Fellows

• List of Fellows and Officers
• The Mistress
• The Visitor
• Official Fellows
• Life Fellows
• Professorial Fellows
• Supernumerary Fellows
• Non-Stipendiary Fellows
• Research Fellows
  • Eileen D Rubery
  • Sithamparanathan Sabesan
  • Alex Liu
  • Past and Present
  • Recent Research Fellows in Arts
• Bye-Fellows
• External Directors of Studies
• Barbara Bodichon Fellows
• Honorary Fellows

More Information

• Recent Research Fellows in Arts
• Research Fellows, Past and Present

Research Fellows

What is a Research Fellow?

Girton’s Research Fellows are at the post-doctoral stage in their careers. The fellowship gives them funding for three years to pursue their interests in depth. They work on their own without supervision and are therefore expected to be highly motivated and self-directing. They may take on a certain amount of teaching but are not required to do so. These favourable conditions for pure research normally result in publications that are highly innovative and thorough, and usually lead on to rewarding academic posts in higher education.

As well as a salary and expenses, the Research Fellows have dining rights and the option of living in college accommodation. They have many further opportunities to participate in the life of the college. They mix regularly at social occasions with teaching fellows and graduate students. They sit by right on the Governing Body and may be invited to serve on a variety of committees dealing with college business.In addition they organise informal evening meetings for the discussion of current research work with the rest of the fellowship.

Research Fellows of Girton College

Senior Research Fellows

Junior Research Fellows

Research Fellowships in Arts

These have been made possible only by the generosity of benefactors who, committed to ensuring the College’s future excellence in research, established Fellowships in their own names or to honour others.

Eugenie Strong

The Fellowship was founded in 1910 from a fund presented by four benefactors. Eugenie Strong (nee Sellers, 1860–1943) was the first Research Fellow and Life Fellow of Girton, 1910–43. She was a distinguished classical archaeologist who spent most of her working life in Rome, so that her influence on Cambridge was indirect. She read Classics 1879–82. After delivering University Extension lectures and giving demonstrations at the British Museum on Greek sculpture 1890–94, she studied at the British School at Athens and at Berlin and Munich 1895–97. In 1897 she married Arthur Strong, orientalist, Librarian to the House of Lords and Keeper of the Duke of Devonshire’s collections at Chatsworth. After her marriage she worked with her husband on the statuary at Chatsworth, succeeding him as Librarian and Keeper of collections on his death in 1904. In 1909 she became Assistant Director at the British School at Rome where she remained until 1925, living for the rest of her life in Rome. She lectured and published extensively on classical archaeology and related subjects. A bust of Mrs Strong is displayed in the Lawrence Room, and her papers are in the CollegeArchive. For more of her life see Stephen L Dyson’s biography, “Eugenie Sellers Strong: portrait of an archaeologist” (London: Duckworth 2004)

Katharine Jex-Blake

The Fellowship was founded in 1922 from a sum presented to Miss Jex-Blake on her retirement from her post of Mistress and given by her towards the Endowment of a Research Fund. Katharine Jex-Blake came from a large academic family and read Classics at Girton 1879–83 as a Goldsmiths’ Scholar. After a year teaching at Notting Hill High School, she returned to Girton as Resident Classics Lecturer, 1885–1901; Director of Studies in Classics, 1901–19, Vice-Mistress 1903–16 and Mistress 1916–22. As someone who had resided in College virtually all her working life, Miss Jex-Blake knew all the students from the beginning except for the few who came up before 1879. She is remembered as a formidable and authoritative character and a superb teacher of classics. Her nick-name was Miss Jix and legend has it that a terrified fresher who apologised to Miss Jex-Blake: ‘Am I sitting on your chair-’ was promptly answered, ‘All the chairs are my chairs’. Her portrait hangs in Hall.

Ottilie Hancock

The Fellowship was founded in 1925 with a gift from Mrs Hancock. Ottilie Hancock was an active supporter of Home Rule, Women’s Suffrage, and the League of Nations. She was the daughter of Karl Blind, German politician and writer who, after taking part in the revolutionary movements of 1848–9 lived as an exile in England until his death in 1907. His young family (including his step-daughter, Mathilde Blind, the poet) were brought up and educated in this country. Through her father Ottilie knew Mazzini, Karl Marx, Louis Blanc and other political exiles. During the 1914–18 war she organised working parties for the Serbian Red Cross. She died in 1929. She was a friend of the scientist Hertha Ayrton (Girton 1876) in whose name she founded a second Fellowship. Her portrait hangs in College.

Rosamund Chambers

The Fellowship was founded in 1980. Rosamund White read History and Law at Girton 1920–24 (LL.B.; M.A., 1934). Little is known of her career beyond the fact that she worked in postal censorship during World War II and published on Elizabethan England. In 1937, she gave a valuable collection of books to the College Library and in 1946 gave money for the improvement of the College grounds, in memory of her husband, George Chambers.

