THEFOUNTAIN ISSUE 29 SUMMER 2020 - TRINITY COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE
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The Fountain Issue 29 • Summer 2020
© JAMES APPLETON
3
Welcome from the ARDO Contents
Welcome to the Summer 2020 edition of The Fountain. Issue 29, Summer 2020
Thanks to the wonders of technology, we are still able to serve you a taste REGULARS:
of Trinity during these turbulent times, and to keep you in touch with what 4–5
has been happening over recent months. If you are receiving a postal
Trinity News
version of ARDO publications, you may have slipped off our email list, or
we may not have consent to contact you. Please consider giving us your 6–8
email address if you have one: alumni@trin.cam.ac.uk. A day in the life of
The Reverend John Summers
On the menu in this edition is a ‘Day in the life of’ interview with Trinity
Chaplain The Reverend John Summers. Junior Research Fellow in 22
English, Dr Clare Walker Gore (e2016) discusses her research on Life- Cryptic Crossword
Writing and the Novel in the Nineteenth Century; Dr Gerhard Fasol (1978)
Trinity Members Online (TMO) Staying in touch shares the story of his inspiring great-grandfather Ludwig Boltzmann, FEATURES:
Trinity and Japan; and we have a special viewing of Davey Jose’s (2001)
Why not sign up today for access to our bespoke Please make sure that the art. We finish the feast with illuminating interviews with two Trinity 2
online platform Trinity Members Online, to network Alumni Office has your journalists – award-winning documentary filmmaker Robin Barnwell TMO and Staying in touch
(1991), and William Keegan (1960), Senior Economics Commentator of
with alumni of all ages around the world, and join a up-to-date contact details and
The Observer.
9–11
community of over 2000 Trinity members? let us know your communication
Dr Clare Walker Gore –
preferences. We take the protection of your
We hope that by the time the next Fountain comes around we will be Writing Lives
TMO is a secure data very seriously. We use it to keep in touch
back in College, ready to welcome you to a full range of alumni events
online networking with you, and to keep you informed of College
and activities. Until then, please look after yourself and do keep in touch:
12–14
platform, which news and activities. The Fountain, Boltzmann
allows you to alumni@trin.cam.ac.uk.
and Japan
connect with, and
The Alumni Relations Team
message, your fellow
alumni. You’ll find
Full details of how your data is held and used 15–17
are set out in our Data Protection Statement at
ARDO updates and
Trinity Journalists
www.trin.cam.ac.uk/alumni/information/
articles; you can
search the members’ directory to reconnect or make new
dataprotectionstatement
18–21
contacts; ask for advice, or why not offer others your help You are welcome to request a hard copy from us. The Cure
and expertise? Some sensitive personal information may be held in
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TMO offers optional LinkedIn synchronisation to make it
speedy and simple to set up your profile:
time to change how your data is used, or to tell us that
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Letter from the Lodge
www.trincam.aluminate.net Please contact us using the details below. It has been truly inspiring to hear Trinity visionaries of the past. What sort of society do we
from alumni all around the world want to be living in in 30 years’ time? How should things
who are involved in the global be in our new ‘utopia’? In one or two hundred years’ time,
Trinity Online effort to halt the pandemic, and I think future generations should be able to say, ‘Look
Fountain Magazine 2020 also to learn about the many at the ideas that came from the terrible coronavirus
Issue 29
alumni.trin.cam.ac.uk If you would prefer to read The Fountain different ways that you are coping pandemic; Trinity was visionary’.
and/or the Annual Record online, please let Produced by the Alumni Relations and with the situation. Our thoughts
Trinity Members Online (TMO) –
us know by email: alumni@trin.cam.ac.uk Development Office
www.trincam.aluminate.net have been with you all, and thank you to each and every So I invite you, to write to me about your vision at
Don’t miss out on our regular email Design: one of you who have been in touch. alumni@trin.cam.ac.uk and share your ideas and hopes
www.facebook.com/ H2 Associates, (Cambridge) Limited
communications – make sure we have your
TrinityCollegeCambridge for the future, on whatever it is that you think most
email address.
Photography: If you have registered to join Trinity Members Online warrants our attention. It would be a great privilege to
@Trinity1546 Front Cover Graham CopeKoga
Alumni Relations & Development Office (TMO), you may have seen my weekly ‘From the Master’s read those ideas now. We all have a role to play in shaping
www.linkedin.com/groups/2633390 Editor:
Trinity College, Cambridge CB2 1TQ Lodge’ email to Fellows, students and staff, in which I the future.
search ‘Trinity College Cambridge’ E: alumni@trin.cam.ac.uk alumni-comms@trin.cam.ac.uk
share my reflections on each week, its challenges, and
T: +44(0)1223 761527
www.trin.cam.ac.uk/alumni those that lie ahead. Recently, I shared my belief that in With my very best wishes,
this moment of crisis we should draw inspiration from Dame Sally Davies, Master
4 The Fountain | Issue 29 5
Trinity News
Physics PhD student Louise Shanahan’s (2019)
This sporting life
© ITV STUDIOS
year has got off to a flying start, after she bagged gold
in the Indoor 800m in the British Universities & Colleges
Sport Nationals in February. In March, Louise built on
her success, triumphing as Irish Senior Women’s Indoor
1500m champion – no wonder she was shortlisted
The Litmus for Cambridge University’s Sportsperson of the Year
© SARAH WOOD
Award 2020.
© PHOTOGRAPHYBYJONTY
Ali Smith, Trinity Senior Fellow University Challenge
Commoner in the Creative Arts,
has launched a creative writing Congratulations to the Trinity University Challenge
team of Lillian Crawford (2016), Liam Hughes
project for Year 9 to Year 13
(2015), Nadia Hourihan (2016) and Joseph
students at UK schools – The
Webber (2016) who made it through to the
Litmus: Writing in Common – semi-finals of this year’s tournament. The fearless
which she hopes will become ‘a foursome were pipped at the post for a place in
writing collective like no other.’ the final by Imperial College London, who went
on to triumph in the final against Corpus Christi
Students have been invited to submit Cambridge on 20 April.
an artwork and/or 500 words in poetry,
prose or any other format that considers (1967), Fellow for Communications, said heard. Any initiative that encourages
the phrase ‘in common.’ Each entry will ‘It is wonderful that a Trinity alumnus more young people to express
be published in an online gallery. shares our enthusiasm for connecting themselves in thoughtful and creative
The Litmus is generously supported
with students from a wide range of
backgrounds who might be inspired to
ways in our fast-changing times is to
be welcomed. Who knows, it might set
Alumni News
by an alumnus. Professor Adrian Poole write creatively and so get their voices someone on a path they never dreamt of.’
