St Catharine's College

A wonderful opportunity to be part of the friendliest college in Cambridge! A JRF is a wonderful springboard to academic independence

Junior Research Fellowship The Governing Body of St Catharine’s College invites applications for election to a Junior Research Fellowship tenable from 1 October 2026 for three years. The Fellowship is open to those who are engaged in research in any aspect of: Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Biological Sciences (Biochemistry, Cell Biology, Genetics, Pathology, Pharmacology, Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, Plant Sciences, Psychology, Zoology), Medical Sciences, Physics, Veterinary Sciences.

Our next Junior Research Fellowship is open to early career researchers engaged in any aspect of: Applied Mathematics & Theoretical Physics, Biological Sciences, Medical Sciences, Physics or Veterinary Sciences. Find out more and apply by 12 December:

Erudite, eloquent, and moving lecture on Shakespeare & the textile imagination by the magnificent @starcrossed2018.bsky.social this evening. The hall was packed with admirers. Good to be reminded how enthralling the best scholarship can be. #Cambridge

Catz researchers teach old drugs new tricks:

@roychoudhurilab.bsky.social (2020) on how aspirin could prevent some cancers from spreading: www.caths.cam.ac.uk/...

PhD work by Felicity Crawshay-Williams led to the identification of new combinations of existing antibiotics: www.caths.cam.ac.uk/...

Sir Terence's funeral service will be held in Oxford on 15 December 2025 at 2pm, and his family are planning a memorial service next year. Further details available from terenceenglish.muchloved.com

Lord Chris Smith presents the 2023 James Campbell Piping Competition medal to Calum Rennie at Pembroke College

Five St Catharine's students with a teddy bear on a bench in Main Court

For #StAndrewsDay, two throwbacks featuring our Scottish students:
💙 Piping competition winner Calum Rennie (2020, Law) with Lord Chris Smith: caths.cam.ac.uk/piping (📸: @pembroke1347.bsky.social)
💙 The launch of our Finlay Family Bursary for undergrads from Scotland: caths.cam.ac.uk/scot...

👏👏👏

Alice Yau

Graduation procession in the rain with umbrellas leaves St Catharine's College

Graduating student with guests at St Catharine's College

Graduating student with guests at St Catharine's College

🎓 A small but mighty group from Catz processed in today's rain to receive their @cam.ac.uk degrees at our final #graduation ceremony of 2025: nine students who've already been members of our community for a combined total of >39 years! More photos are available at www.facebook.com/med...

stewie from family guy is sitting at a table eating cereal . ALT: stewie from family guy is sitting at a table eating cereal .

Ah thanks - that’s much better for our necks!

An image to promote the community call-out for the Black British Voices project at Cambridge University Library. We see a 1970s book illustration of a young boy and an older woman walking through a gate.

Black British Voices: Black British Collections.

Cambridge University Library is forming a community panel of Black British & Black Northern Irish individuals to help shape its 2027 exhibition & events programme.

🗓️ Deadline: 14 Dec 2025
🔗More info: https://loom.ly/9lDrGVY

St Catharine's College W1 crew at the College's boat house

St Catharine's College ladies netball team

Cambridge Men's A crew at the Fours Head

Our latest sports report celebrates students' rowing, rugby union, football &netball triumphs, incl Freddie Challacombe (2nd-year medic) winning gold for @cam.ac.uk at the Fours Head. Catch up with the action from Weeks 5 and 6 at caths.cam.ac.uk/spor...
📸2️⃣: @allmarkone.bsky.social

Main Court at St Catharine's College at night with a Christmas tree

Main Court at St Catharine's College at night

Spot the difference 🎄 Our Christmas tree has arrived & decorations will be appearing this week, just in time for students to celebrate an early Christmas (aka Bridgemas) together before the end of term. Thank you to the many different teams at Catz who make sure we look our festive best!

Great to see that Catz alumnus Professor Ben Lehner (1997, Natural Sciences) is giving the @cambiochem.bsky.social Alkis Seraphim Memorial Lecture on 4 December.

