Staff Newsletter - June/July 2010

The artistic touchRestoring an old master

“Dad, I’m bored” – holidays made easypage 8

Why 18th-century seafaring matters

page 6

The magazIne foR The sTaff of The UnIveRsITy of CambRIDge JUne/JULy 2010

2 | JUNE/JULY 2010 | UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE NEwSlETTER

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neWsLeTTeRThe Newsletter is published for the staff of the University of Cambridge and is produced by the Office of External Affairs and Communications. Please send in ideas for the content and other ways we can improve the publication. Tel: (3)32300 or email [email protected] for articles for the September/October edition should reach the Editor by 18 June.Editor: Andrew AldridgeAdvertising: Nick SaffellDesign: www.creative-warehouse.co.ukPrinters: Labute PrintersContributors: Andrew Aldridge, Becky Allen, Alex Buxton, Stephanie Ensten, Mandy Garner, Stuart Roberts.

neWsLeTTeR onLInewww.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/newsletter

Royal visit: The Chancellor, His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, visited the University on 20 April. His day began with a visit to Fitzwilliam College to view and open the new library. He stopped to talk to students taking advantage of the 200 study spaces, before attending a ceremony at the Senate House to induct nine new members to the Guild of Cambridge Benefactors.

Picture perfect: An online slideshow of winning entries to the Impressions of Cambridge student photo competition has been published. It contains Henry Rivers’ winning image ‘Sunrise after the Ball’, pictured, which shows two of his friends chatting in a haze of morning light after one of last year’s May balls. To view the photos, log on to http://www.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/photocomp/.

On our bikes: Cycling remains the most popular way to travel to work for University staff. The 2009 Travel for Work Survey found that 39 per cent of us prefer pedal power, with just 22 per cent of University employees making the journey by car. In terms of sustainable travel, we compare favourably with other workplaces: on average, 17 per cent of employees surveyed from other organisations use their bikes to get to work, with 50 per cent choosing four wheels.

CoverTake a look behind the scenes at one of the world’s leading centres of painting conservation. Turn to page ten

2-5 News round-up

6-7 Making a differenceWhat can an 18th-century nautical body tell us about science today? Quite a lot actually

8-9 Getting practicalThe long summer holiday is here – but so too is our guide to the best children’s activities across the city and University

10-11 Behind the scenes

12 People

13 Prizes, awards and honours

14-15 Advertisements

16 Backpage

The artistic touchRestoring an old master

“Dad, I’m bored” – holidays made easypage 8

Why 18th-century seafaring matters page 6

The magazIne foR The sTaff of The UnIveRsITy of CambRIDge

JUne/JULy 2010

Water feeling: This is the moment Cambridge won the 2010 Boat Race – one of the most thrilling in the competition’s history. The widely fancied Oxford crew had taken an early lead but, by Barnes Bridge, about half a mile from the finish, the light blues had a three-quarter-length lead. Oxford made one final push but Cambridge responded, winning by one and a third lengths, taking its overall tally to 80 wins to Oxford’s 75.

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Cover photographs: Sir Cam, National Maritime Museum

JUNE/JULY 2010 | UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE NEwSlETTER | 3

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Chancellor opens home for enterprise

Your comments and contributions are always welcome. Please send them to the Editor at [email protected] deadline for the next issue is 18 June.

FOR THE SECOND year running, the Guardian Hay Festival has hosted a series of talks by Cambridge academics.

Last year, the ‘Cambridge 800 series’ of lectures, which celebrated the University’s 800th anniversary, as well as the Science Festival and Festival of Ideas, drew more than 4,000 people at Hay.

Cambridge academics including Dame Gillian Beer and Professor Simon Blackburn took part, with the series being described as “a highlight of the festival” by Guardian Literary Editor Claire Armistead.

This year’s line-up featured 17 Cambridge academics. They included Professor David Reynolds, author of the BBC Radio 4 series and book America, Empire of Liberty, Simon Baron Cohen, Professor of Developmental Psychopathology, and Professor Janet Todd, President of Lucy Cavendish College. The festival

Cambridge academics make hay

ENTREPRENEURSHIP HAS a new home after HRH the Duke of Edinburgh opened the Hauser Forum at West Cambridge on 20 April.

The Forum is a state-of-the-art enterprise hub that has been designed to stimulate innovative collaboration between clusters of academics, start-up businesses and established industries. It is also the new home of Cambridge Enterprise, the University’s commercialisation arm.

It has been made possible by a major £8m benefaction from the Hauser-Raspe Foundation, as well as a £2m grant from the East of England Development Agency.

Work on the development, which consists of two landmark buildings, the Entrepreneurship Centre and the Broers Building, began in September 2008 on the University’s West Cambridge site. Professor Lynn

ran from 27 May to 6 June. Peter Florence, Director of

the Guardian Hay Festival and a Cambridge alumnus, said: “The 2009 series was such a success we doubled the scale. It’s fascinating to see big thinking set outside the familiar academic context and mashing with the worlds of literature, entertainment, politics, music and comedy. It’s a combustible and thrilling mix.”

Nicola Buckley, Festivals and Outreach Manager at the University of Cambridge, said: “We were delighted that the Guardian Hay Festival requested a second series of Cambridge speakers this year. The audience response to Cambridge academics has been excellent.”

