China is facing severe water challenges. Many parts of the country suffer from chronic water scarcity. Pollution is affecting the health of hundreds of waterways and public concern is increasing. Floods and droughts are a constant threat, especially as climate change increases uncertainty over rainfall patterns. Freshwater biodiversity is declining, with aquatic species such as the Yangtze river dolphin facing extinction.

The Chinese authorities have recognised that tackling these challenges is a matter of national priority and have significantly increased the resources available to water managers, emphasising ‘three red lines’ of improved water quality, increased water efficiency and more sustainable water allocations.

So how can China meet its aspirations for a water secure future which aids its continued economic development while enhancing environmental quality? This seminar will explore the current and potential future water situation in China, the response of China to these challenges drawing on global experiences, and risks to critical water infrastructure.

Current and future water challenges in China
Prof Li Yuanyuan, Vice President, General Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Planning and Design, Ministry of Water resources, PR China

Strategic principles and frameworks for water management in China and beyond – lessons from a global review
Dr David Tickner, Chief Freshwater Advisor, WWF-UK

Infrastructure vulnerability to water-related risks in China
Prof Jim Hall, Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University

Progress to increase gender diversity in leadership roles across most sectors has been slow. Are quotas the answer to increase the number of women in leadership? What is the role of Business Schools in developing women’s leadership? Does entrepreneurship provide an alternative for women to realise their full-potentials? These questions will be debated by a panel of business leaders and academics:

– Professor Barbara Allan of Westminster Business School;

– Ann P Francke, Chief Executive of the Chartered Management Institute;

– Helen Hammond, Managing Director at Elephant Creative;

– Sally Rowley-Williams of Rowley Williams Limited.

– Simonetta Manfredi, Professor of Equality and Diversity Management and Director of the Centre for Diversity Policy Research and Practice

Speaker: Judy Webb

The Lye Valley, formally known as Hogley Bog, is a surprising and little known hot spot of wildlife biodiversity, a habitat for stunning wildflowers and spectacular insects in the centre of the City of Oxford. Beautiful marsh helleborine orchids are thriving here, within just a few metres of housing, and an important, historic, population of Grass-of-Parnassus is recovering to good numbers. Oxford botanists since the 1650s have loved this site and it was a favorite of photographer Henry Taunt, whose description of the Grass of Parnassus is quoted in the title. This is the story of a rare, ancient, wetland fen community, which has been fed by lime-rich spring water for thousands of years. It is one of the most important heritage sites within the city.

All Summer Lectures start at 6.30pm in the Daubeny Lecture Theatre (at
 the front of the Botanic Garden) and are followed by a drinks reception in the Botanic Garden. Ticket cost £8 per talk or £36 for the series of 5.
For more details, visit: http://www.botanic-garden.ox.ac.uk/whatson

The Start-Up Chile programme is now ready to select, fund and host a new round of start-ups so they develop their global business ideas in Chile, the growing start-up ecosystem that has everyone talking.

**NO PREVIOUS CHILEAN CONNECTION NEEDED!**

Did you know.. that the Chilean Government set up the Start-Up Chile programme in order to attract world-class early stage entrepreneurs to start their businesses in Chile?

The program provides US$40,000 of equity-free seed capital, and a temporary 1-year visa to develop your project for six months, along with access to the strongest social and capital networks in the country.

Click ‘join’ to come to the Meetup, and learn how you can be one of the chosen ones!

Please also share this opportunity with your network and encourage them to join in too.

OxTET is happy to welcome Riva-Melissa Tez – lecturer at the DAB university in Berlin, founder of the Berlin Singularity, Associate Director of Longevity Intelligence Communications, and co-runner of Kardashev Communications. Riva will be speaking on obstacles that emerging technology businesses face, analysing factors causing shortfalls in funding, social mistrust, and political dysfunction, and offering recommendations for dealing with these obstacles.

Speaker: Tom Price

The archipelago of Japan is defined as one of the World’s 34 biodiversity hotspots. Learn how staff from the Botanic Garden and Harcourt Arboretum are conducting expeditions to Japan to collect and document the native flora to improve the plant collections held by the University, promote biodiversity conservation and communicate research conducted by the Department of Plant Sciences, Oxford to a wider audience.

