Acta

Approval of Grace submitted to the Regent House on 13 June 2018

The Grace submitted to the Regent House on 13 June 2018 (Reporter, 6510, 2017–18, p. 698) was approved at 4 p.m. on Friday, 22 June 2018.

Congregation of the Regent House on 20 June 2018: Honorary Degrees

A Congregation of the Regent House was held this day at 2.45 p.m. The Chancellor was present. Before the Congregation processions formed and then entered the Senate-House by the East Door. The train of the Chancellor’s robe was carried by Mr Matthew Holland, of Gonville and Caius College.

Music was performed at the Congregation by the Cambridge University Brass Ensemble, by Mr Ignacio Mañá Mesas, of St John’s College, and by members of the choirs of Corpus Christi College and Emmanuel College. The programme of music was arranged by the University Organist, Mr Andrew Nethsingha, of St John’s College, and the choirs were conducted by Mr Robin Walker, of Corpus Christi College, and Mr Richard Latham, of Emmanuel College.

The following titular degrees were conferred:

Doctor of Law (honoris causa)

Leszek Borysiewicz, kt, d.l., m.a., f.r.c.p., f.r.s., f.med.sci., f.l.s.w.,

Fellow of Wolfson College, Honorary Fellow of Wolfson, St Edmund’s, and Homerton Colleges, Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Medicine Emeritus, Chair of Cancer Research UK, physician, immunologist, and academic leader

Doctor of Medical Science (honoris causa)

Frances Ashcroft, d.b.e., m.a., ph.d., sc.d., f.r.s., f.med.sci.,

Honorary Fellow of Girton College, Professor of Physiology in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy, and Genetics at the University of Oxford, medical physiologist

Doctor of Science (honoris causa)

Emmanuelle Charpentier,

Director of the Department of Regulation in Infection Biology, the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin and Honorary Professor, Humboldt University, Berlin, microbiologist, geneticist, and biochemist

Doctor of Science (honoris causa)

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, kt, p.r.s.,

Fellow of Trinity College, Group Leader in the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Nobel Laureate, Honorary Professor of Structural Biology, structural biologist

Doctor of Letters (honoris causa)

Michael Edwards, kt, o.b.e., m.a., ph.d.,

Honorary Fellow of Christ’s College, Professor Emeritus of the Study of Literary Creation in the English Language, Collège de France, Paris, and member of the Académie française, poet and literary scholar

Doctor of Letters (honoris causa)

Robert Evans, m.a., ph.d., f.b.a., f.l.s.w.,

Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Regius Professor of History Emeritus, University of Oxford, historian

Doctor of Letters (honoris causa)

Ira Katznelson, ph.d.,

Fellow of Sidney Sussex College and member of St John’s College, Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions 2017–18, Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History, Columbia University, New York, political scientist and historian

Doctor of Letters (honoris causa)

Joyce Reynolds, m.a., f.b.a.,

Honorary Fellow of Newnham College, Reader in Roman Historical Epigraphy Emerita, classicist and epigrapher

The Orator delivered the following speeches when presenting to the Chancellor the recipients of these Honorary Degrees:

PRINCIPES mortales, rempublicam autem aeternam1 dixit rerum Romanarum scriptor: quod, ut opinor, et de hac nostra Academia scripsisset, quam Procancellarii iam cccxlvi, uiri feminaeque amplissimi et doctrina repleti, diligenter direxerunt, quorum serie proximus nunc adest honorandus. quibus eum uerbis adducam quem saepius huic conuentui praesidere quam supplicem adstare uidimus? quid enim opus commendare uirum tam bene cognitum et artissimo amicitiae uinculo nobiscum coniunctum? quod si nobis non praefuisset, Magistri; si aliae essent inueniendae causae cur eum honestemus, haud scio an pallam alio colore tinctam ei offeramus cui arte medicinali praeclara inuenta laudem maximam attulerint. quisnam quot milia mulierum sero illo quod ad phagedaenam quandam exstirpandam composuit a morbo eripuerit numerare potest?

non tamen rerum inuentorem hodie honoramus sed academiae ducem. qui Concilio Rei Medicae instituto praesederat, quid mirum si eis consulit qui stipatis in elaboratoriis rerum naturam persequuntur? ueruntamen numquam eorum erat immemor qui in deserta bibliotheca abditi ueritatem tenuiorem indagare conantur. idem aduena familia ortus nimirum eis enixe se opposuit qui patriae amorem simulantes populariter agunt et quasi bellum parent etiam eorum modos postulant qui apud nos peregrinantes studiis se adhibent. sed ne diutius uos demorer, Magistri, nauis dicamus Cantabrigiensis stantem celsa in puppi uentis interdum aduersis et procellis nonnumquam iactatam ratem feliciter gubernasse dum cursu tandem confecto clauum successori tenendum tradiderit. licet mortales sint principes: huius modi defensoribus ademptis non modo non florere uerum ne permanere quidem dico posse academiam.

