Dame Carol Black

Professor Dame Carol Black DBE is a former President of the Royal College of Physicians and the current Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge. She first graduated from the University of Bristol in 1962 with a BA in History after being Manor Hall's JCR President. Within the next few years she became President of the Students' Union, Sub-Warden of Manor Hall, completed a postgraduate diploma in Medical Social Work and, with the guidance of Manor Hall Warden, Mrs. Marjorie Tait (1956-1968), embarked on her eminent medical career, earning her degree in 1970 (MBChB Medicine). As a Professor in Rheumatology, she became the undisputed UK expert in scleroderma and connective tissue diseases and the Center she established at the Royal Free Hospital, London is internationally renowned in this field. It was for her contributions to this disease, and to patients with it, that she was awarded her CBE in 2002. This year also saw her become the second female President of the Royal College of Physicians. Dame Carol received an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University in 2003, was awarded the DBE for Services to Medicine in 2005 and, in 2012, became Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge. In February 2013 she was named as one of the 100 most powerful women in the UK.