News

Christ Church alumna Dame Emma Walmsley DBE was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Oxford at the annual Encaenia ceremony in the Sheldonian Theatre yesterday.

Professor Jason Davis, Tutorial Fellow in Chemistry at Christ Church and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oxford, has been awarded a prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant of up to €2.5 million in support of his pioneering research on nanomaterials.

A group of researchers led by Christ Church’s Dr Tapabrata Rohan Chakraborty has developed a new artificial intelligence system capable of generating molecular information from cellular imaging data – a breakthrough that could accelerate the discovery of new cancer treatments and improve understanding of disease.

Christ Church is deeply saddened to announce the death of Professor Malcolm McCulloch, Tutorial Fellow in Engineering and Professor of Energy Systems, who died on Friday 12 June following a diagnosis of cancer last autumn. 

Christ Church marked Pride Month with its first-ever Pride Exhibition, a student-led event celebrating LGBTQ+ voices through art, photography, research and discussion.

Christ Church biologist Dr Tonya Lander has won government funding to develop solar-powered tracking rings that could turn birds into a global network of environmental sensors, gathering data on biodiversity, climate change and disease on a scale that conventional wildlife-tracking technology cannot match.

Two Christ Church Law students have won the University of Oxford’s Maitland Chambers Mooting Cuppers, defeating teams from across the collegiate University in a series of simulated court hearings known as ‘moots’.

Christ Church’s Dr Samuel Tranter was among invited guests at the Vatican for the launch of Pope Leo XIV’s first major teaching document, the encyclical Magnifica humanitas, on human dignity in the age of artificial intelligence.

Christ Church Picture Gallery may be temporarily closed for its major renovation and expansion project, but its internationally important collection continues to reach audiences around the world.

Christ Church recently welcomed a delegation of leading public health academics from Morocco for a week of collaboration, discussion and knowledge exchange exploring some of the most pressing challenges facing global health systems today.

A new UK-wide initiative asking ‘How do we want to live together?’ has launched this month, with Christ Church’s Luke Bretherton serving as a commissioner on the Independent Commission on Community and Cohesion behind the project.

Christ Church and the Bodleian Libraries are delighted to announce the appointment of the first Lewis Carroll Visiting Fellow, Professor Alison Halsall of York University, Toronto.

Christ Church’s Dr Kaibo Hu has been awarded the Stephen Smale Prize – one of the leading international honours for early-career researchers in computational mathematics.

Christ Church recently hosted an unusual kind of conversation – one in which anthropologists described to physicists how falsified medicines move through ‘borders’ that often exist more on paper than in reality, while physicists demonstrated how to detect fake drugs without ever opening the bottle. For regulators in the room, the challenge was how to turn such radically different perspectives into practical tools for protecting patients. 

Efforts to embed Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) in infrastructure are facing growing structural pressure – from tighter financing conditions to shifting political priorities – and risk being sidelined as an ‘optional extra’. A recent workshop at Christ Church Research Centre brought together policymakers, practitioners, financiers and researchers to focus not on why inclusion matters, but on how it can be embedded in project design and delivery under these conditions.

Visitors to Christ Church may have noticed recent gardening activity in Tom Quad, where planting has begun in the gullies around its perimeter. This forms part of a project to enhance biodiversity within the College’s historic landscape.

This year, Christ Church launched a new Oracy Programme for Year 10 pupils in the North East of England. The programme was aimed at students attending state schools who demonstrate strong academic potential, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds or those who would be the first in their families to go to university.

A recent graduate of Christ Church is among the founders of a new artificial intelligence startup attracting international attention, including from The Wall Street Journal, and has recently raised $94 million in investment.

Christ Church’s annual Special Interest Event is a four-day residential programme held each spring, bringing together leading academics and specialists to explore a single theme through a series of lectures, discussions and shared meals.

A Christ Church undergraduate welcomed one of the fashion industry’s leading editorial figures to Oxford earlier this month, as the Oxford Fashion Society hosted Adam Baidawi, the newly appointed Global Editorial Director of GQ, for a special ‘in conversation with’ event.

Christ Church undergraduates Holly Culhane and Mimi Barsham were part of the Oxford University Competition Dance (OUCD) team that was named Best Overall University at the Loughborough University Dance Competition, a national event bringing together around 30 universities from across the UK.

A Christ Church graduate student is at the forefront of a groundbreaking study aiming to transform how sports-related concussion is diagnosed and understood – research that has recently attracted national media attention.

Last month, an exhibition curated by Christ Church doctoral student Aniq Shamsi and artist Alice King brought together student and professional artists to reflect on art, technology, and what it means to create in the age of artificial intelligence.

Christ Church’s Dr Joram van Rheede has been awarded a prestigious five-year EPSRC Open Fellowship worth over £1.95m to develop the next generation of ‘sleep-aware’ brain stimulation therapies – an important step towards smarter, more targeted treatments for neurological conditions.

Ahead of International Women’s Day on Sunday 8 March, we celebrate the work of three Christ Church academics whose research not only advances knowledge in their fields, but places women, gender and equity at its centre.