A microsite featuring Cambridge events at this year’s Hay Festival, can be found at: http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/communications/community/.

The Hauser Forum, opened by the Chancellor in April, is a state-of-the-art enterprise hub

Gladden, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, said: “The Hauser Forum

will play a central role in setting the future agenda for innovation in the

University, the region and for the UK economy.”

The Forum also features an ‘IdeaSpace’ to support emerging innovations and to link them with entrepreneurial activities within the University and beyond.

IdeaSpace Director Stew McTavish said: “I’m excited and humbled to be part of the Forum. The amazing mix of people and companies from Camb-ridge, the East of England and beyond that will be brought together will make a big change to the entre-preneurial community in the region.”

Meanwhile, the Broers Building, named after the former Vice-Chancellor Lord Broers, is a pioneering centre in which small and medium enterprises and international companies can lease space to work in closer partnership with researchers and commercialisation activities at the University.


CoLLege neWs

Corpus manuscripts go online

ONE OF THE WORLD’S most important collections of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts – for centuries kept at Corpus Christi – has been digitised in a project involving the college, Cambridge University Library and Stanford University.

The Parker Library at Corpus holds more than 550 manuscripts, including the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the earliest history written in English, and the sixth-century St Augustine Gospels – used at the enthronement of the Archbishops at Canterbury.

These, and other treasures from the library, have now been made available online at http://parkerweb.stanford.edu.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is thought to have been commissioned by Alfred the Great, while the Gospel Book is believed to have been brought from Rome by St Augustine in 597 on his first mission to convert the English to Christianity.

Donnelley Fellow Librarian Christopher de Hamel said: “It is the oldest illustrated Latin Gospel Book in existence. It has been in England longer than any other book and, as a symbol of religion, history and

literacy, it is one of the most evocative books in Christendom.”

Professor John Hatcher, who oversaw the project, said: “The four-year digitisation and research project has been a triumph of collaboration between Corpus Christi, Cambridge University Library and Stanford University.”

Stanford built and hosts the Parker Library website. The American

The digitisation and research project has

been a triumph of collaboration

institution also provides electronic storage for images used in the web application. Between them, teams

from the college and University Library digitised almost 200,000 separate pages.

The Parker Library was entrusted to the college in 1574 by Matthew

Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury under Queen Elizabeth from 1559 until his death in 1575, and one of the primary architects of the English Reformation.

Clare appointment

Graham Ross has accepted the position of Director of Music at Clare and will succeed Tim Brown in September this year. Mr Ross, pictured, is an award-winning composer, and co-founder and Principal Conductor of The Dmitri Ensemble, with whom he has recorded three discs. He guest-conducts numerous ensembles and orchestras, most recently Aalborg Symfoniorkester, Tallis Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonia of Cambridge, and Choir and Orchestra of London. He studied music at Clare and the Royal College of Music, and was commissioned to compose a new choral work to celebrate the University’s 800th anniversary.

Baroness David remembered

A memorial for Newnham Honorary Fellow Nora David was held at the college on 8 May. Baroness David,

who passed away in November last year, was a Newnham Associate for many years, Cambridge councillor from 1964 to 1967 and from 1968 to 1974. She was raised to the life peerage in 1978 as Baroness David of Romsey in the City of Cambridge, acting as opposition spokeswoman on education from 1979 until 1985, and again from 1987 to 1997. She was also a government and opposition whip from 1978 to 1987. She married Richard David in 1935. He passed away in 1993 and she is survived by their two daughters and two sons.

IN BRIEF...

Above: the Parker Library at Corpus. Right: a picture from the 13th-century Chronica maiora, which forms part of the digitisation project


Pay a visit to the online edition of the Newsletter: www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/newsletter/

THE LAST LETTERS of Captain Scott and other artefacts of global importance have returned to public display with the reopening of the Polar Museum.

The museum at the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) – which also holds the expedition diaries of Sir Ernest Shackleton and the photographic records of Herbert Ponting – has undergone an 18-month transformation as part of a £1.75m redevelopment made possible by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The reopening, in the centenary year of Scott’s departure from Britain on the ill-fated Terra Nova expedition, marks the start of a two-year programme of events celebrating the polar explorer’s achievements in the Antarctic. Among items on display for the first time is a collection of Inuit art, thought to be the most comprehensive in the UK.

New displays will also showcase

Transformed polar museum reopens

THE OFFICE OF External Affairs and Communications has published a new series of leaflets called Cambridge&, aimed at informing visitors and other University stakeholders on key aspects of collegiate Cambridge. The series includes the University’s yearly Facts and Figures sheet, Cambridge& the way it works, Cambridge& its heritage, and Cambridge& its Colleges.

Printed copies can be requested from Communications Services (01223 339397) or downloaded from the University’s website.

The Office of External Affairs and Communications is also upgrading its online photo library. As well as offering access to a range of University-related images, approved users can upload their

own photos to the directory.