All Summer Lectures start at 6.30pm in the Daubeny Lecture Theatre (at
 the front of the Botanic Garden) and are followed by a drinks reception in the Botanic Garden. Ticket cost £8 per talk or £36 for the series of 5.
For more details, visit: http://www.botanic-garden.ox.ac.uk/whatson

Nuffield bike ride, in association with Oxford Bike Week
Time: 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm, 17th June
Location: Tourist Information Centre, 15 Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3AS
Description:
Join us on a gentle, scenic, two-hour ride to sites around Oxford connected with Lord Nuffield and Morris cars. Regular stops and information included!

Speaker: Guy Horwood

In 2013, Harcourt Arboretum arborist Guy Horwood was awarded a travel bursary
to join the prestigious International Dendrology Society on their study tour of the Czech Republic. The tour of this diverse and unspoilt country started and ended in Prague and visited botanic gardens and natural forests. In this talk, Guy will take you on a virtual version of the tour and share his experiences with you.

All Summer Lectures start at 6.30pm in the Daubeny Lecture Theatre (at
 the front of the Botanic Garden) and are followed by a drinks reception in the Botanic Garden. Ticket cost £8 per talk or £36 for the series of 5.
For more details, visit: http://www.botanic-garden.ox.ac.uk/whatson

Early cyberspace theorists predicted that the digital world would be a world of plenty. But today’s Internet users are faced with many kinds of artificially scarce virtual markers, from online game items and digital currencies to likes and followers on social media and reward points in question and answer sites. Many such markers are traded online for significant sums of money and have spawned entire cottage industries for their production. Vili Lehdonvirta, author of Virtual Economies: Design and Analysis (MIT Press 2014, with Edward Castronova), argues that these “virtual economies” shape digital media in important ways, and that understanding them is vital for both practitioners and scholars of digital media and entertainment.

In this session, Lehdonvirta will also discuss and debate with economist Greg Taylor about what virtual economies could teach traditional national economies and the economists who run them.

Copies of the book will be available for purchase. The discussion will be followed by book signing and a drinks reception.

OBR would like to invite you to our next event in Oxford on Wednesday 16th July at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.

Since the completion of the Human Genome Project, the birth of next-generation sequencing (NGS) has brought exponentially faster and cheaper nucleic acid sequencing methods to scientists, and takes us tantalisingly closer to an era of personalised medicine.

The scope for clinical applications of NGS seems boundless, and this event will provide deeper insights into how academia, established industry and budding start-ups can benefit from the latest advances in the field.

Panellists/Speakers
Gordon Sanghera – CEO of Oxford Nanopore
Stephen Little – CEO of Premaitha Health &
VP of Personalised Healthcare at QIAGEN
Neil Ward – UK District Marketing Manager at Illumina
Anna Schuh – Head of the Molecular Diagnostics Centre at University of Oxford

Join our expert panel from academia and industry speakers to discuss the most crucial challenges in next generation sequencing and its potential applications.

Informal networking drinks will follow the main event.

PsyNAppS holds our first meeting with Professor Nancy Puccinelli speaking about her considerable experience in the field of neuromarketing.

Professor Nancy Puccinelli is a leading expert in the role of affect in consumer behaviour. At our inaugural event, she will be discussing the application of Psychology and Neuroscience to marketing and analysis of consumer behaviour. She is currently a Fellow in Consumer Marketing at the Saïd Business School.

PsyNAppS members pay £5 for free entry to ALL talks for the entire academic year! Alternatively, pay £3 for free entry to all talks for one academic term, or £2 for entry to a single meeting.

The Innovation Forum, a student led, UK-wide network, invites all medics, entrepreneurs, scientists and coders to connect at our Oxford Launch event and to find out about “Digital Health: Opportunities and challenges in Oxford”. Our experienced panel of 4 speakers will cover a range of topics but we envisage touching upon core themes such as:

• What is digital healthcare?
• What opportunities exist in Oxford for talented coders/entrepreneurs etc. to connect with the medical community?
• What issues exist with access and use of data? How can students/interested people navigate this

Non-fat, low-fat, saturated fat, trans fats, healthy fats – in an era where we seem to be constantly bombarded with often conflicting messages about our diets, is all this information actually making us any healthier? How can we cut through media hysteria and make wise choices about the food we eat, and what impact do our consumption habits have, not just on our own health but that of the planet?

