News Articles

The College held its annual lunch for parents on Saturday March 14th, to coincide with students getting ready to go home for the Easter vacation. The parents invited were those with undergraduates in their first year, and almost 200 people had lunch in the College Hall.

The Master, Roger Mosey, explained the reason for the event in a short speech at the end of the lunch: "We want to thank you for the support you've given to your students over the years. Parents are very much part of this community, and we're looking at more ways in which we can involve parents and families in what we do. It's partly that family involvement strengthens us all: to use a political phrase, we're all in this together. We don't want the feeling that your student goes off to somewhere you never see, and emerges as part of some kind of club from which feel the rest of the family feels excluded. It's partly because it's just a good thing to do: my own parents would have absolutely loved to have lunch in my Oxford college, but this would have been unheard of in the 1970s. What we also hope today is that this will help you fly the flag for Selwyn - so that you can tell people in your wider family or neighbourhood, or in schools your other children might go to, that this is a good place and one you'd recommend. "

Selwyn Fellow David Newland, an emeritus professor in engineering, will be giving a public talk in the Engineering Department
on Friday, March 13th.

The subject is centrifugal vibration absorbers and some applied mechanics history, which is explained as follows. "To meet
emission targets, car engines have become smaller and more highly-powered than they used to be. Lighter engines are more
prone to vibration and that has led to the introduction of centrifugal pendulum vibration absorbers to reduce noise and wear.
The history and design of these curious devices will be described. Current problems with their use as a component of
dual-mass flywheels (a standard part of most modern cars) will be discussed and recent research results described. The talk
will include extracts from a video of the late Professor Den Hartog of MIT lecturing on this subject in the 1970s."

Full details of the talk, timing and venue can be found at href="http://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/57107">http://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/57107

It’s been a particularly successful period for some of the College’s sports teams, and for a number of individual students. The Selwyn men’s first XI football team (pictured below) won the University Cuppers Plate competition, with a tightly-fought 1-0 victory over Emmanuel College in the final. The team was: Matt Sullivan (c), Keir Baker, Jonny Dodd, Joe Hudson, David Alam, Simon Fox, Lawrie Wigham, Ryan Jenkinson, Dave Hawes, Alex Thompson, Lewis Ball, Sam Lumley, Luke Diana, Harvey Roweth. 

In Varsity matches: Selwyn’s Katie Holmes, as president of the University women’s rugby team, led Cambridge to a comprehensive 47-0 win over Oxford at Grange Road on March 7th. Also in the Cambridge team was the College’s Helen Lambert. In netball, the Cambridge teams won all three of their matches against Oxford the previous weekend, with Selwyn’s Frances Lee Barber, Nicky Taylor and Emily Coulter in the university first team. The photograph below shows a victorious Emily (left) with the Cambridge president and vice-captain.

In the Varsity men’s water polo, Selwyn’s Ian Cooper (below) played in the Cambridge team that had a last-minute 9-8 win over Oxford.

Elsewhere in College sport: the Selwyn men’s football second team clinched back-to-back promotions with a perfect league record. They played nine and won nine. Congratulations to the team: Ferenc Nadori, Ken Au (C), Dan Jollans, Zsolt Hofstadter, Willem Zwetsloot, Sungwoo Jeon, Tiago Silva, Luke Diana, Marius Ptaszny, Parris Sammut, Clayton Gillespie, Lance Mao, Dan Madridejos, Sam Raby, and Dan Eastment.

In College rugby, the men’s Selwyn-Peterhouse team have reached the semi-final of the Cuppers competition after a 59-0 thrashing of Homerton College. 

You can keep in touch with all Selwyn Sport on our dedicated Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SelwynSport

The students who took part in this year’s Telephone Campaign to raise funds for the College have been celebrating a successful outcome. A total of £209,000 was raised, and Selwyn would like to thank all the alumni and friends who made contributions.

As a mark of appreciation to the students for their work, they had a day at www.wildtracksltd.co.uk – courtesy of alumnus John Gorst, who owns the venue. In the afternoon there was a "Battlefield Live" experience, described as a muddier version of laser-tag. The photograph above shows our team preparing for action, with Development team members Giovanni Zappia and Andrew Flather. The morning had been occupied by Karting, with kitting out shown below.

