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Jesus College Annual Report 2026

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ANNUAL REPORT 20 26

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTYSECOND EDITION


JESUS COLLEGE • CAMBRIDGE

2026

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTYSECOND ANNUAL REPORT


You can find this edition of the Annual Report as well as the current Jesuan magazine on our website: www.jesus.cam.ac.uk/alumni/college-publications

Editor: Dr Maartje Scheltens Email: publications@jesus.cam.ac.uk Designer: Nikki Williams Alumni Relations Manager Development and Alumni Relations Office Publisher: Development and Alumni Relations Office Jesus College Cambridge CB5 8BL

COPYRIGHT This publication is protected by international copyright law. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means – graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or information storage and retrieval systems – without the prior permission of the copyright holders, except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.


Contents Message from the Master

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Fellows and Senior Members 2026-2027

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Articles Could bacteria that capture carbon dioxide help fight climate change? by Professor Ewa Marek Adapting to heat stress: Building for climate resilience in Nairobi by Saitabau Kumary A short history of the Jesus College Boat Club by Daniel Dodd Editing the poetry of Jacob Bronowski (1908-1974) by Professor Simon Rennie Mystery money: A Byzantine surprise in First Court Global Cultures at Jesus by Matthew Webb In conversation with a College Porter by Steve Smith College News People Development and Alumni Relations Senior Tutor Bursary Domestic Bursar The Chapel Music The Libraries and Archives Books and articles by Members and Old Members of the College donated to the Libraries Art at Jesus Careers Programme The Intellectual Forum Creativity Community and charity engagement

17 20 24 28 33 34 37 41 48 53 56 60 63 66 68 73 75 77 80 84 87

Societies

91

Sports Clubs

107

Alumni News People Births Marriages and Civil Partnerships

131 135 135

Obituaries

139

Awards, Results and Prizes

167

Jesus College Cambridge Society (JCCS)

181


Photo: Lee de Grammont


MESSAGE FROM THE MASTER I JESUS COLLEGE ANNUAL REPORT 2026

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Message from the Master I am writing this message at the end of a summer that, following the untimely death of Professor Jason Arday, has left our College community with a profound sense of grief and shock. Jason was a kind and gentle human being who greeted almost everyone with the words, “Hello, my friend”. He is remembered with great affection by all who knew him. Dr Daniel Moulin’s tribute appears on pages 141-143. That same month, the College suffered another major loss. Emeritus Fellow Dr David Hanke led our Gardens Committee for many years with pragmatism, creativity, expertise and a wry sense of humour. He also wrote wonderful short stories and brought a warm curiosity to every new encounter. David is greatly missed. His obituary appears on pages 139-141. It is taking time to come to terms with the events of this summer. What helps is the opportunity to reconnect with people we care about. The College is grateful to all its members who reached out with concern and who have gathered together recently, both here in College and abroad. Personally, seeing Jesuans in New York and at the JCCS Dinner in September was rejuvenating, to be with people who come together annually to maintain their connections with one another and with Jesus. It felt good to see old friends. Despite the sadness of the summer, I can look back on the last year in College and see how much progress we have made. Wesley House is now fully integrated into our site. We have been able to provide postgraduate students with an additional 22 rooms, beautifully situated overlooking West Court’s courtyard. The expansion of our West Court B&B facilities has increased the number of rooms available to members and the wider public to 56, and the additional meeting rooms have become an essential part of our Conference offering to College members and external clients. Work in this part of the College is not yet complete. We are beginning the exciting task of creating the new Archive Centre within the former Wesley House chapel. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many teams whose hard work made the integration so seamless. Their efforts have enabled our Conference team to enjoy one of its most successful years and continue to generate income in support of the College's academic mission. Rest assured, we are filling these new spaces. Last year we launched our Global Cultures at Jesus programme. Members enjoy free access to a growing programme of events and films that reflect the international character of our community, while also providing the public with yet another reason to visit Jesus (read more on pages 34-36). I look forward to seeing how these facilities inspire Fellows and students to create new opportunities for talks, collaboration and interdisciplinary discussion.


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MESSAGE FROM THE MASTER I JESUS COLLEGE ANNUAL REPORT 2026

It has also been a pleasure this year to reflect on how well our students are doing. Our Tripos results confirm that, for the second successive year, there has been an increase in the proportion of Firsts and 2:1s awarded to Jesus students, with our results consistently exceeding the University average. I often say that no set of examination results defines who you are. At Jesus, we seek to encourage both academic excellence and academic adventure, while also supporting students to develop through sport, creativity, service and community. Our students are flourishing, making the most of the remarkable teaching and support provided by Fellows and supervisors, while taking all the opportunities available to them to become confident, well-rounded individuals. The results speak for themselves. We continue to maintain our position as one of the Colleges attracting the highest number of direct applicants, with more than 1,000 applications received this past year. Our 143 new undergraduates have continued our now well-established tradition of arriving a week early for an extended Freshers’ Week. I am greatly looking forward to getting to know them, and my first impressions have been extremely positive. My thanks to the admissions team for selecting such a wonderful cohort of undergraduates. It is worth noting that our MCR induction programme has become legendary across Cambridge. Threaded through everything we do at Jesus is the idea of welcome. People often say that first impressions are made in the first few seconds. As I begin my eighth year as Master, I continue to be struck by how seriously our community takes that responsibility. It is reflected in the care shown by our staff, the generosity of our Fellows, the enthusiasm of our students and the commitment of our alumni. Do we always get it right? No one does. Will we keep trying? Absolutely. In a year that has reminded us of the importance of community, I have never been more grateful for the people who make Jesus such a special place. Together, we continue to honour those we have lost by nurturing a College that is ambitious, welcoming and full of life. n

The Master with students at a pottery workshop, part of the MCR induction programme. Photo: Samuel Selwyn-Bazeley


FELLOWS AND SENIOR MEMBERS 2026-2027 I JESUS COLLEGE ANNUAL REPORT 2026

Fellows and Senior Members 2026-2027 Master Ms S Alleyne OBE

Fellows Professor J Clackson (Brian Buckley Fellow in Classics) (President) Classics Professor G T Parks (Admissions Tutor) Engineering Professor R Cipolla FREng Engineering Professor S Fennell Land Economy Dr J W Ajioka Medicine Professor M R Laven History Professor T S Aidt Economics Professor T D Wilkinson (Fellows’ Steward) Engineering Dr V Mottier Human, Social and Political Sciences Dr F M Green English Professor I H White CBE FREng Engineering Professor N G Berloff Mathematics Professor W Federle Biology Professor B Walton Music Professor O A Scherman Chemistry Professor C E Chambers (Dean of College) Philosophy Professor J J Baumberg FRS Physics Professor G N Wells Engineering Professor D J Kelly Human, Social and Political Sciences Dr C M Burlinson (Vivian Cox Fellow in English, Admissions Tutor) English Professor B M B Post Linguistics Professor A H Brand FRS Biology Dr M J Edwards (Gurnee F Hart Fellow in History, Graduate Tutor, Keeper of the Old Library, Fellow Librarian) History Professor K S Lilley Chemistry Professor C Mascolo FREng Computer Science Professor C-B Schöenlieb Mathematics Professor R Reich Modern and Medieval Languages (Russian) Professor F G Stark Law

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FELLOWS AND SENIOR MEMBERS 2026-2027 I JESUS COLLEGE ANNUAL REPORT 2026

Professor S Schnall Professor M T Conde (Tutor) Professor D A Cooper Dr T Savin Professor S J Colvin Dr S V Stinchcombe Professor V M P M D Carvalho Professor K A Steemers Professor Y Peleg Professor M Harper (Admissions Tutor) Professor U Schneider Professor D Nally (Acting Tutor) Dr S R L Stacpoole (Assistant Graduate Tutor) Professor H M Williams Professor S E Dutton Professor J Green Professor M L Elliott Dr J L Huppert (Director of the Intellectual Forum) Dr R F Anthony (Bursar) Dr A J Grant Dr J Berenbeim Ms E Williams (Director of Development and Alumni Relations, JCSU Senior Treasurer, MCR Senior Treasurer) Dr J Bellingham Professor J Danesh Professor R C Evans Mrs M de Vincent-Humphreys (Tutor) The Rev’d Dr J R W Crockford (Dean of Chapel, Tutor, Praelector, JCBC Senior Treasurer) Dr R A Barr Professor N S M Guyatt (Tutor) Ms A C Goymour Dr M Wilkinson Dr A R Bowden Mr S Websdale (Domestic Bursar, May Ball Senior Treasurer) Dr G Wilkes (Accessibility and Disability Tutor)

Psychology Modern and Medieval Languages (Spanish/Portuguese) History of Art Engineering Modern and Medieval Languages (German) Medicine Economics Architecture Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (Modern Hebrew Studies) Pharmacology Physics Geography Neurology Earth Sciences Physics Human, Social and Political Sciences Economics

Veterinary Sciences English

Physics Medicine Natural Sciences Modern and Medieval Languages

English History Law Natural Sciences Medicine

Mathematics


FELLOWS AND SENIOR MEMBERS 2026-2027 I JESUS COLLEGE ANNUAL REPORT 2026

Dr D P J Moulin (Senior Treasurer Jesus Africa Fund) Dr N Buitron Dr J Tenney (Curator of Works of Art) Professor E J Marek Dr P Dominiak (Senior Tutor) Professor C Marquis Professor M A Brazelton Professor S M Zahl Dr A Koronaki Mr B R Sheen (Director of Music) Dr R N Fasel Professor S Gilmore (C C Ng Fellow in Law) Dr N Kelly Dr R Scott Mr L Temple Dr S Eggleton (Yates Glazebrook Fellow in Law) Dr N B Niati (Tutor) Professor M Bay Dr O Petri Dr W M Blythe Dr R Goldsmith Dr Y Veenma Dr A H Gibbons Dr C P Town Miss S Hilmarsdóttir Mr Z Shumaylov Mr O Parkes Dr R Leow Dr C Meccariello Dr R M Foster Dr S Kavanagh

Education Human, Social and Political Sciences Archaeology Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology Management and Human, Social and Political Sciences History and Philosophy of Science Theology, Religion and Philosophy of Religion Architecture, Design and Engineering Law Law Inorganic Chemistry Literature and Philosophy Modern Languages Law Education American History Geography Chinese Literature Social and Political History Earth Sciences Medicine Computer Science Classics Applied Mathematics Classics History Classics Engineering Chemistry

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FELLOWS AND SENIOR MEMBERS 2026-2027 I JESUS COLLEGE ANNUAL REPORT 2026

Emeritus Fellows Dr J A Hudson Dr J E Roseblade Dr W C Saslaw Professor J T Killen PhD FBA Professor S C Heath LittD (Honorary Keeper of the Old Library) Professor P D A Garnsey PhD FBA Dr S B Hladky Dr M R Minden Professor N J Ray MA ARIBA Professor P H Nolan CBE Professor J B Thompson Dr J R Howlett Professor W J Stronge Professor I Paterson FRS Dr R D Bowers Professor M L S Sørensen FBA Dr M P C Oldham Professor J Soskice Professor R Mengham Professor D A S Compston CBE FRCP FMedSci FRS Professor M M Arnot FAcSS The Rev’d Dr T D Jenkins Professor Sir Bruce Ponder FRCP FRS Dr A J Bowen MA Professor J C W Mitchell FBA Professor S A T Redfern Professor J M Bacon (Hon) DUniv Mr S J Barton MA Professor Lord Mair CBE FREng FRS (Hon Fellow) Professor J A Dowdeswell ScD Professor H le B Skaer Mr R Dennis MA Mrs A Künzl-Snodgrass Professor P J Williamson (Keeper of the Plate) Professor D I Wilson ScD CEng Professor S Clarke


FELLOWS AND SENIOR MEMBERS 2026-2027 I JESUS COLLEGE ANNUAL REPORT 2026

Honorary Fellows The Hon A R Gubbay MA LLM SC HonLLD Professor Lord Rees of Ludlow Kt OM MA FRS HonFREng FMedSci Professor R F Tuck MA FBA Professor Dame Sandra Dawson DBE MA FIPH FCGI HonDSc CIM Sir David Hare MA HonLittD FRSL Sir Antony Gormley OBE MA HonLittD Sir Bernard Silverman MA ScD FRS Lord Watson of Richmond CBE MA FRTS Mr M Perahia KBE FRCM Professor K E Wrightson MA PhD FBA FRHistS Professor E S Maskin FBAHon MAHon DHL Professor T F Eagleton MA FBA HonDLitt The Rt Hon Sir Rupert Jackson PC Professor J A O’Donnell LVO MA KCSG FRCO FRSCM FGCM FRCM Sir David H Wootton The Rt Hon Sir Colman Treacy PC Sir Richard Long RA CBE Professor R Evans FLSW FBA Sir Jonathan Ive KBE Professor Lord Mair CBE FRS FREng (Emeritus Fellow) Professor Sir Alan Fersht FRS The Rt Hon Sir Stephen Irwin PC Professor R Gilchrist DPhil FSA FBA Ms A Wilding RA Professor B Wilkes Professor A Bashford FBA FAHA Professor M M “MM” McCabe FBA Ms F Morris Mr D Murray CMT Professor S Rutherford Professor V Shepherd CD FCCS Ms V Ryan OBE Professor R Howat Mx H Macdonald Ms A Thurnauer Professor Y Lari RIBA Mr Michael Omari Owuo Jr (Stormzy) HonLLD Ms Julia Longbottom CMG

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FELLOWS AND SENIOR MEMBERS 2026-2027 I JESUS COLLEGE ANNUAL REPORT 2026

St Radegund Fellows Mr J W Hudleston Mr R P Kwok MA (1972) Mr P J Yates MA (1978) Mrs S J Yates MA (1980) Ms J M Sainsbury MA (1989) Professor P J A Frankopan MA (1990) Dame Lisbet Rausing Professor P Baldwin Mr J L Marshall MA (1986)

Fellow Commoners Emeritus Mr J Cornwell MA HonDLitt FRSL Professor B A K Rider PhD HonLLD

Visiting Fellows Academic Years 2024-2027

Mr T Clissold Mr O Robinson MBE Mr T Harding Professor K VijayRaghavan FRS

Academic Years 2025-2028

Lord Adebowale Mr Colin Greenwood Dr Eliane Glaser Lord Alderdice

Visiting Professors Academic Year 2026-2027

Professor Agrawal Pooja (Sir Arthur Marshall Visiting Professor in Sustainable Urban Design)

Visiting Scholars Academic Year 2022 – December 2026

Professor O Ryabchenko

Academic Year 2024 – September 2027

Dr M Amer

Easter Term 2026 – Lent Term 2027

Dr A Chechel Ms Barbara Grewe

Academic Year 2026-2027

Dr Laurette Bristol (UWI Visiting Scholar) Professor Paul Khan Professor Howard Lee Professor Jamie Quatro

Chaplain The Rev’d J Sanders


FELLOWS AND SENIOR MEMBERS 2026-2027 I JESUS COLLEGE ANNUAL REPORT 2026

French Lector Academic Year 2026-2027

Mr J Sevcik

Bye-Fellows Dr G L Taylor Dr C O’Brien Dr S Saxena Dr F Alford Dr S Tobin Dr E Collingham Mr M Brian Dr L Lannelongue (CPDA Coordinator) Professor E Quigley Dr R Shojaei (Ethnic and Religious Minorities Welfare contact) Dr L Sundaram (Ethnic and Religious Minorities Welfare contact) Dr J Perry

College Postdoctoral Research Associates (CPDA) Dr I Ampartzidis Dr A Arruda Mr C Anderson Dr B Bowers Dr R Brown Dr D Cakir Dr N Chauhan Dr M Ciliberto Dr G Cooke Dr T Cooper Dr P Cosgrove

Dr J Cotton Mr P Deshpande Ms E Diduch Dr A Halder Dr V Hanlon Dr T Hollanek Mr E Jarratt Barnham Dr X Jiang Ms J Krywonos Dr Y Li Dr Z Li

Dr L Lim Dr V Lorenzi Dr N Makuyana Ms F Nawaz Dr B Pierattini Dr G Rizos Dr M Robbins Dr N Seega Dr A Sobey Dr T Willem Dr C Woodgate

McDonald CPDA Academic Year 2026-2027

Dr S Onyemechalu

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FELLOWS AND SENIOR MEMBERS 2026-2027 I JESUS COLLEGE ANNUAL REPORT 2026

Society of St Radegund David Bennett Firdaus Ruttonshaw (1968) Andrew Sutton (1965) Christopher Rodrigues (1968) Alasdair Morrison (1968) Richard Briance (1971) Patrick Wilson (1974) Peter Day (1968) Charles Hoare Nairne (1989) Martin Clarke (1975) Adrian Frost (1976) Tony Thorne (1958) Michael Booth (1959) Paul Burnham (1967) Christopher Kirker (1969) Albert Goh (1990) D G Marshall of Cambridge Trust David Hibbitt (1962) Susan Hibbitt Stephen Heath (1964) Bob Rao (1972) Kay Ian Ng (1986) James de Uphaugh (1985) Edward Ma (2000) Kay Ashton (1982)

James Ashton (1982) John Sheldrick (1967) Sandy Rattray (1988) Duncan Martin (1987) Andrew Harbor (1975) John Dugdale Bradley (1961) John Driscoll III (1983) James Rudolph (1965) Wang Minming Gavin Stark Emily Winslow Stark Jan Laubjerg (1992) Max Hadfield (1961) William Burnside (1970) Leigh Collins (1967) Ting Hway Wong (1992) Amanda Chi (1992) David Wang Dominic Casserley (1976) Eugene Fung (1991) David Wootton (1969) Atul Mehta (1972) Sudipto Sarkar (1967) Malabika Sarkar John Corrie (1978)


Articles


Ewa Marek and George Manning in the lab. Photo: Jerry Yu


SUSTAINABILITY I JESUS COLLEGE ANNUAL REPORT 2026

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Could bacteria that capture carbon dioxide help fight climate change? Common bacteria found in soils all over the world produce enzymes that change their environment and can turn carbon dioxide into solid minerals. Jesus Fellow Professor Ewa Marek, Professor of Sustainable Chemical Engineering, explains how her team’s cutting-edge research into these processes is contributing to worldwide efforts to advance carbon capture My research in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology examines the processes needed for the transition to net zero, with the main focus on green chemicals, carbon dioxide use and carbon dioxide capture. I will be Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Methodology Report on carbon dioxide capture, utilisation and storage, due in 2027. The report will discuss how carbon dioxide captured and used should be represented in national greenhouse-gas inventories. Alongside my work in core areas in chemical engineering, I have recently been working with biological systems in the lab. My team has been examining bacteria capable of forming a solid mineral, calcium carbonate, in a process called Microbially Induced Calcium Carbonate Precipitation (MICP). Our goal is to help soil bacteria take carbon from the atmosphere and trap it by transforming it into small mineral grains.

Two ways to capture carbon: Direct Air Capture (DAC) yields pressurised carbon dioxide which is a storage liability, while Microbially Induced Carbonate Precipitation (MICP) produces calcium carbonate (a stable, useful infrastructural material). MICP runs at ambient temperature and pressure while DAC requires huge amounts of energy. (However, these technologies can work synergistically, with MICP running on carbon dioxide from DAC)


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SUSTAINABILITY I JESUS COLLEGE ANNUAL REPORT 2026

Carbonate and bicarbonate ions exist in normal soils, as a result of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The bacteria we are studying change the conditions of the soil, which allows them to form solid matter out of carbon dioxide with calcium. They do this by producing two enzymes that work together: carbonic anhydrase, which accelerates the formation of carbonate ions from carbon dioxide, and urease, which makes the immediate environment alkaline, which in turn encourages the formation of solid calcium carbonate from calcium and carbonate ions in solution. While these processes have been studied before, the way in which the two enzymes interact remains unexplained.

A plate of 96 samples of bacterial genetic material and dye ready for analysis in a qPCR machine, which measures the amount of target nucleic acid sequences present. Photo: George Manning


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Understanding the bacteria This summer, George Manning, a Part IB Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology student at Jesus, joined our laboratory through an internship funded by the Department. His project addresses one of the questions that emerged directly from our earlier work on MICP for carbon capture: can we connect what we know about the bacterial genome with the enzymes it produces, their measured activity, and ultimately the behaviour we observe in MICP and CO₂ trapping? We study the bacteria not in the soil, but in a growth medium in the lab. This allows us to get the most accurate measurements of how much carbon is being captured and work out how efficient the bacteria are in this process. George has spent the summer establishing new experimental protocols for measuring and comparing bacterial enzyme activity and has proved remarkably well suited to the problem, despite the limited resources available for the project. The research requires him to move between genomic data, microbiology, enzyme kinetics, chemistry and chemical engineering, often within the same experiment. It is vital to understand how the two enzymes involved interact. They are unlikely to act independently, and both operate in the chemical environment they themselves affect, with bacteria regulating the enzyme production. What is their relationship? Does one set the other working or are they working in parallel? And while we work with a bacterium called Sporosarcina pasteurii, is this actually the best bacteria to do this with? Would it be better to put these mechanisms into another bacteria which is easier to grow, with genetic modification? George is one of only the second intake of the newly established Tripos in Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, for which I direct studies at Jesus. He has found the internship invaluable in giving him an eight-week taster of what it’s like to be a research scientist. “In my undergraduate study, if something goes wrong in an experiment or you don't get the results that you expected, there is no time to go deeper, and you have to move onto the next thing”, he said. “What I've really liked about working in the lab is having the time and freedom, when something doesn’t work, to try something different and go back and do it again. And often that process repeats many, many times before I get anything good. I only got my experiment to work on the last Wednesday of my eight weeks. On the course, they try to train us to apply ourselves to novel situations. Here I actually had to put that into practice, and I felt like I was very well equipped to do it.” George hopes to continue with this work in future as a postgraduate student. The protocols established this summer provide a starting point for a systematic study of the relationship between bacterial genetics, enzyme activity and engineering behaviour. While I never expected to work with bacteria, I recognise the fantastic opportunity MICP offers in tackling climate problems. Like George, I can attest that curiosity-driven decisions lead to surprising career turns, and, hopefully, my naïve take on MICP biology helps me think about real process limitations early and ask new questions that have not previously been considered in MICP research. n


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Adapting to heat stress: building for climate resilience in Nairobi Saitabau Kumary is a Kenyan architect and second-year PhD student in Architecture at Jesus. In 2026, he won the prestigious Heat Adaptive Architecture Design (HAAD) Award from the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre for his innovative work on climate-responsive design I hail from the famous Maasai community, a small Indigenous people whose native homeland stretches across the Rift Valley plains of Kenya and Tanzania. For generations, the Maasai lived as nomadic pastoralists, moving with their livestock in search of water and pasture. This way of life shaped many aspects of the Maasai culture, including our architecture. The traditional Maasai house was designed to “touch the earth lightly”. It was small, simple and built using locally available materials such as cow dung, mud and brushwood. Because families were constantly on the move, the houses could be constructed quickly, dismantled easily and rebuilt elsewhere when needed. Growing up in a small village on the Amboseli plains, under the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro, these houses were a common sight. They blended naturally into the landscape and seemed like a permanent feature of village life. As a child, I never imagined they would one day become rare. However, by the time I went to university, I noticed that the traditional houses I had grown up seeing were becoming increasingly difficult to find. In their place were houses built from corrugated iron sheets and other ‘modern’ materials – part of a wave of change and modernisation for the Maasai as families were becoming more settled, children were attending school and communities were increasingly connected to towns and markets. But I felt there was more to the story. The traditional Maasai house was not shaped only by a nomadic lifestyle. It was also a product of response to the unforgiving climate of the hot and dry savannah. Over many generations, Maasai builders had developed houses that could provide comfort using simple techniques and local materials, without relying on active cooling aids. These structures represented knowledge that had been refined through experience and adapted to local environmental conditions. As an undergraduate student in Architecture, my dissertation explored how changes in the traditional Maasai building envelope were impacting indoor thermal comfort and what lessons could still be learned from traditional building practices and translated to the new builds.


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While these changes were taking place in my village, a similar transformation was unfolding in Nairobi, where I was studying. I noticed that the city itself was undergoing a dramatic shift in architectural language. Many new buildings seemed to be inspired by the shiny glass towers of Dubai, London, New York and other cities in the Global North. Yet these cities receive far fewer hours of sunshine than Nairobi. The buildings that were emerging in Nairobi looked impressive, but all appeared disconnected from the local climate. My professors often spoke about this issue and argued for a revival of Nairobi's older architecture of the 1970s and 80s, designed with the tropical climate in mind. These buildings worked with nature rather than against it. They used shading, ventilation, orientation and other passive strategies to create comfortable indoor environments. Those lessons stayed with me. For five years I practiced architecture in the city, mostly designing high-rise mixed-use apartments, shopping malls and office buildings. During this period, I witnessed firsthand how mechanical cooling systems had become the default solution for thermal comfort. Instead of designing buildings that responded to climate, many projects simply depended on air conditioning. This troubled me because my education had emphasised passive design, environmental responsiveness and learning from local conditions. Yet in practice, these principles were often overlooked. Over time, I began to feel increasingly disconnected from the work I was doing. I found myself questioning how much impact my projects were having, particularly on communities like my own that have historically been marginalised. I was lucky to get an opportunity to design a primary school and kindergartens in a rural community. Unlike the commercial projects, these schools allowed me to work closely with local people and to see the direct impact of design on everyday life. By carefully considering orientation, ventilation, shading and local materials, I was able to help create spaces where children could learn in comfort. Those experiences changed me. They convinced me that architecture could be more than creating iconic buildings. It could be a tool for improving lives. It also strengthened my desire to focus on social architecture and environmentally responsive design. With this goal in mind, I applied to Cambridge to pursue further studies in environmental and sustainable design. My MPhil dissertation, ‘McDonaldization of African Cities’, argued that many African cities are increasingly adopting a standardised approach to design, embodying principles inherent in fast-food chains: control, standardisation, predictability and uniformity. While these principles may work well for fast food, I questioned whether they are suitable for cities and the built environment, which have markedly varying contexts. As cities become more homogenised through widespread adoption of standardised building forms, they lose their uniqueness and the climate-responsive qualities that once helped them cope with local environmental conditions; additionally, they contribute to higher urban temperatures and growing energy demand. We are all aware that the world is warming, and extreme heat events are becoming more frequent and intense. At the same time, African countries and cities face growing population pressures and struggle with limited resources, which amplifies vulnerability. My current


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SUSTAINABILITY I JESUS COLLEGE ANNUAL REPORT 2026

A view of Kumary’s award-winning design

research examines how Nairobi’s current building stock is likely to perform under future climate conditions, including projections for the next 100 years. The aim is to identify the neighbourhoods and building types that are most vulnerable to extreme heat so that targeted interventions can be implemented. The findings will also help promote the inclusion of thermal resilience design in building codes and design standards. This concern with thermal resilience extends beyond research and into design practice. While my work seeks to understand how buildings perform under future heat conditions, I am equally interested in exploring practical design solutions that can protect vulnerable communities from extreme heat right now. This interest led me to participate in the Heat Adaptive Architecture Design (HAAD) competition, where I had the opportunity to translate many of these ideas into a real-world design proposal.

A climate-adapted school You might wonder why, out of all the possible projects I could have designed, I chose a school. In 2024, UNICEF reported that hundreds of millions of children, primarily in low- and middle-income countries, missed out on their education due to severe heatwaves forcing school closures. In Kenya, standard school blocks are often simple masonry shells with corrugated iron roofs that rapidly overheat, lack insulation and often are not connected to the electricity grid. As a result, indoor temperatures rise to uncomfortable and at times hazardous levels, especially during the intense afternoon heat. With a median age of just 20 years, Kenya has one of the youngest populations in the world, a trend shared by many other African countries. It is therefore imperative that the schools we build today are designed for the climate of tomorrow. My design concept draws inspiration from both modern passive design principles and Indigenous environmental knowledge and materials to create a sustainable vocational school that is well adapted to the hot and dry conditions of Kajiado.


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A 3-D model of the school site

The plan incorporates: • courtyards and smaller outdoor spaces planted with native shrubs and trees, that support a comfortable microclimate within the campus and provide areas for student relaxation and interaction between students and lecturers • narrow and elongated classroom blocks to improve both daylight and ventilation. Openings are placed mainly on the north and south façades, where louvred windows allow continuous air movement through the rooms • east-west orientation of the buildings is another important climatic strategy. The blocks are aligned along the axis to reduce the amount of surface area exposed to direct solar radiation, especially from the intense western afternoon sun • sun-shading devices made from locally available brushwood, allowing the design to respond to the climate while also using materials and technology that are accessible and appropriate to the local context • ventilation through ensuring all occupied spaces are cross-ventilated, allowing cooler air to enter while warm air is removed. Beyond this, additional cooling aids like thermal chimneys are introduced to enhance the stack effect and reduce heat build-up within the buildings • solar power generation with photovoltaic panels to make use of the high solar potential of the region. Winning the HAAD award reinforces my belief that climate solutions don’t have to be exclusive; they can emerge from shared knowledge, lived experience and traditions we’ve yet to fully value. It reminds me that even the most under-resourced communities hold the potential to adapt and thrive. As I continue researching heat-adaptive built environments, I hope to translate knowledge into accessible, practical solutions that empower communities to face a warmer future. n


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COLLEGE HISTORY I JESUS COLLEGE ANNUAL REPORT 2026

A short history of the Jesus College Boat Club Daniel Dodd (1976), JCBC Captain 1978-1979 and editor of For the Love of Rowing: 200 years of the JCBC 1827-2027 (published December 2026), reflects on two centuries of rowing on the Cam Jesus is historically the most successful College on the river in terms of Headships won, and as we approach the 200th anniversary, the current generation is adding to this fantastic rowing tradition with the women Head of the Lents for four years in succession and Head of the Mays for two. The first time Jesuans competed on the Cam was on 26 February 1827. There were four other college crews involved, and they rowed a mix of six-oared, eight-oared and ten-oared boats. But JCBC was a slow starter: it was nearly 50 years before the Club won anything. Success came at last in 1872 with victory in a small boats race called the Magdalene Pairs. What came next was extraordinary; between 1875 and 1885 Jesus was Head of the Mays for an eleven-year stretch and won the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta twice. This is the foundation story of JCBC pre-eminence, and it was in large part down to the arrival in College of Steve Fairbairn, a giant Australian, a brilliant rower and a brilliant coach. If the story of a club is made up of a number of seminal moments, this was the first. The next came with Steve’s return to England in 1904 (after 20 years farming sheep in Australia). His crews were phenomenally successful, and his coaching approach was dubbed Fairbairnism – the guiding credo of Jesus rowing into the late 20th century.

The Head of the River crew in 1885 with Steve Fairbairn rowing 7. They also won the Grand at Henley. Photo courtesy of Toby Wyles


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The all-conquering 1st Boat and coaches in 1971-1972. Photo courtesy of Rob Hanson

On the 100th anniversary of the Club in 1927, JCBC was Head of the Mays and the Lents, and the College 2nd Boat achieved the extraordinary feat of bumping up to third position in the Lents. These were glorious years, and the Club’s dominance in the 1920s and 1930s was unchallenged. The next defining moment was in 1947, when Jesus won the Grand again at Henley and also the Head of the River Race on the Tideway – victories that were repeated in 1951 and 1952. No other Oxbridge college has ever won this race, and this was fuel for the legend. There was a four-year run of Mays Headships in the 1950s and JCBC men won the Ladies Challenge Plate at Henley in 1958, which remains our last victory there. The 1960s saw the Club Head of the Lents for five years. Then in 1972 came the annus mirabilis of the modern era when the College won the Fairbairns, was Head of the Lents and the Mays, and a crop of exceptional University oarsmen won all the small boats events. A clean sweep – unlikely ever to be repeated. The 150th anniversary was celebrated in 1977 with a huge gathering of Jesus rowing alumni, many from the glory years before and after the War. What was truly seminal was the arrival of women in the College in 1979. Jesus women’s rowing has been a revelation. They are by far the most successful of all the women’s squads. Not that it was plain sailing at first. Sally Adams (1979), the first Women’s Officer of the Club, remembers: “There were no changing room facilities or female toilets in the boathouse, and we weren’t allowed to go upstairs.” But they soon proved themselves, winning the Fairbairns in 1983, going Head of the Lents in 1985 and Head of the Mays in 1988. They have now racked up 11 Lents Headships and are poised to make it five in a row next year, plus ten Mays Headships. The first oar ever won by Jesus women, up four in the Lents in 1980. Photo courtesy of Sally Adams


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Amanda Stoffers (2023), Captain in 2024-2025, who took her crew to the Head of Mays, wrote memorably: “when I step back, what remains is concrete: a tight-knit group of women, formed through repetition, shaped by effort and held together by a shared feeling of being part of something wonderful”. A great club is not just about winning; it is about giving an opportunity to people to try a sport they would otherwise never get a chance to do. Most of our rowers have learnt their rowing and their coxing at Jesus, and that tradition of teaching people to row is one of the reasons for its success. The JCBC has always embraced novices. In the 1928 version of the Club records, the author wrote: “Fairbairn made a novice into an oarsman, and a crew of duffers into a Head of the River, Ladies’ Plate winner, or finalist in the Grand, because he never overtaxed their capacities”. Some of this home-grown talent has risen to achieve great things at the University level and even beyond. Chris Barton (1945) is perhaps the most garlanded. He started rowing at Jesus, stroked the JCBC to the Grand in 1947, stroked the Blue Boat and then went on to stroke the GB VIII in the 1948 London Olympics, winning a silver medal. Since then, Richard Harpum (1973) in the 1970s and Toby Wallace (1995) in the late 1990s both won Blues – and a number of others have won Goldie colours. On the women’s side there are many more; the first was Jennifer Bird (1979), who in less than two years went from novicing in 1979 to rowing in Blondie in 1981. Also notable was the career of Caroline Reid (2010), who rose from novice to be CUWBC President in 2015, the year the Women’s Boat Race moved to the Thames. Since the Second World War, JCBC has had 11 male CUBC Presidents and six women (including Lightweights). Most recently in 2024, the Presidents of the women’s and men’s side of the CUBC were both from Jesus and both won their races against Oxford. The Club has also hosted some notable internationals, the most recent being Rosamund Bradbury (2007), who was one of four siblings to row for the College. She won multiple medals at Henley, as well as in World Championships and World Cup regattas, between 2009 and 2015. Before her was Tom Stallard (1998), who took silver in the Beijing Olympics in 2008. And back in the 1960s and 1970s, Arnold Cooke (1960), Pat Delafield (1965), Chris Baillieu (1969) and David Maxwell (1970) were all successful GB internationals.

CUBC Presidents Seb Benzecry and Jenna Armstrong (both 2020) celebrate their successes in the 2024 Boat Race. Photo: Nordin Ćatić


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The 2025 Women’s 1st VIII storms to the Headship of the Mays. Photo Chris Fisher

Integral to the success of the Club for a century and a half have been the boatmen. The first three, Alf Parsons, Percy Bullock and Tony Willson, served for 113 years between them – a story of astonishing continuity. For generations of rowers, it is the boatman who defines their time. Percy was the much-loved apostle of Steve Fairbairn, and he carried the flame into the 1970s. My generation remember Tony Willson, a no-nonsense grafter who inspired tremendous loyalty and achieved great things with the women’s crews in the 1980s and 1990s. At that time, the coaching of the Men’s 1st Boat was in the hands of rowing alumni, known as the ‘Heavies’, who would come back to Cambridge to do a stint of one or two weeks each year. Their commitment was a mark of their loyalty to the Club and to the College, and generations of Jesus rowers benefited. There are still alumni returning from time to time and many recent graduates still do a turn, but the organisation and delivery of coaching is now in the hands of the 11th boatman, Head Coach and Boathouse Manager Jonathan Conder. He already has ten Headships under his belt. The book we have produced to mark the 200th anniversary has written contributions from many JCBC members, full of anecdotes and memories. They all share a love of rowing, but what people seem to value most is the friendships they have made. Rowing is often described as the ultimate team sport. It forges enduring friendships and deep loyalty and since 1979, with a mixed boathouse, it has sparked numerous long-term partnerships and marriages. Beyond a love for rowing and for the people we rowed with, there is also a deep love for the College and an appreciation and respect for its wider life. At the time of the Club’s centenary, the College Bursar, Bernard Manning, wrote these words about the JCBC, which resonate still: “It is not dominated by any school connection. It owes remarkably little to any outside influence. Its rowing is not learnt elsewhere. […] Its spirit is unique, and it is not fanciful to attribute this uniqueness to the College which has made it what it is. There is no Boat Club like Jesus Boat Club because there is no college like Jesus College.” See page 113 of this Annual Report for details of the upcoming events, exhibition and publications celebrating JCBC’s bicentenary in 2026-2027. n


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Editing the poetry of Jacob Bronowski (1908-1974) The personal archive of Jacob Bronowski (1926, Mathematics) comprises the largest single collection of papers in the Jesus College Archive. It includes his published and unpublished poetry, which has now been collected and edited, allowing his work to be rediscovered by new generations of readers. In an adapted version of his Lisa Jardine Memorial Lecture, given on 25 March 2026, Professor Simon Rennie (University of Exeter) introduces the life and work of this extraordinary figure Who was Jacob Bronowski? Widely regarded as one of the last great polymaths, prominent in the fields of philosophy, mathematics, science and literary criticism, to many people he is best known as the creator of the successful 1973 BBC television series The Ascent of Man. Less well known is that Bronowski also wrote and occasionally published poetry throughout his adult life. Born in Łódź (Poland), then part of the Russian Empire, Bronowski could barely speak English when his family moved to London when he was 12. It was at Cambridge that his particular blend of scientific and humanities pursuits began to develop. Alongside excelling

Jacob Bronowski in 1948. Reproduced with kind permission of the Bronowski family


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in his geometrical and algebraic studies and earning a half-Blue for his brilliance at chess, he embedded himself into the literary culture of the University. He served on the editorial board of Granta and in 1928 he co-founded and co-edited Experiment, which published some of the most important British modernist voices of the late 1920s and early 1930s. Later, while teaching Mathematics at the University of Hull, he published a collection of poems on the subject of the Spanish Civil War and a monograph of literary criticism. During the Second World War he was involved in strategic operations, and afterwards – alongside developing ‘Bronowski’s Briquettes’ and other innovations in smokeless fuel at the National Coal Board – he began a media career. He was a familiar voice on BBC radio as a philosopher of science and history. Publications like The Science of Human Values (1956) developed ideas in moral philosophy, and that seam of humanism which informed his scientific approach increasingly came to define him, both in the public eye and in academia. In the early 1970s Bronowski was seconded from his work at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies (California) to create The Ascent of Man. He died between its first broadcasts in the UK and the US, in the summer of 1974. The Ascent of Man, commissioned by David Attenborough, was a landmark television event on human cultural and scientific evolution. Watching it now, it is remarkable how intellectually ambitious and unpatronising it is. The book of the series was a global bestseller, but its text was largely a verbatim transcript of the episodes, mostly improvised by Bronowski. This was a remarkable feat, which has been much discussed and even contested, but the poetry Bronowski had been writing for many years, alongside his lecturing and prose writing, demonstrates a consistent philosophy. He could speak in the moment to the camera in his extraordinarily intimate presenting style, because he had been developing these complex ideas about the human condition for decades. This was history, science and philosophy considered poetically, and performed with a poet’s ear.

Editing Bronowski I grew up in a working-class household in Manchester, and like millions of others, we had a copy of The Ascent of Man on our bookshelf. It gave me a lifelong amateur interest in Anthropology and what might be termed ‘deep history’. In 2019 I met and started a relationship with Rachel Jardine, daughter of Lisa and granddaughter of Jacob, and started to learn much more about Bruno, as he was called by the family. As Rachel and I discussed Bruno’s legacy, we realised that, although potted biographies of Bronowski routinely referred to him as a mathematician, broadcaster and poet, his poetry was almost completely unavailable. It turned out that less than half of the poetry he wrote was published, and what was published was very hard to find. This led back to Jesus College, where his papers are held in the archives. In 2021, with the family’s permission, I began to gather the poetry from transcripts and notes collected by Bronowski himself, and to attempt to put them in some kind of order. The 20th century is not my usual focus. I am a Victorianist by trade, and my main research is on working-class 19th-century verse. However, with some experience of editing poetry and teaching modernist literature, I was keen to give modernist scholars access to his poems for the first time.


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1933 draft revision of ‘October’, originally titled ‘October Casuistry’, annotated page torn out of Experiment 2 (February 1929). Jesus College Archives, JCPP/Bronowski/1/5/4


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Working with the Bronowski papers to collect his poetry was both enabled and complicated by the author’s bibliographic and literary habits. A huge advantage was that Bronowski was an assiduous note-taker, who meticulously recorded, often down to the actual day, when poems were not just composed, but revised, sometimes years later. It was Rachel who discovered all his poem compositions were detailed in diary entries on a 2025 visit to the archives with me, while I had my head in the actual poetry. But I wasn’t to have it easy. Bronowski also revised at a later date almost every single poem he wrote, whether it had been published or not. He would even rip pages out of magazines to make handwritten revisions to the poems. Why would a writer revise almost all of his previous work so assiduously, and make such detailed notes about every part of the process? It seems that in the early 1940s Bronowski was making concrete plans to publish a volume of his own selected work, a collection entitled The Thumb in the Margin. The title refers to a long autobiographical poem composed in February and March of 1940. We don’t know why the volume never appeared, but thanks to this plan, we have Bronowski’s list of all the poems he had written to this point. As an editor I believe that there is a responsibility to give the originator of the work as much posthumous agency as possible. Bronowski’s early poetry was published in well-regarded but obscure modernist magazines and journals which are inaccessible to the wider public, having largely not been digitised or republished. I don’t think it is a betrayal of any literary principle to trust the mature poet to curate, and indeed correct, the work of the younger poet. To my eye – or ear, one might say – these corrections are almost always improving, with sharper rhythms and more incisive expression and imagery in the edited versions.

