William Baker (Wulstan 1985-1990)

William Baker (W 85-90) returned to King's on Thursday, 4^th November 2010 as a Barnabas speaker . He gave an inspirational talk to pupils in College Hall about his career path from King's to Kew via Oxford and how pupils had a "moral obligation" to make the most of their privileged education at King's. He also invited pupils to think about the environment and social problems the world faces in the future asking them to consider whether they would be part of the problem or part of the solution. Matthew Parkin, Head of Biology, said "It has been an excellent experience for us as a department and for the pupils. His talk in College Hall was outstanding and really enthused the pupils. Hopefully he will come in again to talk to pupils."


The text of William's speech can be downloaded here.

His visit marked the start of science week at King's.

William is Head of Palm Research at Kew and has been involved with research in Madagascar, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

He joined King's from Hawford Lodge with a King's Scholarship in 1985. He gained 11 A's at O level and went on to study Physics, Chemistry and Biology (also straight A's). At school he was a keen musician, singing in two choirs, and enjoyed drama, performing as Macbeth in the school play. He was also in the fencing team and in his final year became Head of House and School Monitor. He spoke warmly of the sense of family within the Biology Department at school and of the important influence of supportive members of staff such as Bob Burkill, Bob Allum and Bob Fleming.

As a sixth form student he was fascinated by botany and was already keeping a tropical aquarium, and growing alpines and orchids. He was even working at weekends with Severn Trent Fisheries in order to further his knowledge of plant science with a view to a career in botanical conservation.

William left King's to study Botany at Pembroke College Oxford and, in his second year there, led an expedition to Nepal to study Orchid Ecology. He went on to gain a PHD from Reading University and joined the Royal Botanical Society at Kew in 1998.

William spent the day making a recording for the Oral Archive, visiting Sixth Form Biology lessons and catching up with his former teachers.