Alumni Reunion 2022

On September 18 and 19, we welcomed alumni whose matriculation years ended in a 2 or 7 back to Wolfson College for our annual Alumni Reunion Weekend. It was wonderful to see so many of our alumni back at Wolfson!
Alumni and their guests were able to attend a wide variety of events throughout the weekend including College tours, an afternoon tea, an 'In Conversation' event, and a black tie dinner on Saturday, followed by a picnic by the River on Sunday where guests were able to get in one of our Wolfson Boats and try rowing for themselves!

You can find the pictures from the Alumni Reunion and Sunday Boat Club Event on the College Flickr page here.

Next year's Alumni Reunion will be taking place on 16 September 2023 for our alumni whose matriculation years end in a 3 or 8.

Black History Month

Black History Month at Wolfson
October marks an international month of recognition for the important contributions of Black scholars, artists and activists, as well as key events in the history of the African continent and her diaspora

Wolfson is hosting a range of events and activities to commemorate and celebrate Black History Month. These events are open to all College members, and details of each event are listed in the accordion sections below. The convenors of the Black History Month programme are Annoa Abekah-Mensah and Dr Kenny Monrose.

You can find out more about the events that are taking place here.

College News

Wolfson Students
From pandemic preparedness to machine learning: exceptional Gates Scholars arrive at College
Wolfson is proud to welcome seven Gates Cambridge Scholars to its cohort of outstanding postgraduate students this year – bringing more world-class researchers to the College from across the globe.

Wolfson’s new Gates Scholars hail from seven countries: Kenya, South Africa, Mongolia, Israel, China, the United States, and Pakistan. Their research ranges from conservation, pandemic preparedness and waste management, to computational learning, criminal justice, post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD), and education in Pakistan.

Susan Larsen, Wolfson College Senior Tutor, said: “We’re thrilled to welcome these seven exceptionally talented individuals to our academic community. They join a rich and diverse community eager to hear about their work and keen to collaborate. We’re excited to... Read More

Wolfson Fellows
Wolfson Alumnus and Fellow, Dr Jamie Trinidad (m.2007), has been appointed to the rank of King’s Counsel
Along with sixteen appointments that were made in Scotland recently, Jamie – who is from Gibraltar – is one of the first new KCs to be appointed since the reign of George VI, and the first from Gibraltar to 'take silk' since 2019.

Within the legal profession, appointment as King's Counsel ('KC', during the reign of a King) or Queen's Counsel ('QC', during the reign of a Queen) has been described as 'a mark and recognition by the Sovereign of the professional eminence of the counsel upon whom it is conferred.' 

Dr Trinidad said: “It's a great honour to be recognised in this way for doing work that I love, and I'm pleased to follow in the footsteps of former members of the Wolfson College Governing Body who have attained the rank of Queen's Counsel, such as... Read More

Wolfson Alumni
Robert Cashmore awarded MBE
Congratulations to Wolfson alumnus, Robert Cashmore (m.2007), who was presented his MBE by Princess Anne at Buckingham Palace last week. Robert was awarded his MBE for his services to UK Trade and Investment

Sustainability

Wolfson staff and students promote biodiversity
Wolfson students and staff have teamed up with local residents to help develop sustainable green spaces in the local area.
“You could call it a busman’s holiday,” says Wolfson College Head Gardener Oscar Holgate, who has been putting his spade to use outside of the College gardens as part of a community project called “Action for Barton Close”. 

The project began in 2019, when Barton Close resident Veronica Spooner organised a community Saturday to tackle the overgrown “island” in the centre of the Close. Wolfson students and staff quickly became involved, with Oscar helping to co-ordinate activities alongside the President’s husband, Chris Clarke.

Over the course of several years, community members and Wolfson helpers have... Read More

Sport

Rowing
by Nancy Karreman
WCBC Captain 2022-2023
The Boat Club committee is excited to welcome over 40 new rowers to the club this term.

Our novices will start their racing term with Queen's Ergs, an indoor rowing machine competition held at Queen's College on Sunday 6 November. Races on the river Cam will kick off with the chaotically fun and fancy dress race Emma Sprints (500m sprint on The Long Reach) on Sunday 20 November, followed by the Clare Novice Regatta (800m sprint also down The Long Reach; TBC). After an incredibly high retention compared to previous years, our senior crews will also compete in The Fours Head on the Thames on Saturday 19 November, which follows the Boat Race course downstream. We will be boating from Hammersmith (Furnivall), so please do come cheer us on if you are in London. 
 
All of our crews will finish out the racing season in the annual Fairbairn's Cup on Thursday 1 December (novices) and Friday 2 December (seniors), followed by our first Boat Club Dinner of the year on Friday 2 December - keep an eye on your inboxes for your official invitation! We would love to see you all out on the Cam this term, especially for our novices' races and for Fairbairns. See you on the river!

You can find out more about how to be involved in College rowing as alumni here!

From the Development Director

Simon Crookall

Michaelmas Term set off to a tremendous start with the news that alumnus, John Hughes (m.1969), had made a substantial gift to endow a PhD scholarship at Wolfson.

John’s gift will attract matched funding from the University to endow the scholarship in perpetuity. John visited College in October and was delighted to see that the blade above the bar in the Club Room bore his name as No2 oarsman.

The President hosted a lunch for members of the Morrison Society in September. The Society recognises those who have pledged a bequest to the College. Nearly 40 members attended, and viewed the Kill or Cure exhibition in the Combination Room. One notable guest was Tom Morrison, the son of the College’s first President, John Morrison, after whom the Society is named.
 
Our Annual Fund campaign has just launched, inviting alumni all over the world to support the Student Scholarship Fund and the Student Hardship Fund. In these times of great economic hardship, students are particularly in need of our support.
 
For more information about any of our Development activities, please contact me at director-development@wolfson.cam.ac.uk