The poems As one would expect for a selection of poetry written across six decades, the subject matter of Bronowski’s poetry varies, ranging from the lyrical and introspective to explicitly political works that document current affairs through a poetic imaginary. A few of the works are more or less explicitly autobiographical, while others adopt an ostensibly impersonal voice. Bronowski’s poetry contains great beauty, insight and musicality – and speaks to today’s political climate, with its themes of military conflict, populist demagoguery and creeping fascism. Bronowski’s poems can be grouped into the following time periods and themes: • 1928-1931 The poetry from the first three years of Bronowski’s poetic career is modernist in style. Much of it is imagistic, with highbrow references and quite naturally, there are hints of T. S. Eliot in the decade after the publication of ‘The Waste Land’. • 1931-1936 Once Bronowski graduates, his poetic confidence begins to develop further, and so does a distinctive poetic voice which allows for elements of sly humour in his work, as well as its characteristic scientific and humanistic subject matter.


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• 1937-1940 The most productive period of Bronowski’s poetic career, where the ideas behind some of the central theses of The Ascent of Man are being formed: poetry, language, science, art and politics are considered as constituent parts of the same human conversation. • 1939-1974 In the late 1960s Bruno catalogued many of the Christmas cards he and his wife Rita famously sent out to family and friends almost every year from 1939 until his death in 1974. The cards became something of a cultural phenomenon, and family stories tell of makeshift production lines creating these beautiful artefacts in the weeks leading up to the holiday period. Even if Bronowski were not Bronowski, with all his many achievements culminating in the cultural behemoth The Ascent of Man, the unread poetry of this Jewish Polish immigrant to Britain warning of the rise of European fascism, demagoguery and right-wing populism in the 1930s would deserve a modern audience. His is an important voice in early British modernism, and the poetry provides significant context for understanding the life and philosophy of a man whose work in various fields was central to the development of ideas in art and science in the 20th century. n

Simon Rennie is Associate Professor of Victorian Poetry at the University of Exeter. He is the editor of Jacob Bronowski: Selected Poems (Palgrave, 2026), with a foreword by Sir Stephen Fry


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Mystery money: A Byzantine surprise in First Court Early on the morning of 15 August, Porter Geoffrey Howe was walking through Founder’s Arch back to the Lodge, and accidentally kicked a small dark object lying on one of the flagstones. He was surprised by the distinctly metallic sound it made when it rolled, and when he picked it up, he found it was an old coin. The coin was subsequently identified by Dr Adrian Popescu, Keeper of Ancient Money at the Fitzwilliam Museum. It was minted in Constantinople between approximately AD 976 and 1035. Members of the Archives team have carefully examined historic photographs and inspected the masonry around Founder’s Arch in the hope of finding traces of the coin’s former resting place. Unfortunately, no convincing evidence has yet emerged. So the question remains: was the coin hidden in the walls for centuries before finally revealing itself, accidentally dropped from someone’s pocket, or even placed there as a modern prank? Until further clues come to light, this remarkable Byzantine traveller will continue to guard its secrets. If anyone has a theory about how this thousand-year-old coin found its way to First Court, the Archives team would be delighted to hear it. Any further information will be reported in the next issue of The Jesuan. n

The coin is a Byzantine ‘Anonymous Follis, Class A2, Variety 3’. The obverse bears the inscription in Greek “Emmanuel, Jesus Christ”, while the reverse proclaims “Jesus Christ, King of Kings”


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Global Cultures at Jesus Matthew Webb As Director of this burgeoning initiative, Matthew Webb (Bye-Fellow) brings art and inspiration from all over the world into the heart of the College On a cold March evening in 2024, Tanaka Denzaemon XIII, the 13th hereditary Head of the Tanaka School of Kabuki Hayashi Musicians – a lineage tracing back to the Shinto period – and Co-Director of Music at the Kabuki-za Theatre in Ginza, Tokyo, filed into the Frankopan Hall, through an arrangement of music stands, microphones and stage set. “We will not be needing any of these”, he exclaimed, as his brother Tanaka Denjirō VII and entourage filled in. What we were about to witness was a unique moment, not only in the UK but also in Japan. Kabuki musicians are often hidden behind screens; here they took centre stage as an enraptured audience looked on. The drums and traditional instruments reverberated around the Hall, needing no amplification. I had hosted many events at Jesus before then, but this was different. The performance had been oversubscribed, drawing in College undergrads, postgrads, Fellows and staff, Japanese language students, people from across the University, U3A, Cambridge and further afield. We had been transported to a different time and place, and left with several

Tanaka Denzaemon Xlll and Tanaka Denjirō VII lead an ensemble performance of classic kabuki music compositions at Jesus College as part of the Cambridge Japan Fest 2024. Photo: Jean-Luc Benazet


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tantalising questions: what if we held more exchanges like this more often? What if we opened up this format to many more regions and cultures? What if we launched a porous Global Cultures initiative that brings more people into College? Global Cultures now runs at a rhythm of roughly one event every fortnight, and in its most recent season alone featured 26 countries and regions – from Estonia to Mongolia, Brazil to Japan, the Faroe Islands to Palestine. Its flagship collaborations illustrate the approach: a European Festival staged with the EU Delegation and the EU National Institutes of Culture (EUNIC); participation in the UK-Brazil Year of Culture; a collaboration with the Cambridge Central Asia Forum; and a steady programme of talks and screenings with visiting scholars, artists and filmmakers, often in conjunction with other College Fellows. Few venues anywhere attempt cultural programming at this breadth; fewer still do so on a site that has seen cultural exchange for more than nine centuries. Nor is the programming decorative. Its subjects have included war and reconciliation, migration, geopolitics and national security, loneliness, ageing and romance, belonging in rural communities, coercive control and economic abuse, cultural identity, artists and authorship and the freedom of libraries in an age of book bans. For students, the benefits are both broad and quietly practical. Global Cultures puts working artists, filmmakers, writers and cultural leaders from dozens of countries physically in front of them, in their own College, at no cost and no distance. For international students, seeing their home cultures presented with seriousness and celebration in the heart of a Cambridge College is a form of welcome that no induction programme can match. For those who volunteer, host or help produce events, it provides rare hands-on experience in international cultural production, from partnership negotiation to festival logistics, of a kind normally available only to arts professionals years into their careers.

Matthew Webb and the Master with the production and distribution team of the Japanese anime Totto-Chan, after a screening at Global Cultures. Photo: Lucas Knights Webb


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For the College itself, the returns compound. There is the straightforward matter of profile: Global Cultures gives Jesus a distinctive identity among 31 colleges. There is also the network effect: every festival and partnership builds relationships with embassies, cultural institutes and international institutions that serve the College far beyond any single event. There are benefits to admissions and access too: a college visibly engaged with the whole world signals to prospective applicants – particularly international students and British students from communities under-represented in Cambridge – that they belong here. I have lived and worked in more than 20 countries. I have stood in front of Picasso’s Woman with a Violin in Munich, slept to the sounds of the forest in Madikeri, walked on individually sculpted white cubes in a room created solely to house one large work by Monet. I have been moved by movements and moments. Do you remember the last time a performance or work of art moved you? Perhaps even changed you? The exhibition you walked out of seeing differently. The novel that placed you inside a life you will never live, in a country you may never visit, and left you unable to forget it. The film that made a stranger’s grief your own; the night at the theatre after which a border on a map stopped being an abstraction and became a place where people love, argue, cook, mourn. These encounters are how most of us first cross into other cultures – not through airports or textbooks, but through someone else’s story. I look forward to hearing your story and hope to see you at one of the Global Cultures events sometime soon! n

Storyteller Laura Sampson (centre) and musician Yui Shikakura (right), who performed The Boy on Gojō Bridge about 11th-century samurai Minamoto no Yoshitsune, with Matthew Webb. Photo: Lucas Knights Webb


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In conversation with a College Porter Steve Smith I am from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, and when I left catering college in 2002 I was offered a hotel management placement, which involved me moving around the south of England in various different hotel management roles. My last placement was at the Gonville Hotel on Parker’s Piece and they offered me a job as one of the duty managers, so I put my roots down in Cambridge. I met my wife Beth there, and after about nine months a job came up at Jesus as a Catering Supervisor. I started here in August 2005 and I’ll always remember my first week, because it was when Professor Barry Rider held his annual conference. Having over 300 international delegates coming into the College, I knew it was going to be an interesting start, but I have found in life that I like to be thrown in at the deep end. I was Catering Supervisor from 2005 to 2013 and was also doing relief shifts in the Porters’ Lodge, so I was starting to understand the College dynamics. Then when one of the Porters left in 2013, Graham Appleby, the then Head Porter, approached me and I moved over to the Porters’ Lodge. In 2017, Simon Hawkey, who was the Domestic Bursar at that time, asked if I would go back to catering as the Wine and Stores Manager, which I did because it suited my family life to go back to a Monday to Friday operation. I’m a big foodie, and pairing wines to food and working closely with the Wine Committee taught me a lot. One thing that really opened my eyes was English wine. People don’t appreciate how good English wines are. During the pandemic there was a need for cover in the Lodge which I helped with as catering had all but closed. I hadn’t realised how much I had missed it and I felt that shift work, once again, would be a good balance for me. A job became available which I was offered and I made the move back. I feel proud to have worked for over 20 years here; it’s always just felt like a second home. I have no reason to leave. I really love this place. I got married here. We were the first people to get married in a civil ceremony at the Pavilion, and both my boys were christened here as well. This place is part of my family and that will never change. The best bit is the fact that every day is different, and you never know what’s going to come through the door. Our job is a very reactive role. There are days when our feet don’t touch the ground. Especially in Easter Term, when students are coming up to a very stressful time, if you are aware of students that may be struggling or need a little bit of extra support, you do find yourself looking out for them and making sure that they are all well and good.


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The May Ball nights are typically quite good nights. Invariably they’re all hands-on deck. You know where people are going to try and sneak into May Balls, and we do get a few because our May Ball is such a successful one. If there are lulls in the time, you can enjoy the acts that are on show – that’s one of the perks of working the May Ball. The only downside is they are very long nights, and you are on your feet and on the go for over 12 hours. I used to be scared of the dark when I first started in the Porters’ Lodge, but I had to almost train myself out of it. I knew that if I was going to be doing night patrols, I just had to front my fears. I kind of embrace the dark now. I like when I’m doing patrols at night and shining the torches and seeing the foxes’ eyes in the dark. I see the piercing green eyes looking at me through the bushes from afar. It’s fascinating. There’s no traffic noise, it’s three o’clock in the morning, and it’s nice to see the foxes running around and to listen to the owls hooting. At Christmas, when there is nobody here, it really does feel like you’ve got the place to yourself. You kind of forget that you’re working in almost 500 years’ worth of history. That’s something to be quite proud of. Outside of work I am also a qualified football referee, so I do a lot of local matches and referee the College matches in Cambridge. I love my dog, Rosie, to bits as well, who keeps me busy because she’s very energetic. I like to tell the students that while they’re here, yes, they need to work hard, but I think it’s also important that they enjoy all aspects of university life. Even though I think the student dynamic has changed over the last 20 years, I still think it’s important that they have a really good time. And if they try to pull the wool over our eyes sometimes, well… we’ve seen it all before. If they come back to reunions and say, “That bit of advice you gave”, or “when you let us do that”, then that means I’ve done a good job. n

Steve and Beth on their wedding day


College News


The Roost Café. Photo: David Valinsky Photography


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Fellows and other Senior Members Awards and honours The Master, Sonita Alleyne, received a University of the West Indies Luminary Award. Dr Ioakeim Ampartzidis (pictured left) was awarded a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship to investigate how planar cell polarity signalling shapes the mammalian body plan during early development. Professor Madeleine Arnot was elected to the Editorial Board of the University of Western Cape Press. Professor Jeremy Baumberg was awarded €9.3 million to lead an ERC Synergy grant on making nanomachines out of DNA. Dr Rebecca Anne Barr (pictured left) was appointed Deputy Director of the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities. Dr Ben Bowers, co-investigator and Co-Lead for the Palliative and End of Life Care Theme in the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration East of England, 2026-2031, and colleagues have been awarded £15.3 million from the NIHR to develop impactful, scalable research that tackles pressing health and social care challenges. Dr Natalia Buitron (pictured left) was promoted to Jessica Sainsbury Associate Professor in the Anthropology of Amazonia. Professor Mia Bay became a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA). Professor Shailaja Fennell will serve as University Senior Pro-Proctor for the academic year 2026-2027. Dr Ewa Marek was promoted to Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology. She will serve as a Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Methodology Report on carbon dioxide removal and carbon capture, utilisation and storage (see her article on pages 17-19 of this Annual Report). Professor Ellen Quigley received a Cambridge Climate and Nature Award for Research Impact and Engagement.


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Professor Ulrich Schneider and collaborators at the Cavendish Laboratory received £1.2 million in UKRI funding for the SEQUIN project, which combines quantum sensing and seismic monitoring to study signals ranging from gravitational waves to subtle vibrations within the Earth. Professor Carola-Bibiane Schönlieb was appointed a Fellow of the Academy for the Mathematical Sciences. Professor Marie Louise Stig Sørensen was awarded Correspondent Membership of the Hungarian Society of Archaeology and Art History. Professor Garth Wells is one of 12 researchers awarded the 2026 Lanczos Prize for Mathematical Software. Dr Gareth Wilkes became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Professor Helen M. Williams was chosen as the Hallimond Lecturer of the Mineralogical Society of the UK and Ireland.

Other news Professor Alison Bashford FBA, Honorary Fellow, published Decoding the Hand: A History of Science, Medicine & Magic. Professor Clare Chambers contributed to a recent Parliamentary POST research briefing on Surrogacy in the UK. Dr Albert Chen co-authored a paper in Integrative Organismal Biology and was interviewed in the same issue about his research on the evolution of over 200 features in the wing and shoulder skeleton of birds. Richard Dennis published Royal Navy Ships’ Bottoms and Boot-Topping of the Second World War Era. Dr Paul Dominiak published Ways of Sensing, a book on the scriptural roots, historical development and persisting power of the Christian spiritual senses tradition. Dr Michael Edwards published in The Historical Journal on Samuel Pepys’ connections to slavery. Professor Peter Garnsey (pictured left) published Re-thinking Capital Punishment: The Pre-History of the Abolition of the Death Penalty. Dr Rebecca Goldsmith co-edited a new double issue of Renewal: A Journal of Social Democracy, dealing with Labour’s first year and a half in office. Dr May Hen co-authored an article in IFC Review on civil law concepts, common law innovation and the Caribbean foundation experience.


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Dr Julian Huppert completed an LLB Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of London. Dr Huppert was also appointed to the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, as Chair of the Ethics Committee for NHS Central East, and as Chair of the Adult Eating Disorders Complex Needs Panel for the East of England. Dr Zhuozhang Li and colleagues published a paper in Buildings & Cities, entitled ‘Co-curation as civic practice in community and engagement’. Dr Ntombizodwa Makuyana (pictured right) contributed to the book Self-Doubt: An Anthology of Experiences in the Biomedical Sciences, talking about the self-doubt she experienced choosing to pursue a career in science, which was against societal expectations in rural Zimbabwe. Professor Christopher Marquis wrote on the benefits of ‘strategic hibernation’ for businesses at a time of political and regulatory uncertainty in the Harvard Business Review, an op-ed for The Guardian on why so many academics feature in the Epstein files and a comment piece in Time on taxing the rich. Professor Juliet Mitchell was interviewed in Prospect Magazine on her influence on psychoanalysis and gender studies. Dr Miranda Robbins discussed her research on memory formation in Mensa UK’s magazine IQ. Professor Simone Schnall featured in a new documentary, My Friend, the AI Avatar – How Algorithms Are Changing Our Relationships.

Note The digital version of this publication includes URL links for more information. You can view these pages online at: https://www.jesus.cam.ac.uk/alumni/college-publications


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New Fellows Fellows Dr Rachel Leow is an intellectual and cultural historian whose research focuses on transnational and transregional approaches to the study of East Asia, particularly connections to Southeast Asia, from c.1850 to the present day, with a special interest in Chinese social and cultural connections with the Malay world. A graduate of Warwick University with a PhD in History and an MPhil in Historical Studies from St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, she took up a Cambridge lectureship in 2013 after having been a Prize Fellow in Economics, Politics and History at Harvard. Rachel’s first book, Taming Babel: Language in the Making of Malaysia (Cambridge University Press, 2016), explored Malaya, a space rich with linguistic, ethnic and diasporic inheritances reaching across the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. It won the 2018 Association for Asian Studies Harry J. Benda Prize, awarded since 1977 for the best first book in Southeast Asian studies. Her next book, Southern Seas: Chinese Migrant Worlds in the Age of Global Empire, is forthcoming with University of California Press and Penguin Allen Lane; she is also co-editing (with Emma Teng) The Oxford Handbook of Asian Migration and Diaspora, c. 1300s-2000s (Oxford University Press, forthcoming). Dr Chiara Meccariello focuses on written artefacts, especially literary papyri, to recover, decipher, interpret and contextualise primary material, combining a rigorous philological and papyrological approach to ancient texts with the investigation of their contexts of use against the backdrop of broader socio-cultural dynamics. She completed a PhD in Classics at the University of Pisa and then held research and teaching positions in Vienna, Oxford, Goettingen and Cambridge, before moving to the University of Exeter in 2022, first as Lecturer and then as Associate Professor (Reader) in Classics. Chiara’s most recent work has two main strands. One uses papyri to explore how educational practices evolved and adapted to diverse cultural and political contexts, particularly in Graeco-Roman Egypt. This is the topic of her project Education in Graeco-Roman Egypt: An Intercultural Approach, funded by a prestigious €1,999,484 ERC Consolidator Grant (2025-2030). The other investigates the transmission, reperformance and reinterpretation of Greek drama in antiquity, exploring the dynamic relationship between innovation and tradition as it emerges from the remnants of actual performers’ copies. This research is the subject of her forthcoming Cambridge Elements volume, Tragic Papyri and the Art of (Re)Performance.


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Dr Robert Foster is an Associate Professor in Civil Engineering, having previously held the post of University Assistant Professor from January 2019. His research addresses ways in which structural engineering can help meet the infrastructure needs of a rapidly growing urban population while maintaining the quality of the natural world around us. His work addresses how to make best use of existing structures, and how to use lower-embodied impact materials for the design of more sustainable tall buildings and urban infrastructure. Robert holds a BA in Philosophy from the University of Wales, Cardiff, and an MEng in Civil and Architectural Engineering from the University of Bath. He spent two years in practice as a structural engineer in London before coming to Cambridge to carry out a PhD in the Department of Engineering. He was then a postdoctoral Research Associate and Senior Teaching Associate in the Department of Architecture at the University of Cambridge, before moving to the University of Queensland, Australia as Senior Lecturer in Structures in the School of Civil Engineering. Robert has published widely and serves as a Member of the Ethics Panel of the IStructE and a Member of the Advisory Board of TRADA/TDUK. Dr Seán Kavanagh is an Assistant Professor in Simulation of Energy Materials, a co-director of the MPhil in Advanced Materials for the Energy Transition (AMET) and a Council member for the Lennard Jones Centre for Materials Modelling. He leads the Simulation of Advanced Materials (SAM) lab, a research team that uses state-of-the-art computational methods and machine learning/AI to design and develop next-generation materials, primarily targeting energy applications and atomic level imperfections: defects or disorders in materials that shape their performance and efficiencies. He teaches and examines on the AMET MPhil in Advanced Materials, including teaching on computational methods in practice. A graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, Seán completed his PhD in Computational Materials Science from UCL and Imperial College in 2024. He has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers in the past five years, and won numerous awards, including the Wiley Research Heroes Open Science Advocate Prize 2026; the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Energy Sector Thesis Prize 2025; the IOP JPhys Energy Early Career Award and Emerging Leader 2025; and the UCL Mathematical & Physical Sciences Education Award (and Associate Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy), for ‘excellence in academic supervision and personal tutoring’.


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Research Fellows Ms Sólveig Hrönn Hilmarsdóttir’s research covers both Classics and Sociolinguistics, with a particular interest in recovering the social meanings associated with linguistic variation found in ancient Latin texts. Her doctoral research centres on letters written by the Roman writer and statesman Cicero and his contemporaries in the 1st century BC. Sólveig has shown that it is possible to track significant differences in the vocabulary, morphosyntax and style of the letters, and that this variation correlates both to the age and social background of individuals and to the closeness of their relationship. Sólveig has published widely both in Classics and Linguistics; her journal articles include one paper on the changes discernible in the language of the poet Ovid following his exile from Rome, and another co-authored paper on a medieval work known as the Third Grammatical Treatise, written in Old Norse. Mr Oliver Parkes works on Jewish and Christian literature written in the Greek language in the last two centuries before and first five centuries after Christ. His PhD thesis concerns the verse oracles which are attributed to the female prophets known as Sibyls, but almost certainly not written by them. The prophecies in the 12 books of The Sibylline Oracles combine an unparalleled (and often very confusing) mix of pagan, Jewish and Christian elements; until recently they received very little scholarly attention, only attracting comments on the obscurity of their content and the puzzle of their authorship. Oliver’s work considers these texts as works that can tell us something new about the interactions between pagans, Christians and Jews, and the way in which these groups used literature to construct different models of time, politics and society. Mr Zakhar Shumaylov works on the mathematical foundations of Artificial Intelligence. During his Cambridge PhD Zak introduced the concept of model collapse in a 2024 Nature paper. Large language models such as ChatGPT are trained on vast quantities of text, but the supply of human-written training data is finite, so synthetic data produced by earlier models is increasingly being used. Zak and his collaborators showed how this leads to increasing distortion, as the model drifts away from the original distribution it was meant to represent. The paper was selected for the cover of Nature, featured on the front page of The New York Times and was named one of the most influential articles of the year in the annual State of AI Report. It has since prompted a wider debate across the AI community about the long-term consequences of training on model-generated data, with public responses from senior figures in the industry.


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Outgoing Fellows Professor Jason Arday Dr Brian Sheil

Outgoing Research Fellow Dr Tanmay Dixit

Outgoing College Post Doctoral Associates (CPDAs) Dr Emilie Bowman Dr Hanane Hadj-Moussa Dr Hen May

New Fellows, Bye-Fellows, academic staff and the Chaplain, October 2026: back row from left: The Rev’d Jon Sanders (Chaplain), Dr Rob Foster, Dr James Perry, Oliver Parkes, Dr Seán Kavanagh and Zakhar Shumaylov; front row from left: Dr Reyhaneh Shojaei, Dr Rachel Leow, Sólveig Hilmarsdóttir, Dr Chiara Meccariello, Dr Lalitha Sundaram, Professor Ellen Quigley, French Lector Jiri Sevcik

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Development and Alumni Relations Emily Williams, Director of Development and Alumni Relations In Development and Alumni Relations our goals are twofold: 1. to raise money for the College’s educational mission, encouraging donations from alumni who want to give back, as well as from other supporters who recognise the importance of the College’s work; and 2. to maintain a relationship with over 10,000 alumni, offering opportunities that keep former students connected with their College through the rest of their lives. In writing this report, I always appreciate the annual opportunity to reflect on the past year’s progress against these aims. What have we achieved? How will we continue to build meaningful connections and cultivate a culture of College giving going forwards? Turning first to fundraising, I am immensely grateful that our donors gave more than £5 million to support Jesus College during the past financial year. This extraordinary amount raised reflects the generosity of our supporters and the collective desire of the alumni community to see the College succeed. It has been a particular pleasure to see support for the renovation of the newly reintegrated areas of West Court, and for the Archives Centre development. Thanks to the vision of a few notable donors, over £1.2 million has been secured to deliver some of the finest postgraduate accommodation across all of Cambridge, and bring together the College’s historic collections in our brand-new Archives Centre. I would be remiss not to mention that naming opportunities are still available. Other major gifts made this year include financial support in the form of means-tested bursaries at undergraduate level, and named scholarships for MPhil and PhD candidates, for whom funding is increasingly scarce and intensely competitive. In addition, I am especially grateful for several significant donations received this year that were made without restriction, which allows the College to allocate funds wherever the need is most pressing. Regular gifts remain an especially important source of support, and – when these seemingly small gifts are added together – they total a substantial proportion of annual funds raised. Although most regular donations are unrestricted, student financial support is the most popular fund among donors who choose to direct their support to a particular purpose, followed by mental health and wellbeing, a growing area of need within the College. This year we trialled personalised video messages to recognise long-term donors, giving Jesus students the opportunity to express the impact that donations have on their University life, while helping to strengthen the connection between loyal supporters and the resident College community. We are looking forward to reconnecting alumni with student callers in the September 2026 Telephone Campaign.


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The relaunch of our Choir Patrons scheme last year brought renewed focus to a special group of donors who contribute towards the activity of the College and Chapel Choirs. We are so pleased to mark our gratitude for the music teaching, recordings, international tours and other life-enhancing opportunities that supporters of the Choir enable. Now, having assessed the achievements of the last year in fundraising, it’s time to consider our second goal. One of the greatest privileges of our work is bringing members of the Jesus community together, with the annual events cycle a cornerstone of the alumni relations programme. During the past year, the team organised more than 40 events for alumni, donors and students to reconnect with one another and with the College. A particular highlight was collaborating with the Intellectual Forum to host events that bring distinguished speakers and thought-provoking discussion to alumni audiences. Among these were the Lisa Jardine lecture, given by Professor Simon Rennie, which explored Jesus College polymath Jacob Bronowski’s poetic legacy (see pages 28-32), as well as a sold-out Gates Cambridge Trust lecture, in which Jesus alumna and former Gates Cambridge Scholar Krittika D’Silva (2016, Computer Science) debated how we can use AI for social good. The Master and I travelled overseas to meet international alumni, gathering in New York for a reception at the residence of the UK Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador James Kariuki CMG (1989, Economics), with generous support from James Rudolph (1965, Law) and Mary-Ellen Rudolph. We are also grateful to Raymond Kwok (1972, Mathematics and Law) for hosting a gathering of Jesuans at the Hong Kong Club, and to Stanley Lai (1993, Law) for opening his home to alumni in Singapore. London is always a focus for Jesuan events and we were pleased to host four events there this past year: a financial services networking evening, the annual Glanville Williams Reception for legal alumni, the JCCS London Drinks Reception at the Oxford and Cambridge Club and a new event for young alumni held in collaboration with

Dr Anthony Bowen delivered a talk on the history of the wine cellars at this year’s Donors’ Garden Party


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Trinity and Pembroke Colleges. And – to recognise the College’s long-standing ties with north-eastern England, we also held an alumni reunion in Newcastle, generously hosted by Jabad Jaigirdar, Founder and Senior Partner at JLF. Jabad donates a Cambridge Bursary that helps talented students from the North-East to study Law at Cambridge. Back in Cambridge, the JCCS Spring Dinner was another standout occasion. A programme of events organised by the Development and Alumni Relations team ahead of the dinner showcased our academic Fellows and College facilities, including a tour and tastings from the only College brewery in Cambridge. This event proved extremely popular with the afternoon activities selling out within 48 hours of the invitation being sent, quite possibly a record. Outside of events, we are always seeking new ways to make meaningful connections between alumni and current students. The Postcard Project entered its third year, with more than 225 postcards from alumni sent to students preparing for their exams. These messages of encouragement and advice brought a boost when finalists found them in their pigeonholes. In staffing, the past year has seen a reassuring degree of stability. In September 2025 we were joined by Alex Morrill, with Jabirul Islam coming on board in December. Their work focusses on the administrative side of things, as good data and processes drive development success. We were sad to say goodbye to Jonny McAllister (2018, English) who after eight total years at Jesus – first as an MPhil and PhD student, followed by three years on staff – is departing College for the University of Nottingham, where he has secured a competitive postdoc position. I am delighted to welcome the new Editor of Publications, Dr Maartje Scheltens, to her role, taking over from Kate Coghlan who has transitioned to a full-time role at Cambridge University Press & Assessment. I am also deeply grateful to the rest of the team for their commitment to top-quality alumni and donor relations: Nikki Williams (Alumni Relations Manager), Gracie Breen (Development Officer for Events), Maisy Smyth (2013, Law) (Senior Development Officer for Legacies and Stewardship), Catherine Biggs (Major Gifts Officer), Josh Clayton (2019, English) (Development Assistant) and Noemi Carofano (Development Officer for Regular Giving).

Attendees at the Newcastle Reception in June


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So, how do you feel we have measured up to our goals? The achievements of the past year are a shared success, and we are indebted to the many individuals whose generosity makes so much possible at Jesus College. Whether through a transformational gift, a regular donation, a legacy pledge, volunteering expertise, hosting alumni gatherings, mentoring students or simply staying engaged with College life, every contribution helps strengthen the Jesus community.

Recognition of Major Benefactors The Society of St Radegund recognises those whose philanthropy has made a significant contribution to the College’s future, welcoming Members who have donated £100,000 or more, and St Radegund Fellows for gifts of £1 million or more. This year, the Society’s membership expanded to 50 as we celebrated four new honourees at the Annual Dinner in June. Atul Mehta (1972, Medicine) has established the first bursary endowment fund that will support medical students throughout the entirety of their degree – including their clinical training in fourth, fifth and sixth years. Sudipto Sarkar (1967, Law) and Malabika Sarkar (New Hall 1971, English) became the first donors to contribute towards the new Archives Centre, funding the purchase, conversion and naming of its Reading Room. John Corrie (1978, Economics) was also inspired by the Archives Centre project, making a gift to name the Corrie Charter Room in joint recognition of his family and his distant relation George Elwes Corrie, who was the 30th Master of Jesus College. While the number of Members grew, I must also share the sad news that our special group of St Radegund Fellows diminished to 11 when Gurnee Hart died in May 2026. While a more fulsome obituary can be found on pages 144-145, it feels important to note his contributions as both a significant benefactor and an incredible advocate for the College. His philanthropy was primarily directed towards the subject of History, which was his personal passion and the subject he studied at Jesus. His legacy lives on through the four separate funds he endowed to support History students and Fellows. Thank you, Gurnee. n

The Master with new inductees at this year’s Society of St Radegund Dinner. Left to right: Atul Mehta, Sudipto Sarkar, the Master, Malabika Sarkar and John Corrie. Photo: Jamie Andersen Photography


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Calendar of College Events 2026-2027 Monday 2 November Tuesday 3 November Tuesday 17 November Friday 4 December Thursday 14 January Saturday 30 January Saturday 6 February Saturday 27 February Sunday 28 February Tuesday 2 March Saturday 6 March Friday 2 April Saturday 3 April Friday 9 April Friday 16 April Friday 23 April Wednesday 5 May Saturday 15 May Wednesday 19 May Friday 21 May Wednesday 26 May Saturday 19 June Monday 28 June Saturday 3 July Saturday 3 July Friday 17 September

City Drinks (Munich) City Drinks (Berlin) JCCS London Drinks Reception (O&C Club) Fairbairns Dinner City Drinks (Sydney) Computer Science Dinner May Ball Committee Networking Dinner Medical and Veterinary Sciences Dinner The Second Year Committee Lunch Lisa Jardine Memorial Lecture Graduate Conference and Postgraduate Reunion Reunion Dinner (1971-1973) JCCS Spring Dinner (London) MA Dinner (2020) Anniversary Dinner (1987, 1997, 2007, 2017) Reunion Dinner (1958-1966) 1496 Society Lunch Engineering Society Dinner 60 Years On Lunch (1967) 50 Years On Dinner (1977) 70 Years On Lunch (1957) JCCS Buffet Lunch Society of St Radegund Dinner Donors’ Garden Party JCCS Annual Dinner Reunion Dinner (2001-2003)

Alumni Benefits Once you have received your MA, or in the case of postgraduate students, once you have completed your course, you are welcome to dine at High Table free of charge, twice a year and to bring a guest for a charge. High Table is available Tuesday-Friday and Sundays during Term. For further details please contact the Manciple’s Office on manciple@jesus.cam.ac.uk or call +44 (0) 1223 339485. The College is able to offer en suite rooms in West Court on a bed and breakfast basis. Please contact the West Court Reception team to check on availability by emailing reception@jesus.cam.ac.uk or phoning +44 (0)1223 760571. Alumni are entitled to a 10% discount on private dinners and conferences. If you’re interested in holding a private function, please contact the Conference team by emailing conference@jesus.cam.ac.uk or phoning +44 (0)1223 760524. Those who have studied at Cambridge are issued with a CAMCard which provides discounts and benefits at many retailers across the city. For details, please visit our website: https://www.jesus.cam.ac.uk/alumni/alumni-community/alumni-benefits


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Senior Tutor Dr Paul Dominiak Last year, I reported on how the newly recruited Student Wellbeing Lead (Mary Simuyandi) and I were beginning work on developing a strategic College vision for student wellbeing. I am pleased to begin this year’s report with an update on progress in this area. Through the past academic year, Mary and I conducted focus groups with students, Tutors, Directors of Studies, professional medical staff, welfare-facing staff and alumni. From these focus groups, we have co-created a strategic vision document now approved through the College’s governance structure. In this strategy, our vision is for Jesus College to take a whole-community approach to student wellbeing, supporting students to have opportunities to build and realise their academic and personal potential and live full, balanced and meaningful lives. ‘Student wellbeing’ will look different for each student, but, for the purposes of this strategy, it refers to the range of personal, social and environmental factors that shape a student’s ability to reflect upon and articulate how they are experiencing their lives and enable them to have: •meaningful and constructive intellectual lives •access to appropriate support and resources •agency and balance in their life •resilience when faced with everyday stresses •opportunities to develop fruitful relationships, connections and a sense of belonging •a sense of purpose and personal growth. Drawing on a model used within higher education and workplace settings, the strategy works with eight overlapping and intersecting strands that illustrate the breadth of College life and the interconnected nature of wellbeing, with the strands working together to create a positive sense of wellbeing for students, allowing them to flourish in their studies. These eight dimensions and their respective aims are: •Intellectual: Opportunities to access individualised academic guidance and resources for learning, to embrace curiosity more broadly and to engage in critically creative thought •Emotional: Opportunities to gain insight into our emotional lives through support and resources to develop positive ways to manage the ups and downs of life •Physical: Opportunities to explore the relationship between physical health, activity and general wellbeing by signposting information and offering resources •Financial: Opportunities to develop sustainable habits to manage personal finances and have access to appropriate advice and support •Social: Opportunities to be connected and develop a sense of belonging within a supportive, inclusive and considerate College community


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•Environmental: Opportunities to enjoy and discover the natural and built environments of the College that benefit our personal and communal wellbeing •Existential: Opportunities to explore what it means to live a meaningful and purposeful life, be curious about how the world is experienced and understand the significance of this experience •Vocational: Opportunities to identify and develop skills to navigate work and life after studying at Jesus, exploring various options. The strategic vision for student wellbeing has now begun to act as a compass for a whole-community approach to student wellbeing. The next steps are to set out a five-year operational plan that identifies areas for further development, whether around already strong provisions and practices within the College or in relation to emerging trends in student welfare needs in these eight dimensions. To identify these targeted actions, I will work with the Health and Wellbeing Team (the Student Wellbeing Lead, Mental Health Nurse and Community Health Practitioner), members of the wider Welfare Team and representatives from the Fellowship, staff and student communities. College student support continues to integrate well, of course, with University welfare systems. Over the past five years, the University has undergone a transformational mental health change programme. This has seen developments in student support services such as the University Counselling Service, Harassment and Violence Support Service and Accessibility and Disability Resource Centre, to meet the rising demand for services and ensure timely and effective interventions. The mental health change programme is now largely complete, and the University is moving into a new phase of strategic thinking around ensuring that students receive high-quality, accessible and timely support to improve educational outcomes for disabled students or those with mental health conditions. The University has also developed an Inclusive Education Hub in Education Services. The Hub will bring together expertise from across Education Services to provide more integrated support to departments around to inclusive education – supporting approaches to teaching, learning and assessment that meet the needs of the widest possible range of students. The Pathways to Inclusive Practice programme will take forward recommendations from the Teaching Review and the Review of the Approach to Provision for Disabled Students that I described in last year’s report.

During Mental Health Awareness week, students enjoyed morale-boosting treats such as free gelato and a visit from College Welfare Dog Pippy, pictured here with the Dean of Chapel, James Crockford, students and staff


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The College remains immensely grateful to the generosity of alumni, donors and the College Wellbeing Stimulus Fund for supporting recent innovations around student support in College. These innovations have included the recruitment of a Student Wellbeing Lead, the launch of an inaugural University-wide Student Wellbeing Forum, early preventative initiatives and the provision of specialist support for individual students. Donor generosity also provides stellar financial support for students that enables them to study, research and pursue extracurricular opportunities of various kinds, such as travel, sports and the arts. This past year, 127 undergraduates were bursary holders, receiving around £416,000 in financial assistance. Jesus College students received over £63,000 of study and internship grants, as well as travel, creativity and sports awards. Around £35,000 in prizes were awarded for academic performance. £32,000 was distributed to support research opportunities for postgraduates, with a further £300,000 in postgraduate scholarships and £30,000 in financial assistance. The College further supported students in accessing over £10,000 in specialist medical treatment, diagnostic assessment or other medical assistance, as well as financial assistance of various kinds from the University. The College depends upon the generosity, care and goodwill of alumni and other significant donors to be able to provide the highest level of support to our students, whose lives are significantly enriched, and who are able to access unparalleled opportunities as a result. More widely, the College community is in exceptionally good health. We admitted 144 undergraduate and 171 postgraduate students across all disciplines this past academic year, with a diverse profile of top-ranking students in terms of ethnic, religious and educational backgrounds. As diversity increases, the breadth and strength of our community grows and academic results remain strong. This year, for the second year in a row, we saw an increased number of students achieving First Class results and an overall increase in the number of students achieving Good Honours. Some of our students produced astonishingly good examination performances, including the students honoured by Benefactor’s (2004) Prizes and Keller Prizes or with departmental and faculty prizes. We should, of course, also recognise other results of many individual undergraduate students, which are, in their own terms and in their particular circumstances, every bit as impressive. The research and results of our postgraduates likewise display a similar range of notable achievements. For example, featured in this edition (pages 20-23) is PhD student in Architecture Saitabau Kumary (2024), who has been awarded the prestigious Heat Adaptive Architecture Design Award by the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre in recognition of his innovative work on climate-responsive design. Other examples include: Troy Fielder (PhD Geography), awarded the Jane Eliza Procter Visiting Fellowship to join the History of Science Faculty at Princeton University; Simone Eringfeld (PhD Polar Studies), who has written a book on podcasting as a research method; and Zara Kesterton (PhD History), who was jointly awarded the Historical Journal’s Early Career Researcher Prize for her article ‘Artificial Flowers in the Credit Records of an Eighteenth-Century French Fashion Merchant’. Across our undergraduate and postgraduate bodies, our student members are hard-working, high-achieving, resilient and well-balanced – a testimony to their creativity and academic excellence as well as to the nurturing qualities of the College community. n


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Bursary Dr Richard Anthony, Bursar As I noted in my report for last year, this year has seen a significant milestone in the history of the College with the departure of Wesley House from their section of West Court, and its occupation, refurbishment and redevelopment by the College. The project has proceeded well and will be covered in more detail in the Domestic Bursar’s report. However, I wanted to take the opportunity to thank all those who have been involved from across the College and the donors who have kindly supported this historic addition to the physical fabric of the College. The one element that is ongoing is the transformation of the Wesley Chapel into an Archives Centre, with associated offices and research facilities. Here we have been at the mercy of the vagaries of the planning system. We are hoping to have approval by the time you read this, and we anticipate completing the works and the Archives moving across in 2027.

