhist thought, and the ongoing
coronavirus pandemic.
20

Credit: Priscilla du Pree
Kusōzu
She laughs in a green shade,
kimono spread out unfastened,
wisteria blossoms falling.
She is preoccupied.
The death of a noble lady
and the decay of the body –
nine stages as the handscroll reveals.
We have seen the first stage.
Now a bloated form swells to blue,
it bleeds at the seams,
the skin slips and marbles,
blooming with microflora,
the eyes are toys for sparrows,
skinny dogs gnaw at its many openings,
reeds sway over broken bones,
then even the reeds wither.
‘Disarticulated dust’
announces the inscription
like so many black birds
gathered into pleats.
At the end of my days,
may I gladly unfold myself.
May I say to the silken earth that holds me:
‘Because I love you,
I am giving you back to yourself.’
“An eerie image of the body unscrolling and
decomposing on a Japanese scroll”
- Professor Alice Oswald on Kusōzu
21

The Natural Choice
In search of an unconventional college, Wolfson was the natural choice for Simon Dowell. Now Science Director at
Chester Zoo, Simon’s college experience set him up for an impactful career in bringing together scientific research
and conservation outreach to prevent wildlife extinction.
DPhil Zoology, 1986
22

Alumni profile
What brought you to Wolfson?
I was working for the Game
Conservancy (now called The Game and
Wildlife Conservation Trust) and they
were advertising a PhD at Oxford to
work on reintroducing grey partridges,
looking at their behaviour and survival
in the wild after introduction. I got the
place with no college attachment to it
and I couldn’t join my supervisor Marian
Dawkins as she was at an all-female
college. When I saw Wolfson I thought,
this is what I want: a community of
postgraduates. Everybody doing DPhils
and we can all support one another.
Wolfson was the obvious one to me. It
was a fantastic experience.
What did you love most about being
at Wolfson?
Once I got here, I met lots of
international students studying such
different things. We used to sit in
rows in Hall. You could be sitting with
anyone, and it was fantastic. It got you
finding synergies between what you
were interested in. I loved that spirit of
collaboration and working with people
who aren’t in your own tribe. That’s
what I like doing and that’s how I like
to move forward with projects. It just
seems obvious to me that you need to
collaborate to achieve bigger things.
Why did you choose to support
Wolfson after you left?
I wanted to continue to support
Wolfson because it gave me a
tremendous starting point. It was a
huge opportunity for me that shaped
my career. The other thing that struck
me when I was there, and certainly
in my career in conservation, is the
opportunities it provided to people
from overseas. It’s really important to
me that Wolfson is open to as many
people as possible around the globe,
because they’re then able to do so
much in their home society as well.
That’s my motivation.
What advice would you give current
Wolfson students?
It’s really about making the absolute
most of all the opportunities that a
place like Wolfson gives you. It’s only
subsequently I’ve realised what a
massive privilege and opportunity it
was. You’re never going to have another
experience like it again. You’ll be
rubbing shoulders with people who run
organisations and possibly governments
in the future. Take these opportunities
and develop your network because it
will set you up for life.
Can you tell us more about your role
as Science Director at Chester Zoo?
“Wolfson
was a huge
opportunity for
me that shaped
my career.”
I’ve been the Science Director here
for the last five years. The role was
created to bring together our scientific
research with conservation outreach
and education.
Alongside that is our collection
of animals and plants and all the
conservation breeding activities.
In March this year we launched a
conservation masterplan with a series
of targets to quantify our contribution
towards preventing the extinction
of species. It’s a hugely collaborative
effort, but as the country’s most visited
zoo and as a charity zoo (we are a
conservation charity run by the North
of England Zoological Society), we have
a significant contribution to make.
We have a solid mission: people come
here because they want to see animals
and we want them to see them in the
most natural conditions as possible. We
want animals that are actively involved
in conservation breeding towards
conservation goals. Visitors can then
learn about them and understand what
they can do to help.
