Support Staff

Dr. Shiwei Liu is Junior Research Fellow (JRF) at Somerville College. He is also a Royal Society Newton International Fellow at the University of Oxford. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin. He obtained his Ph.D. with the Cum Laude from the Eindhoven University of Technology in 2022. His research goal is to leverage, understand, and expand the role of low-dimensionality in neural networks, whose impacts span many important topics, such as efficient training/inference/transfer of large-foundation models, robustness and trustworthiness, and generative AI. His current main research interest focuses on improving the efficiency and accessibility of LLMs, making them accessible tooling to everyone. Dr. Liu has received two Rising Star Awards from KAUST and the Conference on Parsimony and Learning (CPAL). His Ph.D. thesis received the 2023 Best Dissertation Award from Informatics Europe. Personal Website: https://shiweiliuiiiiiii.github.io/

Elizabeth is the Joanna Randall-MacIver Junior Research Fellow at Somerville College, University of Oxford.

She previously studied at the Universities of Cambridge and Sheffield, and, following the completion of her doctorate in 2022, she held positions with the Sheffield Performer and Audience Research Centre and the Birmingham Music Education Research Group. At present she is also an external member of the Group for Research in Music Education at Cardiff Metropolitan University, and sits on the advisory panel for the national evaluation of Arts Council England’s Creativity Collaboratives. Elizabeth is the Assistant Editor for the international peer-reviewed journal, Research Studies in Music Education, and the recipient of an Early Career Researcher Career Development Fellowship from the British Educational Research Association.

Elizabeth’s current research focusses on the notion of ‘musical vulnerability’ – our inherent and situational openness to being affected (both positively and negatively) by the properties of music-making. She is working closely alongside music teachers at three secondary schools to understand how musical vulnerability is realised in classroom teaching and learning, and how it can be accounted for through ‘pedagogies of vulnerability’. She is also in the process of developing new resources for equipping pre-service music teachers to respond to experiences of musical vulnerability in diverse settings. Her research intersects with broader issues of inclusion, access, and care in music education, and has led to related projects in areas ranging from community singing to neurodiverse concert audiences.

Starting from my doctoral dissertation on the history of Bulgarian syntax, my research has focused primarily on the delimitation and interaction of various Slavonic vernaculars and the medieval literary language, Church Slavonic. 

My primary data are drawn from the various translations of the Psalter produced up to the fifteenth century, and my investigations touch on the origins of Old Church Slavonic, medieval translation technique, evidence for prosodic and morphosyntactic developments (e.g. in clitic use, word division, tense distinctions, mood and verbal aspect), the principles and practice of textual criticism in application to Church Slavonic material, the palaeography of Cyrillic and Glagolitic manuscripts, and Church Slavonic hymnographical traditions.

Dr Anne Makena (2012, DPhil Chemical Biology) is Co-Director of the Africa Oxford Initiative (AfOx), a vibrant platform for all things Africa at Oxford. 

The goal of Dr Makena and her AfOx colleagues is to make Africa a strategic priority for the University of Oxford by facilitating equitable, sustainable and impactful collaborations between Oxford and African institutions.

Working with partners across 30 African countries, AfOx facilitates academic and research partnerships by supporting activities including a travel grant scheme, visiting fellowships for African academics, high quality research engagement meetings and financial, academic and mentorship support for African students and research staff in Oxford. AfOx has an ambitious, but justified, aim to increase the number of African graduates at Oxford from 3 to 10%.

Dr Makena is responsible for developing and implementing AfOx’s overall strategy, as well as leading on fundraising and stakeholder engagement, and supporting the delivery of core AfOx programmes. Under Dr Makena’s guidance, AfOx is making strides to support the creation of a culture-shifting cohort of emerging African leaders whose experiences and passion can be practically addresses to some of the most pressing challenges in Africa, recognising moreover that Africa is the most rapidly changing continent whose future demographic and economic growth will have a major influence globally.

Dr Makena holds a DPhil in Chemical Biology from the University of Oxford and an Executive MBA from the Said Business School. She was made an Honorary Fellow of Somerville College in June 2025.