Photo: Jamie Andersen Photography

This was an excellent example of the College making use of its financial resources to take full advantage of opportunities when they arise. Another occasion happened in September 2025, when the College was made aware of the upcoming sale of 22 Maids Causeway. The house was already configured for student accommodation, encompassing five student bedrooms and a basement partner flat. Given its short distance to the College and proximity to another College-owned student house (24 Maids Causeway), this was an opportunity too good to miss. The College was able to secure an off-market deal. The house was

The newly acquired College house at 22 Maids Causeway. The blue plaque marks the fact it is part of a block of houses known as ‘Dolls Close’, developed in the early 19th century by Charles Humfrey (1772-1848), later Mayor of Cambridge


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refurbished during Michaelmas and available for students in Lent 2026. With rising demand for student accommodation, especially from postgraduates, it was a very welcome addition to the College’s estate. In the meantime, we are continuing to manage our way through what continues to be a challenging financial environment in higher education, with operational costs rising faster than income. As a result, the College has had a deficit on its income and expenditure account, despite the large contribution from the endowment, which makes up a third of our income. With the support of the College Council and my colleagues on the Bursarial Committee, we have taken action to improve our operational finances, and this will see a return of a sustainable financial surplus. I would like to thank all parts of the College community – students, staff and Fellows – for playing their part in what is a multi-year plan. A regular feature of my report is a graph showing the College’s income and expenditure, which is based on the last set of published accounts for 2024-2025. This shows a very finely balanced situation in the College’s annual finances for unrestricted and restricted activities, with expenditure just exceeding income. The deficit on the educational account is particularly noticeable, and in 2024 it was £5.7 million. The last few years have seen increasing expenditure on teaching and on bursaries and other financial support for students, as well as a growth in student welfare provision. Despite our significant conferencing business, the residences/catering/conferences part of the operations also recorded a deficit, which continues to remain high due to the cost of providing catering and accommodation to the College’s students, Fellows and staff. These deficits are funded in part by donations, which remain an important source of income and endowment growth. We received £1.5 million in unrestricted and restricted donations, and an exceptional £7 million in endowment donations. The endowment contributions were principally due to a very large donation by Suzano to support College Income and Expenditure 2024/2025


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postgraduate students studying sustainability, the proceeds of which will be paid over to the College over a five-year period. The endowment remains the largest financial contributor to the College; half of it is invested in financial assets, and the remainder in directly held property located in and around Cambridge. In 2024-2025 total investment returns were 5.2 per cent, below the College’s target of CPI +5 per cent. These investments are overseen by the College’s Financial Investment Committee and Property Investment Committee, and I would like to take the opportunity to thank those who serve as external committee members (many of whom are alumni), who voluntarily offer their support and expertise to the College. The financial portfolio, which was primarily managed by Cazenove (part of Schroders) and the Cambridge University Endowment Fund, had a return of 5.3 per cent. This reflected movements within the global financial markets, with public markets performing ahead of private markets and alternatives. During this year, the Financial Investment Committee completed its review of the investment managers, and recommended replacing Cazenove with Legal & General Investment Management. In a subdued property market, the College’s property portfolio did well with a return of 5 per cent. The College benefited from increasing values for its rural land and some of its residential properties. Not included in these figures is a nine-house residential development in Harston, just to the south-west of Cambridge, on the site of a redundant farm, which was completed in early 2026. The College continues to benefit from a diversified portfolio in the Greater Cambridge area and is pursuing a number of development opportunities, including in the Station Road area and close to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, both key areas for the development of technology and life sciences, in which Cambridge is a global leader. The continuing focus of the government on the role of Cambridge as an engine for growth, demonstrated with the recent creation of the Greater Cambridge Development Corporation, bodes well for the future. We continue to make progress on a range of environmental initiatives, and the College remains a leader in the collegiate University on sustainability across all its activities. We have an active Environmental Committee and a Decarbonisation Working Party (which I chair). The College is a supporter of the Cambridge City Heat Network, which aims to develop a city-wide district heating network fuelled by renewable energy sources. Following the announcement about the creation of a ‘fossil-fuel phase out’ corporate bond index, which I referred to last year, there has been the recent launch of the Bloomberg Cambridge University Corporate Indices (BCam Indices), a new family of investment-grade corporate bond indices. This project was started by researchers based at the College before transferring to the University’s Department of Land Economy. I will finish by saying a huge thanks to our incredibly dedicated and hard-working members of staff, who are absolutely essential to the success of the College. One of the more pleasurable duties of my position is to write to members of staff, who have been given long-service awards. I would particularly like to pay tribute to Deborah Mansfield, who has run the Bursar’s office for the last 25 years and has supported the last four Bursars, including me.


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10 years Rachel Bentley – Conference Catherine Edmonds – Housekeeping Mehmet Osman – Maintenance Ewa Rozek – Catering Siu Yau Shuk – Housekeeping Adam Williams – Porters

15 years Haidee Carpenter – Maintenance Mandy Collis – Housekeeping Sonia Horton – Housekeeping Karen White Grant – Housekeeping

20 years Wu Dong – Housekeeping

25 years Chris Barker – Old Library Jenny Jenyon – Tutorial Deborah Mansfield – Bursar’s Office Rob Spragg – IT n

The Master (centre) with staff members celebrating 25 years at Jesus. From left to right: Deborah Mansfield, Chris Barker, Jenny Jenyon and Rob Spragg. Photo: Julian Huppert

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Domestic Bursar Stuart Websdale, Domestic Bursar As I enter my eighth year as Domestic Bursar, I have had opportunity to reflect on the ever-changing landscape of the College and to consider the potential it holds for the future. In many ways the past year has been about consolidating what we do best, while stretching ourselves to be even better. This report summarises the work undertaken across College operations; and it also sets the tone for how we need to operate in a world that asks us to be mindful of the resources we consume. The ultimate focus in all we do is enhancement of the College to enable our Fellowship and student members to thrive.

Building projects As reported in the 2025 Annual Report, the College has taken possession of Wesley House. A remarkable, speedy and sustained effort was then undertaken by a small working party and our Estates, Housing, Housekeeping and Conference Departments to bring the acquired buildings into College use. By the start of Lent Term 2026, the College was operating 22 new student bedrooms, 20 new conference bedrooms and five new meeting rooms. The students now residing in the former Wesley House Principal’s Lodge have the added benefit of a roll-top bath being left in situ. The building also hosts three non-residential commercial lets and, from next year, the new College Archive Centre.

One of the new conference rooms, the Lisa Jardine Room in West Court. Photo: Jamie Andersen Photography


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In existing buildings, a rolling upgrade of the rooms in North Court was completed this summer. East House, which hosts the Bursary, is having a much-needed refresh of its common areas. This will include upgraded heating interventions, and the relocation of some offices and spaces to make the building operate more efficiently. The Choir Practice Room, formerly in East House, has been relocated to the former Coleridge Room. This move has allowed for all music practice in the College to be co-located in a single precinct. With the support of the Director of Music, the new space has been designed to suit the needs of the Choir, including dedicated welfare facilities, shelving for music storage, a breakout space and beautiful wood-panelled acoustic walls. Michaelmas Term will see the Choir using this new space full-time. Outside of the College grounds, a new student house on Maids Causeway, containing five additional bedrooms plus a one-bedroom flat, has been acquired, refurbished to our standards and is now in use.

Environmental matters and sustainability The Head of Estates, Energy and Capital Projects, under the steerage of the College’s Decarbonisation Working Party and the College’s Net Zero Advisor, is working on a number of projects that will further reduce the College’s dependency on fossil fuels. The first of these – to extend the use of energy generated by the College’s ground source heat pump installation to additional buildings – has reached the developed design stage. Additional interventions include the planned fitting of additional photovoltaic panels, improved wall and roof void insulation, and thermal glazing installation and shading.

Gardens and College grounds As in the long, hot summer of 2022, the gardens have been affected in 2026 by a prolonged period of drought, and a hosepipe ban. The Head of Grounds and Gardens and his team learned lessons from the 2022 drought and have ensured that the flower beds have remained alive and attractive through an increase in the planting of drought-resistant species. This planting has also supported the no-dig practice adopted by the team, which minimises the carbon released from the turning of earth. Additional seating and sunshades have been placed on the former hockey pitch to allow College members to enjoy some shade and relaxation in this popular area of College. A move to all-electric vehicles and gardening equipment The stunning drought-proof flowering borders in College during the exceptionally hot summer. when tired equipment needs replacing has Photo: Lee De Grammont


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enabled the department to continue to divest itself of equipment that needs fossil fuels to operate. The team are also working closely with the City Council on supporting the waterflow in the Jesus Ditch, which forms the boundary between Jesus Green and the College. This year we also, with thanks to an experienced team of veterinarians, relocated a roe deer that had taken up residence in the Woodland Walk during the pandemic. Now mature, the stag was becoming dissatisfied and was displaying aggressive behaviour. He was humanely and carefully relocated to a privately owned estate, to join an existing deer herd. Named ‘Jesus’ by the vets who relocated him, we have been provided with the update that he has settled in well and has established a small group with some of the does in the herd.

Catering and conference I am exceptionally pleased with the performance of the Conferencing and Catering Departments this year. Their performance has shown a 25 per cent growth in revenue, with a modest amount coming from the additional rooms in the former Wesley House. We have invested in growing the team to deliver additional revenue in the coming years. The Development and Alumni Relations Office has delivered more functions than in previous years, and we are starting to see an increase in return visits from academic clientele, whose presence blends seamlessly with our community.

Health, safety and security We are soon to welcome a new full-time Health, Safety and Compliance Manager, replacing the previous Health and Safety Manager.

Community engagement We continue to offer support to local charities in many ways: staff volunteering; the dovetailing of events so that community groups can benefit from the use of facilities already provided for College members; offering services such as the building of ‘Free Little Libraries’ to be situated in deprived areas of the city; and collecting recyclable waste that can be used by charities to earn an income. We also encourage beneficiaries of free places we receive for the Cambridge Half Marathon to fundraise on behalf of a local charity that supports primary school aged children and their families to improve their wellbeing. I know that there are several members of our staff who also give their time, outside of work, to local Scout and Guide groups, children’s sports teams, art projects and visiting elderly care home residents. My thanks this year are particularly passed to all staff who offer their energy and enthusiasm to worthy causes. And, finally, I wish to note that the College has had another fantastic year on the water with the Women’s crew successfully defending their Headship and the Men’s 1st achieving key row-overs, with multiple lower and middle boats securing daily bumps. There is a high level of participation for rowing which sets a great foundation for the Jesus College Boat Club bicentennial celebrations commencing in Michaelmas Term. n


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The Chapel The Rev’d Dr James Crockford, Dean of Chapel The Chapel may have been here for centuries, but each year brings a new season in its ministry to the College community. The beautiful building itself provides a welcome sanctuary in a busy Term, affording space and time to decompress and find peace. The Chapel programme of services and events brings together people from across the College community and beyond, of any faith and none, for prayer and personal formation, to explore big ideas and questions that shape us and our world, and for support and care whatever life brings. A highlight of this year was the arrival of a specially commissioned College triptych. Produced by Ian Knowles, a British icon-painter based in Italy, it includes the College’s three patrons – the Virgin Mary, St Radegund and St John the Evangelist – as well as our namesake, Jesus, as a child with his mother. The icon was displayed and discussed by students, Fellows, staff and friends, as part of the John Hughes Arts Festival in March, before being dedicated and blessed in the Easter Term and installed in the Chapel vestry, for which it was designed. Icons like this are a focus of devotion and contemplation, inviting us to consider how human lives may make manifest divine glory, and, through the holiness of those they depict, pointing us toward God.

Photo: Nordin Ćatić

Icons are often rich in symbolism and suggestion. In our new triptych, Radegund’s posture replicates her depiction in an early illustrated manuscript of a telling of her life. Knowles rendered her as a keen student with a supply of books and her pen at the ready; she sits on a stool decorated with coronets, hinting at her royal lineage; and a rose climbs around her figure, recalling Bishop Gregory of Tours’ admiration of her piety, who wrote that her face “shone like the rose and the lily”. To the right, St John the Evangelist appears with an unfurled scroll of his Gospel, in which the wonder of the Incarnation is so memorably told: “and the Word became flesh”. He appears on a doctor’s seat, as a teacher – both he and Radegund hinting at the educational mission of the College. His seat is decorated with a chicken, a nod to the frequent College pun on its founder, John Alcock (who inserted the dedication of his namesake, St John, into the College’s official name). The Virgin and Child sit on an ivory throne in a walled garden, with two biblical trees – a fig and an olive – behind which are represented the waters of life, the new heavens and new earth, and a rainbow, signifying God’s promise to Noah ever to care for and preserve humanity. Behind Mary lies the new Jerusalem, its temple curtain torn open through Christ’s death and resurrection, to make open the way to God’s presence. In the temple had been the Ark of the Covenant, the seat of God’s dwelling, in which was kept the record of the Jewish law and covenant. Mary also is sometimes described as an ark of the covenant,


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Jesus College triptych by Ian Knowles. Photo: Ian Knowles

bearing God’s presence in the Christ-child who ushers in the new covenant for all peoples. Above this scene is a rendering of the Holy Name of Jesus, as found in the 3rd-century Megiddo mosaic (discovered in Israel in 2005), which dedicates a communal, domestic table “to God Jesus Christ”. The Chapel, and then College, became known as ‘Jesus’ because, as a medieval priory church, its nave altar for the local parish was dedicated to the Name of Jesus. The regular round of Chapel worship continues to provide an inspiring and enriching opportunity for prayer, formation and community. Weekly student ‘nanosermons’ have surprised, amused and challenged our thinking in equal measure, taking as their topics such diverse themes as the impossibility of justice, the experience of fasting through Ramadan, the concept of infinity, LGBTQ+ history and inclusion, and friendship as a model against inter-religious division. Annual highlights among the many Chapel services include a visit by the Bishop of Huntingdon for Baptism and Confirmation, a packed Chapel for the Advent, Christmas and All Souls’ services, and the Commemoration of Benefactors attended by scholars, exhibitioners, Fellows and distinguished donors and associates. In Michaelmas, visiting speakers at Sunday Evensong explored angles on the work of establishing a just and peaceful world, touching on conflict resilience, the politics of memory, youth activism and reparations for enslavement. In Lent Term, each speaker discussed the life and work of someone they felt touched on the longings, hopes and desires of the human soul, including educational reformer Mary Ward, Brazilian footballer Sócrates, the artist Marc Chagall, poet Seamus Heaney and wandering evangelist Sadhu Sundar Singh. In Easter Term, we considered various ways in which Christian thought transcends particular categories of human thought and perspective, considering concepts


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such as materialism, the ego, death and competition, as well as the challenges of artificial intelligence and populist ideologies to our sense of human dignity. Weekly ‘Food & Faith’ discussion evenings gathered together a good group of students over pizza and drinks, unpacking core concepts in Christian faith and practice, and wrestling with the meaning of Jesus’ miracle stories in the Gospels. At the close of Lent Term, a coachload of students and visiting scholars spent a Chapel Quiet Day in the beautiful surroundings of Clare Priory in Suffolk. In a popular feature on the exam season calendar, Pippy the Welfare Dog and I joined with the Health and Wellbeing team for weekly ‘Pippy and Popsicles’, helping people leave the stresses of work for a moment and reconnect with each other. Regular Art Club sessions provided the chance to relax in the peace and quiet of Chapel, and have a go at drawing its intriguing features and façades. All that happens in Chapel would not be possible without the wonderful team of staff and students who keep it going. Under the direction of Benjamin Sheen, together with our organ scholars Miriam Reveley and James Brew, the choirs provide a rich musical offering that shapes so much of the character of our Chapel worship, and are a delight to work with. I am hugely grateful to Eleanor Lancelot (Assistant Chaplain, 2020-2023) for stepping back in to assist with some services as Interim Dean’s Clerk alongside her main role as Choir and Chapel Office Coordinator. Jonny Ball joined the Chapel Office as Secretary and has been a joy to work with in administering the running of Chapel services and activities. Rowan Ireland joined us on placement from Westcott House, where he is training for ordination while reading Theology at Jesus, and has been instrumental in facilitating Sunday services and looking after members of the Chapel community. Regular services in Chapel only happen with the help and hospitality of our student Chapel Clerks (Kian Cross and Caitlin Norman) and Secretaries (Niamh Bradshaw, Yohana Gasu, Elisabeth Jones, Mali Jones, Holly Lawson, Jane Macharia, Thomas McDonagh, Thomas Oldaker, Theo Pyy-Sitzia, Elijah Sheldrake and Bethan Soanes). For all that has been, Deo gratias. n

Members of the College Choir sing from the Waterhouse Tower for Ascension Day. Photo: Simon Durrant


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Music Benjamin Sheen, Director of Music It has been an unusually busy year in the musical life of the College, with musical ensembles and events continuing to flourish. Jesus College remains one of the foremost musical Colleges within the University, offering unparalleled facilities and opportunities for musicians of all levels, as well as the exceptional musical education that the chorister programme offers to the wider Cambridge community. The JCMS has been expertly steered this year by co-Presidents Freddie Jemison and Jennifer Buss, who have overseen a revival of the Jesus College Big Band led by Iona Hendelman, which has performed at a number of high-profile College events; a new ‘jam session’ on Tuesday evenings for all students regardless of musical experience; an increased number of gigs in the Brewery Room featuring bands and musicians from within the College and beyond; an expansion of the guitar ensemble; and two wonderful JCMS orchestral concerts, directed by talented student conductors. The David Crighton Concert in March was a particular highlight, which included an accomplished concerto performance by clarinettist Tommaso Vigliocco. The College has made provision for free piano lessons funded through the Centre for Music Performance, encouraging those who have not had access to formal tuition before. The academic year ended with a fantastic performance of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, conducted by Freddie Jemison and narrated expertly by Dr Anthony Bowen – a free event put on for over 200 schoolchildren from across Cambridge. The choirs have had a busy year of performances above and beyond the regular Chapel services. Highlights have included a performance of Fauré’s Requiem for All Souls’ Day in November; a Christmas performance of Handel’s Messiah with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; a Christmas concert in the College living of St Mary the Virgin Church, Cavendish; and participating in a performance of Britten’s War Requiem with the University Orchestra and five other Cambridge college choirs. In April, the Chapel Choir (choristers and adults) toured to Puglia The choristers on tour in Monopoli, Italy. Photo: Miranda Wright


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in Italy, singing three concerts to packed out churches and cathedrals in Monopoli, Lucera and Molfetta. Performances by the choir in Chapel have included Eleanor Daley’s beautiful Requiem and an end-of-year concert featuring music by Britten, Vaughan Williams and Finzi. The chorister programme here continues to thrive, with 24 choristers and probationers this year. Our annual recruitment events in the Easter Term continue to be well attended and show great promise for the future. In a city filled with musical opportunities for children, I am pleased to see that Jesus continues to offer one of the most popular and stimulating musical experiences that seems to appeal to families within Cambridge and beyond. The choristers are an integral part of College life and continue to enhance the musical life of the College and Chapel, as they have done for centuries. An exciting development this year has been the creation of a new music suite in what was the Coleridge Meeting Room. This project has seen the building of a bespoke rehearsal space, new choir library and teaching space for the choir and choristers. I am grateful to Stuart Websdale, Lance Weinman and their teams for all their hard work in bringing this to fruition. Next year will mark the first academic year in the new facilities, which will no doubt enhance music making across the College further. With the end of another busy academic year comes a time of reflection on the year just past. I am privileged to work with my wonderful Chapel and music colleagues, and their support and inspiration is integral to the success of the Chapel and music departments. I would like to recognise the exceptional contribution of the organ scholars (Miriam Reveley and James Brew), the choir librarians (Charlie Martin and Jeremy Stafford), Eleanor Lancelot (Choir and Chapel Office Coordinator and Interim Dean’s Clerk) and, of course, James Crockford (Dean of Chapel), who all continue to be a pleasure to work with here at the College. n

The College Choir performed at this year’s Society of St Radegund Dinner in the Master’s Garden. Photo: Jamie Andersen Photography


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The Library and Archives Dr Michael Edwards, Keeper of the Old Library and Fellow Librarian; Rhona Watson, Quincentenary Librarian; Dr Robin Payne, College Archivist The Old Library This has been a year of significant transition in the Old Library. Chris Baker, Assistant Keeper, retired in April after more than 25 years of distinguished service to the College, first in the Quincentenary Library and then in the Old Library. Chris’s expertise, thoughtfulness, good humour and dedicated care for the collections of the Old Library and its readers will be much missed by everyone in the College’s libraries and Archives, and across the wider Jesus community. The work she has done on the printed book collection will be a permanent foundation for all future research on the Old Library. Dr Roz Green joined the College as the new Assistant Keeper in July from Peterhouse, where she has worked in the Ward and Perne Libraries, bringing expertise in printed books and medieval history. At Jesus she will, amongst other things, work on cataloguing the printed book collection, with the aim of making the whole collection accessible through the University’s online catalogue, deal with visiting researchers and enquiries, and look after our print and manuscript collections. Throughout the year, the Old Library has continued to welcome researchers from across the globe and closer to home. Tours for College members and alumni have proved popular. Our collection of medieval manuscripts attracts a regular stream of visitors, but the printed book collection is also increasingly important for researchers interested in provenance,

The Old Library. Photo: Sara Rawlinson at Heritage Photographs


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Some of the many books in the Jesuan collection in the Webb Library

book bindings and the history of the book. The Old Library is not just a storehouse of treasures and rarities, but an evolving resource for scholarship and research across the College and beyond. Lent Term saw the installation of a new Old Library exhibition, which was well received by visitors and members of College. Titled ‘Scribble, Scribble: Readers and Writers in the Collections of the Old Library’, it ran in the Marshall Room from 16 March to 22 April and returns for a longer run in Michaelmas Term 2026. The exhibition highlighted the many different ways in which readers have marked, annotated and otherwise desecrated our books over the centuries, displaying many items from the collection that have not been seen in public before. From the ownership inscriptions of the philosopher Anne Conway (1631-1679) and Jesus Fellow, soldier and polyglot book owner Francis Sterling (1652-1692), to vigorous 16th-century Protestant attempts to obliterate the names of saints, to the 18th-century devotional work improved by the addition of pasted-in Victorian cartoons, the exhibition shows some of the various uses the Library’s books have been put to since the Middle Ages. The exhibition was generously supported by donations made in memory of Peter Glazebrook (1936-2024; Fellow 1967-2001; Emeritus Fellow 2001-2024 and former Keeper of the Old Library). More Old Library exhibitions are planned for future years. Not all books under the care of the Old Library are old. The Jesuan collection of books by and about Jesus members (alumni, students, staff members, Fellows and all other members of College) continues to grow. It is currently displayed in the Webb Library, and acts as a constantly expanding monument to the creativity and scholarship of the Jesus community. New donations are always welcome!


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Learning to See VI by Sir Antony Gormley is part of the College’s permanent sculpture collection and serves as a welcoming landmark for readers and visitors entering the Quincentenary Library

The Quincentenary Library The Quincentenary Library was 30 years old this year. We opened the doors to users on 13 November 1995, and were officially opened on 8 March 1996. Lyra Browning (2024) created a leporello (an illustrated accordion-pleated booklet) for us to display in the foyer for November 2025, and Rhona Watson, the Quincentenary Librarian, reprised the 21st anniversary exhibition for March 2026. The 2026 Exhibition included a section on The Current and Future Library, as well as some more student pieces under the Memories section. Sarah Burton, the Assistant Librarian (Academic Services) has received her Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy. This will provide recognition and authority for the teaching and learning support she provides. Assistant Librarian Diana Caulfield is currently undertaking a one-year Data Analyst apprenticeship, developing skills in data analysis, automation and process optimisation. This will help streamline workflows and support a more efficient and data-informed library service.

College Archives The Archives are in a period of transition and transformation. At the beginning of Michaelmas Term, we closed to readers and researchers in order to focus on the planning and the creation of a new Archives Centre in West Court. The new Centre will have purposefully designed storage facilities, a dedicated research and reading room, specialist digitisation suite and secure restricted access store – equipped with enhanced security and fire suppression systems to protect the College’s most significant historic records. This work could not be achieved without the support of the alumni community, and we are thrilled to be working with two significant sets of donors: Sudipto Sarkar (1967, Law) and his wife Malabika Sarkar, who have made the development of the dedicated reading room possible; and John Corrie (1978, Economics), whose generosity has led to the refit of the


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former Wesley House Archive Store and its recreation as the Corrie Charter Room. We look forward to sharing more details of the new Centre in 2026-2027 as the project develops. Every year I am amazed by the commitment and contribution of our dedicated team of volunteers: Berry Bottrell, Adam Brzosko, Cherry Chan, Lanyu Chen, Lyra Christie, Una Corbett, Rachael Edmonston, Leila Goldstone, Alesia Laci, Rebecca Rylands, Morven Stanforth and Elif Yumru. This year they have audited the entire collection of the College’s historic records and even rolled up their sleeves to move boxes of records into temporary storage while work took place on East House, the former home of the Archives. A major change in the past year has been an organisational one. At Easter Susan Webb retired after 23 years of service. Susan started in the Archives Office before later moving over to the IT Department as the College’s first Records Manager. Susan has been a real asset to the College, and her institutional knowledge will be greatly missed. However, with change comes an opportunity and the responsibilities of the Archives Office have been expanded to include the whole record lifecycle. The newly named Archives and Information Management Department will take a holistic approach to all records created by the College, streamlining the process of records management while ensuring that the College is fulfilling its legal obligations for retention and disposal, and accessioning the records that it deems worthy of long-term historic preservation. Emily Royston joined the team to develop the systems required for effective records management and work within the College more broadly on compliance and information governance. The Marshall Room’s exhibitions programme started in Michaelmas Term with Jesus College: Student Life, which is reinstalled annually to give new students an introduction to the history of the College. The Archives would like to thank John (1961, Mechanical Sciences) and Jan Dugdale Bradley for their continuing financial support of this exhibition. In Lent Term the Old Library showcased the readers, annotators and scribblers who left their mark in the

Emily Royston in the Laurence Sterne Room, which houses more of our growing collection of books written by, and donated by, members of the Jesuan community


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Dr Dorian Peters at the launch of the exhibition Health Across the Globe. Photo: Marco da Re

Old Library’s books, while in Easter Term Dr Dorian Peters (Intellectual Forum Senior Research Associate and Assistant Professor, Institute for Technology and Humanity at the University of Cambridge) curated Health Across the Globe: Stories of Care from the Outback to the Amazon, with photographs contributed by our global academic community. Among the year’s most interesting donations to the Archives was the literary archive of John Wall (1930, English Literature), who wrote supernatural and fantastical fiction under the pen name Sarban in the early 1950s. His papers have already garnered interest from international researchers and we are very grateful to his family for this deposit and continuing support. We also received some very personal records from Emily Winslow Stark and Gavin Stark, who regularly recorded and documented choir performances and tours while their two sons were choristers between 2010 and 2018. We are very happy that they have decided to share these records with the College Archives, which have been added to the College’s ever-growing digital repository. Finally, with the Boat Club about to enter its bicentenary year, we have been pleased to add to our collections of rowing records and memorabilia. Duncan Rule, Assistant Archivist, has continued to collect JCBC records for exhibitions and books related to the upcoming celebrations. When the River and Rowing Museum in Henley sadly closed in September 2025, the Archives team moved quickly to secure the Museum’s many treasures related to JCBC, with alongside many paper records, an 1876 silver teapot and Steve Fairbairn’s No. 7 seat. Gifts to the Archives are hugely appreciated. If you would like to donate any College-related items, please email archives@jesus.cam.ac.uk with details. A catalogue of our current holdings can be found on the College Collections page of the website: https://collegecollections.jesus.cam.ac.uk/index.php. n


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Books and articles by Members and Old Members of the College donated to the Libraries The donations acknowledged here are those received before the end of June 2026. Any items received after that date will be listed in next year’s Annual Report. BUCKLEY, T.J. (1986) i) The Drumchester Diaries: The Extraordinary in the Ordinary. A Story of Friendship and Hope (Taunton, Mirador Publishing, 2022); ii) From Whom No Secrets are Hidden: The First Adam Pennycome Novel (Taunton, Mirador Publishing, 2024); ii) The Hearts of the Fathers: The Second Adam Pennycome Novel (Taunton, Mirador Publishing, 2025) CHU, C. (2005) i) Macau’s Historical Flavors: Hidden Stories Seen by the Crumbs Left Behind that Everyone Should Know About, by Christopher Chu and Pui Man Hoi (Macau, Macaenses Editora, 2025); ii) Macau’s Historical Witnesses: 22 Hidden Stories Seen by the City’s Landmarks that Everyone Should Know About, by Christopher Chu and Pui Man Hoi (Macau, The Macanese Publishing Ltd, 2022); iii) Testemunhas da História de Macau: 22 Histórias Desconhecidas Presenciadas pelos Marcos Históricos da Cidade que Todos Deveriam Conhecer, by Christopher Chu and Pui Man Hoi, translated into Portuguese by Ivo de Noronha Vital (Macau, Macaenses Editora, 2025) COOPER, P.M. (1977) i) Radio’s Legacy in Popular Culture: The Sounds of British Broadcasting Over the Decades (London, Bloomsbury Academic, 2022); ii) Brazilian Railway Culture (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011) DENNIS, R. (Fw Commoner 2000-2007; Fw 2007-2018; EFw 2018-) Royal Navy Ships’ Bottoms and Boot-topping of the Second World War Era (Market Harborough, Troubador Publishing, 2026) FLETCHER, B.R. (1890) Bertram Fletcher Robinson; A Footnote to “The Hound of the Baskervilles”, by Brian W. Pugh and Paul R. Spiring [donated by Paul R. Spiring] HAMLEY, D. (1956) Spirit of the Place (Great Britain, Writers Review Publishing, 2026) HAROUNOFF, J. (2013) Unveiled: Inside Iran’s #womanlifefreedom Revolt (Texas, Black Rose Writing, 2025) LATIMER, A. (1980) The Wine in My Glass: Tales of Wines, Winemakers & Places (Fishguard, Medlar Press, 2025) LEECH, R.H. (1963) The Romano-British Villa and Prehistoric Settlement at Low Ham, Somerset, by David Robert, Roger H. Leech and Rachel S. Cubitt (London, The Society of Antiquaries of London, 2025) LETTS, Q.R.S. (1986) Nunc!: a Novel (London, Constable, 2025)


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PRYNNE, J.H. (1957) Graft and Corruption: Shakespeare’s Sonnet 15 (Cambridge, Face Press, 2015) [donated by Gonville and Caius College Library] SHAHEEN, S. (2004) Freebourne: A Novel (London, Roundfire Books, 2025) STEPHENSON, D. (1977) i) Robert Fraser’s Groovy Arts Club Band (London, Gazelli Art House, 2019 [book]; ii) Robert Fraser’s Groovy Arts Club Band (London, Gazelli Art House, 2018) [record] TOOZE, J.A. (Fw 1996-2009) Статистика и германское государствоб 1900-1945: Создание современного экономиуеского знания / Адам Туз (Russian translation of Statistics and the German State 1900-1945: The Making of Modern Economic Knowledge) (Moscow, Delo, 2021) TROMANS, A. (1991) ‘Regulation of Reinsurers in the United Kingdom’ in The Law of Reinsurance in England and Bermuda, edited by P.T. O’Neill and J.W. Woloniecki. 3rd Edition (London, Sweet & Maxwell, 2010) WHYTE, I.B. (1971) Metropole Wien: Eine Anthologie zu Architektur und Stadtkultur: 1850-1945, edited by Ruth Hanisch, Harald R. Stühlinger and Iain Boyd Whyte (Basel, Birkhaüer, 2025)

Other donations O’GRADY, R. – Diane Maclean: The Journey of an Environmental Sculptor (London, Hut 22 Books, 2025) n

Some of the vast collection of books in the Old Library. Photo: Sara Rawlinson at Heritage Photographs


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Art at Jesus Dr Aisha Sobey, Acting Curator, Works of Art It has been an exceptionally busy year for the College’s Works of Art programme, with activity spanning exhibitions, conservation, collections care, new displays, portrait commissions and the ongoing stewardship of the College’s remarkable art collection. A major focus has been bringing more of the College’s collections into public view. Our principal exhibition, Inspired: Modern and Contemporary Art from the Collections at Jesus College, celebrated the richness of the College’s holdings, tracing the story of art at Jesus from the 1940s through to today. Progress is also well underway for our next exhibition, opening in Michaelmas 2026, which will showcase Victorian art and design at Jesus through works from across the College’s collections, as well as an exciting new commission from the artist Abi Ola. The exhibition is planned to coincide with A Call to Art: William Morris and the Pre-Raphaelites at the Fitzwilliam Museum, to which the College is lending two objects: a section of woven textile and a sketch design of artwork for the Chapel ceiling. Together, these exhibitions highlight the depth and quality of the collection while making it more accessible to our community and visitors. Behind the scenes, significant work has gone into caring for the collection. Following the creation of the College’s new art store, hundreds of works have been moved, allowing us

The exhibition Inspired: Modern and Contemporary Art from the Collections at Jesus College at the West Court Gallery. Photo: © Jo Underhill

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Barry Flanagan’s Bronze Horse (1983) in First Court receiving a deep clean. Photo: Patina Art

to gain a clearer understanding of their condition and helping identify conservation priorities for our paintings. Conservation of our sculptures has also continued, with the College’s outdoor bronze sculptures receiving specialist cleaning and maintenance, including the much-loved Bronze Horse (1983) by sculptor Barry Flanagan. Across the College, more works of art are returning to public display. As refurbishment projects and the expansion into Wesley House have created new opportunities, artworks from the permanent collection have been installed in additional locations, allowing members of the College community to encounter them in their everyday surroundings. This summer also saw Kier Smith’s Iron Band that Binds Green Heart installed in Chapel Court, bringing another important sculpture back into public view after a period in storage. Alongside caring for and showcasing our collection, considerable work has supported the College’s portrait collection. Preparations for commissioning the Master’s portrait have progressed well, while a review of the Presidents’ portraits has identified previously undisplayed works, in addition to commissions for our most recent Presidents, creating new opportunities to broaden the diversity of artists whose work we display in College. None of these achievements would have been possible without the dedication of colleagues across the College. In particular, Assistant Curator Laura Dennis has led major curatorial projects throughout the year, bringing exceptional expertise and commitment to exhibitions, collections care and the stewardship of the College’s collections. n


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Careers Programme Sarah Richey and Clelia Lamilhau, Careers Mentors This year, the Careers Team responded to what has become one of the most challenging graduate employment markets in recent memory. With regular headlines highlighting rising graduate unemployment and growing competition for entry-level roles, many students have understandably felt increased uncertainty about their next steps. We have seen a noticeable rise in students reconsidering career plans, seeking additional support and, in some cases, pursuing further study as a means of navigating an increasingly complex labour market. Against this backdrop, the College’s careers programme focused on providing practical guidance, informed perspectives and opportunities for students to build confidence in their future choices. In July, we launched our inaugural Finalists’ Day, a dedicated event designed to support third-year, fourth-year and postgraduate students as they prepare to leave Cambridge. Bringing together alumni, College staff and industry experts, the programme addressed many of the key challenges facing today's graduates. University Careers Consultant Raj Sidhu explored the realities of the graduate labour market, dispelled many myths and explained how students can make the most of the extensive Cambridge and Jesus College networks. Director of ThinkLab and Senior Research Associate at the Intellectual Forum, Tyler Shores, examined the impact of artificial intelligence on careers and workplaces, encouraging students to develop the adaptability and resilience that will be increasingly important in the years ahead. Jesuan Omaid Hiwaizi (1987) shared insights from the world of start-ups and high-growth businesses, while College Bursar Richard Anthony (2017) provided practical advice on personal finance, from understanding payslips and student loan repayments to building long-term financial security. The day concluded with a

Omaid Hiwaizi gave an interesting presentation on start-ups as part of the Finalist’s Day. Photo: Sarah Richey


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networking reception and professional LinkedIn photography from our wonderful temporary Careers and Mentoring Officer, Teddy Mack, ensuring finalists left with both practical knowledge and an enhanced professional profile. Entrepreneurship has continued to be a growing area of interest among our students, with increasing numbers exploring the possibility of launching their own ventures or pursuing careers within start-ups and spin-outs. In response, the College delivered a range of entrepreneurial initiatives, including repeating the popular workshop co-hosted with Cambridge Enterprise, So You've Got an Idea – What Next?, alongside termly entrepreneurship clinics led by local entrepreneur, consultant and investor Bradley Hardiman. The Master also hosted a special conversation with accomplished alumni Steve Pope (1990), Jonathan Wills (2000) and Jonathan Grundy (1988). Drawing on their expertise in technology, intellectual property and investment banking, the panel shared knowledge and advice on how to transform ideas into successful businesses, secure investment and navigate the challenges of growth. These events gave aspiring entrepreneurs direct access to experienced founders, investors and advisers, while showcasing the breadth of opportunities within Cambridge's vibrant innovation ecosystem. Supporting creativity and careers in the arts and media also remained an important priority. The Careers Team helped deliver the College's inaugural 48-Hour Film Challenge, providing 174 sixth-form, college and university (Cambridge and ARU) students from across Cambridge with a unique opportunity to write, direct, shoot and edit an original five-minute film over a single weekend. Working to the theme Out of the Blue, participants showcased exceptional creativity and storytelling, with films judged by a prestigious panel including Sir David Hare (1965), David Heyman, James McCarthy and Piers Leigh as well as College Fellows Professor Yaron Peleg and Dr Maite Conde. Supported by Sony, which provided professional filmmaking equipment, the challenge culminated in a public screening and awards ceremony, giving young filmmakers valuable exposure, industry feedback and the experience of presenting their work to a wider audience. The event highlighted the depth of creative talent across Cambridge and reinforced Jesus College’s commitment to nurturing emerging storytellers and fostering opportunities for artistic development. The team also supported the Hook, Line and Lyric songwriting competition, which is fast becoming an established tradition, encouraging students to develop creative skills and collaborate across disciplines (see also page 86 of this Report). The Master also hosted a discussion on the world of audio storytelling and broadcasting, featuring Visiting Fellow Dr Eliane Glaser, Finn Ranson (2017) and Nicholas Philps (2024). Drawing on their award-winning careers in radio, podcasting and media production, the panellists shed light on the creative process, career development and the evolving opportunities within the sector. By connecting students with leading practitioners and alumni working in the creative industries, the event provided inspiration, practical advice and a clearer understanding of pathways into highly competitive creative careers. The rapid development of artificial intelligence and its impact on workplaces, industries and career pathways informed a number of our careers events throughout the year.


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Recognising that technological change is reshaping not only the types of roles available to graduates but also the skills employers increasingly value, the Careers team delivered a series of discussions designed to help students understand the opportunities and challenges presented by AI-driven transformation. As part of our In the Business of… series, the Master hosted a conversation with Tami Hoffman (1990), Director of Public Policy at The Guardian. Drawing on senior roles across Sky, PA Media, ITN and The Guardian, Tami explored how AI is transforming the news and media industry, from content creation and audience engagement to copyright, trust and editorial integrity. The discussion provided students with valuable insight into how established organisations are adapting to technological disruption while preserving core professional values, and highlighted the evolving skills required for careers in journalism and communications. A further event focused on the application of AI within life sciences, research and business. Joshua Bambrick (2013) of Isomorphic Labs and Alexander Schurer (2021) of Causaly shared perspectives from the forefront of AI-enabled scientific discovery and pharmaceutical research. Students gained an understanding of how AI is accelerating drug development, advancing biological research and creating new interdisciplinary career opportunities that combine technology, science and commercial expertise. The discussion demonstrated the breadth of opportunities emerging from AI innovation while reinforcing the importance of digital literacy, adaptability and cross-sector skills in an increasingly technology-driven economy. Taken together, these initiatives reflect the College’s commitment to preparing students for a rapidly changing world of work. Whether pursuing established professions, exploring entrepreneurial ambitions, entering the creative industries or positioning themselves for opportunities emerging from technological change, our students continue to benefit from access to expert guidance, engaged alumni and a supportive community dedicated to helping them thrive beyond Jesus College. n

A group of students at a workshop. Photo: Thomas Garnier


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Intellectual Forum Dr Julian Huppert, Director The Intellectual Forum (IF) was established almost a decade ago to champion cross-disciplinary discussion across the College community, the University and the wider public within Cambridge and beyond. In this tenth year of the IF, we continue our mission to promote the intellectual life of the College to a global audience and to provide opportunities to students, Fellows, staff and alumni. Particular highlights from a packed year include the annual Lisa Jardine Memorial Lecture delivered by Professor Simon Rennie, several student-led events and the transfer of the ThinkLab project from the University to the IF.

Public talks at the IF Public talks remain at the heart of the IF’s work, and this year has seen a packed calendar of 22 events open to the public, ranging from anti-Kremlin protest art to a talk on childrearing practices in rainforest communities from Jesus College alumna Dr Guen Bradbury (2005). In October, the IF hosted the launch of a major collection of dissident Russian protest art. Artists Against the Kremlin, a groundbreaking exhibition held last year in Amsterdam, brought together over 100 works by Russian-speaking artists opposing war and authoritarianism, including Nadya Tolokonnikova (Pussy Riot), Linor Goralik and Sasha Skochilenko. Exhibition curator Vladimir Shalamov and Moscow Times publisher Alexander Gubsky launched the exhibition catalogue at the IF with a lavishly illustrated lecture on the history of protest art in Russia from the Tsarist Empire to the present day. One attendee praised the talk as a ‘thought-provoking, eye-opening and multi-layered tour de force’. Later in the month, journalist Keme Nzerem joined Jesus Fellow Professor Mia Bay, Jamila Smith, Bernice Bennett, Evelyn Osuagwu and Adaeze Nzerem at the IF to discuss Long Juju, a feature documentary in progress tracking Keme’s global journey to search for, and connect with, descendants of the people his ancestors had enslaved. Attendees reflected on the ‘brilliant discussion’, which explored the challenges of

Left to right: Sachin Booysen, Sonita Alleyne, Keme Nzerem and Professor Mia Bay at the IF’s ‘Long Juju’ event


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historical accountability, reconciliation and the complex legacies of slavery. This year’s Lisa Jardine Memorial Lecture saw Simon Rennie, Associate Professor of Victorian Poetry at the University of Exeter, present his project recovering Jacob Bronowski’s poetic legacy from the Jesus College Archives. The annual lecture honours Jesus College’s first female Fellow, and Bronowski’s daugher, Lisa Jardine. A condensed version of the lecture appears on pages 28-32 of this Annual Report. After the talk, attendees continued the conversation at a drinks reception hosted by the IF and the Development and Alumni Relations Office. Later in the year, Barbara Grewe, Better Futures Scholar at Jesus College, shared insights from her position as a Senior Counsel on the 9/11 Commission staff with IF attendees. Addressing and debunking a slew of conspiracy theories that have arisen surrounding the attacks, Barbara presented the more complex insider’s perspective: missed opportunities for prevention and key lessons learned. Discussion also addressed the changing security paradigms faced by the world today, including the ever-increasing cyber threat to national governments. ‘The Intellectual Forum always has really good events’, wrote one attendee, ‘but I think this one was outstanding [...] so relevant, engaging and thought-provoking’.