Speakers:

Professor Susan Jebb, Professor of Diet and Population Health, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford
Dr Tara Garnett, Principal Investigator, Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food
Dr Mike Rayner, Principal Investigator, Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food
Join in on Twitter with #c21health

This seminar will be live webcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UbwkWsEdmU

About the Speakers:
Professor Susan Jebb is a nutrition scientist and her research interests are focused on how what we eat affects the risk of gaining weight or becoming obese and the interventions that might be effective to help people lose weight or reduce the risk of obesity-related diseases. She has also conducted a series of randomised controlled trials to study the impact of dietary changes on the risk factors for cardiovascular disease. In general, this work highlights that body weight is a more important risk factor for ill-health than differences in the nutritional composition of the diet. She has strong scientific collaborations with the Behaviour and Health Research unit at the University of Cambridge and the MRC Human Nutrition Research unit, where she was a Programme Leader for many years.

She is also very interested in how scientific evidence on diet is translated into policy and practice, by government, industry, the public health community and the media. She was the science advisor for the Foresight obesity report and subsequently chaired the cross-government Expert Advisory Group on obesity from 2007-11. She is now a member of the Public Health England Obesity Programme Board. She also Chairs the DH Public Health Responsibility Deal Food Network, developing voluntary agreements with industry to improve the food environment. She is one of the Chairs of the NICE Public Health Advisory Committees. She is actively involved in a number of events and media projects to engage the public in issues relating to diet and health. In 2008 she was awarded an OBE for services to public health. She is a Trustee and former Chair of the Association for the Study of Obesity.

Dr Tara Garnett is a Principal Investigator at the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food and she initiated, and runs the Food Climate Research Network, now based at the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford.

Her work focuses on the contribution that the food system makes to greenhouse gas emissions and the scope for emissions reduction, looking at the technological options, at what could be achieved by changes in behaviour and how policies could help promote both these approaches. She is particularly interested in the relationship between emissions reduction objectives and other social and ethical concerns, particularly human health, livelihoods, and animal welfare. Much of her focus is on livestock, since this represents a nodal point where many of these issues converge.

Tara is keen to collaborate through the FCRN with other organisations to undertake research, organise events and build and extend interdisciplinary, intersectoral knowledge in this field.

Dr Mike Rayner is a Principal Investigator on the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food and Director of the British Heart Foundation Centre on Population Approaches for NCD Prevention, which is based within the Nuffield Department of Population Health of the University of Oxford, and which he founded in 1993.

Mike’s particular research interests are in food labelling, food marketing, food taxes and the relationship between a healthy diet and sustainable diet.

Mike is also Chair of Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming in the UK, and Chair of its Childrens’ Food Campaign in the UK. He is a trustee of the UK Health Forum, Chair of the Nutrition Expert Group for the European Heart Network based in Brussels and a member of the Scientific Advisory Panel of the International Obesity Task Force. He is also an ordained priest in the Church of England.

The 35th Annual Barlow Lecture
Yongle to Zhengtong: Fifty Years that Changed Chinese Art?
With Professor Craig Clunas, University of Oxford

Friday 7 November , 5-6 pm, Ashmolean Lecture Theatre

Sir Alan Barlow (1881-1968) was a leading 20th-century collector of Chinese and other eastern ceramics. Deeply committed to public education, he left the collection as a trust to be used in universities and museums by the widest possible audience and it is now on loan in the Ashmolean museum, where pieces can be seen throughout the Chinese displays and in the Islamic gallery. This year’s lecture focuses on the British Museum’s autumn blockbuster show Ming: 50 Years that changed China and is delivered by the exhibition’s co- curator Craig Clunas.

