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CLARE NEWS I Alumni News

2 www.clarealumni.com Spring / Summer 2010

A Day In My Life: Jane Hobson on Internatio

My day starts with the usual flurry toget to work. Thankfully, the civilservice can be pretty flexible about

what time you start in the mornings, as longas you put the hours in, and people do –one thing that makes DFID a stimulatingplace to work is the commitment and passion of the staff.

I’m currently working at DFID headquarters in London, having recently returned from a posting in Freetown, SierraLeone. Work always started bright and earlyin Freetown, but with warm, light morningsthroughout the year and none of the stressof the Tube, it wasn’t nearly such an effort.

I’ve been lucky in my career to have hada range of interesting jobs, both overseasand in policy roles in London. I joined DFIDin 2002 after several years working for alocal NGO in Pune, western India. DFID is the government department that managesthe UK’s bilateral aid to poor countries, andin line with the 2002 International Development Act this has to be spent onpoverty reduction.

At the moment I’m working on ways to improve the effectiveness of our programmes in ‘fragile’ and conflict-affectedcountries, such as DR Congo, Afghanistan,Yemen, Sierra Leone and Nepal.

My typical day is spent mainly in the officeand is in many ways what you’d expect of acivil servant in London - except for our focuson, and occasional visits to, some of thepoorest and most challenging countries inthe world.

The work I do now is informed by myposting in Sierra Leone. A typical morning’s

work in Freetown would include meetingsall over town, with government officials todiscuss the new poverty reduction strategy,with youth groups and NGOs, regular updates with FCO and MOD officials, anddiscussions with World Bank and UNICEFcounterparts on a new maternal health programme.

In London, I tend to eat lunch with colleagues in the canteen, but lunchtimeswere much more of an event in India. Thewhole office – about ten of us – would sitcross-legged on mats together, combiningeveryone’s contributions to create a fabulous thali every day.

While working on a major sanitation programme, I got used to enjoying my food

in spite of our detailed lunchtime discussions about the appalling state of municipal toilet provision in the slums.

It can often feel rather distant to work on development in London. The ‘grass roots’experience that I gained working withslumdwellers in India is still a reality checkthat helps me to find the balance betweenthe intellectual analysis – which is importantto make sure we are doing the right thing –and just being practical.

In Sierra Leone, my work took me allaround the country. It was hard, even knowing the history of the country’s verybrutal and long conflict, to keep in mindthat the friendly people welcoming me totheir villages had experienced horrors of a

cred

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Red

Dev

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Timothy Benn (1957), who served in the First

Battalion Scots Guards in the 1950s, completed

a charity parachute jump with the Red Devils

for the Scots Guards Colonel's Fund in

September 2009.

He raised over £20,000 to support wounded

infantrymen. It is the second highest total ever

raised from a jump with the Red Devils.

A M O M E N T I N T I M E

In London, I tend to eat lunchwith colleagues in the canteen,but lunchtimes were much more of an event in India. The whole office – about ten of us – would sit cross-legged on mats together, combiningeveryone’s contributions to create a fabulous thali every day. While working on a majorsanitation programme, I got used to enjoying my food in spite of our detailed lunchtimediscussions about the appallingstate of municipal toilet provisionin the slums

Jane Hobson (1992)

Alumni News I CLARE NEWS

nal Development

kind I can only try to imagine. Seventy percent of Sierra Leoneans live

in poverty and most rural communities areextremely poor, living with very little ornothing in the way of schools, clinics, roads,electricity, clean water supply or sanitation.

One rural trip really brought home themany problems that result in Sierra Leonehaving one of the worst maternal mortalityrates in the world.

We visited a clinic where a pregnantwoman in a critical condition had just arrived, too late, having walked from her village. She needed an emergency Caesarian. Her family would have had tocarry her in a hammock to the district hospital several miles away and they would

never have made it in time. We happened to be there and drove her

to the hospital, but on arrival the staff toldus they’d run out of gas and couldn’t sterilise the equipment to operate – it took a further 10 mile drive to the next townbefore the operation could be carried out.The mother, Isatu, survived, but sadly shelost her baby.

Life overseas has been enormously enriching but it can have its downsides.Sierra Leone is a beautiful, friendly countryand my work there was probably the mostinteresting I’ve ever done. But as a British official in Freetown, I was ‘Jane from DFID’everywhere I went and the expatriate community was like a small goldfish bowl. In contrast, with a small organisation inIndia, I enjoyed being immersed in a more‘normal’ everyday life.

Work in London rarely spills over into the evenings. The boundary between workand leisure in Freetown was much moreblurred, given the longer hours and the all-encompassing nature of the job.

Every now and then I had to put on afrock and network with official guests overgin and tonic at a British High Commissionevent, but more often, you’d find a group ofaid workers relaxing after work at one of themany beach bars, sipping a cool Star beer,and watching the sun go down.

