Emeritus, Honorary and Foundation Fellows

Tessa Ross is CEO of House Productions, and the former Controller of Film and Drama at Channel 4.

Under her leadership, Film4 worked with the most innovative talent in the UK and built a reputation for developing and financing some of the most acclaimed British films of recent years. These include Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire, Kevin Macdonald’s The Last King of Scotland, Chris Morris’ Four Lions, Shane Meadows’ This is England, Steve McQueen’s Hunger, Shame, and 12 Years A Slave, Martin McDonagh’s In Bruges, Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin, Lenny Abrahamson’s Frank and Room, Todd Haynes’ Carol, and Alex Garland’s Ex Machina. Her work in television includes commissioning programmes such as Shameless, Sex Traffic, The Devil’s Whore, Longford, White Teeth, and Clocking Off.

Tessa has been a governor at the NFTS, a governor of the BFI and a member of the ICA Council. She was on the Board of the National Theatre and appointed as its first CEO. Tessa was one of eight film industry representatives on the panel of the 2012 Film Policy Review, chaired by Chris Smith. She was appointed CBE in the New Year 2010 Honours List and was awarded a BAFTA for Outstanding British Contribution to Film in 2013.

Emma Rothschild is Jeremy and Jane Knowles Professor of History at Harvard University.

She is Director of the Joint Center for History and Economics, a fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and professeur invitée at the Centre d’Histoire de Sciences Po, Paris. She is involved in collaborative research projects, at the University of Cambridge and at Harvard, on Exchanges of Economic, Legal and Political Ideas and on Visualizing Historical Networks. She is also an Affiliated Faculty member at Harvard Law School. Publications include “Economic History and Nationalism” (Capitalism, Winter 2021), “A (New) Economic History of the American Revolution?” (New England Quarterly, March 2018), “Isolation and Economic Life in Eighteenth-Century France” (American Historical Review, October 2014), Economic Sentiments: Adam Smith, Condorcet and the Enlightenment (Harvard University Press, 2001), The Inner Life of Empires: An Eighteenth-Century History (Princeton University Press, 2011), and An Infinite History: The Story of a Family in France Over Three Centuries (Princeton University Press, 2021).

https://www.infinitehistory.org

Jan was principal of Somerville College from 2017-25. During this time, she was an unstoppable champion of higher education and of all the students and academics that make up our community. Driven by her belief that “Talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not”, Jan led initiatives that drove social mobility across Oxford. She paved the way to Somerville becoming a College of Sanctuary, and supported Somerville in creating scholarships for students from BAME, Working Class and Marginalised backgrounds, with the result that 1 in 5 students of all backgrounds now receive financial support during their time at Oxford.

Alongside social mobility, Jan championed academics’ research and entrepreneurship, working closely with colleagues from all disciplines across initiatives from medical spin-outs to community partnerships tackling child malnutrition. She led on initiatives for decarbonising the college, was an active champion of greater ties between the university and city of Oxford and served as Chair of Conference of Colleges during the most tumultuous period of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sir Simon Russell Beale is an English actor for television, stage and film, described by The Independent in 2009 as “the greatest stage actor of his generation”.

Sir Simon began his acting career at The Royal Court after gaining a first in English from the University of Cambridge. He then spent 8 years with the Royal Shakespeare Company, making a name for himself with both comedic and tragic roles, before joining the National Theatre, where he remained on and off for 25 years.

During the course of an illustrious career on both stage and screen, Sir Simon has received ten Laurence Olivier Award nominations, including three wins for his performances in Volpone (1996), Candide (2000), and Uncle Vanya (2003). On Broadway, he been nominated for two Tony Awards, one of which he won for his performance as Henry Lehman in The Lehman Trilogy (2018). His work in film and TV has been recognised with two BAFTAs, one for the BBC’s Hollow Crown series (2012) and another for A Dance to the Music of Time (1997). In 2019 he was awarded a Knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for his services to the Arts.

Sir Simon engages with the theatre not only as a performer, but as an editor, author and public intellectual. He is a series editor of the Arden Performance editions of Shakespeare’s plays and his first full-length publication A Piece of Work, published in September 2024, will offer unparalleled insights into a lifetime of Shakespearean study and dramatic craft.