What are your favourite animals to
spend time with at Chester Zoo?
I’m a bird person. I love some of the
song birds, the small passerines. We’ve
also got laughingthrushes, and some
exciting exotic pheasants. There’s
an animal called the Fossa, which is
endemic to Madagascar and is like a
cross between a cat and a weasel - very
strange-looking, but actually rather
endearing, so if I’m out in the zoo I
quite often pay them a visit.
What can we do at home to
conserve our wildlife?
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the
terrible stories of climate change,
but there is so much people can do.
One thing we’re keen to encourage is
planting wildflowers in a window box or
in pots in people’s gardens and shared
green spaces. It’s surprising how quickly
the butterflies, moths and bees find
them.
Another is to get people thinking
about their consumerism. We’ve had a
campaign over the last few years around
palm oil, which is mostly grown on big
plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Rainforest destruction over there has
led to the severe endangerment and
extinction of orangutans.
At Chester Zoo we went through
our entire supply chain to ensure our
products containing palm oil came
from sustainable sources that don’t
contribute to further destruction
of rain forest. We then worked with
partners in Chester to declare the city
as a Sustainable Palm Oil City. Now
we’re trying to communicate that more
widely.
Switching brands can make a difference
because consumers demanding that
producers source their palm oil from
sustainable sources can collectively
influence change.
You can find out about our sustainable
palm oil shopping list at:
www.chesterzoo.org/what-you-cando
23

Intellectual Delights
Research Fellow and Quantum Cluster member Chiara Marletto is an Italian physicist who finds pure joy in working to unlock
the phenomena of the physical world. Her latest book The Science of Can and Can’t navigates unchartered territory in the depths
of quantum physics and captured global headlines in The Guardian and New Scientist.
DPhil Mathematics 2012
The weird and wonderful world of
quantum physics explains the nature
and behaviour of matter on the atomic
and subatomic level – and has a laudable
history at Wolfson.
As with all ground-breaking research,
Chiara’s spirals from the discoveries
of giants before her. After studying
physical engineering and theoretical
physics in her hometown of Turin in
Italy, Chiara won a scholarship to read
her DPhil in Mathematics at Oxford.
In 2012, she came across the work of
Wolfson Honorary Fellow and founder
of Quantum Theory David Deutsch.
His work is largely founded in Alan
Turing’s Universal Computer, which in
theory is the most powerful version of
a computer - but may not be for long.
David, and many others in his field, was
24
fascinated by the idea of what would
happen if “you took Turing’s universal
computer, and recast it to include the
laws of quantum physics, creating an
even more general version of a universal
computer,” Chiara explains.
David went on to do just that. He
invented the quantum computer, a
machine with superior memory and
processing power, which is limited
only by the software that you put on
it. Chiara was immediately hooked on
the idea and now works closely with
David as a friend and colleague at the
university as they continue to explore
this field.
“The idea was initially theoretical,
but that led to a huge amount of
applications.” Think about 3D printing –
as this technology delves into building
construction, imagine how efficient,
sustainable and affordable housing
production could be with quantum
computing power that’s hundreds of
millions of times faster than today’s
most powerful computer.
“Now, we have this race for building
an actual universal quantum computer.
At the end of the race, we should have
something that looks more or less like
the computers we use now, but with
many more possibilities of what it can
compute.”
Within this field, Chiara’s current
work is about taking the lessons of
universality from Quantum Information
and adapting it for different areas of
physics. Her latest book The Science of
Can and Can’t identifies elements of the
physical world that the current language

Alumni profile
“As a doctoral student, you
should try to have fun with
your own problems.”
of physics fails to explain. Her work
dives into this void, aiming to widen the
scope of standard physics to capture
those missing parts of our world’s
physical reality.