To find out about the wide

range of University events open to the

public, visit the What’s On website www.cam.

ac.uk/whatson, where you can also sign up

for the What’s On email newsletter.

www.cam.ac.uk

&facts and figures January 2010

Graduate employment

2007-08

2006-07

Employment

1,460 50.9%1,050 52.1%

Further studies

1,100 38.3%813 40.3%

Still seeking employment

155 5.4%

90 4.5%

Not available for employment

155 5.4%

64 3.2%

Total respondents

2,870 100.0%2,017 100.0%

2870 respondents represent 79% of the 3634 total graduates in 2007-08

2017 respondents represent 54% of the 3744 total graduates in 2006-07

Full time equivalent student load 2008-09

Total

UG

PGT

PGR

Total

(07-08)

Arts and Humanities

2,620

27

702

3,348

3,337

Humanities and Social Sciences

2,785

869

1,252

4,906

5,053

Physical Sciences

2,438

54

831

3,324

3,374

Technology

1,515

372

625

2,513

2,617

Biological Sciences

1,945

0

493

2,438

2,448

Clinical Medicine

490

22

298

811

733

Others

22

244

266

263

Continuing Education/CPI

(excluded from total)

329

13

342

483

Totals

11,816

1,3434,445

17,605

17,824

Consisting of:Home/EU students

10,559

866

2,781

14,206

14,268

Overseas students

1,258

477

1,665

3,399

3,555

University composition fees

£

£

£

(main rates)

2010-11

2009-102008-09

Home/EU undergraduates

1,310/3,3901,286/3,225

1,255/3,145

Home/EU postgraduates

3,459

3,390

3,300

Overseas Band 1

10,752

9,747

9,327

Overseas Band 2

14,073

12,76812,219

Overseas Band 3

26,025

23,63122,614

Headcount of staff

Jul-09

Jul-08Jul-07

Academic

1,590

1,638

1,604

Academic related

1,362

1,273

1,241

Contract research

2,874

2,773

2,691

Technical

1,168

1,113

1,089

Clerical and secretarial

1,539

1,500

1,483

Manual and domestic

502

510

506

Others

n/a

n/a

n/a

Total staff

9,035

8,8078,614

the work of scientists and explorers, many of whom have set off from SPRI. The institute’s continuing commitment to research is central to the museum and its ever-changing collection and displays.

SPRI was established in 1920 by Frank Debenham as a memorial to

Captain Scott and his companions. Debenham was a geologist on Scott’s British Antarctic Expedition on the Terra Nova from 1910 to 1913. He

new communications tools online

Resources on the web➔ Cambridge&:

www.cam.ac.uk/publications ➔ Photo library: http://photos.

admin.cam.ac.uk➔ What’s On:

www.cam.ac.uk/whatson➔ To access the University’s identity

guidelines and templates visit www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/communications/services

wanted a tribute to the national hero and to ensure Scott’s scientific work would continue.

The renovation and refurbishment have been funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Garfield Weston Foundation, the C Charitable Trust, the Foyle Foundation and many other private and corporate sponsors.

fInD oUT moRe

➔ The Polar Museum is open from 10am until 4pm, Tuesday to Saturday. It is closed on Bank Holiday weekends.

➔ For further details of current and planned exhibitions visit http://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/museum

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Captain Scott, photographed by Herbert Ponting, writing his journal. Inset: the explorer’s letter ‘To My Widow’. Both artefacts are held at SPRI

cambridgedesignstudio

Designs that comply with theidentity guidelines of theUniversity of Cambridgeinfo@cambridgedesignstudio.orgwww.cambridgedesignstudio.org


makIng a DIffeRenCe

stories of the seaThe discovery of a way to measure longitude revolutionised long-distance sea travel, but the institution that made it happen has all but disappeared from memory. Now Cambridge researchers are planning to tell the full story of the Board of Longitude for the first time

UNTIL ABOUT 1995, trying to start a discussion about longitude with a non-scientist was about as sensible as opening a discourse on the life and times of Coco Chanel with a bunch of Millwall football fans: often nobody was interested, and in many cases, nobody had a clue what you were talking about.

For many people, that all changed when the popular science writer Dava Sobel published her surprise bestseller, Longitude: the True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time.

The book was an astonishing success. It sold millions of copies worldwide, scaling the upper reaches of the New York Times non-fiction list, and went on to be named British Book of the Year in 1997. Suddenly this unlikeliest of subjects was adorning the coffee tables of the world’s

reading public, while its subject, John Harrison, had become a household name.

Harrison was the lone genius in question; a humble, self-educated English clockmaker who, by developing a marine timekeeper (later called the chronometer), devised an accurate method for ascertaining longitude – the measurement of how far east or west a ship was at sea. It was a remarkable achievement; not only because long-distance sea travel had often been lethal until that point, but also because generations of scientists far more eminent than Harrison had been baffled by the so-called ‘Longitude Problem’ that his timepieces solved.

Given the success of the book, you might be forgiven for wondering why researchers from Cambridge and the National Maritime Museum

are about to reopen the case of the Longitude Problem all over again. Led by Professor Simon Schaffer of the University’s Department of the History and Philosophy of Science, the team are planning to compile the first ever history of the British Board of Longitude.

This long-since defunct body was the institution that oversaw the 18th-century mission to measure longitude, which Harrison’s breakthrough effectively brought to a close. It was set up by the Longitude Act of 1714, and was charged with administering a prize of £20,000 (almost £3 million in modern money) to anyone who could solve the Longitude Problem.

But the project, which also forms the subject of a new film on Cambridge’s YouTube channel, is not just an attempt to revisit the brief history of Harrison’s timekeeping. While the clockmaker’s achievements have become common knowledge (even the Corpus Clock is a homage to his work), those of the board have largely disappeared from history.