Journey to 51 Pegasi b Congratulations to documentary Trinity Fellow and Shell Professor Professor Robert Hadfield (1994)
filmmaker Robin Barnwell (1991), of Chemical Engineering Professor was awarded the Institute of
It was a full house in the Winstlanley
double winner at the British Journalism Lynn Gladden (1983) was honoured Physics’ 2019 James Joule Medal
Lecture Theatre on 26 February, when Awards 2019, who took home the as Dame Commander of the Order and Prize, for the advancement of
Professor Didier Queloz (e2013) Journalist of the Year and Foreign of the British Empire in the Queen’s infrared single photon detection
delivered his Nobel Prize Lecture. Affairs Journalism awards, for his New Year’s Honours 2020. technology, through innovations
work shining a light on China’s use of in superconducting devices and
He shared the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics detention camps for Muslims, and cryogenic engineering. In 2019 he
with Professor James Peebles and Professor Michael Mayor the battle against the oppression of was also elected Fellow of the Royal
for their pioneering advances in physical cosmology and for women in Iran (see page 15). Robin has Society of Edinburgh.
discovering an exoplanet, 51 Pegasi b. also been nominated for two BAFTA
Awards at the July 2020 ceremonies.
Professor Queloz took some convincing when he first noticed
something unusual in his results. ‘At that time I didn’t think at
all it was a planet, I thought I had just found something that
was wrong, and I had better sort it out. After some time when it
continues to be wrong … you think maybe it is not wrong at all,
maybe it is a planet.’
In October 2019, Péter Juhász In the Queen’s New Year’s Honours Congratulations to Dr Bee Wilson
Watch the full lecture via YouTube: www.trin.cam.ac.uk/news/
(2014) was appointed to the Order 2020, Dr Sue Paterson (1977) (1992), winner in the Food Book
didier-queloz-the-inside-story-of-pegasi-51-b/
of St John, a British Crown Order, was awarded an MBE for services category of the 2020 Fortnum &
in recognition of his charity work to the community in North East Mason Food & Drink Awards for
helping the homeless in Cambridge Scotland, (Aberdeenshire). The Way We Eat Now, published by
and Oxford. 4th Estate.
6 The Fountain | Issue 29 7
I always go to lunch as it is a good way to meet as anything else. But in Trinity I have lost count of
people. In fact, a lot of my day is spent thinking the number of students who have told me about
of and executing plans for generally profitable exceptional and friendly help offered to them
hanging around – aiming to be visibly present by the Porters, sometimes in the most trying of
in College as an approachable person if anyone circumstances. Plus, they haven’t yet fined me for
needs anything, be it great or small. The bar and (consistently) locking my keys in my room... All
libraries are good places to do this, and I try to get this is to say nothing of the incredibly beautiful and
to as many concerts and talks as I can. I supervise resourceful surroundings we all enjoy: from my
a little law, so I might give a couple of supervisions travels around Trinity and interactions with all the
on real property (which I used to practise). I will many people who work here, I am conscious of
then say evening prayer – three times a week this just how much hard work goes into keeping the
takes the shape of choral evensong in Chapel. It is
“Working with the students is a real blessing. Their vitality and energy is infectious. But College buzzing.
the highlight of my working week: I am constantly
the life giving force of College is not limited to them. Hearing people from every part
Q
overwhelmed by the quality of singing in chapel. I’ll What are the joys and challenges of
of Trinity talk enthusiastically about their lives – whether their research, or homes and then head home, unless I am dining in College, to working in university chaplaincy?
The Reverend John Summers, Trinity College Chaplain
countries left behind, or past careers, or ideas for the future – is genuinely wonderful.” help with the children’s bedtimes. On Wednesday
I come back into Trinity for compline – a weekly Working with the students is a real blessing.
service of choral night prayer from 9.45pm. It is Their vitality and energy is infectious. But the
amazingly popular with students: we sometimes life giving force of College is not limited to them.
Q Tell us about your background before
Trinity. Q hat appealed to you about the
W
opportunity to join Trinity, and what did you
hope to bring to the College community?
have over 200. After the port and refreshments
which follow, I get home at about 11 o’clock.
Hearing people from every part of Trinity talk
enthusiastically about their lives – whether their
I was born in Scotland, but moved to Cambridge research, or homes and countries left behind, or
Q
first when I was 5, and went to a local primary When I decided on ordination I was clear that I What are the things you most enjoy about past careers, or ideas for the future – is genuinely
school, and then to the Perse School on Hills Road. wanted to end up as a chaplain: I’ve never really felt Trinity and its community? wonderful. It feels like the best sort of thing that
Cambridge was a great place to grow up, though comfortable in most churches! I was lucky to have life has to offer. But, of course, many people are
Although, before I began working here, I knew as an
having been young here means I am now one of contact with an excellent college chaplain in Oxford struggling, sometimes below an exterior which is
abstract fact that Trinity was big, I am constantly
those people who likes to reminisce about how when I was an undergraduate. He was a brilliant apparently fine. Walking with those people through
amazed by its variety and depth. At times it feels
it used to be much smaller and quieter (it really pastoral presence to all members of college, their problems is humbling.
like a city state, yet it manages to maintain, in my
was). I managed to escape at the age of 18 to read whether or not they ever had any religious stirrings
experience, a family atmosphere. This isn’t to say
Jurisprudence at Oxford. But Cambridge pulled
me back and I studied graduate law at Gonville and
Caius College after Oxford. When I left the law to
(at the time, I was fairly ambivalent). I went to his
memorial service in the university church in Oxford
a while back and it was full to overflowing on a
that life is always easy – everyone knows that
families can be very stressful, but there is a general
Q ou offer guidance and support to all
Y
members of Trinity, irrespective of their
religious persuasions (or lack of them). How
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF
sense of people looking out for each other and
train for ordination some years later, I returned to weekday afternoon with members of college both do you ensure everyone feels welcome?
the institution as a whole. As a small example, the
Caius to study theology. young and old, which I thought was testament to
Porters are brilliant! When I was an undergraduate I try to speak to as many people as possible, and
the really useful impact that good chaplaincy can
the porters were pretty terrifying, likely to shout at to be physically present around College: I know
Q ou practised as a chancery barrister in
Y
London for 8 years before your ordination.
