Is international governance facing a pivotal moment? Seventy years on from the creation of the UN, the list of issues requiring international co-operation is lengthy and complex, ranging from the conflict in Syria to infectious disease outbreaks, and from nuclear weapons threats to food security. Even where concord has been achieved, as with the recent COP21 climate agreement, the road ahead will be long, hard and fraught with conflicting needs and desires.

With considerable humanitarian and environmental challenges facing the world, Baroness Amos, Director of SOAS, will draw on her distinguished career in development to look at how the international community can work together, what the UN could and can do, and at the likely obstacles to overcome on the road to helping secure global peace and security.

Registration required.

Mitigating climate requires a transition to low carbon energy systems and renewable energy looks increasingly likely to play a key role, but the most important resources are intermittent.

This lecture will describe the research of the Oxford Martin Programme on Integrating Renewable Energy, on how intermittency and related challenges can be addressed, technically and in markets and policy.

Registration required

After being diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (MND), Ted goes on the trip of a lifetime…and so does his pet fish. As the disease starts to cause his mobility to degenerate, Ted rushes to experience a world that is outside of his comfort zone; from the streets of Lille to the romance of Venice.

Humorous, heart-warming and hopeful, CELL features charming puppetry, physical theatre and an original score to tell the story of one man’s final adventure to create enough memories to last a lifetime.

The performance will be followed by a discussion with a member of the cast and Kevin Talbot a Motor Neurone Disease expert.

Nominated for a Peter Brook Award, CELL is the outcome of a new collaboration between two of the most exciting young companies in the UK.

★★★★ “A celebration of technique and emotion” – The Stage
★★★★ “Combining a mix of puppetry forms and an evocative original score with breathtaking technical brilliance, CELL is a visual theatre gem.” – The List
★★★★★ “As perfect a piece of theatre as one is likely to see.” – The New Current

Suitable for ages 11+

Smoking Apples and Dogfish production www.cell-show.co.uk
CELL is presented at the Old Fire Station in partnership with Science Oxford.

Professor Ian Goldin, Director of the Oxford Martin School, looks at what we mean by development and what citizens, governments and the international community can do to encourage it.

Goldin explains how the notion of development has expanded from the original focus on incomes and economic growth to a much broader interpretation. He considers the contributions made by education, health, gender and equity, and argues that it is also necessary take into account the rule of law, the role of institutions, and sustainability and environmental concerns.

There will be a book signing and drinks reception after the talk, all welcome.

Registration required.

In this talk Professor Daniel Kammen, Oxford Martin Visiting Fellow at INET Oxford, will discuss the strategies emerging to cost-effectively decarbonise energy systems worldwide. This work integrates elements of the science and engineering of energy systems, regional and global energy and environmental policy, and mandates and mission objectives that have emerged from the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, and energy and climate planning in both developed and developing nations.

As Science Envoy for the US Secretary of State, Kammen will also examine opportunities that have arisen as result of the Paris Climate Accord, and US and Chinese climate agreement.

This lecture will be followed by a drinks reception, all welcome.

Registration required.

Prevention and management of infectious diseases remains one of this century’s biggest challenges. As drugs and vaccinations have proliferated, protection from disease has increasingly been seen as an individual problem, requiring individual action. But due to the evolution of anti-microbial resistance, vaccine refusal and rapid disease transmission through global trade and travel, the impact of the drugs and vaccines that we have come to take for granted is undermined.

This lecture will explore the importance of understanding the ‘Human Factor’ in disease management, looking at the effects of policy on individual and group behaviour and at the role psychology plays in developing a new understanding of collective moral responsibility for infectious disease. The lecture is an introduction to the Oxford Martin Programme on Collective Responsibility for Infectious Disease, an interdisciplinary team from zoology, history, philosophy, psychology and medicine.

Registration required.

Kamal Mahtani, NHS GP, NIHR Clinical Lecturer and Deputy Director at the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine.

Kamal Mahtani will be giving a free talk as part of the MSc in Evidence-Based Health Care Programme.

Kamal’s main activities are divided between providing direct clinical care to patients, research and teaching. Kamal’s main focus is on evidence synthesis and the acquisition and generation of high quality evidence that can support and underpin clinical practice and policy. Kamal also has experience in clinical trials, database analysis and qualitative work.

