Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge

Vote for Caian Tom Allen (Biological Sciences PhD 2024) to win the Cambridge Sporting Moment of the Year.

With seconds left to play in the Rugby League Varsity match, Cambridge trailed 20-18. Up stepped Tom Allen, receiving a popped pass to charge through and score, securing the Light Blues' first away win in Varsity.

Voting closes on Friday at 12noon: https://www.sport.cam.ac.uk/sports-awards-2026-sporting-moment

https://www.instagram.com/p/DZr5n2ENEUp/

Vote for Caian Tom Allen (Biological Sciences PhD 2024) to win the @camunisport Sporting Moment of the Year. With seconds left to play in the Rugby League Varsity match, Cambridge trailed 20-18. Up stepped Tom Allen, receiving a popped pass to charge through and score, securing @curlfc_’s first away win in Varsity. Voting closes on Friday at 12noon - link in bio

Professor Tony Hunter (Natural Sciences 1962) is an eminent figure in the field of cancer research and an Honorary Fellow of Gonville & Caius College. His research, spanning over 50 years, has saved lives.

In 1979, he published a groundbreaking paper on his discovery of tyrosine phosphorylation, a mechanism causing malignant cell growth.

The therapeutics developed in the wake of Tony’s trailblazing discovery (tyrosine kinase inhibitors, or TKIs), have significantly reduced mortality rates of Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML) and some other cancers.

Read the full story on the College website.

Honorary Fellow on the importance of ‘blue sky’ scientific research Professor Tony Hunter (Natural Sciences 1962) is an eminent figure in the field of cancer research and an Honorary Fellow of Gonville & Caius College. His research, spanning over 50 years, has saved lives. In 1979, he published a groundbreaking paper on his discovery of tyrosine phosphorylation, a m...

Fleur Ruda (History 1994) has received an OBE in The King’s Birthday Honours.

Fleur, a lawyer in the Civil Service, says: “It’s increasingly rare for people to follow their hearts into the public sector, especially when graduating from a prestigious institution like Gonville & Caius College, but have faith, the civil service has some of the brightest and best people you will ever meet. There is also something for lawyers about creating new legislation - legislation is such a process.”

Caian awarded OBE for services to the Law Fleur Ruda (History 1994) has received an OBE in The King’s Birthday Honours. Fleur, a lawyer in the Civil Service, says: “It’s increasingly rare for people to follow their hearts into the public sector, especially when graduating from a prestigious institution like Gonville & Caius College, b...

Gonville & Caius College Fellow Professor Jason Scott-Warren has accepted an invitation to deliver the prestigious Lyell Lectures in Oxford next year, and plans to combine his academic and personal passions by analysing the climate crisis and the book.

“I was interested in thinking about how my own area of expertise is affected by factoring in climate; in trying to think through climate,” he says.

“This has taken me out of my comfort zone because I mostly work on sixteenth and seventeenth century books and reading, on print culture and manuscript culture. And instead I'm having to think a lot about where we are now.”

As one of 123 recipients of a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship, Professor Scott-Warren will spend the next academic year, from October 2026, exploring the climate crisis and the book and preparing for the 2027 Lyell Lectures at the University of Oxford. Annually since 1952, “a distinguished scholar has been elected to deliver the lectures, usually six in number, on any topic of bibliography, broadly conceived,” according to the Bodleian Library website. A book based on the lectures is set to follow.

Professor Scott-Warren’s work has been both a catalyst for his environmental activism and an escape from it. His work across literary studies and cultural history is embedded in a past which makes it clear to him how precious time is in the face of the climate emergency. It is a subject he wishes to explore further.

“I'm frustrated by the fact that much of life seems to go on much as usual, without registering the global situation,” he adds.

“A bundle of connected questions is taking shape in my mind in response to this challenge that I've set for myself.”

Full story on the College website.

The Climate Crisis and the Book - a Caius Fellow’s next project Gonville & Caius College Fellow Professor Jason Scott-Warren has accepted an invitation to deliver the prestigious Lyell Lectures in Oxford next year, and plans to combine his academic and personal passions by analysing the climate crisis and the book. “I was interested in thinking about how my ow...

