The University of Cambridge’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor will today give a historic lecture at Harvard College to mark the special intellectual relationship between the two institutions and to celebrate Cambridge's 800th anniversary.
The University of Cambridge’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor will today give a historic lecture at Harvard College to mark the special intellectual relationship between the two institutions and to celebrate Cambridge's 800th anniversary.
The universities were ranked one and two in the recent QS World University Rankings and have a long history stretching back hundreds of years. Harvard was named after an alumnus of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, John Harvard, as a sign of gratitude for his bequest of his library and half his esate to the then "New College" in 1638.
Dr Gordon Johnson, president of Wolfson College, provost of the Gates Cambridge Trust and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, will deliver a lecture on universities and society at 4pm at Harvard Memorial Church, drawing on contemporary Cambridge and Harvard in their historical contexts.
He will look at the broader lessons that can be learnt from the two institutions about what makes a great institution and how it maintains its reputation.
He said: "This is an excellent opportunity to consider the factors involved in creating two such vibrant and long-lasting institutions and to explore how these have been developed and nourished over the centuries."
In October The Reverend Peter J Gomes, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and the Pusey Minister in The Memorial Church at Harvard, gave a far-reaching lecture at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, on the relationship between Cambridge as parent and Harvard as child, entitled Mature Reflections of a Child.
The prestigious lecture exchange is part of a series of US celebrations to mark the University of Cambridge's 800th anniversary.
On 2nd December William H. Janeway, co-chairman of the Cambridge 800th Anniversary, rang the closing bell at the NASDAQ.
On 4th December, the Empire State Building will be lit up in Cambridge blue and on 5th December, US-based Cambridge alumni and senior members of the University, including the Vice-Chancellor, will attend a prestigious gala event at Gotham Hall, New York, hosted by the distinguished broadcaster and journalist Sir David Frost.
Attendees include the writer Salman Rushdie and Professor Henry Louis Gates. Comedian and author Stephen Fry will be performing. A festive cocktail reception will be held at the St Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco on 10th December, attended by the Vice-Chancellor.
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