Wolfson College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford The University of Oxford , located in the English city of Oxford, is the oldest surviving university in the English-speaking world and is regarded as one of the world's leading academic institutions. Although the exact date of foundation remains unclear, there is evidence of teaching there as far back as the 11th century. The University grew in England The area now called England has been settled by people of various cultures for about 35,000 years, but it takes its name from the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in AD 927, and since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century, has had a significant. Located in north Oxford Oxford (pronounced /ˈɒksfərd/ ) is a city, and the county town of Oxfordshire, in South East England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 151,000 living within the district boundary. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through Oxford and meet south of the city centre. For a distance along the River Cherwell The River Cherwell (pronounced /ˈtʃɑrwɛl/ CHAR-well) is a river which flows through the Midlands of England. It is a major tributary of the River Thames, Wolfson is an all-graduate college with over sixty governing body fellows, in addition to both research and junior research fellows. It caters to a wide range of subjects, from the humanities to the social and natural sciences. The diversity of the college is reflected in its deeply international character and vibrant student body.

The current president of Wolfson College is Hermione Lee. The liberal philosopher Sir Isaiah Berlin Sir Isaiah Berlin OM was a Russian-speaking, Latvian-Jewish British philosopher and historian of ideas, regarded as one of the leading thinkers of the twentieth century, and as the dominant liberal scholar of his generation. He excelled as an essayist, conversationalist and raconteur; and as a brilliant lecturer who improvised, rapidly and was the college's first president, and was instrumental in its founding. The college houses The Isaiah Berlin Literary Trust and the annual Isaiah Berlin Lecture.

As of 2006 2006 was a common year that started on a Sunday. In the Gregorian calendar, it was the 2006th year of the Common Era, or of Anno Domini; the 6th year of the 3rd millennium and of the 21st century; and the 7th of the 2000s decade, the college had a financial endowment A financial endowment is a transfer of money or property donated to an institution. The total value of an institution's investments is often referred to as the institution's endowment and is typically organized as a public charity, private foundation or trust of £33.5 million.^[1]

Contents 1 History and character 2 Buildings and grounds 3 Academics 4 Library 5 Common room and hall 6 The gardens 7 Sports and punting harbour 8 Notable alumni 8.1 Academics 8.2 Administration 8.3 Law 8.4 Politics 9 Notable fellows 10 Notes and references 11 See also 12 External links

History and character

Forecourt and entrance

Presidents

Sir Sir is an honorific used as a title , or as a courtesy title to address a man without using his given or family name in most English speaking cultures. It is often used in formal correspondence (Dear Sir, Right Reverend Sir) Isaiah Berlin Sir Isaiah Berlin OM was a Russian-speaking, Latvian-Jewish British philosopher and historian of ideas, regarded as one of the leading thinkers of the twentieth century, and as the dominant liberal scholar of his generation. He excelled as an essayist, conversationalist and raconteur; and as a brilliant lecturer who improvised, rapidly and, 1967-1975 Sir Sir is an honorific used as a title , or as a courtesy title to address a man without using his given or family name in most English speaking cultures. It is often used in formal correspondence (Dear Sir, Right Reverend Sir) Henry Fisher, 1975-85 Sir Sir is an honorific used as a title , or as a courtesy title to address a man without using his given or family name in most English speaking cultures. It is often used in formal correspondence (Dear Sir, Right Reverend Sir) Raymond Hoffenberg, 1985-93 Professor The meaning of the word professor varies by country. In most English-speaking countries it refers to a senior academic who holds a departmental chair, especially as head of the department, or a personal chair awarded specifically to that individual. This is the case in most Commonwealth countries (except Canada) and the Republic of Ireland (which Jim Kennedy, (acting), 1993-1994 Sir Sir is an honorific used as a title , or as a courtesy title to address a man without using his given or family name in most English speaking cultures. It is often used in formal correspondence (Dear Sir, Right Reverend Sir) David Smith, 1994-2000 Professor The meaning of the word professor varies by country. In most English-speaking countries it refers to a senior academic who holds a departmental chair, especially as head of the department, or a personal chair awarded specifically to that individual. This is the case in most Commonwealth countries (except Canada) and the Republic of Ireland (which Jon Stallworthy, (acting), 2000 Sir Sir is an honorific used as a title , or as a courtesy title to address a man without using his given or family name in most English speaking cultures. It is often used in formal correspondence (Dear Sir, Right Reverend Sir) Gareth Roberts, 2000-2007 Professor The meaning of the word professor varies by country. In most English-speaking countries it refers to a senior academic who holds a departmental chair, especially as head of the department, or a personal chair awarded specifically to that individual. This is the case in most Commonwealth countries (except Canada) and the Republic of Ireland (which Jon Stallworthy, (acting), 2007-2008 Professor The meaning of the word professor varies by country. In most English-speaking countries it refers to a senior academic who holds a departmental chair, especially as head of the department, or a personal chair awarded specifically to that individual. This is the case in most Commonwealth countries (except Canada) and the Republic of Ireland (which Hermione Lee, 2008-present

