Selwyn's Novice Women rowers came second in Division 1 at this year's Emma Sprints. The crews row in fancy dress, and Selwyn opted for the Von Trapp family look. Our correspondent on the Cam tells us:

“In fabulous fancy dress, we stormed our first three races, winning all of them by over two boat lengths. An unfortunate technical issue in the final straight meant Fitz gained a length on us, and although we put in a determined performance and closed the gap considerably it wasn't quite enough to win.”

Many congratulations to those involved for a very promising performance. You can read more about the Boat Club’s activities on their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/SelwynCollegeBC/?fref=ts
 

Selwyn College is pleased to announce that its former student Tom Hollander has been elected as an Honorary Fellow by the Governing Body. Tom, who came to the College to read English in 1985, has had a distinguished acting career. This year he was named the Royal Television Society Best Actor for his portrayal of Dylan Thomas in ‘A Poet In New York’; and he won considerable acclaim for the BBC comedy series ‘Rev’ which he co-created. His film roles run from the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ series through ‘In The Loop’ and ‘Gosford Park’ – and he has also starred on the stage and on radio. He will soon appear on BBC Television in ‘The Night Manager’, written by John Le Carré and co-starring another Selwyn alumnus, Hugh Laurie. Tom Hollander regularly returns to Cambridge, and he was one of the speakers at the 2015 Selwyn English Society dinner. We offer him many congratulations on his Honorary Fellowship.

All Selwyn’s first year undergraduates are invited to a series of informal dinners in
the Master’s Lodge during their early weeks in College. It’s a chance for students to talk to the Master and
some of their tutors or directors of studies about how they’re finding life at Selwyn, and it also
enables different subject groups to have a lively conversation with food and drink supplied. Our
picture shows some recent visitors with the Master, Roger Mosey; and this group was made up
predominantly of students studying medicine or veterinary medicine, with the addition of one
economist.

Selwyn's sports day for Old Boys and Girls took place in late October, and pitted past generations against current students. There were contests in football, rugby, hockey and netball; and, as our photo from the hockey shows, the events took place in the friendliest of atmospheres.

There was also a group who took to the river, and you can read their account at https://selwynrowing.wordpress.com/2015/11/01/selwyn-alumni-go-for-a-paddle/. More photographs from the day can be found on the College Flickr account, https://www.flickr.com/photos/selalum/albums/72157660706555971.

The artist Monika Beisner visited the College on Tuesday October 27^th to show her spectacularly beautiful illustrations of Dante’s ‘Paradise’. There was also a round-table discussion between the artist and Cambridge Dante scholars Robin Kirkpatrick, Heather Webb and Katherine Powlesland. Professor Kirkpatrick read from his Penguin Classics translation of Dante's 'Divine Comedy'. The event attracted a large attendance, and our photograph shows Ms Beisner (left) with Selwyn Fellow and Italian specialist Dr Heather Webb.

The Master of Selwyn, Roger Mosey, was interviewed by John Humphrys of the Today programme at an
event in London on Tuesday October 20^th. The session covered Roger’s recent book about the BBC,
’Getting Out Alive’. It took place at Hatchards bookshop in Piccadilly, and a number of Selwyn
alumni came along. The author’s proceeds from book sales are being donated to student support at
the College.

Marcos Gallego Llorente (SE 2013) has, as part of his PhD research, helped to lead a pioneering project into the genetic history of humans in Africa. This is the first time a complete assemblage of DNA has been retrieved from an ancient human in Africa and the paper, which was published in ‘Science’, has already garnered significant interest in the scientific community and more widely. Congratulations to Marcos and his colleagues on the success of their research. There’s more about it at

https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/ancient-genome-from-africa-sequenced-for-the-first-time

Selwyn’s new undergraduate and graduate students have been formally admitted to the College and to the University of Cambridge. The matriculation ceremonies took place on Friday October 2^nd and Monday October 5^th, and they were followed by the traditional photograph in Old Court. After the glorious autumn weather of the weekend which greeted our students, the pictures were taken in rather gloomier weather – but the rain held off. We wish all our new students success in their studies and in their new life here at Selwyn.

You can see a range of photographs from undergraduate matriculation day at https://www.flickr.com/photos/selalum/sets/72157659507200591

The latest edition of Selwyn magazine includes the story of Jon Reynolds (pictured), who started as a student at Selwyn in 2004, and his role in one of the leading technology start-ups in Europe. Along with Joe Braidwood (also SE 2004), he developed SwiftKey – the app that helps your smartphone keyboard to become more intuitive and intelligent. SwiftKey is now available on an estimated half a billion phones worldwide, and the company has 150 employees in London, San Francisco, Seoul, Hong Kong and New Delhi. Other Selwynites from the 2004 year group have played a major role, including Joe Osborne, Chris Carr and Alex Nixon.

To read more about SwiftKey, including how it has supported Professor Stephen Hawking’s speech technology, have a look at our newsletter online at http://www.selwynalumni.com/publications.

The new edition of the “Selwyn” magazine includes the latest news from the college, and items about the activities of alumni at home and abroad. Its cover story features the work of Joanne Beale (SE 2005) who is working to improve water supplies, hygiene and sanitation in Mozambique. She is there with her husband Andrew Beale (also SE 2005) who is mentoring academics and researchers in the country.

Joanne tells us about the battle to reduce the terrible child mortality rates in Mozambique; and how she harnesses the leadership of local volunteers to get out the message about health standards and the importance of clean water. The project has been supported in recent months by donations from those attending Selwyn Chapel. Our homepage photo shows one of the simple taps that are being installed near to latrines to improve hygiene; and Joanne is pictured below advising people how to put right a pump that had not been working for 15 years.

Elsewhere in the newsletter, the subjects include the legal battle around the WikiLeaks disclosures by Edward Snowden; the quest for new generation lighting; and the Selwynites who are transforming the way we write on mobile devices. Paper copies are currently being distributed, or you can read the magazine online here along with our other publications:

http://www.selwynalumni.com/publications