Responsible AI The IF continued its ‘Leaders in Responsible AI’ series in July, bringing together three leading AI experts at Jesus College to explore how the rapid development of machine-learning models might affect the future of healthcare. As healthcare providers increasingly employ AI-based interventions for tasks like diagnosis and triage, the panellists explored their potential to speed up services and the ethical challenges they might also raise. Gianluca Veronesi, Professor of Public Management and Accounting at the University of Bristol, joined Professor Catherine Régis and Dr Jon Fistein, both Senior Research Associates at the IF, to consider the risks and rewards that AI might offer medical workers and patients.

The Elena Hall hosted a photo installation by artist Tomasz Siuda (curated by Dr Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska), to accompany the IF’s ‘Imaginaries of Immortality in the Age of AI’ event. Photo: Tomasz Siuda


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Conferences and educational programmes at the IF The IF generates its own income, which pays for all our activities and staff. A crucial part of this comes from hosting a wide range of conferences and educational programmes, and last year saw the return of many high-profile collaborators to College. In April, we hosted a cohort of 15 US Federal and State Supreme Court Justices for the third annual visit of the Rodel Judicial Fellowship. Law students at Jesus were invited to meet the Justices over lunch during the programme, which was also well attended by College Fellows. We also hosted a second retreat for Fin-Erth – 60 women from across finance, investment, policy, law and innovation who are committed to tackling climate change – while May saw the return of the Nature Action Dialogues, the flagship conference of the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC). In January, the IF welcomed a cohort of students for the fourth annual residential programme with Wuhan College, China on the theme of interdisciplinary learning across the sciences, arts and technology. During the summer, students from the Chinese University of Hong Kong returned for a programme on ‘Entrepreneurial Solutions to Biotechnology and Healthcare’, featuring a vibrant schedule of lectures from College Fellows and IF Senior Research Associates.

ThinkLab joins the IF After several years collaborating on many exciting projects and events, the University of Cambridge ThinkLab has recently transferred into the IF. ThinkLab’s aim of taking boldly interdisciplinary approaches to current issues – from the future of work to inclusive technologies, neurodiversity and social justice – matches closely with the IF’s mission. Memorable past collaborations between the IF and ThinkLab include a sold-out event in 2018 with Harry Shearer, voice of beloved Simpsons characters including Mr Burns, Smithers, Principal Skinner and Ned Flanders. Particular highlights of ThinkLab’s work include an ongoing collaboration with the BBC on neurodiversity, which led to a 90-page report produced by University of Cambridge students. The work that ThinkLab began on this project played a foundational role in BBC CAPE, the employee resource group on neurodiversity at the BBC, which continues to grow. Neurodiversity and the BBC partnership continue to be running themes within ThinkLab’s work, with a recent event at Cambridge’s Glasshouse community space in February exploring how digital tools can shape inclusion. This continues a long-running theme with the IF: in 2020, ThinkLab brought Dr Temple Grandin, one of the world’s foremost neurodiversity advocates, to the IF to speak about different ways of thinking.

Better Futures Scholars The University has set up a new ‘Better Futures’ Programme, designed to equip people who already have some accomplishments in their careers to create transformational change in the world. Jesus College was one of the founding set of Colleges working with this innovative programme, and this year welcomed five of the first cohort of Better Futures Scholars. They have taken part in a wide range of activities around the College and University, and it has been great to have people with their expertise and interests around,


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and to help shape their future plans, which we hope will lead to a better future for all. This year we’ve been joined by Phil Eayres, former Chief Strategy Officer at TalkTalk and strategy advisor; Barbara Grewe, former 9/11 Commissioner and cybersecurity expert; Heather McLeod Grant, donor advisor, author and serial entrepreneur; Jon Reynolds MBE, former CEO of SwiftKey; and Adam Wells, Founder of the Belazu Ingredient Company, a leading UK-based Mediterranean food company.

Student-led initiatives Continuing our longstanding internship programme, two student interns, Clare Mulrooney and Bethany Taylor, joined the IF over the summer to work on interdisciplinary projects of their own design. Bethany researched and produced a creative-critical project on video essays, while Clare produced a series of resources for teachers, parents and school staff explaining the risks that deepfakes pose for schools and students. Clare’s time at the IF opened up further opportunities, including an internship in Canada working with IF Senior Research Associate Professor Catherine Régis’s AI safety team at the Université de Montréal, and Clare’s resources, available on Tes.com, have been featured in SecEd magazine. In May, the IF collaborated with the Jesus College Political Society on a student-run event with Visiting Fellow The Right Hon Lord Alderdice, former leader of the Alliance Party, a key negotiator of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and first Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly. In a sold-out public talk, Lord Alderdice explored the changing character of war and peacemaking, and challenges that the newer technologies of drones, cyber and artificial intelligence pose for peacemakers in the present day. Students benefitted from the chance to ask their own questions at a more informal discussion event with Lord Alderdice before the public talk. In the annual IF Student Ambassador event in February, Jesus College students Vernon Allott and Sam Hui hosted Professor Jon Hutton, International Global Conservation Director for the World Wildlife Fund. Discussion ranged from the human need for nature to the notion of ‘ecocide’ and the inescapable role of human values within conservation. ‘It’s really about people,’ Professor Hutton reflected, ‘and our societies and cultures’. Recordings of these talks, and many more, are available on the Jesus College YouTube channel. Join our mailing list on the Intellectual Forum website to stay up to date on IF news and to hear about what we have planned for the year ahead. We hope to see you at the IF soon! n Jesus College students Aiya Omed and Emma Tenzler with Visiting Fellow Lord John Alderdice


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Creativity Throughout the year, creative prizes and opportunities in College encourage students, Senior Members and staff, from amateurs to experts, to get involved, experiment and enjoy the arts. The Master hosts an annual prize-giving garden party celebrating the most successful or most promising works produced.

Creative writing Judges Emily Winslow and Menna van Praag, internationally published novelists, awarded prizes to eight stories on the theme of art by authors from across the College community. The judges were delighted by the variety and quality of the entries overall, which included many points of view, including artist, thief, scholar, model, viewer and even the artwork itself. The winners were Jonathan Ball (staff), Ruby Bloom (undergraduate), Smiley Chan (undergraduate), Sophia Pasalis (postgraduate), Aisling Rogers (undergraduate), Maria Ruigomez Eraso (postgraduate), Bethan Soanes (undergraduate) and Flaminia Zane (postgraduate partner). A new season of Short Stories from Jesus College, the creative writing podcast, is currently in production. Also honoured at the prize-giving ceremony in March was Emeritus Fellow David Hanke. He was involved in the competition since it first began in 2019. Excerpts from his stories were shared and he was presented with a journal. Dr Hanke sadly passed away in August 2026 (see pages 139-141 for his obituary).


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Film Jesus hosted its inaugural 48-hour film challenge, which saw 174 sixth form, college and university students from across the city creating their own short films to be judged by eminent screenwriters, filmmakers, academics and producers. The judging panel included playwright, screenwriter and director Sir David Hare, Barbie and Harry Potter producer David Heyman, screenwriter James McCarthy and documentary cameraman and drama cinematographer Piers Leigh. The winning film was Project Blue, a mockumentary produced by Hughes Hall students Amari Rose Leigh, Elena Savvas and Kai Moreno Momiejo, and Munir Sharif from Clare Hall. You can watch the top ten films on the Jesus College YouTube channel.

Hadfield Composition Competition This prize is made possible by the ongoing support of Choir Patron, Mr Max Hadfield (1961). Applicants were invited to set words by 20th-century Christian mystic Evelyn Underhill, author of Two Carols. This year saw a record number of applicants, with an exciting variety of approaches to the text. The submissions were anonymous and judged by celebrated composer Cecilia McDowall and the College’s Director of Music, Benjamin Sheen. Former Organ Scholar of Jesus College and now Organ Scholar at Exeter Cathedral, Michael D’Avanzo (2022), was this year’s winner. The winning carol, So may it be alway!, was premiered by the College Choir at a Christmas service in Jesus Chapel on Saturday 13 December.

Photography Prize This year, the College community was invited to delve into the craft of the photographic portrait, capturing the character, presence and individuality of people both within Jesus College and beyond. The winner was undergraduate Jagoda Zuk, for her image, Competant. The judges were particularly impressed by its composition and the way it captured an enigmatic moment between the sitter and photographer. The prize-winning photo, Competant by Jagoda Zuk


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From left to right, Tom Dubois (2025), The Master and Elizabeth Dearden-Williams (2024)

Hook, Line and Lyric Our biannual Hook, Line and Lyric songwriting contest is supported by the Centre for Music Performance (CMP), and gives aspiring student and recently graduated songwriters across Cambridge a platform to showcase their original music. Entrants’ songs are judged by a panel of experts: Sonita Alleyne, Master of Jesus College; Benjamin Walton, Professor of Music History, Fellow and Director of Studies in Music at Jesus College; and Alex Hall, Performance Administrator (Popular and World) at the CMP. In the summer 2026 contest, first prize was awarded to Leah Bindman Cohen (2024) of Murray Edwards College for Hindsight. Second prize went to Elizabeth Dearden-Williams (2024, MPhil Ethics of AI) of Jesus College for Nothing Was Ever the Same, and third prize to Tom Dubois (2025), PhD student in Biological Sciences at Jesus College, for Take Me to the Ocean.

Travel writing The Tom Parkinson Travel Fund was awarded to Alex Haydn-Wiliams (2019, English) for a literary travel and historical research journey tracing the 1778 escape from Ireland to Wales of Sarah Ponsonby and Eleanor Butler, the women later known as the Ladies of Llangollen. The journey will form the basis of a c.6,000-word travel essay combining historical research, personal travel writing and reflections on queer history, ancestry and the ways the past continues to haunt the present. Alex is planning a book about the Ladies’ relationship, escape and life in Wales, alongside Alex’s own exploration of queer ancestry, making the journey an important step in establishing their career as a travel writer and public-facing historian. n


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Community and charity engagement Jesus College is committed to building positive connections with the wider Cambridge community, alongside its support for local educational, cultural and charitable projects. The Community Committee, set up in 2023, helps to steer this work. Its aim is to offer practical support to local organisations while creating meaningful ways for College members to get involved.

Colleges and Charities Partnership Event At an informal networking event on 1 June, organised and hosted by Jesus College in collaboration with Cambridge City Council, local charities and Cambridge colleges came together to share ideas, learn from each other and explore new ways of working in partnership. Representatives from 17 colleges and 40 charities attended. The event focused on sharing ideas about volunteering opportunities for students, staff and Fellows; local charities showcasing their work; and a talk from Cambridge City Council about its Student Summit.

Little Free Libraries Abbey People, a community-led charity based in the Abbey ward of Cambridge, has been creating and managing a number of Little Free Libraries since 2020. By installing the libraries outside homes and community venues in places with low book access, the project aims to make reading for pleasure more accessible and inspiring for people of all ages, regardless of literacy levels.

Left to right: Paul McKenna, Carpentry and Buildings Manager and Neville Ames, College Carpenter and Joiner with the library they built


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Jesus College has supported the project from the beginning with book drives and, this year, there was an opportunity to help create the libraries themselves. Dr Catherine Galloway, the coordinator of the project and host of her own little library, launched a new initiative to celebrate the UK National Year of Reading. ‘Making Cambridge Reading Rich’ aims to install 50 new little libraries across Cambridge and surrounding areas by the end of 2026. Thus far, the College has contributed four Little Libraries, built by our talented maintenance team. Students and staff have also played an important role in the initiative’s success through their generous donations of books, helping to keep the libraries well stocked and accessible to all.

Charitable giving The Charitable Donations Committee oversees the College’s discretionary charitable giving. This includes contributions to local causes, charities or appeals that align with the College’s values and charitable objectives. During 2025-2026, the College pledged regular support to the local charities/organisations Abbey People, The Red Hen Project and the Kite Trust. It also made one-off donations to University-run activities or societies, such as the Cambridge Class Act Society, Building Bridges in Medical Sciences, Cambridge Journal of Visual Culture, Campus Children’s Holidays and The Mays Anthology (The Mays); and to community events, such as the Cambridge Community Music Festival and the Mayor’s Day Out (2026). On top of this financial support, the College hosted a number of events, such as tours and Master’s Lodge receptions for our two main charity partners, Red Hen and Abbey People; opened up the estate for the Cambridge Half Marathon; and ran garden parties to raise funds for Addenbrooke’s Hospital. n

The first Little Free Library built at Jesus by Paul McKenna, installed on Wadloes Road, Cambridge


Societies


Jesus College Big Band performing in the College Bar. Photo: Giuseppe Monarchi


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Societies Student Union The JCSU has had a busy year! We have focused on a central aim: to strengthen the undergraduate community. One of our biggest projects has been to redevelop student social spaces. With a pool table, darts board, new sofas, a new TV, games consoles and board games, the newly refurbished JCR is now a mainstay of College life, packed out every evening even in the busy Easter Term. Likewise, the College Bar is seeing new life: it’s now home to a pool table, a JCBC blade and regular live music. It’s become a much more vibrant social hub for students. As the other pages in this Annual Report show, Jesus’ sports and societies have been thriving. And that’s no accident: the JCSU has been working closely with College to get better funding for sports and societies. We have restructured our weekly communications to put sports and societies front and centre, with a regular ‘What’s on this week’ bulletin becoming a staple of our comms. We have also invested heavily in improving everyday student life. The JCSU, together with the MCR, has created a Gym Management Team, which has invested heavily in the College gym. It is now a higher-spec, tidier and safer space to exercise in. From September, the JCSU will be providing discounted bike lights through the Porters’ Lodge. Students no longer need to worry about being caught out on their bikes in the dark. Behind the scenes, the committee has been running a much slicker operation. We have switched over to a more user-friendly online voting system, and turnouts in by-elections and

Some of the 2026 JCSU Committee, with President Ben Luca Atassi Quinton (centre). Photo Bill Rimell


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referenda have grown substantially. We are also proud to be the first committee in a number of years to have every position filled, including our Class Act Officer role, which has never before been filled, and two newly created positions, Sports and Societies Officer and Food and Bar Officer. Any compendium of the JCSU’s successes this year would be disingenuous without a word of thanks. Our work would not be possible without the efforts of previous committees – some of you may even be reading this (we would love to hear from you if so!) – and, of course, the cooperation of College Fellows and staff. Students now feel the JCSU benefits them, and we can’t wait to welcome a new cohort of Freshers to the Jesus community in 2026-2027. Ben Luca Atassi Quinton *

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Middle Combination Room Michaelmas Term began by welcoming almost 180 new postgraduates during Freshers’ Fortnight. To help our new students settle into College life, we organised over 40 events, ranging from quiz nights and international potlucks to punting trips on the river. To reduce waste, we also ran our Second Life Scheme, redistributing kitchenware and other household items from departing students to new arrivals. Freshers’ Fortnight was followed by Sports Week, during which new and returning students had the opportunity to take part in taster sessions for a range of sports, including rowing, tennis, football, squash, yoga and our Chicken Run Club. The MCR social calendar remained full throughout the rest of Michaelmas Term. After a popular Halloween BOP and pumpkin carving event, our community joined the Porters in singing Christmas classics at the annual Christmas Superhall. Lent Term featured a broad range of events, from formal swaps with other colleges and guided museum visits around Cambridge to trips to the sauna, cinema and theatre. Other highlights included a Burns Night Superhall featuring a ceilidh, a Lunar New Year celebration and weekly Iftars during Ramadan. Our Welfare Team also organised weekly Welfare Tea events, allowing students to come together over cake and tea to unwind, catch up with friends and talk about any concerns they might have. During Easter Term, we organised a Sustainability Week, which included a series of climate change talks and a presentation on the College’s own sustainability projects. One of the academic highlights of the year was the annual MCR Graduate Conference in March, which allowed our postgraduate community to showcase their research. The academic year concluded with a garden party jointly organised by the outgoing and incoming MCR Committees. We are deeply grateful for the enthusiasm of our postgraduate community, the continued support of College staff, and the generosity of our alumni. Together, they help make the MCR a lively, welcoming and inclusive part of life at Jesus College. Fabienne dos Santos Sousa


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Art Club and John Hughes Arts Festival Michaelmas started with a busy Freshers’ week taster session and an experimental inks workshop with Intellectual Forum artist in residence CC Ling. We also had the privilege to display Professor Jean Bacon’s wonderful collection of watercolour botanicals in the Art Room before the start of Full Term. Highlights from our Tuesday sessions included a collaboration with the LGBTQ+ Society where we created pieces ‘in the style of’ queer artists, as well as a spooky evening of pumpkin carving. Our end of Term exhibition saw over 40 stunning submissions on the theme ‘Wish You Were Here’. The exhibition was open to the public over the weekend, following a popular opening reception. Lent Term Tuesdays saw a mandala-making collaboration with the university Hindu Society, successful experiments with ink for Chinese New Year, and a well-attended Valentine’s Day themed session making crepe paper flowers. In March, we coordinated the John Hughes Arts Festival (JHAF), which has been running annually in the College since 2015 to honour the memory of the Rev’d Dr John Hughes. The week of events included a tour of the West Court ‘Inspired’ exhibition with Curator Laura Dennis, a formal with a bespoke art-themed menu, various performances from Jesus College Music, a pub quiz and a trip to Kettle’s Yard. JHAF centred on two exhibitions. The main display brought together an inspiring collection of submissions from students, staff, and Fellows on the theme of ‘Symbiosis’. We were also delighted to welcome the work of members of Ukrainian Women for Integration, Support, and Empowerment (UWISE), who have been a wonderful recent addition to our community. Jean Bacon led a second exhibition in Chapel that showcased work produced in Saturday Chapel sketching sessions.

Yinghao Pu and Sofia Monarchi at the Art Club Freshers’ Fair stall. Photo: Lyra Browning


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In Easter Term we offered an escape from exam stress with collaborative collage, cyanotypes and an outdoor watercolour painting session in the Master’s garden, although perhaps our most tremendous feat was a long-overdue clear-out and cataloguing of the stuffed storeroom. We finished off the year (and the budget!) with a garden party. A big thank you to the current committee: Jean Bacon, Yinghao Pu, Sofia Monarchi, Amelia Hubbard, Matthew Gillow, Elspeth Mathau, Kit Nugent, Isobel Holt, Smiley Chan, Felicia Naylor and Sumi Kim-Fulcher. Thank you also to AT Kabe Wilson and CC Ling for their support, and to everyone else who has been involved with the Art Club this year. Lyra Browning *

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Bike Repair Society We are a new College society for this year, created with the aim of helping students develop practical bike maintenance skills while encouraging more sustainable and affordable cycling. The Society has quickly become established, with a dedicated sheltered indoor workspace equipped with the tools and facilities needed for students to carry out their own repairs. A key focus of the society has been enabling students to maintain and repair their own bicycles rather than relying on professional bike shops. To support this, the Society introduced subsidies for replacement parts, helping make repairs more affordable while giving students the opportunity to gain valuable practical skills and confidence in looking after their bikes, as well as a Linktree and WhatsApp group with helpful resources. Having successfully established the Society and its facilities in its first year, the next step will be to run practical workshops covering essential maintenance skills, such as repairing punctures and carrying out routine bike checks. The Bike Repair Society is excited to continue building a community where students can learn and share knowledge, and keep cycling accessible and sustainable at Jesus. Mason Frudd *

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Economic Society Having welcomed the new impressive cohort of JEcons this Michaelmas, the year’s induction begun with a drinks evening in Professor Toke Aidt’s office. The centrepiece of the year was the Malthus Dinner held in Lent Term – the largest (we believe) in the Society’s history – with five alumni as guests: Venetia Bell (2000), our keynote speaker, who prior to joining the Clean Air Fund served as Chief Sustainability Officer at Gulf International Bank, has held senior roles at the Bank of England and is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader; Ruari McColl (2021), returning for a second year, now working as a sanctions economist at the Foreign Office; Cai La Trobe Roberts (2021), an associate consultant at Boston Consulting Group working on the Independent Football Regulator; Arushi Ramaiya (2022), a quantitative sales analyst at Macquarie working on cross-asset derivatives


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strategies for institutional clients; and Thomas Dugre (2022), a project manager at Hyperexponential, a Series B insurtech. Venetia’s talk as keynote speaker, and the panel discussion including recent alumni, drew on their respective experiences across finance, sustainability and climate leadership, with much discussion had. The subsequent dinner and entertainment, involving New York Times-style games, a round of economics-themed dingbats and a lively session of Heads Up! – during which one unfortunate participant found themselves repeatedly drawing the short straw, only to discover their card read simply “Keep Saying No”. The celebrations in the Brewery Room and outside The Roost gave us a final chance to gather and celebrate post exams. We are infinitely grateful, as ever, to be supported by Toke Aidt, for his continued academic and pastoral support to us all. Clayton Bytyci *

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Film at Jesus We had a successful and varied year, providing opportunities for members of the College community to make films, watch films together and engage with professionals in the industry. The highlight of the year was the 48-Hour Film Challenge, which brought together Cambridge-wide participants, including students from ARU and sixth-form colleges in the area, to write, shoot and edit a short film within 48 hours. The event provided an opportunity for members of the College to get involved in filmmaking while creating a competitive environment for participants. See ‘Creativity’, page 85 of this Report, for more details on the competition. During the Christmas break, we also organised a Winter Film Competition. This gave members another opportunity to make and share films outside the main 48-Hour Challenge, while maintaining engagement with filmmaking throughout the year. Film at Jesus also organised regular screenings. One focus was the Migration Stories series, which explored different experiences of migration through films including Black Girl, Past Lives, Flee and Ali: Fear Eats the Soul. Another highlight was the visit of filmmaker Robin Roy, who was Film at Jesus’s filmmaker in residence. Roy presented a screening of Jawai: India’s Leopard Hills, followed by a Q&A. This was a fascinating chance to engage directly with a working filmmaker and learn more about the process behind documentary filmmaking. Film at Jesus provided opportunities to participate in filmmaking as well as engage with cinema as an audience. Through these events and opportunities we enjoyed building an active film community at Jesus College. Gabriel Castelli-Gair *

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Julia Stewart-Wood presenting at the MCR Graduate Conference

Graduate Conference The annual MCR Graduate Conference and Postgraduate Reunion took place on 14 March 2026. The event was a wonderful opportunity for students, Fellows and alumni of the College to connect and share their work. Current students from across the breadth of academic disciplines represented in the MCR presented their work in the form of short talks and posters. Attendees also had the opportunity to hear from three remarkable keynote speakers: Professors Shailaja Fennell and Matthew Harper, both of whom are Fellows of the College, and Dr Jonathan Hutton (1975), who is a Jesus College alumnus. I would like to thank all our speakers for their time and energy in putting together the stimulating talks we heard, and to thank attendees for wholeheartedly engaging with speakers. In addition to learning about the work of others in our community, the day also offered numerous chances for speakers, students and alumni to network and socialise in the form of coffee breaks and lunch. After the day’s programming concluded, we were able to continue these conversations at a drinks reception and a dinner. Huge thanks are owed to Ms Gracie Breen and Mrs Nikki Williams of the Development and Alumni Relations Office, to the team in the Conference Office and to the Graduate Tutors (Dr Michael Edwards, Professor Ben Kotzee, Professor Nicholas Ray, Dr Sybil Stacpoole), all of whom were pivotal to the planning and execution of this event. We also would like to thank the Master, Ms Sonita Alleyne, for opening up her home to host us in the evening. Julia Stewart-Wood (MCR Academic Officer 2025-2026) *

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Green Society We have had a very busy and successful year, striving to raise the profile of environmental issues and encourage sustainable habits among the College community. We started off the year introducing the freshers to Jesus’ culture of climate consciousness by running the Second Life Scheme, through which graduating students are able to pass on useful items like cooking equipment, and by organising a tour of the nature trail with wildlife expert and Quincentenary Librarian, Rhona Watson. We built connections with other green societies across the University through an intercollege climate pub quiz and formal, and a night walk with UV torches with the Mycological Society. We also had fun running more sustainable seasonal events, including a cooking evening using up Halloween pumpkins and Christmas wreath-making with greenery from the College grounds. In the Lent Term we continued working to help the College meet its commitment to sustainability, launching our permanent clothes swap wardrobe in the Roost cafe and building a bug hotel on the nature trail out of waste from the maintenance department. We held an intercollege litter pick on Jesus Green and enjoyed doing seasonal flower arranging with Head Gardener, Lee de Grammont, which we held again in Easter Term due to its popularity! We finished the year with a very political Easter Term, starting with a trip to Porthcullis House, Westminster, to discuss the politics of the climate crisis with Cambridge Labour MP, Daniel Zeichner. As the former Minister of State for Food Security and Rural Affairs, Daniel was able to give us some real insight into the reality of implementing environmental policy. It was interesting to then compare his perspective with that of Green Party Councillor Chloe Turner, who presented us and the Politics Society with her party’s vision of a more sustainable future. This Term also saw us run our annual litter pick post C Sunday’s pre-exam celebrations. We finished off a great year with a lovely sunny picnic on Jesus Green with the other climate societies of Cambridge, discussing our successes and plans for next year over (highly recommended) vegan pizza from Cambridge’s Aromi café. Rachel Jones *

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Jambassadors Jesus College’s access and outreach work helps young people discover what higher education could offer them and make informed choices about their futures. We are particularly committed to supporting pupils from backgrounds underrepresented at Cambridge, giving them opportunities to explore their interests, ask questions and experience university for themselves. Our student ambassadors help make that first encounter with Cambridge a welcoming one. This year, ambassadors supported a wide-ranging programme organised by the Access and Outreach Officer. Their involvement spanned Year 10 and Year 12 school visits, July’s residentials for both year groups, the HE+ residential and September’s Year 13 visits and residentials. They also supported the North East Schools Tour, the Oxford and Cambridge conference in Newcastle and online interview-support webinars, alongside visits for


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charities working with marginalised groups. Across these activities, they met young people at very different stages, from those beginning to explore university to applicants preparing for interviews. What ambassadors bring to this work is something staff guidance alone cannot offer: a firsthand account of being a student at Jesus today. They provided application support, answered questions and shared how they had made their own decisions about subjects and universities. Their experiences gave visitors more than advice about getting into Cambridge; they offered an insight into what it feels like to study and live here. Talking with someone who has recently faced similar choices can make it easier to raise a concern, ask an uncertain question or admit that you are still working things out. This connection was particularly powerful on the North East Schools Tour, which reached more than 1,500 pupils across 27 schools. Having ambassadors from the North East visiting schools in their own region was especially valuable. Feedback highlighted that meeting students from backgrounds like their own helped pupils see Cambridge as more achievable. Hearing from someone whose starting point felt familiar helped bring a seemingly distant possibility closer to home. We are hugely grateful to every ambassador who contributed their time and energy alongside their studies. Welcoming visitors, listening to their questions and sharing personal experiences all take care and generosity. Our ambassadors bring those qualities to the programme, helping young people leave not only better informed, but with a friendly face to associate with Cambridge and a clearer sense of the possibilities ahead. Rhiannon Llystyn Jones, Access and Outreach Officer

The Jambassadors were out in force to assist with the 2026 Open Days


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Jesus Africa Fund As the Jesus Africa Fund (JAF) approaches its 40th year, our committee is proud of the achievements we’ve made since Michaelmas 2025. This committee set up Instagram and Facebook pages, which have enabled us to reach more and more charities on the African continent. This year we received over 50 grant applications for projects focused on improving economic empowerment, health and education in committees all over Africa. It has also let us improve JAF’s visibility among the student and staff community, within College and beyond. It is for this reason that we were able to organise what was one of JAF’s highlights this year, our Fundraising Formal and Bop. In Lent Term, with support from the Cambridge University African-Caribbean Society, we invited guests from within College and beyond to celebrate and give to the cause to which JAF has been dedicated for decades: the eradication of the cycle of poverty, economic disempowerment, limited health and educational resources that so many in the African continent face. We reflected on JAF’s history, its impact and its purpose as a fund emerging for the need to address structural inequality following apartheid, and enjoying a themed menu. Our committee decorated the Hall and Bar for our Bop, which featured a great set from student band String Theory and themed drinks from JBar (mocktails and cocktails, the Ngolo and Blue Pumulani from Malawi). The Manciple designed a beautifully themed menu with South African street food and Pan-African colours across all courses. The proceeds from the formal pushed this year's fund to over £20,000. This amount will go to projects in Malawi, Zambia, Nigeria and Uganda, working on frontline healthcare, menstrual healthcare, water and sanitation access and primary and secondary education, amongst others. This is made possible because of the student body’s donations, and from the funds raised through our Lent events. As this academic year comes to an end, we are excited for what Michaelmas 2026 has in store, and look forward to project updates from our grantees. Fatima Dambatta *

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Jewish Society This year marked a significant revival for the Society, with the highest levels of engagement and attendance seen for several years. A major focus of the year was improving access to Jewish student life. Through subsidies provided by the Society, Jesuans were able to attend Friday night dinners at the University Jewish Society (JSoc) at a reduced cost, helping to make regular participation more accessible and strengthening links between College and University-wide Jewish communities. Alongside these dinners, the Society organised a number of Shabbat events within College, including Onegs (informal gatherings held after Friday night meals) and full Friday night meals, providing opportunities for students to celebrate together in a welcoming and relaxed environment. The Friday night meals were a particular highlight, hosting for up to


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20 students. They involved extensive planning and preparation, demonstrating the renewed enthusiasm and commitment of the Society's members. The Society also marked key festivals throughout the year. Sukkot (the autumn harvest festival commemorating the Israelites' journey through the wilderness) was marked by making a lulav and etrog available for students to perform the festival's traditional mitzvah of shaking them, while Purim (a festival commemorating the salvation of the Jewish people in ancient Persia), was celebrated in its traditional format, with food, costumes and gift-giving. These occasions offered opportunities both for Jewish students to celebrate their traditions and for others within College to learn more about Jewish culture and practice. Social events formed another important part of the Society’s activities. The year began with a welcome BBQ for new students and concluded with a well-attended end-of-year gathering. These events helped foster connections across year groups and ensured that new members quickly became part of the community. Renewed collaboration with other College and University societies was another feature of the year, allowing the Society to engage with a wider range of students and thus maximise its impact. Overall, the year represented a significant revival in the Society’s activity and visibility. With attendance at its highest level for several years and a varied programme of religious, cultural and social events, Jesus JSoc has re-established itself as a vibrant part of College life. Avrohom Babad

The Jewish Society’s start of Term barbecue was changed to an indoor social event due to bad weather, but a great success nevertheless


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Law Society The Jesus College Law Society (JCLS) has enjoyed an active and successful year. Members have had valuable opportunities to engage with the legal profession, develop advocacy skills and make connections within the College community. A particular highlight of the year has been the JCLS’ firm dinners. Members were able to meet representatives from several leading international and City law firms, including Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, Skadden, Slaughter and May, and Dechert. These events offered students the chance to learn about different areas of legal practice, discuss career pathways and gain insight into the culture and work of some of the profession’s most prestigious firms. The dinners were well attended and provided an excellent forum for informal networking and discussion. The Society has also maintained a strong commitment to advocacy. This year, we organised and hosted the annual Jesus x Magdalene Moot. These events attracted enthusiastic participation from students across a range of years in both colleges. The Jesus First Years also competed in the Jesus College Moot, which allowed them to develop their oral advocacy, legal reasoning and public speaking skills. The competitions showcased a high standard of argument and demonstrated the considerable talent within the student body. We are grateful to Malcolm Wallis, a retired South African Supreme Court of Appeal Judge, who came to judge the participants. We’re thankful for everyone who agrees to take part in the JCLS events and to Alex Kay (1994) and Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer for hosting this year’s Glanville Williams Society Reception in London. Attendance at these events further strengthened the Society’s links with the profession and provided members with valuable exposure to legal discussion beyond the University environment. Overall, the year has been marked by strong engagement, professional development and a wide selection of events. The Society remains committed to fostering interest in the law and creating opportunities for students to develop both academically and professionally. We look forward to building on this year’s successes and continuing to expand the range of opportunities available to members in the coming year! Lucy Yeadon *

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May Ball For one extraordinary night each year, the courts, buildings and sprawling grounds of Jesus College undergo a breathtaking transformation. JMB26 saw ten-metre-tall inflatable flowers tower over the site, festival flags lining Chapel Court and a neo-psychedelic lighting display at the heart of Cloister Court. The night opened with an exclusive champagne reception, treating guests to oysters and caviar, charcuterie cones, a wine tasting and curated entertainment. At 8pm the gates opened to welcome over 3,000 students, Fellows and alumni who could indulge in


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JMB26. Photo: Paul Underhill

unlimited food and drink and a plethora of entertainment. From gourmet street food to sweet treats and refreshments, every taste was catered for from dusk till dawn. The Vaccines headlined, bringing with them singalong anthems, supported by an electrifying set from Mura Masa. Further strengthening the musical lineup was an array of student bands, performers and tribute acts across our five different stages, who kept guests dancing all night long. For those away from the dance floor, there were the attractions of Dodgems, the Rodeo Bull and a towering Starflyer that offered guests unparalleled views of the College. Back on solid ground, attendees navigated a mini golf course, fire-breathers, life-drawing, a casino and much more. Unsurprisingly, organising the biggest event of May Week is no small undertaking. The night is the culmination of thousands of hours of planning from the May Ball Committee, whose diligence and hard work drive the event's success. From the 50-metre tents to every graphic on the event programme, every detail was carefully and intentionally planned to give guests the best possible experience and deliver a Ball that we could be proud of. The committee extends its deepest gratitude to both College staff and the May Ball Steering Group, whose help and guidance throughout the year was invaluable in facilitating the Ball. Asad Abbas *

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Medical and Veterinary Society The Society has had a very successful, busy and exciting year. We held a range of academic, social and welfare events to support the medical and veterinary community at Jesus. Michaelmas Term saw lots of events to welcome and integrate the new cohort of Freshers into our community. We held ‘what I wish I knew talks’ and lots of socials to support their


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The 2026 MedVet Dinner. Photo: Thomas Holland

transition into College. Some highlights from Michaelmas Term include a fascinating talk by Professor Andrew Tutt, a suturing workshop from alumnus Dr Sen Kath (2016) and many successful formal swaps which helped integrate JCMVS with other medical and veterinary students across the University. Welfare pizza night and an end-of-Term mulled wine and mince pies event were further highlights. Lent Term also enjoyed many exciting events, including the annual dinner, which is always one of the most enjoyable nights of the JCMVS calendar. This year, the event included a very insightful talk by alumnus Dr Mark Swindells (1998) about his experience of General Practice and beyond. Lent Term also saw us run events to support our veterinary students as we supported the University Vet School and protested its potential closure. While Easter Term is inevitably quieter, we held various welfare and social events post-exams, including MedVet Bake-Off and other celebrations. We are very proud of our members at JCMVS, with lots of academic, sporting and extra-curricular success over the year. Good luck to our current sixth-year students with their endeavours both within medicine/veterinary medicine, and beyond. We can’t wait to hear your stories when we welcome you back as alumni soon! Hannah Richardson and Adrian Ifrim *

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Music Society It’s been a vibrant year of music-making at Jesus College, as established ensembles continue to flourish and new groups bloom. The Jesus College Big Band has seen a return after an extended hiatus, performing several concerts in Chapel, the College bar and at the May Ball, including a joint concert and


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social with Bath University Big Band. Both the guitar and saxophone ensembles have doubled in size, meeting regularly every week in preparation for end of Term performances. This year has also seen the introduction of ‘JAMS’, a series of weekly themed jam sessions for musicians of all styles and abilities. The Jesus College Music Society (JCMS) Orchestra has performed three concerts this year, featuring music by Grieg, Rimsky Korsakov, Mozart, Parry and others. Tommaso Vigliocco, winner of The Crighton Concerto, gave a stunning performance of Weber’s Clarinet Concerto No. 1 as part of The David Crighton Concert in Lent Term. Each concert has been conducted by members of the committee, six of whom were new to orchestral conducting. We are very proud to continue to offer conducting opportunities to those who otherwise might not have the chance. Our recital series continued to thrive this year, with two recitals taking place every week through Michaelmas and Lent and a week-long festival of lunchtime recitals during May Week. A particular highlight of the year was a performance of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf for 250 children from state primary schools around the area, organised by co-Presidents Jenni and Freddie and supported by musicians from around the University. Emeritus Fellow Dr Anthony Bowen narrated the story from an armchair, captivating the audience with his dramatic oration. Special thanks to the Conferencing and Domestic Bursar’s Offices for their invaluable help, without which this project would never have happened. We are extremely grateful to our fantastic committee for their steadfast commitment and enthusiasm this year, and we are delighted to be handing over the Presidency to Rachel Dennis and Elena Ruddy for another fabulous year of music-making in College. Jennifer Buss and Freddie Jemison n

The David Crighton Concert. Photo: James Cheetham


Sports Clubs


Members of the Running Club. Photo James Crockford


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Sports Clubs JCSU Sports and Societies As the first holder of the newly established JCSU Sports and Societies Officer role, I’ve worked assiduously since January to build the infrastructure of trust and communication that this new position promised, ensuring every sports captain and society president feels supported and represented at College level. I began by bringing captains and presidents onto a single group chat, a modest-sounding but mammoth task that in practice meant chasing down and onboarding an entire cohort of ~60 student leaders, but one that laid essential groundwork for everything that followed. From there came Phase One of a wider mission to communicate our vision and strengthen the relationship between the JCSU and its clubs and societies: a shared virtual calendar, pooling every fixture, social and meet-up across the sporting and society landscape into one accessible place. Visibility had, at times, been a quiet obstacle to participation; this system provides welcome alleviation by encouraging clubs and societies to produce Termcards and giving undergraduates a single platform to find out what’s on and where. That same visibility sharpened how we allocate the JCSU budget, letting us direct funding towards genuinely active clubs and societies. Funding remains, as ever, a live challenge, but a clearer picture of activity across the board makes our spending more accountable and effective. On the matter of finding more funding, initial work was done in close partnership with the MCR’s Sports and Societies Officer, Nick Sammy, to develop plans for a students and alumni sports day, bringing alumni back to College to compete against current undergraduates. I’m very grateful for Nick’s guidance in this project and for introducing me to my role on the JCSU since its inception. Together with the JCSU President, we’ve been pressing for greater College recognition and funding for our Blues and half Blues athletes, a work in progress. Beyond the clubs and societies themselves, I've enjoyed representing matters of students’ physical wellbeing on the Student Affairs Committee and the Creative Practices Committee, and reported this work back at the well-attended AGM, OGM and Executive Committee meetings – a welcome chance to get to know College figures formally and informally, and to share a common vision for an active, successful student body and for improving chances of success for all our elite athletes who proudly represent the College brand in competitions. Over the summer, we continued with planning for the Freshers’ Fair and preparing the induction of the next generation of sports club and society leaders for Michaelmas. Tom Oldaker *

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MCR Sports and Societies I was co-opted as MCR Sports and Societies Officer in July 2025, inheriting five clubs – Cricket, Football, Tennis, Chicken Run and Welfare Yoga – alongside responsibility for postgraduate gym representation and the MCR’s punt, The Rooster. These clubs run independently of JCSU equivalents, though close collaboration is common, especially in competitive College representation. It’s been a year of expansion, consolidation and, hopefully, building lasting infrastructure. My first priority was to listen: consulting club leaders on how they could be better supported, and inviting the MCR community to propose new clubs and societies. That appeal bore fruit: Squash, Padel and Lawn Sports Clubs were founded from scratch, and Football found a worthy successor after Hamish MacGregor's dutiful captaincy. Physical activity, I believe, does more than keep us fit; it fosters the resilience and cohesion that binds undergraduates, postgraduates, staff and Fellows together. Moreover, it complements the traditional Welfare teas and social calendar with something regular and grounding. This ethos found clearest expression in the first MCR Clubs Week, held immediately after Freshers’ Fortnight to introduce our clubs and societies, from a Squash Social to ‘Padel & Pizza’ to a Rowing taster, alongside signposting to the University’s free ‘Give It A Go’ programmes. Michaelmas also saw the founding of the Jesus Amateur Music Society (later merged into JCMS) and the Bike Repair Society, established by Mason Frudd collaboratively with the JCSU and College. Coaching series in tennis and squash, ‘Learn How to Lift’ sessions and a Zumba trial further widened offerings for postgraduates. The punt remains cherished: despite winter storage difficulties, I secured new marine-grade cushions built to last a decade. Perhaps this year’s most significant achievement has been in the gym. Working with the JCSU Gym Reps and strongly backed by both Presidents, I convened an informal Gym Working Party – JCSU and MCR representatives, the JCBC President, staff and Fellows. Repurposed whiteboards in the Weights and Cardio Rooms gave users a direct voice, a facility survey by Tristan Coles gave us evidence and a supplier visit turned into investment: new storage, benches and a half rack, installed shortly after Easter Term. Having been re-elected, I look forward to building on these foundations: deepening collaboration with the first-ever JCSU Sports and Societies Officer, expanding coaching programmes, renewing heavily aged gym equipment, advocating for greater support for our Blues and half Blues and establishing a Punt Society to give The Rooster the stewardship she deserves. Nicholas Sammy *

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Basketball This year was a strong one for Jesus College Basketball Club. A wave of new Freshers arrived in Michaelmas Term and immediately lifted the squad, bringing crucial energy and skills that the team had been missing. Alongside this, we introduced a more structured approach to training, with drills and tactical work forming a regular part of our sessions. We won three of our four games in Michaelmas, which kept us comfortably in Division 2. Lent Term saw an even better performance: the team won every game and topped the division, earning us promotion to Division 1 for next year. Cuppers was a different story. We entered the first round short on numbers and were grateful to several non-players who came forward at short notice to make up the five. We faced Wolfson, who had a University Blues player on their side, and it was a tight game for much of the match before they pulled away in the final ten minutes. Wolfson went on to win the competition. It was a tough exit, but the squad left everything on the floor. After Cuppers we arranged scrimmages with University team players to keep the standard high and give the squad something to work towards. These sessions have been a real benefit and we hope to continue them next year. Division 1 is a step up, but with the players we have coming back and the prospect of another good Fresher intake, we are looking forward to the challenge. Ian Tham

The basketball team


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Boat Club We began the year with another huge intake of undergraduate and postgraduate Freshers: over 180 people came to our Freshers’ events. At Cantabs Winter Head, our W1 and W2 were the fastest College crews on the river outright. In Fairbairns, NM1 placed second, NW1 placed first, W1 claimed first place and M1 placed 5th. The men also entered a novice 4x and two senior 4+ crews, the fastest senior 4+ also placing 5th. We returned to Seville for our winter training camp made possible by the JCBC Trust, this year taking four eights’ worth of rowers and coxes. Lent Term saw a great number of entries from Jesus, with red and black to be spotted at Winter Head 2 Head (W2, W3 and M3 wins), Newnham Head (W3 win) and Pembroke Regatta (another W3 win). In the Lent Bumps M1 moved up two places to 3rd, putting them in a great position for next year. M2 also went up two to 8th in division 2 and W2 went up three to 4th. W1 rowed over every day to retain the headship – now jointly claiming the title of longest-held women’s headship – and W3 achieved superblades into 16th place in division 3. Four Jesus athletes represented CUBC in the Boat Races: Hannah Warren in the Women’s Lightweight Boat, Joe Travis in Goldie, and Nicky Wojtania and Alex Wiley in Blondie. After an Easter training week in Ely for the men’s side and in Cambridge for the women, we had eight entries in the Small Boats Regatta, with Rachel Mellor winning the Maiden Sculls and the Club winning the Michell Cup for overall performance. W1 took the top spot at Head of the Cam and won the College competition at Bedford Regatta. Finally, in the May Bumps, we had a University-wide record for number of women’s entries as we fielded six crews. The men put together five, with both the Rhadegunds and Amazons competing in M5 and W6. Blades were awarded to M3, superblades to W4 and headship blades to W1. M1 rowed over every single day with Emma ahead, coming within inches of the bump. M2 just about managed to hang on to their second division post, coming in 17th.

