Emeritus, Honorary and Foundation Fellows

Dame Esther Rantzen DBE CBE is a celebrated broadcaster and campaigner.

Dame Esther has appeared in more than 2,000 TV programmes including documentaries, talk shows, reality shows and quizzes as well as writing columns for The Times, Telegraph and Daily Mail, in addition to 5 books.

In 1986 Dame Esther launched Childline, the free confidential helpline for children and young people, which she chaired for nineteen years. The charity has now helped more than 4 million children and young people, both online and via the telephone. The Childline model has now been successfully copied in 150 countries around the world.

In 2012, Dame Esther launched a new confidential helpline for older people, The Silver Line Helpline, which provides information, friendship and advice 24 hours a day, every day of the year. The biggest single problem older people disclose is loneliness. Nationally launched in November 2013, it receives around 10,000 calls a week. Independently evaluated by the Centre for Social Justice in a Report entitled “When I get off the phone I feel like I belong to the human race” (a quote from a caller), and also by Anglia Ruskin University, it was found to target successfully the loneliest older people. Beside the Helpline, trained volunteers, The Silver Line Friends, provide a matched befriending service, and Silver Circles. She is Founder/President, and a Trustee of the charity, which merged with Age UK in December 2019.

After graduating from Somerville with an MA in English, she joined the BBC, first as a sound effects assistant, then a researcher. While training to be a producer/director in 1968, she became a researcher and reporter for Bernard Braden’s consumer programme “Braden’s Week”. When Braden returned to Canada in 1973, she became producer and presenter of its successor, “That’s Life!”. The show ran for 21 years and at its peak drew an audience of 22.5 million. It achieved fame for its talking dogs, Jobsworth Awards and campaigns on behalf of abused children, organ transplants, safe playgrounds, and to provide justice for consumers. Its most viewed episode featured Sir Nicholas Winton being introduced for the first time to the survivors he had saved from the Holocaust including Lord Alfred Dubs. She continues to appear on TV, and regularly contributes to “The One Show”, political and news programmes on many different topics especially those relating to broadcasting, growing old ungracefully, and to the abuse of children and older people.

A creative producer as well as a presenter, she invented the documentary series “The Big Time” which discovered Sheena Easton, created the “Children of Courage” segment of “Children in Need” and invented “Hearts of Gold” which ran for seven years, honouring unsung heroes and heroines.

In addition to being the first woman to receive the Dimbleby Award from BAFTA she has also received the Royal Television Society’s Special Judges Award for Journalism, the Snowdon Award for services to disabled people,  6 honorary doctorates, an honorary Fellowship from Somerville College, Oxford and a Lifetime Achievement Award from Women in Film and Television.

She received an OBE for Services to Broadcasting in 1991, in 2006 a CBE for Services to Children, and became a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire  in 2015 for her work for children and older people, through Childline and The Silver Line.

Steve Rayner oversees the College’s academic activities, including admissions and outreach, and supports Fellows and Students in their teaching and learning.

He is responsible for overseeing the work of the College Access and Outreach Team, including Somerville’s regional work as part of the Oxford South-East consortium of colleges (see Oxford for South East | University of Oxford) and is a trustee of Universify Education. As a native of Stoke-on-Trent and a season ticket holder at Stoke City Football club for over twenty years, until that particular mix of joy and suffering was rudely interrupted by the pandemic, he is also particularly interested in access and outreach in Staffordshire, Cheshire and Shropshire. As a result, Somerville is a member of the Uni Connect partnership Higher Horizons+ (see Higher Horizons+ – Part of the Uni Connect Programme).

As Senior Tutor, Steve is responsible for the work of the Academic Office, which supports graduate and undergraduate students, along with tutors and Fellows, in their academic activities. This includes supporting Somerville applicants and selectors through the undergraduate admissions process here at Oxford.

Steve’s background is in Physics, specifically Very High Energy Gamma Ray Astronomy research, but his work at Somerville encompasses all subjects studied by Somervillians.

Owen Rees is a leading researcher and performer of European renaissance vocal music.

Owen Rees’ undergraduate studies in Music were at Cambridge, where he held an Organ Scholarship. After this, he pursued doctoral research in Portugal, and then moved to Oxford as Lecturer at St Peter’s College and St Edmund Hall. After six years teaching at the University of Surrey, he took up my post in Oxford at Queen’s in 1997. As Organist at Queen’s he directs their renowned Chapel Choir.

