MAGDALEN COLLEGE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Department: Development Office
Job Titles:
- Department: Development Office
Dr Fran Colles studied Zoology and Microbiology at Aberystwyth University, completed an MSc in Medical Microbiology at the University of Westminster, before moving to the University of Oxford where she obtained a DPhil in molecular epidemiology. She began her career in diagnostic and clinical microbiology laboratories and is a professionally qualified Biomedical Scientist. She now works in research with a public health focus.
Teaching
Dr Colles is a Departmental lecturer and teaches on microbiology and infectious disease options within the undergraduate Biology course. She has extensive experience teaching practical classes across different Departments and Summer Schools within the University of Oxford, as well as supervising undergraduate projects.
Job Titles:
- Department: English Language and Literature
Job Titles:
- Department: Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Background
Dr Lauren Phillips studied in biological sciences where she became fascinated with the world of genetics and how changes to our DNA can affect our body's form and function. She gained diverse research experience whilst investigating novel genetic causes of limb girdle muscular dystrophy using whole exome and whole genome sequencing, before securing a PhD studentship to identify novel genetic causes of Congenital Heart Disease and Cardiomyopathies.
Following the completion of her PhD at Newcastle University in 2021, she joined the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Oxford as a British Heart Foundation funded postdoctoral researcher investigating the mechanism of myoendothelial feedback within the microvasculature in Professor Kim Dora and Professor Christopher Garland's laboratory. In February 2023, Lauren joined Magdalen College as a Fellow by Examination.
Job Titles:
- Department: Libraries and Archives
Job Titles:
- Department: Libraries and Archives
I have a BA (Hons) in English from the University of Exeter (2008). After gaining experience in the archive sector I studied for a Masters in Archive Administration at Aberystwyth University (2012) where I wrote my dissertation on the treatment of literary archives. In 2013, I began a full-time PhD at the University of Portsmouth entitled ‘Julia Margaret Cameron and Archival Creativity: Traces of the Photographic Imagination from the Victorian Album to Neo-Victorian Fiction' which I completed in 2017. My research interests include the relationship between literature and the archive, nineteenth-century photography and neo-Victorian fiction.
In 2019, I completed a cataloguing project at Gwent Archives funded by the Wellcome Trust on ‘‘A Penny in the Pound' to ‘Free at the Point of Delivery': Cataloguing the pre- and post-1948 hospital records of Monmouthshire'. This cataloguing project traced the origins of the NHS in South Wales Medical Aid Societies to the fruition of a universal health care system in early NHS records, and culminated in a public event in April 2019. I have also worked as an Assistant Archivist at Bath Record Office in 2011.
Role at College
Job Titles:
- Department: Biological Sciences
Job Titles:
- Officer
- Department: Philosophy
Background
Dr Rebecca Shakir obtained her medical degree at Imperial College School of Medicine, London. She trained in Clinical Oncology in Oxford, and is nearing completion of a DPhil at Green Templeton College, Oxford. She is a Clinical Oncology SpR at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. In her role as Sherrington Lecturer she has organisational responsibility for the clinical medical students at Magdalen college.
Job Titles:
- Department: Libraries and Archives
Richard manages the college's rich archives collections, not only cataloguing them, but also answering enquiries about them, from both inside and outside Magdalen, and promoting them more widely. He also oversees the arrival of new accessions to the archives, be it transfers from offices within the college, or gifts from former members and others. He heads the Archives staff within the Library and Archives team, overseeing the work of the Assistant Archivist and the Wilson Project Archivist.
Background
Prior to arriving at Magdalen, Richard was Archivist and Research Fellow at St Peter's College, Oxford, and a Junior Research Fellow in Medieval History at St John's College, Oxford. He has also held positions (both academic and otherwise) at the Université de Caen and the U.S. House of Representatives. He holds a PhD in History from the University of Glasgow and a PGDip in Archives and Records Management from University College London.
Richard is an Associate Member of the History Faculty, and continues to present and publish regularly on his chosen specialism, the ecclesiastical history of northern France (in particular Normandy) in the High Middle Ages. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Richard also serves as a Trustee of the Oxford Historical Society and of the Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature.