Wolfson's first president Sir Isaiah Berlin Sir Isaiah Berlin OM was a Russian-speaking, Latvian-Jewish British philosopher and historian of ideas, regarded as one of the leading thinkers of the twentieth century, and as the dominant liberal scholar of his generation. He excelled as an essayist, conversationalist and raconteur; and as a brilliant lecturer who improvised, rapidly and, the influential political philosopher Political philosophy is the study of such as liberty, justice, property, rights, law, and the enforcement of a legal code by authority: what they are, why they are needed, what makes a government legitimate, what rights and freedoms it should protect and why, what form it should take and why, what the law is, and what duties citizens owe to a and historian of ideas, was instrumental in the college's founding in 1965 1965 was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

The college began its existence with the name Iffley College, which offered a new community for graduate students at Oxford, particularly in natural and social sciences. Twelve other colleges of the university provided grants to make the establishment of Iffley possible. As of 1965, the college had neither a president nor a building. Berlin set out to change this, eventually securing support from the Wolfson Foundation and Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford in 1966 1966 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the 1966 Gregorian calendar to establish a separate site for the college, which included 'Cherwell', the former residence of J.S. Haldane and his family, as well as new buildings built around it. Isaac Wolfson generously contributed to the foundation of the college. In recognition of his contribution the college's name was changed to Wolfson College.

But Berlin's work as the president of the college was far from over. Formally taking over the reins of the college in 1967 1967 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the 1967 Gregorian calendar, he envisioned Wolfson to be a centre of academic excellence but, unlike many other colleges at Oxford, also bound it to a strong egalitarian and democratic ethos.^[2] In Berlin's words, the college would be 'new, untrammelled and unpyramided'.^[2]

His ideals were largely achieved. Wolfson is perhaps the most egalitarian college at Oxford, with few barriers between students and fellows. There is no high table, only one common room for all the members of the college, and gowns are worn only on special occasions. Graduate students serve on the college's governing body and participate in General Meetings. Berlin's reputation and presence in the early years also helped shape the intellectual character of the college, attracting many distinguished fellows like Niko Tinbergen, who won a Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. They were established in 1895 by the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. The prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace were first awarded in 1901. The for his studies in animal behavior in 1973 1973 was a common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar) of the 1973 Gregorian calendar. Berlin's own prominence in the humanities helped attract many graduate students like Henry Hardy, interested in political philosophy Political philosophy is the study of such as liberty, justice, property, rights, law, and the enforcement of a legal code by authority: what they are, why they are needed, what makes a government legitimate, what rights and freedoms it should protect and why, what form it should take and why, what the law is, and what duties citizens owe to a and the history of ideas The history of ideas is a field of research in history that deals with the expression, preservation, and change of human ideas over time. The history of ideas is a sister-discipline to, or a particular approach within, intellectual history. Work in the history of ideas may involve interdisciplinary research in the history of philosophy, the.^[2]

