Master's Spring Message to Members

I would like to start by thanking Members for the incredibly positive reaction the College has received following my recent message about the Mill Lane project. We are incredibly grateful for the sustained support of all our alumni and friends, and particularly of the Dolby family.

I am greatly looking forward to sharing the detailed plans of the project with you after we have received the results of our planning application from the City Council in June.

In recognition of the Dolby family's continued support I am pleased to say that we have taken the decision to name the most senior Physics Fellow at Pembroke as the holder of The Ray Dolby Fellowship in Physics. The first holder of this post will be Professor Mike Payne, who works in the field of computational physics.

With the end of term the College will be losing one of our Drapers' Company Research Fellows, Dr Hannah Mumby. While it is always sad to lose one of our young Fellows, we wish her the best of luck in her new position as Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong. Hannah's research focuses on how male elephants relate to their social, physical and human environment.  We look forward to welcoming our new Engineering Fellow, Dr Luca Magri, at the start of the Easter Term.

Sadly, we lost Sir Michael Atiyah OM FRS in January. A Fellow of Pembroke from 1958 to 1961 and elected an Honorary Fellow in 1983, Sir Michael was one of the world's most distinguished mathematicians in the field of geometry. He won the Fields Medal in 1966 for his work on K-theory, index theory and an analogue of the Lefschetz fixed-point formula for elliptic operators.

Congratulations to Law Fellow and editor of the Gazette, Nick McBride, on the publication of his new book, The Humanity of Private Law. Nick critiques earlier views of private law, which saw private law as being concerned with wealth-maximisation or preserving relationships of mutual independence between individuals. Instead, he argues that English private law's concern is to promote the flourishing of its subjects.

This term also saw the inaugural Pembroke Environment Seminar, The Environment: A History of the Idea. The panel consisted of Professor Nick Davies (Behavioural Ecology) and Professor Mike Hulme (Human Geography), Professor Kathleen Jamie, Professor of Poetry at the University of Stirling and was chaired by Dr Paul Warde (Environmental History). The panel considered questions such as, 'What do you think of as nature?' It was a fine example of interdisciplinary discussion, and something I relish seeing at Pembroke and want to encourage to happen more, in the future.

In February, I was pleased to be able to accompany Sir Roger Tomkys, Professor Charles Melville and Professor Ian Fleming to visit Professor Malcolm Lyons on his 90th birthday.  Professor Lyons matriculated in 1946, joining Pembroke as a Fellow in 1956. A specialist in classical Arabic poetry, he was still working in his 80s, publishing a translation of The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights with his late wife, Ursula. While the demographics of the Fellowship have necessarily shifted in the past decade or so, I think it is important that the College values and sustains the welfare of a community that encompasses Fellows, staff and students.

Lent Term is traditionally a very busy term for sport and this year has been no exception. Both the men's and the women's football teams have reached Cuppers finals. For the women, this is their second final in three years. For the men, it is their fifth in six years. The finals will take place at the beginning of Easter Term and we wish the men's team luck in finally breaking the hoodoo that has prevented them from ever winning the Cuppers final and hope that the women can reclaim the title!

Four of our eight triallists have been selected to row for Cambridge. Lily Lindsay (2018, MPhil Environmental Policy) will row at stroke in the Women's Blue Boat, the first Valencian to do so since 2012. Laura Stewart (2018, Economics) will row at bow of the women's Lightweight Boat, while Jonathan Vibhishanan (2016, Medicine) and Jack Mason (2016, History) will be at seven and cox respectively in the Men's Lightweight VIII. Additionally, Emma Andrews (2016, Natural Sciences) will row at two in Blondie.

Fourth-year Veterinary Medicine student Fiona Shuttleworth has been elected captain of the University Women's' Rugby Team. As well as playing in the last two victorious Varsity teams, Fiona is well-respected among her peers for the work she has done to encourage more students, particularly women, to participate in sport at Pembroke. She is the current holder of the Dan Rookwood Award for contribution to College sport, which is voted for by the sports captains.

Term may have ended, but the College remains busy. International Programmes have welcomed 73 Nihon School students to Pembroke for a two week course covering a range of academic and cultural experiences and daily English language lessons. It is also a busy period for the Admissions Office, with Year 12 Subject Masterclasses, an Open Day and the Year 11 Women in Science Residential all taking place over the next month.

I am very much looking forward to the opportunity to meet Pembroke alumni at a number of events coming up over the break in Sydney, Melbourne, Hong Kong, and at the 1984-1986 Foundress' Feast.

With best wishes,

Chris Smith

Master of Pembroke