Sir Simon has been a close associate of Somerville College since 2015, when he spoke alongside our Fellow Emerita and Shakespeare expert Professor Katherine Duncan-Jones (1941-2022) at a literary tea. He has since joined us for numerous events, and was made an Honorary Fellow of the College in June 2024 in recognition of this long and fruitful association with the College. 

Sir Simon Russell Beale in ‘The Lehman Trilogy’

Responding to receiving the Honorary Fellowship, Sir Simon said, “I am delighted with this great honour that Somerville College has awarded me. Over the years, and during many visits to the College, particularly through my meetings with Katherine Duncan-Jones and Emma Smith, my affection for the College has grown and I anticipate confidently that it will grow still further. It is marvellous to play a small part in the history of an institution that is so rightly proud of its inclusivity and its sense of adventure.”

An honorary fellowship is the college’s highest recognition of distinction for alumni and associates, conferred annually by our Governing Body. Speaking of the College’s decision to grant Sir Simon this honour, Principal Jan Royall said, “It is delightful to know that, through this association, Somerville College can reaffirm our long-standing commitment to the humanities and anticipate many more such unforgettable encounters with Sir Simon. He is a thoroughly good man, a phenomenal actor and a livewire connection to the world of Shakespeare and his contemporaries.”

Sir Simon with (l-r) Professor Fiona Stafford, Hon. Fellow Professor Emma Smith (1988, English), and Principal Jan Royall

 

 

I joined the Domingos group in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics at the University of Oxford as a Novo Nordisk postdoctoral fellow in 2019.

My research focuses on the study of neuroimmune mechanisms underlying obesity. I use advanced molecular and genetic technologies along with computational approaches for transcriptomic profiling of sympathetic ganglia and the sympathetic neurons innervating the fat tissue. The aim is to identify the novel cellular and molecular targets that may lead to develop new tissue-specific therapies for obesity.

I completed my Ph.D. in Neuroscience at ETH Zurich in 2018. During my Ph.D., I have investigated the long-term impact of maternal overnutrition on the brain, behaviors, and metabolism. My study reveals that perinatal maternal high fat diet-induced obesogenic and addictive like phenotypes can be conserved across three generations via the paternal lineage and identifies sperm tRNA-derived small RNA as a potential epigenetic mark that partly mediates such abnormal traits to the progeny. Prior to my Ph.D., I attained an MSc in Neuroscience from the University of Bonn, Germany. I also hold a Bachelor in Medicine and Surgery (MBBS) from Dhaka Medical College, Bangladesh.

Reema is a social entrepreneur dedicated to bridging income inequalities and advocating for the rights of vulnerable communities in India. Over nine years, she has been consistently engaged in grassroots work, building community-led income generation models with rural women, smallholding farmers, and indigenous populations.

Reema’s work centers around transforming agriculture and livestock supply chains, empowering rural communities to embrace entrepreneurship through micro-enterprises. In the State of Maharashtra, she pioneered the first-ever rural women-owned food brand. This initiative not only doubled their incomes but also inspired a set of women leaders challenging the status quo regarding women’s social and economic standing in their respective villages.

Along with her efforts on the ground, Reema serves as an advisor to various non-profits and community-led organizations in India. Her role in establishing Rajasthan’s first micro camel milk dairy benefited over 3,000 camel herders, providing a sustainable source of income amidst livelihood threats due to State policies and declining camel populations. Additionally, her expertise has catalyzed the formation of Manipur’s first women-only farmer producer company (FPC), empowering over 16,000 tribal women to embrace small-scale pig farming and create value-added products from forest resources. Her responsibility in this role revolved around policy recommendations and programs aimed at enhancing technology, finance, and livelihood opportunities for women in India and Bangladesh.

She has co-authored a regional chapter on South Asia for FAO’s (The food and agriculture organization of the United Nations) report on Gender and Climate-Smart Agriculture in collaboration with the University of East Anglia (UEA, Norwich). Reema is a Presidential Award Winner in the year 2017 (awarded by the Honorable President of India and the Ministry of Woman & Child Development), recognized for bringing positive economic change for rural women in Maharashtra.

