Posted: 29th October 2018

Worcester College, Oxford is delighted to report one of the largest single donations to its Tercentenary Campaign to endow the College for the next three hundred years, to sustain the unique Oxford tutorial system and enhance the College’s celebrated historic buildings, gardens and grounds. 

With a benefaction of £5,000,000, Ben Delo, who read Mathematics and Computer Science in the early 2000s, has become the youngest major donor in the College’s history. The gift will be invested in the College’s endowment, with the annual return funding two teaching Fellowships in perpetuity. They will be named the Ben Delo Fellowship in Mathematics and the Bernard Sufrin Fellowship in Computer Science. In addition, there will be a new fund to support research in mathematical and computing based disciplines, to be named the Tony Corner Research Fund, in honour of Worcester College’s first Mathematics tutor.

Provost Sir Jonathan Bate said: “It has been an enormous pleasure to get to know Ben in the last few months. He overcame great difficulties in his school career to win a place at Oxford from a local state school, and went on to a stellar performance – as well as a sometimes colourful career – as a student. Since then, his genius in building digital trading platforms and developing advanced cybersecurity has been a wonder to behold. I am especially delighted that he has chosen to name the Computer Science Fellowship after his tutor, Bernard Sufrin, to whom he feels he owes a great debt – there could be no better vindication of the profound value of the tutorial system.”

Ben Delo said: “Worcester College and the tutorial system gave me the world-class education that laid the path to my success. I am incredibly grateful and very fortunate to be able to support the College, ensuring it continues tutoring future generations.”

Bernard Sufrin said: “I am delighted at the honour that Ben and the College have paid me. It is particularly pleasing to see their recognition of Tony Corner's scholarship, his extraordinary dedication to teaching, and the breadth of his vision for the mathematical sciences which led him to make me so very welcome in the College. I am glad that the Corner research fund will be accessible to all tutors of mathematical and computer sciences, for this marks Ben's and the College's appreciation of the work of the many educators who contribute to our students' successes”.

In recognition of his work in computing and his philanthropy, which already extends beyond the College, the Governing Body of Worcester College has elected Ben Delo into an Honorary Fellowship.