Research interests
Richard's research concerns the ecclesiastical history of northern France in the High Middle Ages, with a particular focus on ducal Normandy (911-1204). He works primarily with charters and other such administrative records, and is particularly interested in what this material can reveal about the political, legal, economic and cultural circumstances of the societies in which it was produced. He has also published widely on topics ranging from ecclesiastical rivalry, through excommunication, the nature of episcopal power, the Cistercian abbey of Savigny, and the role of relics in the Middle Ages.
Background
Sebastian Fica was born in Romania and studied in the United States, where he received his BA in molecular biology from Skidmore College in 2007 and his PhD in cell and molecular biology from The University of Chicago in 2013. From 2014 to 2021 he pursued postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Kiyoshi Nagai at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, being supported by an EMBO Long Term Fellowship and a Marie Sklodowska Curie Fellowship. In 2021 he was appointed a Wellcome Trust and Royal Society Sir Henry Dale Fellow to start his independent research group in The Department of Biochemistry at Oxford University. He joined Magdalen College as a Senior Demy in 2021.
I am a Postdoctoral Research Associate based in the Department of Biology and affiliated with the Calleva Research Centre at Magdalen College. I completed my undergraduate studies at the University of Oxford in Biological Sciences. Subsequently, I obtained my DPhil degree and continued my research as a postdoc with Prof. Nicholas Harberd, during which we elucidated the evolutionary trajectory of the interaction specificity between two key components of the phytohormone gibberellin signalling pathway in land plants. I also have a longstanding collaboration with Nanjing Agricultural University in China, for which we investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying differences in root system architecture and nitrogen use efficiency among rice subspecies, with the aim of improving future crop yields while minimising fertiliser input. Currently, I am working with Prof. Lars Østergaard, working on understanding how and why the pea plant (Pisum sativum) produces a chlorinated form of the plant hormone auxin during pod development. The ultimate goal of this project is to enhance pea pod development and apply the acquired insights to improve the cultivation of other legume crops.
Job Titles:
- Department: Development Office
Job Titles:
- Department: Development Office
Job Titles:
- Department: Development Office
Job Titles:
- Department: Development Office
Job Titles:
- Department: Department of Economics
Mr Julian Barnes (1964) is an alumnus, novelist, and writer.
Job Titles:
- Department: Catering - WCR
Job Titles:
- Department: Libraries and Archives
Job Titles:
- Department: Libraries and Archives
Job Titles:
- Department: Libraries and Archives
Job Titles:
- Department: Politics and International Relations
Job Titles:
- Department: Libraries and Archives
Job Titles:
- Department: Libraries and Archives
Job Titles:
- Department: Development Office
Sean Rainey began his second spell as Magdalen's Development Director in August 2021 following three years with US-based Environmental NGO, The Nature Conservancy. He was previously Development Director at Magdalen from 2009-18, during which time the fundraising campaign for the Longwall Library was successfully completed, Tutorial Fellowships in History, Law, Philosophy and Classics endowed and provision for Student Support significantly enhanced.
Sean's career in fundraising started at St Peter's College, Oxford in 2002 and prior to that he lived and worked in Belgium, Romania and Hungary. He graduated from The Queen's University Belfast in 1994.
Sean oversees the work of the Development Office which is responsible for both fundraising and alumni relations. He works closely with the President, Fellows and alumni to help ensure that the College's aspirations are realised through the engagement and support of the wider Magdalen community.
Job Titles:
- Fellow in Practice at the Blavatnik School
Stewart Wood was a Fellow in Politics at Magdalen from 1996-2011. He served as a member of the Chancellor of the Exchequer's Council of Economic Advisers from 2001-2007, and then as Senior Special Adviser to Prime Minister Gordon Brown from 2007-2010. From 2010-2015 he was Chief Adviser to Ed Miliband, the Leader of the Labour Party. He has been a Member of the House of Lords since 2011, where he serves on the International Relations Committee & the European Affairs Committee.
Stewart is a Fellow in Practice at the Blavatnik School in Oxford, where he teaches European politics & public policy. He is also a Director of the Good Law Project, and serves on the Boards of both Janus Henderson Diversified Income Trust, and the Royal Court Theatre. He is also a frequent contributor to UK broadcast and print media on contemporary political issues.