Research roundup 2014

For the last blog post of 2014, we give you a roundup of the year's research and news at Pembroke.

Throughout the year, fellows and students at Pembroke have continued to publish and promote ground-breaking research in a range of disciplines. Here are just some of the highlights:

Professor Clare Grey describes what happens inside batteries on an atomic level, bringing us one step closer to silicon batteries for mobile phones and electric vehicles.

Professor Andrea Ferrari unveils the first flexible display device incorporating graphene.

Dr John Durrell and his team break the superconductor world record.

Dr Lauren Kassell collaborates on an animated video as part of a project to digitise the medical records of Simon Forman and Richard Napier, two of the most popular astrologers in early modern England.

Professor Robin Franklin talks stem cells and multiple sclerosis. His research is also the first step in a process that leads to a paralysed man walking again.

Dr Krzysztof Koziol successfully transforms greenhouse gases into pure graphene on an industrial scale and announces a new plant in East Cambridge.

Dr Hildegard Diemberger curates Buddha’s Word: The Life of Books in Tibet and Beyond, an exhibition at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge.

Dr Sarah Nouwen returns to Uganda with copies of her book, Complementarity in the Line of Fire (Cambridge University Press, 2013), for those she interviewed about the role of the International Criminal Court.

Dr Sam Wilks (2007) publishes paper that shows how seasonal flu vaccines could be made more effective.

The Master, Sir Richard Dearlove, shares his personal thoughts on the current threat posed by Islamic terrorism in a lecture at the Royal United Services Institute.

Dr Toby Matthiesen, an academic regularly quoted in the media, participates in a Westminster Faith Debate on religion and violence in the Arab Spring.

Professor Charles Melville discusses The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam on BBC Radio 4.

Best of the rest

• Pembroke secures second place in the Tompkins Table 2014.
• The Shahnama Centre for Persian Studies is officially opened.
• Pembroke marks 30 years since the arrival of its first women students with PemWomen@30.
• The College remembers the 308 members who died during World War One.
• Significant renovation work is completed in the Old Library, including repair of the ornate plaster ceiling.
• Pembroke launches the Pembroke College Circle, a society that brings together and welcomes friends all over the world into the life of the College.
• PhD student Peter Dudfield (2007) successfully completes a round-the-world bike ride in aid of the British Red Cross International Disaster Fund.
• Professor Tim Bussey and ScienceGrrl release a song in support of women in science.
• Pembroke College announces the election of Lord Smith of Finsbury as its fifty-fourth Master.

You can keep up-to-date throughout 2015 through our news pages and Kit Smart's blog.

For more about our fellows and their research you can also take a look at our Pinterest board.