Buildings and grounds

Berlin quad Tree quad

The college owns land on both sides of the River Cherwell The River Cherwell (pronounced /ˈtʃɑrwɛl/ CHAR-well) is a river which flows through the Midlands of England. It is a major tributary of the River Thames. It has one of the most modern buildings of all the Oxford colleges. The construction of the main building of the college was completed in 1974 1974 was a common year that started on a Tuesday. In the Gregorian calendar, it was the 1974th year of the Common Era or of Anno Domini; the 974th year of the 2nd millennium and the 5th of the 1970s decade. It was designed by the Powell and Moya Architects. The college's main building has three quadrangles: the central quadrangle named the Berlin Quad after Isaiah Berlin Sir Isaiah Berlin OM was a Russian-speaking, Latvian-Jewish British philosopher and historian of ideas, regarded as one of the leading thinkers of the twentieth century, and as the dominant liberal scholar of his generation. He excelled as an essayist, conversationalist and raconteur; and as a brilliant lecturer who improvised, rapidly and, as well as the Tree Quad built around established trees, and the River Quad into which the Cherwell has been diverted to form a punt harbour. One of the distinctive features of the grounds is the preservation of mature trees around and within the buildings.

The college has student accommodation in the main college building, in three child-friendly courtyards surrounded by family housing, and also has similar accommodation in a scattering of purpose-built blocks, including the Robin Gandy Buildings, and in existing houses on Linton Road, Chadlington Road and Garford Road. The college also owns the adjacent house and orchard which is currently occupied by the Bishop of Oxford.

Academics

Being a graduate college, it had, as of 2008, 614 students, 454 of whom were DPhils. The remainder were studying for the MPhil The Master of Philosophy is a postgraduate research degree. It is a lesser degree than the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), greater than (or sometimes equal to) the Bachelor of Philosophy (B.Phil.). An M.Phil. is generally considered equivalent to the French diplôme d'études approfondies (or DEA) or the Spanish Diploma de Estudios Avanzados (also, MSc, MSc by Research, MSt, MSt by Research, MBA The Master of Business Administration is a master's degree in business administration, which attracts people from a wide range of academic disciplines. The MBA designation originated in the United States, emerging from the late 19th century as the country industrialized and companies sought out scientific approaches to management. The core courses, EMBA, MLitt, MLitt by Research, BPhil, and Cert degrees. The college does not accept MJur or LLB candidates. It is also home to Oxford's Centre for Korean Studies and the International Association of Tibetan Studies. It was also home to the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Oxford,^[3] which has now moved to an independent location of the city.

Library

The college library, which occupies both the floors of one wing of the college's main building, has the main library on the first floor, approachable from the side of the dining hall and the lodge, and two other collections, called the Floersheimer Room and the Hornik Memorial Room on the ground floor. A mezzanine floor in the main library has books as well as carrels for individual use of graduate students of the college. The library has already emerged as an extensive collection of books and journals.

Common room and hall

Dining hall

The college has one common room for fellows and graduate students. The common room has two floors: the upper common room, with an attached terrace overlooking the punting harbour, which has a bar and a coffee counter, and the lower common room, which has magazines and newspapers. The college's hall is one of the few in the university to have common table. The 'Haldane John Burdon Sanderson Haldane FRS , known as Jack (but who used 'J.B.S.' in his printed works), was a British-born geneticist and evolutionary biologist. He was one of the founders (along with Ronald Fisher and Sewall Wright) of population genetics Room', a hall adjacent to the dinning hall proper, is where formal meals, especially the convocation lunch, are held.

The gardens

The college owns grounds on both sides of the river, including two meadows on the opposite side, towards Marston. It has a small but well maintained garden behind its main building, and beside the river. The garden is landscaped well on the river-bank, with a flight of steps leading up to a green-house and a sundial. The college also has a smaller garden beside the Robin Gandy building, which stands on the banks of the river.