Owen’s research focuses on sacred music in Spain, Portugal, and England during the Renaissance. He has written about the music of William Byrd, and many of the greatest Spanish and Portuguese composers of the period. He directs the professional vocal consort Contrapunctus (http://www.contrapunctus.org.uk), for which he been nominated for the Gramophone early-music award.

Owen’s teaching covers aspects of music history from the Middle Ages to the end of the Baroque, and techniques of composition. He also supervises postgraduate students and lectures in music history and choral conducting.

Academic Background

I am a chemical engineer by training, completing my undergraduate (integrated Masters) and PhD degrees at the University of Cambridge. For my MEng project, I modelled the patterns formed by blood spots during drying, under the supervision of Prof. Alex Routh. The project is important for developing accurate paper diagnostics using blood spots. I also undertook a number of industrial summer internships, including in R&D at Procter & Gamble. My PhD work examined how a mixture of differently sized particles self assembles in a thin film as it dries. I joined Christ Church as a Junior Research Fellow in October 2022.

Undergraduate Teaching

I enjoy teaching, having 4 years’ experience of small group teaching & demonstrating to Chemical Engineering undergraduates at the University of Cambridge.

Engineering (Thermofluids & Engineering in Society)

Research Interests

I am hosted by the Oxford Colloid group based in the Department of Chemistry. My current research addresses the need to make functional materials more sustainable, by using less of the expensive components, but still delivering the required properties. It does this using the science of colloidal hydrodynamics (the motion of small particles in fluid), deriving novel equations to model how mixtures of particles flow. In my fellowship, I am working on developing a new class of three-phase composite functional materials. The resulting coatings will have highly tuneable properties and I will explore the most promising applications, from reactor materials to tissue engineering. Regarding fundamental science, the required theoretical work will advance our understanding of multiphase colloidal hydrodynamics.

Saphire oversees the provision of service and support to the College’s academic staff and graduate students.

Saphire manages teaching support (college exams, TMS system, Tutor payments etc), provides support to the Senior Tutor in the recruitment of academic staff, and works closely with the Undergraduate Officer and others in the Academic Office on student administration.

Saphire is also responsible for all areas of the graduate admissions process and support for current graduates.

Hi guys, I’m Chloe (she/her) and I’m in my third year studying PPE.

My role as the JCR Class Officer entails ensuring that the college is a friendly and accessible place to people from a working class background (which to me includes all sorts of economic and cultural backgrounds, not just the traditional blue collar workers). However, as the role is still a fairly new one in college, and there’s not yet a strong class community resembling that of the BAME and LGBTQ+ students here, it’s also my job to try and establish this through running events and by always being there to try and help anyone experiencing class-related issues here.

Please contact me via Facebook (Chloe Riley) or Instagram (chlo.r4) if you have any questions or concerns, and keep an eye out on the JCR noticeboard and the somerville.class Instagram for any events I’m running!

Dr Peggie Rimmer went from being the first person in her family to study at university to one of the leading voices of CERN’s computing revolution, heading a team including Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web.

Born and raised in Liverpool, Dr Rimmer also began her academic career there. She gained the top degree in mathematics and physics from the University of Liverpool, followed by a first class Honours degree in physics. In 1961, she came to Oxford, matriculated at Lady Margaret Hall, and obtained a DPhil in nuclear physics. She then spent two years as a Junior Research Fellow at Somerville. In 1967, Dr Rimmer took up a two-year Fellowship at CERN and, relishing the company of 10,000 particle physicists, based her career there.

During her time at CERN, a fascination with the new computing equipment then emerging led Dr Rimmer to specialise in software for data acquisition and networking. Specifically, she led the group tasked with enabling standardised data collection for the multiple complex experiments being undertaken across the anarchic jumble of mini-computers, operating systems and programming languages then in use. In 1984, Tim Berners-Lee joined this team, conducting work that directly informed his Web prototype. Dr Rimmer subsequently led the CERN public relations group. Her last role prior to retirement was as Scientific Secretary to the Research Review Board.

