Welcome to the 2026 edition of the Selwyn

The thread running through this issue is what we have inherited from others and what we choose to pass on. From the postcards from Selwyn's past to what our remarkable contributors believe our legacy to the world might be.

Each year, students, Fellows and staff arrive with fresh ideas and ambitions, while drawing on traditions, institutions and knowledge from those who came before them. Selwyn has always evolved, yet remains recognisably itself because each generation chooses what is worth preserving and what must change.

In these pages, Philippa Browning reflects on a physics career that began in 1976 and the challenges the next generation will grapple with. Moz Thomas takes an optimistic view of AI, while James He explains what led him to establish a scholarship. Hannah White considers what our constitutional machinery inherited from a two-party world and why it is now under strain. Elsewhere, Grace Grandfield recounts the discovery of Viking remains, while a photographic spread celebrates sporting achievement across the College. In Views from the River, our Bursar and Selwyn Boat Club president reflect on their experiences as coxes decades apart, exploring what has changed on the Cam and what remains reassuringly familiar. 

There is also inheritance of a quieter kind: the GP who led a team to create a life-saving project; our Tutorial Office Manager, whose 26 years of service shaped the experience of thousands of students; and three members of our Fellowship whose work approaches questions of inheritance from very different perspectives.

We are especially grateful to Professor Janet O’Sullivan, who steps down as Vice Master after ten years of outstanding service. Throughout that decade she has been a wise adviser to the Master and, during the pandemic, a key member of the team that kept the College steady and safe. She has also enriched Selwyn life more broadly: founding the Selwyn Voices community choir, creating a successful apprenticeship programme for people with special needs and chairing the 2024 Mastership election with great care and grace. We are delighted that she will continue as Director of Studies and as a gifted teacher of law. 

Janet’s dedication to the College reminds us that the most enduring legacies are found in the people who shape a community and inspire those who follow them.

We hope you enjoy what follows.

Suzanne Raine MBE, Master 

Magazine Editors Isabel Cockayne (imc41@cam.ac.uk) and Tabby Taylor-Buck

Print Design Smith (www.smithltd.co.uk)

Digital Design Thisath Ranawaka