Somerville College

"Somerville JRF Named One of 30 Best Young Climate Scientists in the World" 🎉🎉🎉 Huge Somerville congratulations 🎉🎉🎉 to our Junior Research Fellow Dr Andy S. Anker, who has just been named one of the world’s 30 best young climate scientists at the inaugural Inflection Award. The Inflection Award is the world’s first-ever award dedicated to celebrating early-career scientists working on solutions to climate change. Dr Anker was recognised for his groundbreaking research in integrating machine learning and robotics within a self-driving laboratory - full story here: https://lnkd.in/eZPPzF7U #inflectionaward2025 #ClimateChange #climatechangeresearch

Two Somervillian journalists have together won half the available awards in this year’s Geddes Student Journalism Prizes, which are awarded annually to the University's top student journalists. Second-year Somerville historian @Sam Martin (2023, History) won the Clive Taylor Prize for Sports Journalism, while her fellow historian and current finalist Flora Prideaux (2022, History) won the inaugural Paddy Coulter Prize for Opinion Journalism. Read the full story here: https://lnkd.in/erqd_zqq

We were honoured to have four of our Honorary Fellows in College on Friday to mark International Women's Day. Afua Kyei, Dame June Raine, Dame Elan Closs Stephens, and Farhana Yamin spoke to our current students about their time at Somerville, their careers, and the work towards equality that remains to be done. This special event was chaired by our JCR and MCR Women's Officers, Millie Kennedy and Aparajita Kaul.

We are so impressed by the work of our students and recent graduates Madelina Gordon, Sumaya Wagad, Cameron Hodgkinson and Robert Foreman who have published this article with Hussam Hussein in Big Data and Cognitive Computing MDPI. The article critically examines the expanding body of literature on ChatGPT, and was written based on internship with Hussam Hussien (formerly a Junior Research Fellow at Somerville). Madelina commented that "The internship I completed with Dr Hussam was an exciting insight into the world of academic research and publishing. Our research focus - ChatGPT and LLMs - was also extremely topical, and thus writing the paper was a very stimulating experience!"

Calling all Somerville alumni in the US! Later this month Somerville Choir will be going on tour in the United States, accompanied by Principal Jan Royall on her final US trip as Principal, and led by Director of Chapel Music Will Dawes. If you are local to Texas or New York, or happen to be in the area, please join us on one of these dates – we would love to see you there!

We are delighted to share news of a recent colloquium and concert honouring our Fellow and Tutor in German, Professor Almut Suerbaum. Held last weekend in Freiburg, Germany, the event brought together leading academics and musicians to celebrate Professor Suerbaum’s distinguished career and contributions to medieval studies. Read the full story here: https://lnkd.in/e_Q2y-sg

Congratulations to our alumnus Leo Ackerman (2017, History) who recently launched his book 'Mad Dog: the Mickey Lewis Story', which celebrates the life and work of the football player turned inspirational coach. Both Leo and his co-writer, Alex Urwin (2015, Exeter, PPE), played for Mickey Lewis, as captains of the Oxford University Blues. Leo says, "I always wished Mickey had been able to come to a Somerville dinner – he’d have loved the fact that you could walk on the grass." Read more here: https://lnkd.in/eyWfddea

We are very proud to introduce our newest Thatcher Scholars in this year's Margaret Thatcher Scholarship Trust Bulletin, and share some of the fantastic work our scholars are doing. This month marks 50 years since Somerville alumna Margaret Thatcher became the first female leader of a major UK political party, which led to her becoming the UK's first female Prime Minister in 1979. She is also the only Prime Minister, to date, to have a background in pure science. Working across a range of disciplines, our Thatcher scholars are already breaking new ground themselves, and we are excited to share their research and ambitions with you. https://lnkd.in/e5fXeZjw

We are incredibly proud that Conclave, produced by our Honorary Fellow, Tessa Ross, has picked up four awards at the Baftas: best picture, outstanding British film, adapted screenplay and editing! Tessa (pictured left) is the acclaimed producer of many films, including 12 Years A Slave and Slumdog Millionaire. Congratulations to Tessa, director Edward Berger, and everyone who worked on Conclave.

Somerville is delighted to announce the appointment of our next Principal, Catherine Royle. Catherine was an undergraduate at Somerville and returns following a long career as a British diplomat. Since 2015 she has been at NATO as Political Adviser to the Commander at Joint Force Command Brunssums. She commented, 'I couldn't be more grateful and honoured to have the chance to return to Somerville as Principal. The College gave me the skills and confidence to set off on an exciting professional life; I hope I can use my new role to support everyone in the community that makes up Somerville to achieve their goals too’. Read the full announcement here: https://lnkd.in/erhAjXQk