As part of the Surgical Grand Rounds lecture series, hosted by the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences at the University of Oxford, Mr Puneet Plaha, a Consultant Neurosurgeon at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, will discuss ‘Brain tumour surgery – awake and novel imaging’.

‘Triboreacted materials as functional interfaces in internal combustion engines and medical implants’

Reducing CO2 and particulate emissions to halt global warming and improve the air cleanliness in developed and developing nations is urgent. A similarly large challenge is the provision of medical implants that will serve the ageing population. Both challenges are underpinned by the need to understand important functional interfaces.
This talk will focus on the engine and the hip and will present how an understanding of the interactions between tribology and chemistry/corrosion play a crucial role in the interfacial friction, wear and integrity. The integration of state-of-the-art surface science with engineering simulations in both of these areas enables engineers to create optimised systems with improved performance

Newspapers often feature studies that sound too good to be true and often they aren’t – they are myths.

Some myths may be harmless but the phenomenon affects most kinds of research within evidence-based science. The good news is that there’s a new movement tackling misleading and unreliable research and instead trying to give us results that we can trust.

Using his research in to human pheromones as an example, Tristram will discuss how and why popular myths, including power-posing, are created and how efforts have been made to address the ‘reproducibility crisis’.

Tristram Wyatt is an emeritus fellow of Kellogg College, Oxford and formerly Director of Studies in Biology at OUDCE. He is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford. He’s interested in how animals of all kinds use pheromones to communicate by smell. His Cambridge University Press book on pheromones and animal behaviour won the Royal Society of Biology’s prize for the Best Postgraduate Textbook in 2014. His TED talk on human pheromones has been viewed over a million times. His book Animal behaviour: A Very Short Introduction was published by Oxford University Press in 2017.

Open to all. The talk is designed for researchers from all disciplines and is open to the public.

We are delighted to welcome Professor Greg Claeys, lecturer from Royal Holloway University, and author of “Dystopias: A Natural History” to speak at the Classics Centre about Dystopian Fiction. He will speak between 3.30 – and 4pm, followed by questions, drinks, and an opportunity to look at ideas for utopian and dystopian fiction created by our Year Eight students, who have been exploring ideal and dystopian societies from Plato’s Republic onwards.

From 4.30 – 6.15pm, we will then have a community viewing of the 2010 dystopian romantic drama “Never Let Me Go”, based on the award-winning novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. This film has a 12 rating.

What defines a scientific discovery with market value?

How are innovations evaluated by investors?

What makes a successful investor pitch?

How do I make personal impact?

Other than good science, it takes young entrepreneurs so much more to transfer ideas into a real business. In this event we bring in expertise from both the fundraising and the investor’s perspective, to help you address all the questions above. Join us for industry insights, chances to discuss your start-up ideas, and preparing to get your first bucket of gold!

There will be a networking & drinks reception after the event.

The event is free as always. Spots are limited, so get registered today!

Additionally, right after the event we have the chance to have formal dinner with the two guest speakers at University College for further communications. 5 spots are available and the cost of the dinner itself is payable. Message Science Innovation Union on Facebook ASAP if you are interested!

The day will consist of a range of events, hosted by speakers from different areas of STEM and industry. Expect to hear from keynote speakers, engage with panel discussions, and get hands on experience in smaller workshops focusing on entrepreneurship, outreach, disabilities and more.

Don’t miss out on hearing from a range of speakers, including: Dr. Chonnettia Jones, Director of Insight and Analysis at the Wellcome Trust; Prof. Daniela Bortoletto, Professor of Physics at Brasenose; plus Oxford’s own Vice Chancellor, Louise Richardson.

Everyone is welcome, regardless of gender, year and subject.

For more information visit OxFEST’s facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/294126621288050/

Automation, AI and robotics are changing our lives quickly – but digital disruption goes much further than we realise.