Professor Ian Goldin, Director of the Oxford Martin School, and fellow author Chris Kutarna preview their forthcoming book about the risks and rewards of a new Renaissance taking place in our modern world. They will show how we can achieve our own golden age, given the will. But many of the factors that undid the first Renaissance are rising once again: warring ideologies, fundamentalism, climate change, pandemics. Can we weather the crises and seize the moment to leave the world a legacy it will still celebrate, 500 years later?

There will be a book signing and drinks reception after the talk, all welcome.

Registration required.

For most of the world’s toughest challenges, there exists a tension between the needs of an individual and what is best for the common good. Income derived from fishing may be vital to one country’s economy but overfishing depletes stocks to dangerously low levels. Low income countries need to develop in order to lift people out of poverty but this increases demand for fossil fuels at a point where global efforts to reduce carbon emissions have become critically important.

Some of Oxford’s leading thinkers on how to manage global commons and shared resources come to together for a lively panel debate to address the tension between individual rationality and collective responsibility, drawing on examples from the four lectures in this term’s series.

Panellists:

Professor Ian Goldin, (Chair), Director, Oxford Martin School
Professor Richard Bailey, Co-Director, Oxford Martin Programme on Sustainable Oceans
Professor Nick Eyre, Co-Director, Oxford Martin Programme on Integrating Renewable Energy
Professor Cameron Hepburn, Co-Director, Oxford Martin Net Zero Carbon Investment Initiative
Professor Angela McLean, Co-Director, Oxford Martin Programme on Collective Responsibility for Infectious Diseases

Registration required.

Professor Michael Douek will be discussing ‘Magnetic guidance in cancer surgery’.

Professor Douek is a breast surgeon with an interest in breast cancer surgery and breast reconstruction. He is professor of surgical oncology at King’s College London and honorary consultant surgeon at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. He was awarded a prestigious Hunterian Professorship by the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 2015.

How has humanities scholarship influenced biomedical research and civil liberties and how can scholars serve the common good? Entrepreneur and scholar Donald Drakeman will discuss his new book exploring the value and impact of the humanities in the 21st century with:

– Stefan Collini (Professor of Intellectual History and English Literature, University of Cambridge and author of What Are Universities For?)
– Richard Ekins (Tutorial Fellow in Law, St John’s College, University of Oxford)
– Jay Sexton (Associate Professor of American History, University of Oxford)

Chaired by Helen Small (Professor of English Literature, University of Oxford and author of The Value of the Humanities)

Free, all welcome. Join us for a sandwich lunch from 12:30, with discussion from 13:00 to 14:00. No booking required, seats will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

About the book

An entrepreneur and educator highlights the surprising influence of humanities scholarship on biomedical research and civil liberties. This spirited defence urges society to support the humanities to obtain continued guidance for public policy decisions, and challenges scholars to consider how best to fulfil their role in serving the common good.

The event is part of Book at Lunchtime, a fortnightly series of bite size book discussions, with commentators from a range of disciplines.

Is there anything wrong with putting a price on health, education, citizenship, and the environment? Where do markets serve the public good, and where do they not belong?

Join us for a lively discussion with Professor Michael J. Sandel about money, markets, and the good things in life.

Registration required

Lt Col Ross Moy will give a talk on ‘Pre-hospital emergency medicine – recent developments and top tips for the first on scene’

Lt Col Moy is a Consultant in Emergency Medicine in the British Army, and The John Radcliffe Hospital. He also works with Thames Valley Air Ambulance as Pre-Hospital Care Physician. He previously served as Regimental Medical Officer to the Queen’s Royal Lancers, and has deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan in both the Emergency Department and Pre-Hospital roles.

Professor Trevor Young, Dean of the University of Toronto and world expert on bipolar disorder, is coming to Oxford to give a talk on “Your Brain Needs YOU: Why Psychiatry Is the Best Specialty for the Brightest Medical Minds”.

Venue: Blue Boar Lecture Theatre
Time: 6-7pm (please arrive promptly)
Cost: FREE!