The College is seeking to raise £1m towards the cost of a new Boathouse. The existing building is no longer fit for purpose, and work will begin shortly to create a new home for Selwyn rowers – along with the crews from King’s and Churchill Colleges and the Leys School. The College has a proud history of rowing, including some of its former students winning Olympic Gold Medals; but it also encourages participation in sport from people of all abilities. You can read the brochure that has been sent to rowing alumni at http://issuu.com/ciconiltd/docs/selwyn_combined_colleges_boathouse?e=7278733/11129493. Please note that this link takes you away from the Selwyn website, and you’ll need to use the ‘back’ button to return. If you’d like to donate to the appeal, you can do so at https://www.selwynalumni.com/sslpage.aspx?pid=298 or by printing out the form at the end of the brochure.

Selwyn has a strong contingent in the Cambridge team that will take on Oxford in this year’s Netball Varsity Match. Four of our students (pictured below) are in the Cambridge squad. Representing the Light Blues will be Frances Lee-Barber (1^st year economist), Nicola Taylor (2^nd year natural scientist) and Emily Coulter (3^rd year theologian and club captain). Becky Haggie, a 3^rd year medic, is in the University seconds. The matches will take place at the University Sports Centre on Sunday, March 1^st, and supporters are welcome. The timings are: Swallows (3rds) at 9.30am; Jays (2nds) at 11.30am; and Blues (1sts) at 1.30pm.

Selwyn’s Professor Sir Colin Humphreys will be giving a public lecture in Cambridge about the next generation of LED lighting on Monday February 9th. Titled “Lighting the future”, it will take place at 6pm in the Bristol-Myers-Squibb lecture theatre in the Department of Chemistry. Sir Colin is Professor and Director of Research in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, and a Fellow of Selwyn.

He describes his theme:

“Gallium nitride is a remarkable new man-made material which is arguably the most important new material since silicon. Its use in LED lighting has the potential to save 10-15% of all the electricity we use. Research on low-cost GaN LED lighting by my group is currently being exploited by Plessey who are manufacturing such low-cost LEDs in the UK. GaN also has low energy consumption for power electronic devices, which could save another 10% of electricity use. Deep-ultra-violet LEDs made from GaN can kill all viruses and bacteria, hence have huge potential for water and air purification, which could save millions of lives in the developing world. Finally, lighting using optimised GaN LEDs really could improve not only our health but also students' exam results!”

This is a public event, and more details can be found at http://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/53971

Later in the week, on Friday February 13th, Dante is the theme of an event being held at the College. Hosted by Selwyn Fellow Dr Heather Webb, it will look at theology and society in the age of Dante with distinguished speakers from Italy and the UK. Again, all are welcome to attend. Click on the image below for full details.

Selwyn’s football teams have achieved success on the pitch despite tough tests from their opponents and from
the weekend’s wintry weather. The men’s team is through to the final of the Cuppers Plate, after beating
Queens’ College 2-1 in a close semi-final. The match went to extra time, but victory for Selwyn was sealed by this
penalty:

The women’s team representing Selwyn and Robinson Colleges, and pictured below, came out 3-0 winners over
Emmanuel. SRWFC produced their best performance of the season so far against a strong Emma team, producing a great win in
adverse weather conditions. Players of the match were judged by our reporter to be Charlotte Diss for her hard work and
strength at the back, and Hayley Johnson for her unrelentingly high work rate in the midfield.

For information on Selwyn.s full range of sport, have a look at our college sport Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/SelwynSport?fref=ts

The actor Tom Hollander visited Selwyn on Friday January 23rd to attend a dinner for students currently studying English. Tom was a student here, reading English, in the 1980s; and since then he has received considerable acclaim for his performances on stage, television and in film. His best known roles include starring in “Rev” on BBC Two, which he helped create, and playing Lord Cutler Beckett in the movie series “Pirates of the Caribbean”. He was joined by another distinguished Selwyn English graduate, Professor Juliet John who is the Hildred Carlile Chair in English at Royal Holloway College, University of London. Others attending the Selwyn dinner included Dr Jean Chothia, who was Tom’s director of studies when he was at the College, and some of today’s undergraduate and graduate students in English.

We learned today, with deep regret, that Ann Dobson has died. Ann and her husband Chris provided almost all the funding for
the first two phases of the College’s masterplan for expansion; and Ann’s Court is named in her honour. The Master of
Selwyn, Roger Mosey, said: "This and future generations of students will be enormously grateful to Ann Dobson, along with
Chris, for the wonderful buildings and excellent accommodation they enjoy. At this time of sadness, we’re proud that the
Court will continue to bear her name." The College sends its condolences to Chris Dobson, an honorary Fellow of
Selwyn, and to Ann’s family and friends.

Ann Dobson at the topping-out ceremony for Ann’s Court, accompanied by her husband Chris and former Master Richard
Bowring.