The Men’s and Women’s 1st Boats train together ahead of the 2026 Mays. Photo David Girling


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M4 went up two, M5 went up three and will hopefully keep their spot next year. W2 remained in 5th, the highest-placing second crew, W3 went up three, W4 got superblades through bumping into division four, W5 went up one and W6 down one. With W1 in double headship and M1 in third and fifth, both sides have an incredibly strong position going into our bicentenary year. With an acute awareness of increased pressure to perform, the Club is ready to take on next year and put on a real show for our alumni and supporters. Ellis Collins *

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Boat Club Trust Many congratulations on another very successful year for the JCBC to Ellis Collins (President and Men’s/Open Captain), Izzie Fisher (Women’s Captain), Elena Ruddy (Coxing Captain) and Hannah Wimhurst (Alumni and Outreach Officer); to Jonathan Conder/JC (Head Coach and Boathouse Manager); Callum Bland (Assistant Coach); and all who rowed or coached, at whatever level. Many congratulations too to our University rowers: Joe Travis (Goldie), Alex Wiley and Nicky Wojtania (Blondie) and Hannah Warren (Women’s Lightweight) – all won their respective races against Oxford – and to the six JCBC members who rowed for the University at Henley, the above plus Sean Hayes and Gil Dexter, and most notably Joe Travis, winning the Temple. The highlights of the year included the retaining by W1 of the Double Headship – Lents and Mays: a great tribute to the hard work and determination of all involved; and the strength in depth across all levels: net +13 and 4 Headship row overs in the Lents and net+14 and 4 Headship row overs in the Mays; JCBC has the top W1, W2, W3, W4, W5 and W6 in the Mays. A moment of sadness was the naming by the Master in May of the new Women’s Coxed Four ‘Phoebe Penfold’: Phoebe was a very successful and well-loved Women’s Captain in 2022/23, taken away by illness in March (see page 157 for her obituary). The results this year continue to justify the decision by the Trustees to make it financially possible for the College to employ an Assistant Coach to concentrate on novices, with the JCBC’s L2R (Learn to Row) programme. The benefits are seen both in numbers taking up rowing and in novices progressing to senior boats. Callum Bland is doing an excellent job as Assistant Coach, as is JC with the senior crews and overall. The same point can be made for the Trust’s continuing support of the training camp in January: investments validated by results on the river and increased participation in rowing across the College without detracting from the provision of top-class equipment. The Trust has been running a ‘total return’ approach since 2024. This means we are ambivalent about whether spending comes from capital or income; we limit spending to 4 per cent of capital, smoothed over a four-year period. In practice we continue to be very careful with protecting that capital, while aiming to maximise spend for every year onwards.


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Over the past year our investments have been buffeted by volatile market forces, but they have been resilient. As of 30 June 2026, the capital fund stood at £1.62 million, flat on the year. The 4 per cent yield gives us c. £65,000 this year of ‘spending power’. CCLA continues to be our sole investment manager, with reviews every three years. They have not performed well, relatively, over the last one or three years, so Trustees are reviewing arrangements. CCLA are the leading UK charity fund manager, providing steady increases in income at moderate risk, and also providing strong ethical input to the investment world. The Trust continues to be involved in preparations for the Bicentenary, providing modest seed funding for some projects and underwriting of the costs of the books, expected to be recouped, or made unnecessary, out of sales proceeds. We are very grateful to those alumni and others who have, in increasing numbers, coached JCBC crews. We continue to need more alumni to help: if you can, please contact Jonathan Conder on boatman@jesus.cam.ac.uk, or Trustees Sheena Cassidy Hope on sheena.cassidyhope@mishcon.com or Matt Jones on mattjones@cantab.net. We always, but particularly so in our Bicentenary year, welcome donations to the Trust and encourage those who have not already done so to make a contribution to the JCBC either by individual gifts or by regular giving through joining the Friends of the JCBC. Further information about the Trust can be found on https://www.jesusboatclub.co.uk/trust where you can also find out about becoming a Friend of the Boat Club (and for our younger supporters, there is a special graduate donor scheme). In any event David Reid would be very pleased to hear from you on d.m.reid.91@cantab.net. The Trustees and their responsibilities are: Chair Treasurer Investments Secretary College Links The Friends:

Women’s Club/London Link Training/Coaching/ Quality of Rowing Boat Club Strategy/ Boatman/Boathouse

David Wootton Danny White Ewan Pearson Jon Hutton James Crockford Richard Tett David Reid Helen Boldon Sheena Cassidy Hope

dhwootton@gmail.com danny.c.white@hotmail.com e.pearson@gpb.eu jon_hutton@hotmail.co.uk j.crockford@jesus.cam.ac.uk richard.tett@freshfields.com d.m.reid.91@cantab.net helenboldon@gmail.com sheena.cassidyhope@mishcon.com

Matt Jones

mattjones@cantab.net

Jon Hutton

jon_hutton@hotmail.co.uk

Finally, we wish the incoming JCBC leadership – Emma Tabernacle (President), Thomas McCarter (Men’s/Open Captain), Katherine Bradley (Women’s Captain), Arzoo Iqbal (Coxing Captain) and Lucy Yeadon (Alumni and Outreach Officer) – all success, with our full support, as they take the JCBC forward in our special Bicentenary year. David Wootton, Chair of Trustees *

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Join us to celebrate JCBC’s Bicentenary! JCBC will be celebrating its 200-year anniversary in the academic year 2026-2027. We are excited to share this historic moment with you, and to set out our plans to celebrate the Club’s past, inspire the present and ensure its future.

Events The timeline above sets out the programme of events planned to celebrate the Bicentenary. The two key dates to get in your diary are: (i) Friday 4 December 2026, for the Bicentenary year and exhibition launch and Fairbairn races; and (ii) Saturday 18 September 2027, for the Grand Finale day of events and special dinner as the culmination of the Bicentenary year. Full details are also available on the Bicentenary Events page on the College website at www.jesus.cam.ac.uk/events/jcbc-bicentenaryevents-2026-2027 or use the QR code here.

Exhibition An exhibition on JCBC, featuring significant rowing memorabilia and artefacts from the College Archives, will be displayed in the Marshall Room from 4 December 2026 until Summer 2027. Do take a look if you’re visiting College!

Books Two books have been published to mark the Bicentenary: For the Love of Rowing – 200 Years of Jesus College Boat Club, 1827-2027 edited by Daniel Dodd (1976). A richly illustrated coffee table book bringing to life the extraordinary story of JCBC through the voices of those who have shaped it into the most successful Boat Club on the Cam. See pages 24-27 of this Annual Report for an introduction to JCBC history by Daniel Dodd. The Red Book, volume 6 (covering academic years 1994-2026). The latest volume in the iconic series, bringing the records of JCBC’s crews and their performance throughout the Club’s history up to date. If you rowed, coxed or coached during these years, your name should appear in it! Both titles are now available to order at https://www.jesus.cam.ac.uk/articles/jcbc-bicentenary-books-presale-now-live or via the QR code here.


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Memorabilia Of course, there will be stash/memorabilia; more details to follow! If you haven’t been receiving emails about the Bicentenary (or JCBC more generally) and would like to, please join the JCBC mailing list for termly updates on the Club’s successes, and news of the Bicentenary and JCBC events by completing the form on the Bicentenary events page. We have also started a new WhatsApp community through which we also intend to publish key information relating to the Bicentenary. You can join this community via the QR code here: Nicholas Tubbs (2014) on behalf of the Bicentenary Committee *

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MCR Chicken Run ‘Chicken Run’ is the Jesus College postgraduate community’s social running group. Our Club’s name is partly inspired by the Dreamworks animated film of the same name and the symbol for the College being a cockerel. We’re a friendly, inclusive running club that meets on Wednesday mornings during Term for a 30-minute run along the River Cam. We’ve also begun to arrange MCR trips to Parkrun: we visited Brook Leys Parkrun in Girton in Easter Term and are planning to explore more Parkruns around Cambridge in the coming months. This year, we’ve been fortunate to benefit from MCR support for our events. This funding has allowed us to go for a run followed by a social activity. We’ve taken trips to local cafés for morning coffees or, popular in the dark winter, a late afternoon trip to Knoops on Green Street for hot chocolate. We’ve also supported students wanting to train for a goal

The MCR Chicken Run group


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race by partially funding entry to the Town & Gown 10k in October 2026 and fully funding a six-person team for the Chariots of Fire in September 2026. Overall, funding for Chicken Run has enabled us to increase the scope of our events, encouraging runners who might otherwise not have joined an MCR event to meet our community and increase our support for MCR runners who want to take part in local running events. Julia Stewart-Wood *

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College Colours Eight students received College Colours for their exceptional contributions and outstanding commitment to sport at Jesus. The winners were nominated by their peers and are recognised both for their sporting talents and service to College teams and leagues. The Master presented the Colours at a special ceremony on 12 May 2026. College Colours are a long-standing Jesus tradition and nominations are made via the College Colours Committee, made up of all acting College first team captains (including mixed, men’s, women’s and the Boat Club) and the Committee President. This year Henry Halford was elected the new President for his contribution to mixed netball and rugby. The recipients were: Conor Collins: Nominated for his leadership of the College rugby team and his commitment to creating an inclusive and welcoming sporting environment, alongside his involvement in mixed netball. Sergio Garcia Busto: Captain of the men’s first team at tennis. Recognised for his outstanding performances and leadership, helping the Club achieve multiple promotions and expand to three teams. He has played in all first team matches this year and remains unbeaten. Stella Isaac: Nominated for her long-standing dedication to the Jesus College Boat Club, supporting crews through rowing, coaching and mentoring, and for her significant contribution to the success of the women’s side. Karan Salvi: Recognised for six years of commitment to Jesus College cricket, including captaining JCSU and MCR teams and playing a key role in multiple Cuppers finals and victories. Gabe Lamb: Recognised for his dedication and talent across multiple sports, captaining mixed netball, playing a key role in the College’s rugby over the last three years and representing the University at athletics. Elena Ruddy: Nominated for her contribution to rowing. As coxing captain for JCBC she looks after the safety and logistics around all crews. She also coxes the women’s first boat (W1) and was a driving force in helping the crew make Bumps history with the longest-held women’s Headship.


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From left, Nicholas Sammy, Elena Ruddy, College Colours Committee President 2025-2026 Tim Andrew, Gabe Lamb, The Master, Karan Salvin, Henry Halford and Boris Spasojevic. Photo: Thomas Holland

Nicholas Sammy: Nominated for his exceptional contribution to the growth of College tennis through coaching, organising social sessions, captaining the 3rd team and leading them to promotion, and generally fostering an inclusive club environment for students, staff and Fellows. Boris Spasojevic: Nominated for his leadership, talent and commitment to football, helping drive the College football team to a Cuppers victory, while also representing the College rugby team when needed. *

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Cricket It was another superb season for the Jesus College Cricket Club, finishing Cuppers champions for the third time in five years! An excellent crop of Freshers cricketers meant that the weekly net sessions at Fenner’s throughout Michaelmas and Lent were very well attended. Our Cuppers tournament in Easter Term kicked off with a nailbiter against Caius, with the Jesuans winning by just four runs thanks to a rapid 56 from Karan Salvi and 3-10 from Tomos Hunt. Next up was Darwin-Wolfson and another close match ensued, with Jesus winning by 30 runs thanks to four wickets from Seb Hughes-Piñán and 53 from Alex Dann to hold the innings together after a top-order batting collapse.


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A comfortable win against Clare-Clare Hall followed; an unbeaten century from Archie Jenkins and a swashbuckling 85 from Ed Timberlake meant Clare never even got close. A win by default against Downing led us to finishing the group stages unbeaten and qualifying for the quarters. The quarter-final against Christ’s will surely go down in Jesus Cricket history. Chasing an imposing 170 on a flat Jesus pitch, the Jesuans’ batting innings was a rollercoaster from start to finish: a combination of controversial umpiring decisions and some hot-headedness from the Christ’s XI caused tensions to flare, only getting worse as the match drew tighter. In the end, Tomos’ cool head got us over the line on the last ball to secure a famous victory. Yet another semi-final matchup against Trinity beckoned, and for the third consecutive year Jesus emerged the winners, with Raunak Khanduja’s superb 20* off just 12 balls helping us chase down 125 with just one wicket remaining. All was set for the final against Magdalene-Trinity Hall; a solid team batting performance got us to 137, with Archie, Alex and Raunak all providing useful cameos. A tight bowling and superb fielding performance restricted Magdalene-Trinity Hall throughout, and a good final over from Raunak led us to winning by 12 runs and to our third Cuppers title in five years! Other than Cuppers, we had our annual friendly match against the Jesters team which was very good fun, despite us finishing on the losing side. Overall, it has been a very successful season for Jesus College CC. I have loved captaining this amazing side and feel honoured to bring home the Cuppers trophy. Many more great things await next year! Seb Hughes-Piñán

The cricket team at Fenner’s. Photo: Karan Salvi


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Football Men’s team Off the back of a Cuppers-winning season last year, the men’s first team had something to prove. With only six players staying in the squad and the rest graduating, a large rebuild was required. Fortunately, a strong set of both undergraduate and postgraduate Freshers filled out the numbers, creating a strong squad for the season. Our first game was a tough 2-0 loss against Pembroke, as the team were still learning to work together but showed promising signs. Hard-fought 1-1 draws against Homerton and St John’s, followed by a first-round 1-0 cup win over Lucy Cavendish, set a more positive tone for the season. This was followed by a trip to Jesus College Oxford for the annual Jesus–Jesus varsity, where the superior Jesus College came away with a convincing win. The next week came our second-round Cup game against Queens’ where, despite a hard-fought battle, we faced an unfortunate 2-0 defeat, knocking us out of the competition earlier than we would have liked. The final game of the Term was a commanding 6-1 win away at Darwin sending us into the winter break with something to smile about. Despite being out of the Cup, we still had to fight for our place in Division 1. Highlights of Lent Term included an incredible 5-3 victory over Churchill and some sweet Cuppers revenge in a 1-0 win against Queens’, secured by a perfectly placed free kick from Freddie McNay, and we ended our season comfortably in the middle of the top Division with hopes of improving further next year. The season was underpinned by strong performances from new players Henry Fitzpatrick, Jacob Frankel and many more, alongside experienced players such as College Colours winner Boris Spasojevic, veteran keeper Ben Sutcliffe and a solid team overall. Next season’s captains, Alex Buncall and Joe Thorne, will build upon the strong team ethos that has been created this year.

The men’s football team


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The second team, led by John Ward and Arthur Bourdain, had a very strong season resulting in promotion to Division 3, a league mostly filled with first teams which highlights the strength of football at Jesus College. Equally impressive was the third team's promotion to Division 4 under the captaincy of George Whittle. There is a bright future ahead for men’s football at Jesus. Eli Mackenzie Women’s and non-binary team This has been another fantastic year for the team, marked by strong performances on the pitch, successful recruitment and the enduring enthusiasm that makes our Club such a special part of College life. We began Michaelmas Term with an excellent recruitment drive, welcoming a large cohort of excited Freshers following the graduation of several longstanding players. A taster session followed by free pizza helped new members settle in quickly and reinforced the team spirit at the heart of the Club. Our first fixture, a friendly against John’s/King’s, ended in a resounding 4-1 victory, with new recruit Rachel scoring twice on her debut. While changes to the wider football landscape affected the structure of competitive fixtures during the Term, the team adapted brilliantly and enjoyed a busy programme of friendlies, with Jesus frequently coming out on top, sometimes even when missing a player! Another highlight was the annual Jesus–Jesus Varsity match against Jesus College Oxford. Despite torrential rain threatening to cancel the game, the team secured a memorable 17-9 victory on a seven-a-side astro pitch. Lent Term began with a squad dinner at Aromi, followed by the welcome return of alumnus goalkeeper Neve Story (2022) for a friendly against Darwin/St Edmunds/Wolfson. The team joined a new Thursday evening seven-a-side league, a change that the players

The women and non-binary football team


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embraced with alacrity despite having to trek across town to Grange Road. Strong teamwork, skilful passing and determined performances characterised our campaign, alongside excellent sportsmanship throughout. A particular strength of the new league was its community atmosphere. With all teams playing in the same location each week, players were able to socialise across Colleges and support one another when squads were short of numbers. The consistent scheduling also improved accessibility and participation. Despite narrow defeats to strong sides from Trinity/Trinity Hall/Emmanuel and Newnham/Pembroke, Jesus finished fourth overall; an impressive achievement given that we are one of the few colleges competing independently. In Easter Term, the seven-a-side league continued throughout the examination period, unlike in previous years where competitions finished early in Term. This provided students with a valuable opportunity to take a break from revision, stay active and support their wellbeing. We rounded out the year with a fabulous BBQ in the sunshine at Jesus to celebrate our achievements. Overall, it has been an excellent year for the team. We are so grateful to the JCSU for its continued support and to all those whose contributions make the club possible. C. R. Wilson MCR team The 2025-2026 season was a standout year for the MCR Football Club. We kicked things off with a strong run of pre-season games, which helped a diverse squad of postgraduates find their rhythm early in the Michaelmas Term. This year, the MCR Committee committed significantly more investment to the team than in previous years. This funding allowed us to upgrade our equipment and provide a much more professional experience for our players, from training gear to match-day essentials. The investment clearly paid off on the pitch. We enjoyed our most successful and competitive season since 2022-2023. The highlight of the year was our last match on 19 April. We secured a dominant 5-2 victory over Wolfson in a clinical performance. Because so many postgraduates remained in Cambridge during the Easter break, we had a fantastic atmosphere and a great turnout. We capped off the season that same evening with a large MCR football social to celebrate the team’s achievements. MCR football: the top scorers. Photo: Maya Arzamanova

Georgy Arzamanov


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Hockey The JCHC season as ever was filled with moments of brilliance, flashes of silky skills and the inevitable comedy of bringing 15 students together on a Sunday morning in Grantchester, with players just entering their first year and the elderly committee member entering what must feel like his 10th JCHC season. In Michaelmas, we entered the league as a top contender, despite being the only single-College team. The four games of the Term resulted in three wins and a narrow one-goal loss to Newnham-John’s. Additionally, the first JCHC alumni reunion event in recent years was organised, with JCHC members from the past 60 years returning to college for a match and a formal. While the alumni valiantly won the match 2-1, with a late goal against first-time keeper Vern, it was a very friendly ‘afters’ with trading of stories from JCHC teams of the past, and much reminiscing about the ‘glory days’. Entering Lent, the determination to win the league had never been stronger, with exiting players determined to “surely win at least one while I’m here”, coinciding with the entry of a 2’s team into Division 2. Both teams had consistent success across the Term, with Jesus 2’s winning the second division comfortably unbeaten, and Jesus 1’s missing out on the league title by one goal. Also during Lent, a new varsity was organised against Brasenose College, with 13 Jesuans travelling to Oxford. In a show of skill, JCHC won decisively in a well-spirited first match of a new rivalry, that ended in a decisive 5-1 win. For Cuppers in Easter, we were again able to put out two teams. Both teams secured victories in the group stages, with Jesus 1’s making it to the quarter finals, before losing on flicks against the Blues’ goalkeeper. The 2025-2026 season was full of high points for JCHC, with success on and off the pitch, and bringing together a group of people I have been proud to have captained.

Jesus and the combined Brasenose/St Anne’s team after the Varsity match


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Signing off with a huge thank you to everyone who has made my time in JCHC as special as it has been, whether you were part of the 15-man squad to tackle St John’s, or one of the four regulars travelling to Grantchester last year. With new (and returning) leadership next year, I’m confident and happy to be leaving JCHC in a good place for further fun and success. Rob Tingle *

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MCR Lawn Sports This year was a first for the Jesus College Lawn Sports Society (JCLSS). This club was conceived as a place where members of the College community could congregate to enjoy some light-hearted fun. We purchased a variety of games for use by the MCR and have collaborated with the College MCR welfare team to provide a break for students outside during exam season. Although inclement weather prevented one of the two proposed outings, we intend to run similar events in the future. There is more to Lawn Sports than simply garden games, however, and JCLSS was able to enter a combined team with Corpus Christi into the croquet Cuppers this year. We progressed into the knockout round of the competition but were beaten by a strong team from Caius in the quarter-finals. Thanks to all members of the team for their availability and enthusiasm on the court. Beyond Jesus, two players from the Lawn Sports croquet team, Katie Birditt and Benji Illingworth, represented the University Croquet Club (CUACC) at their Varsity match at the Hurlingham Club in London in June. Overall, 2025-2026 has been an encouraging year, finishing with a friendly match against Clare College Croquet Club in July. We would like to thank Nick Sammy, for his support and advice in helping to set up the Club, and Colin Mullins, whose advice on the court has been invaluable. We hope to grow the Club next year and introduce more events to improve the wellbeing of members of the College community as a whole. Benji Illingworth

The extreme drought of 2026 did not deter the lawn sports players from enjoying a game of croquet against Clare in Chapel Court over the summer


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MCR Padel Club Padel made its debut as an MCR sport club this academic year, reflecting the sport’s rapid rise in popularity globally. After approaching the MCR Sports and Societies Officer with the proposal to establish the Club, we were delighted to launch this new opportunity for postgraduate students to get involved in one of the fastest-growing racket sports. The Club’s inaugural event, ‘Padel & Pizza’, took place during MCR Clubs Week, immediately after Freshers’ Fortnight. Both courts at the University Sports Centre were booked for two hours, followed by a pizza social, and the response exceeded expectations. More than 30 postgraduate students attended, bringing together Freshers and non-Freshers in a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere. The event highlighted a strong appetite for padel within the Jesus postgraduate community. Maintaining that momentum has not always been straightforward. Cambridge currently has just two padel courts at the University Sports Centre, and demand far exceeds availability. Finding regular weekly sessions has therefore been challenging, particularly without the benefit of advance bookings offered by Cambridge Sport memberships. To increase playing opportunities, we worked closely with the newly formed JCSU Padel Club and explored arrangements for bookings organised via the University Sports Centre. Although the available times were ultimately unsuitable for many students, the collaboration has nevertheless led to several enjoyable joint sessions across all three Terms. The coming months will see the Club continue organising relaxed sessions over the summer whenever court availability and the weather allow. We also hope to secure a consistent weekly or biweekly booking that is accessible to a larger number of members. Interest in competitive College padel is steadily growing, with discussions about the creation of a Colleges’ League ongoing. While expanded court provision will ultimately be needed for the sport to reach its full potential, the MCR Padel club is well placed to build on an encouraging and successful first year. Tim Andrew

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Rugby The 2025-2026 season was another successful year for Jesus College Rugby Club, as we continued to build on the strong foundations established in recent seasons. With a mixture of experienced returners and an enthusiastic group of Freshers joining the squad, the Club entered the year with optimism. Michaelmas Term saw the team compete strongly in the league, producing several impressive performances as the season progressed. After bidding farewell to a large group of graduating players who had formed the core of the squad, the Club faced the challenge of rebuilding. Thanks to an excellent recruitment effort, we welcomed an impressive intake of Freshers, including Reuben Tao, Sam Thompson and Ben Hendry, who made valuable contributions both on and off the field. The Term concluded with the annual Old Boys game, which saw the return of Club legends, best exemplified by Chris (“Money”) May-Miller (2013). The fixture once again highlighted


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The rugby team

the strong bonds that exist across generations of Jesus rugby, providing an opportunity for current players to connect with alumni and carry forward the traditions of the Club. These connections continued long after the final whistle, with players past and present gathering to celebrate another successful season. Fittingly, the evening concluded with a booth at Mash, where stories from former years were shared and the Club’s history passed on in the manner tradition intended. Lent Term brought the start of our Cuppers campaign. After disposing of Slobbinson in a dominant opening round, we faced old rivals St John’s in a closely contested fixture. Standout performances from Levi Oravecz and Jacob Tutt were not enough to overcome John’s, with injuries ultimately taking their toll in an otherwise fiercely competitive encounter. The season concluded with a final super day of rugby. We dispatched Queens’/ Magdalene in fine form, thanks to heroics from Alban Coudray, who held the ball up over our try line on three separate occasions. The Bowl Final against Catz-Hom proved a bruising affair, with new recruits Jacob Frankel and Archie Jenkins stepping up impressively. An untimely injury to athlete Matthew Olatunji hampered our chances and, despite a violent performance from starboy Brendan Burgess, we narrowly fell 17-14. At University level, Tim Andrew represented the Blues in his fifth Varsity Match, while Charlie Forgacz-Cooper, Owen Branthwaite and incoming captain Max Pitkin played for the LXs. Sam Thompson and Alban Coudray represented the 3rd XV and were both pivotal in the epic comeback victory. Conor Collins *

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Running What began a few years ago as a pair of friends meeting for weekly runs has since evolved into Jesus College’s (still very informal) Running Club. We meet every Tuesday morning outside the Chimney for a casual, chatty 5k down the river and back. It has proved a great way for runners from across the college community to get to know each other and is always the perfect start to the day – despite the darkness in winter and difficulty of dragging oneself out of bed for 7am. A highlight of this year was our World Mental Health Week jog, which saw a record turnout of nearly 30 runners. This was doubtless down to the work of Dean of Chapel James Crockford and Student Wellbeing Lead Mary Simuyandi, who arranged a free breakfast in Caff for all those who attended. Thank you to everyone who has joined us so far, and we hope that our community will only continue to grow! Lyra Browning *

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Swimming The Jesus College Cuppers swimming team have had another very successful year, winning swimming Cuppers for the third consecutive year. We celebrated our success with a post-exams social and look forward to continuing to build on the momentum which the society has gained over the last few years. Hannah Richardson *

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Tennis (JCR and MCR joint report) The Jesus College Tennis Club celebrates a truly phenomenal year and we’ve even kept one promise from last year’s report! Our season jumpstarted with two highly successful recruitment sessions led by Coach Mary Brown (Level 4 LTA certification). By offering tailored activities for varied abilities during Freshers’ Week, the Jesus College Tennis community on WhatsApp now has over 250 members, its largest population in recent years. Following these taster events and Team Trials, the overwhelmingly positive responses from both undergraduate and postgraduate communities facilitated expansion from one team last year to three teams this year. We are thrilled to share that all three teams were unbeaten during the Lent Colleges League and by the end of Lent Term we secured a historic trifecta of promotions:

• Jesus 3rd: Division 6 to Division 4 • Jesus 2nd: Division 5 to Division 3 • Jesus 1st: broke into Division 1 for the first time in over half a decade.


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We sent six players to the Jesus–Jesus Varsity match in Oxford in November, whose valiant efforts were unfortunately met with a narrow 5-4 loss to the other place. We were consoled by Cambridge’s overall 4-3 victory and we anticipate a decisive win on home ground next year. In Tennis Cuppers, we were thwarted in Round 2 by defending champions, Pembroke College, after an extremely close result; our 3-3 draw on sets was ultimately decided by the games count 24-23. Overall, we sincerely thank all 30 players across our three teams for their commitment to College-level tennis this year. A major highlight this year was the highly anticipated introduction of in-College coaching. In Michaelmas, we launched a four-week beginners and intermediate coaching programme with Coach Mary Brown that benefited 26 participants. Club-sponsored professional coaching was offered to all three teams, aiming to bolster confidence on technique and develop crucial tactical strategies for matches. We heartily thank Coach Ed Laing for his dedicated work with Jesus 3rd team over three Terms and for directing the Serves Clinic. Our Social Tennis Sundays at 1.30pm continue year-round, maintaining continuous engagement with students, staff, Fellows and even alumni. This Social Tennis fixture benefits Jesuans while providing opportunities to foster good relationships with players from other colleges’ teams who are regularly invited. We continued our traditional End of Term Socials: a Christmas Tennis Social, an inaugural ‘The Jesus Open’ mini-tournament in Lent Term and a Wimbledon-themed Easter Term Social complete with strawberries and cream. The University M1 team were also invited to two of these Socials, and CULTC’s University Tennis Coordinator for the Easter Term Social. Several ambitious initiatives are currently in the pipeline as we aim to raise the profile of tennis at Jesus College. We are engaging with HR and the President to organise tennis

Coach Mary Brown teaching serving technique at the beginners and intermediates 4-week coaching programme. Photo: Aarnav Walia


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coaching for staff and Fellows respectively. Notably, we are exploring procurement of portable floodlights to extend court availability during the darker evenings, which will greatly benefit team training. From a sustainability perspective, we are recycling used tennis balls as dog toys rather than directly binning them. As current JCTC co-captains, we (Nick and Sergio) are immensely grateful that the College Sports Committee has recognised our efforts and contributions to College tennis over the past few years by conferring College Colours on us both. We are incredibly proud to have supported JCTC growing from a single team in Division 5 in October 2024 to three thriving teams today, including our historic 1st Team promotion into Division 1 and a flourishing social tennis community. This transformation would not have been possible without invaluable contributions from other members of the JCTC Management Committee: Aarnav Walia (Vice Captain 2025-2026), Vova Chub (Tennis Captain 2024-2025) and Max Silin (Tennis Captain 2023-2024). Our phenomenal year in tennis motivates us to continue bringing coaches onboard to help us reinforce our games, thrive across divisions and – with hard work – maybe even hoist the Cuppers trophy next year. Another key priority is securing external sponsorship and/or donations to continue our coaching programmes sustainably, so if you like what’s in this report and wish to support the Club’s operations, do get in touch! Overall, we anticipate witnessing the imminent successes of the coming year, and to expanding the tennis-loving community at College even further. Finally, we specially thank Aarnav Walia for wholeheartedly embracing the newly created Vice Captain role, as we aim to build the leadership capacity of future captains. He worked assiduously in organising team stash now used as uniforms in matches, captained the Jesus–Jesus Varsity delegation and Jesus 2nd team, organised ‘The Jesus Open’ and revitalised the Club’s Instagram account. As he officially promotes into captaincy next year, we trust in his ability to support the Club’s continued success and to maintain an active tennis community at Jesus College. Nicholas Sammy, Sergio Garcia Busto and Aarnav Walia *

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Volleyball Volleyball at Jesus has experienced a resurgence in interest, with a team strong enough to threaten Cuppers favourites next year due to an influx of University-level players. Moreover, due to the entry into a local volleyball league in Michaelmas Term, the team had the opportunity to experience matches throughout the year, earning a promotion into the next division. This laid the foundation for next year, where friendlies with Churchill and Queens’ will simulate match-pressure. The weekly Saturday training sessions have remained popular throughout the year and provided beginners with the chance to learn the main movement patterns. Some of them went on to perform extremely well in Cuppers matches in Lent Term and


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undoubtably will remain staples in the team. Steven Wang in particular took to the sport with a keen proficiency. Despite a fun and instructive game, the team was ultimately defeated in the knockout stage this year after a successful group stage. A fair degree of flexibility was required to accommodate the rule change within Cuppers that limited the number of club players permitted on the court: a double-edged sword of a problem. To conclude the year, Luka Hunter, the captain, designed some custom shirts which will hopefully be worn next year, as Jesus continues its inevitable rise to the top of college volleyball. Luka Hunter *

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MCR Yoga MCR Yoga is held weekly during Term and is led by our instructor, Yolande Jaglin. The sessions provide postgraduate students with a regular opportunity to improve both their physical and mental wellbeing. Yoga is widely recognised for benefits including increased flexibility, strength, balance, stress reduction, relaxation and improved mental health. Attendance is typically between five and ten participants per session. At the beginning of the academic year during Freshers’ Fortnight, attendance reached up to 20 participants as new students explored the range of activities offered by the MCR. The sessions continue to provide a welcoming and accessible wellbeing activity for postgraduate students throughout the year. n Anne-Sophie Wiedenmayer

MCR Yoga. Photo by Yolande Jaglin


Alumni News


Photo: Jamie Andersen Photography


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Alumni News People Esther ANTHONY-AJILEYE (2021) took up a position as Graduate Surveyor at Knight Frank. Tash AW (1995) was longlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize for his novel The South. This is the third time Tash has appeared on the longlist for this prestigious award, having previously received nominations for The Harmony Silk Factory (2005) and Five Star Billionaire (2013). Stephen BELCHER (1983), Chief of Science and Technology at the Met Office, was awarded a CBE for services to climate science in the King’s New Year Honours. Guen BRADBURY (2005) gave a talk in the Frankopan Hall entitled ‘Growing Healthier Adult Bodies: Lessons from Rainforest Communities’, based on the year her family spent living in traditional communities across South America and Africa. Roger BUTLIN (1973), Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Sheffield, was honoured with an article in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology entitled ‘A Career in Pursuit of the Origin of Species’, which celebrates his extraordinary contributions to the field. Mitchell CLEAVER (2015) received the Subedi Prize for best doctoral dissertation at Oxford, for his thesis entitled ‘The Equitable Lien: Credit, Security, and Priority in English Law and Economy, 1673-1925’. Robert CLINE (1998) was appointed a Judge of the First-tier Tribunal in February 2026, assigned to the Health, Education and Social Care Chamber (Mental Health). Peter CONVEY (1980) was awarded the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research Medal for ‘Excellence in Antarctic Research’. Ella CURRY (2019) has become a Trustee of the River Arrow Trust. The Trust works to conserve, protect and improve the natural and managed environment of the River Arrow and its catchment (from Powys to Herefordshire). This is pursued through river restoration, catchment management, education, community engagement, and research and monitoring. Krittika D’SILVA (2016) (pictured right) spoke at this year’s Gates Cambridge Trust and the Intellectual Forum (IF) Lecture, discussing the challenges and opportunities AI offers for social good. Ron DAVIES (1953) received the Junichiro Tanaka Award from the International Precious Metals Institute (IPMI), which recognises important career contributions made to the advancement of the precious metals industry.


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Robrecht DECORTE (2012) has won a contract to publish Starstruck: How Comets, Eclipses and Other Celestial Events Shaped Our History with Canongate in 2028. The book involves a blend of narrative history and astronomy, building on his academic background as a classicist at Jesus and his professional life as International Relations Lead at the UK Space Agency. Amelia FORD (2020) began a postdoctoral position at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI), Australia, where she conducts research into the understanding and treatment of malaria. She is a member of the Boddey Lab, which in August 2026 reported a breakthrough in chemovaccination, a novel antimalarial strategy. In May 2027, she will present a talk on this research to the College community. Elias FORNERIS (2020) (pictured left) received the Special Jury Prize as part of the 2025 Raymond Aron Prize for Research (PhD Thesis Category). The prize, awarded by the Société des Amis de Raymond Aron in France, honours outstanding research by French and international scholars working on the thought of the twentieth-century philosopher Raymond Aron, or in the social sciences he engaged with. Eugene FUNG (1991) was appointed a Judge of the Court of First Instance of the High Court of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Albert GOH (1990) was named deputy CEO for an exchange fund investment office at the Hong Kong Central Bank. Sabine HALLAMASEK (2019) (pictured left) was awarded the Tech for Green Prize at the 2026 Austrian Frauen-Förderpreis für Digitalisierung und Innovation (Award for Excellence in Digitalisation and Innovation). George HARRIS (1969) published a second edition of Getting to Know Edinburgh, which takes the reader through ten mapped walking routes around the city (including all the obvious sites and many less well-known ones). Victoria HAYWARD (1999), a Psychoanalytic Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist who, for the past 16 years, has worked in community and specialist CAMHS Teams, the charity sector, schools and in private practice, co-authored a chapter entitled ‘Reaching for the Unreachable: Working with Parents of Adolescents who Struggle to Engage’ in Psychoanalytic Crisis Work with Adolescents (Routledge, 2026). May HEN (2015) was quoted in a major US publication, The Verge, for an interview on the AI company CoreWeave. She also published an article in the IFC Review entitled ‘Civil Law Concepts, Common Law Innovation: The Caribbean Foundation Experience’.


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Dominic HEY (2020) will be running the London Marathon 2027 in aid of the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) to help support their scientific research. Peter HIGGINS (1981) was awarded an OBE for services to commerce, entrepreneurship and education in the 2026 King’s Birthday Honours List. Peter is co-founder of the fine menswear company Charles Tyrwhitt Shirts; he is also a Trustee of the food poverty charity Mary’s Meals and gives talks in schools about entrepreneurship. Tami HOFFMAN (1990) joined The Guardian this year as Director of Public Policy, with a remit that includes AI and copyright, press freedom and journalist safety. Nicholas HUDSON (1978), formerly Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster, was appointed Bishop of Plymouth in November 2025 by Pope Leo XIV. Francis HUTCHINSON (1990) was awarded the Public Administration Medal (Silver) by the Prime Minister’s Office of Singapore. Emma KAVANAGH (2013) was appointed Assistant Professor of Historical Musicology at University College Dublin. In December 2025, she appeared on BBC Radio 3’s Opera on 3 to discuss the French composer Gustave Charpentier. Turi KING (1993) presented a groundbreaking science-based history documentary for Channel 4 investigating DNA analysis of Adolf Hitler, entitled Hitler’s DNA: Blueprint of a Dictator. Helena KONDAK (2022) was awarded Student Podcast of the Year in the 2026 Political Podcast Awards for The Feminist Files, which she began while studying at Jesus and for which she continues to produce and co-host episodes. Cai LA TROBE-ROBERTS (2021) was quoted in an article for The Times regarding Clarissa’s Campaign, which seeks to raise awareness and funds for heart screening in young people; the campaign is in honour of Clarissa Nicholls, a Cambridge undergraduate, who tragically passed away in 2023. Julia LONGBOTTOM (1986) was made an Honorary Fellow of Jesus College in 2025. She was appointed as the first female British Ambassador to Japan in March 2021. Lawrence MALLINSON (1975) was elected Master of the Worshipful Company of Carpenters. Gavin MANSFIELD (1988) was appointed a High Court Judge in November 2025. He will sit in the King’s Bench Division. His appointment follows a 33-year career as a barrister in London. Jonathan McALLISTER (2018) was awarded a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Nottingham. His first book, Beckett, Performance and the Miming Body in Theatre, Film and Television was published in July 2026 by Edinburgh University Press. Andrew MILLINCHIP (1979) performed a selection of well-known pieces at St John’s Church in Knutsford in November 2025 on an organ dating back almost 200 years.


