Clare Hall is a constituent college of the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, England. Founded in 1966 by Clare College, Clare Hall is a college for advanced study, admitting only postgraduate students alongside postdoctoral researchers and fellows. It was established to serve as an Institute of Advanced Studies and has slowly grown and developed into a full constituent college. Clare Hall is one of the smallest colleges with 200 graduate students, but around 125

Fellows Fellows may refer to Fellow, in plural form. Fellows or Fellowes may also refer to: Places * Fellows, California, USA * Fellows, Wisconsin, ghost town, USA Other uses * Fellows Auctioneers, established in 1876. *Fellowes, Inc., manufacturer of wo ...

, making it the highest Fellow to Student ratio at Cambridge University. Notwithstanding its small size, the college is also notable for its high number of Nobel Laureate affiliates. Clare Hall maintains many Cambridge traditions including formal hall and the tutorial system.

History

Clare Hall was founded by Clare College (which had previously been known as "Clare Hall" from 1338 to 1856) as a centre for advanced study, but was also intended to become a social group of men and women with their families that would include graduate students studying for

higher degree Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor's) degree. The organization and struc ...

s in the university, research fellows working at

post-doctoral A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to pu ...

level, permanent fellows holding faculty or research posts in the university, and visiting fellows on leave from universities around the world. After Clare College decided to establish this new centre in January 1964, the initial planning was carried through by a small group of fellows of the college chaired by the Master, Sir Eric Ashby. It was soon agreed that the new centre would be called Clare Hall, the ancient name by which the college itself had been known for more than five hundred years until the mid-19th century. Clare Hall maintains close ties with Clare College, sharing some facilities and annual events. The Institute of Advanced Studies at the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in continuo ...

is so far the only institution abroad explicitly modelled upon Clare Hall.

Buildings

The architect Ralph Erskine was appointed to design the buildings for Clare Hall, which were to include common rooms, offices and dining facilities, a house for the President, and twenty apartments for visiting fellows. A neighbouring house, Elmside in Grange Road, provided rooms for the relatively small number of graduate students. Sir Eric Ashby, then Master of Clare College and Vice-Chancellor of the University, formally opened Clare Hall in September 1969. Brian Pippard, the first President of Clare Hall, had already moved into the President's house with his family; twelve research students were living on the college site in Elmside and a number of visiting fellows with their families were living in the newly built college apartments. Among the early visiting fellows was Ivar Giaever, who was awarded a

Nobel Prize for Physics ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...

in 1973. Joseph Brodsky, a visiting fellow and poet in residence at Clare Hall in 1977, was awarded the

Nobel Prize for Literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 ...

in 1987. William Nordhaus, a visiting fellow in 1970, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2018. Other facilities in the college grounds include a sports complex with a multi-gym and swimming pool and an adjacent tennis court. It also has a dining room which is used for

Formal Hall Formal hall or formal meal is a meal held at some of the oldest universities in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland (as well as some other Commonwealth countries) at which students usually dress in formal attire and often gowns ...

. The university athletics track is a short run from the main college buildings.

Growth

In 1978 a second neighbouring house, now called Leslie Barnett House, was obtained for graduate student accommodation. This purchase also allowed the Michael Stoker and Brian Pippard Buildings to be built in the college grounds, providing further student rooms. The Anthony Low Building in the garden of Elmside was completed in 2000, providing further common rooms and the Garden Bar for the graduates on the main college site. In the summer of 1996, the college purchased a substantial property, formerly the Cambridge family home of Victor Rothschild, 3rd Baron Rothschild (1910–1990), which is about five minutes' walk from the college at the western end of

Herschel Road Grange Road is a street in Cambridge, England. It stretches north–south, meeting Madingley Road ( A1303) at a T-junction to the north and Barton Road ( A603) to the south. It runs approximately parallel with the River Cam to the east. Gran ...

. It was renamed Clare Hall West Court and, after conversion and some major building works, now provides public rooms, studies, apartments, study bedrooms, a fitness centre and a swimming pool.

Student life

Unlike other colleges in the university, Clare Hall does not have a High Table at meals or a Senior Common Room, and it is a single society for all social functions and in the use of the various college common rooms and other facilities. This encourages interaction between graduate students, distinguished visiting fellows and other senior members, aided also by the wide variety of national backgrounds and research interests of the members. The interaction between members of Clare Hall is encouraged also by college seminars, lunchtime discussions and formal lecture series. The latter includes the annual series of lectures relating to human values, given by a distinguished international scholar and sponsored by the Tanner Foundation. They also include the annual Ashby lecture, given by a visiting fellow, and the more frequent ASH seminar (arts, social sciences and history) that were initiated by some of the visiting life members. Other events include art exhibitions, films and small concerts which supplement the wealth of music available in the university.

People associated with the college

Presidents

The President's term of office is fixed at seven years. Previous presidents include, Brian Pippard (1963–70), Robert Honeycombe, Goldsmiths Professor and Head of the Department of Metallurgy (1973–80); Sir

Michael Stoker Sir Michael George Parke Stoker CBE FRS FRSE MD FRCP (4 July 1918 – 13 August 2013) was a British physician and medical researcher in virology. Scientific career Stoker studied medicine at Clare College, Cambridge and St Thomas' Hospit ...

(1980–87), former director of the Imperial Cancer Research Laboratories; Anthony Low (1987–94), Professor of Commonwealth History and formerly Vice-Chancellor of the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...

; Dame

Gillian Beer Dame Gillian Patricia Kempster Beer, (née Thomas; born 27 January 1935) is a British literary critic and academic. She was President of Clare Hall from 1994 to 2001, and King Edward VII Professor of English Literature at the University of Ca ...