Sports and punting harbour

Wolfson's punting harbour and island

The college own a squash court and has facilties for playing Table Tennis. Members of the college also go to the Summertown Community Centre to play badminton. The college participates in all other sporting events organised by the university, including cricket and soccer. The college also participates in the inter-university rowing events every year.

The college is one of the few in Oxford with its own punting harbour, with a well maintained fleet of punts for use by all members of the college community. There is a boat club on the ground floor of the 'C' Block, for this purpose, which is under the supervision of the Admiral of Punts, who is selected annually from the existing student body of the college. The college also has a croquet lawn.

Notable alumni

Academics

• Joe Andrew, Professor of Russian Literature at Keele University Keele University is a research-intensive campus university located near Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as an experimental college dedicated to a broad curriculum and interdisciplinary study, Keele is most notable for pioneering the dual honours degree in Britain. The University occupies a 617 acre rural campus
• Dame Kay Davies, Human Geneticist.
• Richard Ellis, CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions. In decreasing order of seniority, these are:, FRS The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is arguably the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London". The Society was initially an, extragalactic astronomer, Steele Professor at Caltech and former Director, Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge
• Artur Ekert, one of the pioneers of quantum cryptography Quantum cryptography is the use of quantum systems to do cryptographic tasks. The most famous example is quantum key distribution (QKD) which uses quantum mechanics to guarantee secure communication. It enables two parties to produce a shared random bit string known only to them, which can be used as a key to encrypt and decrypt messages, and winner of the Maxwell and Hughes medals, and the Descartes Prize
• Henry Hardy, author and editor, publisher of Isaiah Berlin's papers
• Nigel Hitchin, British mathematician, winner of the Sylvester Medal The Sylvester Medal is a bronze medal awarded by the Royal Society for the encouragement of mathematical research, and accompanied by a £1,000 prize. It was named in honour of James Joseph Sylvester, the Savilian Professor of Geometry at the University of Oxford in the 1880s, and first awarded in 1901, having been suggested by a group of
• Josef W. Meri He received a B.A. degree from University of California, Berkeley in 1992, an M.A. degree from State University of New York Binghamton in 1995 and a D.Phil degree from Wolfson College, Oxford, Oxford University in 1999, leading specialist in Islam in the pre-modern period, Islamic cultural and social history
• Michele Mosca, quantum scientist known for his work on quantum algorithms and NMR Nuclear magnetic resonance is a property that magnetic nuclei have in a magnetic field and applied electromagnetic (EM) pulse or pulses, which cause the nuclei to absorb energy from the EM pulse and radiate this energy back out. The energy radiated back out is at a specific resonance frequency which depends on the strength of the magnetic field quantum computation
• Iain Pears, popular British novelist, art historian

Administration

• Muhammad Sohail Anwar Choudhry, Senior Official (Deputy Secretary) for Government of Punjab, Pakistan

Law

• Karim Asad Ahmad Khan, Prosecutor in the UN International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, counsel before Special Courts in East Timor and Sierra Leone
• Hon. Justice Francisco Rezek, distinguished Brazilian jurist and member of the International Court of Justice The International Court of Justice is the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. It is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands. Its main functions are to settle legal disputes submitted to it by states and to give advisory opinions on legal questions submitted to it by duly authorized international organs, agencies, and the UN and formerly Foreign Minister A minister for foreign affairs, or foreign minister, is a cabinet minister who helps form the foreign policy of a sovereign state. The foreign minister is often regarded as the most senior ministerial position below that of the head of government . It is often granted to the deputy prime minister in coalition governments. In some nations, such as of Brazil Brazil (pronounced /brəˈzɪl/ ; Portuguese: Brasil, IPA: [bɾaˈziw]), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: República Federativa do Brasil, listen (help·info)), is the largest country in South America and the only Portuguese-speaking country in the Americas. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical
• Dame Hazel Genn, DBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions. In decreasing order of seniority, these are:, QC (Hon) Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel (KC) during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of "Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law". Membership exists in various Commonwealth countries around the world and it is a status, conferred by the Crown, that is recognised by courts, FBA, leading authority on civil justice whose work has had a major influence on policy-makers around the world