Now working as a Research Fellow in
the Department of Physics and an active
member of Wolfson’s Quantum Cluster,
Chiara’s enthusiasm for the subject has
been contagious, capturing the attention
of other students along the way. “I got
a scholarship to study here and have
stayed a little longer than expected, but
I think that’s for the best. It’s been such
a great experience. Oxford was one
of the few places in the world where I
really wanted to study, and at Wolfson
I get to talk to so many people who
aren’t in my field. Those conversations
really add a great dimension to my
intellectual experience.
“There’s a lot of space for quirkiness,
and there’s room for unconventional
academics, for people who are
intellectuals but don’t really fit in a box.
For example Wolfson’s Centre for Life-
Writing has many people who are not
strictly speaking academics but are pure
intellectuals and professional writers.
I think all of this gives you a complete
overview of what intellectual activities
are really about.”
Before finding her niche at Wolfson,
Chiara’s career aspirations started out
in a rather different place. “I always
thought I would become a writer. My
subject choices in school were very
much oriented towards humanities.
But then after a taste of calculus, I gave
mathematics a try and it turned out I
really enjoyed it.”
Naturally gifted in many areas, Chiara
finds a way to blend her interests
in different fields, true to Wolfson’s
interdisciplinary style. For Chiara, it’s all
about universal ideas. “Universals exist
in literature as well. It’s about touching
a concept that clarifies something on a
huge scale. A beautiful verse in a poem
can capture something you feel, and
connects you with other things that you
never expected. Physics does the same
thing, and that’s what really lights up my
mind.”
Chiara’s tireless drive to get to the
bottom of things leans on a persistent
curiosity that is a common trait
amongst researchers. “There’s a lot of
pressure to solve problems that are
easy and fast, so you can get published,
and it’s easy to get distracted by that.
Luckily I haven’t had that pressure from
my colleagues here. I think it’s wise to
resist it and favour the things that really
capture your attention. As a doctoral
student, you should try to have fun with
your own problems. It should be an
intellectual delight. The pursuit of that is
ultimately what makes you favour one
problem over another.”
That focus drives her on in a maledominated
field, where she approaches
her work first and foremost as a
researcher. “I think it’s really important
to relate to my environment as an
individual rather than through a gender
narrative. I’m a scientist, a professional,
here to do a job. I hope that with more
women in academia and especially in the
sciences, there will be a time when that
won’t seem so unusual.”
Through her open mind and hunger
for knowledge, Chiara leads the way
into the unknown, creating a legacy of
curiosity and determination that echoes
the foundations of Wolfson.
25

A year in Development
and Alumni Relations
Development Director Huw David reflects on a year of online alumni events, Zoom calls, new scholarships and, throughout it all,
the generosity of Wolfsonians past and present.
As the end of Trinity Term approaches,
the view across the harbour is
deceptively familiar: students embarking
onto punts and preparing for exams
on sun-baked lawns, the Cherwell
flowing by. 2020-21 has of course been
an academic year like no other but
Wolfson has drawn great strength from
the loyalty and generosity of our alumni
and friends.
Our special Coronavirus Hardship
Appeal, launched in April 2020 to
give direct financial aid to students
and postdocs in unexpected hardship
because of the crisis, generated a
tremendous response. Thanks to the
generosity of Wolfson Fellows, Members
of Common Room, alumni, staff, and
students, we beat our initial target
of £50,000 more than seven times
over, raising a phenomenal £352,000.
Thank you to everyone who gave so
generously.
Following on from the success of
the Hardship Appeal, this spring we
launched the Wolfson 1966 Fund, named
to reflect the year the College was
founded. With a focus on nurturing
the expertise that has always been
Wolfson’s hallmark, the fund will
support our students and postdocs
through scholarships, bursaries, travel
awards, and better sports and library
facilities.
We’re hugely grateful to our
benefactors who have augmented our
range of scholarships and bursaries.