She has been featured as one of the Most powerful women in the Indian impact business in Business Today and the Forbes Magazine. Her organization, Happy Roots, has been featured as one of the successful case studies bridging gender gap in agriculture by the United Nations & The World Bank Group. Reema is also a fellow at the British Asian Trust and UnLtd India. Her passion for building more inclusive, equitable, and transformative institutions and societies, leads her to Oxford, where she seeks to deepen her inquiry through theory and practice. Reema wishes to challenge her critical thinking, both inside and outside the classroom, to solve development problems at scale. Her interest lies at the intersection of economic development, multi-dimensional equality (including gender justice and community rights) and technology. When not working, Reema indulges in the joys of traveling, exercising, and savouring a good glass of wine.

Aanchal is the first Elizabeth Moir Scholar, reading for an MPP at the Blavatnik School of Government . Before joining Oxford, she worked for the Food Innovation Hub at the World Economic Forum. 

Her research interests include policies at the intersection of innovation, technology, and partnerships for enabling food systems transformation. Her work with the World Economic Forum, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature focused on blended finance and partnerships. She holds a Bachelor’s in Commerce from Delhi University and Master’s in Sustainable Development Practices from TERI School of Advanced Studies.

Her experience with some of the leading organisations in the world and eminent experts trained her in in policymaking, implementing, partnering, and financing for large, complex projects. These projects include monitoring the environmental, social, and economic effects of responsible tourism on tribal communities, surveying villages and designing comprehensive agri-solutions, and leading India’s first research team in assessing PPP models for marine conservation. 

During her time at Oxford, she aims to work towards refining her skills and learning from her peers to lead effective collaboration.

Hi, I’m Jess and I am a DPhil student in the Department of Primary Care Health Sciences.  I am studying the impacts of hot temperatures on mental health outcomes in England. I decided to focus my dissertation on this topic because mental health is personally very important to me and I want to better understand how the environments around us, and the changing climate, are impacting mental health. 

I am from the United States where I received my bachelor’s degree in biology and my master’s in environmental health. Outside of academics I spend a decent amount time doing some form of physical activity as I have a goal of running the original 6 major world marathons — I have already completed 3 and will be running the fourth this fall. I also enjoy photography, reading, traveling, and baking for my friends. 

I am excited to be a part of the welfare team and the Somerville community. Please reach out if you would like a friendly chat, if you would like a listening ear, or if you need support. 

I have undertaken the following training for my role as Student Welfare Advisor:

• Supporting Reported Students Training organised by the University of Oxford Peer Support Programme
• First Aid Training offered by St John’s Ambulance
• Junior Deans Training offered by the University Counselling Service
• Peer Support Training offered by the University Counselling Service
• Health and Safety Training – Somerville Lodge Porters
• Fire Evacuation Training – Somerville Lodge Porters
• Welfare Policy and Procedures – Student Welfare Lead
• College Rules and Procedures – Decanal Officer
• Introduction to Safeguarding – Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Partnership

I am a DPhil student in Medieval German, researching healthcare in medieval German convents. I like to go on long rambling walks, have a (supposedly) questionable obsession with peanut butter, and enjoy meeting friends and new people for shared food and nature excursions!

I’m Ben. I started my BPhil in Philosophy at Somerville in 2025, and serve as House Chair since HT 2026. In my free time, I like to spend time with my friends, read some fiction and go for a run.

Dr David Schramm is a Foundation Doctor at Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust and a Somerville alumnus with research interests in interventional radiology, medical innovation, and data-driven approaches to improving patient outcomes.

David matriculated at St Peter’s College, Oxford, to read Biochemistry before completing graduate-entry Medicine at Somerville. His academic work includes developing AI tools for opportunistic vertebral fracture detection and leading multicentre studies on contrast-associated kidney injury and venous thrombosis management. He has also contributed to national collaborative studies through the UK Interventional Radiology Trainee Collaborative (UNITE) committee and evaluated digital health technologies such as wearable ECG devices and virtual operating platforms.