Free, booking required. Contact:

T 01865 288001
E eastern.art@ashmus.ox.ac.uk

Department of Eastern Art,
Ashmolean Museum,
Oxford OX1 2PH

A public meeting with a short introductory talk followed by questions and discussion.

Animal rights: a human perspective

Thursday 20 November, 7:30pm to 9:00pm

The Mitre, corner of High St and Turl St (upstairs function room)

All welcome

Organised by Oxford Communist Corresponding Society.

We are delighted to welcome Torsten Reil (CEO and founder – NaturalMotion) to Saïd Business School on Friday 21st November.

Torsten founded NaturalMotion, a leading games and technology company based in Oxford, London and San Francisco. The company develops and publishes high-end, free to play social mobile games for iOS and Android and with over 30 million downloads and counting, is one of the fastest growing publishers on these platforms. Last week, Global University Venturing awarded NaturalMotion, Exit of the Year 2014 after it was acquired by Zynga for $527million.

NaturalMotion began as a project in the Zoology Department at the University of Oxford in 2001. Working with Isis Innovation, Torsten developed a business plan and secured first-round investors. Earlier this year, that cycle was completed with a return to the seed funds managed by Isis Innovation that will help launch the next generation of spin-outs from Oxford.

About Torsten
Torsten holds a BA in Biology from Oxford University and an MSc in Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems from Sussex University. Prior to founding NaturalMotion, Torsten was researching for a PhD in Complex Systems at Oxford University’s Zoology department. Torsten has been named amongst MIT’s TR100 global top innovators, and has spoken at TED, TED Global and Apple’s iPhone 5 keynote.

Talk: 4pm – 5.15pm
Drinks reception: 5.15pm

Join us for a critical review of the extent to which businesses promote HR in practice. Talk of corporate responsibility, pro-bono schemes and language of sustainability and accountability continues to increase but in reality are businesses doing enough to promote and protect Human Rights? There will be the chance to talk more informally with the speakers after the event over drinks and nibbles.

Panel Speakers: Rae Lindsay (Clifford Chance), Peter Frankental (Amnesty International)

Chair: Dr Lawrence Hill-Cawthorne, University of Reading

We are delighted to welcome Michael S. Malone to Saïd Business School on Monday 24th November.

Mike has covered Silicon Valley and high-tech for more than thirty years, and was twice nominated by the San Jose Mercury-News for the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. He is the author or co-author of more than a dozen award-winning books, notably the bestselling ‘The Virtual Corporation’, ‘The Future Arrived Yesterday’ and most recently ‘The Intel Corporation’. A regular editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal, Mike has hosted three nationally syndicated public television interview series and co-produced the Emmy-nominated primetime PBS miniseries The New Heroes. As an entrepreneur, Mike was a founding shareholder of eBay, Siebel Systems (sold to Oracle) and Qik (sold to Skype), and is currently vice-chairman of a new start-up, PatientKey Inc. Mike holds an MBA from Santa Clara University, where he is currently an adjunct professor. He is also an associate fellow of the Said Business School at Oxford University, and is a Distinguished Friend of Oxford.

Mike will also be signing copies of his new book ‘The Intel Trinity: How Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove Built the World’s Most Important Company’ during the drinks reception following his talk.

“Few people capture the rhythms and values that fuel Silicon Valley as well as longtime journalist Michael S. Malone. In his latest book, he takes on the history of Intel, a company he started covering when most reporters were still using typewriters. He reveals his deep knowledge on every page.”
—Reid Hoffman, cofounder & chairman of LinkedIn and co-author of The Alliance

Copies of the book will be available to buy for £20 (cash only).

Talk: 6pm – 7pm
Drinks reception and book signing: 7pm

This year’s Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food Lecture is by Michael Mack, CEO of Syngenta

He will be talking about: “Technophobia vs. technophilia: The polarized debate about our food”

This is the second in the series of Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food Lectures, following our inaugural lecture by Professor Susan Jebb on “Diet, Health And The Environment: Towards A More Sustainable Diet” in November 2013.

Syngenta is one of the world’s leading agribusiness companies, working in biotechnology and plant genomics.