In this talk, Richard Baldwin, one of the world’s leading globalisation experts, will explain that exponential growth in computing, transmission and storage capacities is also creating a new form of ‘virtual’ globalisation that could undermine the foundations of middle-class prosperity in the West.

This book talk will be followed by a drinks reception and book signing, all welcome.

In 2013, Carl Frey and Michael Osborne published a paper titled ‘The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerisation?’ which estimated that 47% of jobs in the US are at risk of automation.

In this talk Dr Carl Benedikt Frey, Co-Director of the Oxford Martin Programme on Technology and Employment, will discuss the societal consequences of the accelerating pace of automation, and what we can learn from previous episodes of worker-replacing technological change.

As part of the Surgical Grand Rounds lecture series, hosted by the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, Professor Shafi Ahmed (Consultant Laparoscopic Colorectal Surgeon at the Royal London Hospital and Associate Dean at Barts and the London Medical School) and Ms Sarah Kessler (Producer of award-winning documentary The Checklist Effect and past Lead for Lifebox) will discuss ‘Innovations to improve outcome and patient safety in low and middle income countries’.

Chief Philologist of the Oxford English Dictionary Edmund Weiner will be presenting his talk, “Thew Grew out of their Name” to the Oxford Tolkien Society

Entry free for members, £2 for non-members

“Many words and names in Tolkien’s words seem to have had a complex inner history in his own mind. This talk will look at how Tolkien’s creative philological mind worked. It will be an unhasty ramble around Ent country, looking at names and topics of language construction and language theory, with even a quick visit to Humpty Dumpty!”

The 2019 Dementia Awareness Day will be held at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford on the morning of Saturday March 2nd. The Oxford ARUK Network Centre organise this event to discuss current dementia research taking place within the network centre, which includes the University of Oxford, Oxford Brookes University and University of Reading.

The event is open to the public and features several short talks from scientists on a range of topics in dementia.

We will also invite those who support people living with dementia and carers who will host information stands during the break. There will also be information on how you can get involved with dementia research.

This is a joint lecture with The Rockefeller Foundation Economic Council on Planetary Health at the Oxford Martin School

Cooling is critical for many of the sustainable development goals, including those relating to health, shelter, livelihoods, education and nutrition. As the world’s population grows, as disposable incomes grow and as urban areas grow, the need for cooling is booming. However cooling uses super polluting gases and large amounts of energy and is therefore a significant cause of climate change. More efficient, clean cooling has the potential to avoid up to a degree of warming by the end of the century and recently all governments came together to agree action to try to maximize this opportunity. Cooling sits at the intersection of the UNFCCC, the SDGs and the Montreal Protocol, but can these forces ensure success?

Dan Hamza-Goodacre will explain the risks and possibilities in the search for sustainable cooling for all.

This talk will be followed by a drinks reception, all welcome

Currently limited tools exist to accurately forecast the complex nature of disease spread across the globe. Dr Moritz Kraemer will talk about the dynamic global maps being built, at 5km resolution, to predict the invasion of new organisms under climate change conditions and continued unplanned urbanisation.

This book talk is co-organised with the Oxford Martin Programme on Collective Responsibility for Infectious Disease

Vaccination raises ethical issues about the responsibilities of individuals, communities, and states in preventing serious and potentially life-threatening infectious diseases. Such responsibilities are typically taken to be about minimising risks for those who are vaccinated and for those around them. However, there are other ethical considerations that matter when defining the responsibilities of different actors with regard to vaccination. Such ethical considerations are not often given due considerations in the debate on vaccination ethics and policy.

Thus, in this talk Dr Alberto Giubilini aims at offering a defence of compulsory vaccination taking into account not only the importance of preventing the harms of infectious diseases, but also the value of fairness in the distribution of the burdens entailed by the obligation to protect people from infectious diseases. He will offer a philosophical account of the key notions involved in the ethical debate on vaccination, of the types of responsibilities involved, of the possible types of vaccination policies ranked from the least to the most restrictive, and of the reasons why compulsory vaccination is, from an ethical point of view, the best policy available, as it is the most likely to guarantee not only protection from infectious diseases, but also a fair distribution of the burdens and responsibilities involved.