Researchers believe this is an injustice, because the board was central to a whole series of breakthroughs, arguments, projects and schemes that continued long after Harrison had claimed his prize money and gone home. Not only that, but there is also a very good case for saying that this lone genius may not have

Suddenly, the unlikeliest of subjects was adorning coffee tables of the world’s reading public


been quite as much of a loner after all.“The board of Longitude has

had a pretty bad career in history, because it has either been forgotten or condemned,” says Schaffer.

Its creation was a turning point in British history but, after it was abolished in 1828, it was largely forgotten and its impact was never properly assessed.

“Part of the reason is that we still like to believe that we are a nation of enthusiastic amateurs like Harrison, making huge breakthroughs against the odds and in spite of a state hostile to scientific progress. In fact, we have a long history of state-sponsored ingenuity that made Britain into a military and technological world player. The board is, in many ways, that history. By writing it we want to change the narrative.”

The history of the board will be published in 2014, in time for the 300th anniversary of the Longitude Act. Schaffer and his colleagues hope to show how Harrison was one of an array of astronomers, inventors and craftspeople whose talents were harnessed and exploited by the board as it continued to sponsor innovations in science, exploration and industry, even after the Longitude Problem was solved.

From the beginning, the board had the discretion to support not just the pursuit of a means of measuring

longitude, but any sufficiently “promising” experimental work that might help along the way. Later, its remit widened further and it became involved with a wide range of scientific and maritime initiatives, including Captain Cook’s voyages of exploration, the worldwide survey of geomagnetism, the establishment of the first overseas state observatory and the search for a North-West passage.

Unique position Cambridge is in a unique position to lead the study, because the University Library holds the board’s papers; a vast archive of manuscripts, letters, log-books (including those of Captain Cook) and other documents that have never been systematically studied. They include invaluable material, ranging from climate records across the world, to reports of encounters between Europeans and other peoples.

The project will also examine a second archive: the internationally important collection of instruments and materials at the National Maritime Museum. This includes Harrison’s own timekeepers and, thanks to Sobel, attracts two million visitors a year.

While Harrison has been hugely important in popularising longitude, the team hope to rectify what they claim is a national myth that elevates his heroic

role at the expense of the whole truth.“One of the things we will be doing is

taking apart the timekeepers he made, which can give us an alternative version of the story,” Richard Dunn, curator of the History of Navigation at the Museum, says. “If you look inside the first clock, for example, it quickly becomes clear that several people were involved in making it. Clearly this wasn’t just a tale of a lone genius working by himself.”

For Schaffer, the project has a wider importance than just charting new historical waters. “Essentially the board represents the germs of our national science policy,” he says.

“The materials and correspondence it left behind is a window onto the cosmology of an entire class of people, and also onto the beginnings of government-sponsored science in Britain.

“State-backed science is still an issue that matters a lot now, whether it’s on stem cell research or climate change. We don’t always know whether to trust it, and we don’t know how to respond when scientists and the state fall out. If we can find out what worked as that relationship was beginning – and why – then we will have lessons to teach from the project we are starting now.”

The project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

fInD oUT moRe

➔ Further details on the project can be found at: http://www.nmm.ac.uk/researchers/research-areas-and-projects/board-of-longitude/

➔ The ‘Longitude Problem’, a University of Cambridge film, can be viewed on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/

Far left: a clip from the film ‘The Longitude Problem’. Above, clockwise: a clock made by John Harrison; a painting of the Cutty Sark by Gregory Robinson; an excerpt from Captain Cook’s journal; a naval timekeeper at the National Maritime Museum

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geTTIng pRaCTICaL

The long days of summer are the perfect time for children to get to know Cambridge better, and in June and July thousands of people will take advantage of the many (mostly free) events on offer. Here’s a round-up of some of the best activities across the University and city

get up,get involved

CambRIDge anD CoUnTy foLk mUseUm

The Cambridge and County Folk Museum will take a trip back to the 1960s this summer with themed activities and a ‘Summer of Love’ day on 17 July. This former inn is well worth visiting, with its collections of domestic and often workaday items charting the changing nature of everyday life in Cambridge and the surrounding area. Entrance charge for adults is £3.50, children £1 (with one free child admission with every adult).www.folkmuseum.org.uk/

bIobLITz

As part of the celebrations for the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity, Cambridge will host its first BioBlitz on 2 and 3 July, inviting scientists, students and members of the public to congregate on Coe Fen (right) for 24 hours to count as many species of plants and animals as possible. It’s a drop-in event and, alongside a range of hands-on activities, will offer birdspotting, bat walks, plant surveying, moth trapping, pond dipping, mini-beast hunts and lots more. The event is open to all but night-time activities must be booked in advance. For more details, go to: www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/communications/community/

sUmmeRDaze

Don’t miss drop-in activities across the city for children and families run as part of the Cambridge City Council’s SummerDaze programme. The scheme, run by the Children and Young People’s Participation Service, aims to organise ten free sessions on open spaces across Cambridge every day during the summer holiday. This year the University plans to contribute more than 25 sessions, ranging from junk musical instrument-making to rocket-building and medieval mayhem. For further information go to: www.cambridge.gov.uk/ccm/content/community-development/children-and-young-peoples-participation-service.en

boTanIC gaRDen


The long days of summer are the perfect time for children to get to know Cambridge better, and in June and July thousands of people will take advantage of the many (mostly free) events on offer. Here’s a round-up of some of the best activities across the University and city

get up,get involved

Don’t miss the chance to enjoy some of the community festivals happening around Cambridge this summer. Arbury Festival takes place on 12 June, Chesterton Festival on 26 June, and the Big Day Out on Parker’s Piece on 10 July. Cambridge University will have a stall at all three events.