R I S I N G TA L E N TRobin Ticciati:Lightning conductor

credit: Chris C

hristodoulou

Although Robin Ticciati (2001) is only 26, he has been lauded as one

of the most talented conductors of hisgeneration.

A protégé of Sir Simon Rattle, the internationally acclaimed conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic,Robin has worked at some of the mostprestigious international venues including Glyndebourne and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Ceciliain Rome.

He has conducted the Gävle Symphony Orchestra in Sweden, theRoyal Liverpool Philharmonic, and at22, he was the youngest person to conduct the orchestra at La Scala inMilan.

Currently, Robin is the principal conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and has received rave reviews for his direction.

Perhaps his career was best summed up by the Times last December: ‘Now and again the classical world gets steamed up underits starched collar. A name falls fromeveryone’s lips: unfeasibly young,breathtakingly talented. Hot. Rightnow, Robin Ticciati is that name.’

l Celebrating the opening of a new grain store, built as part of a community reconciliation project in Kenema district, Sierra Leone

Now and again the classicalworld gets steamed up underits starched collar. A namefalls from everyone’s lips: unfeasibly young, breathtakingly talented. Hot.Right now, Robin Ticciati isthat name

Spring/ Summer 2010 www.clarealumni.com 3



In every issue of Clare News, we will ask one of our alumni six questions about theirwork.

Ian Pearman (1993) is Managing Director of theUK’s largest advertisingagency, Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO.

He joined the companystraight after graduating from Clare and was appointed MD in 2007.

Married with two youngsons, he lives in Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire.

ONEWhat made you choose advertising?

It’s a unique blend of business, social science and creativity. Clients come to uswith business problems and we create communications ideas that solve them,which means you get the chance to use thelateral and literal parts of your mind everysingle day.

The vitality of the business is also incredible – it’s very young (some industryestimates put the number of employeesover the age of 40 at under 10%) and verymeritocratic.

There are also structural reasons for theenergy; being a service business relyingsolely on intellectual capital, the industry’sbarriers to entry are relatively low so there isa constant pipeline of new companies starting up. And the reluctance of clients toshare an agency with a competing client intheir sector creates a ceiling on growth forany one agency, and creates demand for anextraordinary level of fragmentation.

Even though we’re a substantial agencyrepresenting clients in most imaginable sectors, by some measures our market shareis still under 5%, and that level of competition stops you from getting bored.

TWOWhat kind of problems do clients

bring you?

In a world where people punch the lift button if one doesn’t appear instantaneously, a black and white stoutthat takes ten times longer to pour thanother beers risks seeming like a product ofthe past, but ‘Good things come to thosewho wait’ kept Guinness relevant.

Sainsbury’s were in business turmoil fiveyears ago, and the ‘Try something new’ strategy we developed for them was a keyengine of their return to growth; encouraging customers to experiment, and in so doing, increasing average purchase rates.

A premium brand like Dulux is surrounded by much cheaper competitionyet – like petrol or salt – the product itself risks being viewed as being much the same.

But while most consumers can chooseone colour, research showed that very fewhave the confidence to pick a secondmatching one. Hence our re-positioning ofDulux as a ‘colour matching service’ with ‘Weknow the colours that go’ – by encouraging consumers to use the Dulux matching

service we offer real utility to its target audience, and they often end up buying notjust one colour, but two.

THREEWhat do you find most frustrating

about the job?

There is an occasional tendency in marketing departments to confuse what isdifferentiating about a product with what ismotivating. Just because a product is a littlebigger/smaller/faster doesn’t mean it becomes automatically motivating for consumers.

There are 10,000 different product lines in the average UK supermarket and the average person buys just 100 regularly, somarketers and agencies have to work very hard to change people’s habits. Justtweaking a product and adding the word‘new’ is rarely sufficient.

Lazy or poor marketing leads to dull andannoying communications that encouragemore people to try and avoid advertising,and simply reduces the efficacy of all communications.

Arguably this helps to make good advertising (and the good clients and agencies) stand out more in relative terms,but being the best of a bad bunch is not asensible goal for our business.

The creeping power of procurement departments within organisations is alsobothersome. You simply can’t buy ideas inthe same way as you buy pens and paper,but they are constantly trying to.

S I X Q U E S T I O N S : I A N

FOURWhat campaigns are you most proud of?

Advertising can change the fortunes ofcompanies and when we play a part in aturnaround it gives me great satisfaction,but the occasions when we use communications to tackle social issues are asource of particular pride.

We work with government departments agreat deal – we ran the anti-smoking campaign for 20 years, and created the‘Think’ brand for the Department of Transport that has helped to reduce road casualties by changing social attitudes todrink driving, speeding and seatbelts.