Thank you in particular to Ken and
Veronica Tregidgo for establishing a
new scholarship in Atomic & Laser
Physics, and to Andrew Prentice, who
was himself Wolfson’s first ever JRF, for
his generous support for a scholarship,
also in Physics. Two further university
scholarships, both endowed, will
26
become associated with Wolfson for
the first time: the Alfred Landecker
Scholarship in Public Policy and the Sir
Anwar Pervez Scholarship, available to
outstanding students from Pakistan.
Special thanks, too, to the Augustus
Foundation for generously renewing
its support for the Lorne Thyssen
Scholarship in the study of the
Ancient World and, as ever, to Simon
Harrison for his philanthropy towards
scholarships in Physics and Quantum
Computing and for the Boat Club. The
triumph of the Women’s First VIII in
attaining Head of the River in Torpids –
in which Wolfson entered more crews
than any other College – was due in
no small part to the extra resources
the club has enjoyed for training and
equipment.
Although we’ve been unable to
welcome alumni into College during
the past year, a switch to online events
enabled Wolfsonians around the world
to join us for some memorable talks
and lectures.
Supernumerary Fellow Matthew
Landrus gave our annual Alumni Lecture
in March on ‘Leonardo da Vinci and
National Identity’ (as he describes on
pages 16-19). We were also delighted
to host talks by alumni including Wes
Moore on his book Five Days: The Fiery
Reckoning of an American City, and on
his own remarkable life and career;
Sydney Roberts, on her role as head
of Chicago’s Civilian Office of Police
Accountability; Ira Lieberman, on the
future of microfinance; and by Honorary
Fellow and LinkedIn founder, Reid
Hoffman, on the future of work. Many
of these are available to watch again on
Wolfson’s YouTube channel.
And, as we’ve all become well-versed
in using Zoom and Teams, the Alumni
& Development team has thoroughly
enjoyed ‘meeting’ Wolfsonians far and
wide, from Auckland, to Karachi, to
Quito, hearing your news, and bringing
you up to date on the latest from
College.
We look forward, with fingers crossed,
to resuming our normal programme of
events – the summer Gaudy and Syme
Society Luncheon, September drinks
reception, Christmas drinks, and London
Lecture – in 2021-22 and to seeing
many more of you again in person.
Huw David
Development Director
Would you consider supporting
Wolfson’s students by establishing
a bursary or scholarship?
Please contact Dr Huw David,
Fellow and Development Director,
to discuss how your support
can help Wolfson’s students and
postdocs thrive.
E: huw.david@wolfson.ox.ac.uk

Development
Credit: John Cairns
Wolfson 1966 Fund
Supporting expertise, today and tomorrow
From climate change to global
pandemics, never has the world needed
expertise more than now. Since
Wolfson’s foundation in 1966, our
students and post-doctoral fellows have
made ground-breaking discoveries and
brought fresh light to bear on some of
the world’s most intractable challenges.
As Oxford’s most international and
family-friendly college, Wolfson is a
special place in which to study, learn
and live. But we want to do more to
help our students and post-doctoral
fellows thrive – and your support will
be essential in doing this. That’s why
we’ve launched the Wolfson 1966 Fund,
a dedicated fund to provide direct
support for our students and postdocs
through scholarships, research
and travel awards, hardship bursaries,
and better library, sports and nursery
facilities.
If you would like to support today’s
students and postdocs through the
Wolfson 1966 Fund or to find out
more, please visit:
www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/wolfson-1966-
fund
Arrivals and departures Syme Society Newsletter
In Spring 2021, we welcomed
Jessica Dunham as Senior
Development Officer. Jessica took
a DPhil in Late Roman Archaeology
at St Cross College, during which
time she was President of the
Wolfson College Boat Club. We
also bid farewell to Lisa Heida as
Communications Assistant, and we
wish her all the best in her new
adventures in Portugal.
The Syme Society was established
to commemorate one of
Wolfson’s most distinguished
fellows and benefactors, Sir Ronald
Syme. Those who pledge a bequest
to Wolfson in their will and notify
the College are invited to join the
society, and to a summer lunch at
Wolfson. This gives us an opportunity
to thank those who have
remembered Wolfson in their will.
