̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Pembroke College

Complete clean sweep for Cambridge at ̽��ֱ��Boat Race 2025

hcf38 — Sun, 13 Apr 2025 15:34:14 +0000

Thousands of spectators lined the banks of the River Thames on 13 April to witness a dramatic afternoon of action, with millions more following live on the BBC.

Cambridge Women secured their eighth consecutive win in the 79th Women’s Boat Race, extending their overall record to 49 victories to Oxford’s 30. ̽��ֱ��Men’s crew, too, were victorious in defending their title in the 170th edition of the event, notching up their 88th win, with Oxford sitting on 81.

Goldie, the Cambridge Men’s Reserve Crew, won the Men’s Reserve Race, while Blondie, the Cambridge Women’s Reserve Crew, won the Women’s Reserve Race. And the day before, the 2025 Lightweight Boat Race also saw two wins for Cambridge.

Cambridge’s Claire Collins said it was an incredible feeling to win the race.

“This is so cool, it’s really an incredible honour to share this with the whole club,” she said.

̽��ֱ��Women’s Race was stopped initially after an oar clash, but Umpire Sir Matthew Pinsent allowed the race to resume after a restart. Claire said that the crew had prepared for eventualities such as a restart and so were able to lean on their training when it happened.

“I had total confidence in the crew to regroup. Our focus was to get back on pace and get going as soon as possible and that’s what we did.”

For Cambridge Men’s President Luca Ferraro, it was his final Boat Roat campaign, having raced in the Blue Boat for the last three years, winning the last two.

He said: “It was a great race. ̽��ֱ��guys really stepped up. That’s something that our Coach Rob Baker said to us before we went out there, that each of us had to step up individually and come together and play our part in what we were about to do. I couldn’t be prouder of the guys, they really delivered today.”

Professor Deborah Prentice, Vice-Chancellor of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, congratulated all the crews following the wins.

“I am in awe of these students and what they have achieved, and what Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Boat Club has been able to create,” she said.

“These students are out in the early hours of the morning training and then trying to make it to 9am lectures. It’s so inspiring. And a complete clean sweep – this was an incredibly impressive showing by Cambridge, I am so proud of them.”

̽��ֱ��Cambridge Blue Boats featured student athletes drawn from Christ’s College, Downing College, Emmanuel College, Gonville & Caius, Hughes Hall, Jesus College, Pembroke College, Peterhouse, St Edmund’s, and St John’s.

Cambridge is celebrating a complete clean sweep at ̽��ֱ��Boat Race 2025, with victories in all 4 openweight races and also both lightweight races.

Row360

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Cambridge Blue Boats revealed for ̽��ֱ��Boat Race 2025

hcf38 — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 18:00:00 +0000

With just over 2 weeks to go until the showdown on the River Thames, the Light Blues are gearing up to defend their titles. Cambridge leads the historic tally in both the men’s and women’s events and will be looking to extend their dominance when they take on Oxford on Sunday 13 April 2025.

Cambridge Crews for ̽��ֱ��Boat Race 2025

Women’s Blue Boat:
•   Cox: Jack Nicholas (Pembroke College)
•   Stroke: Samy Morton (Hughes Hall)
•   Tash Morrice (Jesus College)
•   Claire Collins (Peterhouse)
•   Carys Earl (Gonville & Caius)
•   Annie Wertheimer (St Edmund’s College)
•   Sophia Hahn (Hughes Hall)
•   Gemma King (St John’s College)
•   Bow: Katy Hempson (Christ’s College)

Men’s Blue Boat:
•   Cox: Ollie Boyne (Downing College)
•   Stroke: Douwe de Graaf (St Edmund’s)
•   Luca Ferraro (Peterhouse)
•   James Robson (Peterhouse)
•   George Bourne (Peterhouse)
•   Gabriel Mahler (Peterhouse)
•   Tom Macky (St Edmund’s)
•   Noam Mouelle (Hughes Hall)
•   Bow: Simon Hatcher (Peterhouse)

Countdown to ̽��ֱ��Boat Race 2025
̽��ֱ��prestigious race, one of the oldest amateur sporting events in the world, will take place along the 6.8 km Championship Course from Putney to Mortlake. ̽��ֱ��Women's Boat Race will commence at 1:21pm British Summer Time (BST), followed by the Men's Boat Race at 2:21pm BST.

Cambridge’s women’s crew enters the race as the defending champions and currently leads the overall tally at 48-30. Meanwhile, Cambridge’s men’s crew also holds the advantage, leading Oxford 87-81, with one historic dead heat in 1877.

