Principal’s Blog: 17th August 2020

Good news stories:I am delighted to lead this blog with several good news stories.

Firstly, we celebrate excellent FHS Results which constitute a college record. The details are here.

Secondly, many congratulations to Elspeth Garman, Senior Golding Fellow who has been chosen to receive a prestigious award the Suffrage Science awards for women working in the Life Sciences. Professor Garman will be honoured at a special event on Friday 6 November 2020.

Thirdly, our emeritus Fellow Bryan Birch has been awarded the Sylvester Medal from The Royal Society. His work was cited as playing a major role in driving the theory of elliptical curves.

Fourthly, our first year law student Bryony Toon has been selected for the Office of Students Student Panel from a field of nearly 900 applicants:

Videos:Like me, you are probably watching more videos than normal. I recommend this wonderful film about one of our new Fresher students

Please also watch our brilliant Leavers video which can be found at www.bnc.ox.ac.uk/leavers where I appear alongside Sir Michael Palin, Rajan Dattar and Mark Williams.

We are also delighted that Archbishop Josiah Idowu-Fearon – the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion has agreed to pre-record a sermon for us on 1st November.

Miscellany:I have been reading Going Dark: The Secret Social Lives of Extremists by Julia Ebner; the Room Where It Happens by John Bolton former US National Security Adviser; Lord Hopes Supreme Court diaries; Disraeli by David Cesarani; Malcolm Turnbulls autobiography A Bigger Picture; Ernest Bevin: Labours Churchill by Andrew Adonis and Twilight of Democracy: The Failure of Politics and the Parting of Friends by Anne Applebaum. I recommend them all.

Keep well.