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Iain MOPPETT (1988) (pictured left) was awarded an OBE for services to Perioperative Care in the King’s Birthday Honours 2026. He is Professor of Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine at the University of Nottingham and the Chair of the Centre for Research and Improvement at the Royal College of Anaesthetists. Henri MURISON (2002) was awarded an MBE for services to the economy. Henri is the Chief Executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, a think-tank founded in 2016 with a commitment to boosting economic productivity in the North. Arif NAVEED (2012) was posthumously awarded the Government of Pakistan’s Development Leadership Award in November 2025, which was accepted on his behalf by his former supervisor, Jesus Fellow and Professor Emerita Madeleine Arnot. In April 2026, the inaugural Dr Arif Naveed Education Prize, established in his honour by the University of Cambridge, was presented to Dr Rubaiya Murshed. Susan NORTH (1989) published a children’s book, Moorside Mystery: How to Catch a Thief. Deborah OMOLEGAN-OBE (2022) graduated from Harvard University with a Masters in Education Policy and Analysis, and a concentration in Global, International and Comparative Education. Emma PEMBERTHY (2005) (pictured left) won a UK Women in Innovation Award for her veterinary technology company, Petscribers, which is the UK’s first smart e-prescribing platform for veterinary surgeons. Rachel POLONSKY (1983) was appointed acting President of Murray Edwards College, Cambridge for the academic year 2025-2026. Jeremy SOPER (2014) set a new hang-gliding world record after completing a 377 km closed-circuit flight across Kenya’s Rift Valley – the longest journey of its kind ever achieved in the sport. Hamish SYMINGTON (2017) set the Listener crossword, widely regarded as the most prestigious and difficult ‘thematic’ crossword puzzle in the world, for the 9 May 2026 edition of The Times. Damian WALSH (2019) was elected to a Junior Research Fellowship at Campion Hall, University of Oxford. Hannah WHITE (2000) was profiled in Varsity, where she discussed her career and experiences as Director and CEO of the Institute for Government, one of the nation’s most prominent and impactful think-tanks.


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Richard WILLIAMS (1998) began a new role as Associate Professor in Computer Science at the University of Cumbria in October 2025. Jonathan WILLS (2000) (pictured top right) was the recipient of the 2026 Alumni Volunteer of the Year Award, in recognition of his generous contributions to careers mentoring. His assistance and expertise for the ‘In the Business of Entrepreneurship’ event, and for his session on ‘Protecting Your Ideas’ at the Graduate Conference, were hugely appreciated by all attendees. Stephen WOODLEY (1957) (pictured right) received a BEM for services to tennis in Kent in the King’s New Years Honours. Stephen, an Honorary Life Vice President of Kent Tennis, was also recognised in 2024 with a ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ from the Lawn Tennis Association, having been highly committed to performance and grassroots tennis in Canterbury for over 50 years. Rebecca ZEMAN (née Dowman,1983) published a poetry collection, Preloved, with Grey Hen Press in April 2026. Rebecca completed an MA in Creative Writing (Poetry) at the University of East Anglia in 2023. *

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Births Charlotte JACKSON (2012) and Jack ELLIS (2013) have a son, Ralph Frederick Jackson Ellis. Natasha MORRIS (née Brice, 2008) and Ben MORRIS (2011) have a second daughter, Miriam Rose, a sister to Eloise Delia. Anthony SPICE (2013) and his wife Priscilla have a daughter, Mikaela Maria Wun-Yin. William THOMPSON-HARE (2003) and his wife Clara have a son, Edmund John. Dean WILLIAMS and Rebecca WILLIAMS (née Newham) (both 2011) have a second daughter, Nyra. *

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Marriages and Civil Partnerships Aiden CHAN (2013) married Carol Chen (Robinson, 2019) on 23 August at Hengrave Hall, Bury St Edmunds. Alena GORB married Robert HUDSON (both 2017) on 25 May 2024 at St Mary the Virgin Church, Ovingham.


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William HARE (2003) married Clara Thompson (Queens’, 2007) on 13 April 2024 at St John the Evangelist, Upper Norwood. James HODGSON (2007) entered into a civil partnership with Rory Malone on 20 July 2024 at St George’s Town Hall, Tower Hamlets. Rhodri KENDRICK (2011) married Hannah ROBINSON (2012) on 12 July 2025 in Middleham, Yorkshire. Eleanor OGILVIE (2010) married Charles Bradshaw on 24 May 2025 at St Mary’s Church, Wylye. Iain ROLLAND (2016) married Courtney Collins (Homerton, 2016) on 6 September 2025 at All Saints Church, Newmarket. Angela SCARSBROOK (2008) married Benjamin Reilly on 13 December 2024 at Gretna Green and on 13 December 2025 at St Mary Moorfields Catholic Church, City of London. Thomas STUCHFIELD (2012) married Georgia Crellin on 12 July 2025 in the Chapel at Jesus College. Matthew TRAFFORD (2007) married Rosie Prickett on 23 July 2025 in the Chapel at Jesus College. Isabelle WILLIAMS (2013) married Sam Webb on 2 August 2026 in the Chapel at Jesus College. n


Obituaries


Photo: Jamie Andersen Photography


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Obituaries Emeritus Fellow Dr David Ernest Hanke was born on 31 July 1947 and died on 4 August 2026. David became a Fellow of Jesus College in 1976 and served as College Director of Studies in Biological Natural Sciences and Senior Lecturer in the University’s Department of Plant Sciences. He became an Emeritus Fellow of Jesus in October 2014. David was a distinguished plant biochemist. His interests centred around plant signalling pathways in a wide range of contexts in relation to metabolic, infective and environmental stress as well as during development. His research highlighted the importance of hormones in plant development, physiology and evolution. He relished the occasions when his work impinged on our everyday experience, such as why it is that low temperatures lead to the sweetening of potatoes or why air pollution is resulting in spruce (Christmas) trees growing less tall but more bushy. He ran a very active research group in the Department of Plant Sciences, trained generations of PhD students and published a rich stream of more than 90 high profile papers. He could be impassioned and direct both in speaking and writing. In a bold contribution to a collection of essays on explanation in the natural sciences (alongside authors Martin Rees, Steven Weinberg and Jack Goody), Explanations: Styles of Explanation in Science, he criticised Richard Dawkins for his resort to human teleology in popular science. He wrote: Biology is sick. Fundamentally unscientific modes of thought are increasingly accepted and dominate the way the subject is explained to the next generation. The heart of the problem is that we persist in making (literally) sense of a world that we now know to be senseless by attributing subjective values to the objects in it, values that have no basis in reality. His enthusiasm for the beauty of biological design was infectious. Generations of student botanists will remember him as an inspired and sometimes unconventional teacher. He might well begin a lecture on the interaction of plant roots with microbial symbionts by handing out vegetarian snacks to a lecture theatre full of students. He grabbed the attention of a group of Jesus natural scientists by starting an evening talk with an unaccompanied (but accomplished) solo performance of an operatic aria in order to introduce the concept of plant diurnal rhythms. It came as no surprise when he was awarded the University Pilkington Prize for teaching excellence in 2000. For over a quarter of a century he supported the Gatsby Plant Science Network, which promotes excellence in plant sciences research and teaching nationwide.


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He was a lively presence each year in their summer courses for young researchers, delivering lectures as well as sessions on how to give research talks. In recognition of his many contributions, the Gatsby Foundation has recently set up the David Hanke Medal for the best talk at the annual network meeting. At Jesus David played a key role in the selection, education and well-being of biological natural scientists for nearly half a century. His interviewing style was encouraging and kind, though sometimes slightly alarming for his co-interviewer as the direction of his questions occasionally veered away from the expected. This hardly upset the interviewee, as his sometimes apparently off-the-cuff questions (the relevance of Greek philosophy to current biological thinking, the importance of number theory in petal patterns, the representation of nature in Hardy’s writing) were firmly embedded in the candidate’s personal statement, which David had thoroughly scrutinised. Generations of students benefited from his lively teaching, guided by his wisdom and kindness as their Director of Studies; an engagement that for many extended well beyond their years in Cambridge. Always a readily recognisable and entertaining presence for the Fellowship and staff in College, David was admired and loved. His wicked sense of humour enlivened many occasions, and his renowned thespian abilities were evident whenever he had the opportunity to swear an oath, read a lesson or proclaim a grace. David was an amateur performer in many theatrical productions as a core member of the musical and amateur dramatic community of Swaffham Bulbeck and the surrounding villages. He excelled in multiple Gilbert and Sullivan shows, specialising in the patter songs, having rewritten the words to humorously fit contemporary themes and issues. Born to Ernest and Irene, David and his parents lived initially in Brierley Hill, Staffordshire. Both sides of the family were makers and craftsmen in the industrial Midlands. On one side there were industrial blacksmiths and foundrymen, and on the other glass engravers (hence the Bohemian surname). David was the eldest of four children (the others being Edwin, Sheila and Maureen). With a disabled father and mother at work he was frequently taken out and about by his maternal grandfather, Edwin Bradley, who had a huge influence on him and inspired a lifelong love of the natural world and of making things. Although at that time the West Midlands was still heavily industrialised, it was possible to get into the countryside of Staffordshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire relatively quickly, and as a child David spent much of his free time in this landscape. He fished, fossil hunted and began his development into a skilled naturalist. There is one family story of his mother discovering him boiling an old, dead frog carcass in one of her saucepans to extract the skeleton. In later life, walks with him always took time, as there were so many extraordinary things to be identified, observed and explained in every ordinary hedgerow or meadow. David attended King Edward VI Grammar School in Stourbridge and excelled academically before gaining a place at Brasenose College, Oxford, where he studied Botany, receiving his BA (Hons) in 1968. He embarked on a PhD in Biochemistry at Gonville and Caius College, receiving his doctorate in 1973. His thesis – The visualisation of the pectin molecule and its biosynthesis in the plant protoplast –


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focused on plant biochemistry. This laid the groundwork for his subsequent lifelong career studying plant hormones, cell cycle controls and signal transduction. David married Veronica Mark on 25 July 1970, and they moved to Swaffham Bulbeck, one of the Fen Edge villages between Cambridge and Newmarket. They had three sons, Guy, Joseph and William, all of whom were inspired to follow his lead in careers that involve making, discovering, teaching and mentoring. The Hanke garden at Swaffham Bulbeck became a lifework and playground for planting, growing, crossing and nurturing plants from all over the world, including at present a very large giant redwood tree. Although parts of the garden were always beautiful, parts were also usually under construction or development. Memorably, he once constructed a large, motorised sieving machine to remove stones and ancient rubbish from the soil. He considered gardening a process to be enjoyed, rather than a job to be finished. The garden would contain plants from all over the world, with those from Japan most abundant. David travelled many times to Japan for work and leisure, loving the history and culture of plant breeding and garden creation, but also skilled woodworking, another practical hobby. He frequently constructed furniture and fixtures at home, on one occasion creating a child’s bedroom out of a narrow room by building a bed between the walls eight feet above the floor with a ladder to reach it. In retirement David enjoyed many happy playdates with his grandchildren, Jacob, Isabella, Simon and Nathan. Guy Hanke and Helen Skaer *

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Fellows Professor Jason Arday was born 9 May 1985 and died 14 August 2026. Jason was elected Fellow in Education in October 2023 following his appointment as Professor of Sociology of Education by the Faculty of Education in the same year. Jason was Professor of Sociology of Education at the University of Glasgow between 2022 and 2023, and prior to that (2019 to 2022) was Assistant Professor and later Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Durham. He had also acted as consultant or trustee to several organisations, including the Runnymede Trust, where he served three consecutive terms as Board Member. In the relatively short period since the award of his doctorate by Liverpool John Moores University in 2015, Jason contributed to over 16 articles in scholarly journals such as the BMJ Open, Educational Review and British Journal of Sociology of Education. His monograph, Cool Britannia and Multi-Ethnic Britain: Uncorking the Champagne


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Supernova (Routledge, 2020) explored the experiences of Black and ethnic minorities in Britain during the 1990s, using the method of autoethnography – a qualitative approach to social science that focuses on the author’s own experiences as a participant in society. For Jason, this method incorporated frequent references to contemporary popular music as an evocative way of communicating and exploring the discrepancies between his experiences and those of wider society. Jason’s research agenda was a logical progression in the field of Sociology of Education. From the 1970s onwards, this had explored the role of social determinants in the reproduction of inequalities in education systems on the premise that knowledge is socially constructed. A short step from this traditional methodology was the study of the subjective experience of minorities, to be gleaned through a scholar’s self-reflection. While large-scale studies using aggregated data can track and identify norms and patterns, traditional social science arguably cannot provide the idiographic representation of experience necessary for an authentic understanding of the impact of social institutions on individuals. Although the autoethnographic approach to social science is contested, it provides rare access to data about subjective experience which must be part of any contextual consideration of the role of educational institutions. During his time at Cambridge, Jason became a highly regarded speaker and advocate. He was elected as an Honorary Fellow of the British Science Association, for which he acted as a contributor to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Diversity and Inclusion in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM). He gave a British Academy lecture on the story of Paul Simon’s Graceland, guest-edited the BBC Radio 4 Today programme and was a panellist on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. He received honorary doctorates from Anglia Ruskin University and St Mary’s University, Twickenham. He also published a second book with Chantelle Jessica Lewis, We See Things They’ll Never See: Love, Hope, and Neurodiversity (Princeton University Press, 2025). This book explores neurodivergence and minoritised experiences in a hybrid academic genre, partially by appeal to popular music. Jason’s memoir Great and Unfortunate Things, co-authored with Eve Claxton (Simon and Schuster, 2026), was published posthumously. In the last weeks of his life, Jason received an unprecedented amount of media attention for an academic. Analysis of the media coverage by Matt Walsh, Head of the School of Journalism, Media and Culture at Cardiff University, found that 242 articles were written about him in 26 days. Many of these were published after Jason resigned, saying in a statement online that the level of public scrutiny was more than any person could reasonably endure. At the time of writing, the University has launched the first part of an independent review into Jason’s death, which is concurrent with an ongoing coroner’s inquest. It will examine the support, interventions and protections available to Jason. A second part will comprise a broader review of institutional processes and practice related to Jason’s appointment and time at Cambridge.


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After his tragic and unexpected death, Jason has received many tributes as part of a public outpouring of grief and disbelief. Vigils were held in his memory in Cambridge and in Trafalgar Square, London. His story has continued to inspire many people concerned, like him, with promoting the understanding of minoritised experience. Kamran Mallick, CEO of Disability Rights UK, wrote that Jason had moved him with his response to the question of what he would do if he could change the world, to which Jason had responded: “I would take a thread and a needle and I’d interweave love into our society.” Jason was a man of faith, a self-declared optimist and someone who believed in the power of love. He was attracted to Jesus College partly because it bore the name of Jesus. From Jesus College, he received a warm welcome on the occasions he visited. Jason believed in promoting a fairer, more inclusive, more kindly society and saw his own advocacy as a means to do this. While he did not teach at Jesus College during his short tenure, choosing instead to focus on his research and public engagements, his students in the Faculty of Education remember him as a kind, gentle man and an engaging lecturer. He leaves behind his parents, siblings, partner and children. Dr Daniel Moulin, Fellow in Education *

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Henry John Woolston was born on 12 August 1935 and died on 28 December 2025. Growing up in Birmingham, Henry was educated at King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys and later at University College, Oxford, where he read PPE. After leaving Oxford, he went on to complete his National Service, undertaking basic officer training at Sandhurst before joining his regiment (Royal Artillery) at Larkhill. While still pursuing his National Service, Henry married his first wife, Angela, in 1957. In 1958, Henry began his professional life at ICI Billingham; soon afterwards he moved to the university sector, where he would ultimately develop an extensive, international career as a facilitator and champion of architectural innovation and bursarial management. Following some years as a member of the University of Oxford’s estates team, Henry moved to southern Africa along with his wife and their three children, Piers, Rachel and Gavin. Here, he was instrumental in supporting the establishment of a huge three-campus network that would become the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland (UBLS). Within this development was an innovative campus in Swaziland (now Eswatini), designed by the renowned Portuguese architect José Forjaz. Henry returned to the UK in 1973, bringing his expertise at first to the University of Leicester, where he helped bring to life Sir James Stirling’s design of a new Medical School.


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Soon thereafter, he was instrumental in the creation of what is still Cambridge’s youngest College. Robinson College appointed Henry its first Bursar in 1975, two years before its official founding as the first purpose-built co-educational Cambridge College established for both undergraduate and postgraduate students. The building of Robinson was a long, complex and skilfully managed enterprise; as Bursar, Henry not only oversaw the larger stakes of the project but was also heavily involved in many specific sub-committees, such as for the College’s library and auditorium. Robinson was officially opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in May 1981. Fifteen years later, Her Majesty would commemorate another of Henry’s substantial projects: the Quincentenary Library at Jesus College, part of a wider campaign to celebrate five centuries since the College’s founding in 1496. Henry had become Domestic Bursar at Jesus in 1984, and although he had left this position in 1993, a few years before the quincentenary itself, this momentous tribute to the College’s past – and, with a state-of-the-art working library, this investment in its students’ future – stands as a compelling testament to Henry’s long career of ambitious, meticulous planning. In 1995, Henry retired to Rutland, where he was able to pursue his lifelong passion for gardens and gardening. He took up a range of roles within several organisations, becoming Treasurer for the Garden History Society and contributing to the Hardy Plant Society at both the national and local level. During his long and happy retirement, in 2001, Henry married his second wife, Pat. He leaves behind his wife Pat, together with his three children, Piers, Rachel and Gavin, and two grandsons, William and George.

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St Radegund Fellow Gurnee Fellows Hart (1994) was born on 26 April 1929 and died on 22 May 2026. Since his time as a visiting scholar at Jesus in 1994, Gurnee became one of the most generous and impactful donors in the College’s recent history. The Gurnee Hart Scholarship, established in 2007, has funded more than twenty outstanding postgraduate students, while his endowed chair, the Gurnee Hart Fellowship in History, has provided history academics the stability and security, within the ideal environment of Jesus College, to pursue world-leading research and teach the next generation of historians. These are just two of the many causes Gurnee supported at Jesus, which otherwise included a student prize, a discretionary fund for the subject of History, support for the College Choir and the West Court campaign.


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Born in Chicago, Illinois, Gurnee went on to graduate Phi Beta Kappa from Pomona College, California, in 1951 and later served two years in Korea with the U.S. Army infantry, earning the Bronze Star Medal. Back home, Gurnee graduated with an MBA (1955) from Stanford Business School and began working for Willis & Christy investment counsel in Los Angeles, later merged into Scudder, Stevens & Clark. Gurnee married Marjorie Leigh in 1966 in New York, where he also moved in 1967. He would become Partner and Managing Director and retired in 1994. It was after his retirement that Gurnee’s connections to Cambridge began. Between 1994 and 1995, Gurnee was a visiting scholar at Jesus, studying military history. His time here was inspirational for Gurnee; it would also prove hugely advantageous for the pursuit of history at Jesus College and for the relationship between the University of Cambridge and its alumni and supporters in the United States. As a founding Director – and the first Chairman – of Cambridge in America, Gurnee’s contribution to philanthropic connections across the Atlantic cannot be overstated: having recently celebrated 25 years of existence, Cambridge in America has become a powerhouse of philanthropy and alumni engagement, helping to raise millions of pounds – and playing major roles in such record-breaking campaigns as “Dear World . . . Yours, Cambridge”, contributing more than $514 million to the campaign total of £2.2 billion – and fostering connections among more than 24,000 Cambridge alumni across North America. Gurnee remained an active member of the board until 2023. A committed philanthropist and champion of the arts and humanities, Gurnee contributed decades of service to the boards of other charities and organisations. At the time of his passing, he was an emeritus member on the board of the New York Philharmonic; in 2025, Gurnee and Marjorie were honoured by the Philharmonic with a Spring Gala and Concert, commemorating 50 years of Gurnee’s service on the board. He was also emeritus trustee of Pomona College and had previously held board positions at the French Heritage Society, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Cambridge Foundation, the Yale Center for Parliamentary History and Berkshire Farm Center. Gurnee’s is an extraordinary example of the expansive possibilities of giving. For more than half a century, Gurnee’s generosity helped sustain and transform important sites of education and the arts within the United States and internationally. His engagement with Jesus College and Cambridge during the twenty-first century, moreover, will continue to be felt for years to come, as the community of Gurnee Hart scholars grows and its research forms and strengthens connections far and wide. He leaves behind his wife Marjorie, his niece Dana, nephew Rev. John, great-nephew Brian and great-nieces Carolyn May and Emily Henry. *

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Old members BALL, Derek Gordon (1961) died on 20 May 2024 aged 82. Derek Ball was born on 20 March 1942 in London. Educated at Purley Grammar School, he came up in 1961 to read Mathematics. He graduated BA 1964; MA 1968. For the next 20 years he trained future Mathematics teachers and in the late 1970s pioneered the use of the first microcomputers in the classroom and had two books published on the subject. He was the founding Editor of the Micromath Journal (1985-1989). In the 1980s, he left the university sector to pursue a second career as a relationship counsellor and psychosexual therapist and wrote Task Maths, a seminal series of school textbooks, with his second wife Barbara. They went on to write many other books and software packages for Mathematics teachers. They were joint Editors of the Mathematics Teaching Journal (1992-2000). He also found time to study for an Open University degree in English Literature (2010) followed by an MA in Victorian Studies (2012). He discovered that George Eliot was a keen mathematician and in 2016 was awarded a PhD by Leicester University for his thesis Mathematics in George Eliot’s Novels. He had four children and six grandchildren. *

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BANKS, John Shewell (1958) died on 25 November 2025, aged 88. John Banks was born on 7 August 1937 in Montreal, Canada. He was educated at Magdalen College School, Brackley, and after completing National Service with the Army on Christmas Island where he witnessed a nuclear test, he came up in 1958 to read Mechanical Sciences. He graduated BA in 1961 and MA in 1965. He spent his entire career with Binnie & Partners, a firm of consulting engineers. His work, mainly based on water schemes, took him and his family to Northern Ireland, Indonesia, Brunei and Botswana as well as many short visits all over the world. He relished the challenge of unfamiliar places and the satisfaction of solving practical problems. After retiring he enjoyed a decade living in Italy, before eventually settling near Bath. A man of immense curiosity and hands-on enthusiasm, he delighted in anything that could be taken apart, fixed, improved or reinvented. He enjoyed lawn tennis, had a keen interest in computers, and was never happier than when decorating, tinkering with car mechanics, or tackling plumbing projects. He cooked only occasionally, but when he did, he approached the kitchen with characteristic gusto, happily experimenting and using every ingredient in the cupboard. He married Caroline Ann Goddard in 1964; they had three children and five grandchildren. *

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BLANCH, Richard Stapley (1968) died on 22 April 2025 aged 76. Richard Blanch was born on 15 January 1949 in Horley, Surrey. Educated at Whitgift School, he came up in 1968 to read English. During his time at Jesus, he played regularly for the College’s tennis 1st VI and was an active member of the Literary Society. He graduated BA in 1971 and took his MA in 1975. After leaving Cambridge, he spent


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some years in postgraduate research at Birkbeck College, London, focusing on the 19th-century English novel, in particular those of Charlotte Brontë. The works of the Brontë sisters and John Keats remained his literary passions for the rest of his life. Richard chose a teaching career which was spent entirely at City of London School where he was a popular and respected English teacher and tutor, idiosyncratic in many ways, but always determined to bring out the best in his pupils. Many of them attended his funeral. Obliged to take early retirement following a heart attack, he spent the following years reading voraciously in his Sussex home. He also penned many excellent poems which he posted on the website Poem Hunter where they can still be read. A second heart attack meant that he had to move to a nursing home where he passed away a year later. *

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BUCKLEY, Ernest Fairbank (1943) died on 23 May 2024, aged 98. Ernest Buckley was born on 26 November 1925 in Oldham and educated at Rochdale Municipal High School. He came up to Jesus in 1943 to read Modern Languages, but his studies were interrupted after two Terms when he was called up for war service. He joined the Royal Air Force and spent part of his time in Germany, where he became involved with underground Christian groups. After demobilisation he returned to Jesus to read Theology. It was while hosting a tea in his College rooms that he met Ruth Williams. He asked her to butter the buns, an act of service she continued throughout their life together. After graduating BA (1949) and MA (1951), he undertook further study at Regent’s Park College, Oxford, before becoming a Baptist minister. He began his ministry as Minister of Aenon Baptist Church, Burnley (1952-1955). In 1955 he entered the ministry of the Church of England, serving as Assistant Curate at Rochdale Parish Church (1955-1958), Vicar of St John the Baptist, Hey, Oldham (1958-1964), Vicar of St John the Divine, Brooklands (1964-1979), and Vicar of four rural parishes in south Shropshire (1979-1987). He was also Rural Dean of Clun Forest from 1984 to 1987. In retirement he had a second career typesetting over 60 volumes mainly for the Classical Press of Wales. In 1952 he married Ruth Margaret Williams, and together they had four children. *

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CALKIN, Ian Bernard (1949) died on 5 January 2026 aged 96. Ian Calkin, nephew of John Bernard Calkin (1902) and Alan Bernard Calkin (1922), and cousin of Robert Calkin (1952), was born in London on 26 March 1929. He was educated at Stowe School and, after completing National Service with the Royal Artillery, came up in 1949. He initially read Economics but, finding his interests lay elsewhere, changed to Moral Sciences. He graduated BA (1952) and MA (1956). After spending several years in business, he co-founded the independent financial advisers Calkin Pattinson & Co Ltd with his friend John Pattinson (1948). Following his retirement, the firm continued under the stewardship of his two sons. In 1956, he married Rowena Marian Hughes. Together they had three children and were later delighted by a family that grew to include twelve grandchildren.


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CARRINGTON, John Anthony (1959) died on 31 May 2025 aged 84. John Carrington was born on 11 February 1941 in Slough. Educated at Hertford Grammar School, he came up in 1959 to read English, graduating BA (1962) and MA (1969). After completing his PGCE, following a formative year of teaching in Massachusetts, he joined Bedford School. By the end of the sixties, he was ready for a new challenge and moved to Taunton School, where his energy and vision quickly saw him rise to Head of Humanities and, in 1985, Deputy Head. His love of drama was a constant: first developing at Hertford School, then at Cambridge where he acted in plays including Happy as Larry and produced Magnificence, and at Taunton he enriched school life through annual productions such as The Crucible and The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Equally his enthusiasm for debate, fencing and cricket ensured that many students discovered new passions under his encouragement. Outside the school, he contributed nationally as an examiner for O-Level, GCSE and A-Level, and as a member of several independent school inspection teams for the Heads’ Conference. His influence was woven not only into the fabric of Taunton School, but also into the wider community, where he continued to share his gifts long after retirement. In recognition of his lasting impact, the Carrington Library at Taunton School was named in his honour in 2022, an occasion that brought him enormous pride and joy. He married Patricia Ann Brewer in 1965, and they had three children, Nicholas (1985), Gabrielle and Juliette. He was also a devoted grandfather, remembered for his wit, his love of wordplay and the birthday poems he wrote for his grandchildren. *

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CAVANAGH, Eric Joseph (1951) died on 23 May 2025, aged 93. Eric Cavanagh was born on 14 April 1936 in Hunslet, West Yorkshire. He was educated at St Michael's College, Leeds, and came up in 1951 to read Mathematics, graduating BA in 1954 and proceeding to MA in 1958. While at Cambridge, he attended ballroom dancing classes, where he met his future wife, Betty Carter, who was the teacher. They married in 1955 and moved to Hammersmith, where Eric worked on one of the first digital computers, LEO III. During this time, he met members of the research department at C.A.V. Lucas in Acton, who offered him a position as a Research Officer. He remained with C.A.V. until his retirement. His work focused on advancing the mathematical modelling of fluid dynamics in diesel injectors and systems and led him to be named as inventor on several patents in Europe, Japan and USA. In the 1960s, he took a sabbatical year to study at Swansea University, where he graduated with an MSc. In the 1980s, he studied part-time for a doctorate in Mathematical Electrical Engineering. The first his family knew of this achievement was when he pinned the certificate to the kitchen noticeboard with the words, “You can call me Dr Cavanagh now!”. Eric and Betty had six children and nine grandchildren. A great-grandchild was born shortly after his passing. *

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CHRISTIE, George Custis (1961) died on 4 November 2025, aged 91. George Christie was born on 3 March 1934 in New York City. He studied at Columbia University, earning his BA in 1955 and his JD in 1957, before coming up in 1961 to study International Law, completing his Diploma in 1962. He later continued his academic work at Harvard Law School, where he received his SJD in 1966. His early career included time as an associate at Covington & Burling (1958-1960), followed by appointments as Associate Professor and then Professor at the University of Minnesota Law School (1962-1966). He subsequently served as Assistant General Counsel for the US Agency for International Development (1966-1967). He later became James B. Duke Professor at Duke University School of Law, a role that marked the pinnacle of his academic life. A respected member of the American Bar Association from 1958 and the American Law Institute from 1970, he contributed widely to legal scholarship. His publications include Jurisprudence (1973), Law, Norms and Authority (1982), Cases and Materials on the Law of Torts (1983) and The Notion of an Ideal Audience in Legal Argument (2000). He married twice and had three children and four grandchildren. *

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CLEGG, Michael William Joseph (1955) died on 25 June 2025, aged 89. Mike Clegg was born on 19 September 1935 in Johannesburg. Educated at Altringham Grammar School, he earned his glider pilot wings during National Service and spent a year in Jordan. He came up in 1955 to read Natural Sciences for Part I, then Law for Part II. An enthusiastic College oarsman, he rowed for Jesus from his first year, later becoming Club Secretary and competing in the first and second boats. He won his oars in the Fairbairn Cup in 1956 and 1957, raced twice at Henley and represented the UK at the Brussels Exhibition Regatta in 1958. He was also Vice President of the University United Nations Association and served with the Cambridge University Air Squadron and the Parachute Regiment. He joined Shell International, working in London and The Hague, including on ventures in Eastern Europe. In 1961 he married Sheila Lazzary in the College Chapel; they had two sons, Kim and Richard, and later emigrated to Canada. He became the first Parliamentary Counsel to the Alberta Legislature and later joined the Parliamentary Counsel Office at the Canadian House of Commons, taking silk in 1980. He also undertook volunteer work in Bolivia, helping recover unpaid hydrocarbon taxes and advising on election law. In 2004 he joined the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, working with them and the UN on post conflict elections and constitutional law in countries including Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Cambodia, Liberia, Libya, East Timor and Yemen. *

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CUTTERIDGE, Nigel Paul (1978) died on 5 December 2025 aged 65. Nigel Cutteridge, the son of Robert Cutteridge (1951) and brother of David Cutteridge (1974) and Alastair Cutteridge (1983), was born on 7 April 1960 in Littleborough, Lancashire. Educated at Hulme Grammar School, he came up in 1978 to read Law. He graduated BA 1981; MA 1989. He subsequently studied at the Inns of Court School


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of Law. His early career included work in hospital radio at Middlesex Hospital (1984-1985) and Oldham Royal Hospital (1985-1986). He then moved into sales and marketing with Robert Riley Springs (1986-1988), before joining the BBC as a writer and producer for Radio 1 and Radio 2 (1990-1993). *

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DAMS, Christopher Henry (1953) died on 6 April 2026, aged 91. Christopher Dams, the great-nephew of W. B. Dams (1902), was born on 5 July 1934 in Windsor. After time as a chorister at St Michael’s College, Tenbury, he continued his education at Lincoln School and Westminster City School before coming up in 1953 bringing his love of choral music with him. He read English for Part I and Modern and Medieval Languages for Part II, graduating BA in 1956 and proceeding to MA in 1980. After graduating, he spent a year in Rome as a teaching assistant before joining the British Overseas Airways Corporation. Four years later, he moved to Procter & Gamble, where he worked in purchasing and quality control. His final position was Senior Vice President at Burger King’s headquarters in Miami, Florida. Following his retirement, he devoted himself to the question of the authorship of Shakespeare's plays. He served the de Vere Society in several capacities, including Chair, Editor, President and Honorary Secretary. He also moved with his wife to Somerset, where they transformed a one-and-a-half-acre property into a garden and orchard, enjoying time there with their three children and six grandchildren. He married Marjorie Elizabeth Naylor in 1959. *

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DARBY, Arthur Wycliffe (1966) died on 9 December 2025, aged 78. Arthur Darby was born on 15 April 1947 in Northampton. Educated at The Leys School, Cambridge, he came up in 1966 to read Engineering. Whilst at College, he was in the winning Fairbairn boat in both 1967 and 1968. He graduated with a BA in 1969 and proceeded to MA in 1973. He went on to complete an MSc in Soil Mechanics at Imperial College London in 1974. He built a distinguished international career as a civil engineer, spending many years with Mott MacDonald, where he eventually became Divisional Director and led the firm’s global tunnelling capability. He worked on major projects across the world and was widely respected for his calm judgement, technical insight and ability to guide teams through complex engineering challenges. He served as project director on several landmark schemes, including the SMART dual purpose tunnel in Kuala Lumpur, the Melen water supply project in Turkey, the upgrade of Victoria Underground Station, and Singapore’s cable tunnels. He also oversaw key elements of the Heathrow Terminal 5 sub structures and tunnels, the Heathrow baggage connectivity tunnel, and the tender design for Dublin Metro North. In 1984 he married Sarah Bays; they had two children, Arthur and Gabrielle. Gabrielle married Adam Tun (2004). *

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DAVIS, Howard Henshall (1968) died on 2 January 2026 aged 77. Howard Davis was born on 26 October 1948 in China. Educated at Eltham College, he came up in 1968 to read Geography and Social and Political Sciences, graduating BA in 1971. He went on to complete a PhD at the University of Edinburgh in 1978. He began his academic career as a Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow (1974-1976), before joining the University of Kent as Lecturer in Sociology (1976-1982). From 1983 to 1985 he served as Director of the Society, Religion & Technology Project for the Church of Scotland. He returned to Kent as Senior Lecturer and later Reader (1986-1997), before moving to the University of Wales, Bangor, where he became Professor of Social Theory and Institutions. He also acted as Coordinator for the EU Tempus (Tacis) Joint European Projects for Higher Education Development in Russia from 1994. His publications included Beyond Class Images (1979); Bad News (two volumes, 1976-1980); Language, Image, Media (1983, co-edited); Western Capitalism and State Socialism: An Introduction (1985, joint); Ethics and Defence: Power and Responsibility in the Nuclear Age (1986); Le Televisione in Europa (two volumes, 1990, joint); A New Europe? Social Change and Transformation (1994, joint); and Managing Creativity: The Dynamics of Work and Organization (2000, joint). In 1976 he married Susan Elizabeth Jones; they had three sons. *

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FLOWERS, Kenneth Anthony (1961) died on 21 August 2025 aged 83. Kenneth Flowers was born on 7 August 1942 in Mill Hill, North London. Educated at Haberdashers’ Aske’s School, he came up in 1961 initially to read History, but he later switched to Psychology. He graduated BA in 1965, proceeded to MA in 1968, and stayed on to complete a PhD in 1971 on amnesia in cerebral dysfunction. He then spent a year at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases in London (1969-1970), before moving to the Brain and Perception Laboratory at Bristol University (1970-1976), where he worked on handedness and Parkinson’s disease. In 1977 he joined the University of Hull, where he remained as Senior Lecturer in Psychology until his retirement in 2013, and where he was known as an inspirational teacher as well as a respected scholar. In later years he was semi-retired and held a Visiting Professorship at the University of Lincoln. A Chartered Psychologist of the British Psychological Society from 1985, he published more than 40 papers in academic journals. In 1974 he married Susan Hilary Pratt; they had three children and three grandchildren. *

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GREGG, Aloysius Dominic (1977) died on 20 June 2024, aged 65. Louie Gregg was born on 7 December 1958 in Kilwinning, North Ayrshire. Educated at St Augustine’s Grammar School, he came up in 1977 to read Mathematics and graduated BA in 1980. He went on to work as a computer analyst, consultant and data architect. He embraced retirement wholeheartedly, undertaking a second Maths degree with the Open University, spending time with his family and sailing around Greek islands.


