News in brief

The Falling Warrior, Memorial Court

Five Clare alumni recognised in the New Year’s Honours

Peter Clegg (1969) – awarded an OBE for services to architecture. Peter is a senior partner and co-founder of Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios. His work at the practice has included energy efficient head offices for environmental organisations such as Greenpeace, the National Trust, and the Woodland Trust.

Mai Fyfield (1987) – awarded a CBE for services to the sports and broadcasting industries. Mai is an independent non-executive director at the Premier League and BBC Commercial.

Dr Rachel King (1998) – awarded a CMG for services to British foreign policy. Rachel was lately Principal Private Secretary to the Foreign Secretary and Director, Private Office Directorate at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Sally Ann Weston (1981) – awarded an OBE for public service. Sally was lately Deputy Director of the Home Office.

Andrew Wood (2002) – awarded an MBE for services to national security. Andrew is a team leader at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Clare Alumnus one of special Honours List in March 2024

Matt Clifford (2004) – awarded a CBE in 2024 for services to AI. Matt is the co-founder and Chair of Entrepreneurs First and Chair of the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency.

Two alumni received knighthoods in the King’s Birthday Honours 2024

Dr John Rutter (1967, Honorary Fellow) – knighted for services to music.

Professor Jim Skea (1975) – knighted for services to climate science.

Sir David Attenborough returns to Clare

At the beginning of Michaelmas term, staff and Fellows were delighted to welcome back Sir David Attenborough (1945, Honorary Fellow). Sir David helped launch the Campaign for Old Court in 2019 and his visit was an opportunity for him to see the progress of the Old Court project and for the College to thank him for his support, now that the fundraising target has been achieved.

He was given a tour of the North Range extension and the River Room café, where he admired the scenic view across the river to the Fellows’ Garden, much to the delight of passing punters. Sir David then joined staff and Fellows for tea in the beautifully restored Hall.

Anthony Appiah

Anthony Appiah awarded Kluge prize

Anthony Appiah (1972, Honorary Fellow) received the John W. Kluge Prize, awarded every two years by the United States Library of Congress, to recognise exceptional scholarship in the humanities and social sciences.

Professor Appiah, currently the Silver Professor of Philosophy and Law at New York University, is internationally recognised for his contributions to the fields of ethics, philosophy of language, and the study of race and identity.

He joins a prestigious group of Kluge Prize winners who include another Honorary Fellow of Clare, the former president of Brazil, Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

James Henshaw triumphs at Kussewitzky conducting competition

James Henshaw (2007) was named the overall winner of the fourth edition of the Sergey Kussewitzky International Conducting Competition. Held annually in Tuscany, Italy, the event attracted 94 talented conductors from 36 different countries. After studying music at Clare, James went on to study repetiteuring at Guildhall School of Music and Drama and worked at many of the world’s top opera houses, including English National Opera, Glyndeboune Festival Opera, and Hamburgische Staatsoper. He also conducts his own orchestra, The Outcry Ensemble, based in London, premiering new music in every concert.

David Rowitch joins US National
Academy of Medicine

Professor David Rowitch (1984, Fellow) was elected to the US National Academy of Medicine in October 2024.

David is a developmental neuroscientist and Head of Department of Paediatrics at University of Cambridge. He obtained his MD from University of California Los Angeles and his PhD from Cambridge University while a student at Clare.

His research in the field of developmental neurobiology and biomedicine has earned him numerous awards: he was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2018 and Fellow of the Royal Society in 2021.

Laura Herz achieves trio of awards in 2024

Clare alumna Professor Laura Herz (1999) was honoured with three major accolades in 2024, recognizing her ground breaking contributions to science and renewable energy research.

She was awarded the Institute of Physics Faraday Medal and Prize, elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), and further recognised with a Fellowship from the Materials Research Society (MRS) for her impact on materials research.

Laura Herz

Paul Fletcher

Paul Fletcher wins Collaboration Award for Research Impact

Clare Fellow and Bernard Wolfe Professor of Health Neuroscience, Paul Fletcher, won the Collaboration Award at The Cambridge Awards for Research Impact and Engagement.

Together with Cambridge Neuroscience, Ninja Theory and Cambridgeshire & Peterborough NHS Trust, Professor Fletcher won with the project: Representing psychosis in video games: Communicating clinical science and tackling stigma.

The collaboration brought together expertise in video game design and clinical neuroscience with lived experience of mental illness to co-produce two award-winning video games vividly conveying the nature of altered experience of reality in a character with psychosis.

Skip Gates awarded Vilcek Prize and Springarn Medal

Renowned literary scholar, historian and filmmaker Henry Louis ‘Skip’ Gates Jr. (1972, Honorary Fellow), has been awarded the Vilcek Prize and the Spingarn Medal, recognising his significant contributions to the study and promotion of African American history and culture.

Gates has dedicated his career to bringing African American history into the mainstream, and championing diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The Vilcek Prize for Excellence is awarded in recognition of intellectual and cultural leaders who have had a profound impact on society and contribute a lasting legacy to the fields of arts, sciences, and humanities, whilst the Springarn Medal acknowledges the highest or noblest achievement by a living African American in any honourable field.

Henry Louis ‘Skip’ Gates Jr.

David Hartley

From idea to implementation: The Granta Backbone Network’s Journey

David Hartley, Emeritus Fellow and Director of the University Computing Service from 1970-1994 recounts the modernisation of Cambridge’s digital connectivity through the design and build of the Granta Backbone Network. Known as GBN, the network of fibre-optic cables were laid in underground ducting throughout the collegiate University and spread around Cambridge City and beyond. Conceived in the late 1980s and completed in 1993, the GBN now interconnects all students, academic staff, researchers and administrative staff located in Cambridge, and with colleagues around the world.

To read about the project in full, please click here.