Queens' welcomes new Honorary Fellows and Fellow Benefactor
We are delighted to welcome eight new Honorary Fellows and a Fellow Benefactor to Queens' College this December.
Sir David Latham, Sir John Chisholm, Tom Holland, Joanna Scanlan, Dr Jane Osbourn, Grace Prendergast, Khalid Abdalla, Sir Robin Millar and Trevor Bradley all attended the induction ceremony in the Chapel, which is a centuries old tradition at Queens'.
Presided over by Dr Mohamed El-Erian, President of the College, our new Fellows were presented to the official Fellowship by Professor Richard Rex, thereby confirming their new status within Queens'.
We are very excited to welcome all of our new Fellows at the end of this Michaelmas Term.
More information about our Honorary Fellows can be found below.
The Rt Hon. Sir David Latham (1960)
Sir David Latham, a retired Lord Justice of Appeal, presided over some of the most sensitive and challenging cases in recent times. As Vice President of the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division), he was the country’s second most senior judge in criminal matters, and on retirement he was appointed by the Government as Chairman of the Parole Board. He is a committed supporter of the Law community at Queens’ who regularly attends College events and gives talks to current Law students. He is also a stalwart of the Boat Club.
Grace Prendergast MNZM (2021)
Grace Prendergast is an Olympic Gold and Silver medal-winning rower for New Zealand in Coxless Pairs rowing, as well as five-time World Champion. She is also a Boat Race winner, having competed for Cambridge in the Women’s VIII in 2022. She is the College’s first ever Olympic champion and won a world title while studying for an MPhil at Queens’. An endowed sports bursary has been named after her by a donor. The current recipient is Jessica Spain (2020) for rowing.
Dr Jane Osbourn OBE FMedSci (1984)
Dr Jane Osbourn is a biopharmaceutical scientist who read Natural Sciences at Queens’. An advocate for building skills through STEM and education outreach, particularly for women in science, her work focuses on antibodies and drug discovery, contributing to the discovery and development of eight approved drugs with benefits to human health. She was formerly Chair of the Bioindustry Association and was Vice President of MedImmune, the ‘biologics’ arm of AstraZeneca. She is currently a co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Alchemab and a co-founder of RQ Biotechnology.
Joanna Scanlan (1980)
Joanna Scanlan is a writer and versatile actress in television and films, including The Thick of It, Getting On and Puppy Love. She was among the first women to be admitted to Queens’ in 1980. In addition to her accolades for writing comedy, she won the BAFTA for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her sensitive performance as Mary Hussain in the film After Love in 2022. The Scanlan-Michell Fund was established in 2022 in the joint names of Joanna Scanlan and the late director Roger Michell (1974) to support the Bats’ theatrical activities.
Sir John Chisholm (1965)
Sir John Chisholm is an engineer and former Chair of QinetiQ and the Medical Research Council. Sir John and Lady Kitty founded the Melete Foundation in 2019 to support talented students with ideas that have the potential to benefit disadvantaged people and create self-sustaining social good. The first Melete Scholarships at Queens’ were awarded this year. Sir John was also Chair of Genomics UK when the 100,000 Genomes Project was completed to sequence and study the role our genes play in health and disease. He was knighted in 1999.
Khalid Abdalla (2000)
Khalid Abdalla is best known for his roles in The Kite Runner, The Crown, Green Zone and United 93, the latter two directed by current Honorary Fellow Paul Greengrass CBE (1974). He starred in the Emmy award-winning documentary about the 2011 Egyptian revolution, The Square, as well as being a founding member of the Mosireen Collective, a volunteer media activist organisation dedicated to documenting and transmitting images of the Revolution, fully under Creative Commons.
Sir Robin Millar CBE (1970)
Sir Robin Millar is one of the UK’s most successful music producers, responsible for 44 “number one” hits and 160 Gold and Platinum discs. He is Chair of the disability charity Scope and is an advocate for equity in all areas of society, having organised concerts for causes such as UNICEF and Artists Against Apartheid. He has no sight due to a progressive eye condition and he was already partially blind when he went up to Cambridge. He was knighted in King Charles’s first New Year Honours list for his services to charity and young people.
Tom Holland (1986)
Tom Holland has written numerous best-selling books on Classical and medieval history. He graduated from Queens’ with a Double First in English, beginning his career writing fiction before turning to write history, including an authoritative translation of Herodotus’ Histories. His latest book, PAX: War and Peace in Rome’s Golden Age, narrates the history of the Roman Empire at the pinnacle of its greatness. Tom is also co-presenter of the top UK history podcast, The Rest Is History, and is an Honorary Life Patron of the College Cricket Club.
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