My DPhil in Plant Sciences, under the guidance of Professor (Dr.) Renier van der Hoorn, aims to understand the evolution of mechanism of extracellular perception of pathogens in the Solanaceae plant family, including important crops such as, tomato and potato.

Subsequent to perception, plants actively resist infection by most pathogens via deployment of multiple defense pathways. Since plant pathogens pose a huge challenge to crop production, enhanced understanding of how plant disease resistance is achieved will open novel avenues for plant protection methods. This eventually holds the potential of simultaneously addressing the many crises related to agriculture, including, global food security.

I am truly grateful to have received an IGS award, and I hope that OICSD, through inter-disciplinary collaborations, will provide necessary support to translate my research findings into effective solutions to crop losses.

Prior to Oxford, I attended the University of Delhi for my B.Sc. degree in life sciences and M.Sc. in Botany. During my post-graduation, I spent a summer at the Institute of Life Sciences, Odisha, as an Indian Academy of Sciences’ Research Fellow. Over the last few years, I have worked with various Non-governmental organizations in India, working on education and agriculture-related concerns.

Alastair Mallick joined Somerville College as our new Head Gardener in 2022. With 15 years of horticultural experience behind him, across everything from organic farming to his most recent post as Head Gardener at Queen’s College (2017-22), Alastair is keen to build on Somerville’s legacy of sustainability, biodiversity and beauty.

Building on a life-long love for plants and the natural world, Alastair progressed into gardening through a passion for growing his own food. After volunteering on many organic farming projects around the world and spending many hours tending to his allotment, he realised that he loved the process of working with plants. A professional pathway soon followed: Alastair ran his own successful gardening business before, in 2017, taking the jump into the the world of the university as Head Gardener at Queen’s in 2017. Here, he found that he loved the Oxford college environment, and was therefore thrilled when our former Head Gardener Sophie Walwin suggested he consider taking on the excellent work she began during her time at Somerville.

Alastair has big plans for the Somerville gardens. Refeshing the borders, bringing in lots of beautiful and unusual plants to lift Sophie’s great existing planting, adding new structure to the rest of the garden through shrubs and trees – the list goes on. Alastair is also deeply involved in the conversations to create a new pond as a source of additional biodiversity (and potential research for our plant scientists!). Some other plans being considered are a new perennial meadow for the empty bed in front of the Maitland building and an alpine rock garden in front of Park. However, Alastair also has a continued focus on developing garden spaces that are resilient to the pressures of climate change and that work for local fauna as well as for us. This will be achieved through measures such as the pond, but also bird boxes, bee hotels and drought-resistant, locally-sourced planting.

Vicky was born in London to Hungarian-born parents. She was educated at South Hampstead High School, one of the Girls’ Day School Trust group of schools. She read History at Somerville, matriculating in 1974.

At Somerville she was active in the JCR, serving as Treasurer. Both the GDST and Somerville celebrated their centenaries shortly after she completed her time with them, reminding her of the importance of the campaign for equal access to education.

She subsequently qualified as a solicitor and practised first commercial and consumer law, and subsequently charity, trust and probate law.

Vicky’s passion is for education at all levels, both for what it can contribute to society and civic life, and for its enrichment of each individual life. 

As part of that commitment, she served from 1995 to 2007 on the Council of the Girls’ Day School Trust, which is the largest group of independent schools in the UK, comprising 25 schools educating nearly 20,000 students aged 4 to 18 throughout England and Wales. Vicky also trained and worked as an adult literacy teacher in West London.

From 1985 to 1988 Vicky lived in Geneva, where she represented an NGO at the UN and its member organisations.

Vicky and her husband Colin returned permanently to Geneva in 2008. From 2008 to 2014 she was on the Board of the International School of Geneva. She has a daughter and a Somervillian son. She is happy to have shared with all her family her love of literature and the dramatic arts.

Aaron Maniam is an alumnus of Somerville (PPE 1998) and current Senior Associate, a position equivalent to Senior Research Fellow but for individuals whose contributions lie outside traditional academia.

In 2023, Aaron became Fellow of Practice and Director, Digital Education Transformation at the Blavatnik School of Government. Aaron’s work at the Blavatnik School focuses on issues connecting technology, public policy and public administration. He teaches on the School’s Master of Public Policy and executive education programmes, and convenes its digital “thematic cluster”, bringing together scholarship and practice on digital issues. He co-chairs the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the Future of Technology Policy and is a member of the OECD’s Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence (AI) Futures.