We were deeply involved in the ‘MakePoverty History’ campaign with a hugecoalition of NGOs and one of our copywriters actually wrote the line itself.And more recently, our campaigns to tackleknife crime for the Met Police in London(www.chooseadifferentending.com) havegot real traction amongst an audience thatis traditionally very hard to reach. That’s thework that makes me most proud.

FIVESo is it like ‘Madmen’?*

I’m not sure we’d get away with the smokingin the office now, and the locker room atmosphere has thankfully gone, but it’s stillgreat fun; there are not that many industrieswhere the long lunch still has a place andevery company has its own bar. Bars aside,Marketing is a professionalised disciplinenow and today’s clients are much morehighly geared than the clients of Madmen.

Consequently, the best agencies are regimented in their approach to testing theefficacy and efficiency of the ideas they create on behalf of clients.

Of course, advertising will always be a relatively inexact science and there’s no wayabsolutely to predict how consumers willreact to an idea – instinct and experience asto what will and won’t work always have aplace at the table – but clients and agenciesincreasingly use data to try to increase thechances of success.

SIXWhat would you do if you weren’t

working in advertising?

I think I’d fulfil my secret ambition to join the police. When we won the Met Police account last year I think they were a bit bemused when I asked if I could have a uniform. Strangely enough they politely declined my request.

*A popular television show set in a 1960s New York advertising agency


Spring / Summer 2010 www.clarealumni.com 5

credit: AM

V BBDO

Advertising can change the fortunes of companies and when we play a part in a turnaround it gives me great satisfaction, but the occasionswhen we use communications to tackle social issues are a source of particular pride

credit: AMV BBDO credit: AMV BBDO

l Ian Pearman and some of the campaigns he has run: Sainsbury’s and Guinness

P E A R M A N O N A D V E R T I S I N G



U P D AT E S

Five Clare alumni were recognised in the2010 New Year's Honours List.

Robert Mair (1968), Master of Jesus College and Professor of Geotechnical Engineering in the University of Cambridge, received a CBE for services to engineering.

John Marks (1950) received an OBE for charitable services, Loretta Minghella (1981), Chief Executive of theFinancial Services Compensation Scheme, received an OBE for services to the financial services industry, and Anthony Langford (1961), Non-ExecutiveDirector, John Smedley Ltd., received an OBE for services to the knitwear industry.

Andrew Russell (1948), formerly Chairman of the League of Friends, Edenbridge and District War MemorialHospital, received an MBE for services tohealthcare.

New Year’s Honours

Alumnus graces stamp

Clare alumni target the ‘roots’ of cancer

Keeper of the collectionsBriony Hudson (1993) read history at Clareand decided she wanted to work in museums during her 2nd year summer holiday while working at Hereford Cider Museum. She went on to study for a Masters in Museum Studies at the Universityof Leicester.

Having worked for short periods at institutions as diverse as the Dean HeritageCentre and the Victoria and Albert Museum,she started her current role at the RoyalPharmaceutical Society as its Keeper of theMuseum Collections in September 2002,where she heads the team responsible foraround 45,000 objects.

She edited English Delftware Drug Jars

(2006, Pharmaceutical Press) and co-wrotePopular Medicines: An illustrated history(2008, Pharmaceutical Press), and speaksand writes regularly on a wide range ofpharmacy history topics.

She has recently combined her role at theRoyal Pharmaceutical Society with anotherpart-time role as Director of Museums andSpecial Collections at the Royal College ofSurgeons where she is responsible for ateam running both the critically-acclaimedHunterian Museum and the Wellcome Museum of Anatomy and Pathology.

www.rpsgb.org/museumwww.rcseng.ac.uk/museums

www.pharmpress.com

Professor Sir Walter Bodmer (1953, FormerFellow) and Dr Trevor Yeung (1998), alongwith fellow cancer researchers at TheWeatherall Institute of Molecular Medicineat Oxford University, have published research in PNAS, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which dramatically improves the understanding ofcancer stem cells.

Their findings could lead to more effectiveand safe cancer drugs and treatment whichattack the roots of cancer. Dr Yeung commented, ‘Radiotherapy and chemotherapy work against all rapidly dividing cells.

‘But there is increasing evidence that cancer stem cells are more resistant thanother cells to this treatment. Cancer stem

cells that have not been eradicated can leadto later recurrence of cancer. It’s like tryingto weed the garden.

‘It’s no good just chopping off the leaves,we need to target the roots to stop theweeds coming back.’

Historically, research on tumour-initiatingcells has been impeded by the difficulties in separating these cells from other, non-cancerous cells within tumours; however, Bodmer and Yeung’s group developed a new way of cultivating cancerstem cells in the lab for study.

The group, which was funded mainly byCancer Research UK, also discovered that inmany aggressive tumours there is a higherproportion of cancer stem cells than previously believed.

l Briony Hudson restoring a piece of her collection

credit: Justine Desm

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The late Professor Sir Nicholas Shackleton (1958), eminent geologist and great-nephew of polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, has appeared on acommemorative postage stamp to celebrate the 350th anniversary of theRoyal Society.

