IN her office deep inside the College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences at Glasgow University – past the specimen cases, a musty-smelling library and the raft of tightly packed shelves filled with antiquated tomes – Professor Sarah Cleaveland hands me a wine glass. Have I stumbled upon the party department of the university? Cleaveland gives a hearty laugh. Oh dear, I m afraid this is giving you the wrong impression, she says, smiling. I hasten to add that my tipple is merely water but Cleaveland, a veterinary surgeon and Professor of Comparative Epidemiology, certainly has good reason to celebrate: she was recently elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in recognition of her globally-renowned work on infectious diseases.
Cambridge experts elected fellows of Royal Society
Prasun Sonwalkar/London
Usha Goswami
Sadaf Farooqi, Usha Goswami among 60 outstanding scientists chosen for honour.
Two experts based at the University of Cambridge – Sadaf Farooqi and Usha Goswami – are among 60 outstanding scientists elected Fellows of the Royal Society, the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence with origins in the 17th century.
Sadaf Farooqi, professor of metabolism and medicine, and Usha Goswami, professor of cognitive developmental neuroscience, join the ranks of Stephen Hawking, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Lise Meitner, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and Dorothy Hodgkin who enriched the society with their expertise.
Farooqi is known for her discoveries of fundamental mechanisms that control human energy homeostasis and their disruption in obesity. She discovered that the leptin-melanocortin system regulates appetite and weight in people and that genetic mutations affecting
26 April 2021 • 7:00pm
Michael Portillo in Oxford
Credit: BBC
The nation’s best-dressed travel guide returned to our screens in
Great British Railway Journeys (BBC Two). Michael Portillo is my guilty television pleasure. Each episode holds such promise: the question of where he’s going to go is secondary to the question of what he’s going to wear.
Our hero started out in tangerine trousers and green jacket, but fans of Portillo’s wardrobe didn’t have long to wait before he visited a gentlemen’s outfitters and emerged from the changing room in Oxford bags, blazer and straw boater. Who would have thought that our former Defence Secretary would add so much gaiety to the nation?
TV guide: 23 of the best shows to watch this week, beginning tonight Rory O’Connell, Seven Drunken Nights, Gunplot, Open for Business, Alan Patridge, Fomhuireán na bhFininí, The Mosquito Coast, Tom Clancy s Without Remorse
about 4 hours ago
Sunday, TG4, 9.30pm The Mighty Ocean opens a musical dialogue between humankind and the environment, touching on the entrancing power of the sea, while questioning our destructive influence on the endangered oceans. The piece, scored for 12 musicians, features Irish traditional legends Máirtín O’Connor, Garry O Briain, Cathal Hayden, Seamie O’Dowd, and Jim Higgins, Sinead O’Connor, Ciara O’Connor and Matthew Berril, and Galway Music Residency’s ensemble in residence, ConTempo Quartet.