Congratulations to Caius Fellow Professor Melissa Calaresu and her co-editor Professor Victoria Avery. They have won the Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS) Book Award for 2026 for The Pineapple from Domestication to Commodification: Re-Presenting a Global Fruit.

Full story on the College website.

Pineapple publication earns food book prize Gonville & Caius College Fellow Professor Melissa Calaresu and her co-editor Professor Victoria Avery have won the Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS) Book Award for 2026 for The Pineapple from Domestication to Commodification: Re-Presenting a Global Fruit.

Circulation and the seminal work of William Harvey, one of Gonville & Caius College’s most famous alumni, are celebrated in a new piece of public artwork installed at Cambridge South station, which is due to open later this month adjacent to Addenbrooke’s and Royal Papworth Hospitals, and the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.

Network Rail and Great British Railways Anglia (GBR Anglia) on Monday unveiled ‘Together We’, by Turner prize nominee (2006) Mark Titchner. The concept of the work focuses on the circulation and coming ‘together’ of people, with its origins in circulatory systems both medical and in transport.

This draws on Titchner’s research into Cambridge physician Harvey, who in 1628 revealed the hitherto secrets of blood circulation. Harvey discovered that blood is pumped around the body by the heart in a state of ceaseless motion. Harvey, born in 1578 and living through an extraordinary age of scientific revolution, studied at Caius before moving to the University of Padua to complete his medical studies.

https://www.cai.cam.ac.uk/news/harveys-circulation-discovery-celebrated-cambridge-south-station

Gonville & Caius College Fellow Professor Christine Holt has won the world-renowned Kavli Prize for Neuroscience, honouring her decades of research on brain development.

The Kavli Prize, awarded by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters since 2008, honours scientists for breakthroughs in astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience, transforming our understanding of the big, the small and the complex.

Professor Emerita of Developmental Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, Professor Holt is one of four Kavli Laureates in Neuroscience named on Wednesday. The 2026 recipients will receive the prize at a ceremony in Oslo presided over by the Norwegian Royal Family in September.

Professor Holt, Kelsey Martin, Erin Schuman and Oswald Steward received the Kavli Prize for Neuroscience “for the discovery of local protein synthesis in neurons and establishing its importance for brain development and plasticity”. The quartet, who made separate but related discoveries, shared a US Dollars 1million prize.

Professor Holt awarded Kavli Prize for Neuroscience Gonville & Caius College Fellow Professor Christine Holt has won the world-renowned Kavli Prize for Neuroscience, honouring her decades of research on brain development. The Kavli Prize, awarded by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters since 2008, honours scientists for breakthroughs in astro...

Dr Iain Overton (International Relations MPhil 1997) is an investigative journalist and Executive Director of the non-profit Action On Armed Violence, an organisation which conducts policy-informing research into human rights abuses in conflict. He is the author of two books, Gun Baby Gun (2015) and The Price of Paradise (2019), and teaches at SOAS as an Associate Professor.

“I have probably ended up, over a number of years, reporting in around 80 different countries,” says Iain. “I’ve actually travelled to around 110 countries and reported from about 25 war zones or places of high levels of armed violence.”

Human rights journalist on the benefits of a Cambridge education Dr Iain Overton (International Relations MPhil 1997) is an investigative journalist and Executive Director of the non-profit Action On Armed Violence, an organisation which conducts policy-informing research into human rights abuses in conflict. He is the author of two books, Gun Baby Gun (2015) and...

Gonville & Caius College Bye-Fellow Dr Eleanor Drage aims to support "manageable" use of interactive technology, following the publication of a new report which outlined the extent of aimless scrolling.

Surveys commissioned by Virgin Media O2 found UK adults on average spent four hours per day on their phone, with 36% of this taking place unintentionally. Dr Drage told the BBC that "this isn't just a question of people making unwise choices," but that we are "undermined by the immersive nature of the technology".

Seeking control in an age of aimless scrolling Gonville & Caius College Bye-Fellow Dr Eleanor Drage aims to support "manageable" use of interactive technology, following the publication of a new report which outlined the extent of aimless scrolling.