page_title: Wadham College, Oxford
section_title: Notable people
hierarchical_section_title: Wadham College, Oxford / People associated with Wadham / Notable people
caption_attribution_description: English: The British physicist Roger Penrose at a conference named "The Street towards Reality". This event was part of the 2005 Festival della Scienza, held annually in Genoa, Italy.
context_page_description: Wadham College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road.
  Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy Wadham, according to the will of her late husband Nicholas Wadham, a member of an ancient Devon and Somerset family.
  The central buildings, a notable example of Jacobean architecture, were designed by the architect William Arnold and erected between 1610 and 1613. They include a large and ornate Hall. Adjacent to the central buildings are the Wadham Gardens.
  Amongst Wadham's most famous alumni is Sir Christopher Wren. Wren was one of a brilliant group of experimental scientists at Oxford in the 1650s, the Oxford Philosophical Club, which included Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke. This group held regular meetings at Wadham College under the guidance of the warden, John Wilkins, and the group formed the nucleus which went on to found the Royal Society.
  Wadham is a liberal and progressive college which aims to maintain the diversity of its student body and a friendly atmosphere.
context_section_description: In common with many Oxford colleges, Wadham has produced a wide range of graduates in the fields of economics, history, law, physiology, medicine, management, humanities, mathematics, science, technology, media, philosophy, poetry, politics and religion who have contributed significantly to public life.
  Notable members of the college in its early years include Robert Blake, Cromwell's admiral and founder of British sea-power in the Mediterranean, the libertine poet and courtier John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester and Sir Christopher Wren. Wren attended the meetings of scientifically inclined scholars which were held by Warden John Wilkins (Cromwell's brother-in-law) in the college in the 1650s. Those attending formed the nucleus of the Royal Society at its foundation in 1662.
  John Wilkins invited Robert Boyle to Oxford in 1653, writing that "[I] shall be most ready to provide the best accommodations for you, that this place will afford". Boyle moved to Oxford in 1655, but preferred not to accept Wilkins's offer of accommodation, choosing instead to arrange his own rooms where he could carry out his scientific experiments. Boyle became a member of the Oxford Philosophical Club that met weekly in Wilkins's chambers at Wadham, as did Robert Hooke who became Boyle's assistant after having been a chorister at Christ Church.
  Arthur Onslow (1708), a great Speaker of the House of Commons, and Richard Bethell, who became Lord Chancellor as Lord Westbury in 1861, were members of the college.
  Two 20th century Lord Chancellors, F. E. Smith (Lord Birkenhead) and John Simon, were undergraduates together in the 1890s, along with the sportsman C. B. Fry; Sir Thomas Beecham was an undergraduate in 1897, though soon abandoning Oxford for his musical career.
  Frederick Lindemann, 1st Viscount Cherwell, who was Churchill's scientific adviser during the Second World War, was a fellow of the college. Cecil Day-Lewis, later Poet-Laureate, came up in 1923, and Michael Foot, later leader of the Labour Party, in 1931. Sir Maurice Bowra, scholar and wit, was Warden between 1938 and 1970. Robert Moses, the city planner, rose to the college in 1911.
  Among recent members have been Dr Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Dyson, former Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and Master of the Rolls, author and broadcaster Melvyn Bragg, writer and journalist Jonathan Freedland, novelists Hari Kunzru and Monica Ali, and Wasim Sajjad, former Chairman of the Senate of Pakistan and twice President of Pakistan. The mathematical physicist and philosopher Sir Roger Penrose was Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics 1973–1999, and is now an emeritus fellow.
  Andrew Hodges, the theoretical physicist and author of The Imitation Game, the biography of Alan Turing, is a Tutorial Fellow in mathematics at Wadham. Having taught at Wadham since 1986, Hodges was elected a Fellow in 2007, and was appointed Dean from start of the 2011/12 academic year.
caption: Sir Roger Penrose, Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics (1973–1999)
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 20D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2005:11:06 17:37:51", "Image ExifOffset": "166", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/125", "EXIF FNumber": "25", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2005:11:06 17:37:51", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2005:11:06 17:37:51", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "2647/380", "EXIF ApertureValue": "2647/285", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "115", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1024", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "683", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "233600/59", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "233600/59", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}