The first event I attended was by Clive Oppenheimer, Professor of Volcanology at the University Geography Department (i.e. one of Harriet's colleagues). The talk concentrated on his collaboration with Werner Herzog in the making of Into the Inferno - a film about volcanos commissioned by Netflix.
The main hall on the college had been decorated with bicycles covered in garlands of flowers, and very good it looked too.
While 2019 is the 150th anniversary of the college's foundation, it's also the 40th anniversary of admitting men as undergraduates. I remember this event very well as it happened during my third year at Downing college, and I knew several of the male "pioneers". Dr Roland Randall - another colleague of Harriet's - was one of the first male fellows at the college, and he chaired a fascinating discussion about the trials and tribulations of an institution becoming co-educational. Incidentally, Downing went co-ed in 1980, the year after I graduated, so I missed all the fun.
The final talk I attended related to two Greenland expeditions, over thirty years apart. The first, run jointly by Cambridge University and Imperial College London in 1963, managed to climb - and name - many of the mountains on the Stauning Alps. One of the peaks was named after Girton, and a second expedition from the college in 1998 set out to re-visit it. The two speakers were Professor Mike Graham and Dr Fiona Cooke, who were on the first and second expeditions respectively.
Avid readers of this blog (are there any?) will remember my adventures a few weeks ago, re-photographing the images to be used in the "Girton Peak" talks.
