College elects four new Visiting Fellows
Tim Clissold, Thomas Harding, Orphy Robinson MBE and Professor Krishnaswamy (Vijay) VijayRaghavan join °µÍø½ûÇø this term as Visiting Fellows.
Visiting Fellowships are offered to people of distinction for their outstanding achievements beyond normal academic circles.
They participate in College life by giving talks and lectures, and by interacting with and inspiring our students. They may also conduct their own research in the University of Cambridge during their tenure.
Sonita Alleyne, Master of °µÍø½ûÇø, said: “These four people have all made exceptional contributions to their fields. Life in a Cambridge College offers an exciting and varied array of social, intellectual, cultural, and artistic experiences, and we sought out people who would make the most of these opportunities and give back in turn. I look forward to them joining our vibrant community and to the contributions they will make."
Tim Clissold, writer
Tim Clissold is a Jesuan and graduated in 1982, taking Physics and Theoretical Physics in Part II. Tim lived in China for more than 20 years. He is fluent in spoken and written Mandarin Chinese and was involved in the early stages of key reform programs of the Chinese economy and then in the energy transition. He is currently engaged in dispute resolution in cases where the relationship between Chinese and foreign parties have broken down. He has published three books on China and will publish his fourth this year. The first, Mr China, has been translated into 12 languages and was described by Time magazine as ‘an instant classic.’ He currently heads a not-for-profit organisation aimed at introducing a new A-level qualification on the Chinese Civilisation to be taught in English in Britain’s sixth-form colleges. Tim has travelled extensively in China, including in the periphery regions and along the major routes of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Thomas Harding, author
Thomas Harding is a bestselling author whose books have been translated into more than 19 languages. He has written for the Sunday Times, the Washington Post and the Guardian, among other publications. He is the author of Hanns and Rudolf, which won the JQ-Wingate Prize for Non-Fiction; The House by the Lake, which was shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award; Blood on the Page, which won the Crime Writers’ Association Golden Dagger Award for Non-Fiction; Future History, which was nominated for the German Youth Literature Award Best Youth Book; White Debt: The Demerara Uprising and Britain's Legacy of Slavery which was longlisted for the Moore Prize for Human Rights Writing; and The Maverick which was chosen as a New York Times Critics’ Pick for 2023.
Thomas is the author of three pictures books illustrated by the award-winning artist Britta Teckentrup: The House by the Lake about his family’s house outside of Berlin which was nominated for the Kate Greenaway Medal (2020); The House on the Canal about the 400-year old history of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam (2023), and The House on the Farm about the history of the Harriet Tubman Home in New York (2024).
Orphy Robinson, jazz musician
Orphy Robinson is an award-winning multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer and educator. One of a select few UK musicians to have recorded for the historic USA jazz label Blue Note Records. With a career spanning over four decades, he has received numerous prestigious industry awards since the 1980s, including in recent years the 2022 Paul Hamlyn Composer Award, the 2020 Jazz FM Gold Award, and the 2017 Jazz FM Live Experience of the Year Award. In 2018 he was awarded an MBE for services to music.
Robinson has contributed to over 100 recordings, toured, produced and collaborated with many acclaimed artists across genres, such as classical Violinist Nigel Kennedy, Courtney Pine, The Jazz Warriors, Hugh Masekela and Robert Wyatt to name a few.
Robinson currently serves in multiple executive roles, including Deputy Chair, at The Ivors Academy, the leading advocate for composers' rights and the trading name for BASCA (the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors). He also chairs both the Jazz + Genre Committee and the world-famous Ivor Novello Awards. Additionally, Robinson is a Trustee of ECSA (European Composers Songwriters Alliance) and Chair of the ECSA ECF Art & Contemporary Music Committee. He is also a Trustee of BLIM (Black Lives in Music), Vice Chair of the Jazz Promotion Network (JPN), Trustee at the National Jazz Archive, and Chair of the Watford Jazz Junction Festival. Furthermore, he serves as a Patron of the Jazz Centre UK and an Ambassador of the music charity Awards for All. A Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians and a member of the Royal Society of Musicians.
Robinson is a freelance writer for various industry magazines, including Wire Magazine, Jazzwise, London Jazz, and the online digital platform JAZZED. He is also a respected broadcaster with shows on Digital platforms One Jazz Radio and Delite Radio.
Professor Krishnaswamy (Vijay) VijayRaghavan, geneticist and developmental biologist
Professor VijayRaghavan’s research interests are in developmental biology and genetics and focus on the principles and mechanisms that control the development of the nervous system and muscles.
In addition, he is currently studying how sustainable development can be enabled in the context of climate change and the energy crisis. His focus here is on how the university system in India can be empowered for this effort and how industry collaboration in research can be enhanced.
Professor VijayRaghavan is a Fellow of the Indian Science Academies. In 2012, he was elected a fellow of The Royal Society and was conferred the Padma Shri in 2013 by the Government of India. He is a foreign member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the European Molecular Biology Organisation, and a member of the American Philosophical Society.