CommUnITy fesTIvaLs

aRT foR aLL

It’s never too early to get into art, and this summer the Fitzwilliam Museum has hands-on activities for visitors aged 18 months upwards. Many of the events, including a writing workshop for adults led by Jackie Kay, will use the Maggi Hambling exhibition The Wave as inspiration. On 24 July, the museum’s lawns will play host to a free Outdoor Festival of Chinese Culture – including food, music, performance and calligraphy. Further details are available at www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/whatson/

keTTLe’s yaRD

There’s ample opportunity to enjoy getting messy with Creative Chaos at Kettle’s Yard. Aimed at pre-school children and their parents and carers, these sessions are held monthly with allocation on a first-come, first-served basis. Check out the Kettle’s Yard website for details of events for families, young people and adults. www.kettlesyard.co.uk

> see what’s onTo plan a day, or more, in and around the city and university, take a look at the What’s On section of the Cambridge University website at www.admin.cam.ac.uk/whatson/ > september datesImportant dates for your diaries are Open Cambridge on 10 and 11 September, Bridge the Gap charity walk on 13 September and, looking further ahead, the Festival of Ideas, which runs from 20 to 31 October.

FIND OUt MORE

Forget late night shopping – the Botanic Garden will be open until 8pm every first and third Wednesday of the month in June, July and August. You can even join a tour of the garden (leaving the Brookside Gate at 5.45 pm) and reserve a picnic in this 40-acre oasis. For further details of events, entry prices and how to book, phone (01223) 336265 or visit www.botanic.cam.ac.uk


behInD The sCenes

An idyllic spot in the Cambridgeshire countryside is home to a University department that carries out some of the most important work in the fields of art and art history

THINK BACK TO a time when you looked at an old painting and admired the skill that went into its creation. Maybe it was the authentic portrayal of evening light that pleased you, or the vivid use of colour, or the carefree confidence that lay behind strong, muscular brushstrokes.

But how had that painting, perhaps more than 500 years old, been brought to you in such fine condition? The chances were it had, at various moments during its lifetime, been restored by a conservator. And if the painting was hanging in the Fitzwilliam Museum or a National Trust

property, it might have been worked on at the Hamilton Kerr Institute.

The Hamilton Kerr Institute, based in the pretty village of Whittlesford, seven miles south of Cambridge, is one of the world’s leading centres for the teaching of, and research into, the conservation of paintings. It came to the attention of the British media recently with the secondment of one of its conservators, Marie-Louise Sauerberg, to Westminster Abbey, where she is working with colleagues to restore the 700-year-old Coronation Chair. A department of the

easel does it

Fitzwilliam, it undertakes work for the museum, the Royal Collection, a range of work in public and publicly shown collections, and private clients.

Conservators play a crucial role in maintaining the quality, integrity and lifespan of paintings. They also, through scrutiny of the work in front of them, and an understanding of particular periods in art history, add to the body of knowledge about the people who created them, and their cultural and social mores.

“When we examine paintings visually and technically, we discover how artists

“When we examine paintings visually and technically, we discover how artists achieved the effects they wanted”

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achieved the effects they wanted,” says Dr Spike Bucklow, Senior Research Scientist at the Hamilton Kerr. “Their materials and methods embody the economic and scientific state of the region and period they worked in.”

Spike and his colleague Mary Kempski, a conservator at the Hamilton Kerr, are sitting in the institute’s bucolic grounds explaining the attractions of their job. It soon becomes clear that conservation often sends them on elaborate forays into the artistic past, as they strive to retrace a painting’s movement through the centuries, or grasp the mindset of pre-Enlightenment societies.

Conversation moves to their collaborative work on the Thornham Parva Retable, the largest and most complete medieval altarpiece in Britain. It was found in pieces in a loft above a stable in 1927 and, soon afterwards, installed at the Church of St Mary in the Suffolk village that bears its name.

It first came to the Hamilton Kerr Institute in 1994, where research suggested it had been painted in the early 14th century for a priory in Thetford. When that building was dissolved in the Reformation, the retable was sawn up and taken by Catholics for private, and secret, worship. It then ducks under our historical radar for a couple of centuries, pops up at an auction in 1778, takes another 150-year detour, before resurfacing at the aforementioned stables.

fresh insightsFor Spike, working on the Thornham Parva Retable required an understanding of the thoughts, aspirations and artistic techniques of its creators, and he devoted much of his energies trying to understand how they viewed the world. “I became aware that I was taking 20th-century scientific techniques and applying them to a 14th-century object,” he says. “I found that I was imposing my view on it, and I didn’t want to do that. So I spent the next ten years teaching myself Aristotelian physics” – an endeavour that resulted in his book The Alchemy of Paint.

