Last week, Brian Cox attended Balliol’s Snell Dinner as a guest.
Cox is currently a Professor at the University of Manchester and a particle physicist involved with CERN. He is also the presenter of a number of BBC science programmes on astronomy and physics. His legacy is not confined to
the realm of science: in the 1990s he was involved as a keyboard player for
D:Realm.
Balliol JCR President Alex Bartram, said,“I think his presence – and that of the many other eminent and distinguished guests at the dinner – reflects how Balliol, 750 years on, is still very much holding its own in the glamorous world of academia.”
Though as JCR President Bartram was lucky enough “to have the opportunity to sit a few places along from Prof Cox”, for some members of the JCR, catching a glimpse of the professor required more extreme dedication.
One second-year commented, “Apparently someone waited outside with a lighter for ages to light his cig, which is creepy.”
Phoebe Grant-Smith, Lottie Dodd and Andrew Kirkman sneaked round the back of the SCR in order to get a glimpse of the eminent scholar. Grant-Smith said, “Waiting in the freezing cold (it was snowing at one point!) and getting odd looks from the SCR was definitely worth it when he appeared!”
Cox signed a book for Kirkman amongst others, and agreed to have a photo with the girls. Grant-Smith continued, “In my babbling, starstruck state, I did tell him about my mother’s Brian Cox cuddly toy which was a joke Christmas present from my brother, although I only realised how creepy this sounded when his response was, ‘I’m not sure you should be telling me this…'”
Olivia Baddeley also gave her account of the evening: “He was a bit tipsy, and I was a bit starstruck, so I couldn’t think of anything cool or interesting to say when we started talking about thermodynamics and his new TV show.”
Baddeley revealed that they discussed the wine at dinner: “He said it was great and asked us to take a sip (we then basically had an indirect kiss with him, which we were very excited by).We said that the wine is normally awful so they must have brought out the posh stuff for him. He was lovely.”