Praise for the athletes

Siobhan Cassidy, Chair of ̽��ֱ��Boat Race Company, congratulated the athletes on their selection for one of the Blue Boats. “I am not sure that everyone appreciates just what it takes to compete at this level,” she told the event.

“Having witnessed the intense training over a number of years, I can tell you these guys are no ordinary students; they combine their academic courses with a high-performance rowing programme. Their commitment to excellence on and off the water is truly extraordinary. It is nothing short of superhuman.”

Renowned BBC Sport commentator Andrew Cotter, who hosted the event, emphasised the purity of ̽��ֱ��Boat Race in today’s sporting landscape. “In the modern era of sport, when so much is inflated by money and professionalism, this is sport stripped back to its essence,” he said.

“It is pure competition, it is about winning and losing. And I know that’s how the athletes feel about it, but they also feel that this is where they will make friendships that will last a lifetime.”

Historic firsts and environmental commitments

This year’s event will also see a landmark moment in Boat Race history. Sarah Winckless MBE will become the first woman to umpire the Men’s Boat Race on the Championship Course. Sir Matthew Pinsent CBE will oversee the Women’s Boat Race.

Additionally, ̽��ֱ��Boat Race Company, alongside the Cambridge and Oxford ̽��ֱ�� Boat Clubs, have given their support to the London Rivers’ Pledge, a 10-year environmental initiative focused on improving water quality and sustainability on the Thames and beyond.

With the crews now announced and excitement continuing to build, all eyes will be on the Thames this April as Cambridge and Oxford prepare to write the next chapter in their historic rivalry.

̽��ֱ��stage has been set for ̽��ֱ��Boat Race 2025, with Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Boat Club announcing its Women’s and Men’s Blue Boats at the historic Battersea Power Station in London.

Row360

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Into the underworld: the mountains beneath our feet

lkm37 — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 10:41:16 +0000

Sanne Cottaar is Professor of Global Seismology in Earth Sciences. She wants to understand Earth’s inner structure: how it shaped the surface and allowed life to form.

Minister for AI and Digital Government visits Cambridge to tour the DAWN supercomputer

Anonymous — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 16:34:50 +0000

Feryal Clark MP was welcomed to the ̽��ֱ��’s DAWN supercomputer facility, located on the ̽��ֱ��’s West Cambridge Innovation District, by Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, Professor John Aston, and Dr Paul Calleja, Director of Research Computing Services at the ̽��ֱ��.

Together they toured the DAWN supercomputer and met with representatives from academia and industry partners who have ambitious plans for AI and supercomputing in Cambridge. ̽��ֱ��visit comes as the Government opens a UK-wide call for early access to the new AI Research Resource service, of which DAWN is part of.

Now up and running in its state-of-the-art Data Centre in Cambridge, DAWN is currently the most powerful AI supercomputer in the UK, with more than a thousand top-end Intel graphics processing units (GPUs) operating inside its server stacks. ̽��ֱ��supercomputer’s bespoke innovations in hardware and software result from a long-term co-design partnership between the Cambridge Open Zettascale Lab, directed by Dr Paul Calleja, and global tech leaders Intel and Dell Technologies, with support from the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), StackHPC and UK Research & Innovation.

Our world-leading researchers are exploring how AI can benefit society.

̽��ֱ��Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deborah Prentice, also welcomed the Minister to the Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, where they were able to learn about the impact of DAWN and AI on patients, with a demonstration of the advances in healthcare.

Feryal Clark MP later toured the ̽��ֱ��’s latest brain imaging scanner and heard from leading ̽��ֱ�� researchers who are utilising DAWN supercomputing capabilities and AI to improve patient outcomes, and develop new and innovative treatments.

̽��ֱ��Minister moved on to meet with Professor Zoe Kourtzi, whose team are working on improving the early diagnosis of Alzheimer's, for which AI can help develop tools by combining diverse data sources that provider a richer picture of a patient’s brain health. Professor James Brenton also presented on his work developing a comprehensive clinical decision-making support platform that integrates and refines cancer patient data from multiple sources into a single, much more manageable tool. Feryal Clark MP further heard from researcher Bill McGough, who is working on a project to develop an AI tool to detect renal cancers in non-contrast and low-dose CT, to enable kidney screening in the UK.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge is home to world-leading researchers in AI, to students enthusiastic about the potential of AI, and to an innovation ecosystem that is successfully translating this research into innovative new start-ups and creating jobs. ̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ��’s flagship AI@Cam is harnessing the ̽��ֱ��'s interdisciplinary research to drive a new wave of AI innovation that delivers public value.