Why did you decide to change paths?
have at this formative stage of people’s lives.
I was very fortunate that Trinity was advertising
you or fine you for losing your room key as much that I would be far more likely to share a problem
for a chaplain when I started looking for a job at
© JAMES APPLETON
I had never intended to practise law forever. Around
the end of my curacy and I jumped at the chance
the time my first daughter was born I thought
to apply. I knew the College by its magnificent
it was a good time to review whether I should
reputation but not much more. So I was a little
change tack. I took several months off to look
daunted about applying, but soon realised how
after her and didn’t miss practice for a moment,
friendly a place it is.
so it was the right time. I thought about different
new ventures, but theology chimed with various
academic interests I was exploring. I was also
attending a very lively Anglo Catholic Church in
Q What is a typical day as Trinity Chaplain?
I go ten rounds with my three young children
Cambridge at the time with a variety of priests who from about 6am. Once they are all packed off to
had come to the church after interesting careers in school and nursery, I come into College around
differing fields, and who brought a fresh and lively 9am and am ready for some mental recuperation.
edge to their ministries as a result. I wondered if I often do this by reading for a while, and taking
I could do something similar. I was really inspired stock of my day in the context of some edifying
by that church, because it was a place where faith piece of writing. It is rather a cliché to say so, but
in practice met unashamed vigorous intellectual thereafter no day is the same. I will often meet up
enquiry, and where doubt and scepticism were with students who have been in touch, and we get
not only tolerated but welcomed and explored as coffee and chat either in my room or out of Trinity
real, human concerns and things which could be if breaking out is helpful. Some students prefer to
consistent with honest religious conviction. That get help and counsel by email so I attend to that
spirit has never left me. as well.
8 The Fountain | Issue 29 9
to Cambridge by the members of the church and
© STEPHEN BOND
a pop-in group for local residents in Camberwell,
both kindly supported by the Friends of Trinity in
Camberwell group. Both Trinity and the centre in
Camberwell have a lot to offer each other, and I
look forward to developing these potential links in
the rest of my time at College.
Q ou are coming towards the end of your
Y
first Trinity year. What have been your
most unexpected, favourite and humorous
moments so far?
I have learnt not to expect anything; is makes life
easier. The COVID-19 crisis has been really tough
for everyone in College, but I am so impressed
at the resilience shown by the community. As for
my favourite experience, I mentioned evensong
or concern with someone I had encountered earlier on (if you haven’t tried it yet, you must:
before than with an abstract person at the end of past services are available online and the Sunday
a phone or email. By meeting people personally, evening service is broadcast live on YouTube during
and demonstrating that I am not trying to convert Full Term) – but I also just love the grounds and
anyone to any particular worldview, I hope to seeing how they change over the seasons. As for
demystify the role of the chaplain and do away (printable) humorous moments … that I was asked
with the (not always entirely helpful) stereotype of if I was a tourist when going into the Wren recently
a priest. probably suggests that I should be spending more
time there.
Trinity chaplains arrange a wide variety of social
Q
activities at which all members of College are
welcome, and these are good ways to get to know
people from a variety of contexts. During this
You spend your days listening to, and
supporting, others. How do you look after Writing Lives:
past year we have enjoyed cheese tasting, ice
skating at Christmas (with a crowd from first year
your own wellbeing?
My children are wonderfully uninterested in my
Life-Writing and
undergraduates to a 79 year old Fellow), ten-pin
bowling, trips to the ADC Theatre and a walk on top
work life (though they enjoy using the empty
Chapel as a climbing frame), so it is easy to be
the Novel in the
of King’s Chapel roof. distracted by them when I get home. Prayer and
reflection are important parts of any priest’s Nineteenth Century
life, but I interpret those concepts broadly. In his
Q ell us about the College’s outreach work
T
with Trinity in Camberwell. brilliant poem, Sea Watching, RS Thomas had a
great aphorism about prayer; that we should wear
By Dr Clare Walker Gore (e2016),
Trinity set up a ‘mission’ in south London in the out our eyes, as others wear out their knees. I try Junior Research Fellow in English
nineteenth century. Its establishment is still going, to do that.
and the College has the ‘living’ of the parish church
in Camberwell, which means that it appoints the Otherwise, I keep busy. I play real tennis, run, walk
priest. More importantly, the College indirectly long distance mountain trails, read, and hugely
runs the charity which manages the parish I am both amused and a little
enjoy cooking and feasting.
community centre next door to the church. This abashed to realise that I fashion
centre plays an incredibly important role in the the story of my own research
provision of services to local people in what has
into something resembling the
traditionally been a very deprived part of London.
There are groups before and after school for local Victorian novels I work on: like
children, holiday clubs, sports clubs and groups to Get in touch… any good bildungsroman, it all
encourage young people into university. I say Trinity If you are interested in discovering more about starts in childhood, with my
runs the charity, but what is so inspiring is that Trinity in Camberwell, I would be delighted to
fascination with Susan Coolidge’s
those who take on the day to day tasks involved are hear from you:
so varied: not just students and Fellows, but also john.summers@trin.cam.ac.uk children’s classic What Katy Did.