Wolfson’s termly e-newsletter,
The Wolfsonian, offers alumni and
friends regular updates on College
news and events. If you’re not yet
on the mailing list but would like
to be, please contact the Alumni &
Development Office at
alumni.office@wolfson.ox.ac.uk.
We’ll be happy to forward you the
latest edition and sign you up so
you don’t miss the next one.
27

Financial Report
College Bursar Richard Morin reflects on the financial challenges and achievements of the last year that have led to the much
anticipated launch of our ground-breaking decarbonisation project.
Crescat Pecunia Wolfsoniensis, as
Isaiah Berlin said in 1979. Despite
the challenges of the last 12 months,
Wolfson’s finances have indeed
continued to grow; the College’s
invested endowment reached an alltime
high, and the College’s operating
budget achieved its first, albeit small,
operating surplus for several years, with
a surplus of £232k being achieved in
the financial year 2019/20 and a surplus
of £451k being forecast for 2020/21. In
March last year it seemed that both of
these outcomes would be impossible
to achieve, but with the kindness of our
many benefactors who contributed to
the Covid hardship fund, and the hard
work of our managers and staff, Wolfson
has managed to land safely following the
financial challenges of the last year.
Since the sharp correction last March
at the beginning of the Covid crisis, our
Investment Portfolio has continued to
recover and then out-perform. The
portfolio has grown by 24% since the
low point of the Covid crisis, and now
stands at an all-time high of £69m. This
strong performance, coming after five
years of strong returns, puts Wolfson
in a very good position to meet its
inflationary costs and to continue to
draw down sufficient sums to support
its students and fellows. (Growth of
the endowment means that income
drawn down to invest in supporting
students and fellows during 2021/22
will be £1.77m, up from £1.66m in
2020/21). The College will also be able
to take the opportunity to dip into its
reserves in order to make progress
on our aspirations for decarbonisation
and continued development of the
College, as laid out in last year’s estate
masterplan, produced by our architects,
Penoyre & Prasad.
Wolfson has long aspired to tackle the
excessive carbon footprint that results
from its listed architecture, which, whilst
magnificent, does not lend itself easily to
decarbonisation. For example, Wolfson’s
heating still comes from its original 50
year-old gas boilers, and the majority
of the heat is lost quickly through the
single glazing that defines the building
elevations across the College.
Last year, in its new Estate Strategy, the
College committed itself to decarbonise
as a priority, and agreed to spend
surpluses, if they could be achieved, on
making progress with the many projects
that would be required to reduce our
carbon footprint. This process began
last year with employing specialist
consultants to carry out an energy audit
and produce a decarbonisation plan. It
revealed that replacing the single glazing
with triple glazing would reduce heat
loss by around 80%, and that replacing
the gas boilers with electric heat pumps,
would, together with new windows,
reduce carbon emissions from the main
site by at least 75%. We have developed
a programme of work that provides a
road map for Wolfson to achieve net
zero carbon on its estate in the next
5 to 10 years, depending upon the
availability of funding.
The decarbonisation plan is currently
unaffordable in its entirety, but has
been given a significant boost by the
winning of a £5m decarbonisation
grant from the Government, to which
the Governing Body will add at least
£3m from the College’s reserves and
expected surpluses. This creates an
£8m project, which will allow us to
Credit: Anju Sharma
Credit: John Cairns
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Financial report
Credit: Anju Sharma
Credit: John Cairns
move away from fossil fuel heating in
most parts of the estate and to replace
most of the windows with triple
glazing. Given its listed architecture,
the bespoke, ultra-thin triple glazed
aluminium windows needed to achieve
carbon reduction and satisfy the
planning authorities come at a hefty
price, and the College continues to
seek funding opportunities wherever
it can to complete both the window
replacements and the other works
required to fully decarbonise. These
include re-roofing, insulation, the
installation of photovoltaic panels, LED
lighting and the installation of small
heat pumps for the individual houses in
Linton, Chadlington and Garford Roads.