̽��ֱ��Minister for AI and Digital Government, Feryal Clark MP, visited the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge on the day the Government announced their new AI Action Plan.

Lloyd Mann / ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

Left to right: Nicola Ayton, Deputy Chief Executive of Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Hospitals (CUH), Feryal Clark MP, Minister for AI and Digital Government, Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge ̽��ֱ��, Professor Deborah Prentice

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Cambridge to trial cutting-edge semiconductor technologies for wider use in major European project

sc604 — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 10:34:10 +0000

Photonic chips transmit and manipulate light instead of electricity, and offer significantly faster performance with lower power consumption than traditional electronic chips. 

̽��ֱ��Cambridge Graphene Centre and Cornerstone Photonics Innovation Centre at the ̽��ֱ�� of Southampton will partner with members from across Europe to host a pilot line, coordinated by the Institute of Photonic Sciences in Spain, combining state-of-the-art equipment and expertise from 20 research organisations.

̽��ֱ��PIXEurope consortium has been selected by the European Commission and Chips Joint Undertaking, a European initiative aiming to bolster the semiconductor industry by fostering collaboration between member states and the private sector. ̽��ֱ��consortium is supported by €380m in total funding.

̽��ֱ��UK participants will be backed by up to £4.2 million in funding from the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), match-funded by Horizon Europe. ̽��ֱ��UK joined the EU’s Chips Joint Undertaking in March 2024, allowing the country to collaborate more closely with European partners on semiconductor innovation.

̽��ֱ��new pilot line will combine state-of-the-art equipment and expertise from research organisations across 11 countries. It aims to encourage the adoption of cutting-edge photonic technologies across more industries to boost their efficiency.

Photonic chips are already essential across a wide range of applications, from tackling the unprecedented energy demands of datacentres, to enabling high-speed data transmission for mobile and satellite communications. In the future, these chips will become ever more important, unlocking new applications in healthcare, AI and quantum computing. 

Researchers at the Cambridge Graphene Centre will be responsible for the integration of graphene and related materials into photonic circuits for energy efficient, high-speed communications and quantum devices. “This may lead to life-changing products and services, with huge economic benefit for the UK and the world,” said Professor Andrea C. Ferrari, Director of the Cambridge Graphene Centre.

̽��ֱ��global market for photonic integrated circuits (PICs) production is expected to grow by more than 400% in the next 10 years. By the end of the decade, the global photonics market is expected to exceed €1,500bn, a figure comparable to the entire annual gross domestic product of Spain.

This growth is due to the demand from areas such as telecommunications, artificial intelligence, image sensing, automotive and mobility, medicine and healthcare, environmental care, renewable energy, defense and security, and a wide range of consumer applications.

̽��ֱ��combination of microelectronic chips and photonic chips provides the necessary features and specifications for these applications. ̽��ֱ��former are responsible for information processing by manipulating electrons within circuits based on silicon and its variants, while the latter uses photons in the visible and infrared spectrum ranges in various materials.

̽��ֱ��new pilot line aims to offer cutting-edge technological platforms, transforming and transferring innovative and disruptive integrated photonics processes and technologies to accelerate their industrial adoption. ̽��ֱ��objective is the creation of European-owned/made technology in a sector of capital importance for technological sovereignty, and the creation and maintenance of corresponding jobs in the UK and across Europe.

“My congratulations to Cornerstone and the Cambridge Graphene Centre on being selected to pioneer the new pilot line – taking a central role in driving semiconductor innovation to the next level, encouraging adoption of new technologies,” said Science Minister Lord Vallance. “ ̽��ֱ��UK laid the foundations of silicon photonics in the 1990s, and by pooling our expertise with partners across Europe we can address urgent global challenges including energy consumption and efficiency.”

“ ̽��ֱ��UK’s participation in the first Europe-wide photonics pilot line marks the start of the world’s first open access photonics integrated circuits ecosystem, stimulating new technology development with industry and catalyse disruptive innovation across the UK, while strengthening UK collaboration with top European institutions working in the field,” said Ferrari.

“PIXEurope is the first photonics pilot line that unifies the whole supply chain from design and fabrication, to testing and packaging, with technology platforms that will support a broad spectrum of applications,” said CORNERSTONE Coordinator Professor Calum Littlejohns. “I am delighted that CORNERSTONE will form a crucial part of this programme.”

̽��ֱ��Chips JU will also launch new collaborative R&D calls on a range of topics in early 2025. UK companies and researchers are eligible to participate.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge is one of two UK participants named as part of the PIXEurope consortium, a collaboration between research organisations from across Europe which will develop and manufacture prototypes of their products based on photonic chips.

