Trinity has announced changes to the College’s investment policy, which has been amended to commit to net zero carbon emissions before 2050, in line with the spirit of the Paris Agreement.

Trinity’s endowment will now have a dual mandate: to continue delivering sustainable income growth and to commit to a significant, lasting and positive impact on improving its environmental footprint and achieving net zero before 2050. The move includes divestment from all fossil fuel investments in public equities by the end of 2021. Senior Bursar, Richard Turnill (e2020) said, ‘We now have an ambitious plan to achieve net zero before 2050, which, while challenging, given the nature of the endowment’s portfolio, is achievable and consistent with the College’s income growth objectives. We will move rapidly where we can, starting with divestment from all fossil fuel exposure in our public equities this year.’ Read.

Trinity undergraduates Serena Cole, Elizabeth Beevers and Vanessa Tang (all 2019) have been busy devising a pilot mentoring scheme for Year 12 black students, which builds on the work of Target Oxbridge’s national programme. ‘Track to Trin’ will involve a pilot group of students of African and Caribbean heritage participating in subject-specific webinars led by Trinity PhD students, alongside sessions with Trinity’s Outreach Team offering guidance about applying to Cambridge. Serena, now President-elect of TCSU for 2021-22, said, ‘I love hearing the impact that access work has had on incoming Freshers and hope that the mentoring and guidance through ‘Track to Trin’ will bring high-achieving black students one step closer to applying and getting into Cambridge.’ Read.

Trinity and Parent Power Oldham have joined forces to work together to encourage high-achieving children to aspire to go on to study at Cambridge. Parent Power Oldham is a collaboration between Oldham Opportunity Area, Greater Manchester Higher, Citizens UK, and the Women’s Chai Project (Oldham). The partnership with Trinity College also includes invaluable input from Dom Clarke (2002) who studied Economics, qualified as an accountant and returned to Bolton where he became Finance Director of the Marlborough Group, a financial services company headquartered in Bolton with 200 employees: ‘I’d like to help dispel myths about Cambridge and encourage applicants from the North to go to Cambridge… Having Cambridge on my CV has opened doors for me and has helped me in my career. I firmly believe that Cambridge should be for the brightest minds regardless of their education prior to university.’ Read.

IN MEMORIAM

Tributes have been paid to Trinity Fellow in Classics, John Easterling (1952), who passed away on 23 February. Read.

SAVE THE DATE – Commemoration of Benefactors, Friday 19 March 2021

All alumni are warmly invited to attend a virtual Commemoration of Benefactors event taking place on Friday 19 March at 6pm GMT.

The Commemoration of Benefactors usually takes the form of a service in Chapel, followed by a Feast in Hall. As that is not possible this year, it is being reimagined to marry the best elements of the traditional celebration with new features that have been designed to bring together the Trinity community of Fellows, students, alumni and staff.

This year’s event will include recordings from past services interspersed with speeches by the Master, Dame Sally Davies (e2019), former Bishop of London, The Right Reverend and Right Honourable The Lord Chartres (1965) and Professor Julia Gog (1994), Cambridge mathematician and member of the UK Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE). There will also be remarks by current students and the Senior Tutor, Professor Catherine Barnard (e1996) about the student experience at Trinity in the time of COVID-19. The Master’s speech will be followed by a live Q&A session with the Master and Professor Gog.

It should be a very interesting and enjoyable occasion and we hope you will tune in. The event will be recorded and available on the website shortly afterwards, so if you are not able to join us on the day you will be able to watch at your leisure. The full programme will be confirmed over the coming days so please keep an eye on the event pages on the website.

Athlete and PhD student in quantum physics Louise Shanahan (2019) set a new 800m personal best at the Elite Micro Meet in Dublin this week. Louise is hoping to represent the Republic of Ireland in the Paris 2024 Olympics and you can read all about her recent running achievements, and her PhD investigations into the use of nano diamonds to measure the temperature inside human cells, on the website. Read.

CAN YOU HELP? ANNUAL RECORD 1990

Do you have a copy of the Annual Record 1990 that you would be willing to donate to a fellow alumnus who is a keen collector? The 1990 edition is the only year missing from his collection, which he has been compiling ever since he graduated, and he would be tremendously grateful to anyone who could enable him to complete it. If you can help, please get in touch.

Congratulations to medical student and champion rower Imogen Grant (2014), who has won the Women of the Future Award 2021 in the sports category. The Award recognises inspiring stars of tomorrow, across all sectors. On receiving the award, Imogen said, ‘I am so honoured to have won the Sports category in the Women of the Future Awards! Every step of my sports journey I have been surrounded by inspirational women and they’re the reason I am who I am today.’

