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'What I learnt from my fieldwork in Guatemala': Stories of Development from the Field

Working in international development, Pembroke graduate Isabela (2024, MPhil Development Studies) focuses on how large-scale initiatives impact the lived experiences of local communities. While conducting fieldwork in Guatemala, she interviewed small-scale producers participating in an agricultural and financial development project, seeking to understand how they perceive and experience "development" in their everyday lives.

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Pembroke MCR launches second volume of the Pembroke Academic Journal

A group of Pembroke graduate students have recently published a second volume of the Pembroke Academic Journal, a forum for showcasing the diverse intellectual interests of our talented MCR community.

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Professor Geoffrey Raisman (1939-2017)

NEWS |

It is with great sadness that the College reports the death of Pembroke alumnus, Professor Geoffrey Raisman, MD, PhD, FRS, the Chair of Neural Regeneration in the UCL Institute of Neurology. Prof. Raisman died on 27th January 2017. He undertook a BA in Animal Physiology at Pembroke College (which was then equivalent to studying pre-clinical Medicine) between 1957 and 1960.

Prof. Raisman joined the Department of Brain Repair and Rehabilitation at the UCL Institute of Neurology in 2005, where he established a dedicated Spinal Repair Unit at Queen Square. Previously (1974 to 2004), Prof. Raisman was the Head of the Division of Neurobiology at the MRC National Institute for Medical Research in Mill Hill.

Prof. Raisman was a pioneer in his field, developing new approaches to improving recovery from spinal injury.  His ground-breaking work was recognised by his election as a Fellow of the Royal Society (2001) and to the Academy of Medical Sciences (1999).  He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (2002).

Prof. Raisman received numerous prestigious prizes and awards, including the Wakeman Award for Research in Neurosciences (1980), the British Neuroscience Association Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Neuroscience (2004), and the Reeve-Irvine Medal (2005) for critical contributions to promoting repair of the damaged spinal cord and recovery of function. His team discovered that olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) can help guide regeneration of nerve fibres.  Together with Professor Ying Li and Dr Daqing Li, the team has shown that transplantation of these cells into spinal cord injuries in laboratory models results in regeneration of severed nerve fibres and restoration of function. The team is now working on the practical steps needed to apply this approach to spinal cord and optic nerve injury.

Over the years, Prof. Raisman maintained a strong connection with Pembroke College. In 2015 we had the pleasure of welcoming him back to deliver a guest lecture to the Pembroke community.

Prof. Raisman was an inspiration to the many colleagues and students that he worked with. He was a truly exceptional and gifted individual and his death represents a major loss to the neural regeneration research field and to all who knew him.