About The Committee
Each year, out of the MCR membership, we elect representatives to what we call the MCR committee. The role of the committee is two‐fold, it exists to:
- Serve as your representatives to college
- Organise the social‐side of the MCR
Members of the MCR Committee also sit on all the college level committee meetings, so as to best represent the graduate community at Clare College. Elections are held in Easter Term every year with the exception of the First Year Officers, who are elected towards the end of Michaelmas term.
Patryk Adam Wesołowski
President
Hi everyone! I’m Patryk, a third-year PhD student in Chemistry, and your MCR President for the 2024-2025 academic year. My role is to represent you to the College and ensure that our MCR is a welcoming and vibrant space for everyone.
Having served as Bar Manager, LGBTQ+ Officer, and International Student Officer last year, I’ve had the chance to get to know many of you and to see firsthand what makes our community special. This year, as President, I’m focused on continuing that work – making sure your voices are heard, organizing events that bring us together, and helping to create a supportive environment where everyone feels at home.
Whether you have a question, need support, or just want to chat, I’m here for you. You’ll often find me in the MCR, especially during our Friday socials, so don’t hesitate to come and say hello. Let’s make this year a great one, full of fun, collaboration, and community spirit!
Chiara Leadbeater
Vice President
Hello! I’m Chiara (she/her), a fourth-year PhD student in Chemistry and the MCR Vice President for this year. My role involves supporting other committee members and advocating for the MCR's interests, both in college committees and at the Cambridge University Student Union (CUSU) council. If there's a motion you'd like to bring forward, please don't hesitate to let me know! I also handle the MCR stash and am here to support students with any concerns. Whether you have a question or just want to chat, feel free to reach out or send me an email—I’m always here to help connect students with the college!
Tim Moy
Treasurer
As treasurer, it is my job to oversee financing of our activities through the MCR accounts. You should have a say where your membership fee goes, so you should feel free suggest to the committee how the MCR allocates its budget. If what you have in mind is to the benefit of all members, there is a good chance we can support it. This is especially pertinent as we think about refurbishing the MCR as work begins on the southern wing of Clare. In addition, I represent the MCR on the colleges finance and investment committees.
Shamsher Bhangal
Secretary
Friends,
My name is Shamsher. I am a History PhD at Clare, working on modern Europe, and am the secretary to the MCR. I author the weekly MCR bulletin — The Clare Times — which normally comes out 11:00am on Sundays during term time. Most of what you’ll need to know for the coming week, academic and otherwise, will be there. It is one of our main communication mechanisms in the MCR — keep an eye out for it.
Capucine Mamak
Social Secretary
Hello and welcome to Clare!
I'm Capucine (she/her), a PhD student working on solar energy! I'm super excited to be one of your social secs this year and already have lots of fun plans in the works... If you have any other ideas for socials this year then let me know and I'll be happy to see what I can do to make them happen!
One of the main tasks as social sec is organising the weekly MCR formals - a true highlight of the week! Come along on Fridays as these are a great way to see everyone and celebrate the start of the weekend. The MCR bar is normally buzzing with people afterwards and a fun place to have a catch-up or a dance.
Feel free to send me a message with any ideas you have or any questions!
Looking forward to seeing you all in the MCR very soon! :)
Ellie Williams
Social Secretary
Hey everyone!
I'm Ellie and I’m a 3rd year PhD student in bioinformatics/computational biology. Along with Capucine, I’m one of the Clare MCR social secs this year which means we’ll be putting together an exciting schedule of events from freshers week right through to next summer. As well as the weekly formals and bar nights that Capucine mentioned, we’re keen to organise individual events that suit everyone’s interests, whether that’s theatre evenings, craft nights, day trips around the area or barbecues in the garden. We’re always happy to hear what you’d like to see organised and any ideas for how the MCR can be the most fun and welcoming place possible so do get in touch if you’d like to chat!
See you around college soon!
Bethan White
Bar Manager
I’m Bethan (she/her), a second year PhD student in cancer genetic epidemiology, and I’ll be one of your bar managers this year. Our job is to keep the MCR bar running smoothly, and to ensure that it remains a welcoming and vibrant hub for our community. Please do get in contact if you’d be interested in working on the bar!
Tom Lechmere
Bar Manager and LGBTQ+ Welfare Officer
Hi and welcome,
My name’s Tom and I’m a second-year PhD student in clinical neurosciences.
I’ll be one of your three esteemed bar managers for the coming year, meaning you’ll very often see me in the MCR serving drinks and interacting with as many people as possible. We’ll also be responsible for organising shifts for anyone who’d like to volunteer for bar work later in the year - so do say hello!
I will also be this year’s LGBTQ+ Welfare Officer, meaning I’ll be a port of call for any social issues you may experience (LGBTQ-related or otherwise). I’ll be able to offer discrete advice and refer any concerns onto the appropriate people if need be.
Looking forward to meeting everyone and for the year ahead.
Nikolas Markozanis
Bar Manager
Hi everyone and welcome to Clare! I am Nikolas and I am an MRes+PhD student in Stem Cell Biology. This year I will be the Bar Manager of our MCR Bar, alongside Beth and Tom. As one of your managers, I will make sure to keep the prices down, keep the vibes up and maintain Clare Bar's reputation as one of the best, inclusive and fun College Bars to be on a Thursday and Friday evening. I am looking forward to meeting all of you and chat over a drink or beverage. See you soon !