Sir Nicholas’s work as a geologist andclimatologist tracked ancient temperaturechanges through the study of oxygen isotopes in fossils on the ocean floor; this research was pivotal in proving the role ofcarbon dioxide in climate change.

Shackleton’s work was inspired by Sir Harry Godwin (1918, Fellow), whowas a pioneer of ecology and radio-carbon dating. Sir Nicholas isthought to be the only Clare alumnusever to feature on a UK stamp.



New Principal of Green Templeton CollegeProfessor Sir David Watson (1968), currentlyProfessor of Higher Education Management at the Institute of Education, University of London, has been elected as the next Principal of Green Templeton College at Oxford University.

Founded in 2008 by the merger of the former Green and Templeton Colleges,Green Templeton College is the University’snewest graduate-only college.

Commenting on the appointment, SirDavid said, ‘Green Templeton College represents a powerful and principled commitment to understanding and improving human health and welfare. I amboth honoured and excited by the prospectof being its next Principal.’

Sir David was knighted in 1998 for services to education and more recently was given the Times Higher Education Supplement’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

He has contributed widely to developmentsin UK higher education, including as a member of the Committee of Inquiry intothe future for lifelong learning which reported in 2009. Between 1990 and 2005he was Vice-Chancellor of the University ofBrighton.

U P D AT E S

John Thompson (1959) has been votedthe 2009–2010 Alumnus of the Year bythe Clare College Alumni Council.

He was nominated for the inspiredwork which he and his wife, Carol, have carried out in the township of Masiphumelele on the outskirts of CapeTown. In 1999, on first visiting Masiphumelele, John and Carol found asquatter camp with 30,000 migrants living in primitive shacks made of piecesof wood, cupboard, corrugated ironsheets and tarpaulin coverings.

Ten years on in Masiphumelele, there is a large library, education andcommunity centre, two day care centres,a sports area and, as part of a much bigger programme, 24 properly builthouses. From two volunteer helpers in1999 there are now 73 – helping andguiding education, health, financial management and everything which contributes to community pride. Bursaries have been awarded to 11 High School and 13 College students.

John Thompson will speak at Clareabout his experiences on 27 April at 6pmin the Latimer Room.

After the article about a boxing blue in the last issue of Clare News (p.11), we have been informed that boxing at the College has a more illustrious history thanpreviously realised.

We received word about three boxingblues of which the College was unaware:Mahmoud Ahmed (1971), Lachlan Forbes(1989) and Ed Haynes (1989).

Clare is very interested to hear moreabout the achievements of alumni in allsports – please send any information tous at [email protected]

Alumnus of the Year

l Professor Sir David Watson

l Ed Haynes victorious in the 1992Town and Gown Match

credit: University of Cambridge

credit: Green Templeton College

Clare’s sporting history

Founder of string theory succeeds HawkingProfessor Michael Green (1969) has

been elected the 18th holder of the

Lucasian Professorship of

Mathematics at the University of

Cambridge, succeeding Stephen

Hawking, who retired on

30 September 2009.

Professor Green was one of the

founders of string theory in the

early seventies. His breakthroughs

with research partner John Swartz

in type 1 string theory at the

California Institute of Technology

in 1984 initiated the explosion of

interest in the field which occurred

in the late eighties.

Professor Green has continued to

be at the vanguard of string theory

development since then and in 1993

he was elected the John Humphrey

Plummer Professor of Theoretical

Physics at Cambridge.

The Lucasian Professorship

was established in 1663 and has

been held by some of the most

distinguished names in the history

of science, including Isaac Newton,

William Whiston (another Clare

alumnus, who matriculated in

1686), Charles Babbage and Paul

Dirac.


In the kingdom

Professor David G. Frodin (1967) came to Clareto complete a PhD in tropical botany, havingalready spent a year in Papua New Guinea researching native species.

His doctorate looked at the largest genus inthe tropical ivy family, Schefflera, which hasremained one of his primary research interestsand of which he has personally describedmany new species.

Professor Frodin spent 15 years at the University of Papua New Guinea teachingecology and botany.

In 1993, he was appointed to the RoyalBotanic Gardens in Kew in order to work towards a concise documentation of theworld’s ‘higher’ plants.

The Herbarium at Kew holds over 7 millionspecimens, and over 30,000 new specimenscome in every year for identification or description by Kew’s taxonomists.

Professor Frodin describes being a taxonomist as akin to being an archaeologistor a detective; you have to pay attention todetail, no matter how seemingly trivial.