The talk will be followed by a drinks reception, all welcome

The raw but poignant story of a mother with young onset dementia and her daughter told through dance, music and poetry. After the dance, there will be a Q&A session with artists and dementia experts including Professor Chris Kennard (University of Oxford).

Seminar Series: Combined Medical-Surgical Grand Rounds
Title: ‘Gene therapy for retinitis pigmentosa’
Speaker: Professor Robert MacLaren, Professor of Ophthalmology at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences
Hosts: Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences and Nuffield Department of Medicine

VAL MCDERMID – A Life Of Crime, chaired by Nicolette Jones (The Sunday Times)
Dubbed the Queen of Crime, Val McDermid has sold over 15 million books to date across the globe and is translated into over 40 languages. She is perhaps best known for her ‘Wire in the Blood’ series, featuring clinical psychologist Dr Tony Hill and DCI Carol Jordan, which was adapted for television starring Robson Green. She has written three other series: private detective Kate Brannigan, journalist Lindsay Gordon and, most recently, cold case detective Karen Pirie. She has also published in several award-winning standalone novels, two books of non-fiction, two short story collections and a children’s picture book, ‘My Granny is a Pirate’.

For many good reasons, semi-structured interviews, focus groups, thematic analysis, and realist tales have become key tools within the qualitative researcher’s methodological toolkit. In this presentation, Dr Cassandra Phoenix invites the audience to consider the extent to which they may have (inadvertently) become the only tools within their toolkit.

Drawing on examples from across the social sciences, she considers how else we might collect, analyse and represent qualitative data within health research, asking what it means and involves to truly advance qualitative research methods in this field.

Dr Cassandra Phoenix is a Reader in the Department for Health at the University of Bath. Her research examines ageing, health and wellbeing from a critical/socio-cultural perspective. She has authored numerous publications on topics including the social and cultural dimensions of: physical activity in mid and later life; the lived experiences of chronic conditions (e.g. late onset visual impairment, vestibular disorders); and engagement with nature. Cassandra’s work is supported by a range of funders including ESRC, Wellcome Trust, Leverhulme Trust, WHO and the NIHR.

This talk is being held as part of the Advanced Qualitative Research Methods course which is part of the Evidence-Based Health Care Programme. This is a free event and members of the public are welcome to attend.

Please note this event will now take place on Thursday (instead of Wednesday).

St Hilda’s Writers’ Day 2019 marks its 10th year as the only College to hold its own day of lectures at the Oxford Literary Festival. All authors are College members or alumnae.

CLAIRE HARMAN – Murder By The Book: A Sensational Chapter In Victorian Crime. chaired by Claire Armitstead (The Guardian and the Observer)
When the accused murderer of Lord William Russell blamed the crime on his reading, he fueled an ongoing debate about the appalling damage ‘low’ books could do. This fascinating study details the controversy around William Harrison Ainsworth’s Jack Sheppard, the murder of Russell and the way it affected many of the leading writers of the day, including Dickens and Thackeray. Harman unpacks the evidence, reveals the gossip and the surprisingly literary background to this gory crime.

Chair: Claire Armitstead (The Guardian and the Observer)

KIRSTY GUNN – Action Writing, chaired by Claire Armitstead (The Guardian and the Observer)
Kirsty Gunn is an internationally awarded writer who published her first novel with Faber in 1994 and since then eight works of fiction, including short stories, as well as a collection of fragments and meditations, and essays. Her latest novel is the acclaimed ‘Caroline’s Bikini’. She is Professor of Writing Practice and Study at the University of Dundee.