Rosalind, Lady Carlisle

The Fellowship was founded in 1921 with a bequest from Lady Carlisle. Rosalind, Lady Carlisle (1845–1921) was the daughter of the 2nd Lord Stanley of Alderley and of Henrietta Maria Lady Stanley of Alderley. She held strong artistic and political interests, with many friends among the Pre-Raphaelites, the French exiles of 1870 and the Liberal party in England. She was a strong supporter of the temperance movement, of Home Rule for Ireland and of Free Trade. She was President of the Women’s Liberal Federation and the British Women’s Temperance Association. In 1864 she married George Howard,afterwards 9th Earl of Carlisle. Her mother, Lady Stanley of Alderley was one of those, with Emily Davies, whose name was particularly associated with the foundation of College and whose arms are represented in the College crest. Her daughter, Dorothy Howard (later Lady Henley) came up to Girton in 1901 and her letters to her mother from her time at College are preserved in the Archive. Portriats of the Stanleys hang in College.

Margaret Smith

The Fellowship was founded in 1970 with a bequest from Margaret Smith for graduates working in the general field of her own research. Margaret Smith (1884–1970) read History and Moral Science at Girton 1904–1907. She was a Pfeiffer Scholar. She took a Teacher’s Diploma, Oxford 1916 and the same year was awarded the Gamble Prize from Girton for an essay entitled, ‘The place of the woman saint in the history of Islam’. She was an Amelia Gurney Graduate Scholar, Girton 1926–28; Ouseley Memorial Scholar (Arabic), London University 1926; PhD (Arabic), London, 1928, Jex-Blake Research Fellow, Girton, 1932–35; D Lit (Arabic & Persian), London, 1937; Senior Research Student, Manchester College, Oxford, 1936–38. In between periods of full-time research in this country, Margaret Smith taught in the Middle East. During World War II she wrote scripts for broadcasting to Persia, Egypt and Palestine. She published widely on mysticism and left her collection of oriental books and journals to the College Library. Her diaries are in the College Archive. While at Girton she was known as ‘Mystic’ Smith to distinguish her from ‘Bursar’ Smith.

Research Fellowships in Science

These have been made possible only by the generosity of benefactors who, committed to ensuring the College’s future excellence in research, established Fellowships in their own names or to honour others.

Rosamund Chambers

The Fellowship was founded in 1980. Rosamund White read History and Law at Girton 1920–24 (LL.B.; M.A., 1934). Little is known of her career beyond the fact that she worked in postal censorship during World War II and published on Elizabethan England. In 1937, she gave a valuable collection of books to the College Library and in 1946 gave money for the improvement of the College grounds, in memory of her husband, George Chambers.

Tucker-Price

The Fellowship was founded in 1940 with a legacy from Miss Edith Tucker, specifically for scientific purposes. The legacy came at a very opportune moment, just as the fund endowed by Sir Alfred Yarrow for research in science, was being wound up. Miss Edith Tucker was ‘one who wished for but did not achieve a college education herself, and so determined to make it possible for others to have what she could not’. Price was the maiden name of Edith Tucker’s mother.

Hertha Ayrton

The Fellowship was founded in 1925, with a gift from Ottilie Hancock. Sarah Phoebe (Hertha) Marks (1854–1923) read Mathematics at Girton 1876–1881. At the same time as preparing for the Girton scholarship examination, she went out as a daily governess in London. After Girton she taught and took private pupils. With Eugenie Strong (nee Sellars, Girton 1879) she held classes in London to prepare girls for Cambridge Higher Local Examinations. In 1884 she invented and constructed a line divider. She began her scientific studies by attending evening classes in physics at Finsbury Technical College given by Professor Ayrton, whom she married in 1885. She discovered a connection between current length and pressure in the arc and the causes and process of sand ripples on the seashore 1893–1912. In 1915, she invented and presented to the War Office an anti-gas fan, of which over 1000,00 were used at the Front for the protection of troops. In 1899 she was the first woman to be elected a member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers, in 1902 she was nominated as a Fellow of the Royal Society but was not elected because she was a woman. She was, however, awarded the Hughes Medal of the Royal Society in 1906, the first woman to receive the medal in her own right. She was an active member of the Women’s Social and Political Union, 1906–13 and a founded member of NUSW. She was a close friend of Barbara Bodichon and of George Eliot, who drew the character of ‘Mira’ in Daniel Deronda from her. Her portrait hangs in Old Hall.

Sarah Woodhead

The fellowship was founded in 1961 with a bequest from J R Corbett in memory of his mother. Sarah Woodhead was one of the three Girton pioneers, that is, she was one of the first three Girton students to take the Tripos. She read mathematics at Girton while it was ‘The College for Women’ at Benslow House, Hitchin’, 1869–72. She had done some school teaching before coming up to Hitchin and was awarded an Entrance Scholarship for ‘excellence in mathematics’. She taught mathematics at Manchester High School 1873–75 before becoming Head Mistress of Silverwell House School, Lancashire, 1879–81. She married Christopher Corbett in 1875 and died in 1908.