Since retiring from Kew in 2000, he hasbeen preparing an annotated catalogue of theliving collections at the Chelsea Physic Gardenin London – the first full account to be madesince 1739.

l Main picture: Kew Gardens where Professor David G Frodin worked for sevenyears until 2000. Since then Professor Frodin(pictured right) has been preparing an annotated catalogue of the living collectionsat the Chelsea Physic Garden



m of plants


credit: all pictures RBG

Kew

Informal Alumni gatherings



U P D AT E S

Dennis Sherwood (1967) surprised anddelighted his fellow guests at the 1966-1967 Reunion Dinner last September withthis poetic toast to the College:

My Lord; fair lady; all us gents Let me delay your merriments For just a moment, if I may – I have somewords I wish to say.

For forty-something years ago We came to Clare, our eyes aglow Some to work and some to row; Some to act and some to sing; And some, well, just to do their thing.

But looking back across the years As architects and engineers Physicists and mathematicians Lawyers, medics, vets, musicians Arch-and-anthropologists, Biologists, geologists, Historians, economists, Linguists, chemists – we now know That forty something years ago We’d great good fortune, maybe knowledge In choosing Clare to be our college.

Or was it round the other way? Did they choose us; not we choose they? For those who did the interviews They had the power, the right to choose. And they chose us. So let’s all stand And take a glass of port to hand To thank the Master and each fellow For letting us wear black and yellow.

Clare’s current 5-year strategic plan covers the period from 1 January 2006 to31 December 2010.

The College is therefore embarking onthe process of drawing up a new strategicplan to cover the years 2011-2015. For thefirst time, thanks to web technology, weare able to involve the entire alumni bodyin the the consultation process.

Clare is keen to take the views ofalumni into account, so that the Collegecan take advantage of this pool of experience and expertise, and can moveforward in a strong and united fashion tomeet the challenges that lie ahead.

Alumni are therefore being invited tosend in their views on a range of strategicquestions, via an online survey:www.clarealumni.com/strategicplan

A toast to the College

Clare seeks alumni opinion

Enterprising pathologyDr Madhuri Warren (1988) recently won the ERBI (Eastern Region Biotechnology Initiative) Biotech and Medtech award 2009for Best Start Up Company for her businessPathology Diagnostics Ltd in Cambridge.

The award recognises the exceptionalgrowth of the company and its vision for thefuture. The award was sponsored by EEDA(the East of England Development Agency).

Dr Warren, a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists, has a nineteen year background in clinical and academic medicine, with a specialization in medicalhisto pathology, the microscopic examination of tissue samples, and a 10 yearbackground in basic science.

She founded Pathology Diagnostics Ltdin 2008 when she realised there was a nichefor medical molecular pathology expertiseto support scientists in the drug development industry.

The mapping of the human genome hasfundamentally changed our understandingof the genetic basis of disease and, combined with advances in array and

sequencing technologies, it has opened upmore accurate and faster ways to targetmedicines to specific diseases.

A good example of a drug which uses this identification process is Herceptin, a biological treatment for breast cancer whichmay be effective in women that have Her2positive breast cancer.

However, Herceptin is only effective inabout 30% of patients as it targets on specific cell surface receptors. The diagnostic test that determines this effectiveness – looking for the cell receptor in the tissue biopsy – is an example of a clinical diagnostic test thatPathology Diagnostics is helping scientiststo develop.

Dr. Warren explains ‘Pathology Diagnostics helps scientists evaluate hownew medicines work on their target tissues.Our team of experienced accredited pathologists and laboratory personnel ensures a high standard of reporting ofstudies. Our additional core strengths areour quality, consistency, reliability and

credit: Alison Lillystone

In the midst of a flurry of 50th

birthdays, Alison Lillystone

(Spottiswoode, 1978) dreamed up

the idea of a cricket match to bring

together the cream of Clare College

sporting talent from the late 1970s

and to thrust it once again into the

cauldron of extreme competition,

ridicule and cliché.

Thanks to Alison’s persistence, on

Sunday 13 September 2009, the

Knockers, captained by Stuart

Newstead (1977), played the Hookers,

captained by Peter Harrison (1977), at

the Clare Sports Ground, Bentley

Road.

A full account of the day,

including the result, can be found at

www.clarealumni.com/alumnicricket

Stuart Newstead



l Madhuri Warren and (right) a stained slide of skin tissue

credit: Norm

an Daw

son (1966)

credit: © EEDA (East of England Development Agency), 2009 credit: Pathology Diagnostics Ltd.

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complete confidentiality. ‘We are committed to providing data of

direct value in developing new healthcareproducts for patients.’

She adds, ‘It has been a hectic year working with pharmaceutical, biotechnology and contract research organisations. We have grown to six staff in

Cambridge, set up US links, and expandedour laboratory services to meet client demand.’

Dr Warren is a strong supporter ofwomen in science and participates in localmentoring networks to encourage interestin the field.

www.pathologydiagnostics.com

An informal ‘10 years on’ reunion dinner

was held in November 2009 for alumni

who matriculated in 1999, organised by

Claire McAleer (1999).

