New Gates Provost hosts welcome event

New Gates scholars arriving at Cambridge will be welcomed at an official dinner given by the new Provost this evening. The 80 new scholars, from countries ranging from El Salvador to China, will be greeted by both the departing Provost Dr Gordon Johnson and the incoming one, Professor Robert Lethbridge, at the first ever new scholars dinner. Professor Lethbridge, who hopes the dinner will become an annual event, also plans a valedictory event for departing scholars, which he says will serve "to contextualise what it means to be a Gates scholar". The dinner takes place tonight at Fitzwilliam College where Professor Lethbridge is Master. It will mark the official handing over of the role of Provost. Dr Johnson, who will also be standing down as President of Wolfson College this month, has been Provost since the scholarship programme was founded in 2000 following a $210 million endowment from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The first 150 scholars from 50 countries came into residence in 2001.