Female provost breaks mould at Cambridge
King’s College, Cambridge, has appointed its new provost: the first non-King’s graduate for centuries and the first female provost in its 560-year history. Judith Mayhew is a lawyer, current chair of the governors of Birkbeck College, University of London, and a trustee of the Natural History Museum. Dame Judith will take over from Patrick Bateson, who retires after 15 years in October.
LSE memorial held for murdered journalist
Students at the London School of Economics have marked the first anniversary of the death of journalist Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and killed by former LSE student Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh. A special memorial to the murdered Wall Street Journal reporter was held at the LSE last night. Mr Pearl, 38, was kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan, in January 2002, while researching links between Islamic extremists for his newspaper. Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was last year sentenced to death for Mr Pearl’s kidnap and murder, spent up to a year at the LSE in 1992. Because of the link, LSE students said it was now the most fitting place to hold a memorial to Mr Pearl.
Duke unveils anti-cancer unit
The Duke of Edinburgh was today opening a £7 million science unit at York University, where pioneering anti-cancer drugs are being developed. The Biocentre unit on the university’s science park has been set up to help biotechnology companies get started.