Spike and Mary’s work can also provide fresh insights that challenge entrenched views on art and artists. When two paintings by Hieronymus Bosch came to the institute from Petworth House and Upton House – both National Trust properties – X-rays revealed Bosch to have been “a workshop artist”. While this sounds like a demeaning phrase, it isn’t – it was quite common for artists to manage skilled craftsmen to help with their output.

Occasionally there are other surprises. “We have had things that have come through that are not what they have claimed to be,” says Spike. “Similarly, we encounter paintings that were thought to be by one artist but in fact turn out to be by someone else. We call that reattribution and, of course, things can be reattributed up as well as down.”

As one might imagine, there are plenty of artistic, practical and scientific skills that the conservator of paintings must master – filling in paint losses, cleaning, as well as the ability to execute structural repairs to frames and canvases. “You can’t let a student loose on an old master,” laughs Spike.

Conservators must also be able to make sound ethical judgements about

the paintings they work on, and the artistic repercussions of their interventions – or indeed non-interventions. This throws up the particularly thorny issue of value systems – and of course whose. When a painting is conserved, the intervention ‘freezes’ an aesthetic onto a historical object that continues to change. To put it another way, what satisfies us today may not please the viewers of tomorrow. For that reason, painting conservation takes great pains to enable future generations of conservators to undo work easily.

much-needed restoration Looking ahead, there are other challenges. As all publicly funded bodies await meaningful and targeted proposals concerning the state of the nation’s finances, there is a fear that fewer artistic treasures will benefit from much-needed restoration. Which artworks will be the lucky ones, and on what grounds? Are those grounds a fair way to assess the value of a painting today as well as for future generations? And as the case of the Thornham Parva Retable proves, some of this country’s most valuable paintings are held by communities, rather than institutions, that often lack the financial and strategic muscle to orchestrate large-scale conservation projects.

Mary and Spike talk about these issues with passion and enthusiasm, and it is clear that these are things all art-lovers should be concerned about. So the next time you come face to face with an old master, consider the journey it has taken. And offer a nod of appreciation to the conservators who have kept its beauty intact – for you and for those who follow you.

Iconic paintings conserved at the Hamilton Kerr InstituteClaude MonetPoplars, Fitzwilliam Museum, CambridgeRocks at Port-Coton, the Lion Rock, Belle-Île, Fitzwilliam Museum, CambridgeL’Allee des Rosiers a Giverny, privately ownedLa Maison a Travers les Rose, privately ownedFalaises près de Dieppe, privately owned

Hieronymus BoschAdoration of the Magi, Petworth House, West SussexAdoration of the Magi, Upton House, Warwickshire

tintorettoAllegory with Apollo, Kingston Lacy, Dorset


peopLe

obITUaRIes

appoInTmenTs ReTIRemenT

susan Rawlings worked at the Institute of Continuing Education (ICE) for more than 30 years, retiring from the post of Deputy Director at the end of March. A celebration of her contribution to the institute was held on 30 March at Madingley Hall, attended by more than 100 colleagues and friends from ICE, various University departments and Lucy Cavendish College, where she remains Praelector.

ICE Director Dr Rebecca Lingwood chaired proceedings, while Dr Kate Pretty, Principal of Homerton, and one of the University’s former Pro-Vice-Chancellors, thanked Susan for her service.

Former ICE Director Dr Mike Richardson spoke of Susan’s commitment to the institute’s work and her dedication to the development of Madingley Hall as an outstanding residential centre for students.

Barry Puddifoot retired on 1 April this year having worked for 38 years in the Department of Engineering. During this period he carried out work for many of the department’s teaching and research groups, frequently specialising in the manufacture of fine and highly detailed experimental apparatus.

Robin Milner, Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, held the first established Chair in Computer Science at the University of Cambridge. He worked at the Computer Laboratory in

Doug Crawford Brown has been appointed Executive Director of the Cambridge Centre for Climate Change Mitigation Research (4CMR). He joined the centre in April and will add depth to 4CMR’s research in the areas of risk assessment, environmental policy and epistemic analysis of science, as applied to climate change and sustainability for the built and natural environments.

Doug’s academic background is in Physics and Nuclear Science but he has more than 25 years experience in the environmental, energy and policy fields. He was, until recently, Professor in Environmental Sciences and Engineering and in Public Policy, and Director of the Institute for the Environment at the University of North Carolina.He is the author of 145 academic articles and five books, and has served on a wide variety of state, national and international commissions addressing diverse environmental and sustainability issues.

Edward Benthall is the new Chair of Cambridge Enterprise Limited. The appointment was made by the Cambridge Enterprise Board of Directors, and was approved by the University Council on

29 March. Mr Benthall, pictured above, is a partner at Charterhouse Capital Partners, a private equity firm based in London. He is also an active participant in the Cambridge business angel community through his membership of the Cambridge Capital Group. He read Modern and Medieval Languages at Magdalene College and is Chairman of the 800th Anniversary Campaign Council, a group of key volunteers whose support for collegiate Cambridge has helped the campaign to raise more than £940 million to date. Mr Benthall takes over from Lord Roger Freeman, who has served as Chair of Cambridge Enterprise since its incorporation in 2006.