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A proud Scot and devoted rugby supporter, he ensured, sometimes through bribery, that all his children knew Flower of Scotland word for word. He married Maria Robinson in 1982; they had four children and two grandchildren. *

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HACKFORD, Edward Arthur (1958) died on 26 November 2025, aged 86. Edward Hackford was born on 2 July 1939 in Boston, Lincolnshire. Educated at Boston Grammar School, he came up in 1958 to read Natural Sciences and Theology, graduating BA (1961) and MA (1965). He later completed a Diploma in Applied Social Sciences at the University of Nottingham in 1964. His career was wide-ranging and rooted in public service. He began as a probation officer with Nottinghamshire County Council (1964-1966), then worked overseas as a Community Development Inspector for the Northern Nigerian Government (1966-1968) and as Assistant District Commissioner with the Western Pacific High Commission (1968-1971). Back in the UK, he held senior roles in social services in Northamptonshire (1971-1977) and Norfolk (1977-1985), before serving as Chief Executive of the West Essex Health Authority (1985-1989) and St Albans City and District Council (1989-2000). He also contributed to national and international organisations, including the Cambridge University Medical Expedition to India as its Business Manager (1962), the Eating Disorders Association as National Chairman (1988-1991) and the European Association of Local Government Chief Executives (2001-2004). He belonged to the British Association of Social Workers, the Institute of Health Management, and the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives. From 2000 to 2011 he worked as an international election monitor and based on these experiences, he published a novel, Deadly Consignment (2011). In 1966 he married Jill Margaret Sturgeon; they had three children. *

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HANNAH, Timothy James (1959) died on 1 September 2025, aged 86. Tim Hannah was born on 3 July 1939 in London. Educated at the Collegiate School, Wanganui, New Zealand, he came up in 1959 to read Economics, graduating BA (1962) MA (1966). At Cambridge he earned a Boxing Blue in 1961, coxed the Goldie Boat and served as President of both CUABC and Rhadegunds in 1962. He spent nearly four decades in the New Zealand Diplomatic Service (1962-2001), during which time he held four overseas postings as Head of Mission and undertook secondments to the Treasury, the Department of Trade and Industry and the National Development Council. In retirement he continued to serve public and cultural life, acting as a trustee of the Auckland War Memorial Museum (2002-2007), Interim CEO of the Auckland Philharmonia (2007-2008) and later Interim Chief Executive of the Pacific Cooperation Foundation (2013-2014). In 1966 he married Mary White; they had two children. *

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HARFORD CROSS, Michael (1965) died on 15 August 2025, the day after his 79th birthday. Michael Harford Cross was born on 14 August 1946 in the shadow of Lincoln Cathedral to Canon Frederick Harford Cross. Educated at Rossall School, he came up in 1965 to read Medicine, taking his BA in 1968, MB BChir in 1971 and MA in 1972. He later gained the DCh (1975), MRCP (1978) and FRCPEd. He spent most of his career serving as a General Practitioner. His published work includes Cockatoos and Coral Trees (1990) and Insect Bite in Eczema and Other Dermatoses (1993). He was a lifelong artist and after retiring from medical practice, he trained at The Art Academy, London, and subsequently held several successful exhibitions of his work – one of which showcased women excelling in their chosen professions, included our current Master. Proceeds from his work were used to support a retinoblastoma cancer charity. He married Elizabeth Shelagh Elder in 1971; they had four sons (one of whom predeceased him) and a daughter. *

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HENLEY, Michael John (1944) died on 5 July 2025, aged 99. Michael Henley was born on 19 November 1925 in Teddington and educated at Hampton Grammar School. He came up to Jesus in 1944 to read History, but his time at Cambridge was interrupted by war service. After completing the RAF short course, he trained as a navigator however, owing to the end of the Second World War, did not see active service. With no immediate prospect of demobilisation, he opted for an overseas posting with the RAF Education Branch. He first served in what was then Malaya, supporting Allied prisoners of war liberated from camps in Burma. Following this demanding work, he was posted to Bombay and then, via Madras, to Ceylon, where he continued teaching. He later secured a post in Singapore teaching the children of RAF personnel. Returning to Jesus in the spring of 1948, he wrote that “it was wonderful to be back”. After graduating, he spent a year at the Institute of Education, University of London. He then taught History at Stamford School for four years, also coaching rugby and directing school plays. Seeking a new challenge, he joined the Berkshire Education Department before moving to Newcastle in January 1958 as an Assistant Director of Education. While in Newcastle he met Gwendoline Anne Lawrence “Wendy”, a fellow employee in the department and later that year they married. Subsequent moves took the family to Bedford, then Hockley in Essex, and finally Northamptonshire, where he became County Education Officer. In this role he travelled to India, Australia and Japan to study educational philosophy and practice. Retirement proved no less busy: he taught at South Bank University; advised a Secretary of State for Education; and completed a doctorate. Michael was extremely active in his local community and at his parish church, a longstanding trustee of Northampton's Royal Theatre and other charities, and kept fit with squash, hiking, golf and yoga well into old age. He and Wendy have three children, Amanda, Christopher and Virginia (1989) and six grandchildren. He also has a Jesuan son-in-law, Duncan Martin (1987). *

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JENKINS, Robert Peter (1957) died on 12 May 2024 aged 87. Bob Jenkins, the younger brother of Harold (1952) and stepbrother of Richard Lister (1962), was born on 21 May 1936 in Sale. Educated at Michaelhouse School, Natal, and the University of Natal, he came up in 1957 to read Law, graduating with a BA in 1960 and later MA in 1983. He subsequently returned to the University of Natal, completing his LLB in 1962. His legal career began in South Africa, where he became a partner at Tatham Wilkes & Co, serving from 1966 to 1978. He then moved to Australia, working as an associate at Stone James & Co from 1978 to 1981, before joining Perpetual Trustees as a corporate solicitor from 1982 until 1997. In later years, he worked as a consultant. In 1965 he married Gillian Jean Armstrong, and they had three children. *

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JEWELL, Geoffrey John (1949) died on 5 January 2025 aged 93. Geoffrey Jewell was born on 8 May 1931 in Weymouth. Educated at Epsom College he came up in 1949 to read Natural Sciences with a view to qualifying as a doctor. He graduated BA 1952; MA 1956 MB BChir 1956. After his clinical training at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, he went on to become a General Practitioner. He married Elizabeth Mary Cockcroft, a fellow Cambridge Medic, and together they had three children including Victoria Mabon (1980). *

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KEENAN, John (1956) died on 24 February 2025 aged 86. John Keenan was born on 14 April 1938 in London. Educated at Downside School, he came up in 1956 to read Natural Sciences with a view to becoming a doctor. He graduated BA 1959 MB BChir 1962 MA 1966 and later FRCPath. Following medical school at the Middlesex Hospital in London, he pursued a career as a pathologist in several hospitals, starting as lecturer at the Middlesex, and including King’s College Hospital in London. Finally in 1981 he moved to Oxford, to take up an appointment as Consultant Chemical Pathologist in the Department of Clinical Biochemistry at the John Radcliffe. He was also a Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford. In 1996 he was appointed as a Civil Consultant Chemical Pathologist to the RAF. Beyond medicine he was a great archer with the Woodmen of Arden and loved boats. He was married twice, first to Anne Beecham, and had two daughters, Lucy and Kate. He married again in 1973 to Caroline Carr; the couple had met when he was training her to be a Chemical Pathologist, and they had two children, Dominic and Sophie. He had six grandchildren. *

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KIPPING, Rupert Arthur (1952) died on 31 January 2026, aged 91. Rupert Kipping was born on 27 July 1934 in Beaconsfield. Educated at the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe, he came up in 1952 to read Natural Sciences with the intention of becoming a doctor. He graduated BA in 1955, MB BChir in 1958 and proceeded to his MA in 1959. He completed his clinical training at Westminster Hospital. Conscripted into


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the final year of National Service, he served as a medical officer to the Gurkhas in Malaysia and Nepal, where he took part in early trials of a mumps vaccine. Following surgical training, he was appointed Consultant General Surgeon at the Horton General Hospital, Banbury, where he worked from 1973 to 1996. He developed a particular interest in colorectal surgery and later in surgical education. He served on the Specialist Advisory Committee to the Royal College of Surgeons, helping quality assure training for junior doctors, and after retirement taught on the College’s Basic Surgical Skills course. He also acted as a surgical adviser to the BBC programme Holby City. A committed Christian throughout his life, he was Secretary of the Christian Medical Fellowship in Oxfordshire. He also had a lifelong love of sailing, having been secretary of the Westminster Hospital sailing club, later sharing a yacht with a friend and teaching his daughters to sail. He married Rosalind Ann Harvey in 1969; they had two children and five grandchildren. *

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LANG, John Richard (1951) died on 19 October 2024 aged 91. John Richard Lang, the son of Ronald (1919), was born on 31 May 1933 in Guildford. Educated at Bromsgrove School, he came up in 1951 to read Natural Sciences with the intention of becoming a doctor. He graduated BA 1954 and MA 1958. After going down he went on to complete his medical training at the Royal London Hospital, graduating MB BChir 1957. He served as Medical Officer at the Vom Christian Hospital, Sudan United Mission, from 1959 to 1973, before returning to the UK to practice as a GP from 1973 until his retirement in 1998. He married Gabrielle Annette Head in 1958; they had three sons. His nephew is Nicholas Lang (1999). *

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MAYHEW, John Harold (1978) died on 23 November 2025, aged 66. John Mayhew was born on 1 August 1959 in Birmingham. After attending King Edward School, Birmingham, he came up in 1978 to read Geography, graduating BA (1981) and MA (1985). He built his career in the environmental sector in Scotland, beginning with the National Trust for Scotland, where he organised conservation volunteers and later became Head of Policy during the formative years of the Scottish Parliament. In 2008 he became Director of the Association for the Protection of Rural Scotland, revitalising the organisation and leading influential national campaigns on deposit return, new National Parks and Green Belt protection. He also served as Chair of Scottish Environment LINK, strengthening cooperation across Scotland’s environmental bodies. He married Rachel Elizabeth Dodd in 1999; they had two sons. *

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McDONALD, Strachan David (1963) died on 8 May 2025, aged 82. Strachan McDonald was born on 9 March 1943 in Purley, Surrey, and was educated at the Nautical College, Pangbourne, Berkshire. He read Mechanical Sciences, graduating BA in 1966 and MA in 1970. He went on to pursue a career in banking and finance. He had a


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lifelong love of classical music, particularly opera and the works of Wagner and Mahler. He also loved dogs, enjoyed Scottish dancing and spent many happy hours navigating canals in his boat. He married Ailsa Price in 1977; they had two daughters, Alannah and Iona, and four grandchildren. *

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MEGSON, Greville Lane (1953) died on 25 November 2025, aged 92. Greville Megson was born on 11 April 1933 in Twickenham. Educated at St Paul’s School, he came up in 1953 to read Geography, graduating BA in 1956 and proceeding to his MA in 1963. He began his career as a Production Controller at Standard Telephones (1956-1962) before moving into the emerging world of computing, working as a specialist with Burroughs from 1962 until 1991. In retirement he continued to contribute to professional and local organisations, serving as Secretary of the Computer Users Association (1993-2002) and Treasurer of the Malvern Civic Society (2005-2013). He married twice; he had three children from his first marriage, and his second marriage was to Janet Bates in 2002. *

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MILLS, Bernard John (1965) died on 11 October 2025 aged 83. John Mills was born on 25 February 1942 in Auckland. Educated at the University of Auckland, he came up in 1965 to read Classics. He graduated BA 1967; MA 1971. After graduating, he joined the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade, where he enjoyed a career in the diplomatic corps, serving in London, Kuala Lumpur, Apia, Jakarta and Tarawa before moving into semi-retirement in 2002. During those later years, he continued to work as a freelance translator. He married Jill Elizabeth Ann Innes in 1963; they had four children: Bridget, Barbara, Jennifer and Andrew. Barbara was baptised in the College Chapel in 1969. *

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MORGAN, John Guy (1971) died on 24 April 2026 aged 73. Guy Morgan was born on 8 November 1952 in Stratford-upon-Avon. Educated at King Edward VI Grammar School, Stratford-upon-Avon, he came up in 1971 to read Mathematics, graduating BA in 1974. He completed Part III (MMath) in 1975, proceeded to MA in 1978, and went on to earn a PhD in Astrophysics in 1979 at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge. He began his scientific career at the UK Atomic Energy Authority, where he worked from 1978 to 1996. This was followed by roles at AEA Technology plc (1996-2000), Culham Electromagnetics & Lightning Ltd (2000-2005) and Vector Fields Ltd (2005-2007). In 2007 he and a colleague set up a small company, Culham Electromagnetics Ltd, and he was a Director, Company Secretary and Scientist. After his diagnosis with Motor Neurone Disease the company was voluntarily liquidated. In 1981, he married Katharine Anne Moore, and they had two sons.


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O’CONNOR, John Joseph (1958) died on 8 September 2024, aged 90. JJ O’Connor was born on 7 March 1934 in Dublin and was educated by the Augustinian Friars at New Ross, County Wexford. He read Mechanical and Electrical Engineering at University College Dublin, graduating in 1956, before spending two years as a Graduate Apprentice with British Nylon Spinners (later ICI Fibres) at Abergavenny. He came up in 1958 to undertake his doctorate on the mechanics of fretting. In 1962, he took up his first academic post at the University of Minnesota as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Engineering Mechanics. In 1964, he joined the University of Oxford as a University Lecturer in Engineering Science. That same year, he was appointed the first Tutorial Fellow in Engineering at St Peter's College, Oxford. Soon after arriving in Oxford, he began a collaboration with John Goodfellow, an orthopaedic surgeon, which would result in the revolutionary design of what is now known and trade marked as the ‘Oxford Knee’. This design enabled a smaller partial knee replacement. He married Gemma Fitzpatrick in 1962; they had three children, Simon, Oscar and Emily, and six grandchildren. *

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PARR, David Michael (1955) died on 1 June 2026 aged 91. David Parr was born on 20 August 1934 in Bradford. Educated at Bradford Grammar School, he came up in 1955 to read Mechanical Sciences. In his final year, he won the Keller Prize and graduated BA 1958. He was subsequently awarded an MA in 1962. He spent his career in industry rising to be the Managing Director of Essex Water. In retirement, he undertook a doctorate in Theoretical Physics at the University of Essex. Following his death, and in accordance with his wishes, his body was donated to medical research at the University of Cambridge. He married Val in 1959; they had three children. *

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PENFOLD, Phoebe Elizabeth (2020) died on 9 March 2026 aged 25. We are grateful to Phoebe’s wife, Jenni Morris (2020) and her father Justin (1987) for the following: “Phoebe grew up near Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, where the early chapters of her life were shaped by the loss of her mother, Kirstie Railton (1987), at the age of five. She was an enthusiastic reader from an early age, and loved being outdoors, climbing and organising the world around her. She was educated at the Perse School in Cambridge where she excelled across many subjects and sports and was a keen leader within the exploration society. Before university, Phoebe took a gap year that included time in Tanzania, New Zealand, Canada and France visiting family, volunteering and studying. Phoebe matriculated at Jesus College in 2020 to read Geography. She loved the College and the wider Cambridge atmosphere, and excelled academically, consistently achieving firsts and graduating ranked top of her year. Rowing became an important part of


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her Cambridge life. Under Phoebe’s captaincy in her final year, W1 rose two places to claim the Lents Headship, and then four places to claim the Mays Headship in 2023 – one of the most successful campaigns in the Club’s history. For all her academic and sporting commitments, she made time for friends and family without fail, was a regular at formal hall, and a generous host. Most importantly during her first year at Jesus, as had her parents Justin and Kirstie, Phoebe met and fell in love with her future spouse Jenni. After graduating, Phoebe moved to London, where she completed a Masters in Social Policy at LSE and the following year began a career in public policy evaluation at a research agency in London – work she loved. Aged only 24, Phoebe received a diagnosis that she met with the same courage, clarity and consideration for others that have always characterised her. Phoebe and Jenni got married in 2025 at Ickworth, Suffolk, and went on a honeymoon to Greece shortly afterwards.” *

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PRYNNE, Jeremy Halvard (1957) died on 22 April 2026 aged 89. Jeremy Prynne was born on 24 June 1936 in Bromley, Kent. Educated at St Dunstan’s College, Catford, after two years of National Service, he came up in 1957 to read English. He graduated BA in 1960 and MA in 1964. He was admitted as a Fellow of Gonville & Caius College in 1962, initially as a WM Tapp Fellow for research in English, becoming a regular Fellow the following year. He served the College for more than 60 years and was College Librarian from 1969 to 2006, overseeing the development of the collections and the Library’s move to the Cockerell Building. He published extensively from the early 1960s onwards, beginning with Force of Circumstance and Other Poems (1962) and Kitchen Poems (1968). His work appeared largely with small presses and has been translated into several languages. Two collected volumes, Poems, were issued, the second in 2024. Commentators have noted the distinctiveness of his poetry and his influence within modern literary circles. He taught and lectured at Cambridge, at the universities of Surrey and Sussex, and at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, where he held an honorary professorship. His lectures and published criticism covered a wide range of subjects. He married Suzanne Furmston in 1966 and had two children, Lorna and Jessica. *

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REW, John Harry Bruce (1959) died on 7 June 2025, aged 84. John Rew was born in Montreal on 12 September 1940 and was educated at Radley College. He came up to Cambridge in 1959 to read Economics, but after a year it was decided that university life was not for him. He subsequently trained as a Chartered Accountant, qualifying in 1964, and went on to a career that combined professional practice with publishing. From 1980 to 1998 he was editor of Chatset, an independent analytical firm that produced league tables and forecasts for Lloyd’s of London syndicates. Its work provided external Names with rare transparency into underwriting performance, and it gained a reputation for accurately predicting Lloyd’s financial results. In 1991 he was


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appointed chairman of the Sturge Names Action Group which litigated against the various entities responsible for losses suffered by Sturge members. It was the largest Lloyd’s action group, both in terms of losses and membership, and its eventual recoveries for its members were about £600 million. A keen oarsman throughout his life, he served as Honorary Treasurer of London Rowing Club. He married first, in 1962, Pauline Gross and secondly, in 2002, Diana Marshall. He had six children in total. *

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ROSE, John Malcolm MacRae (1953) died on 19 August 2025 aged 92. John Rose was born on 9 July 1933 in Wallington, Surrey, and educated at Caterham School. He was inspired to apply to Jesus by his brother-in-law Peter Henson (1944) and was originally awarded a place to read Chemistry. During his National Service he decided to change to Economics which better equipped him to enter the family printing business. Although he rarely talked about his time at Cambridge, he inspired both his daughter Lorraine Rose (1979), and his grandson Max Shepherd (2007) to apply. An understated but quietly competent man, he worked in and then ran the family business until his retirement in 1996. During that time S. Tinsley, a print shop in North London, expanded to become the Tinsley Robor Group, a significant player in the multimedia packaging market with subsidiaries across the UK. He enjoyed a long and active retirement with his wife Eileen, whom he married in 1959. They had three daughters and seven grandchildren. *

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SAINSBURY, Roger Frederick (1955) died on 20 May 2025 aged 88. Roger Sainsbury was born on 2 October 1936. Educated at the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe, he came up in 1955 to read Natural Sciences. Whilst at Cambridge he was impressed by the preaching of Billy Graham and so after graduating BA 1958 he studied Theology at Trinity College, Bristol. Whilst training for ordination he assisted at Portishead's National Nautical School and in the town, he met Jennifer Carey with the result that in 1960 he received two sacraments: marriage and ordination. He then served three years as a curate at Christ Church, Spitalfields. He was then Shrewsbury School’s missioner in Liverpool for eleven years before moving to become Warden at the Mayflower Centre. A concern for the inner city led him to raise £1.75 million for better buildings and £0.5 million for Walsall Parish Church, where he had become Rector. In 1988 he was appointed Archdeacon of West Ham soon followed by being made Bishop of Barking, East London, West Essex and Harlow. In retirement he was Assistant to the Bishop of Bath and Wells whilst also being an honorary member of the clergy team in Portishead. He and Jennifer had no children. *

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SCHNEIDER, Friedrich Christoph (1959) died on 30 June 2025, aged 84. Christoph Schneider was born on 8 November 1940 in Prenzlau, Germany. He was educated at Hardye’s School, Dorchester, and came up in 1959 to read Classics, graduating BA in 1962. He subsequently undertook doctoral studies at the University of Cologne, where he was awarded a DPhil in 1966. He began his career as an Assistant at the University of Konstanz (1966-1972), before serving as a Planning Officer at the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) from 1973 to 1983. He was a member of the Wissenschaftsrat from 1983 to 1986 and subsequently became Head of Department at the DFG. His publications included Information und Absicht bei Thukydides (1974) and, as editor, Forschung in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland: Beispiele, Kritik, Vorschläge (1983). In 1968, he married Marianne Krueger; they had four children. *

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SENIOR, Robert Adrian (1963) died on 28 January 2025, aged 80. Bob Senior was born on 27 August 1944 in Crowborough, East Sussex, and was educated at Cranbrook School. He came up in 1963 to read Mechanical Sciences, graduating BA in 1966. Following graduation, he worked as a Site Engineer with Roberts Construction in South Africa (1966-69) and as an Engineer with McDonald, Wagner & Priddle in Australia (1969-70). He then joined Ove Arup & Partners, where he served as a Design Engineer and Associate from 1970 until 2005. From 2005 to 2011 he was a Design Engineer with Mark Brock Consulting Engineers. Outside his professional life, he was Chairman of Hampton-in-Arden Sports Club, where he was a keen hockey, squash, racquet ball and boules player. In 1972 he married Janet Edythe Margaret Pearson Miles; they had three children. *

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SHARRATT, Paul Bradley (1969) died on 10 February 2026 aged 74. Paul Sharratt was born on 27 May 1951 in Birmingham and educated at Dudley Grammar School. He came up in 1969 to read Modern and Medieval Languages, graduating BA 1972 and MA 1978. He later completed an MBA and, in retirement, a BSc in Mathematics through the Open University. He devoted his career to education, beginning as a teacher of Modern Languages at Sir Gilbert Claughton School, Dudley, before becoming Head of Modern Languages at Dormston School, Sedgley. He then joined Tividale Comprehensive School, serving successively as Deputy Head Teacher and Head Teacher. From September 2004 until his retirement in July 2010, he was Head Teacher of Redruth School. Outside education, he made a significant contribution to chess administration. He served as Chief Executive Officer of the Midland Counties Chess Union, President of the Birmingham and District Chess League and the Dudley & District Chess League, Secretary of Stourbridge Chess Club, and Founder and Secretary of Kinver Chess Club. He also served as Safeguarding Officer for the English Chess Federation and was awarded the Jim Friar Award for Services to Worcestershire Chess in 2020. In 1973, he married Margaret Jennifer Rock. They had two children, Sarah and David. *

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SMITH, Peter Fox (1953) died on 16 December 2025, aged 93. Peter Smith was born on 9 July 1932 in Hampstead. Educated at Haileybury, he came up in 1953 to read Theology, graduating BA in 1956, PGCE in 1957 and MA in 1960. He went on to further study at the University of London, completing a BD in 1961, a Diploma in Education in 1966, and a second MA in 1968. He spent his career in teaching, first as Assistant Teacher and Head of the Lower School at Bromley Grammar School from 1957 to 1967, and later as Head of Sixth Form at Ravensbourne School from 1969 until 1989. A member of the Philosophy of Education Society, he was committed throughout his life to the value of learning. He loved to read and to absorb knowledge, which he shared generously with the young people he taught. *

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TEAGUE, Andrew Mark (1978) died on 12 March 2026 aged 67. Andy Teague was born on 10 March 1959 in London. He was educated at Eltham College and came up in 1978 to read Engineering. He graduated BA in 1981 and proceeded with an MA in 1985. Most of his working life was spent in the base chemicals and plastics industries in operations, major project delivery, engineering and manufacturing. His career included posts as Site Engineer with ICI Chemicals & Polymers Ltd (1990-1996), Business Engineering Manager with ICI Polyester (1996-1998), Senior Manufacturing Manager with DuPont Polyester (1999-2000), Turnaround Team Manager and Project Director with Huntsman Petrochemicals (2000-2006), Project Director and Director of Special Projects with SABIC Petrochemicals UK (2007-2011), Operations Director with Ensus Ltd (2011-2015), self-employed Consultant (2015-2017) and Site Director of South Tees Site Company (2017-2020). A Chartered Engineer, he was also a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Throughout his adult life, and especially in retirement, he devoted considerable time and expertise to voluntary service. His roles included: Lay Vice-Chair of his Parochial Church Council; Vice-Chair of Governors at the local Sixth Form College; Secretary of Darlington Rotary Club; and Trustee at Darlington Abbeyfield Society. From an early age, he enjoyed playing and watching many sports. He was a national-standard age-group swimmer and served as Captain of the University Swimming Club. He also enjoyed cycling, wine tasting, reading, cooking, socialising with friends and family, and supporting his local rugby club. In 1986 he married Jane Katharine Law (1980); they had two children, Helena and Jonathan. *

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TEMPLE, Jonathan Richard William (1990) died on 4 January 2026 aged 54. Jonathan Temple was born on 9 August 1971 in London. He was educated at Chilwell Comprehensive School and came up in 1990 to read Economics, graduating BA in 1993, MPhil in 1994 and proceeding to his MA in 1997. After graduating he undertook his doctorate at Oxford, graduating DPhil (1997). He became a researcher in the economics of growth, noted for work on development and foreign aid. He was appointed to a Chair at the University of Bristol at the age of 29, serving as Professor of Economics from


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2001 to 2019. He was a long-standing member of the Centre for Economic Policy Research’s Macroeconomics and Growth programme, authoring more than 25 discussion papers and taking part in many policy and research events. He was closely involved with the Royal Economic Society throughout his career, serving as a Council member (2006-2011), Conference Programme Chair (2008), Associate Editor of The Economic Journal and from 2021 to 2025 as Editor of the RES Newsletter. He was also Associate Editor of the National Institute Economic Review. Widely respected amongst academic economists Cambridge University’s Professor Jagjit Chadha spoke for many when he said: “He had the most infectious laugh, wicked sense of humour and an abiding love of Nottingham Forest ... His ability to referee and comment on papers in double quick time was legendary.” He had a daughter by his former long-term partner. *

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WATERS, Ian Horace Clerc (1954) died on 20 February 2026 aged 93. Ian Waters was born on 3 February 1933 in London. Educated at the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe, he came up in 1954 to read Modern and Medieval Languages following National Service with the Royal Artillery. He graduated BA 1957; MA 1984. After working as a teacher of Modern Languages for many years, latterly as Head of German at Ipswich School, he subsequently became an Ofsted inspector of schools for over a decade. In addition to his passion for languages, teaching and watching rugby was his great love; having played for the College team, he coached schoolboy rugby for over 30 years. He married Marina, a nurse at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, in 1956, having met her as an undergraduate when he was hospitalised for appendicitis. They had four children, three of whom, Stephen (1977), Sarah (1986) and Pippa (1991), also attended the College. Sarah married Justin Sasse (1986), adding another Jesuan to the family, and Ian was delighted when his granddaughter Katherine (2007) continued the family’s connection. *

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WRIGHT, Christopher James Hurman (1961) died on 30 June 2025 aged 83. Christopher Wright was born on 20 June 1942 in Horsforth near Leeds. Educated at Shrewsbury School, he came up in 1961 to read Mechanical Sciences, graduating BA 1964; MA 1972. After graduating, he joined consulting civil engineers Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick & Partners in London. He worked initially on several of the City’s tall buildings before specialising in Transportation Planning. His work took him to Nigeria and Thailand on projects to develop low cost roads, and during this period he achieved membership of the Institution of Civil Engineers and an MSc in Transport Planning from Imperial College, and met his wife, Catherine. A recession in the late 1970s reduced opportunities in his engineering specialism, and in 1981 he moved to Durham University as a Careers Adviser and Counsellor, working mainly with engineering and science students. After retiring from Durham University, he embarked on a third career, gaining Royal Horticultural Society qualifications. His own garden became his great passion and he


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designed gardens for each of his three children, often undertaking the heavy work himself and applying his engineering skills to construct watering systems. He continued his lifelong love of singing, including occasional invitations to sing in Durham Cathedral, and he introduced his seven grandsons to the pleasures of “Grandpa walks”. *

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WRIGHT, Peter Louis (1954) died on 11 August 2025 aged 89. Peter Wright was born on 22 June 1936 in Great Yarmouth. After completing his A levels at Downside School, he came up in 1954 to read Natural Sciences with a view to becoming a doctor. He graduated BA 1957; Medicine, MB BChir 1960; MA 1964; MRCP 1963; FRCP 1978. In 1970 he joined Whipps Cross Hospital, where he served with distinction until retiring from his consultancy post in 2000 and from private practice in 2004. He also devoted many years to teaching and organising education within the Medical Education Centre at Whipps Cross. His published work includes Medical Management of the Critically Ill (1978). Beyond medicine, he was a keen golfer, serving as captain of Chigwell Golf Club in 2001 and later as Chairman of the Club Board from 2007 to 2010. He was also an avid reader and enthusiastic gardener. He married Barendina Johanna Van der Weyden in 1965; they had two children, Janine and Mariel (1987).

Bequests Five of those commemorated here left a gift in their Will to support the College’s future. Their legacies will be put to work in their memory to provide a home and a community for today’s students and to deliver an exceptional education. We are sincerely grateful for the following bequests received during the year 2025-2026: Geoffrey Melling (1959); Robin Maxwell (1954); Rob Kent (1982); Lord Colin Renfrew; Tony Delafield (1954); Michael Henley (1944); George Lewington (1951); Richard Hall (1969). n


A sneaky peak into our Old Library. Photo: Sara Rawlinson at Heritage Photographs


Awards, Results and Prizes


Graduation Day 2026. Photo: Nordin Ćatić


AWARDS, RESULTS AND PRIZES I JESUS COLLEGE ANNUAL REPORT 2026

Awards, results and prizes The following lists present the results for the academic year 2025-2026.

University Prizes, Grants and Scholarships A Henry Arthur Thomas Travel Exhibition (Classics, Part IA) The Davies Scholarship (Classics, Part IB) The Andrew Webb Award for greatest all-round ability in studio work, written examinations and course work (Design, Part IA) IStructE Award for achieving the highest grade in coursework for Form and Forces II (Design, Part IB) The Charles Fox Faculty of Education Prize for outstanding contribution to their school (PGCE) SC1 – Automotive Suspension Project Prize (Engineering, Part IIA) SF5 – Networks, Friendship and Disease Project Prize (Engineering, Part IIA) The David Newland Prize for Mechanics (Engineering, Part IIA) The Institute of Civil Engineers Baker Prize (Engineering Part IIB) The Part IIA Polity Prize for the best overall mark in Sociology (Human, Social and Political Sciences, Part IIA Sociology) The JM Thoday Prize for the Best Overall Performance in Part II Genetics (Natural Sciences, Part II Genetics) Pharmacology Project Prize (Natural Sciences, Part II Pharmacology) The Gordon Wigan Prize for the best interdisciplinary project (Natural Sciences, Part III Chemistry) The Theological Studies Prize from the Faculty of Divinity for the best dissertation related to the theme of Religion and Gender (Theology, Religion and Philosophy of Religion, Part II)

Constantin Iosub Ben Luca Atassi Quinton Yuki Takenoshita

Christopher Nugent

Scarlett Colquitt James Everett James Everett James Everett Robert Seabourne Hannah Johnson

Chloe Y T Neo

Louisa Shadlen Fas O W M J Ashworth Stobbs Clare L Aspray

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College Awards, Elections and Prizes The Gurnee Hart Scholarship 2025-2026 Joshua M Redden studying for the MPhil degree in Modern European History (from October 2025) The Hogwood Scholarship (AHRC Doctoral Training Programme studentship matched funding) 2025-2028 Jack A Graveney studying for the PhD degree in History (probationary from October 2025) The Hogwood Scholarship (AHRC Doctoral Training Programme studentship matched funding) 2025-2028 Holly A Lawson studying for the PhD degree in History (probationary from October 2025) The Hogwood Scholarship (AHRC Doctoral Training Programme studentship matched funding) 2025-2028 Maria Ruigómez Eraso studying for the PhD degree in Archaeology (probationary from October 2025) The Albert Goh & Elizabeth Coupe Scholarship 2025-2026 Aaron Z Tan studying for the MPhil in English Studies (from October 2025) The Embiricos Trust Scholarship 2025-2028 Benjamin W Priestley studying for the PhD degree in Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (probationary from October 2025) The Embiricos Trust Scholarship 2024-2027 Kian Cross studying for the PhD degree in Computer Science (from October 2023) The Embiricos Trust Scholarship 2024-2028 Georgios Psaltakis studying for the PhD degree in Engineering (probationary from October 2024) The Nick Mills Memorial Scholarship 2025-2026 Berta Renom Parareda studying for the MPhil in Conservation Leadership (from October 2025) The John Killen Memorial Scholarship 2025-2026 Lyra C Christie studying for the MPhil degree in Classics (from October 2025) The Brian and Janis Buckley Scholarship 2025-2026 Lyra C Christie studying for the MPhil degree in Classics (from October 2025) The Suzano Scholarship 2025-2026 Pedro H Barboza Pedrini studying for the MPhil degree in Engineering for Sustainable Development (from October 2025) The Schröder Scholarship Lent 2024 – Michaelmas 2027 Alrik O J R Daldrup studying for the PhD degree in German (from January 2024) The Valluri-Rao Scholarship (2024-2028) Harin D Wijayathunga studying for the PhD degree in Physiology, Development and Neuroscience (probationary from October 2024)


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The Kenneth Sutherland Scholarship (2024-2028) Leyla Chery studying for the PhD degree in French (from October 2024) Cambridge Zero/Marshall Foundation Scholarship 2024-2028 Phoebe Jackson studying for the PhD degree in Polar Studies (Science) (from October 2024) Cambridge Zero/Marshall Foundation Scholarship 2024-2028 Jonas Scholz studying for the PhD degree in Engineering (probationary from January 2025) Postgraduate Scholarship (Cambridge Trust UK Masters matched funding College contribution) 2023-2027 Jonathan Steward studying for the PhD in Classics (from October 2023) Postgraduate Scholarship (Cambridge Trust UK Masters matched funding College contribution) 2025-2028 Rosalie Rochert studying for the PhD in Latin American Studies (from January 2026) Ng Fund Rowan J Lightfoot, Thiepthii Pratheepan Kapuvári Fund Rasalla Ahmed Jesuan Welfare Awards Abbey O Jones, Hassan O Makki, Aris Siorentas, Anne-Sophie E G Wiedenmayer Organ Scholarships James M Brew, Miriam Reveley Dunne Fund Rowan C Ireland Bernard Mortlock Fund Rowan C Ireland Choral Scholarships Clare L Aspray, Amelia Beddy, Ingrid Berg, Jennifer Buss, Tin Yeung Chan, Ellen C Goodwin, Constantin Iosub, Frederick Jemison, Charles Martin, Jeremy Stafford, Isabella B Taylor Hadfield Graduate Choral Scholarships Madeleine G Hay, Sophie M Rowdene Instrumental Exhibitions Charles A Day (piano), Rachel C Dennis (violin), Ka-iong Gu (violin), Frederick Jemison (trumpet), Alan V Levita (piano), Teodoro G E Luppi (oboe), Faith Mackenzie-Page (clarsach), Olga Mitala (piano), Elena Ruddy (harp), Edward M B Timberlake (oboe), Tommaso Vigliocco (clarinet), Thomas H Winrow-Campbell (violin) Edward Daniel Clarke Travel Bursaries Helen Soane


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James Baddeley Poole Bursaries Ingrid Berg, Cain Conner, Magnus Fenwick, Ruby E Sutton Marshall Foundation Bursaries Avrohom Y-H Babad, Ruby Bloom, Yang Cao, Alexander M Dann, Danny King, Chen Jun Lam, Ruize Li, Mihaela Mitrovic, Dhanashri N Parbhu, Maria Ruigómez Eraso, Grace I C Skinner, Josh B Stevens Davies Fund Aakash Esa, Godfred Gyabaah, Madeleine S L Mitchell, Pok Shing Hui, Han Li Sir Moses and Lady Finley Travel Bursaries Dhruv Chhajed, Jack A Graveney, Jose Izcue Gana Sir James Knott Bursaries Clare L Aspray, Cain Conner, George Thomson Rustat Bursaries Finlay P di Castiglione, Cameron McCulloch, Asher Porter, Miriam Reveley, Elijah D K Sheldrake, Rebekah J Wilson, Martha A Wright Sir Robbie Jennings Fund Lubna S A Alfehaid, Ben Luca Atassi Quinton, Lanyu Chen, Liam J Covi, Luca De Flammineis, Amy B Dunbavin, Mason Frudd, Cara Hardwick, Arzoo Iqbal, David J A Lawless, Holly A Lawson, Zara Z Liu, Jane M Macharia, Samuel Misan, Mihaela Mitrovic, Colin R Mullins, Shanai Nair, Jatin Naru, Asher Porter, Jonathan A Pushpa-Rajah, Prabav Santhosh Kumar, Thieme T Schmidt, Simone Schneider, Subhan Shah, Helen Soane, Layla Stabile, Leon E T Staufer, Julia Stewart-Wood, Tallulah J A Sutton, Violette Sutton, Aleksandra Z Szymczak, Samuel M E vander Straeten, Lorenz A V Veithen, Charles V Wallace, Jue Wang Livermore Fund Alexander M J Buncall, Alesia Laci Tom Parkinson Travel Awards Troy Fielder, Rachel P G Jones, Ruhaan D Shah Ting Hway Wong Awards Pragvansh Bhatt, Aimee T Q W Chaplin, Joshua C Connolly, Sheen Dullo, Owen J Dyson, Georgia Humphreys, Kaima O P Ikeotuonye, Jacob Z Leon, Alan V Levita, Zara Z Liu, Nana Osei-Addo, Jenson Wightman Jude Walton Travel Fund Avrohom Y H Babad, Lulu Y L Birch, Nhyira Boateng, Gabriel Castelli-Gair, Lara R Glennie, Arzoo Iqbal, Abbey O Jones, Gabriel Lamb, Cameron McCulloch, Aisling M Rogers, Luca Rüegg, Robert Seabourne, Subhan Shah, Muhammad A Sharif Altaf Alan Pars Theatre Fund Iola F Budden, Amenie Groves, Helen Soane Hadfield Creativity Awards Oscar Hills


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Douglas Timins Grants Georgia Baker, Lara Branston, Cheuk Yau Chan, Yan Lok J Chung, Eleanor Colbourn, Charles A Day, Jasmine De Goede, Owen J Dyson, Mason Frudd, Ella Glazier, Jessica L O Julius, Zara Z Liu, Olivia Marshall, Madeleine S L Mitchell, Martin Moreno Delgado, Matthew Olatunji, Eleni Papafilippou, Aimee L Paull, Max Pitkin, Elizabeth H Rogers, Cameron D Ryall, Prabav Santhosh Kumar, Emily C Simpson, Matilda R M Strevens, Tamsin Tewson, Edward M B Timberlake, Charlotte G Tripp, Jue Wang, Helen L Yan, Ihnat Zharikhin 2005 Sports Awards Georgia Baker (Netball/Lacrosse), Mia G Barnes (Netball), Simon R Basescu (Squash), Pragvansh Bhatt (Handball/Cricket), Lara Branston (Football), Robert W J Brunning (Water Polo), Adam Brzosko (Shooting), Clayton A Bytyci (Shooting), Elizabeth J Caird (Handball), Sophie Casey (Hockey), Gabriel Castelli-Gair (Marathon Running), Jolyon T L Chamberlain (Touch Rugby), Cheuk Yau Chan (Rugby), Lanyu Chan (Archery), Yan Lok J Chung (Dance), Jude A N A Clerk (Basketball), Eleanor Colbourn (Athletics), Sara G Crozier (Rugby), Alexander M Dann (Cricket), Charles A Day (Basketball), Luca De Flammineis (Squash), Jasmine De Goede (Boxing), William R DeAugustino (Baseball), Owen J Dyson (Hockey), James Edwicker (Karting), Olivia Fitzpatrick (Netball), Mason Frudd (Football and others), Jesús Gironés Fraile (Boxing), Kok Wing Ham (MBA Tournament), Sebastian J Hughes-Piñán (Cricket), Evie Huhtala (Hillwalking/Mountaineering), Georgia Humphreys (Lacrosse), Tomos L Hunt (Cricket), Archie W Jenkins (Hockey), Jessica L O Julius (Basketball), Raunak Khanduja (Cricket), Ines S Y Lau Vazquez (Volleyball), David J A Lawless (Baseball), Zara Z Liu (Fencing), Olivia Marshall (Boxing), Martin Moreno Delgado (Basketball), Caitlin Norman (Gymnastics), Philip Odugbile (Athletics), Matthew Olatunji (Basketball), Levente V Oravecz (Water Polo), Emma Pannett (Netball), Aimee L Paull (Gymnastics), Imogen G Perkins (Ultimate Frisbee), Max Pitkin (Rugby and others), Hannah Richardson (Swimming), Elizabeth H Rogers (Cross Country), Luca Rüegg (Athletics), Cameron D Ryall (Cricket), Prabav Santhosh Kumar (Badminton), Thieme T Schmidt (Running), Phoebe A Schofield (Volleyball), Robert Seabourne (Judo), Sarah Sharp (Marathon Running), Emily C Simpson (Rugby), Rose E Sparrow (Football), Boris Spasojevic (Football), Morven L Stanforth (Touch Rugby), Julia Stewart-Wood (Marathon Running), Mila Stricevic (Rugby), Hong Pin Tan (Volleyball), Gabriela Tavares Bisinoto (Cricket), Tamsin Tewson (Athletics), Eleanor I Thomas (Boxing), Edward M B Timberlake (Hockey), Robert W Tombs (Lacrosse), Charlotte G Tripp (Rugby), Nikolaos Tsarouchas (Water Polo), Lorenz A V Veithen (Marathon Running), Charles V Wallace (Volleyball), Jue Wang (Table Tennis), Daniel H Wilkes (Handball), Helen L Yan (Badminton), Ihnat Zharikhin (Volleyball) Exhibitions Jacob B Anderson Evans, Ingrid Berg, Aimee Bullock, Joseph Z Chen, Rachel Cockell, Elias I Cohen, Alban Coudray, Daniel T Crawford, Alexander M Dann, Jacob E Frankel, Daria Gerzon, An L How, Kiran J Karumathy, Daisy R Kaye, Felix Klevnas, Sam C T Knox,


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Rhys M LeConte, Thomas A McDonagh, Rachel L Mellor, Anna M Murphy, Britney Olaniyi, Nikhil Parmar, Florence R Piachaud, Maximilian H L Piech, Hannah K Rayner, Blake H Robinson, Thomas Russell, Rory Shepherd, Anastasia V Slastikova, Lidia Sokolowska, Felix J Spence, Josh B Stevens, Theodore S Sturman, Reuben Tao, Joseph Thorne, Boaz S H Ting, Ryan J Varikat, Ihnat Zharikhin, Kjeld Zwitserloot. Scholarships (awarded in Michaelmas 2025 and Lent 2026 for 2024-2025 results) Alia D Arguello, Mia G Barnes, Jan V Bienek, Nathan Brooks, Rebecca N Cain-Renshaw, Katherine J Catulle, Dylan R Counsell, Alexander C G Cumming, Elizabeth C Dearden-Williams, Luca de Flammineis, Anniko Firman, András O Foldës, Alicia Garcia Montufar Miro Quesada, Anastasia Gorencova, Rajiv Guha, Lucy E Halfacre, Adam L E Hall, Zhanpeng Huang, Nikita Jain, Bronte E Jones, Jennifer K Kendall, Sameer M Khan, Mandi Li, Tianyu Li, Madeleine S L Mitchell, Natasha L Morrice, Oliver D Mowforth, Amena D O Nebres, Lucy C Rehman, Benjamin A Rhydderch, Nicholas R Rynard, Harril F Saunders, Diya N Seth, Ella M Sheddick, Bethany S Taylor, Xueyun Tian, Jacob L Tutt, Chengyao Xiao Scholarships Rasalla Ahmed, Jake D Anders, Fas O W M J Ashworth Stobbs, Clare L Aspray, Ben Luca Atassi Quinton, Georgia Baker, Fabiola Banora, Mia G Barnes, Poppy M Barton, Louise J E Berthier, Pragvansh Bhatt, Beatrix Biagini, Berengaria Bottrell, Arthur M Bourdin, Lara Branston, James M Brew, Lyra L B Browning, Alicja Brzezowska, Alexander M J Buncall, Tara I Buxton, Fiachra B D Caomhach Ó Fearghail, Cheuk Yau Chan, Tin Yeung Chan, James Cheetham, Yazan R Choudhury, Joshua C Connolly, Daisy Corbett, Thomas E Cornwall, Charlotte Cox, Finlay Crawford, Anuraag Datta, Luca De Flammineis, Clovis Dekimpe, Sean Dimmock, Flora E I Dodd, Emilio C Dorai Raj, Matthew Dubery, Owen J Dyson, James Edwicker, Aakash Esa, James Everett, Daniel J Fazackerley, Lauren Feldman, Miranda Fitzpatrick, Jago Foord, Mykyta Fylypchuk, Finley Gilder, Matthew Gillow, Andrew Girgis, Madeleine Harding, Madeleine G Hay, Gabriel J Higgins, Max H Higgs, Jude S Hill, Karan Himatsingka, Amelia Hubbard, Pok Shing Hui, Constantin Iosub, Rowan C Ireland, Leo R James, Adam Jeffrey, Frederick Jemison, Hannah Jeong, Hannah Johnson, Jack Jones, Rachel P G Jones, Benjamin A Joshua Yip, Francis J M Kelly, Daniel Kennett-Brown, Danny King, Eva Lams, Nilly E Langerman, Ines S Y Lau Vazquez, Thomas Leggett, Aurelio M Lencioni, Rowan J Lightfoot, Ruize Li, James I Milburn, Isabel A Millar, Samuel Misan, Madeleine S L Mitchell, Alexandru Momoiu, Chloe Y T Neo, Eve Nicholls, Christopher Nugent, Florence M Oeters, Emma Pannett, Eva Patrick, Aimee L Paull, Asher Porter, Yinghao Pu, Theo Pyy-Sitzia, Hannah Richardson, Clara E Roeskau, Elena Ruddy, Alexander Sasieni, Robert Seabourne, Louisa Shadlen, Soham N Shah, Marcus Shaw, Grace I C Skinner, Helen Soane, Rose E Sparrow, Jeremy Stafford, Abhinand Sundaram, William W E Sutcliffe, Freya K L-A R Sweeney, Yuki Takenoshita, Hong Pin Tan, Ian C Y Tham, Eleanor I Thomas, Rundong Tian, Jonathan M Tindal, Robert W Tombs, Dorothy Tyson, Asha Torczon, Manka Vecsei, Devavrat Verma, Grace T Wakeman, Steven Y Wang, John A E Ward, Alfred P Webb, Charlotte R Wilson, Hannah Wimhurst, Hayden Young, Shuyan Zhang, Xiaoyu Zhang, Jagoda Zuk


