Principal’s Report BARONESS JAN ROYALL As we ready ourselves for the new academic year, and my the Applied Networking Research Prize before winning the last as Principal, it is a privilege to look back on the one that Dyson Sustainability Award at this year's STEM for Britain came before. competition. It has been another excellent year in the life of Somerville, All of these achievements are particularly impressive given that during which our time-honoured values of academic excellence, Somerville student numbers have been at a record high over the diversity, and innovation have set new benchmarks for success past two years. Closer inspection reveals that these numbers among both individuals and community alike. represent only a small increase on previous years, but they nonetheless reflect the continued high demand for a Somerville In the JCR, our undergraduates once again distinguished education and the concomitant strain it places upon our themselves academically, with a third of all finalists achieving resources as we seek to ensure that every student has the space firsts and 93% of students achieving a First or 2:1. Individual and support to excel in their chosen fields. It’s all a very long successes have been particularly noteworthy, with Final Honour way from the baker’s shop above which Somerville’s first twelve School prizes awarded in Classics, English, German, Chemistry, students were required to attend their lectures back in 1879. Medicine, Law, and Biochemistry. Such recognition underscores the diverse strengths of our student community, and you can If there is a common thread linking the students of 1879 review the complete list of this year’s prize-winners in the and those of today, it is the fact that they came here with a Academic Report section. determination to learn, and have always received steadfast support in that goal. It is gratifying, then, to see our academics The Somerville MCR likewise remains an academic powerhouse, receive continued recognition for their teaching. Of particular especially, it seems, in the fields of law, public policy and note is Professor Noa Zilberman, who was not only appointed engineering. Two of our BCL students, Anshul Dalmia (2023) as Fellow to the Alan Turing Institute this year, but also received and Ramakash Gujuluva Suriaprakash (2023) were recognised an MPLS Teaching Award for Outstanding Research Supervision. for their performances in the BCL, while Miral Shehata (2023, Also noteworthy is the shortlisting of the Somerville Skills Hub, MSc Economics for Development) received the Benno Ndulu led by Dr Claire Cockcroft, in the Support for Students category Prize for Best Examination in Quantitative Methods. Of of this year’s Vice-Chancellor’s Awards. The Skills Hub is a unique particular note is doctoral student Sawsan El-Zahr (2023, resource within the Oxford student community, providing our DPhil Engineering), whose work on greening the internet was students with a termly toolkit to thrive academically, emotionally recognised by the Internet Research Task Force and received and in their future careers. 10