Sir Terence English (3 October 1932–23 November 2025) It is with great sadness that St Catharine’s has learnt that Sir Terence English KBE DL FRSCE FRCS FRCP, Honorary Fellow and a former Master of St Catharine’s, died on 23 November 2025. The College flag will be flown at half-mast in his memory on 26 November 2025.

The College flag flies at half-mast today in memory of pioneering transplant surgeon Sir Terence English (Honorary Fellow 1992; Master 1993–2000) who sadly died on 23 November 2025 at the age of 93. Read our tribute at caths.cam.ac.uk/sir-.... @royalpapworth.bsky.social @cam.ac.uk

YouTube video by St Catharine's College, Cambridge St Catharine's Day 2025: Lunchtime music from the College Choir

Especially for St Catharine's Day, our College Choir treated us to music in Main Court at lunchtime today: youtu.be/2DbRvVw-EPI?... Find out more about what we have in store for the Feast of St Catharine of Alexandria and our 552nd birthday at caths.cam.ac.uk/25-november

The cover of a book. Text reads TEXTILE SHAKESPEARE, the image shows black embroidery of plants and animals on a stained cream linen background.

Cambridge people! Do you like Shakespeare? Do you like material culture? You can hear me talking about BOTH in the Henn Lecture @stcatharines.bsky.social, 1 December, 5.30pm. There will be a reception after the lecture to launch Textile Shakespeare; info here
www.caths.cam.ac.uk/about-us/new...

An illustration of St Catharine (with Emperor Maxentius underfoot) from 'An historical inquiry touching Saint Catharine of Alexandria' (Cambridge, 1849) by Charles Hardwick

A map of the moon showing St Catharine's crater, from Giovanni Battista Riccoli's 'Almagestum novum' (Bologna, 1651).

Decorative binding from Jean Mielot's 'Vie de Ste Catherine d'Alexandrie' (Paris, 1881).

A woodcut of St Catharine from Peter Chalybs' 'Dive Catharine virginis' (Nuremberg, 1515).

Tomorrow is the Feast of St Catharine of Alexandria, in whose honour the College was founded in 1473. Our celebrations have evolved over the centuries and a wide range of activities are planned this year for all parts of our community: caths.cam.ac.uk/25-n... @cam.ac.uk

New research from Catz Fellow Prof. Richard Harrison (2007) looks these tiny magnetic fossils that are 50–100 nanometres wide & 56 million years old! He found they are the earliest evidence of an internal ‘GPS’ in an animal: www.caths.cam.ac.uk/... @cambridge-earthsci.bsky.social @gfz.bsky.social

Nice to see Proof get a mention in the @stcatharines.bsky.social alumni magazine. Although looks like I’ve been outdone by Richard ‘5 books and a Pixar show’ Ayoade.

How cell machinery makes fuel from sugars – and could treat disease A Bye-Fellow at St Catharine’s is among the scientists from the University of Cambridge who have finally worked out – 50 years since its discovery – how exactly a molecular machine found in mitochondria, the ‘powerhouses’ of our cells, allows us to make the fuel we need from sugars, a process vital to all life on Earth.

Discoveries by Catz Fellows this year:

Dr Denis Lacabanne (2024) on how the molecular machinery in mitochondria makes fuel from sugars: www.caths.cam.ac.uk/...

@profmarciniak.bsky.social (2011) on how the risk of punctured lung from a faulty gene is far higher than thought:

St Catharine's Main Court was visited by this fantastic fox, captured by our CCTV and alumnus Dr Adrian Murgoci (2014, Natural Sciences). Other recent wildlife spotted at Catz include bats and even a rabbit! Spotted: Fantastic fox at a Cambridge College #Fox #CambridgeUniversity

Main Court was recently visited by this rather fantastic fox, captured by our CCTV and alumnus Dr Adrian Murgoci (2014, Natural Sciences). Other recent wildlife spotted at Catz include bats and even a rabbit! Watch our video:

A pile of the 2025 edition of The St Catharine's Magazine on a window sill

The 2025 edition of The St Catharine’s Magazine is here! It is available to read online at stcatharinesalumni.c.... Copies will begin arriving soon for alumni who requested a print copy. Thank you to all the members of the Catz community who have contributed and edited content this year.

