Joan and Richard Doll Fellows

In this section

Introduction
Background to the Fellowship: who were Joan and Richard Doll?
Meet the team!

Introduction

Hello! We are the Doll Fellows – a team of friendly tutorial fellows who organise and deliver the clinical medical teaching programme and its associated enrichment activities at Green Templeton College. We care deeply about the education and welfare of our students and are immensely proud of how highly regarded our programme is by the students. Please do come and chat to us if you spot us around college!

The fellows describe some of their favourite aspects about GTC here:

• ‘The Observatory (and all the food coming out of the GTC kitchen!).’
• ‘The wisteria in spring.’
• ‘Collaborating with staff and students from a wide range of perspectives, disciplines and backgrounds.’
• ‘The welcoming and relaxed atmosphere and, perhaps most importantly, the freedom to walk across the lawns!’
• ‘The lasting community spirit. The sense of togetherness extends beyond graduation as alumni actively contribute to the college’s future.’

Background to the Fellowship

The full fellowship title – the Joan and Richard Doll Fellows – pays homage to Sir Richard Doll and his wife Joan. Sir Richard Doll (1912 to 2005) was one of the world’s most distinguished medical epidemiologists. Working primarily in Oxford, in 1950 Doll and his colleague (Sir Bradford Hill) established a definitive correlation between cigarette smoking and lung cancer. In 1951 they commenced a prospective study of smoking and mortality in British doctors that Doll continued for 50 years. The results concluded that half of all doctors were eventually killed by their smoking habit and that smoking cessation was remarkably effective. Between 1950 and 2005, overall UK death rates decreased by half in the middle aged and more than half of this reduction was attributed to the decrease in mortality from smoking.

Doll moved to Oxford in 1969 as Regius Professor of Medicine (the most senior medical post in the University). He quickly set about expanding the medical school and enhancing the quality of research. During his tenure he went on to found Green College (as it was known then) in 1979 and took early retirement to become the first warden of the college. He and Joan (who had then retired having been the first woman with a senior Medical Research Council position) are reported to have treated the students, staff, and fellows as their extended family.

Meet the team!