spouses and partners, alumni and friends. We are www.trinitycollegechapel.com/camberwell/
always pleased to hear from anyone who might like
to get involved in any way. I am trying to set up links Listen to services from Chapel:
between the students in College and the centre and www.trinitycollegechoir.com/webcasts/
its adjoining primary school. There are also visits
10 The Fountain | Issue 29 11
Writing Lives: Life-Writing and the There wasn’t space in a book that
was squarely about fiction to explore
Gaskell-Brontë hybrid. Yet while some
of the more scandalous elements of
Failed marriages, cohabitation,
even the centrality of paid work in
Novel in the Nineteenth Century these ideas, so I decided that my next
book would bring together fiction and
Brontë’s life – her brother’s alcoholism,
or her sisters’ highly controversial
women’s lives are all largely beyond
the scope of the mid-Victorian novel,
life-writing. At first, I assumed that my novels – were made narratable through but were all elements in the lives of
focus would again be on disability, but novelistic treatment, others actually the female novelists I’m studying. At
All academics are used to being asked not only what their current project is,
once I started work on the project, I became more problematic if read in the the moment, I’m working particularly
but how they came to be working on it. found that I really wanted to work on light of her novels. If Villette were to be on Margaret Oliphant’s moving
Elizabeth Gaskell’s Life of Charlotte read autobiographically, for example, Autobiography, which breaks down
Brontë. It’s a biography that’s often the likeness between the romantic hero, altogether under the strain of trying to
Perhaps because I’m currently in femininity, transforming her from texts needed disability, but needed it described as ‘novelistic’, and as such M. Paul, and Brontë’s own teacher – bring her bereavements and her work,
working on the biographies and loveable tomboy into perfect lady. The in different ways. Tracing the work of provided the perfect test case for what who was, crucially, married – would her grief and her success, into one,
autobiographies of Victorian novelists, text seemed to take the connection disabled characters in fiction became was becoming my central question: are clearly destabilise Gaskell’s narrative, coherent narrative; her resemblance
it strikes me that answering this between disability and femininity for my doctoral research project; plotting Victorian auto/biographies governed which has space for only one romantic to her own comic heroines becomes
question means extemporising an granted, but it was far from obvious them across the field of Victorian fiction, by the conventions of fiction, or is it the relationship, that of Brontë and her a source of tragedy in this fraught
academic autobiography of sorts, to me why immobility should confer I found them everywhere, performing other way around? Brontë’s Jane Eyre eventual husband. but profoundly compelling work,
one which fashions the untidy patience, passivity and selflessness. a whole host of necessary narrative is subtitled An Autobiography, after all. simultaneously so like and so unlike
experience of academic research, What I might now describe as the roles, all of which were made to The relationship between Jane Eyre Thinking about Gaskell’s struggles her novels. Tracing the way this
with all its false starts, red herrings, intersection of disability and gender depend on their disabilities. Whether and Gaskell’s Life is both fascinating led me to wonder how other female consummate story-teller tries to make
and unexpected discoveries, into a identity seemed to me bizarre, but as tediously saintly invalids like Katy and complex: by reading Jane Eyre as novelists managed the diversion of sense of her own life story offers a
story that convincingly connects the also intriguing: although it wasn’t Carr herself, or unrepentant villains like semi-autobiographical, Gaskell can their own (or their subjects’) life stories window, not only into her way of thinking
finished work to the first thought. If a story I liked, I was struck by the Miserrimus Dexter – a Wilkie Collins justify her literary decision to represent from fictional paradigms. Did they try about her work and her identity both
it’s a good story, it will re-make the idea that disability was amenable to character I like so much I put him on Brontë as very much like one of her own to make themselves into heroines like as a woman and as a writer, and into a
experience of research into a coherent, interpretation. After all, if you could tell the front cover of my book – disabled heroines, her Life taking the shape of those they created in their fiction? And particular moment in the history of the
even compelling narrative, where the this story about it, then clearly you could characters keep the wheels of Victorian a Brontë novel, albeit one which takes how did they write about those elements novel and the autobiography, but also
ending and the beginning make sense also tell a different one. plots turning, even as they tend to be on so many features of her own fiction of their own lives which would never into the tensions that inhere in turning
of each other in a satisfying way. I am defined by incapacity. as to become an interesting kind of have befallen their fictional heroines? experience into narrative.
both amused and a little abashed to I began to notice that while this
realise that I fashion the story of my own disability-as-improving plot-line cropped I was working on a new edition of
research into something resembling up regularly in Victorian novels, it a particularly interesting novel by
the Victorian novels I work on: like any jostled with another – and, from my Dinah Mulock Craik, A Noble Life,
Margaret Oliphant
good bildungsroman, it all starts in perspective, even more unpalatable when my supervisor happened to (1828–1897) was
childhood, with my fascination with – tradition of using physical disability mention that she believed Craik’s a prolific Scottish
Susan Coolidge’s children’s classic What to signify moral depravity, a paradigm disabled protagonist – a wheelchair- novelist, critic
Katy Did. which seemed to dominate in later using nobleman – might have been and biographer.
fiction. Why does the same bodily based on a real-life aristocrat. A bit of In addition to
ninety-eight works
As a child who used a wheelchair, I was experience signify so differently in digging revealed that this was indeed
of fiction, she
delighted to find a novel that starred a different periods, and in different the case, but also revealed that the
wrote a brilliant
heroine who couldn’t walk, but deeply kinds of novels? Much later, as an differences between the plot of Craik’s but fragmentary
disconcerted by its plotting. Katy undergraduate, it struck me that the novel and the narrative of Arthur autobiography
Carr’s four years of paralysis are demands of the novel itself might shape Macmurrough Kavanagh’s life were depicting her
represented as a kind of crash course the representation of disability: that enormous. Born without arms and struggle to keep
legs, Kavanagh nonetheless travelled her extended
family afloat by
the world, married, had a large family,
her writing.
was a member of parliament, and led a Clare Walker Gore read
remarkably active life as a notably keen English at Selwyn College,
rider and crack shot. Happening upon where she went on to study
his late-Victorian biography, I wondered for her MPhil and PhD. She
how the writer had managed the was named one of the BBC/
divergence between his life story and AHRC ‘New Generation
the conventions of fiction – in Thinkers’ for 2015-2016,
which disabled men are never allowed and was elected to a Junior
to do any of those things – and found Research Fellowship at Trinity
that she had chosen to write out his in 2016. Her book Plotting
disability almost completely. In the Disability in the Nineteenth-
transition from person to character, he Century Novel is out now with
effectively had to be un-disabled in Edinburgh University Press.
order to render the narrative of his
life representable. @CHWGore
12 The Fountain | Issue 29 13
By Dr Gerhard Fasol (1978)
The Fountain, Boltzmann and Japan
Ever since I was a small child in Vienna, my great-grandfather, the mathematician, physicist and
philosopher Ludwig Boltzmann (1844–1906), was a great inspiration. Over time I realized how strongly
his results impact today's world.