AWARDS, RESULTS AND PRIZES I JESUS COLLEGE ANNUAL REPORT 2026

Prizes Senior Keller Keller

Benefactor’s (2004)

Sir Leslie Martin (Architecture) Farrell (Greek Studies) Brereton (Classics Part IA) Brereton (Classics Part IB) Carruthers (Computer Science)

Malthus (Economics) Malthus (Human, Social and Political Sciences) Evans (Engineering Part IA) Engineers’ (Engineering Part IB) Derek Taunt (Engineering Part IIA) Samuel Taylor Coleridge (English) Newling (History Part I) Schiff (History Part II) Glanville Williams (Law Part II) Glanville Williams (LLM) Bronowski (Mathematics Part IA) Ware (Mathematics Part IB) Sir Harold Spencer Jones (Mathematics Part II) R A Watchman (Mathematics Part III) Livermore Prize (Hispanic Studies) Eliot (MML Part II) James Perrett (Medical Sciences Part IA) Hadfield Anatomy (Medical Sciences Part IA) Duckworth (Medical Sciences Parts IA and IB) Stacpoole (Medical Sciences Neurobiology)

Lara Branston Andrew Girgis Robert Seabourne Abhinand Sundaram Jonathan M Tindal Robert W Tombs Tara I Buxton Matthew Gillow Alexandru Momoiu Chloe Y T Neo Eve Nicholls Christopher Nugent Hong Pin Tan Xiaoyu Zhang Gabriel J Higgins Ben Luca Atassi Quinton Constantin Iosub Ben Luca Atassi Quinton Part IA: Elias I Cohen Part IB: Anuraag Datta Part II: Jude S Hill Part III: Isabel A Millar Andrew Girgis Fabiola Banora Xiaoyu Zhang Alexandru Momoiu James Everett Tara I Buxton Eve Nicholls Francis J M Kelly Clara E Roeskau Clovis Dekimpe Joseph Z Chen Benjamin A Joshua Yip Matthew Gillow Devavrat Verma Aimee L Paull Daisy Corbett Kiran J Karumathy An L How Jake D Anders Emma Pannett

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Hadfield Medical Sciences (Part II) Waring (Final MB Part III) Roberts (Pathology) Wellings (Natural Sciences Part IA) Longden (Natural Sciences Part IB) John Gulland (Natural Sciences Parts IA and IB) Eric Cliffe (Biological Sciences Part II) John Gulland (Natural Sciences Part II) Sir Alan Cottrell (Natural Sciences) Duncan McKie (Natural Sciences) Sheldrick (Chemistry) Frank Allhusen (Chemistry) Corrie & Otter (Theology) Valérie Tyssens (French Language Part I) Educational Board Prize G F Hart (History Part IA) Gilbertson Hamilton Prize (Social and Economic History) Russell Vick (Law) Sir Peter Gadsden David Crighton (Music) Gray Reading Prizes James Hadfield (for contributing most to medical and veterinary studies in the College) Pre-clinical – shared Clinical Margaret Mair Choral Prize Wohl Prize (books, travel, study for History): Edwin Stanley Roe (outstanding dissertation)

Sir Denys Page Award (travel to Greece) Renfrew (for the most significant contribution to the musical life of the College)

Chloe Y T Neo Jay J Wardropper Asha Torczon Rachel L Mellor Pok Shing Hui Florence M Oeters Genetics: Chloe Y T Neo Physics: Ruize Li Physics Part II: Ruize Li Physics Part III: Alicja Brzezowska Materials Part III: Robert W Tombs Astrophysics Part II: Matthew Dubery Part II: Elena Ruddy Part III: Fas O W M J Ashworth Stobbs Fas O W M J Ashworth Stobbs Clare L Aspray Poppy M Barton Charlotte Cox Rachel Cockell Dorothy Tyson Noor Arif Clara E Roeskau Henry J Gallagher (2024-2025) James M Brew Chapel: Sean Dimmock Hall: Elena Wanvig i Dot

Adrian Ifrim and Hannah Richardson Bhiramah Rammanohar Charles Martin Noor Arif and Lyra L B Browning Thomas E Cornwall Lara Glennie Rachel P G Jones Ben Luca Atassi Quinton Teodoro G E Luppi Jennifer Buss


AWARDS, RESULTS AND PRIZES I JESUS COLLEGE ANNUAL REPORT 2026

College Prizes Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic Part I Archaeology Part IIA Architecture Part II Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Part IA Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology Part IA Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology Part IB Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology Part II Design Part IA Design Part IB Economics Part I Economics Part IIA Education Part I Education Part IIB Engineering Part IIB Engineering Part IIB English Part IA English Part IB Final MB Part II Geography Part IA Geography Part II History of Art Part I History of Art Part IIA History of Art Part IIB History and Modern Languages Part IB History and Politics Part II Human, Social and Political Sciences Part I Human, Social and Political Sciences Part IIA (Sociology) Human, Social and Political Sciences Part IIB (Social Anthropology and Religious Studies – Modern Religion) Land Economy Part II Law Part IA Law Part IB Linguistics Part I Manufacturing Engineering Part IIA Modern and Medieval Languages Part IA Modern and Medieval Languages Part IA Music Part IA Natural Sciences Part IA: Physical Psychological and Behavioural Sciences Part IA

Theo Pyy-Sitzia Cheuk Yan Chan Jagoda Zuk Maximilian H L Piech Hong Pin Tan Joshua C Connolly Nilly E Langerman Yuki Takenoshita Christopher Nugent William W E Sutcliffe John A E Ward Aimee Bullock Samuel Misan Robert Seabourne Abhinand Sundaram Daisy R Kaye Eva Patrick Mia G Barnes Josh B Stevens Lara Branston Flora E I Dodd Lauren Feldman Eva Lams Lyra L B Browning Madeleine Harding Felix Klevnas Hannah Johnson Daniel Kennett-Brown

Rasalla Ahmed Alexander M Dann Ian C Y Tham Rory Shepherd Owen J Dyson Alexander M J Buncall Freya K L-A R Sweeney James M Brew Theodore S Sturman Thomas Russell

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AWARDS, RESULTS AND PRIZES I JESUS COLLEGE ANNUAL REPORT 2026

Bachelor of Theology for the Ministry: First Exam Final Veterinary Examination Part III

Rowan C Ireland Jack Jones

Tripos results The table below compares the results achieved by Jesus College students in 2026 and 2025. 2026

2025

2024

Number of Examinations taken

535

518

528

Number obtaining First Class (or stars)

153

148

127

Number obtaining Second Class (Upper)

256

257

260

Number obtaining Second Class (Lower)

30

43

55

Number obtaining Second Class (Undivided)

2

1

1

Number obtaining Third Class

11

11

14

This year the College had around 940 students (no two ways of counting them gives the same number). There were approximately 480 undergraduates in residence, 65 of whom came from other countries in Europe and overseas. There were around 150 in each of the first three years and around 40 in the fourth year. There were around 460 students in the postgraduate community at 1 October 2025 (including clinical medics and vets) of whom 43 PhD students completed their courses during the 2025-2026 academic year. *

*

*


AWARDS, RESULTS AND PRIZES I JESUS COLLEGE ANNUAL REPORT 2026

177

PhDs awarded during the academic year 2025-2026 Jenna Armstrong, Placental mitochondria and the metabolic response to hypobaric hypoxia and maternal overnutrition David Austen, English puritanism and the transformation of philosophy, c. 1640-1690 Jonathan Ball, The cubist perspective: embodiment, identity and remembrance in the work of Esther Dischereit Nadia Ben Hassine, Back to the rough ground: essays on Wittgenstein, language and politics Alice Bennett, Exploring the role of hydrogen in climate change mitigation: influence of supply chain configuration and end-use technology deployment Sebastian Benzecry, Italy from the road: automobility, modernity and the cinematic road in Italian film from Fascism to the Miracolo Economico Daniella Black, Prognostic and predictive potential of whole genome profiling in the clinic: a retrospective analysis of breast cancer whole genomes and a tumour type agnostic approach to BRCAness Eliane Brechbühl, Immune and stem cell tracking using organic anion transporting polypeptide (OATP) as an imaging gene reporter Samuel Brookes, Understanding CO₂ at aqueous interfaces using atomistic machine-learned potentials Maria Chrysanthou, Mathematical and computational models for transient magnetohydrodynamic flows of magnetically confined plasmas Oscar Cortés Azuero, The spread of Nipah and chikungunya viruses: implications for control Phillip Craik, The politics of cultural renewal in Germany, 1830-1880 Joshua Cudby, Near-term quantum computational utility through simulation and algorithms Carlos Español-Espinel, The seismic response of offshore wind turbines supported by monopiles and alternative foundations in liquefiable soils Elias Forneris, French and Belgian political ideas in wartime Britain, 1940-1944 Lavinia Gambini, Artisans, vendors, and practitioners from the Eastern Mediterranean in early modern Italy Rebecca Goldsmith, The making of ‘Labour’s working class’, 1931-1951 Mark Grimes, Application of MRI and low-field NMR in biopharmaceutical development James Hogg, Novel approaches for the characterisation of spinodal alloys Amelia Hutchinson, Medical objects and knowledge in Philipp Hainhofer’s networks, c.1590-1647 Scott Jeen, On zero-shot reinforcement learning Andrew Keenan, Neologisms in LXX Jeremiah: word formation within the history of Greek Phyllis Koehler, Somatic semantics: textual constellations and the traumatic body in modern German literature Kishen Shastry Kudur Shastry, Essays in the economics of institutions Emily Lau, Characterising performative speech modes via analysis by synthesis Hamish MacGregor, Modelling the age-dependent dynamics of clonal haematopoiesis Shaista Madad, Comparative analysis of haematopoiesis across prenatal human bone marrow sites using single-cell genomics


178

AWARDS, RESULTS AND PRIZES I JESUS COLLEGE ANNUAL REPORT 2026

Jessica Martin, Understanding mental health in children with rare genetic causes of intellectual disability Tin Long Chris Ng, Engineering synthetic biomolecular condensates with rationally-designed modular repeat proteins Alexander Norcliffe, Learning with less: machine learning techniques for scarce medical data Ronald Omuthe, Private education provision in fragility: access and quality of fee-paying private schools in the Dadaab refugee camp Kenya Charles Parry, Essays on the financing of young innovative firms Leanne Reeve, Phases and non-equilibrium dynamics of ultracold bosons in an optical quasicrystal Iain Rolland, Exploiting graph-based data representations for multispectral remote sensing image completion Thieme Schmidt, Reconfigurable DNA nanostructures Miriam Schwarz, The forms of friendship: how women’s friendships shape and challenge narrativity in contemporary German and Anglophone literature Robbie Spiers, Doctors of Philosophy: therapies for a century of crisis Helena Stolnik Trenkic, Contesting the right of peoples to self-determination in socialist Yugoslavia, 1950-1991 Camilla Tacconis, Advanced materials for high-energy rechargeable batteries: borate polyanion cathodes and silicon anodes Benjamin Thurlow, Kindness, control and COVID-19: political geographies of the state in Aotearoa New Zealand Alexander Van Dijk, Paradise Lost: the Biblical fashioning of the East Indies in Dutch chorographical accounts, 1596-1726 Christopher Ward, Cortisol-driven CD8+ T cell dysfunction in colorectal cancer and engineering glucocorticoid-resistant CAR-T cell therapies Zheyu Wu, Unconventional superconductivity in uranium ditelluride


JCCS


Photo by David Valinsky Photography


JCCS I JESUS COLLEGE ANNUAL REPORT 2026

Jesus College Cambridge Society Committee as of 1 October 2026 President and Chair Sonita ALLEYNE, OBE Trustees 1980 1982 1987 Officers 2012 1988 1976

Guy SEARS Susanna MORRISS Omaid HIWAIZI Victoria HERRENSCHMIDT (Hon. Secretary) Mary BIENFAIT (Hon. Treasurer) Mark HAYES (Hon. Dinner Secretary)

First elected 2018 2018 2022 2022 2018 2014

Director of Development and Alumni Relations Emily WILLIAMS

2018

College Council representative 1998 Sybil STACPOOLE

2016

Year representatives 1970 2014 1972 1973 1999 2002 1993 1992 1995 1999 1974 2023 1977 1998 2002 1987

2023-2027 2023-2027 2023-2027 2023-2027 2024-2028 2024-2028 2024-2028 2024-2028 2025-2029 2025-2029 2025-2029 2025-2029 2026-2030 2026-2030 2026-2030 2026-2030

Eric BOSTON Jasmynne BUSHROD Geoff HUDSON Richard NORTHERN Felicity BARRATT Verity MOORE Alex TOOLE Derek YATES Phill LANE Jim MURRAY John RANDALL Yasemin ULUSOY Richard ALLON-SMITH Catherine BYERS Lily HUMPHRIES Duncan MARTIN

181


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JCCS I JESUS COLLEGE ANNUAL REPORT 2026

Annual General Meeting 2026 The Annual General Meeting of the Jesus College Cambridge Society took place on Saturday 19 September in the Prioress’s Room, Jesus College, at 6.30pm. The Master was in the chair and welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Apologies for absence Apologies had been received from Felicity Barratt, Mary Bienfait, Eric Boston, Jasmynne Bushrod, Cat Byers, Phill Lane, Verity Moore, Susanna Morriss, John Randall and Emily Williams.

Minutes of 2025 AGM The meeting accepted the minutes with no amendments.

Matters arising not otherwise covered in agenda The Master noted the passing of Guy Morgan, remembering his service to the JCCS committee and the twinkle in his eye.

Secretary’s report John Halsey (Honorary Secretary) reminded the meeting that JCCS exists primarily to promote social relations between Jesuans of every generation, and between Jesuans and the College, with a secondary charitable objective to support College students. The Annual Dinner, Autumn Reception, Spring Dinner and Buffet Lunch were organised in collaboration with the Development and Alumni Relations Office, with Mark Hayes undertaking most of the burden for JCCS. All were successful, but numerically, the innovative Spring Dinner in College was the most successful with 129 attending. This dinner was at a lower price point than the Annual Dinner, and included tours and talks earlier in the day. At the 2025 Annual Dinner, the Guest of Honour was Professor Turi King (1993). The Executive Committee met twice since the last AGM, once on 4 March and once just before this meeting. The accounts for 2025 were approved by the Committee in March and signed by the independent Examiner. Paper copies of the signed accounts were available at the meeting. £7,500 was donated for the benefit of College students, split between JCSU, Travel Bursaries and the Hardship Fund. As ever, JCCS has received a report from grateful student recipients. Guy Sears, Susanna Morriss and Omaid Hiwaizi have updated the Executive Committee on their management of the Society’s investments, which remain invested for income. There has been a discussion about whether the JCCS Lifetime Subscription, which has been in place since JCCS was founded, should continue or cease. The JCSU and MCR will discuss the matter shortly, before a final decision by College Council. In the meantime, the Lifetime Subscription will be collected from first year students as it has been in the past. If at some point the subscription is withdrawn, this would not necessarily affect the programme of JCCS social events, but would affect future donations to College students. A presentation was made to John Halsey in recognition of his service to the Committee.

Treasurer’s report and annual accounts to 31 December 2025 Guy Sears presented the signed JCCS 2025 accounts and read a report prepared by Mary Bienfait. The accounts showed an increase in the number of students paying a subscription to JCCS – an additional 18 students compared to 2024. They reflected three events held in 2025, the Spring Dinner in London, the Annual Dinner in College and the


JCCS I JESUS COLLEGE ANNUAL REPORT 2026

183

London Reception, generating in total a surplus of just over £500, and the £7,500 donated for the benefit of students. Overall, the accounts showed a surplus of just over £200. The change in the investment portfolio reflects the wind-up of Aberdeen Property Income Trust Ltd, and the sale of GSK, SSE and Vodafone shares. As a result of these sales, there was a large cash balance in the stockbroker account at the year-end. This cash was used in 2026 to make further investments, as explained in notes to the accounts. The market value of the investments held by the Society was just short of £79.5k at year-end. Following the recent further investments, the current market value of the Society’s investments is around £104k.

Election of Honorary Officers for 2026/2027 Honorary Secretary: Victoria Herrenschmidt was proposed by A Greenwood, seconded R. Northern. Honorary Treasurer: Mary Bienfait was proposed by O. Hiwaizi, seconded C. Lewis. Honorary Dinner Secretary: Mark Hayes was proposed by V. Herrenschmidt, seconded G. Hudson. All three Honorary Officers were elected unopposed.

Appointment of Independent Examiner Guy Sears proposed Hamilton Faber to be re-appointed Independent Examiner. Carried unanimously.

Election of new members of the Executive Committee The Master thanked Clive Lewis, who was standing down from the Committee following completion of his four-year term of office, and Victoria Herrenschmidt, who had completed four years as a year representative and was now transferring to be Honorary Secretary. The Committee had nominated the following to serve until the AGM in 2030: Richard Allon-Smith (1977), Cat Byers (1998), Lily Humphries (2002), Duncan Martin (1987). All four were elected unanimously.

Review of 2025-2026 events and future plans Mark Hayes reported and responded to questions. Drinks and canapés would be served in Pump Court before this evening’s Annual Dinner in Hall. The Rt Revd Martin Seeley would lead a service of Holy Eucharist in College Chapel at 8am and breakfast would be served from 8am to 9.30am. The Autumn Reception at the Oxford & Cambridge Club will be on 17 November. Invitations will be issued very soon. Price £50, with twenty tickets for recent graduates at £35. Facilitated by Omaid Hiwaizi, the Spring Dinner will be in the Freemasons’ Hall in London on 3 April 2027. Sir David Wootton will lead a tour. Capacity and pricing are being finalised. In 2027, the Annual Dinner will move to 3 July, on the day of the Donors’ Garden Party, in order to avoid a clash with the JCBC bicentenary celebrations taking place in September. It may be that demand for Annual Dinner tickets will be much higher than in recent years. The Committee and the Development and Alumni Relations Office will consider how capacity can be increased, and whether a system of prioritisation may be needed. It is intended to hold the Spring Dinner 2028 at Lincoln’s Inn, thanks to Committee member John Randall KC.

Date of next AGM The 2027 AGM will be held at 6.30pm on Saturday 3 July 2027 prior to the Annual Dinner.

Any other business None. n


COLLEGE PAPERBACKS CHAPEL STAINED GLASS by Professor Jean Bacon, Emeritus Fellow This pictorial guide shows all the windows created by the workshop of William Morris, from designs by Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and Ford Madox Brown. The guide includes the subjects illustrated in the windows as well as some of the original design drawings. A selection of glass in the Chancel, designed by A. W. N. Pugin, is also featured.

HISTORY AND PERSONALITIES by Mr Peter Glazebrook This concise and well-illustrated booklet provides an accessible overview of over five centuries of the history of the College. An ideal gift for those who want to know something, but not too much, about the College and some of its significant events and more notable members.

MORE TEDIOUS BRIEF TALES Written and illustrated by students, Fellows and staff of Jesus College. A collection of ten ghost stories drawn from the College’s atmospheric setting. The stories bring to life the mystery and imagination contained in its historic grounds.

VISIT OUR ONLINE GIFT SHOP TO PURCHASE www.jesus.cam.ac.uk/alumni/gift-shop OR DROP INTO THE PORTERS’ LODGE


VISIT OUR ONLINE GIFT SHOP www.jesus.cam.ac.uk/alumni/gift-shop

We offer a wide range of gifts and souvenirs, perfect for commemorating your connection with Jesus College. From cufflinks, silk ties and bow ties to silver pins, coasters, tote bags, paperweights and tea towels, embossed Moleskin notebooks, snuggly teddy bears, wall hangings and umbrellas, prints and books and the College flag, as well as CD recordings of the College Choirs and our very own College Gin. You can also purchase any of these items by contacting us or by dropping into the Porters’ Lodge when you next visit College.

Please contact the Development and Alumni Relations Office at development@jesus.cam.ac.uk or +44 (0) 1223 339301 for information on overseas posting or bulk orders


Latest Release

“ “

No praise could be too high for the choristers The Independent

”

The Choir of Jesus College Cambridge sings beautifully Classic FM

“

A treasure of a disc

Gramophone Magazine

“

*****

”

”

”

BBC Music Magazine

Available from Jesus College Porters’ Lodge, online at https://www.jesus.cam.ac.uk/chapel-and-choir/choir-shop or from Amazon, iTunes and major retailers


THREE GIFT IDEAS TO SUPPORT THE VISUAL ARTS AT JESUS COLLEGE The Jesus College Works of Art Committee is proud to offer:

Art for Tomorrow A portfolio of 10 original prints specially curated for Jesus College, with works by world-famous artists including Cornelia Parker RA, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Humphrey Ocean RA and Alison Wilding RA. A special price for College members of £3600 inc. VAT for the full portfolio. A limited number of individual prints are also available for sale separately – please contact Nikki Williams in the Development and Alumni Relations Office for further details.

A limited-edition silk square scarf Designed by Stephen Chambers RA and printed by the Armani silk printers, Maver of Como, featuring the cockerel emblazoned with the College motto and complete with presentation box. £325 inc. VAT

For further information, or to purchase the portfolio or the scarf, please contact the Development and Alumni Relations Office, Jesus College Tel: +44 (0)1223 339301 or E-mail: development@jesus.cam.ac.uk

Thirty Years of Contemporary Art: Jesus College, Cambridge 1988-2018 by Professor Jean Bacon and Dr Jim Roseblade This is a richly illustrated photographic memoir of three decades of Sculpture in the Close biennials at Jesus College and the development of the permanent Available from Jesus College Porters’ Lodge, sculpture collection. online at www.jesus.cam.ac.uk/chapel-and-choir/choir-shop £12 plus postage and packing – available at the or from Amazon, iTunes and major retailers online shop: www.jesus.cam.ac.uk/alumni/gift-shop


The painting was commissioned in 2010 by the then Jesus Cricket Captain who decided to have some prints made and signed by the artist. All proceeds from this project have been used to set up a fund which has purchased full wicket covers. Further funds raised will be used to acquire additional club equipment and machinery. If you wish to purchase one of these signed prints, limited to 200, please send a cheque for £137 (£125 per unframed print + £12 p&p) made payable to ‘D. Allan re Jesus Cricket’ along with your postage address to Duncan Allan, Bugsell Park, Bugsell Lane, Robertsbridge, East Sussex TN32 5EN.

About Jocelyn Galsworthy Jocelyn Galsworthy has been painting professionally for fifty years and is particularly well known for her portraiture and her highly acclaimed paintings of English and International cricket scenes. She has gained an enviable reputation as an outstanding cricketing artist and has travelled the world painting Test Matches as well as county, village, school and club grounds. The woman in the white hat, sitting on the boundary, recording matches for posterity, has now become a part of the cricket scene.

CARDS AND PRINTS by NAOMI DAVIES Well known Cambridge artist Naomi Davies (née Williams, 1987) has created various pen and watercolour paintings of the College which are available as limited edition prints, tea towels, coasters and greetings cards.

More of Naomi’s work featuring Cambridge and bicycles can be found on her website www.naomidaviesart.co.uk


UK Donation Form Thank you for supporting Jesus College. Please complete the sections relevant to your gift. 1. YOUR DETAILS Title: ............. Full name: ............................................................................. Matriculation year (if applicable): .................................... Address: ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... .................................................................................................................................................... Postcode: .............................................. Email: ......................................................................................................... Telephone: ........................................................................... 2. YOUR GIFT Gift amount: £........................................ I would like my gift to support: ® Unrestricted

® Student financial support

® Teaching

® Buildings and facilities

® Mental health and wellbeing

® Outreach and widening participation

® Choir

® Jesus College Boat Club

® Other: ................................................................... If you have a specific area in mind, please use ‘Other’ and tell us where you would like your gift to be directed. We may contact you to discuss which areas of College life donors are able to support. The names of all donors are acknowledged from time to time in College publications. I do not wish my name to appear ® 3. HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO GIVE? ® Regular gift by Direct Debit Please complete the Direct Debit section overleaf. ® Bank transfer Please use the College bank details: Bank: Lloyds Bank, University of Cambridge, 3 Sidney Street, Cambridge, CB2 3HQ Account name: Jesus College Development | Sort code: 30-64-42 | Account number: 89057860 IBAN: GB73 LOYD 3064 4289 0578 60 | SWIFT/BIC: LOYDGB21670 ® Cheque I enclose a cheque for £........................ payable to ‘Jesus College Cambridge’ ® Credit or debit card For secure card payments, please give online at www.jesus.cam.ac.uk/alumni/giving/giving or telephone the office on +44 (0) 1223 339301. 4. GIFT AID – UK TAXPAYERS Boost your donation by 25% at no extra cost to you or Jesus College ® I want to Gift Aid my donation and any donations I make in the future or have made in the past four years to Jesus College Cambridge. I am a UK taxpayer and understand that if I pay less Income Tax and/or Capital Gains Tax than the amount of Gift Aid claimed on all my donations in that tax year, it is my responsibility to pay any difference.

✂

Signature: ............................................................................................................. Date: ......................................................................... Please notify us if you wish to cancel this declaration, change your name or home address, or no longer pay sufficient tax. Higher/additional-rate taxpayers may be able to claim additional tax relief.


Regular Gift by Direct Debit Complete this page only if you are setting up a regular gift by Direct Debit YOUR REGULAR GIFT Amount: £......................................................... Starting on: ® 1st OR Duration:

Frequency: ® Monthly ® Quarterly ® Annually

® 15th of ......................................… (month) …...........….. (year)

® Ongoing OR

® for ................ years

DIRECT DEBIT INSTRUCTION To the Manager of my Bank/Building Society Bank/Building Society name and address: ................................................................................................................................................. .......................................................................................................................................................... Postcode: ............................................. Name(s) of account holder(s): ...................................................................................................................................................................... Account number: ....................................................................................................... Sort code: ................................................................. Instruction to your bank or building society: Please pay CTT Charity Payments Direct Debits from the account detailed in this instruction, subject to the safeguards assured by the Direct Debit Guarantee. CTT Charity Payments processes Direct Debits on behalf of Jesus College. I understand that this instruction may remain with CTT Charity Payments and, if so, details will be passed electronically to my Bank/Building Society. Banks and Building Societies may not accept Direct Debit Instructions from some types of account. Service User Number: 277937. Signature: ............................................................................................................................. Date: .............................................................. THE DIRECT DEBIT GUARANTEE This Guarantee is offered by all banks and building societies that accept instructions to pay Direct Debits. If there are any changes to the amount, date or frequency of your Direct Debit, CTT Charity Payments Ltd will notify you 10 working days in advance of your account being debited or as otherwise agreed. If you request CTT Charity Payments Ltd to collect a payment, confirmation of the amount and date will be given to you at the time of the request. If an error is made in the payment of your Direct Debit by CTT Charity Payments Ltd or your bank or building society, you are entitled to a full and immediate refund of the amount paid from your bank or building society. If you receive a refund you are not entitled to, you must pay it back when CTT Charity Payments Ltd asks you to. You can cancel a Direct Debit at any time by simply contacting your bank or building society. Written confirmation may be required. Please also notify us. Please return this form to: Development and Alumni Relations Office, Jesus College, Cambridge, CB5 8BL +44 (0)1223 339301 | development@jesus.cam.ac.uk | www.jesus.cam.ac.uk/alumni/giving/giving Registered charity number 1137462 Registered with the Fundraising Regulator OTHER WAYS TO SUPPORT JESUS COLLEGE ® Please send me information about legacy giving OR ® I have already left a legacy at Jesus

® Please send me information about Payroll Giving (GAYE) ® Please send me information about making a gift of shares DATA PROTECTION We are committed to protecting your personal information and being transparent about what information we hold. Your data is used by us for alumni and supporter relations, and for fundraising. Please read our full data protection statement at: https://www.jesus.cam.ac.uk/alumni/giving/data-protection-policy Thank you for supporting Jesus College


Legacy Pledge Form If you have left, or intend to leave, a legacy at Jesus College, please let the Development and Alumni Relations Office know by filling out and returning this form. Knowledge of legacy pledges helps the College with its long-term planning, and ensures we can recognise and thank you for your generosity during your lifetime. This pledge form is not a binding document. ® I have already left a legacy at Jesus ® I intend to leave a legacy at Jesus, and would like to discuss this in confidence with the

Legacies Officer. Full name ________________________________________________________________ Matriculation year _________________________________________________________ Address _________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Telephone _______________________________________________________________ Email ___________________________________________________________________ Optional information: I have remembered Jesus College in my Will with: ® A residuary gift (of ___________% of my Estate) ® A cash gift (of £______________) ® Other: _______________________________________________________________

It is my preference that my legacy be used to support: ______________________________

Please return this form to: Development and Alumni Relations Office, Jesus College, Cambridge CB5 8BL +44 (0)1223 339301 | development@jesus.cam.ac.uk | www.jesus.cam.ac.uk

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Registered charity number 1137462 Registered with the Fundraising Regulator Data protection We are committed to protecting your personal information and being transparent about what information we hold. Your data is used by us for alumni and supporter relations, and for fundraising. Please read our full data protection statement at: https://www.jesus.cam.ac.uk/alumni/giving/data-protection-policy


It is always insightful to hear personal stories from our donors. What inspired you to leave your legacy at Jesus? Please write to us – we would be incredibly grateful to hear from you. _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________


Data Protection Statement How we use your personal information This statement explains how Jesus College (“we” and “our”) handles and uses data we collect about alumni (“you” and “your”). In broad terms, we use your data to manage the ongoing relationship between the College and you as part of our lifelong community of scholars, including keeping in touch with you, keeping up to date on your achievements, and engaging with you on how you can continue to contribute to College life and otherwise support the College. We will retain your data indefinitely or until you request us to do otherwise. When changes are made to this statement, we will publish the updated version to our website and notify you by other communications channels as we deem appropriate or necessary. The controller for your personal data is Jesus College, Cambridge CB5 8BL. The person responsible for data protection at the time of issue, and the person who is responsible for monitoring compliance with relevant legislation in relation to the protection of personal data, is the Bursar, Dr Richard Anthony (bursar@jesus.cam.ac.uk). The legal basis for processing your personal data is that it is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests, where we have concluded that our interests do not impact inappropriately on your fundamental rights and freedoms, except where elsewhere in this statement we have indicated otherwise. You may ask us to explain our rationale at any time.

How your data is used by the College We collect and process your personal data, as specified below, for a number of purposes, including: A.

maintaining a formal record of your academic progress and achievements at the College and the University of Cambridge and elsewhere;

B.

retaining a formal record of your career or other life achievements in order to promote and improve the reputation of the College and help you to network with other College members effectively;

C.

engaging you in College and University events that we believe will be of interest to you, including alumni and open events, volunteering opportunities, and other ways you can contribute to the life of the College;

D.

providing you with information about College life and the development of the College, including major initiatives and programmes relating to either the academic endeavour or the provision of services and facilities to members and the wider public;


E.

encouraging you to make a financial contribution to the College and/or the University, and processing any such contributions;

F.

assessing the likelihood that you will, now or in the future, make a financial contribution (gift) to the College;

G. promoting third party services we believe will be of interest to you. Further details are provided in the Annex. If you have concerns or queries about any of these purposes, or how we communicate with you, please contact us at the address given above.

Communications If you are a new contact for our Development and Alumni Relations Office, we will ask you at the outset how you would like to receive news and other communications from us. If you are already receiving such communications, you may change your preferences or ask us to stop sending you news and other communications completely by contacting the Development and Alumni Relations Office (development@jesus.cam.ac.uk). You may request changes at any time.

How we share your personal data We believe that most alumni understand in detail the complex and many interactions of the College with the University of Cambridge. Personal data of our members is shared with the University routinely throughout any course of study, and it is our strong preference to continue such collaborative working thereafter. The University and its partners (including the College) have a data sharing agreement to govern the sharing of personal data of alumni and other supporters. This is necessary because they are distinct legal entities. The agreement outlines that, depending on constraints set by you, and which you may change at any time, the University and College may share any of the above categories of personal data with the University, and can be viewed in full on the College website – https://www.alumni.cam.ac.uk/data-protection. Any transmission of data to or from the University is managed through agreed processes which comply with UK data protection legislation. For clarity, the College has a separate database from the University, but has access to the University’s database: additionally, we maintain other electronic and paper records. The University has its own data protection statement and procedures – see: https://www.alumni.cam.ac.uk/data-protection Additionally, we share data on a considered and confidential basis, where appropriate, with: • Cambridge in America (the University’s affiliate alumni office in the US); • selected companies who provide College-branded or College-endorsed products and services, as outlined above; • volunteer partners closely related to us (e.g. College trustees, development board members, alumni group representatives); and


• contractors providing services to you on our behalf or services to us (our “data processors”), as outlined above. We also facilitate communication between individual alumni (of the College or the University), but in doing so we do not release personal contact details without prior permission. Any transfers of your data overseas or to international organisations, as set out above, are protected either by an adequacy decision by the European Commission or by standard data protection clauses adopted by the European Commission (which are available from our Data Protection Officer) or, before 25 May 2018, by a self-assessment of adequacy.

Your rights You have the right: to ask us for access to, rectification or erasure of your data; to restrict processing (pending correction or deletion); to object to communications or direct marketing; and to ask for the transfer of your data electronically to a third party (data portability). Some of these rights are not automatic, and we reserve the right to discuss with you why we might not comply with a request from you to exercise them. Where you opt out of all future communications or exercise your right to erasure, we will continue to maintain a core set of personal data (name, subject(s), matriculation and graduation details, unique University identification number and date of birth) to ensure we do not contact you inadvertently in future, while still maintaining our record of your academic achievements. We may also need to retain some financial records about you for statutory purposes (e.g. Gift Aid, anti-fraud and accounting matters). You retain the right at all times to lodge a complaint about our management of your personal data with the Information Commissioner’s Office at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/

Annex We collect and process your personal data, as specified below, for a number of purposes, including: A.

Maintaining a formal record of your academic progress and achievements of the College and the University of Cambridge and elsewhere: We retain personal data (provided by you or by the University of Cambridge, or created by us), including: i) ii) iii) iv) v)

your current name and any previous names you have had; unique personal identifiers (e.g. student number, CRSID, date of birth, photograph); your current and previous contact details; your application details, our assessment of your application and the details of any offer(s) of study we have made; records of your academic provision from the College (including supervisions, College examinations and other academic support);


vi) vii) B.

matriculation and graduation details and records of your academic qualifications (including those prior to becoming a member of the College); other details of your academic progress or achievement (e.g. College or University awards or prizes).

Retaining a formal record of your academic, career or other life achievements in order to promote and improve the reputation of the College and help you to network with other College members effectively: We retain personal data (provided by you), including: i) ii)

details of your achievements since you completed your course(s) of study; membership of College and external clubs and societies (including alumni groups); iii) your previous and current employment status (including retirement), including job title, sector, income and work contact details, dates of employment. When you provide this information, we will assume (unless you notify us otherwise) that we can promote these achievements in our public literature, and can use this information for other purposes outlined in this statement. We may supplement information from other public sources that we consider to be reliable (e.g. your public social media profile(s), King’s Honours List, Companies House, high profile news reports or articles) and may check their accuracy with you from time to time. C.

Engaging you in College and University events that we believe will be of interest to you, including alumni and open events, volunteering opportunities, and other ways you can contribute to the life of the College: We retain personal data (provided by you or by the University of Cambridge, or created by us), including: i) ii) iii) iv) v)

known relationships with other members (past or present) of the University of Cambridge or any of the Colleges; your previous attendance at College or University events; information about your areas of personal interest; personal data relating to your attendance at events and your personal preferences (e.g. dietary or accommodation requirements or requests); records of any communications (verbal or written) we have had with you, including the purpose and outcome of those communications.

When you provide this information, we will assume (unless you notify us otherwise) that we can use this information for other purposes outlined in this statement. We may supplement information from other public sources that we consider to be reliable (e.g. your public social media profile(s), University publications, high profile news reports or articles) and may check their accuracy with you from time to time. D.

Providing you with information about the development of the College, including major initiatives and programmes relating to either the academic endeavour or the provision of services and facilities to members and the wider public:


We retain personal data (provided by you or by the University of Cambridge, or created by us), including: i) ii)

any communication preferences confirmed by you; ways in which you have supported the College.

By providing us with email addresses and telephone numbers, we have taken this to be consent to use those channels to contact you for this and other purposes outlined in this statement, unless you have expressed your preferred communication channels. When you provide this information, we will assume (unless you notify us otherwise) that we can use this information for other purposes outlined in this statement. E.

Encouraging you to make a financial contribution to the College and/or the University, and processing any such contributions: The College’s income consists of gifts and benefactions, income derived from prudent investment of any endowment and student fees. We value any financial contribution from our members and, accordingly, retain personal data (provided by you or by the University of Cambridge, or created by us), including: i) ii) iii) iv)

the purposes and amounts of any donations or other support previously provided to the University or the College by you; the method(s) of payments used and related payment references; your bank details (for processing direct debit or other financial transactions); your tax status and Gift Aid declaration.

Some of this financial information needs to be retained for statutory purposes for a number of years (e.g. Gift Aid, anti-fraud and accounting matters). When you provide this information, we will assume (unless you notify us otherwise) that we can use this information for other purposes outlined in this statement. F.

Assessing the likelihood that you will, now or in the future, make a financial contribution (gift) to the College: The College undertakes research to determine your capacity to provide financial support. This results in us creating and using personal data including: i) ii)

iii)

your estimated income or asset worth (where this is not provided by you); your potential capacity to make a gift, including our internal classification of you as a major gift prospect which is determined by a combination of your giving history, your attendance at College and University events, and your other interactions with the College since you graduated, including any positive or negative indications from you about your capacity or willingness to give to the College; gifts you have made to other charitable organisations.

Our research includes incorporating information from public sources that we consider to be reliable (e.g. your public social media profile(s), King’s Honours List, Companies House, high profile news reports or articles). In using these sources,


we have considered the potential intrusion of your privacy. In most cases, our assessment above aims to exclude you from unwelcome or inappropriate approaches so as not to compromise your ongoing relationship with us. G. Promoting third party services we believe will be of interest to you: We retain personal data (provided by you), including: i)

any preferences to be excluded from such services.

We do not sell your personal data under any circumstances. If you have concerns or queries about any of these purposes, or how we communicate with you, please contact us: https://www.jesus.cam.ac.uk/college/about-us/data-protection


Jesus College records update Name: ........................................................................................................................... Matriculation year: ...................................................................................................... (new) Address: ............................................................................................................. ........................................................................................................................................ ........................................................................................................................................ (new) Telephone no: .................................................................................................... (new) Mobile no: ......................................................................................................... (new) E-mail address: .................................................................................................. News: ............................................................................................................................ ........................................................................................................................................ ........................................................................................................................................ ........................................................................................................................................ ........................................................................................................................................

Please return to: The Development and Alumni Relations Office Jesus College Cambridge CB5 8BL

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e-mail: development@jesus.cam.ac.uk


CONFERENCES, EVENTS AND ACCOMMODATION We are not just a college, we also offer some fantastic and versatile meeting rooms, accommodation and acres of outside space. By booking an event with us, you’ll help us to maintain our historic estate, while ensuring an exceptional experience for your colleagues, family or friends. In a nutshell . . . • Versatile range of modern and historic meeting spaces • Up-to-date, efficient and user-friendly audio visual equipment • Over 250 en suite bedrooms available all year round including apartments and rental houses • Historic city centre location with excellent public transport links • Exquisite and vast catering offerings using local, seasonal and sustainable ingredients • Acres of tranquil grounds including sports fields and a nature trail. Perfect for summer gatherings and larger bookings • Enhanced experiences on offer include tours of the Chapel, the Archives, the buildings and grounds. As part of our valued alumni community, you’re entitled to a discount on your booking. Our team delivers an outstanding service, from event planning to ensuring everything runs smoothly on the day. That’s one reason that many of our clients make repeat bookings, including the Judge Business School, AstraZeneca and Microsoft Research. “We were delighted to find that using the West Court facilities minimised queuing times and maximised delegates’ time spent in conversation and networking. The staff at the venue and the team at Jesus College were professional, organised and a pleasure to work with.”

JESUS COLLEGE CONFERENCES AND EVENTS www.jesus.cam.ac.uk | +44 11223 760524 | conference@jesus.cam.ac.uk View Jesus College in 360: https://www.takealookinside.co.uk/jesus-college/index.html


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Jesus College Annual Report 2026 by Jesus College Cambridge - Issuu