Members of the college 2011 year group returned to Cambridge on Saturday April 7^th to take part in an MA graduation ceremony. They processed along the traditional route from Selwyn to the Senate House, where the degrees were conferred by the Master acting as vice-chancellor’s deputy. Our photo shows some of the graduands just before they set out.

Later there was a crowded Hall for a dinner celebrating our new MAs.

You can read more about Cambridge MAs on the university website: https://www.cambridgestudents.cam.ac.uk/your-course/graduation-and-what-next/cambridge-ma

The college hosted an event in Los Angeles at the end of March, at which Roger Mosey spoke about current issues in News and journalism as they affect Britain, the United States and the wider world. The gathering was a unique collaboration between Selwyn and three organisations: the University of Southern California’s Center on Public Diplomacy; the Los Angeles branch of BAFTA; and Cambridge in America.

The homepage photograph shows the Master with Professor Jay Wang of USC; the British consul general in Los Angeles Michael Howells; and Chantal Rickards, CEO of BAFTA LA.

A number of California-based Selwyn alumni were in the audience and asked questions in the session after the talk.

It was followed by a reception hosted by Cambridge in America for alumni from across the university.

Photos courtesy of USC by Seth Hancock

Many congratulations to our director of music Sarah MacDonald, who has been honoured as an Associate of the Royal School of Church Music. It's an award for achievements in church music and/or liturgy of national significance.

The citation reads: "Sarah MacDonald directs the chapel music of Selwyn College, Cambridge, and the girls' choir at Ely Cathedral. She has raised the profile of both, and championed unfamiliar repertory and young composers in her recording projects, as well as encouraging and influencing a body of church musicians early in their careers. As a Canadian, she fosters links across the Atlantic."

We’re pleased to announce that the Selwyn choir, with Sarah conducting, will be touring in the UK this summer. The main events will be:

Wed 11 July – St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street, LONDON (concert, 7pm)

Thu 12 July -- NEWCASTLE Cathedral (Evensong, 5.30pm)

Fri 13 July -- BRADFORD Grammar School (Concert, 7.30pm)

Sat 14 July -- MANCHESTER Cathedral (Concert, 7.30pm)

Sun 15 July -- MANCHESTER Cathedral (Eucharist, 10.30am; Evensong, 5.30pm)

Mon 16 July -- GLASGOW St Aloysius RC Church (Concert, 7.30pm)

Wed 18 July -- EDINBURGH St John's Princes Street (Concert, 7.30pm)

Please hold the dates, and there will be more information nearer the time.

The Selwyn men’s hockey team has reached the final of this year’s Cambridge Cuppers knock-out tournament. It’s a rare achievement for the college to make it this far in the competition.

The men beat Jesus College 1-0 in the semi-final, and you can read a match report on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/Selwyn.College.Cambridge. They will now go on to play St Catharine’s College in the final, which will take place next term.

The college announces with deep sadness the death of its Fellow, Professor Kenneth Wallace.

Professor Wallace was a Fellow for 40 years. During that time he won the respect of colleagues and students alike as a gifted engineer, an excellent teacher – and a man of considerable charm, warmth and genuine modesty.  

Ken was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1944. He took his undergraduate degree at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, and he worked in the aero-engine division of Rolls Royce and at Oxford Polytechnic before being appointed lecturer in engineering design at Cambridge in 1978. It was then that he became a Fellow of Selwyn.

In the college, he was a supervisor and a tutor – and a colleague whose wise counsel was much valued. In the university he co-ordinated the setting up of the Engineering Design Centre and was its first director. In 1999 he was appointed Reader in Engineering Design, and he became a Professor in 2001. He had been elected in 1991 as a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers; in 1994 a Fellow of the Smallpeice Trust and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering Designers; in 1999 a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering; and in 2007 an Honorary Fellow of the Design Society. In 2011 he received an Honorary Doctorate (HonDEng) from Brunel University.

Ken was married to Annette, and they have two daughters. His life outside academia was rich and varied, encompassing swimming, mountain biking and windsurfing – and a prolific amount of home-brewing. He and Annette were regular attenders at the college chapel.

We will miss him greatly, and we extend our deepest sympathy to his family and friends. 

This announcement has been made by his family:

Ken’s funeral will be held at the West Chapel, Cambridge City Crematorium, CB3 0JJ on Wednesday 28 March at 2.15 pm. All are welcome.

Light refreshments will be available afterwards - details will be in the service sheet.

