Newest Honorary Fellows celebrated at Wolfson

Over a hundred Fellows and guests gathered to enjoy a special dinner in the Dining Hall – still fresh and sparkling from its re-opening earlier in the week – and to celebrate Lord Sainsbury and Jane.

Lord David Sainsbury

David Sainsbury, Baron Sainsbury of Turville, has been Chancellor of the University of Cambridge since 2011, and will be retiring from that position in 2025. In his role as Chancellor, he is also Visitor of Wolfson College. Lord Sainsbury is an alumnus of King’s College, where he read History and Psychology, and is a generous supporter of the E-Lab. He joined J Sainsbury plc in 1963 and received an M.B.A. from the Columbia Graduate School of Business in New York in 1971. 

Lord Sainsbury was appointed Minister of Science and Innovation from July 1998 until November 2006 and had responsibility for the Office of Science and Technology, Innovation, Space, the Bioscience and Chemical Industries, and the Patent Office. He is the founder of the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, the major contributor to the construction of the Chancellor’s Centre at Wolfson, and in 2003 received, on behalf of the Sainsbury family, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Philanthropy.

Professor Jane Clarke

Professor Jane Clarke is a distinguished biophysical chemist, recognised internationally for her multidisciplinary studies that have advanced the understanding of protein folding and misfolding, and as Professor – now Emeritus – of Molecular Biophysics in the Chemistry Department of the University of Cambridge until 2017. She was President of Wolfson College from 2017-2024.

Jane Clarke was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Medical Sciences in 2013 and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2015. She is recognised internationally as a leader in her field having been elected a Fellow of the American Biophysical Society and having been awarded the prestigious Stein and Moore Award of the Protein Society in 2016. She was elected an International Member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2023.

“The dinner was a glittering occasion,” says Wolfson’s current President, Professor Dame Ijeoma Uchegbu, “with Fellows, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deborah Prentice, the Chancellor, Lord David Sainsbury, and immediate past President Professor Jane Clarke in attendance. This was the first visit for the Vice-Chancellor and the second for the Chancellor, and it was a huge honour for the College to host such esteemed guests. We hope to see them at Wolfson again soon.”

Pictures from this event are available on the College Flickr, with photography by Alex Lau.