He was previously a senior civil servant in the Singapore government, including being the founding Head of its Centre for Strategic Futures. Most recently, he served as Deputy Secretary (Industry & International) at the Singapore Ministry of Communications & Information, overseeing the ministry’s work in the digital economy, digital literacy and inclusion, and digital diplomacy – with a concurrent cross-government role coordinating Singapore’s strategy in global branding, soft power and public diplomacy.

At Somerville, Aaron will supervise graduate students interested in public policy and development issues. He will support the College’s career guidance programmes, particularly for students keen on government careers. As a trained facilitator of inter-religious dialogue, he will also contribute to the College’s multi-faith chapel programme.

As Director for the Margaret Thatcher Scholarship Trust, Jessica oversees the financial aspects of the Trust and ensures that the objects of the charity are met. She works closely with the Director of the Thatcher Scholarship Programme, the Principal, Development Director, Trustees and Patrons in the execution of her role.

As we enter a new phase of fundraising to meet the College’s five-year strategy, Jessica has taken on the role of Campaign Director, working closely with the Development Director and Principal on the fundraising strategy, developing campaign messages, setting goals and developing the projects and tools that will allow the team to achieve the ambitious targets.

Anne Manuel was the College Librarian and Archivist at Somerville for 13 years. 

Her current research interests include gender inequality in Higher Education, the use of Internet technologies in research and information literacy amongst undergraduate students. She is able to assist with queries concerning all aspects of information searching but has a speciality in legal and government information.

She has edited a short history of the College: Breaking New Ground : A history of Somerville College as seen through its buildings

Dame Rosalind Marsden was the EU Special Representative for Sudan from September 2010 until October 2013.

Before joining the EU, she had a long career in the British diplomatic service, including postings as Consul-General in Basra, British Ambassador to Sudan and British Ambassador to Afghanistan. She has also served as Head of the United Nations Department and Director (Asia-Pacific) in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. Earlier in her career she served twice in the British Embassy in Tokyo and spent two years on secondment to the private sector, working in the corporate finance department of an investment bank.

She received her BA in Modern History from Somerville College, Oxford and her D.Phil from St Antony’s College, Oxford. – See more at: https://www.chathamhouse.org/expert/dame-rosalind-marsden#sthash.ElSiYjHJ.dpuf

Hi there! I’m Callum and I am currently reading for the MSc in Mathematical Sciences. Originally from Greater Manchester, I am a big Oldham Athletic supporter. You can probably tell that I enjoy football, but I also spend a lot of time reading and going to the gym. I believe sport is a great way to keep fit whilst building social connections and having fun! My aim as MCR Sports Rep is to make this as easy as possible for everyone to get involved.

Please do feel free to contact me for anything regarding sports/physical activities.

Harriet Maunsell is non-executive director at the Pension Insurance Corporation.

Formerly, she was Chairman of the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority and non-executive director of the Serious Fraud Office. In 1994 she was awarded the OBE for services to pensions.

Dr Christiana Mavroyiakoumou is a Fulford Junior Research Fellow at Somerville College. She is also a Hooke Research Fellow at the Mathematical Institute, affiliated with OCIAM. 

Christiana is an applied mathematician specialising in developing mathematical models and computational methods to tackle complex problems in science and engineering. Her current research focuses on fluid dynamics, particularly fluid–structure interactions. Some of her current research topics include the deformation of extensible membranes, the dynamics of sailing manoeuvres, and the aerodynamics of bird flight formations. She also studies interactions between vortices and free surfaces. These research fields have practical applications in flow energy harvesting and the development of efficient propulsion systems.

Dr Mavroyiakoumou completed her PhD in Applied & Interdisciplinary Mathematics and Scientific Computing at the University of Michigan and then worked as a Courant Instructor/Assistant Professor at the Courant Institute of New York University. Her achievements include the Joseph B. Keller Postdoctoral Fellowship and Peter Smereka Dissertation Award.

A link to her personal website can be found here.