Fellows and Academics

During my DPhil at Oxford Biochemistry, I will work on understanding the evolution of bacteria under antibiotic stress. I strive to answer the questions related to single-cell heterogeneity in stress adaptations which enables bacteria to develop antibiotic resistance by exploring the importance of stochastic noise and fluctuations in these processes.

I completed my undergraduate degree, majoring in Chemical Engineering, from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi (2016-2020). During my undergraduate years, I stepped into the field of synthetic biology through institute iGEM (international Genetically Engineered Machine) team and subsequently, worked on an array of different projects. With the Kusuma School of biology-IIT Delhi, I worked on building computational algorithms for genomic analysis of G-Quaruplexes and Vitamin D receptor elements under Dr V. Perumal.

Outside my institute, I was fortunate to be selected as an undergraduate researcher at Harvard SEAS (Khorana Scholar 2018, summer 2018), Harvard Medical School (summer 2019) and Australian National University (Future Research Talent Travel Award 2019, winter 2019). In these projects, I explored the single-cell and genome studies using image analysis and building computational algorithms. I was fascinated by the link between biology and engineering/mathematics, which made me curious to view the cell regulation behaviour with a quantitative lens which, otherwise, has mostly been analyzed qualitatively.

Antibiotics are continuously being challenged by microorganisms all around the world, potentially overpowering the drugs by developing resistance against them. The advent of super-resolution microscopy and single-cell analysis has brought us a step closer in analyzing the root cause of increasing antibiotic resistance in micro-organisms. It is especially important in India, where the extensive, as well as ill use of antibiotics and lack of Point-Of-Care diagnostics, has led to people losing lives due to septicemia at a larger scale. Developing engineering approaches to study “How cells sense the environment and regulate this antibiotic stress at the single-cell level” would help me address this issue.

I am grateful to be a part of the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development (OICSD) community. It will provide me with a platform to understand the interdisciplinary links between scientific research advancements and better healthcare, thus touching people’s lives.

Amy is a biochemist and biophysicist at the Centre of Medicines Discovery, in the lab of Dr. Oleg Fedorov. She uses high-throughput methods to screen drug candidates for a variety of human diseases, by measuring specific thermodynamic and kinetic properties of drug binding.

Amy’s research projects focus on characterising drugs involved in epigenetics and the ubiquitin system, both of which are heavily associated with cancers. Prior to embarking on these research projects, Amy was a structural biologist investigating how protein receptors work together to control the wiring of the brain. Her DPhil and first postdoctoral role were also at the University of Oxford, in the lab of Prof. Elena Seiradake. Here, she used a combination of cell biology, biophysics, X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy techniques to investigate the interactions of large receptor complexes involved in mammalian brain development. The work aimed not only to enhance our understanding of neural connectivity but also holds potential implications for developing therapeutic strategies targeting neurological disorders. Amy is driven by the aspiration that her scientific contributions will one day lead to the development of various drugs that successfully pass clinical trials and ultimately save lives.

Gillian Clark is Professor Emerita (since 2010) of Ancient History at the University of Bristol. She read Greats (Greek and Latin language and literature, ancient history, and philosophy) at Somerville, and also took her MA and DPhil here.

After Oxford, Professor Clark taught at the universities of Glasgow, St Andrews, and Manchester before her appointment to Liverpool and then to Bristol. Her research field is known to classicists as late antiquity and to theologians as early Christian studies or patristics. She works on social and intellectual history, with a special interest in the lives of women. Her continuing project is a commentary on Augustine, City of God.

Professor Clark also co-edits, with Andrew Louth FBA, the monograph series Oxford Early Christian Texts / Studies (OUP), and she is a General Editor of the series Translated Texts for Historians 300-800 (Liverpool University Press), which provides scholarly annotated translations from the languages of the Roman empire and its neighbours and successors.

Damian Clements is the Somerville College accountant. He joined Somerville in January 2024 after working at All Souls College, Oxford, and supporting a comprehensive transformation of the 18^thCentury stately home Harewood House in Yorkshire.

Damian first trained as an accountant with Deloitte in Jersey after reading PPE at Trinity College, Oxford. He then worked for several years in TV and for the BBC before deciding to concentrate his energies on charities including London Zoo, the Royal Court Theatre, Leeds Culture Trust and the aforementioned Harewood House.

Despite going to Trinity, Damian has a strong Somerville connection; his mother and two close family friends read zoology here, as did his cousin and older sister. Now Damian is keen to help Somerville increase its financial management and love of Excel spreadsheets. Outside work, Damian listens to many hours of radio drama and audiobooks while going on long walks to pubs, normally with a play script in his pocket to read when he gets there

Dame Elan Closs Stephens (1966, English) is a Welsh educator and policy-maker for broadcasting and the arts.

She has served as a Governor of the British Film Institute, commissioner of the Electoral Commission for Wales, and is currently the BBC Board member for Wales. In January 2020, she was appointed Pro Chancellor of Aberystwyth University.

She was honoured with a CBE in 2001 for her services to broadcasting and to the Welsh Language, and made a Dame in 2019 for her services to the Welsh government and to broadcasting. She was elected an Honorary Fellow in 2020.

As Programme Director of the MTST, Claire is responsible for mentoring and supporting the Thatcher Scholars and for publicising and evaluating the Thatcher Scholarship Programme. Claire also devises, adapts and oversees the Development Programme, which is open to all students of Somerville.