Speaker Biography: Michael Mack was Chief Operating Officer of Seeds (2004–2007) and Head of Crop Protection, NAFTA Region (2002–2004) for Syngenta. Prior to this, he was President of the Global Paper Division of Imerys SA, a French mining and pigments concern, from the time of its merger in 1999 with English China Clays Ltd., where he was Executive Vice President, Americas and Pacific Region, in addition to being an executive Director of the Board. From 1987 to 1996, he held various roles with Mead Corporation. Michael Mack was Chairman and President of the Board of the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce from 2009 to 2012, and is currently a member of the Board.

Michael Mack has a degree in Economics from Kalamazoo College in Michigan, studied at the University of Strasbourg, and has an MBA from Harvard University.

Humanity is at the beginning of a revolution that will change the way you think about your family, you work and yourself and bring radical change for every institution and every nation, as well as changing the definition of wealth.
It will challenge the definition of what it means to be human and once it’s over, society will be completely re-organised and our sense of ourselves and our place in the universe altered. You may not know it but you’ve already seen the trailer.
In this talk Mark Stevenson shows us the main feature, that’s coming sooner than we realise.

MARK STEVENSON, AUTHOR, ENTREPRENEUR AND FUTURIST

Mark is an entrepreneur and thinker on global and societal trends, innovation and technology. He ha worked with IBM, the Barbican, Audi and the Wellcome Trust, helping them to see where the world is going – and how to adapt.
He is author of An Optimist’s Tour of the Future and We Do Things Differently. He has advisory roles wit Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Earth Challenge and the crowd-investing company Trillion Fund. He is also a occasional professional comedy writer.

What to do when you graduate? No idea? Sylvia is here to help..

Sylvia M’Bemba, a veteran of the recruitment world, is developing an e-learning platform to help students become more aware of their strengths and weaknesses so they can find a job that they love and they are great at!

Make Sense Oxford will be holding an interactive workshop with Sylvia to help her develop the business and support more students to find perfect jobs. We’ll be focusing specifically on finding a name that appeals through the unique powers of MakeSense methodology.

Workshop for Laurence Cruse whom you may have seen hanging out at the Launchpad! He’s creating an awesome social enterprise helping soon-to-be graduates search for jobs to make them happy. We’ll be brainstorming how to help him access student networks.

Join us: Saturday, 4-6pm, Seminar Room 1, Said Business School

Public health is a shared challenge. There is an important role for business, working in partnership with government and consumers, to ensure that our children enjoy a healthier environment than we have had.

The business community, through the brands we know and love, have arguably the greatest influence in empowering and supporting people to make informed decisions about leading healthier lives.

Henry will be exploring how we encourage businesses to take action voluntarily, examining business as a force for good in improving public health.

About the speaker
HENRY ASHWORTH, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, PORTMAN GROUP

Henry – an Oxford Polytechnic alumnus – is co-chair of the government’s Responsibility Deal Alcohol Network as well as Chief Executive of the
Portman Group – the UK alcohol industry’s social responsibility organisation.

Previously he led the government’s Behavioural Insights Team, applying behavioural science to public health policy including alcohol, obesity, diet, smoking and organ donation.Prior to that he was a member of the government’s Better Regulation Executive.

What does a skilled society want from higher education in the 21st century and how does that get delivered?

John will be amongst an expert panel reflecting on this issue in the light of the forthcoming general election, considering how higher education, government and business can work together to ensure graduates have the knowledge and skills for the modern age and asking such questions as “Does the current degree model work for subjects that change rapidly, like computing?”, “How will government policy impact on student choices?” and “What of A-level reform?”

Through questions from the audience the panel will explore the roles that business and higher education can play, and the way to incentivise choices.

About the Speaker
JOHN CRIDLAND, CBI DIRECTOR-GENERALJohn Cridland1

As CBI Director- General, John Cridland is the key spokesman for the business community to the media and government. He is a board member of Business in the Community, a UK Commissioner for Employment and Skills and was Vice Chair of the National Learning and Skills Council 2007-2010.

In 2012 the nation stood tall as it hosted arguably the most memorable Games in living history.