(1994–2001),

King Edward VII Professor of English Literature The King Edward VII Professorship of English Literature is one of the senior List of Professorships at the University of Cambridge, professorships in literature at the University of Cambridge, and was founded by a donation from Harold Harmsworth, Si ...

; Ekhard Salje (2001–08), Head of the Department of Earth Sciences;

Sir Martin Harris Sir Martin Best Harris, (born 28 June 1944) is a British academic and former University Vice-Chancellor. Life and career He was born at Ruabon, Wales, the son of William Best Harris, afterwards City Librarian of Plymouth, and educated at Dev ...

(2008–13), former Vice-Chancellor of the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The university owns and operates majo ...

and David Ibbetson, Regius Professor of Civil Law Professor

C. Alan Short Charles Alan Short (born 1955) is a British architect and academic. He has been Professor of Architecture at the University of Cambridge since 2001, and President of Clare Hall, Cambridge since 2020. He champions low-energy buildings that will be re ...

, Professor of Architecture (Cambridge), Fellow and Vice-President of Clare Hall, became the ninth President of Clare Hall from 1st August 2020. He is the Professor of Architecture (1970) of the University of Cambridge.

Fellows

The late Lord Ashby was elected as the first honorary fellow of Clare Hall in 1975, on his retirement from the Mastership of Clare College. Present honorary fellows include two former visiting fellows,

Kim Dae-Jung Kim Dae-jung (; ; 6 January 192418 August 2009), was a South Korea, South Korean politician and activist who served as the eighth president of South Korea from 1998 to 2003. He was a 2000 Nobel Peace Prize recipient for his work for democra ...

, former President of the

Republic of Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its ea ...

and

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolog ...

winner in 2000, and Lee Bollinger, who later became President of the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

and

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

. They also include the retired presidents of the College, together with Ralph Erskine, architect of the early buildings, and

Richard Eden Richard Eden may refer to: * Richard Eden (translator) Richard Eden (c. 1520–1576) was an English alchemist and translator. His translations of the geographical works of other writers helped to foster enthusiasm for overseas exploration in Tud ...

, one of the founding fellows. Clare Hall has a strong tradition in theoretical physics. Brian Pippard, its first President, was

Cavendish Professor of Physics The Cavendish Professorship is one of the senior faculty positions in physics at the University of Cambridge. It was founded on 9 February 1871 alongside the famous Cavendish Laboratory, which was completed three years later. William Cavendish, 7th ...

. Notable current fellows include Michael Green, former Lucasian Professor of Mathematics; John D. Barrow, a Templeton Prize laureate; and Stephen Toope, Vice-Chancellor of the University from 2017. Notable past fellows include

David J. Thouless David James Thouless (; 21 September 1934 – 6 April 2019) was a British condensed-matter physicist. He was the winner of the 1990 Wolf Prize and a laureate of the 2016 Nobel Prize for physics along with F. Duncan M. Haldane and J. Michael Ko ...

, winner of a 2016

Nobel Prize in Physics ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...

; Ivar Giaever, winner of a 1973

; Stephen Adler, permanent faculty at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...

; Michael R. Douglas of

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York syste ...

;

J. David Jackson John David Jackson (January 19, 1925 – May 20, 2016) was a Canadian–American physics professor at the University of California, Berkeley and a faculty senior scientist emeritus at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. A theoretical physic ...

of the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. Other American academics who were past fellows include Andreas Acrivos (fluid dynamics) of

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, Leila Ahmed (divinity) of Harvard,

David Epel David Epel is a researcher at Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, California, and a Professor (Emeritus) in the Department of Biology at Stanford University. Epel earned his Ph.D. at University of California Berkeley under Daniel Mazia. He ar ...

(marine biology) of

Notable alumni and past fellows

* Paul Berg, 1980 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry * Joseph Brodsky, 1987 Nobel Laureate in Literature *

José Wendell Capili José Wendell Capili is a Filipino academic and writer. He earned degrees from the University of Santo Tomas, University of the Philippines Diliman , University of Cambridge and Australian National University. He is a Professor of creative writin ...

, Filipino writer * Michele Chiaruzzi, Sammarinese ambassador * Jeff Colyer, Governor of Kansas *

Kim Dae-jung Kim Dae-jung (; ; 6 January 192418 August 2009), was a South Korea, South Korean politician and activist who served as the eighth president of South Korea from 1998 to 2003. He was a 2000 Nobel Peace Prize recipient for his work for democra ...

, Former President of South Korea, 2000 Nobel Laureate in Peace * Ivar Giaever, 1973 Nobel Laureate in Physics * Tamala Krishna Goswami, Hindu theologian *

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

, 1995 Nobel Laureate in Literature * Tobias Hecht, American anthropologist *

Howard Markel Howard Markel (born April 23, 1960) is an American physician and medical historian. Markel is the George E. Wantz Distinguished Professor of the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan and Director of the University of Michigan's Cente ...

, American historian of medicine and physician * William Nordhaus, 2018 Nobel Laureate in Economics * Barbara Sahakian, Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology * Phyllis Starkey, former Labour Party MP * Budiman Sudjatmiko, Indonesian activist and politician *

, 2016 Nobel Laureate in Physics * Michael Toch, Professor of medieval history

References

* *

(2009), ''Clare Hall. The Origins and Development of a College for Advanced Study'', Cambridge.

External links

*
Clare Hall on Cambridge University Alternative Prospectus
{{Authority control Colleges of the University of Cambridge Educational institutions established in 1966 1966 establishments in England Postgraduate schools in the United Kingdom