Julie Bressor is the new Development Director at King’s College. Originally from Montpelier, Vermont, she came to King’s from the University of Buckingham where she was Director of Development. Prior to that she held senior management positions in development and alumni relations at Norwich University in Vermont. At King’s she works closely with the Provost, fellows, Development Board, King’s members and friends to raise funds in support of the college.

Cambridge from 1995 onwards, serving as Head of the Laboratory from 1996 until 1999. Before that, he worked at the University of Edinburgh from 1973 to 1994, where he was Founding Director of the Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science. He was awarded the AM Turing Award in 1991 by the Association for Computing Machinery, the highest honour in the field.

Robin, pictured left, played a leading role in establishing the mathematical foundations of the subject. His early research developed logics and techniques for reasoning about programs – to prove them correct in general rather than test them on particular inputs.

His next major contribution was in the design and mathematical definition of programming languages. His main focus, however, was the creation of theories of interacting computational

systems, composed of many parts acting concurrently. A greatly admired teacher and colleague, he gave the subject a collection of elegant and finely honed intellectual tools, reified in mathematics and software.

Malcolm Ruel, Clare Emeritus Fellow and retired lecturer in Social Anthropology, came to Downing in 1949 where he took Part 1 in English, followed by Part 2 in Anthropology. He returned to Cambridge in 1970 after periods of fieldwork in the former Cameroons and Kenya, and academic posts at the University of Edinburgh. He held a lectureship in what was then the Department of Social and Political Science, moving fully into the Department of Social Anthropology in 1985. A detailed obituary and filmed interview with Dr Ruel can be viewed at www.clare.cam.ac.uk/masters-office/malcolmruel.


pRIzes, aWaRDs anD honoURs

➔ Five Cambridge researchers have been elected fellows of the Royal Society: Professor Andrea Brand of the Gurdon Institute and Herchel Smith Professor of Molecular Biology; Professor Nicky Clayton from the Department of Experimental Psychology; Professor Ben Green of the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics; Professor Roger Hardie of the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience and Professor Max Pettini of the Institute of Astronomy. Also elected a fellow is Professor Michael Hastings of the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Professor Carl Djerassi, Honorary Graduate and Benefactor, is nominated for foreign membership.➔ The following have been elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences:sir David Baulcombe, Regius Professor of Botany at the University and Royal Society Research Professor, Department of Plant Sciences; William Bonfield, Emeritus Professor of Medical Materials; Anthony Holland, Professor in Developmental Psychiatry (Learning and Disability) in the Department of Psychiatry; Gordon smith, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology; and Maria Grazia spillantini, Professor of Molecular Neurology in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences.

Dr Helen Mason

Professor Andrea Brand

Dr Matthew Juniper

Dr Jim Duncan

Dr Andy Harter

Royal society fellows elected

➔ Dr Helen Mason, Assistant Director of Research at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, and Senior Tutor at St Edmund’s, has received a Woman of Outstanding Achievement accolade from the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology. Dr Mason received the award for her communication of science, engineering and technology. She said: “I feel proud that my academic and pastoral

recipients of the Human Frontier Science Program awards for 2010. He received a Program Grant award, made for novel collaborations among a team of scientists working in different countries. He will share the US$300,000 award with Anna-Katerina Hadjantonakis, of the Developmental Biology Program at the Sloan-Kettering Institute, New York, and Jeremy Gunawardena, of the Department of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School, Boston. ➔ Dr Matthew Juniper and Rolls Royce received the Environmental Technology Award at The Engineer magazine’s Technology and Innovation Awards at the Royal Society. They have jointly developed a software tool than can help in the design of cleaner jet engines.➔ Dr Remy Ware, group leader of the Ladybird Group in the Department of Genetics, has won the Royal Entomological Society’s award for best paper in the journal Ecological Entomology.➔ A team led by research student tanya Hunter comprising members of the Chemical Physics Group (Dr Lei su and Professor stephen Elliott) and the Centre for Advanced Photonics and Electronics (Dr Nikos Bamiedakis, Professor Ian White and Professor Richard Penty) has won £30,000 from the University’s CamBridgeSens Network. The award was made for the development of an integrated optical sensor for environmental monitoring and healthcare diagnostics.

other awards

student awards

business awards

➔ Jenny Gold has been awarded the Andrew Hill Clark Award by the Association of American Geographers Historical Geography Group for the best PhD paper.➔ Evelyn Landerer, of the Scott Polar Research Institute, has received the Frederick Soddy Award from the Royal Geographical Society/Institute of British Geographers.

Camsemi, a spin-out company from the Department of Engineering, has been awarded the 2009 Carbon Trust Innovation Award.RealVNC has been honoured with the Cambridge Business Excellence Award for Small Business of the Year 2010. The company was founded in 2002 as a University spin-out by Dr Andy Harter.

