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The Stuart Warren Studentship Fund

The Stuart Warren PhD studentship will fully fund a student from Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Zambia or Zimbabwe, which constitute the Southern African development region. This requires approximately £50,000 per year; £29,000 to cover the annual fee for an overseas PhD student, and £21,000 to cover living costs. We aim to raise at least £25,000 per year, or £100,000 over four years for one student to be fully funded, with matching funding from the Cambridge trust to make up the difference.

Thanks to the support of Stuart’s family, alumni and former colleagues we have raised over £100,000 thus far, which has been matched generously by the Cambridge Trust, the College welcomed the first Stuart Warren PhD student in October 2022, Choonzo Chiyumba.

Longer term we would like to endow the fund, which will require ongoing funding of at least £100,000 annually to reach an endowment sum of £750,000.

If 100 former students pledge £200-£500, added to the current donations, we would be raising sufficient funds to help fund this on an ongoing basis and build up endowed funding. Should you have any questions about this fund, or donating, please don’t hesitate to contact Fran Malarée on dev.director@chu.cam.ac.uk


The College launched this fundraising drive in memory of Stuart Warren (1938-2020), one of our longstanding fellows in Chemistry.

Stuart was a leader in his field and passionate about his subject- he taught generations of Churchill chemistry undergraduates. He was a supervisor and mentor to outstanding academics including Professor Varinder Aggarwal FRS, Professor Jonathan Clayden and Professor Kelly Chibale. Now his colleagues at Churchill and the Cambridge University Department of Chemistry will honour Stuart’s memory and enable a student from the South African development area countries to come to study for a research degree in organic or physical chemistry at Cambridge.

An obituary of Stuart is published here, by the Royal Society of Chemistry

One of Stuart’s former students, Professor Kelly Chibale, of the University of Cape Town says:

‘This opportunity is one that holds unquantifiable benefits for young Africans who are historically disadvantaged and under-represented in organic chemistry. Born and brought up in impoverished rural areas and townships of Zambia, I was given the rare opportunity through a scholarship to study at Cambridge. The high quality academic training I received from Stuart was the foundation for who I have become.’

Amongst many notable achievements, Kelly founded Africa’s first and only integrated drug discovery centre, H3D

Churchill also has an outstanding track record in funding over 10 postgraduates from Southern African countries for Master’s degrees in the past forty years entirely through donations from its Fellows, students and alumni through its Southern African Bursary, now studentship fund. One of the former recipient, Professor Njabulo Ndebele (G73) became the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town, another, Oscar van Heerden (G06) is an economic advisor to the South African government. Postgraduate students are a vital part of Churchill College and have been since its foundation. With over 370 graduates from all over the world, Churchill’s graduate students are valued members of the College’s diverse and exciting academic community.

An alumna’s perspective

Thank you for providing a way to be able to help to keep the memory of Stuart Warren alive. A wonderful supervisor, lecturer and teacher. I was lucky enough to benefit from his wisdom and knowledge in my time at Churchill.

N Adams (U88)