Masud Husain Reads To You

Masud Husain—New College Professorial Fellow and University of Oxford Professor of Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience—reads from the international bestseller, Awakenings (1973), written by neurologist, Oliver Sacks (1933–2015). Awakenings recounts the histories of patients who contracted encephalitis lethargica (‘sleeping illness’) during the epidemic of the 1920s, and who were then treated with a new drug in the late 1960s. The book went on to be made into a 1990 film starring Robert De Niro and Robin Williams.

When Masud was a medical student at New College (1981), a turning point for him was discovering neuroscience and the contribution of neurological patients to understanding brain function. Sacks’s work on describing single cases proved to be an inspiration, so much so that Masud is now a Cognitive Neurologist, researching very similar topics. Over the years, as he became more experienced, Masud started to quibble about Sacks’s approach to science. But—Masud thinks—there is no doubt that Oliver Sacks’s compassion and remarkable insights into people remain a model for physicians, and perhaps others too.

The new buildings will include 108 student rooms on its Savile Road site, with a new entrance created on Mansfield Road.

The Chapel service on Sunday 14th March was the first to feature our wonderful choristers since December and we were delighted to welcome them back. 

The service, Readings and Music for Lent, featured readings from seventeenth-century poet and cleric John Donne. These were read by Professor Peter McCullough, Fellow of Lincoln College and expert on Donne, and introduced by Erica Longfellow, Dean of Divinity. The choir sang motets by Morales, Tallis, Sheppard and Gibbons.