Alongside his clinical training, David maintains an active interest in translational biotechnology and early-stage innovation, contributing to protocol design and patent development.

Elena joined the Oxford University Biochemistry Department in 2014 as an independent group leader to study the structure and function of cell surface receptors in neural and vascular development.

‘Understanding how cells form tissues is important, because failure leads to developmental diseases and cancers. Specialised proteins are found at the surfaces of cells and direct their movements as tissues grow. My lab uses a range of cutting-edge techniques to understand how this works, especially X-ray crystallography, electron microscopy, cell biology assays, confocal and super resolution microscopy.’

To learn more, click here.

Caroline Series (1969, Mathematics) is a distinguished mathematician working in hyperbolic geometry, Kleinian groups and Dynamical systems.

After studying at Somerville in 1969, Professor Series held posts in Berkeley and Newnham College, Cambridge before arriving at the University of Warwick in 1978. In 1987 she became Reader in Mathematics at Warwick and, in 1992, Professor. In 2017, she became the third woman in its history to serve as president of the London Mathematical Society. In 2023, she was awarded a CBE in the King’s first list of Birthday Honours.

Alison assists the Graduate and Tutorial Officer in the Academic Office.

My work aims to improve psychological treatments for people experiencing severe mental health problems, with a particular focus on: i) distressing voices; and, ii) sleep disruption.

In my research, I have developed a new psychological framework for understanding why voices cause distress: listening to and believing derogatory and threatening voices. The theory was built from patient interviews and tested in 591 NHS patients who hear voices. I aim to develop this into a psychological treatment to help NHS patients who hear voices to feel less emotionally affected by them.

As part of the wider Oxford Cognitive Approaches to Psychosis team I have worked on several studies which have demonstrated that sleep disruption is one contributory cause of mental health problems, including psychotic experiences. I led a pilot trial testing a sleep intervention for psychiatric inpatient wards. The treatment was feasible to deliver. The patients who received it experienced reductions in insomnia, and there were promising reductions in the duration of inpatient admissions. I have a particular interest in nightmares, their causes and the consequences for other mental health problems. Our pilot trial demonstrated that a brief CBT intervention for nightmares showed promising reductions in nightmares, insomnia and paranoia in patients experiencing psychosis.

I am an HCPC registered Clinical Psychologist and hold an honorary clinical contract with Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. I completed my doctorate in clinical psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, following which I joined the Oxford Cognitive Approaches to Psychosis research group as part of the Wellcome Trust funded Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute. I have since been funded by an NIHR Clinical Doctoral Fellowship and a Development and Skills Enhancement Award.

I am the Departmental Lecturer in Physical & Theoretical Chemistry.

I teach Chemistry at Somerville in addition to two other colleges, Lady Margaret Hall, and St Peter’s. Previously I held Lectureships at Magdalen, Merton and New.

I studied for my MChem degree at Magdalen College (2008-2012) before moving to New College for a DPhil in Physical and Theoretical Chemistry under the supervision of Professor Stuart Mackenzie, which I completed in 2016.

My position involves teaching all aspects of the undergraduate Physical Chemistry course, from Prelims (1^st Year) to Final Honours School (3^rd Year). I hold tutorials for small groups of students where we discuss the lecture course material in more detail. We also meet in larger groups for problems classes to cover the more numerical aspects of each topic, and I offer thematic revision classes to prepare each group of students for their respective exams. In the Chemistry department, I provide synoptic revision lectures to all years and examine the first year Physical Chemistry Prelims paper.

My DPhil research was concerned with the photochemical spin dynamics of proteins, suggested to be the basis of the magnetic sense in some animals. It involved the development of a range of highly sensitive optical cavity-enhanced techniques to detect very small changes in reactivity caused by an external magnetic field.

Neeraj manages OICSD’s partnerships, strategic communications, research outreach design and relationship building, and is responsible for the Centre’s operations.

He works with the Research Director on developing the Centre’s research strategy, global presence and impact.

Neeraj’s research interests are in social policy in India with a focus on its social justice approach. He works on issues of accessibility to public services in education and healthcare for marginalised sections of Indian society.