There will be family flowers only but donations, in lieu of flowers, can be made to either Addenbrookes Charitable Trust Fund or Arthur Rank Hospice Charity by contacting our Funeral Director, Peasgood and Skeates, 617 Newmarket Road, Cambridge, CB5 8PA. Tel: 01223 415255. Donations can also be made via ’Ken’s in Memory profile’ which can be found at:

The college is delighted to announce that the distinguished journalist and broadcaster Frank Gardner OBE will give this year’s Ramsay Murray lecture. Mr Gardner is the BBC’s security correspondent, and also a best-selling author. You can read more about his life on his website: http://www.frankgardner.co.uk/.

His title for the lecture will be ‘Behind the headlines in the Middle East’. The Ramsay Murray lecture is an annual prestigious event at Selwyn, and previous speakers have included Professor Amanda Vickery, Sir Michael Howard, Sir Keith Thomas, Professor Ian Clark, Ms Bridget Kendall, Professor Lawrence Freedman, Baroness Onora O’Neill, Professor Niall Ferguson and Professor David Cannadine.

This year’s lecture will be on Friday May 11^th on the Sidgwick site, and further information will be available nearer the time.

In the year that we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the extension of voting rights to some women, here's a portrait of one of the great Selwyn figures involved in the suffrage movement.

(Mary) Kathleen Lyttelton was a co-founder of the Cambridge Women's Suffrage Association in 1884, and she worked closely with her friend Millicent Fawcett. Kathleen took on a national role in the campaign for women's votes and she was president of the National Union of Women Workers. After the death of her husband Arthur, the first Master of Selwyn, she became editor of the women's pages of the Guardian, a weekly journal. There she nurtured women writers, including Virginia Woolf.

Kathleen died in 1907 without ever being allowed the right herself to vote; but she made a major contribution to the campaign. Later this year, the college will be announcing plans to recognise her achievements.

Arthur Lyttelton was also a strong supporter of women’s right to vote. The involvement of both Lytteltons in the campaign meant that a number of meetings in support of women’s suffrage were held in Selwyn, shortly after the college’s foundation. The traditions continued. In 1913 the Master of Selwyn, then the Rev John Murray, conducted a devotional service for suffragists in Cambridge as part of the movement to change the law.

Remembering greatness: a plaque was unveiled in Westminster Abbey on February 1st commemorating our former Master Owen Chadwick and his brother Henry.

They were both priests. They were both heads of House: Owen at Selwyn, and Henry at Christ Church in Oxford and then at Peterhouse in Cambridge. They were both scholars and authors of considerable distinction, and became Regius Professors. Owen was a member of the Order of Merit, and both were knighted. The college is therefore delighted that they will be remembered together in the Abbey - along with so many other famous figures from British history.

Among those attending the ceremony were Andre Chadwick, Owen's daughter; and the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, a Selwyn alumnus.

The Westminster Abbey news release can be read here: https://www.westminster-abbey.org/press/news/2018/february/memorial-to-chadwick-brothers-dedicated

Selwyn Fellow Dr James Keeler is one of the authors of the latest
edition of a key textbook for student chemists. Atkins' Physical
Chemistry is acknowledged by students and lecturers around the
globe to be the textbook of choice for studying physical chemistry, and
it’s now being published in its 11th edition.

James tells us: "At the start of the month I was very pleased to
receive from the publisher (OUP) copies of the book I’ve been
working on for the last two years. It’s an undergraduate text
which is used widely in the UK, the rest of Europe, and in North
America. The first edition came out when I was an undergraduate in
Oxford, and since then the book has developed edition-by-edition by
Professor Peter Atkins, and then latterly with his co-author Professor
Julio de Paula. I have joined them as the junior co-author for the 11th
edition. Getting up to speed with such a large book and with two very
experienced co-authors has been a hard job, but ultimately very
rewarding. It's immensely gratifying to finally have the book in my
hand, and I am honoured to be part of the author team for this
well-known text.

“I've also been working on a solutions manual to go with the
text together with a team of recent graduates, including two Selwyn
members Stephanie Smith (now a Teaching Fellow in the Department, and
Bye Fellow of Pembroke College) and Aimee North.  We have not quite
finished this huge task as yet, but are almost there."

src="/sites/default/files/assets/news/keelerbook-510x.jpg"
width="510" />

Another new face in the college for 2018: Dr Kirsty McDougall joins us as admissions tutor for the arts and social sciences. She will become part of the team which manages our outreach programmes and selects new undergraduates, working alongside the science admissions tutors Dr Daniel Beauregard and Dr Stuart Eves.

Kirsty comes from a similar position at Clare College, and her academic subject is Linguistics. We offer her our customary warm welcome to Selwyn.