Claire read Biochemistry at Somerville before gaining a PhD in Plant Molecular Biology from the University of Cambridge. During her Post-Doc in Cambridge, she was awarded a Media Fellowship, working with Tim Radford at The Guardian and subsequently as a freelance science writer. After deciding to hang up her lab coat in 2001, Claire pioneered a cross-disciplinary Master’s Programme in Bioscience Enterprise at Cambridge in partnership with MIT, aimed at bio-entrepreneurs and future leaders of the life science sector.

In 2005, Claire joined the Babraham Institute – a biomedical research organisation in Cambridge – where she was responsible for corporate communications, media liaison, public engagement and knowledge exchange and undertook PR for the campus, home to over 40 life science companies. She established a successful Science & Society Programme delivering novel science enrichment activities for schools, and summer research opportunities to inspire young people about science and STEM careers. During this time, Claire was a Graduate Tutor at Newnham College, Cambridge providing pastoral support and mentoring for a growing graduate community.

Claire is a trustee of STEM Team East, an educational charity that enriches science in schools, and has received awards for work with schools. She joined the Board of the biomedical charity Understanding Animals in Research in 2016 and is a member of the BioIndustry Associations’ Communications Advisory Committee. After joining the Centre for Personalised Medicine in Oxford during its start-up phase in 2013, Claire now offers consultancy in science communication and public engagement. She is a fellow of the Society of Biology, the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust and in 2012 was selected as a fellow of the British-American Project – a transatlantic leadership network from a broad spectrum of occupations and backgrounds.

Becca plays a leading role in realising Somerville’s fundraising goals, with particular responsibility for major gifts and legacies.

Following a first degree in Philosophy and Psychology at Durham, Becca was a postgraduate researcher in the philosophy of education at Magdalene College, Cambridge. She then worked in the City as a lobbyist for the financial services industry before becoming Major Gifts Officer at Keble College.

If you are thinking about making a major gift, or leaving a legacy, Becca would love to hear from you. You can contact her by email on rebecca.coker@some.ox.ac.uk or phone her at +44 (0) 7890 412404.

Stephanie Dalley is a British scholar of the Ancient Near East and Fellow of the Institute for Ancient and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES), where she taught Akkadian and Sumerian for almost three decades.

She is best known for her investigation into the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and her proposal that it was situated in Nineveh and constructed during the rule of Sennacherib. Her other achievements include her work on the Sealand Dynasty.

Pat Davies (née Owtram) is a WWII codebreaker and recipient of the Legion d’Honneur who smashed glass ceilings as a producer in the world of Sixties television. She describes herself today as the only 100-year-old woman in Chiswick who knows how to use a sten gun. 

Like many women of her generation, Pat was determined to contribute to the war effort during WWII. Quite unlike most other women, however, Pat Davies spent her war years conducting vital secret work at covert listening stations on the South Coast, for which she would later receive the Légion d’Honneur, France’s highest order of merit. 

Pat joined the WRNS in 1942, aged just 18, motivated by her father’s capture and internment by the Japanese army. As a German-speaker, she was selected for work manning wireless intercept stations around the coast. Her intercepts of German military communications were translated, with encoded messages sent to Bletchley Park. After the war’s conclusion, Pat was offered a role as a translator in the Nuremburg Trials, but chose to return home to care for her recently liberated father. Unbeknownst to Pat, her younger sister Jean Argles (née Owtram) had also worked as a codebreaker for SOE, decoding messages from agents in the field. The sisters only learned about their shared experiences after the war, leading them to write the popular memoir ‘Code-Breaking Sisters’.

After the war, Pat became a noted television producer, helping to devise several longstanding shows including The Sky At Night, University Challenge and Coronation Street. More recently, Pat won a seven-decade-long battle to restore the authorship rights to her plagiarised BLitt thesis. Somerville played a significant role in this case for restorative justice, which you can read about here.

Pat Owtram arriving at the Dorothy Hodgkin Memorial Lecture 2024 with Principal Jan Royall before receiving applause as news of her Honorary Fellowship was announced.

Now 100 years old, Patricia describes herself as the only centenarian in Chiswick who knows how to use a Sten gun. In 2023, she was named The Oldie magazine’s ‘Oldie Secret Agent of the Year’ by Gyles Brandreth. 

Pat Owtram together with her younger sister Jean Argles (née Owtram, 1925-2023) during and after the war, and in Chiswick wearing her Victory medal and Bletchley badge

Pat Davies was made an Honorary Fellow of Somerville in March 2024, and informed of the decision while attending the annual Dorothy Hodgkin Lecture. Speaking of the news, Pat commented, ‘I certainly never expected to become a Fellow of an Oxford College. However, I feel very privileged to have been considered worthy of this recognition. My family were not terribly supportive of university education for women, so I was only able to attend university because I received a grant in recognition of my wartime service in the WRNS. I must say I found it a wonderful opportunity and stepping stone to an interesting career!’

Our Principal Jan Royall added, ‘It is a privilege to have met Pat and welcomed her as an Honorary Fellow of Somerville College. Her extraordinary life embraces so many historic chapters, through all of which she has evidently moved with the same combination of intellect, integrity and humour that show her to be a quintessential Somervillian.’

Ali helps with the running of the Academic Office.