For example, I recently became friends Among Boltzmann’s most important
with mathematician and politician work is linking the macroscopically Left: Ludwig Boltzmann, age 31.
Above: Speakers at the 9th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum, 16 February
Cedric Villani via the French Embassy defined Entropy, which was introduced
2017 at the Embassy of Austria in Tokyo. Left to right: Professor Masato
in Tokyo. Cedric’s work in optimal to optimize steam engines, to the atomic
Wakayama, Executive Vice President and Trustee, Kyushu University;
transport is almost totally based world using statistical mechanics, before Chuck Custo, Licensed Nuclear Power Station Operator and leader of the
on Boltzmann’s work, including the the existence of atoms was generally US integrated efforts during the Fukushima nuclear accident; Gerhard
Boltzmann transport equations, and accepted. He was puzzled about how Fasol; Her Imperial Highness Princess Takamado, Yayoi Kamimura, INTEL
Cedric told me that he considers himself Newton’s time reversible laws could Global Account Executive; Minoru Koshibe, Executive Vice-President,
part of our family. lead to non-reversible thermodynamic Mitsui Chemicals, Mr Konstantin Saupe, Minister for Culture and Science,
Embassy of Austria in Tokyo, and Makoto Suematsu, President, Japan
Agency for Medical Research and Development (not in the photograph).
processes. To study non-equilibrium off my PhD work in secret, to study During my Fellowship, I visited Japan
processes, he created the Boltzmann and catalogue my great-grandfather’s for conferences, and also to help build
transport equations, partial differential remaining notebooks and documents research co-operations with NTT
equations for the density of atoms which I had inherited. I discovered Fundamental Research Laboratories. I
in real space and momentum space, many important unpublished works, realized that Japan is very focused on
inspired by Trinity’s James Clerk including his notebooks and his lecture advancing technology, that links to the
Maxwell. Optimal transport was created manuscripts on natural philosophy, outside world are weak, and that there
by French mathematician Gaspard which had been believed lost and the are major difficulties in bridging this
Monge to solve military problems. content was unknown, except for the first intellectual distance, including
Boltzmann’s transport equations greatly two public lectures of a two year course. the language barrier. So I decided in
expand this field, and today are applied Over the next few years, I ensured that 1984 to make Japan my secondary
in areas from modelling jet engines my great-grandfather’s previously focus after physics, and I kept to this
to artificial intelligence. Boltzmann is unknown works were published. decision, as Dr Steve Satchell (e1986)
linked to Clerk Maxwell’s work and the well knows, who lived above my room
Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. During my PhD research, I found in Queen's Gate and listened through
and studied new defect centres in the walls to my taped Japanese
Excited to follow my great-grandfather amorphous phosphorous. I knew about language lessons!
into the field, I arrived in Cambridge the Trinity Junior Research Fellowship
in 1978, and I spent most of my PhD competition, but felt I had no chance Later I became a tenured University
student days at Trinity in my time- of winning. One week before the Lecturer at the Cavendish Laboratory,
resolved luminescence spectroscopy lab deadline, I decided that I could never where I built a group of about 5 PhD
at the Cavendish Laboratory in the dark win if I didn't compete so, within the students and Post-Docs, and we
- sensitive optical experiments almost seven days left, I wrote my Fellowship studied electronic excitations, femto-
always have to be done in darkness. I thesis, and against all my expectations second processes, and phonons in
had built much of the equipment myself. was awarded a Trinity Research semiconductor structures with Raman
I kept my Boltzmann connection a Fellowship in 1981 as one out of three spectroscopy. From 1986 to 1990, I
secret, because I wanted to be known that year. The Fellowship changed was Teaching Fellow and Director of
for my own research work, not for my my life, and enabled me to make bold Studies at Trinity. Many of the High
connection to Ludwig Boltzmann. After independent decisions on my path, and Table discussions still resonate with
my grandmother died, I took two weeks to take calculated risks. me today as if it were yesterday. As a
14 The Fountain | Issue 29 15
Former Fellow, I try to visit College and
dine at High Table as much as possible,
COVID-19 crisis, we started building a
UK medical device company's Japanese
research, while I invited members of
Japan's leadership to listen, including
Robin Barnwell (1991)
which is always an amazing experience,
especially intense discussions with
business. Only about 0.5% of the Board
Directors of Japanese stock market
the Vice-Chairman of JR-East, who gave
a talk on MaaS (Mobility as a Service).
Award-winning documentary filmmaker
the former Master, Sir Gregory Winter listed corporations are non-Japanese I am working to expand the Ludwig
(1970). At both of my most recent visits, but I was one for four years. I was invited Boltzmann Forum globally, and you
he very kindly invited me to sit next to onto the Board to bring changes to this can find details on the website:
him, and some of his discussion points cybersecurity group, during which time www.boltzmann.com/forum/
anticipated the current coronavirus we increased the market value by a
crisis. He also asked me about subtle factor of 3-4. All of us use Ludwig Boltzmann’s work
aspects of Japanese culture.
The Fellowship changed my
every day. For example, Boltzmann’s
constant k, which links temperature with
Q What has been your path since leaving
Trinity? Q ow can a journalist operate in a world
H
where the term fake news has become a
rallying cry?
I moved to Tokyo in 1991 and, after energy and entropy with probability, I started in the BBC’s national newsroom before
five years as faculty at Japan's top life, and enabled me to make is one of the pillars of the renewed focusing on foreign affairs, directing and producing It’s challenging, but as a student of history (1991–
University, Tokyo University and winning bold independent decisions international SI system of measurement documentaries around the world for BBC2’s 1994) I am particularly conscious how fake news
a ‘Sakigake’ (Pioneer) research award on my path, and to take units. He was also a global science ‘Correspondent’ series. After 9/11, I joined the has always existed and been manipulated. I like the
from the Japanese Government for my leader, in passionate debate with the UN as a diplomat, working in Afghanistan where BBC’s ‘reality check’ and the New York Times’ ‘fact
project on spin-electronics, I became an calculated risks. scientific leaders of his time around I was Special Assistant to the head of the UN. I check’ (among others) that are fighting back.
entrepreneur. By that time I had already the globe. I feel his legacy as a great helped set-up the peacekeeping mission in South
Discussions with former Trinity
worked with Japan for about 13 years,
so almost immediately after founding
my company we won NTT, SIEMENS
Senior Bursar Sir John Bradfield (1942)
and many interactions with Trinity’s
responsibility for me. He sparked my
deep curiosity and passion for physics,
which brought me to Trinity for more
Sudan before restarting my career in journalism
and filmmaking in conflict zones, concentrating on
human rights issues.