Understanding the risks from the international trade in ornamental plants Scientists involved in the Biosecurity Research Initiative at St Catharine's (BioRISC) are warning that invasive pests are slipping unnoticed into northern Europe in huge shipments of cut flowers and ...

www.caths.cam.ac.uk/ornamental-p...

Ancient ‘animal GPS’ identified in magnetic fossils The earliest evidence of an internal ‘GPS’ system in an animal has been identified by researchers, which could help explain how some modern birds and fish

Cambridge researchers have uncovered the earliest evidence of ‘animal GPS’ in tiny magnetic fossils from 97 million years ago.

What left them behind? And what insights can they shed? Dig in: bit.ly/3LQxykH

@cambridge-earthsci.bsky.social @stcatharines.bsky.social @gfz.bsky.social 🧪

Britain’s poetic obsession with the lawnmower Research by a postgraduate student at St Catharine's has revealed how British poets over the last 50 years such as Philip Larkin and Andrew Motion have driven a ‘lawnmower poetry microgenre’, using the machine to explore childhood, masculinity, violence, addiction, mortality and much more. Francesca Gardner, an English PhD student, argues in her article published by Critical Quarterly that this tradition goes back to the 17th-century poet Andrew Marvell who used mowing – with a scythe – to comment on the violence of the English Civil War.

ICYMI hortological hues to Catz research this year:
💚 @frankiegardner.bsky.social, English PhD, on Britain's obsession with lawnmower poetry: www.caths.cam.ac.uk/...
💚 @billsutherland.bsky.social (Fellow 2008–24; Hon Fellow 2024) on risks from the ornamental plant trade:

Applications are now open for the 2026 Experience Postgrad Life Sciences Programme!

➡️ Find out more and apply: www.exppg.lifesci.cam.ac.uk

#SummerResearch
#LifeSciences
#CambridgeUniversity

A highlight from our Wheel newsletter was an article dedicated to research by Catz Fellows that is driving groundbreaking innovations in healthcare ft. @profmarciniak.bsky.social (2011), Dr Nisha Nixon (2009, Med Sci; Fellow 2022) & Prof. Michael Sutcliffe (1993). Read more: www.caths.cam.ac.uk/...

Fellowship news The Governing Body of St Catharine’s has awarded an Honorary Fellowship to a longstanding member of the College community and welcomed new Official Fellows and Bye-Fellows.

🎓 Dr Alfonso Ruocco - Bye-Fellow in Engineering.
🎓 Dr Katharina Tegethoff - Bye-Fellow in Engineering.

Read today's announcement: www.caths.cam.ac.uk/fellows-nov2... 2/2 @eng.cam.ac.uk

Prof. Eilis Ferran

Dr Sungkyung Kang, Dr James Lello, Dr Alfonso Ruocco & Dr Katharina Tegethoff

Fellowship news:
🎓 @eilisf.bsky.social (1980, Law; Fellow 1987–2024; Emeritus Fellow 2024–25) - Honorary Fellow
🎓 Dr Sungkyung Kang - Official Fellow in Maths
🎓 Dr James Lello (2011, English; Bye-Fellow 2024) - Official Fellow in English

@cambridgelaw.bsky.social @gatescambridge.bsky.social 1/2

View of St Catharine's College from the street with two beech trees shedding golden leaves on to the paths below

Want to turn over a new leaf in your career? There are new opportunities to join us:
🎓 Tutorial Administrator - apply by 10am on Monday 1 December.
🦺 Health & Safety Adviser - apply by 10am on Thursday 4 December.

Learn more & start your application at caths.cam.ac.uk/join-our-team