UKR

C

work has been acknowledged. One of the best things about working in science, engineering and technology is the great teams and sense of achievement that brings. I have been fortunate to have had many mentors who have supported me throughout my career.”➔ Professor shankar Balasubramanian, has been named Innovator of the Year by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council in recognition of his work on Solexa sequencing, a high-speed genome sequencing technology that is revolutionising bioscience. Professor Balasubramanian said: “I am delighted to accept the award and I do so on behalf of many people who have made important contributions at many stages of the Solexa project. I would particularly like to acknowledge my departmental colleague and co-inventor, Professor David Klenerman, with whom I co-founded Solexa in 1998.” ➔ John D Barrow, Professor of Mathematical Sciences within the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, has been awarded an Honorary DSc by the University of Sussex.➔ Keith Martin, Honorary Consultant in Ophthalmology at Addenbrooke’s and University Lecturer in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, has been awarded an AFER/Pfizer Ophthalmics/Carl Camras Translational Research Award for 2010. The award is made to a researcher in any branch of vision research who exhibits excellence in their work and has made a discovery or observation that has led to, or has the potential to lead to, clinical applications.➔ Dr Jim Duncan, Reader in Cultural Geography and Fellow of Emmanuel, has been awarded the Association of American Geographers Distinguished Scholarship Honors in Washington DC. AAG Honors are the highest awards offered by the association and are given annually to recognise outstanding accomplishments by members in research and scholarship, teaching, education, service to the discipline, public service and lifetime achievement.➔ Professor Mark Field has been awarded the CA Wright Memorial Medal by the British Society of Parasitology. Professor Field and his group study intracellular transport mechanisms in protozoan parasites to understand how they contribute to disease mechanisms, as well as for the identification of novel therapeutics and for evolutionary insight.➔ Alfonso Martinez-Arias of the Department of Genetics is one of the


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aDveRTIsemenTs

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PEOPLE’S PORTRAITS, the extraordinary collection of paintings of ordinary Britons at Girton College, is ten years old this year. To celebrate the anniversary, bestselling author PD James last month unveiled three additions to the collection: a Cornish fishmonger, a dinner lady from Lewisham, and a Manchester charity worker.

One of the new additions to the collection is a portrait of Marc Crank, Chief Executive of Henshaws North West, which was painted by Alastair Adams.

According to Adams: “As well as managing a charity that supports blind and partially sighted people, Marc regularly speaks about his experience of living with a facial disfigurement.”

The other new paintings are ‘Fishsale’, by Simon Davis, a portrait of Elaine Lorys, a fishmonger who works in Newlyn, Cornwall, and ‘Joy’ by Robin-Lee Hall.

Joy has worked as a cleaner and dinner lady at several schools in Lewisham, south London. Hall says of Joy: “She’s incredibly down to earth, takes things as they come, likes cakes and never complains. She has got up at 5am for work every weekday for 30 years.”

People’s Portraits has its roots in a millennium exhibition by the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, but is now on long-term loan to the college. From a scaffolder and a social worker, to farmers and the Fowey lifeboat crew, the collection is a unique slice of British life at the start of the 21st century.

According to Professor Susan J Smith,

The art of the everyday

Mistress of Girton: “The portraits remind us of the richness of everyday life, of what being human is all about. They are full of emotional energy and are testimony to the poignancy, dignity and industry of their varied sitters.

“We love having the portraits at Girton. They are on permanent display and open to the public.”

fInD oUT moRe

➔ The exhibition is free and open daily between 2 and 4pm. It may be viewed at other times by phoning (01223) 338999.➔ To view some of the paintings online, visit http://www.girton.cam.ac.uk/about/peoples-portraits-exhibition/

A much-loved exhibition that explores the richness of the human condition looks back on a decade of success

Top left: the Fowey lifeboat crew.Above: Fishwale by Elain Lorys. Both are paintings are People’s Portraits, Girton.

Icelandic volcano fails to cloud 2010 mere sermonAN EVENT THAT felt the effects of the recent volcanic ash cloud was Mere’s Commemoration in St Bene’t’s Church on Tuesday, 20 April, with the Vice-Chancellor and appointed preacher being stranded overseas.

Such a longstanding occasion could hardly be abandoned, so a text by The Very Reverend Dr Christopher Lewis, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, was emailed from New York and delivered by the Senior Proctor, The Reverend Jeremy Caddick. Mr Duncan Robinson, Master of Magdalene, attended as Deputy Vice-Chancellor.

This sermon, which takes place on the first day of Easter Full Term, fulfils conditions in the will of John Mere, once Registrary and Esquire Bedell, and a member of King’s and Corpus Christi colleges. When Mere died in 1558, his will stipulated that a sermon be preached in his memory and that certain officials should receive money from his bequest if they attended. He also set out particular subjects for the preachers, including daily preparation for death and the obedience due to tutors by their pupils.

Those officials receiving what are now rather small sums (in old money) from Mere’s benefaction are the preacher, the Vice-Chancellor, the Registrary, the Proctors, the Orator, the Esquire Bedells, the Marshal, the Bell-ringer and also the Vicar and Clerk of the Parish. The remaining money is given to six residents of the almshouses of St Anthony and St Eligius. Before the sermon, flowers are placed on Mere’s grave outside the church porch.

Corpus Christi, which is patron of the Parish of St Benet’s and helps to select the preachers, hosts a reception for the congregation afterwards, at which Madeira and seed cake are served.

Mere’s preacher is one of seven appointed by the University each year, the others preaching on Sundays in Great St Mary’s, two per term, with a wine-reception in Michaelhouse afterwards. All are welcome and matriculated members of the University should wear gowns.

Above: attendeees at the 2010 Mere Commemoration Service pay their respects at John Mere’s grave at St Bene’t’s Church. Below: Madeira and seed cake were enjoyed at the reception afterwards

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Staff Newsletter - June/July 2010