In addition to her distinguished career, Dr Rimmer is a long-standing advocate for widening access to higher education. In 2012, she established the Peggie Rimmer Bursary for Women in Science at Somerville to enable more women to excel in STEM subjects. In 2023, she expanded this support through the Dr Peggie Rimmer Sanctuary Fund. This will transform the College’s ability to support its Sanctuary Scholars, providing those who have been displaced due to conflict, persecution or other serious human rights violations with a pathway to Oxford and support once they’re here.

Read more about Dr Peggie Rimmer’s career

Read more about the Dr Peggie Rimmer Sanctuary Fund

Stephen Roberts (FREng, FIET, MInstP, CEng, CPhys) is Professor of Machine Learning in the Department of Engineering Science.

He leads the Machine Learning Research Group and is Director of the Centre for Doctoral Training in Autonomous Intelligent Machines and Systems. His main research interests lie in the application and development of mathematical methods in data analysis and data-driven machine learning, in particular statistical learning and inference and their application to complex problems in science and engineering.

Recent research has focused on non-parametric Bayesian models for multi-sensor data fusion, system optimisation and network analysis. Particular emphasis is placed on the real-world applications of advanced theory and over many years he has applied these statistical methods to diverse problems in astrophysics, biology, finance and engineering as well embedding them in a variety of commercial and industrial settings.

Jane is a social historian, writer and lifelong friend of Somerville College. Born in Edinburgh and raised on the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors, Jane has been an ardent bibliophile since the age of seven, when she was banned from the local library for using a jam-tart bookmark in their copy of Squirrel Nutkin.

Jane first came to Somerville as a student, where she took a degree in English Language and Literature before moving to London to work in the antiquarian book trade. It was during this time that Jane’s first book (Wayward Women) was commissioned. Today, Jane works as a full-time writer and lecturer, specialising in social history through women’s eyes. She is the author of over a dozen books, including social histories of women’s education and the fight for the Vote, as well biographies of pioneering figures such as Josephine Butler and Mary Seacole.

Today, Jane lives just outside Oxford  but can be found once a week in the Somerville archives, cataloguing our Special Collections.

Dan’s principle research interest is the control and management of electrical energy using power electronic circuits and systems.

Power electronics is found across a huge range of modern engineered systems, including in electricity grids (smartgrids), renewable generation, electric vehicles, medical systems, and in consumer electronics. Alongside his principle research interest in power electronics, Dan also has interests in grid-connected energy storage systems and electrification in the developing world.

Dan leads the Power Electronics Group in the Department of Engineering Science, where he and his team work on a broad range of projects. Recent examples include demonstrating extremely power-dense power converters using advanced cooling systems, and the design of precisely controllable magnetic pulse generators for non-invasive brain stimulation. The Group works closely with industry and has a track record of taking new technologies from concept to laboratory demonstrator to industrial practice.

In 2015, Sacha Romanovitch became the first woman to head a major UK accounting house at Grant Thornton.

In her current role as CEO of Fair4All Finance Sacha Romanovitch (1986, MA Chemistry) helps to maintain the lifeline of affordable credit for families and small businesses. In 2018, she was elected Honorary Fellow of Somerville and awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of York. In 2020, Romanovitch was made OBE in recognition of her distinguished career and public service. Since February 2022, she has sat on the Government’s Levelling Up Advisory Council.

Before taking up this post in May 2010, Matthew worked in both Keble and Queen’s College Libraries, and is responsible for shelving, book processing and general library tasks.

He can usually be found at the service desk in the loggia, and if you have any issues with finding books or understanding the layout, classification or Library systems, he will be more than happy to help.

Any queries can also be emailed to library.assistant@some.ox.ac.uk.

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.

Hello, I’m Molly, a second year Biology student and committee member for Oxford Ornithological society and Oxford Nature Conservation Society. I love hiking, wild swimming, plants and birds! As an E&E Rep, I hope to run plenty of nature-based activities for students, and campaign for a more sustainable Somerville. Last year we worked with both OxUnboxed and Reserva Youth Land Trust to deliver some exciting events such as free sustainable washing pods, student vouchers to refill shops, and a fundraiser for Ocean Conservation. Along with gardening club, expect lots of similar and new exciting initiatives from E&E in the 2024/25 academic year. Our role is to represent student opinions on ethics and environment in Somerville, so if you have any concerns or suggestions on either of these topics please get in contact!