Hertford College

From the roof... 🌤️

🎉 We’re delighted to share that Hertford alumna Frances Hand has been selected as a BBC Radio 4 and AHRC New Generation Thinker for 2026.

One of only five academics chosen nationwide, Frances’s research focuses on making childbirth safer for women in the UK. Drawing on thousands of women’s testimonies, her work examines systemic harms in maternity care and argues for a more human rights focused response.

Currently completing a DPhil in Law at Oxford, Frances hopes to bring these important conversations to wider audiences through programmes across BBC Radio 4.

She says: ‘Sparking public conversations has always been incredibly important to me. My research is nothing without the women that have shaped it, and the national situation will not improve if we confine it to academic spaces.’

Congratulations, Frances! 🥳

Read the press release here: https://bit.ly/4oodBkD

📸 Chris Lacey Photography

We're going in... Hertford members and visitors on a recent tour of the library construction 🏗️

Exciting to see the inside rooms taking shape ✨

The College Cat's official position on the current weather: absolutely not.

📸 David Marlow

Oxford Pride 2026... bringing the rainbow to a sunny showery day 🏳️‍🌈

📸 Sebastian Page (first and last), Alex Freeman, Pat Roche

Congratulations to second-year Biology undergraduate Diogo Figueiredo Trovoada, who has been selected for the University of Oxford’s 2026 iGEM team! 👏🔬

iGEM is the world’s largest synthetic biology and bioengineering competition, bringing together over 400 student teams from around the world. Diogo joins a multidisciplinary team of 14 undergraduates working to develop an innovative treatment to tackle Varroa mites – a major threat to honey bee populations and global food production.

We look forward to hearing more about their exciting work in the months ahead 🐝