Q ow can the delivery of news survive in a
H
climate in which people inform themselves
from social media?
and Asahi Glass as customers. We Science Park, inspired me to initiate than 12 years.
building a science park in Kyushu, one The COVID-19 crisis has seen people flock back
are building Japanese business for
foreign technology companies. For
the NTT Communications global M&A
of Japan’s largest islands, in cooperation
with one of the country’s largest
Q id anyone in particular inspire you to
D
enter journalism, and how did you break
into the field?
to mainstream media for trusted information. Will
they stay post-crisis? As with the battle against
regional universities. This involved fake news, we need to step-up and work harder to
team we worked on their investment
and acquisition strategy for all of convincing the local Mayor and local Jim Naughtie – a brilliant and insightful keep audiences, to develop and retain trust.
Europe. We work on cross-border Government, and negotiating with
broadcaster and writer. I wrote for Varsity and
business development, investment regional Japanese banks. then secured work experience at The Times
Q How do you stay motivated?
TRINITY JOURNALISTS
and the BBC before passing an exam/interview
and acquisition projects, advising the
About 15 years ago I founded the Ludwig for a BBC newsroom job.
President of Germany on Japan, and I founded the alumni group Trinity My work is a vocation. You have to give everything
even the singer Madonna came to Boltzmann Forum as a global leadership to stay in the game.
in Japan in 2014, with the help of
us, because she wanted to be on the forum based on science and technology
then Master Professor Martin Rees Q Did you have a journalist role model?
Q
mobile internet, which started in Japan and as a platform for change. My focus What’s the piece of work you’re most proud
(1960) and many others at Trinity.
about 10 years earlier than in the rest of so far has been on helping to achieve Jeremy Bowen. The best journalist I’ve worked with of, or wish to be remembered for?
Our friendly group meets regularly
the world. In the middle of the current positive developments in Japan. At in the field. Brave, calm, rigorous, eloquent.
in Tokyo, and recently we began The film investigating the building and export of
each Forum conference I invite about
including talks and discussions. China’s surveillance technology. The 21st century
Q
5 Japanese ’superstar leaders’ as Tell us about your current work/projects
Dr Michael Banner (e2006) has will be defined by the battle between digital
keynote speakers, and an audience of and describe an ‘average’ day in your life.
given us talks on humanitarianism authoritarianism and liberal democracy. We must
about 50 people, including Nobel Prize
and ethics, Wolfgang Ungerer I’ve just finished an observational documentary ensure the latter wins.
winners, CEOs, University Presidents,
(1990) talked about the future of the about frontline protesters in Hong Kong and an
government and industry leaders.
mobility industry, and His Honour
As an example of the Ludwig Boltzmann
Judge Witold Pawlak (1966) talked
about his ‘view from the Bench’.
undercover film in China, examining how Chinese
tech companies are using Xinjiang as a laboratory,
creating the most oppressive surveillance state
Q Is there something you’ve got horribly
wrong?
Forum’s focus, Tokyo’s population on The war in Syria. In the early days, I thought the
average sleeps about 5.5 hours, while in history that specifically targets the Muslim
My main aim is to build our Trinity conflict might end sooner and that reconciliation
current scientific understanding tells population. No day is ever quite the same. I am
in Japan community, and to create (based on Syria’s history) would be possible. I was
us that humans need about 8 hours, variously involved in researching, interviewing,
impact. All Trinity members, Fellows, horribly wrong.
and Japan’s leading researcher in the writing, filming and editing.
and especially students, are very
Q
field Masashi Yanagisawa believes that What advice would you give to aspiring
welcome to attend. If you would like
Tokyo’s lack of sleep is unsustainable.
So I invited Masashi to explain his
to share your story with us, please
let me know, and I will try to arrange
Q What are the biggest challenges you’ve
faced in your career?
journalists?
Please become one. We need good journalists
a Trinity in Japan meeting with you. In pursuit of the truth and whilst attempting to hold
more than ever. It’s tough to succeed but don’t
You can find details here: power to account, I’ve faced numerous challenges,
give up. There’s no one route in. It’s a fabulous and
https://trinityjapan.org/ including being held hostage, imprisoned, shot
Left: Visiting Ludwig Boltzmann’s honorary rewarding career.
gravestone at Vienna Central Cemetary.
in the head with a plastic bullet, performing
Engraved on top of the stone is the equation Join us! www.trin.cam.ac.uk/ emergency first aid on a colleague injured by a
Discover more about Robin and his films on his
linking Entropy S and Probability W via alumni/associations/ mortar round, multiple car crashes in remote
website: www.robinbarnwell.com/
Boltzmann’s constant k: S=k log W. places, malaria and more…
16 The Fountain | Issue 29 17
William Keegan CBE (1960) Until the onset of the coronavirus, my average
Q ow can the delivery of news survive in a
H
© LOL KEEGAN
day began with ten minutes of exercises for climate in which people inform themselves
Senior Economics Commentator, injuries to shoulder and knee in recent years.
Then breakfast of porridge, my daily drive up
from social media?
The Observer from Barnsbury, Islington, to Hampstead Heath
This is also worrying, the real problem being
that people sound off and tweet without enough
and Kenwood, for a walk and coffee with friends.
reflection. Again, there has to be a fight back. Good
Then return home, read newspapers (hard copy,
journalism demands hard work and reflection, not
not online), then as brief as possible email duty,
instant opinion and tame acceptance of anything
followed by an hour’s writing – journalism or new
that appears on the internet.
book – at our local, the Drapers Arms. This was
Q What has been your path since leaving
Trinity? Q Did you have a journalist role model?
always over coffee, followed by a 1 pm half pint of
Harvey’s bitter, before a trip to the Garrick Club
Q How do you stay motivated?