Politics

• Simon Upton, formerly Minister of Health, Environment and Science and Technology and member of the National Party The New Zealand National Party currently[update] is the largest party in the New Zealand House of Representatives and in November 2008 formed a minority government with support from three minor parties. For many decades National has been the largest (in terms of membership) centre-right conservative political party in New Zealand
• Mike Woodin, former principal speaker for the Green Party of England and Wales (later Fellow of Balliol)

See also Former students of Wolfson College, Oxford

Notable fellows

• Samson Abramsky, FRS The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is arguably the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London". The Society was initially an, computer scientist and developer of domain theory in logic form, game semantics Game semantics is an approach to formal semantics that grounds the concepts of truth or validity on game-theoretic concepts, such as the existence of a winning strategy for a player. In the late 1950s Paul Lorenzen was the first to introduce a game semantics for logic, and it was further developed by Kuno Lorenz. At almost the same time as and categorical quantum mechanics
• Leonie Archer, historian and leading authority on women in Jewish antiquity
• Sir Sir is an honorific used as a title , or as a courtesy title to address a man without using his given or family name in most English speaking cultures. It is often used in formal correspondence (Dear Sir, Right Reverend Sir) Isaiah Berlin Sir Isaiah Berlin OM was a Russian-speaking, Latvian-Jewish British philosopher and historian of ideas, regarded as one of the leading thinkers of the twentieth century, and as the dominant liberal scholar of his generation. He excelled as an essayist, conversationalist and raconteur; and as a brilliant lecturer who improvised, rapidly and, OM, CBE, regarded as one of the twentieth century's most influential liberal philosophers
• John Barnes, developer of the Ada programming language
• William Bradshaw, Baron Bradshaw, Member of the House of Lords
• Sebastian Brock, leading expert in Syriac language
• Amit Chaudhuri, Novelist
• Norman Davies, noted English historian of Welsh descent
• Simon Digby, oriental scholar
• Sir Anthony Epstein, CBE, FRS, discovered the Epstein-Barr virus
• Robin Gandy, mathematician and logician
• Sir Raymond Hoffenberg, KBE, endocrinologist and medical scientist and prominent opponent of apartheid in South Africa
• Sir Tony Hoare, FRS, computer scientist, developer of Quicksort the widely used sorting algorithm
• Roger Moorey, British archeologist and keeper of antiquities at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford
• Sir Gareth Roberts, FRS, physicist and influential figure in shaping British policy on the sciences
• Sumit Sarkar, Indian historian, former Professor of history, Delhi University
• Erich Wolf Segal, American author and screenwriter, wrote the screenplay for The Beatles' 1968 motion picture Yellow Submarine
• Steven Schwartz, Vice Chancellor of Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia
• Jon Stallworthy, Professor Emeritus of English, University of Oxford, UK
• Bryan Sykes, world renowned human geneticist
• Niko Tinbergen, Dutch ethologist and Nobel prize winner
• Geza Vermes, Christian and Jewish historian and leading authority on the Dead Sea Scrolls

See also Fellows of Wolfson College, Oxford

Notes and references

1. ^ Oxford College Endowment Incomes, 1973-2006 (updated July 2007)
2. ^ ^{a b c} Ignatieff, Michael (2000). Isaiah Berlin: A Life. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-026857-x.
3. ^ "Official website". http://www.csls.ox.ac.uk/.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Wolfson College, Oxford

• Wolfson College, Cambridge

External links

• Virtual Tour of the College
• Wolfson College wiki from Wikia

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