TESS STIMSON – From Adultery to Murder: A Shorter Journey Than You Think, chaired by Nicolette Jones (The Sunday Times)
Tess Stimson is the British author of ten novels, including top-ten bestseller ‘The Adultery Club’. In 2002, she was appointed Professor of Creative Writing at the University of South Florida. She is transitioning into writing psychological suspense fiction, writing as TJ Stimson. Her first novel in this genre, ‘Picture of Innocence’, is to be published by Avon in Spring 2019.

Professor Carl Heneghan has extensive experience of working with the media. In this talk he will discuss some recent case examples, working with the BBC amongst others. This talk will discuss how using an evidence-based approach can help overcome the growing problem of fake news, and provide insights on how to work with the media to ensure your message is not distorted, and will discuss why academics should engage more with the media and the wider public.

Professor Carl Heneghan is Director of CEBM, and an NHS Urgent Care GP, and has been interested for over twenty years in how we can use evidence in real world practice.

This talk is being held as part of the Practice of Evidence-Based Health Care module which is part of the MSc in Evidence-Based Health Care and the MSc in EBHC Systematic Reviews. Members of the public are welcome to attend.

Anthony Horowitz will be talking about his latest James Bond novel Forever and A Day at Blackwell’s Westgate on Tuesday 9th April at 7pm.

Anthony will be talking about talking about 007 and taking up the Ian Fleming mantle as well as his many other novels. He has written over 40 books including the bestselling teen spy series Alex Rider.

Tickets include a copy of Forever and a Day and are on sale now.

Organised by Oxford Civic Society @oxcivicsoc. The ‘scientific’ study of ghosts from the 17th century onwards was followed by ‘scientific’ ghost-hunting in Victorian times. Historian Dr Allan Chapman of Wadham College lifts the lid on a fascinating application of science. What do scientists, theologians and the public think about ghosts today?. https://www.oxcivicsoc.org.uk/programme/

Blackwell’s are delighted to be hosting one of Britain’s most influential literary critics, Terry Eagleton, to talk about his latest book, Humour.

A compelling guide to the fundamental place of humour and comedy within Western culture-by one of its greatest exponents

Written by an acknowledged master of comedy, this study reflects on the nature of humour and the functions it serves. Why do we laugh? What are we to make of the sheer variety of laughter, from braying and cackling to sniggering and chortling? Is humour subversive, or can it defuse dissent? Can we define wit?

Packed with illuminating ideas and a good many excellent jokes, the book critically examines various well-known theories of humour, including the idea that it springs from incongruity and the view that it reflects a mildly sadistic form of superiority to others. Drawing on a wide range of literary and philosophical sources, Terry Eagleton moves from Aristotle and Aquinas to Hobbes, Freud, and Bakhtin, looking in particular at the psychoanalytical mechanisms underlying humour and its social and political evolution over the centuries.

Carlos Lopes will deliver an overview of the critical development issues facing the African continent today. He will talk about a blueprint of policies to address issues, and an intense, heartfelt meditation on the meaning of economic development in the age of democratic doubts, identity crises, global fears and threatening issues of sustainability.

This talk will be followed by a book signing and drinks reception, all welcome.

Blackwell’s are delighted to once again invite you to Short Stories Aloud. Listen to actors perform short stories written by Stacey Halls and Jess Kidd. Afterwards, author Sarah Franklin will be interviewing both authors about their latest publications, The Familiars and Things in Jars before taking questions from the audience.

The first Surgical Grand Round of the Trinity term, hosted by the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, will be held on Friday 3 May from 08:00 to 09:00 in Lecture Theatre 1, Academic Centre, John Radcliffe Hospital.

Please join us for a special screening of:
The discovery of the Epstein Barr Virus. A recorded interview of Denis Burkitt and Professor Tony Epstein in conversation

We are now live streaming the Surgical Grand Rounds!

Please visit: https://streaming.oxfordmi.uk/surgicalgrandround.html