magdalene college cambridge

The MIBio 2016 Venue

We are pleased to announce that the venue for this year's onference is Cripps Court the award winning conference centre situated at Magdalene College, Cambridge. Two Victorian villas are combined with significant modern buildings to form Cripps Court. The elegant Victorian frontage is maintained and enhanced by the impressive entrance and many of the facilities face inwards onto a landscaped courtyard garden. Cripps Court provides a range of flexible conference amenities which complement the existing more traditional facilities within the main College grounds. The facilities are attractively open in their design, make good use of natural light, and are finished to a very high standard using the best natural materials. More information about our conference venue can be found at this link with a map showing its location at this link. For delegates arriving by car the Park Street car park is the most convenient for this venue at this link.

Magdalene College

magdalene college cambridgeMagdalene (pronounced "maudlin") College began life in the early 15th century. In 1428 Abbot Lytlington of Crowland Abbey near Peterborough was licensed by Letters Patent of King Henry VI to acquire the site, so that a hostel could be established in Cambridge for Benedictine student-monks. Aiming to put themselves at a distance from the temptations of town, the Benedictines were attracted by having their "Monks' Hostel" north of the river Cam that runs through Cambridge. They chose a location which had been inhabited in prehistoric times (an Iron Age settlement of circular houses has been located close by, on the only hill in the area) and by the Romans (under the Fellows' Garden, parts of a paved road and coins have been found). It is now one of the 31 constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. Its re-foundation as Magdalene College was largely the work of Sir Thomas Audley, Lord Chancellor of England under King Henry VIII.

Despite its twentieth-century expansion, Magdalene remains one of the smaller colleges within the University, being home to about 330 undergraduates and 180 postgraduates. The College's newest court, Cripps Court, was opened in November 2005. Magdalene counts amongst its current honorary Fellows Nelson Mandela and Seamus Heaney, as well as 2012 Nobel Prize winner, Professor Sir John Gurdon.