Over 50 alumni met up in London for

drinks and dinner.

Claire said, ‘Meeting up with old

friends is always a great pleasure and

although there never seems to be

enough time to catch up properly with

everyone, events like this are tremendous

reminders of the warmth between friends

that is never lost.

‘ I believe that the reunion was greatly

enjoyed by all, so thank you to everyone

for making the evening such a success!’

Ten alumni plus family and four

legged friends met for the first Clare

in Oxford walk led by Bill Jackson

(1965) on 6 February.

The route took in riverside, fields

and woods, before climbing to the

iron age fort on Wittenham Clumps

to imagine what the view might have

been like for iron-age man.

They then returned to Dorchester

for a pub lunch. Everyone agreed

that it had been an enjoyable

morning, and further walks are

planned in the months to come.

All members and guests are

welcome; please email David Livesley

(1975) at [email protected]

if you would like to hear of walks or

other events in the area.

David Livesley

Are you currently organising any informal gatherings or events for Clare alumni outside the College? If so, we would love to hear about them and perhaps feature them in a future edition of Clare News. Please contact Nancy Childerhouse (Development Associate – Events) at [email protected]


Alumni Day 2010

l Alumni Day speakers, from left are: Paul Cartledge (Fellow), Josip Glaurdic (Fellow), Jaideep Prabhu (Fellow), Edward Young and Alan Munro

l Alumni Day speakers, from left are: Chris Kelly (with John Thaw), Malcolm Gillies and Francesca Canty

FamilyDay Clare’s ninth annual Alumni Day will take place on

Saturday 26 June. The day will consist of talks by alumni and Fellows

as well as a tour of the gardens by the Head Gardener, and lunch will be served under marqueeson the lawns of Old Court.

Alumni, parents and students are warmly invited. The speakers for Alumni Day will include Chris

Kelly (1959): Inside Out: Adventures in the Small-Screen Trade, Francesca Canty (1988): Making London2012 Everyone’s Games, Malcolm Gillies (1978): Universities: Their Use and Abuse, Sir Alan MunroKCMG (1954): Britain’s Historical Role in the Gulf, andEdward Young (2001): The 2010 General ElectionCampaign, as well as the following Clare Fellows:

Paul Cartledge (Fellow)

Revisiting Ancient Greece

Paul Cartledge is the inaugural A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture; his chair is endowed bythe Foundation of the distinguished Greek-Cypriotfamily to which the late Constantine (Dino) Leventis(Clare 1956) belonged.

Paul has published over 20 books, the latest ofwhich are Ancient Greek Political Thought in Practice(Cambridge University Press) and Ancient Greece. AHistory in Eleven Cities (Oxford University Press).

Paul is currently working towards a book on democracy, ancient and modern.

Josip Glaurdic (Fellow)

Was Slobodan Milosevic guilty of genocide?

Dr Josip Glaurdic joined Clare College in October2008 as a Junior Research Fellow in political science,after receiving his PhD from Yale University wherehe was a Sterling Fellow. Dr Glaurdic's work is situated on the intersection of international relations and comparative politics, and concentratesparticularly on the involvement of the EuropeanUnion and the United States in the Balkans.

His dissertation has been nominated for the HelenDwight Reid Award of the American Political Science Association for the best dissertation in the field ofinternational relations, law and politics.

Jaideep Prabhu (Fellow)

Innovation in India: A Threat to the West?

Jaideep Prabhu is a Fellow of Clare and the Jawaharlal Nehru Professor of Indian Business andEnterprise and Director of the Centre for India andGlobal Business at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.

Jaideep’s research interests are in marketing, innovation, strategy and international business. He is on the editorial board of several major international journals and his work has been profiled in The Times, The Financial Times, and TheEconomic Times among other publications in India,the UK, US and elsewhere.


This year Clare is

holding its very first

Family Day on Sunday

20 June 2010.

Family Day is

specifically geared

toward alumni with

young children or

grandchildren,

offering a chance to

come back to College

and catch up with

contemporaries in a

relaxed, child-friendly

setting.

There will be a whole

range of activities for

children to enjoy.

For more

information, please

email Charles Cook

([email protected].

uk) or visit our

website:

www.clarealumni.com/

familyday2010



U P D AT E S

Clare’s distinguished record in Economicshas been revived in recent years, thanksin large part to the appointment of a new College Teaching Officer (CTO) in the subject (see Clare News 24, p. 12).

To consolidate our position as one ofthe leading colleges for the study of Economics at Cambridge, Clare has nowlaunched an appeal to secure long-termfunding for a CTO, via the ReddawayFund.

The Fund was established in 1999 in honour of Brian Reddaway, teacher and mentor to generations of Clare economists. The College invites all thosewho studied under Professor Reddawayto help us secure a new golden age inEconomics at Clare.

www.clarealumni.com/economics

To mark the centenary of his election to a Fellowship at Clare, Henry Thirkill is being remembered with the establishment of anew bursary fund bearing his name.