Previously, Neeraj worked as a Research Support Officer at the Oxford Internet Institute where he administered the Visiting Research Fellowship and the internal departmental ethics process. He holds an MSc in Politics of Conflict, Rights and Justice from the School of Oriental-Asian and African Studies (SOAS) University of London.

Clare is the Academic Office Administrator. She assists the Academic Registrar in the running of the Academic Office. Clare also is the lead for Somerville Degree Days. 

Professor Simon is a physicist interested in quantum effects and how they are manifested in phases of matter.

He has recently been studying phases of matter known as “topological phases” that are invariant under smooth deformations of space-time. He is also interested in whether such phases of matter can be used for quantum information processing and quantum computation. Before coming to Oxford, Dr. Simon was a research director at Bell Laboratories, an industrial research laboratory.

Dave Simpson manages all aspects of the College’s Catering and Conference activities.

Nisha Singh is a senior postdoctoral researcher in psychopharmacology at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford.

Prior to this, she worked at King’s College, London where she trained in PET imaging as part of an MRC funded program. Nisha completed her DPhil in Pharmacology at the University of Oxford. Her project involved identifying and developing a repurposed drug, ebselen, for the treatment of bipolar disorder. Ebselen is currently undergoing a clinical trial in Oxford for efficacy in mania. Nisha has a keen interest in drug and biomarker development, especially in the field of psychopharmacology.

Justin is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and Director of the Oxford Masters program in Mathematical & Computational Finance.

Justin’s research lies at the intersection of applied mathematics, machine learning, and high-performance computing and is focused on theory and applications of Deep Learning. Justin develops deep learning models for large financial datasets such as: high-frequency data from limit order books, loans, and options. He is also developing deep learning methods for constructing partial differential equation models from data, which has a variety of applications in science, engineering, and finance.

Justin received his PhD from Stanford University and holds a Bachelors degree from Princeton University. He was a Chapman Fellow at the Department of Mathematics at Imperial College. He was awarded the 2014 SIAM Financial Mathematics and Engineering Conference Paper Prize.

Jacqueline is a Wellcome Trust Early Career Fellow in the Coles/ Dendrou Lab at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology.

Jacqueline’s research focus is to understand the role of early human B cell response (extrafollicular response) which has a vital role in rapid antibody production. By integrating human challenge models, ex vivo cultures, and single-cell genomics, she aims to address a fundamental immunological question about early human B cells and their impact on long-lived antibodies. Findings may facilitate tailored nextgeneration vaccination and adjuvant strategies to enhance long-term memory responses.

Professor Emma Smith (1988, English) is an internationally renowned Shakespeare scholar and current Professor of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Oxford.

Professor Smith’s work explores the influence of Shakespeare on stage, print, and in wider culture. She has written on Shakespeare’s First Folio (1623) – the first collected edition of his plays – and is interested in how Shakespeare came to be so important.

An associate scholar of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Professor Smith is also a regular speaker in schools, literary festivals, theatres, libraries, and book groups, as well as in universities. She has extensive experience of both print and broadcast media, including on BBC Radio 3 and 4 and BBC News, as well as authoring articles for The New York Times, The Telegraph, The Observer and The Guardian.

Professor Smith’s recent publications showcase her ability to combine forensic close-textual reading with sweeping surveys of the reception given to Shakespeare in performance, print, and criticism. Her 2019 book This Is Shakespeare was a Sunday Times bestseller and her 2022 book Portable Magic: A History of Books and their Readers was shortlisted for the Wolfson Prize.

Professor Smith has worked with theatre companies including the Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre and Donmar Warehouse. In 2023, she was the Sam Wanamaker Fellow at Shakespeare’s Globe, and she has served as a consultant for TV and film, including Josie Rourke’s Mary Queen of Scots, and the BBC series ‘Shakespeare: Rise of a Genius’ (2023).

Professor Smith’s next full-length work, The First Elizabethans, is a study on Elizabethan artistic culture from architecture to music to gardens to fashion, and will be published by Penguin in 2026.

Professor Emma Smith lives in Oxford with her partner Elizabeth. She was made an Honorary Fellow of Somerville College in June 2025.