St Catharine's College Cambridge

23/06/2026

We were delighted to welcome members of the College community to watch the final day of the May Bumps by the river on Saturday 20 June 2026.

You may be interested to know that alumni are invited to join our Henley Royal Regatta Gathering on Friday 3 July 2026. We will be hosting a drinks reception at the Sea Cadets on Wargrave Road over lunchtime.

Please contact [email protected] for more information. If you are planning to attend, please let the Alumni Office know so that they have an idea of numbers.

23/06/2026

Catz Fellow Prof. Adrian Liston (2023) is celebrating the publication of a new interactive book that enables readers to trace the twists and turns of different career pathways in science. ‘The Professor, the Pipette & the Path Not Taken: Choose Your Science Career’ is a new spin on the branching narrative-style adventure genre that he has written with Prof. James Dooley, with illustrations by Yulia Lapko.

Prof. Liston told us: “Science careers can lead to world-changing discoveries, but every scientist experiences bumps in the road before finding success. We want readers to experience the agency they have over their own lives, and by replaying their career multiple times learn that things don’t have to go perfectly from the start in order to have an impact in science. With each choice they make as they turn the pages, readers can discover the many different types of success that can emerge from starting a career in science, with dishonesty the only true barrier to progression.”

Find out more at caths.cam.ac.uk/science-careers

22/06/2026

We're looking forward to our undergraduate open days on 9th and 10th July. There will be regular guided tours between 9.30am and 4.30pm each day led by our friendly students as well as drop-in sessions with academics involved in our admissions process, talks and mock interviews. Visitors are also more than welcome to use our water fountain and air conditioning if the weather stays hot. Find out more at www.caths.cam.ac.uk/OpenDays. https://youtube.com/shorts/aHwLgldOrtc

We're looking forward to showing everyone around and helping to ans...

21/06/2026

It's World Music Day so we're sharing a few memories from our recent school composition workshop, designed to support the next generation of musicians with their composition work. Participants currently studying A-level music or equivalent spent the day with us and had the opportunity to hear their work performed by Catz students in our Chapel and learn from Dr James Olsen (Bye-Fellow 2024), Alex Aitken (2010, Music) and Dr Edward Wickham (2026). The workshop was generously supported by Nigel Hess (1971, Music; Honorary Fellow 2016).

20/06/2026

Alumni, Fellows and students came together for our Catz in the City event on Wednesday 17 June at Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer LLP (HSFK). Catz Fellow Prof. Simon Taylor (2016) delivered a fascinating talk on the geopolitics of the energy transition that sparked several conversations across the evening.

This was our inaugural Catz in the City event. We are hoping that this new addition to the calendar of alumni events will create new opportunities for networking and connections across different generations in our community.

Special thanks to Mike Jacobs (1998, Law) for initiating and sponsoring the event, as well as Katie Noakes and her colleagues at HSFK for looking after us so well.

19/06/2026

An extra reason to smile this week as we've acquired a new property in central Cambridge, which will be ready to accommodate as many as 27 postgraduates by September 2027. Sir John Benger (1979, English), Master of St Catharine’s, said: “When this site became available, it presented an opportunity that we could simply not ignore. We moved swiftly to complete the purchase by drawing on reserves and diverting loan funds before fundraising was able to begin in earnest. Thank you to our Governing Body for enabling us to act decisively and to Peter (1974, Natural Sciences; Honorary Fellow 2019) and Christina (2016; Honorary Fellow 2019) Dawson for their generous gift towards this new home for our postgraduates.

“This property is about far more than providing an outstanding environment for our postgraduate students to live and learn; it is an investment in the shared experiences, intellectual community and powerful sense of belonging that make St Catharine’s so special. I invite our global community of alumni and friends – if they are in a position to give – to get in touch about supporting our decision to make a lasting difference to the lives of our postgraduate students for years to come.”

Read our announcement in full at caths.cam.ac.uk/brooklands-avenue

Pictured is Sir John with our MCR co-presidents who represent postgraduate students in our community (credit: Elodie Giuge) and postgraduates socialising outside at Russell Street, one of our existing properties (credit: Tobia Nava).

18/06/2026

Congratulations to Catz Fellow Prof. Hans van de Ven FBA (1988) on the publication of his new history of World War II in Asia. 'Blood Dawn: World War II and the Making of Modern Asia' (2026, Basic Books) recounts how people mobilised across Asia to defeat both Japanese aggression and European imperialism, forging a new landscape of independent nation states in the process.

He said, “I was lucky that the late Prof. Sir Christopher Bayly (1970; Honorary Fellow 2014) had an office right next door to mine at Catz. His approach to global history and way of thinking very much influenced my own research, including for 'Blood Dawn'.

“In various ways, Catz and Cambridge as a whole are closely involved in the forging of nation states during and after World War II, despite these events taking place thousands of miles away in Asia. Figures such as Jawaharlal Nehru (a Trinity alumnus and the first prime minister of India) and Tunku Abdul Rahman (a Catz alumnus and the first prime minister of Malaysia) tie our present-day community to the upheavals and new global order that followed World War II, illustrating the left-over linkages of empire.”

Read our news article at caths.cam.ac.uk/blood-dawn

Photo of Prof. van de Ven by Elodie Giuge.

17/06/2026

Task: Figure out if the Catz community will soon be able to claim a Taskmaster trophy. Your time starts now. ⏳

Channel 4 has announced that Catz alumnus Richard Ayoade (1995, Law) is lined up for the next series of Taskmaster, the long-running comedy show led by Greg Davies and his assistant Alex Horne. The broadcast date for series 22 has yet to be announced so we will have to await further instructions to see how he gets on... Best of luck, Richard!

Image credit: Channel 4

16/06/2026

We're so proud that astronaut Dr Jenni Gibbons (Fellow 2016–24; Honorary Fellow 2024) will be front and centre as lead capcom in NASA's Artemis III mission, which is scheduled for launch next year. She said, "I’ll be developing the ground support for the mission with the rest of the flight control team, including working on crew procedures and operations. I’ve been working on it a few weeks, and am looking forward to continuing the journey!"

She became a certified capsule communicator (also known as capcom) for Artemis II, serving as the voice between Mission Control on the ground and the crew in space. She is also a capcom for the International Space Station and is the first astronaut from an international partner country to be certified as an Artemis capcom.

Read more about her experience this year at caths.cam.ac.uk/artemis

Image credits: CSA/ASC and BBC

15/06/2026

Catz students, staff, Fellows and alumni have plenty of chances to support our talented students this week, by the river, in Main Court and in Chapel:
🚣 Our rowers are racing in the May Bumps from Wednesday 17 June until Saturday 20 June. Find out more about when and how to watch at cucbc.org/mays/times
🎶 There are lunchtime recitals by our students in Chapel at 1.15pm Tuesday 16 June and Thursday 18 June. [update: Thursday recital now cancelled]
🎼 Our annual May Week Concert starts outside in Main Court at 5.15pm on Friday 19 June, before continuing in the Chapel. Look out for performances by JazzCatz, the College Choir and Catzappella.

First photo by itsmeincambridge.uk