The Henry Thirkill Memorial Bursarieshave been generously funded by Clarealumni who were admitted by ‘Thirks’ between 1940 and 1958.

The bursaries will be awarded, on thebasis of financial need, to Clare under-graduates whom the College judges willtake advantage of all the opportunities ofa Cambridge education and make themost of their time at Clare.

www.clarealumni.com/thirkill

Honouring Thirkill

Enhancing economics

l Henry Thirkill in 1943 with KingPeter II of Yugoslavia (1944)

Securing Clare’s musical future

The Clare Campaign for Music, launchedlast autumn, is making good progress towards its goal of providing ring-fencedfunds to support the musical life of the College.

In recent months, generous donationshave been received to endow the JuniorOrgan Scholarship and to refurbish ofone of the music practice rooms.

In February, the College hosted a workshop and recital for the winning entry in the Clare Chamber Music Composition Competition, a new initiative designed to encourage andrecognise young composers and instrumentalists.

The following month, members of The

Schubert Ensemble gave the first annualRoger Raphael Masterclass, likewise endowed as part of the Campaign forMusic.

A year-long series of concerts to coincide with the Campaign will culminate on Saturday 4 September,when Tim Brown will conduct Clare Choir(augmented by alumni) in King’s CollegeChapel in a performance of Beethoven’sMass in C.

This will be his last UK appearance asClare’s Director of Music, before he handsthe baton to his successor after 31 years.

For further details of the Campaign forMusic and Tim Brown’s farewell concert,visit www.clarealumni.com/music

l A Clare student taking part in theRoger Raphael Masterclass with theSchubert Ensemble

CLARE NEWS I College News


The papers of the First World War poetSiegfried Sassoon (1905, Honorary Fellow),including his diaries from the Western Front,have been acquired by Cambridge University Library after a successful fundraising campaign.

Thanks to the generosity of numerousdonors – including Clare alumni and theCollege itself – the archive has now found apermanent home in Cambridge, where Sassoon had many of his formative experiences as a writer.

The Master of Clare, Tony Badger, commented: ‘Sassoon was one of the College's figures of genuine literary distinction in the twentieth century.

‘It was his tutor at Clare whoencouraged him to publish the poems in his first book. John Northam brought him back into close touch with the College and the students as an HonoraryFellow.

‘It is wonderful to have the archive withina hundred yards of the College’.

U P D AT E S

The Tatwa-Maahe Educational Trust is acharity dedicated to helping schoolpupils and schools in the Kuria District of southwest Kenya. Primarily, the trustdistributes bursaries to young Kuriawomen in order to help them achieveplaces at University.

Two of the bursaries given out have aClare connection – one is funded throughthe Lady Clare Fund, and the otherthrough the Queens’-Clare Overseas Education Fund. Last year the Trust supported twenty-eight students.

Leverhulme Prize winner

Bursaries to Kenya

l These young Kuria women are allholders of bursaries through Clare

credit: Malcolm Ruel

Les Wheeler, a porter at

Clare, recently shone as

the Rabbi in a Cambridge

Operatic Society

production of Fiddler on

the Roof at the Cambridge

Arts Theatre. Les (third

from right) received

brilliant reviews for his

supporting role.

Fantastic Fiddler

Dr Helena Sanson, Fellow of Clare andLecturer in post-Medieval Italian studies,has won one of this year’s Philip Leverhulme prizes in Modern EuropeanLanguages and Literature.

Dr Sanson’s research combines the history of linguistic thought and women’shistory in Italy. Her forthcoming bookWomen, Language and Grammar: Italy1500-1900, to be published by OxfordUniversity Press, investigates the roleplayed by women in the Italian linguistictradition as readers or authors of grammatical texts from the sixteenth until the end of the nineteenth century.

Philip Leverhulme Prizes are awardedto outstanding scholars who have made,and are judged likely to make in the future, significant contributions to theirfields of study at an international level.The prize has a value of £70,000 and approximately 25 prizes are awarded eachyear.

Since the prize was established in 2001,five other Clare fellows have beenrecipents: Cathy Clarke, Gordon Ogilvie,Marta Lahr, Tim Lewens, and RodrigoCacho.

credit: The Syndics of Cambridge University Library

Sassoon’s papers come to Cambridge

College News I CLARE NEWS


Confucius sculpture donated to ClareWu Wei-Shan, President of the ChineseAcademy of Sculpture and Director of theAcademy of Fine Arts of Nanjing University,has given his life-size bronze sculpture ofthe Chinese sage Confucius to Clare.

Wu Wei-Shan is one of China's most prestigious contemporary sculptors, andwas the first Asian artist to be admitted intothe Royal Society of British Sculptors.

