Support Staff

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.

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.

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

Catherine Royle joined NATO in January 2015 as Political Adviser to the Commander at Joint Force Command Brunssum after a long career as a British diplomat. She joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1986 following studies at the Universities of Oxford (BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics) and Wales (MscEcon in Strategic Studies).

After an initial stint in London, Catherine’s first post was in Chile as it transitioned from dictatorship to democracy. She returned to the UK at the end of 1991 where she worked on various aspects of UK policy in Iraq until 1997. Catherine then served in Dublin as First Secretary for EU and Economic Affairs. From 2001-2003 she served as Head of the Policy Unit on the Convention for the Future of Europe. She acted as policy advisor to Peter Hain – the UK’s ministerial representative at the Convention on the Future of Europe – during the drafting of the proposed European Constitution (which later became the Lisbon Treaty).

Catherine spent seven years in Latin America where she served as Deputy Head of Mission in Buenos Aires, and then as British Ambassador to Venezuela where she worked closely with UK business to protect and promote investment in a politically volatile environment, and to build a partnership with Venezuela on tackling narcotic trafficking.

Catherine was posted to Kabul in September 2010 as Deputy Ambassador at the British Embassy. In August 2012 she took up the role as Head of the Secretariat of the International Police Co-ordination Board. In that role she reinvigorated the organisation and partnered MoI in developing a 10 Year Vision for the ANP/MoI and initiating work on a series of 2 year rolling plans to promote implementation of the vision.

Catherine’s work on Afghanistan continued in JFCBS. She was a regular visitor and firm supporter of ANP / MOI until the end of the NATO mission.

Her time in JFCBS has coincided with NATO’s return to its core mission of deterrence and defence. She has been actively involved in the defence planning for Eastern Europe since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Catherine is also leading a project on assessing deterrence.

Catherine is Commodore of the NATO Tri-border sailing club. She has two surprisingly well-adjusted sons.

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