Having applied to join the Guardian and had a good During the September holiday I took in Italy before or one of my favourite restaurants for lunch with
interview with Richard Fry, then Financial Editor, starting at the FT my brother Victor and I met a a contact or friend or both, always accompanied You have to love and enjoy what you are doing. If a
I was told he would like to take me on but had no portly man on the beach at Lerici. He was called by the quantities of wine of which our new Master journalist is bored by what he or she is writing, so is
vacancies. He suggested I write to Gordon Newton, Vernon Bartlett, a legendary figure in journalism of Trinity would no doubt disapprove! I forgot to the reader.
Editor of the Financial Times and Patrick Sergeant, who had covered Chamberlain’s meeting with mention that there might well have been another
City Editor of what was then the Daily Mail &
News Chronicle – a more liberal paper in those
days and not what it became. I was interviewed
Hitler at Bad Godesberg. He was looking for a
retirement villa in Tuscany. He was the first famous
journalist I had met, and became a kind of role
coffee at Pistachio & Pickle in Liverpool Road, after
a brief shop at the local convenience store – often
with my neighbour Paul Whitehouse.
Q Is there something you’ve got horribly
wrong?
Yes: in 1973 during what was known as the ‘Barber
by both. Newton offered me a job from October, model. But as my career developed, Sergeant,
Boom’ – after the then Chancellor Tony Barber – a
Sergeant offered what was known as a summer Andrew Shonfield (then of The Observer), Samuel I also attend a lot of think tank and Embassy
more senior colleague and I had lunch with the
relief job – helping out while regular staff were on Brittan and Alan Watkins were certainly role briefings and parties, book launchings being
Chief Secretary to the Treasury, who is in charge of
holiday. Always hard up, even on a good grant when models – Shonfield and Brittan for writing about particularly good places to meet contacts. In the
public spending. When there was much speculation
there were no tuition fees, I gratefully accepted economics, and Watkins for politics; Sergeant for Michaelmas Term I am on a panel every Friday at
that there would have to be expenditure cuts, he
Sergeant’s offer, and began to learn about financial the importance of getting out and about, meeting the Strand Group, King’s College, London, with
told us there wouldn’t be. I was asked to write
journalism in the Mail & Chronicle’s very Dickensian people, attending press conferences and finding Ed Balls and Lord Nick Macpherson – former
up this story for the front page of the FT, and did
City Office in Angel Court, near the Stock Exchange. interesting people at events that don’t, superficially, Permanent Secretary to the Treasury – where
so with some doubts. These doubts proved well
This was in July and August 1963. When I left for a sound interesting. we cover British economic history since WW2 as
founded: cuts were announced, within a day of the
holiday in Italy, Sergeant said he would like to offer Visiting Professors, under the chairmanship of
TRINITY JOURNALISTS
story appearing.
me a permanent job, but was a great admirer of the
FT and said he quite understood that I wanted to Q Tell us about your current work/projects
and describe an ‘average’ day in your life.
Dr Jon Davis, Head of the Strand Group.
go there.
I write a fortnightly column ‘In My View’ for The
Observer. Having been economics correspondent
Q What are the biggest challenges you’ve
faced in your career?
Q What advice would you give to aspiring
journalists?
Q id anyone in particular inspire you to
D
enter journalism, and how did you break
into the field?
of the FT from 1967 to 1976, and been lured away
by the Bank of England for work on the Bank’s
Survival. If you have a prominent position as a
columnist you survive if there are enough readers
You have really got to want to do it. I have had a
wonderful career, for which I am extremely grateful.
The media were not so crowded in my earlier days.
Quarterly Bulletin, I was later offered the dream who like what you write, but you are threatened if a
Indeed, as you will have gathered from the above,
Teachers at both primary and grammar school job – for me – of being economics correspondent proprietor or new editor decides against you. There
I was lucky enough almost to walk into journalism.
(Wimbledon College). I was always interested in of The Observer. I used to be on the reporting staff, were a number of such episodes, but the big one
But don’t be put off by rejections: keep trying,
newspapers and essay writing. An early inspiration but am now semi-retired – although I think about was in the early 1980s when our new proprietor
and pursue prominent journalists for their advice.
came from my mother, who was born in Cork my column much of the time and don’t feel retired. Tiny Rowland, head of Lonrho, did not like my
Few people can turn down a request to spare
City and took the Cork Weekly Examiner. She My title is Senior Economics Commentator. My attacks on the Thatcher government’s economic
ten minutes. Also, it seems that these days it is
encouraged me to go in for their weekly essay Column is in its 40th year. policies and tried to get rid of me. My editor Donald
necessary to try to proceed via a journalism school.
competition, and that was how I first got into print, Trelford skilfully handled the situation by moving
As noted, undergraduate journalism certainly
at the age of 11. Later there was undergraduate I have had thirteen books published, mainly on my column to a less prominent position. But it was
helped to set me on my career. Good luck!!
journalism – pieces in Varsity and a magazine Chancellors and macro-economic policy. I am a nervous time.
called Image, founded by Cambridge graduate currently still promoting my latest book – Nine
Q
Adrian Bridgewater, who published the Directory Crises – Fifty Years of Covering the British Economy, ow can a journalist operate in a world
H Nine Crises: Fifty Years of
of Opportunities for Graduates. It was after From Devaluation to Brexit’ – and working on a where the term fake news has become a Covering the British Economy
reading some articles I had written for Image that book of essays covering various people I have met, rallying cry? from Devaluation to Brexit
Newton offered me a job. Both Jonathan Agnew episodes that stand out, and assorted memoirs is available from Biteback
This is clearly an appalling development and Publishing.
(1960) – close friend and Trinity contemporary which I try out on friends.
demands great training and journalistic skills to
– and I edited Image in successive terms. I think
fight back. There are some excellent investigative
Adrian and Jonathan encouraged my journalistic
journalists doing their best.
ambitions, as did my economics teachers Amartya
Sen (1953) and Frank Hahn (a founding Fellow of
Churchill College).
18 The Fountain | Issue 29 19
The Cure By Davey Jose (2001)
“The doctor studies the body to improve its fate; the artist to improve its spirit.”
– Human Anatomy – Depicting the Body from the Renaissance to Today, B.A.Rifkin
Medicine and art have a long history his childhood). The second part of Georgia and Bhutan! It won Best VR
together, going back hundreds of years. the series reimagines iconic paintings Film at the 2019 London Short-Series
For my latest oil canvas series ‘The by well-known artists (Leonardo, Festival in Covent Garden. Even though
Cure’, most recently shown in a month- Basquiat, Vermeer, Van Gogh, Klimt and travelling isn’t easy for me, I was very
long exhibition in Canary Wharf at the Picasso) by juxtaposing these images fortunate to have the opportunity to visit
beginning of this year, I drew upon with disability. I do this by painting the South Korea, where my film was in the
this interplay and infused it with my subjects wearing orthotics like the neck Official Selection at an Academy Award
own experience of living with a spinal collar, body braces, head support, hand qualification festival. It was also selected
cord injury. For ‘The Cure’ exhibition, splints or tracheostomy. These are to be screened in New York City at the
I combined these paintings with my items that I’ve had to use over my life. Philip K. Dick Film Festival at the Museum
virtual reality (VR) short-film ‘Living It was my way of trying to normalise of Moving Image (MoMI) in March 2020.
with Spinal Cord Injury’, which was disabilities visually, to say it’s okay to be
curated from the perspective of the year different and that we should embrace It may surprise some readers to learn
3000, by when I imagined spinal cord difference. The series was first exhibited, that I didn’t study the arts during my
injuries could be fixed by ‘the cure’, using aptly, at the spiritual birthplace of the time at Trinity. I believe the Mathematics
technologies such as Brain Computer Paralympics and the place where I first and Computer Science Tripos enhanced
Interfaces (BCI). The exhibition tries to learnt to draw as a child – the National and formalised the foundations of my
show a future viewer what it felt like to Spinal Injuries Centre. methodical approach to everything
live with a disruptive injury. thereafter. I felt at home, surrounded by
Being acutely aware that people with many multi-disciplinary friends and the
My paintings examine the internal mobility issues and complicated incredibly supportive Fellows at Trinity.
and external aspects of the human medical circumstances find travelling to
body. The first part of ‘The Cure’ series experience things like art tricky at the In the 1980s, as a child with a disability,
depicts the internal, focusing on spinal best of times, I decided to convert my oil for many of my educational years I
cords and organs that are impacted series into a VR short-film called ‘Living attended a special school, which didn’t
due to the repercussions of the injury. with Spinal Cord Injury’. My goal was to follow the national curriculum. I spent
The inspiration was twofold: the x-rays show people a glimpse of the future, how most of these years programming
I saw during many prolonged stays we might be able to experience things and drawing independently, but I was
at Stoke Mandeville’s National Spinal without travelling. It won’t be the same still very much behind the national
Injuries Centre (I was run over by a as viewing the art in real life, but it’s curriculum by the time I transferred to a
car, at the age of 2), and Leonardo Di perhaps the next best thing. I was thrilled mainstream school as a teenager. While
Vinci and Jean-Michael Basquiat’s that my film was selected for a number catching up on my studies, I read about
anatomical drawings and paintings of international film festivals, from the this inspirational guy called Professor
(Basquiat was also run over during UK all the way to South Korea, New York, Stephen Hawking. Fortuitously, shortly
Far left: Meeting
the Master during
Antony Gormley's
Royal Academy
special alumni
viewing last year.
Left: Speaking at
the British Library’s
Art/science of the
polymath’ event in
September 2019.
Right: My painting
Orthotics – neck
collar juxtaposition.20 The Fountain | Issue 29 21
after I found his email address in a book on my background in mathematics and
about the internet, so I wrote to him computer science, along with firing my
asking for advice about Cambridge. He passions for creating art, 3D printing,
generously replied, sharing his thoughts. building robots, making short-films and
I eventually met Professor Hawking more. And all while I juggle a full time job
during Freshers’ Week at the Cambridge of writing about disruptive technologies
Union, and I thanked him in person for for investors at an investment bank.
his invaluable perspective.
What’s next? My VR short-film has been
Drawing and painting is isolating, so selected for the final judging round of
during my time at Trinity I wanted the Royal Academy of Art’s Summer
something that would not only continue Exhibition later this year – wish me My award from the London Short
to spur my visual creativity but would luck! In addition to expanding “’The Series Festival 2019.
also allow me to be social too. This Cure’ series through a variety of media
led to my love of film-making, and I including oils, more VR, sculpture
eventually formed my own society (inspired by Sir Antony Gormley’s special Davey Jose pursues projects
called The Trinity College Short-Film Trinity alumni viewing at the Royal at the intersection of and
Making Society, screening short-films Academy last November) and digital inspired by art/science, which
and documentaries in the Winstanley art, I’m on the lookout to find more involve visual arts, technology,
Lecture Theatre and The Cambridge institutions to exhibit this on-going series mathematics and film-making
Union. I still have dozens of hours of in the future. Fingers crossed you’ll get to innovation, exploring themes
footage documenting student life at see them all in person one day! such as disability and others.
Trinity. Perhaps one day I will get around He does all this whilst working
to editing them; they could give us a full-time in finance (from M&A,
historical look at Trinity life in the early Much appreciation to Mebrak for all trading to research).
part of the 21st century! her help during my shows; Mr Belci,
Mr Reynard, National Spinal Injuries www.instagram.com/
Back to the present, I recently had Centre and Dr Hussain for supporting daveyjoseart/
the privilege of exhibiting ‘The Cure’ my exhibition, art and health; my www.dj2048.com
paintings at the British Library, as one brother Bobby Seagull for hosting
of the panellists for an event called ‘Art/ the talks at exhibitions; my parents @daveyjose
science of the polymath’, celebrating the and family – Johnny, Tommy, Cedric,
500th year anniversary of arguably the Fredric, Roderic, Derek and Colleen facebook.com/
ultimate polymath, Leonardo Da Vinci. helping me prepare for exhibitions; daveyjoseart
I was so excited to have my paintings George and Eugenio (Trinity, 2001)
exhibited under the same institutional for all VR image capture; Daniel for
roof as the original inspiration for my curating my show “The Cure” in Canary
series, Leonardo’s anatomical drawings! Wharf; Andres for photographing my
During the event, I discussed the paintings. Special thanks to Mr. S. Assaf
influence Trinity has had on my life, and for kindly supporting my arts.
Left: My painting
Supporting Lisa.
Right: At work in
my studio.
Far right: My painting
Close encounters of
the tracheostomy
kind.You can also read