The University launched the Cambridge Black Alumni Network earlier this month with a special online event ‘Alumni Reflections: My Black Cambridge Experience’ featuring the guest panel of Priscilla Mensah, Trade for Development Policy Attachée at UK Mission, Geneva, Njoki Wamai, Assistant Professor in Politics and International Relations at United States International University-Africa, and Ashley John-Baptiste, Senior Digital Reporter at BBC News. To join the group, please contact the Network via the University website. You can also join the LinkedIn group or follow on Twitter.

TRINITY COLLEGE CLARK LECTURES

Rita Felski, John Stewart Bryan Professor of English, University of Virginia, and Niels Bohr Professor, University of Southern Denmark, is presenting this year’s Trinity Clark Lectures on the theme ‘Remix: On Literature and Theory’. Her first lecture ‘Remix’ took place on 18 February and is now available to watch on YouTube.

Please join us via zoom for the next three Lectures in the series:

• ‘On Recognition: Returning to Reims’ –  Thursday 4 March, at 5pm
• ‘On Disclosure: Robert Walser’ – Thursday 11 March, at 5pm
• ‘On Resonance: Stoner and Theory’ – Thursday 18 March, at 5pm.

ALUMNI BOOKSHELF

• Victoria Dowd (1990) – Body on the Island, published by Joffe Books, 23 February 2021.
• Amber Medland (2008) – Wild Pets, published by Faber, July 2021.

If you have a recent or forthcoming book, blog or article, podcast or production, and you haven’t shared the details with us yet, please get in touch.

Congratulations to soprano Molly Noon (2017), who will be joining the vocal ensemble VOCES8 in the spring. You can view the programme of forthcoming performances on their website, where Molly shares her excitement about joining the group. Read.

All alumni are welcome to join the Cambridge Society of Paris online on Wednesday 24 March at 7pm for their event ‘How can business benefit from the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement? Opportunities and Challenges’, with Professor Catherine Barnard (e1996) and Paul Taylor, Chief Operating Officer, Department for International Trade at the British Embassy in Paris. Please book via the Society’s website.

Booking is now open for the new, interdisciplinary Cambridge Festival, which is replacing the Cambridge Science Festival and the Cambridge Festival of Ideas. The primarily digital festival aims to tackle and offer solutions for humanity’s most pressing issues, from pandemics, climate change and global economics, to human rights and the future of democracy. Trinity participants include Director of Cambridge Zero, Dr Emily Shuckburgh (1994) on  ‘Mathematics: A tool kit to tackle climate change‘ on Saturday 27 March, and Director of the University’s Autism Research Centre, Professor Simon Baron-Cohen (e1995) on ‘The Pattern Seekers: A new theory of human invention’  on Tuesday 30 March at 1pm. Cambridge Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stephen Toope (1983) and human rights QC and author Phillippe Sands will be in conversation ‘On the origins of crimes against humanity’ on Friday 26 March, at 1pm. There are over 350 events to choose from so if you want to know the science behind why ice cream tastes so good, or to discover whether robots will ever be able to truly mimic humans, now is your chance to find out – visit the website for the full programme.

On Tuesday 9 March at 5pm, Trinity Fellow and Vera Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History, Samita Sen (1989) will deliver her Cambridge Faculty of History Inaugural Lecture entitled ‘Girls Marrying Men: Labour, Culture and Child Marriage in Colonial India’. The public lecture will take place via zoom – you can register via Eventbrite.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY – EVENTS OPEN TO ALL ALUMNI

• Online: Trinity Clark Lecture – ‘On Recognition: Returning to Reims’ with Professor Rita Felski, Thursday 4 March, 5pm. JOIN.
• Online: Faculty of History Lecture – ‘Girls Marrying Men: Labour, Culture and Child Marriage in Colonial India’ with Professor Samita Sen, Tuesday 9 March, 5pm. REGISTER.
• Online: Trinity Clark Lecture – ‘On Disclosure: Robert Walser‘ with Professor Rita Felski, Thursday 11 March, 5pm. JOIN.
• Online: Trinity Clark Lecture – ‘On Resonance: Stoner and Theory’ with Professor Rita Felski, Thursday 18 March, 5pm. JOIN.
• Online: Trinity College Commemoration of Benefactors 2021, Friday 19 March, 6pm. JOIN.
• Online: Trinity Research Talk – ‘Atoms, Molecules and Bonds Vibrations Coupling to Light’ with Dr Rohit Chikkaraddy (e2018), Wednesday 24 March, 6pm. REGISTER.
• Online: Cambridge Society of Paris – ‘How can business benefit from the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement? Opportunities and Challenges’ with Professor Catherine Barnard & Paul Taylor, Wednesday 24 March, 7pm. REGISTER.

We want to hear from you! Do keep us up-to-date with your latest achievements and activities for our Global Alumni News pages in The Fountain and the Alumni Achievements section in the Annual Record. Please send your news, appointments, and publications to: alumni-comms@trin.cam.ac.uk.

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Header image: Bees foraging in the snowdrops in the Fellows’ Gardens, enjoying the spring sunshine.