Confucius was previously displayed aspart of the Fitzwilliam Museum's SculpturePromenade 2009, an outdoor exhibition ofcontemporary sculpture.

Wei-Shan’s work combines elements ofWestern sculpture with a respect for traditional Chinese aesthetics; Confucius isan homage to the grotto-sculptures of ancient China cast using modern techniques. Confucius celebrates Clare’s links with

Chinese history, civilisation and learning: thefirst translation of Confucius’s teachings intoEnglish was published by a Fellow of Clare,Nathaniel Vincent, in 1685, while the currentProfessor of Chinese History, Science andCivilisation, Roel Sterckx, is a Fellow of Clare.

U P D AT E S

The previously blank stone shieldabove the entrance to E staircase isnow resplendent with a painted coat ofarms.

The arms are those of Richard deBadew, Chancellor of Cambridge University (1326-1329), who foundedUniversity Hall in 1326 on the presentsite of the College.

He was unable to endow his foundation, however, and in 1346 hetransferred the patronage of UniversityHall to Elizabeth de Burgh, Lady ofClare, and the name of the College waschanged to Clare.

The new arms thus commemorateClare's original founder, to complementthose of the College (based upon Elizabeth de Burgh’s) above the entrance to H staircase.

The work on E staircase has beenpaid for by an anonymous donor.

Historical arms

l A specialist paints the shield

l Richard de Badew's coat of arms

credit: John Thompson, JET Photographic

l Confucius surveys Lerner Court

F O R T H C O M I N GE V E N T S

C O N TA C T U S

C L A R E I N F O C U S

Letters to the future Eight hundred lettersto the future written by University leaders,staff, students, members of the public andlocal schoolchildren were transported bythe University’s messenger service throughOld Court en route to the University Library. The letters were part of the 800thanniversary celebrations of the Unversityand were sealed on 19 November 2009 inthe presence of Her Majesty The Queen.They will be stored in the UL for 100 years.

The 2009 Clare Distinguished Lecture in

Economics and Public Policy Jean-ClaudeTrichet, President of the European CentralBank, spoke on systemic risk at the 2009Clare Distinguished Lecture in Economics. It was President Trichet’s first visit to the University of Cambridge and his only publiclecture in the UK in 2009. The annual ClareDistinguished Lecture in Economics andPublic Policy is sponsored by The Smithers &Co Charity, established by Andrew Smithers(1956).

Choir represents Cambridge Clare Choirwas invited to sing at the Cambridge in America 800th Anniversary Gala on 5 December at New York City’s Gotham Hall.The Choir was chosen to represent the University’s celebrated musical tradition. The event was the culmination of the 800thAnniversary celebrations in the UnitedStates and featured special guests StephenFry and Sir David Frost.

Sculpture at Clare Several new sculpturesand paintings by eminent living artists aregoing on display in College this year, as partof a programme to enhance the visual artsat Clare, encourage debate and stimulate interest in the arts. This kinetic sculptureWV134 by the German artist Michael Hischer has recently been installed in Ashby Court. It is on loan for 12 monthsfrom the NewArtCentre at Roche Court, one of the country’s leading collections ofcontemporary sculpture.

The Editor, Clare News,

Clare College, Trinity Lane,

Cambridge, CB2 1TL

t. +44 (0)1223 333218

e. [email protected]. ac.uk

w. www.clarealumni.com

www.facebook.com/clarealumni

www.twitter.com/clarealumni

All events will take place at Clare, unless stated

Tuesday 27 April

Alumnus of the Year Lecture: John Thompson(1959) speaks about his work (see p.7), 6pm, Latimer Room –

Thursday 6 May

Clare City Network: Sir Tim Hunt FRS (1961), Chief Scientist, Cancer Research UK. 6:30pm atClifford Chance, 10 Upper Bank Street, London

Saturday 8 May

Samuel Blythe Society Luncheon, for those who have made provision for Clare in their will, 12:15pm

Saturday 19 June

Clare Choir and Academy of Ancient Music perform Farewell Tunes, directed by Tim Brown. 7pm, Christ Church, Spitalfields.www.spitalfieldsmusic.org.uk/ 020 7377 1362

Sunday 20 June

Family Day, registration from 11am

Saturday 26 June

Alumni Day, registration from 9.30am. Booking form enclosed with this edition ofClare News; details found on p.12

Saturday 4 September

Tim Brown’s Farewell Concert, King’s CollegeChapel, evening (time to be confirmed)

Friday 17 September

Reunion Dinner for members who matriculated in 1986 and 1987, 7.15pm

Friday 24 September

Reunion Dinner for members who matriculated in 1996 and 1997, 7.15pm

ED

ITIO

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16 www.clarealumni.com

Editor: Sarah Harmer Design: John Dilley and Johnny Langridge Front page photo: RBGKew

credit: Nigel Luckhurst

credit: Natural Expressions NY

clare news ed.25

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