Congratulations to our MOAC PhD students who graduated yesterday: from left Dr Muhammad Hasan, Dr Steve Norton, Dr Daniel Mitchell, Dr Matthew Lougher, Dr Ben Fitton, Dr Matthew Thomas and Dr Jennifer Webb with Professor Alison Rodger in the centre.

The MOAC and MAS doctoral training centres had their joint annual conference in May this year in the Lake District at Derwentwater Independent Hostel.

Alistair Irvine joined MOAC in 2004 and was a valued member of MOAC. Today we received the sad news that he died last weekend, possibly from heart failure. His death is a real loss to our widely flung community and will leave a big gap. We can only imagine how much his family will miss such a genuinely lovely person.