dignissime domine, Domine Cancellarie, et tota academia, praesento uobis egregium hunc uirum, equitem auratum, Regiae in comitatu Cantabrigiensi legati uicarium, Magistrum in Artibus, Medicorum Regii Collegi sodalem, Regiae Societatis sodalem, Scientiarum Medicarum Academiae sodalem, Conuentui Doctissimorum Cambriensium sodalem inter conditores adscriptum, Collegi Wolfsoniani socium, Collegiorum Wolfsoniani, Sancti Edmundi, Homertonensis honoris causa socium adscitum, officio Procancellarii apud nos functum et artis medicinalis professorem emeritum, conuentus ad cancrum inuestigandum instituti praesidem, uirum medicum et academiae ducem,

LESZEK BORYSIEWICZ

(qui apud nos BORYS nuncupatur),

ut honoris causa habeat titulum gradus Doctoris in Iure.

LEADERS come and go (Tacitus might have said) but the institution remains. That is certainly true of our University. Three-hundred and forty-six men and women of distinction and learning have served as our Vice-Chancellor. The last to have held office leads our line of honorands. How should your Orator introduce a man whom we are more used to seeing presiding over this Senate-House than standing as a supplicant before it? What need of an introduction for someone so well known and bound to us in such close friendship? Had he not been our Vice-Chancellor, were I to need some other reason that he should be honoured, I have no doubt that we should be offering him a gown faced with a different colour, suitable for one who has won great renown for discoveries in the science of medicine; for countless are the lives he has saved with the HPV vaccine which he devised.


Yet it is not as a scientist that we hail him today, but as an academic leader. A former president of the Medical Research Council, of course he was a champion of large-scale scientific collaboration; but he was never forgetful of the lone scholar, hunting a more subtle truth among the dusty books. The child of an immigrant family, it is no wonder that he opposed so vigorously those architects of an environment intended to be hostile even to those who choose to come from overseas to study amongst us. For seven years, standing on the high poop deck, so to speak, he safely guided his ship through storms and narrows until, his journey done, he handed the tiller to his successor. Leaders may come and go; but without champions such as this man, an institution such as ours is unable to flourish, unable even to remain standing.

Distinguished Chancellor, members of the University, I present to you

LESZEK BORYSIEWICZ, kt, d.l., m.a., f.r.c.p., f.r.s., f.med.sci., f.l.s.w.,
known to us as BORYS,

Fellow of Wolfson College,
Honorary Fellow of Wolfson, St Edmund’s, and Homerton Colleges,
Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Medicine Emeritus,
Chair of Cancer Research UK,
physician, immunologist, and academic leader,

that he may receive the title of the degree of Doctor of Law, honoris causa.

ORCHIBVS contextis huc fer coronam, Camena, ut huius mulieris laudes canam quae scintillam uitae percontata spem multis morbo dicto diabetico afflictis reddidit.

nunc age quo pacto ui quadam membra agitentur
callida uti sit mens, acies ut sensibus apta,
pectore uti in ualido cieat cor sanguini’ motus,
expediam: primum non uno scire necessest
uim manare amni placido uel flumine uectam:
nam quotiens cellae distantia moenia tangit,
haud secus ac riuum surgentem continet agger,
fit mora, consistit, neque iter iam carpere pergit.
non tamen omnino fit finis progrediendi:
ecce, foramina sunt, cellae spiramina parua,
quae cum uiuida uis ictu plagisque lacessit
captanda ad cellam uicinam semina mittunt,
e quibus ebibitis uitae tenuis renouatur
paulatimque hominis currit per membra potestas.
fit quoque ut interdum uitium sit triste coortum
unde quod aut debet clausum remanere foramen
signum promittit falsum cum stet patefactum,
aut quod hiare decet, frustra feriente uigore,
clausum non halare potest quae semina debet.
talia qui morbi sectantur filia nostra
clare perscrutata uidet, nouit, medicatur:
grates huic meritas et nos referamus, et illi
quos puerili soluit acus formidine uanae.

dignissime domine, Domine Cancellarie, et tota academia, praesento uobis egregiam hanc mulierem, excellentissimi ordinis Imperi Britannici dominam commendatricem, Magistram in Artibus, Doctorem in Philosophia necnon in Scientiis, Regiae Academiae Sodalem, Scientiarum Medicarum Academiae Sodalem, Collegi Girtonensis honoris causa sociam adscitam, physiologiae apud Oxoniensis professorem, artis medicinae necnon physiologiae doctissimam,

FRANCES ASHCROFT,

ut honoris causa habeat titulum gradus Doctoris in Scientiis Medicinalibus.