Credited with leading London’s successful bid to host the Olympics, Dame Tessa will outline how the country won the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and planned, from outset to legacy, a wide range of benefits for UK plc.

Brookes staff, students and graduates made a wide-ranging contribution from designing the torch, to winning medals and volunteering.

About the Speaker
Tessa Jowell
RIGHT HONOURABLE DAME TESSA JOWELL, MP

Dame Tessa Jowell is the Labour MP for Dulwich and West Norwood. She first joined the House of Commons in April 1992.

She was Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport 2001- 07, Minister for the Olympics and London 2007-10 and Shadow Minister (Olympics and London) 2010-12.

https://www.facebook.com/events/790374454372168

Ever wondered how to lead your own social enterprise, business, or non-profit that really makes a difference?

Find the answers from guest speaker Sharon Jackson, founder and CEO of the European Sustainability Academy and member of the WISE programme supporting Women Innovators in Social Enterprise.

Almost a million people in Britain had to rely on food banks last year. Why, in the world’s fourth richest country, are there still people who cannot afford to eat?

As part of ECI’s commitment to educate the next generation of global leaders in sustainability, we will be hosting a three day workshop – April 21st-23rd. Our TBL: Training Better Leaders workshop aims to improve sustainability literacy and skills for young professionals and to equip them with the tools they need going forward into their careers.

Students who attend this workshop will receive a Sustainability Skills Certificate from ECI and have the opportunity to meet sustainability professionals from various organizations. We are expecting representatives from GlaxoSmithKline, Accenture, Synergy, RBS, Coca Cola, 2Degrees, ECI, Brite Green, Pilio, Synergy, and more to be confirmed!

Places on this course will be limited, so be sure to register for this opportunity on our events page. You must attend all three days of the workshop in order to receive your certificate.

Many organisations realise the importance of conducting requirements, design, development and testing of new of changed systems in a professional and rigorous manner, but the final stage of the Systems Development Lifecycle – Implementation – is sometimes overlooked as a critical aspect of IT change. This talk highlights why Systems Implementation is so important regardless of whether the IT project uses an Agile, Waterfall, or a variant of these, and discusses the key elements of the Implementation activity, and how to ensure a successful cutover to the operational environment.

Join the Oxford Guild Business Society as we welcome Caroline Rush CBE, Chief Executive of the British Fashion Council, for our first exciting speaker event of a big term (keep an eye out for the rest!). This promises to be a hugely exciting event, covering some very interesting topics and an invaluable chance to hear from and ask questions of such a high profile figure!

As one of the first ladies of fashion, Rush oversees the British fashion industry’s activities within the domestic and international markets, providing key support for emerging as well as established designers and attracting foreign buyers and investors. REGISTER YOUR INTEREST HERE: http://tinyurl.com/CarolineRushGuild

The British fashion industry is worth tens of billions of pounds a year, with investors scrambling to get involved. We thus highly recommend that those interested in finance, private equity or entrepreneurship as well as those interested in fashion attend.

Since her appointment as Chief Executive of the British Fashion Council, Rush has been widely credited with making the British fashion industry a major global force and London Fashion Week one of the coveted ‘Big Four’ fashion weeks. It was also largely due to her that London was one of the first fashion capitals to embrace live streaming over fashion week, emphasising the importance of digital innovation in fashion. Prior to this role, Rush spent twenty years in Marketing and PR across the fashion, music and lifestyle sectors and managed her own business for five years.

This is a unique opportunity to hear from an extremely high-profile figure who has a key role in shaping British fashion. It is not one to be missed!

ALL WELCOME! There will be an opportunity ask questions and there will also be photos, drinks and nibbles after the event. DO NOT MISS OUT!

Lola’s will be hosting the official afterparty for this highly exciting event. Our members will get discounted entry, and extended queue jump: https://www.facebook.com/events/1069562213057212/! We hope many of you will join us afterwards for this.

DATE: Tuesday 28th April 2015, (1st week) 7:30pm
VENUE: Blue Boar Lecture Theatre, Christ Church College
REGISTER YOUR INTEREST HERE: http://tinyurl.com/CarolineRushGuild