A Selwyn alumna has become the first member of the college this decade to receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Cambridge. Sophie Wilson is seen as one of the foremost computer scientists of her generation.
Sophie, who is already an honorary fellow of Selwyn, was recognised at a ceremony in the Senate House on June 21st. The previous evening, the college gave a dinner for her; and she is photographed, front left, with the Master and Fellows.
Sophie is now Senior Technical Director and Fellow at Broadcom. As an undergraduate she developed what would form Acorn System 1, a microcomputer which was Acorn’s first product. In 1981, the BBC commissioned her to design a more advanced microcomputer, the BBC Micro, which allowed schools across the UK to introduce children to writing their own software and for which she designed and wrote BBC BASIC. In 1985 she co-created the Acorn RISC Machine Processor, now an integral part of items such as smartphones and broadband routers. Used in Apple’s first personal assistant, Newton, Apple products still feature it today.
You can read more about all the honorary doctorates here: https://www.cam.ac.uk/news/honorary-degrees-2017