A CROWN of wild orchids1 woven hither bring, O Muse, that we may sing the praises of a woman who has investigated the very spark of life, and given hope to those who live with diabetes.

Now attend: how a subtle force animates our limbs
So that the mind is sharp and the senses keen
And the heart stirs the blood within the breast
I will expound. The electric charge, you must understand,
Does not move in one continuous flow or stream:
For as soon as it reaches the boundary of a cell,
As the dam stems the swollen river,
There is a pause, it halts, and rests awhile.
And yet its progress is not wholly stopped:
Behold, there are in the cell’s wall pores
Or channels, which when struck by some charge
Send forth ions to the neighbouring cell
From which the vital spark is raised anew
And goes by steps throughout the body.
Yet it often happens that by some fault
A pore which should be closed, untouched
Gapes open and raises a false signal,
Or one which should open at the touch of force
Stands closed and does not send out what it should.
What diseases arise from such faults, our alumna
Has probed. She knows their causes and their cures.
We give her well-earned thanks, and so do children
Whom she has freed from fear of useless needles.

Distinguished Chancellor, members of the University, I present to you

FRANCES ASHCROFT, d.b.e., m.a., ph.d., sc.d., f.r.s., f.med.sci.,

Honorary Fellow of Girton College,
Professor of Physiology in the Department of Physiology,
Anatomy and Genetics at the University of Oxford,
medical physiologist,

that she may receive the title of the degree of Doctor of Medical Science, honoris causa.

ΝΟΥΣΗΜΑΤΑ ἀπὸ σμικρῶν προφασίων μεγάλα γίνεσθαι cum scripsisset Hippocrates, artis medendi conditor et praeceptor doctissimus, forsitan parua ea morbi semina in mente haberet quae, quia sint forma baculi similia, βακτήρια Graece nuncupantur. quamuis sint pusilla, quamuis simplicia, nihilominus a particulis morbiferis subtilissimis in uicem appetuntur quibus e primordiis genitiuis compositis et πρωτείου tegmine inuolutis, tamquam si non animantia sint sed ueneni micae, nomen imponitur uirus. haec enim ideo in quamlibet cellulam irrepunt ut materie comesa et in suam imaginem demutata locustarum more iterum erumpant et pestilentiam propagent. nonnumquam tamen fit ut impetu nescioquo pacto repulso bacillus quidam aliquid ex profligati oppugnatoris particulis genitiuis sublatum penitus in se recondat ut proelio alio tempore renouato eundem hostem ingressum recognoscat et uiribus ad se pellectis repugnet. nam id quod proximo impetu ereptum erat iam quasi in gladium uel in forficem acutissimam conflatum altera quadam molecula ad suam similitudinem adductum oppugnantium fila genetica secat.


haec omnia recognouit et in usum conuertit mulier doctissima quam nunc salutamus. quae tamen copiosius persequi me conantem, Magistri, aut impediat patrii sermonis egestas; aut, ipsorum indagatorum uerbis modo sesquipedalibus modo imminutis usurpare ausus, uereor ne, ut uir medicus ille ineptus apud Sophoclen, θρηνεῖν uidear ἐπῳδάς. hoc tantum igitur dicam: haud facilius Tiro sui Ciceronis uerba cerae mandata recensuit quam qui nunc sunt rerum inuentores moleculis inserendis eximendis substituendis linguam ipsam uitae in intimis cellulis inscriptam quolibet modo emendare possunt.

dignissime domine, Domine Cancellarie, et tota academia, praesento uobis egregiam hanc mulierem, offici contagionis moderandae rectricem in Instituto Planckiano apud Berolinos condito, Vniuersitati Humboldtianae honoris causa professorem adscitam, rerum microbiologicarum, geneticarum, biochemicarum studiosissimam,

EMMANUELLE CHARPENTIER

‘SERIOUS illnesses arise from small causes’, said Hippocrates,1 the founder and great teacher of the art of medicine. He might have had in mind the tiny seeds of disease which we call bacteria. Yet even these fall prey to yet tinier pathogens so very simple—they are nothing more than DNA wrapped in protein—that they hardly seem alive at all but merely droplets of poison, whence they received the name virus. When they invade a cell, like locusts they devour its material and convert it into copies of themselves, which burst forth and spread the plague. Sometimes it happens that a bacterium fends off the assault and secretes within itself some fragment of the routed enemy’s DNA. Should the same virus invade again, the bacterium recognises its attacker and uses its own forces against it: for what it stole in the previous battle it has turned into a kind of weapon, which, guided by a second molecule, hunts out its own likeness in the viral genetic strand and like a pair of scissors crisply cuts it.