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Professor Duncan Richards appointed as Head of Department of Medicine

Anonymous — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 16:59:07 +0000

Professor Richards joins Cambridge from the ̽��ֱ�� of Oxford, where he has been since 2019. His particular research interest is the demonstration of clinical proof of concept of novel therapeutics through the application of experimental medicine techniques, especially human challenge studies.

As Climax Professor of Clinical Therapeutics, director of the Oxford Clinical Trial Research Unit (OCTRU), and the NIHR Oxford Clinical Research Facility, he led a broad portfolio focused on new medicines for multiple conditions. His focus has been the acceleration of promising new drug treatments through better decision-making in early phase clinical trials.

Professor Richards also brings with him a wealth of experience in a number of Pharmaceutical R&D clinical development roles. In 2003 he joined GSK and held a number of roles of increasing responsibility, latterly as Head of Clinical Pharmacology and Experimental Medicine, including directorship of GSK’s phase 1 and experimental medicine unit in Cambridge (CUC).

Commenting on his appointment, Professor Richards said: “As a clinical pharmacologist, I have been fortunate to work across a broad range of therapeutic areas over the years. I am excited by the breadth and depth of expertise within the Department of Medicine and look forward to working with the first-class scientific team. My goal is to work with the Department team, the Clinical School, and hospitals to maximise the impact of the important work taking place in Cambridge.”

Members of the department’s leadership team are looking forward to the continued development of the department under Professor Richards, building on its legacy of collaboration and groundbreaking translational research to drive our future success.

Professor Mark Wills, Interim Head of Department of Medicine, said: “Duncan brings to his new role a fantastic breadth of experience, which encompasses his clinical speciality in pharmacology, extensive experience of working within the pharmaceutical industry R&D at senior levels and most recently establishing academic clinical trials units and human challenge research facilities.

“I am very excited to welcome Duncan to the Department and looking forward to working with him, as he takes on the role of delivering of the Department of Medicine’s vision to increase the efficacy of translation of its world class fundamental research, and its impact upon clinical practice and patient wellbeing.”

Menna Clatworthy, Professor of Translational Immunology and Director of the Cambridge Institute for Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease (CITIID), said: "Duncan has a wealth of leadership experience in biomedicine, in both academia and pharma. That skillset will be invaluable in ensuring the Department of Medicine continues to deliver world-leading research to transform patient outcomes."

Charlotte Summers, Professor of Intensive Care Medicine and Director of the Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Heart & Lung Research Institute, said: “Duncan’s exemplary track record of translating fundamental scientific discoveries into therapies that benefit patients will help us further increase the impact of our research as we continue our mission to improve human health.”

̽��ֱ��appointment underpins the recently announced five-year collaboration between GSK and the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, the Cambridge-GSK Translational Immunology Collaboration (CG-TIC). ̽��ֱ��£50 million investment will accelerate research and development in kidney and respiratory diseases to improve patient outcomes.

Professor Richards will assume the role in February 2025, replacing Interim Head of Department Dr Mark Wills who was appointed after the departure of Professor Ken Smith in January 2024. Dr Wills will continue as Director of Research and Deputy Head of the Department of Medicine as well as leading his research group.

Professor Richards trained in medicine at Oxford ̽��ֱ�� and after junior doctor roles in London, he returned to Oxford as Clinical Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacology. His DM thesis research was on a translational model using platelet ion flux to interrogate angiotensin biology and he is author of the Oxford Handbook of Practical Drug Therapy and the 3rd edition of Drug Discovery and Development.

Professor Richards has been a core member of the UK COVID-19 Therapeutics Advisory Panel. He is a member of the Oxford Bioescalator Management Board, UK Prix Galien Prize Committee, and the therapeutic advisory committee of several national platform clinical trials.

Professor Duncan Richards has today been announced as the new Head of the Department of Medicine at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

I am excited by the breadth and depth of expertise within the Department of Medicine and look forward to working with the first-class scientific team

Duncan Richards

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Spread the word!

sb726 — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 11:33:11 +0000

Dr Mark Wormald helps launch Elemental Poetry Cambridge – a new project to get the city writing.

Hope and determination for nature

plc32 — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 10:41:16 +0000

Cambridge Conservation Initiative Executive Director Melissa Leach offers insights on the COP16 Global Biodiversity summit in Cali, Colombia as government ministers engage in tense final negotiations and the latest news from the natural world is that more than a third of tree species face extinction in the wild.