Justin Tan
Sports Officer
Hello, my name is Justin - a PhD student studying the geometry of strange spaces. I also like to study the geometry of the real world through sport - an excellent way to decompress from the rigors of postgraduate work. Clare is blessed with an abundance of friendly teams at all levels in the popular intercollegiate sporting competitions - feel free to get in touch anytime with questions about how to join or general questions about sport facilities either at Clare or the wider University.
Elisa Earle
Exchange Officer
Hi everyone! My name is Elisa (she/her) and I’m a 5th year vet student. As your exchange officer, I’m responsible for organising formal swaps with other colleges so you can get a taste for what formals outside of Clare are like. Please let me know if there are any colleges you’d particularly like to swap with, and I’ll try my best to make it happen!
Megan Armstrong
Welfare Officer
Hi everyone! Welcome to Clare! I'm Megan (she/her) and I am the welfare officer on the MCR committee this year. My role involves organising fun welfare events throughout the year to help distract from the stresses of postgrad life such as movie nights, coffee mornings and arts and crafts nights. I'm also able to help point you in the right direction of where to get mental health and wellbeing support throughout the college as well as being around for a cup of tea and a chat myself. I look forward to meeting you all and hope I can make sure you find Clare College to be the welcoming community I know it to be 🙂
Haley Perkins
Green Officer
Hello! I’m Haley (she/her), a third year PhD student focusing on Philosophy of Education and Environmental Education. As your Green Officer, I’ll be involved in sustainability, garden, and other green matters across Clare including waste reduction, carbon neutrality plans for college, the Clare Goes Green student society, and a new Clare Gardens education project. The MCR also has a gown resale scheme where we buy back gowns from students finishing their studies to sell on to new students, so if you’re looking for a gown to buy or sell, do contact me! For tips on how to be more sustainable during your time in college, or to learn about what Clare is already doing to lower our environmental impact, you can check out the Green tab on our MCR website. If at any time you have ideas for how we can push the MCR community and college more widely towards more sustainability, I'm all ears!
Stefan Schöpf
Accommodation Officer
Hi, my name is Stefan (he/him)! I am a third-year Engineering PhD student doing research in machine unlearning and LLM agents. I’ll be the accommodation officer this year and am happy to hear from you regarding any (accommodation) ideas to improve life at Clare. Feel free to reach out anytime!
Yasmin Begum
BAME Officer
Hey Clare! I am a final year PhD student focusing on economics education. I am looking forward to being your BME officer again. Last year, I hosted a few BME events throughout the academic including an inter-collegiate BME formal, welfare coffee and cake and a lovely painting workshop. If you have any ideas for BME socials or if you have any enquiries/issues, please feel free to get in touch, I look forward to meeting you at our MCR freshers events :)
Claire Saint-Amour
Library Officer
Hi! I am Claire (she/her), and I’m very excited to be serving as your Library Officer this coming year! My job is to serve as a liaison between the MCR and the Forbes Mellon Library and I can help with any questions and concerns about library stock, programming, and resources. Outside of the MCR, I'm pursuing a PhD in Classics with a focus on imperial Greek rhetoric.
Alixandra Acker
Admiral of the Punts
Hey hey! I’m Alixandra and I’m an MPhil student working on the Ethics of AI, Data, and Algorithms. As Clare’s Admiral, I’m in charge of handling any punt bookings and, on a good day, keeping the punts afloat. And unfortunately, I have not created an AI tool to do all of this for me…yet.
Please do reach out if you’d like to book the punts for an outing/ event, if you’d like a very mediocre punting lesson, or any general punting concerns. We want to ensure our punts live long and healthy lives so Clare can continue to use them for years to come, so let me know if the boats require my attention as soon as possible!
Tara MacMahon
Mature Students' Officer
Hey, hey! I’m Tara (she/her), a third year PhD in Education student whose ongoing research focuses on rape culture prevention education and masculinity in crisis. As this year’s Mature Student Officer, I’m here to represent and support those who fall under our ‘mature’ category at the MCR. This includes anyone pursuing a PhD, those who are a bit older than the average student (25+), those with families, or those living in private accommodation. My goal as your Mature Student Officer is to create a welcoming space where we can connect, share stories about our youth and the ‘good ol’ days’, and foster a supportive community that celebrates our unique experiences. If you have any questions or concerns throughout the year, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I look forward to meeting y’all soon!
Xinran Miao
Quartermaster
Hello everyone! ☕🍪
I’m Xinran, a second-year Plant Sciences PhD student here at Clare. This year, I’m taking on one of the tastiest roles in the MCR committee as Quartermaster! I’m in charge of keeping the free tea, coffee and biscuits stocked in the MCR.
Got a biscuit you love or a special request for milk? Let me know! And if you ever have any questions, concerns, or just want to chat about life at Clare, please feel free to reach out — we can even bond over a cup of tea and a biscuit!
Looking forward to keeping everyone fuelled and happy this year! 😊
Nils Lauermann
Computing Officer
Hey lovely Clare people, I'm Nils (he/him), a first-year PhD student in Computer Science and your Computing Officer! When I’m not staring at a screen pretending to understand what all those zeros and ones mean, you can usually find me in the Clare gym with Justin (cf. Sports Officer)! If you’re having any trouble with digital tech at Clare, feel free to reach out—I’m always happy to help!