Wolfson still needs to find a further
£6m to complete all decarbonisation,
and we will work hard in the coming
year in the hope of raising these funds
with the aspiration of achieving net zero
carbon as soon as possible.
The operating surplus achieved during
the current financial year is remarkable
given the challenges, and undoubted
financial losses, caused by the Covid
crisis. The Governing Body has
confirmed that all such surpluses will go
towards funding decarbonisation over
the next 5 years, and we will continue
to try and grow those surpluses as
much as we can. Nevertheless, the
budget planned for 2021/22 is very
much based on ‘business as usual’ as
we expect our operations at College
to fully resume following the Covid
crisis, and we will therefore continue to
subsidise the communal dining where so
many of the intellectual sparks between
disciplines, students and academics
take place, as well as the usual array of
academic events and other hospitality
that is so important to College life.
We have also allowed for an increase
in expenditure on student support
and well-being as part of our plans to
move into the post-Covid era whilst
recognising the impact on individuals of
the difficult last 15 months.
There will no doubt be bumps along
the way, and the main worry for our
investment portfolio is that a market
correction, possibly overdue, might be
triggered by any return of inflation that
might materialise as the global economy
gathers pace. However, we feel well
prepared and resilient to face any such
turmoil.
This summer will see a substantial
amount of work on the estate, including
the new electric air-pump heating
systems, and the start of the window
replacement programme. We will also
replace our Marble Hall lift, which has
broken down so often in the last few
years, and resurface the courtyards
around the families’ accommodation.
Due to the kindness of one of our
donors, we have also managed to begin
the design work for a new sports and
wellbeing centre, and we look forward
to sharing those plans with you in due
course. We don’t yet have the funds
available to build the new gymnasium,
but we will continue to work on this
and other aspirations over the coming
year.
We are also currently in discussions
with finance experts regarding the
building of a new 49 room block of high
standard living accommodation for our
students and fellows on the site of the
south car park. We are hopeful that we
will be able to finance this important
new development from the rental
income that these additional rooms will
generate over the next 30 years. We
look forward to sharing more details
on this exciting project in due course,
and to an even greater number of
students and fellows being able to live at
the College and enjoy the full Wolfson
experience during their time in Oxford.
You will no doubt already be aware of
the refurbishment of the Buttery which
took place a couple of years ago, and
we were very pleased to learn recently
that the project was the winner of
this year’s Oxford Preservation Trust
Award for the best small project for its
outstanding design and workmanship.
We have also recently completed
the refurbishment of the Common
Room balcony, and we look forward to
welcoming you onto it when you are
next in College.
29

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Wolfson is a registered charity, no. 1141446
31

Upcoming events
Saturday 25 September 2021
Alumni Drinks Reception
Monday 25 October 2021
President’s Seminar - Cutting Edge Medical Research
with Professor David Ray and Dr Rachel Tanner
Thursday 28 October 2021
Syme Lecture - Professor Richard Saller (Stanford University)
Thursday 4 November 2021
Old Wolves Talk - The House of Venus: Living it up
in late Roman Volubilis with Dr Susan Walker
Events list
Thursday 25 November 2021
Sarfraz Pakistan Lecture - Professor Adil Najam (Boston University)
Thursday 2 December 2021
Berlin Lecture - Speaker TBC
Tuesday 7 December 2021
Wolfson Alumni Drinks in London
Oxford and Cambridge Club
Tuesday 1 March 2022
Wolfson London Lecture
How Pandemics End, with Dr Erica Charters
Lincoln’s Inn
All events in College unless otherwise specified.
ALUMNI AND DEVELOPMENT
OFFICE
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OX2 6UD
Phone: +44 (0) 1865 611042
Huw David
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Jessica Dunham
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