All of this was discovered and put to use by the distinguished woman we now salute. If your Orator were to try to explain the details, the traditional idiom of this Senate-House would hobble his tongue; or were he to adopt the language of the scientists themselves, full of strange words and stranger abbreviations, he fears that he would sound like the quack in Sophocles who moans his incantations over his patient.2 Let me say this, then: using the tools she has devised, today’s researchers can cut and paste the very language of life written in the nucleus of the cell as easily as they edit their papers with a word processor.

Distinguished Chancellor, members of the University, I present to you

EMMANUELLE CHARPENTIER,

Director of the Department of Regulation in Infection Biology,
the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin
and Honorary Professor, Humboldt University, Berlin,
microbiologist, geneticist and biochemist,

that she may receive the title of the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa.

ΠΡΟΣΩ δὲ λεύσσων ἐγγύθεν γε πᾶς τυφλός. ita Sophocles. quod omnino falsum dictum esse, testis hospes hic noster, qui in rebus quam minimis patefaciendis tam longe prospexit ut omnes aemulatores semper anteuenerit.

descriptionem quandam et partes conformandi quasi rationem e qua forma et membra corporis exprimi possint cellulas omnium animantium in sese penitus reconditam habere quis nescit? sed quo pacto perparuula illa machinamenta quae ribosomata nuncupantur particulis genetiuis legendis transcribendisque illas πρωτείων catenas producere possent, e quibus omnia quae uitae essent usui contexerentur et neruos uiscera tota denique corpora componerentur, id in occulto latuerat. quae enim humana oculorum acies res tam pusillas et ex atomis compositas discernere potest? cuius tamen machinae si nota esset structura uim effectusque in obscuro manere non posse intellexit hic uir.

ribosomatis igitur bipartitis e microbio ereptis et crystalli similibus redditis, radiis Roentgenianis immissis primum partis minoris tum totius compaginis conformationem initio obscurius postea summa claritate illustrauit. laureis tamen Nobelianis donatis non contentus quia corpuscula magis magisque tortuosa particulatim explorata designare cupiebat res nullo colore tinctas sed aere condensato et ad naturam aquae reuocato congelatas non luce quidem sed particulis ui electridos imbutis quibus acutius cernere posset collustrauit. iam fermenti iam humanum ribosoma ita ante oculos cadit ut acidorum catenas, catenarum uincula, uinculorum atomos singulas perspicere possimus. et iure miramur, Magistri: ὄψις γὰρ τῶν ἀδήλων τὰ φαινόμενα.

dignissime domine, Domine Cancellarie, et tota academia, praesento uobis egregium hunc uirum, equitem auratum, palmis Nobelianis coronatum, Regiae Societatis praesidem, Collegi Sanctae et Indiuiduae Trinitatis socium, in Elaboratorio Biologiae Molecularis contubernio praefectum, compaginum biologicarum conformationis honoris causa professorem adscitum,

VENKATRAMAN RAMAKRISHNAN,

ut honoris causa habeat titulum gradus Doctoris in Scientiis.

‘THE far-sighted man,’ said Sophocles, ‘may not see what is near at hand.’1 Our honorand gives the lie to that. In making out the minutest detail of the smallest things he has made so many innovations that he has always been far ahead of his rivals.

It is common knowledge that the cells of every living thing have hidden deep within themselves a kind of plan or blueprint from which the various parts of the organism can be built; but how the tiny machines called ribosomes were able to read and transcribe the genetic code and so weave together the chains of proteins which form the necessities of life, and from which tissues and organs and whole bodies are composed, that remained utterly mysterious. For what human vision is so sharp as to discern such tiny things, put together from atoms themselves? This man, however, realised that if he knew their structure, their workings and effects could not long remain hidden.

He took the ribosomes from a bacterium and crystallised them. By illuminating them with X-rays he revealed the structure first of the smaller of their two parts and then of the whole, at first more crudely, but later with the greatest clarity. Not content to rest upon his Nobel laurels, but eager to resolve ever more complex structures in ever greater detail, he abandoned dyes and X-rays for electron cryomicroscopy: suddenly he could see the ribosomes of yeast, and even of human cells, and in such resolution that the chains of RNA, the base pairs, and even the individual atoms came into view. Rightly we marvel, for he has revealed glimpses of the invisible.2

Distinguished Chancellor, members of the University, I present to you

VENKATRAMAN RAMAKRISHNAN, kt, p.r.s.,

Fellow of Trinity College,
Group Leader in the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology,
Nobel Laureate, Honorary Professor of Structural Biology,
structural biologist,

that he may receive the title of the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa.