Professor Irene Tracey, head of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neuroscience, has been chosen as Merton’s new warden, the college has announced.
Professor Tracey will be Merton’s second female warden after Dame Jessica Rawson, who held the position from 1994 until 2010. She will succeed Sir Martin Taylor in September 2018.
An alumna of the college herself, Professor Tracey studied at Merton as both an undergraduate and postgraduate student, winning the Gibb’s Prize for joint top-First upon graduation. While studying for her doctorate, she was Merton’s senior scholar.
Her career since has been illustrious, including a post-doctoral position at Harvard Medical School. Professor Tracey also co-founded the Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain, holding the position of director for ten years. Within Oxford, she has been given fellowships at Christ Church and Pembroke Colleges. In recent years, she has been awarded the Feldberg Prize for contributions to neuroscience and pain research and has been elected to serve on the Medical Research Council.
Professor Judith Armitage, Merton’s sub-warden, said: “We are absolutely delighted that Professor Irene Tracey has agreed to take over as Warden from October 2019. She will continue Merton’s longstanding tradition of having an active and very successful academic at its head, in this case one who was also an undergraduate and graduate student here. With her lively involvement in the wider University and the national and international biomedical and educational community, we feel Merton will be well placed to address the increasing challenges facing higher education in the coming years.”
