The College aims to appoint one academic and one non-academic Distinguished Visitor each year. Such visitors are leading figures from academia and throughout the public and private sectors. During their residency, it is expected that they contribute actively to the intellectual life of the College at all levels: undergraduate, postgraduate, fellowship, and Old Members. Visitors typically give a short lecture or presentation to the College community, and they write a brief piece about their time in the College for The College Record – the College’s annual alumni magazine. Such a period of residency marks an important part of a lifelong connection to the College.
In the academic year 2022-2023, our academic Distinguished Visitor was Prof James Unwin, Assistant Professor in Physics at the University of Illinois, Chicago and our non-academic Distinguished Visitor was Jacky Wright, former Chief Digital Officer at Microsoft.
In 2023-2024, we welcomed Prof Mary Ann Smart (Music, University of California-Berkeley) as the academic Distinguished Visitor and Dr Julie Newman, Director of Sustainability at MIT as our non-academic Distinguished Visitor.