*****************

As an active clinician scientist, Dr. Young’s principal research interest includes understanding the molecular basis of bipolar disorder and its treatment, and how to apply these findings to the clinical setting. He is widely published and well funded by peer-reviewed granting agencies. His research is particularly focused on understanding the processes that lead to long-term changes in brain structure and function in patients with bipolar disorder and how these changes can be targeted by mood stabilizing drugs.

*****************

Dr. Young was appointed Chair, Department of Psychiatry effective September 1, 2010. He received his medical degree at the University of Manitoba. This was followed by residency training at McGill University and the University of Toronto where he also completed his PhD in Medical Sciences. He completed a Research Fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. His former roles include Physician-in-Chief, Executive Vice President Programs at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Professor and Cameron Wilson Chair in Depression Studies in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, and Professor and Head, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia. He was received numerous awards including the Douglas Utting Award for outstanding contributions in the field of mood disorders, the Canadian College of Neuropsychopharmacology Heinz Lehmann Award, and is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He has led several large clinical programs including the Mood Disorders Program at Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital, which received the American Psychiatric Services Gold Achievement Award. In 2009, he was elected as a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

Dr. Young serves as the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, effective January 1, 2015.

Professor George Youngson is Emeritus Professor of Paediatric Surgery at the University of Aberdeen. He will be talking about ‘Non-technical skills for surgeons: a hard time for soft skills’.

While qualitative research has received greater acceptance in a great variety of disciplines, including health and medicine, the true potential of qualitative analysis seems not to have been realised in such areas. Hence, the critique for presenting anecdotal evidence is often quite fair. With the basis in two examples, this talk will demonstrate how the potential of qualitative analysis is developed by maintaining a strong inductive strategy of concept development. Rather than summarising endless amounts of nuanced data, the qualitative researcher may apply a detailed coding approach to hunt for empirical insight that triggers curiosity and development of novel ideas. On basis of two examples presented, we will develop what are good qualitative research questions and hence good qualitative research.

Welcome to Future Debates, a series of public events supported by the British Science Association.

A genome is an entire set of DNA; all the instructions for making every part of a living thing. Research into our genomes could improve our understanding of diseases, cancers and passing on certain traits. The application of this research through genomic medicine is at the cutting edge of science. There’s large potential for the technology to help us create new treatments and preventative approaches.

Someone’s genome can explain lots of things about them, and we don’t yet understand all of what the genetic code means. Genome data is being collected from a group of patients with rare diseases and cancers across the UK, as part of the Genomics England 100,000 Genomes Project. This information needs to be collected and stored securely, interpreted by experts and viewed in a way that protects the donor’s identity. There have been discussions among scientists about the implications of genomic medicine for privacy and the NHS, and the British Science Association believes that it is vital to open that conversation up to the public.

Come and join our panel of scientists and other experts to discuss who should have access to this data. Should genomic data be used outside medicine? Should private companies share any profits they make from genomic data with participants? Does the right to privacy outweigh the societal benefit of genomic research?

Doors open from 6.00 pm, and the debate will run from 6.30 pm until 8.00 pm.

Future Debates events are part of the British Science Association’s work to make science a fundamental part of British society and culture. We want to empower many more people – not just scientists – to constructively engage in debates over the applications and implications of science in their lives, their local economy and the UK’s future.

Follow us on twitter @LivingWellOx @HumanGeneticsOx @BritSciAssoc and use the event hashtag #FutureDebates

Professor Gerhard Schroth is Emeritus Professor of Radiology/Neuroradiology at the University of Berne in Switzerland.

The title of his talk is: ‘The development and effects of thrombectomy in the treatment of actute stroke.’

Professor Bill Fulford is a Fellow of St Catherine’s College and Member of the Philosophy Faculty, University of Oxford; Emeritus Professor of Philosophy and Mental Health, University of Warwick Medical School; and Director of the Collaborating Centre for Values-based Practice, St Catherine’s College, Oxford (valuesbasedpractice.org).
The title of their talk is ‘The Montgomery ruling on consent: values and evidence in surgical care’.

Professor Ashok Handa is Associate Professor in Surgery and Director of Surgical Education at the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences at the Univeristy of Oxford.

The title of their talk is ‘The Montgomery ruling on consent: values and evidence in surgical care’.

Kay Davies has dedicated her life to the cure of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, which is one of the most common, fatal genetic disorders diagnosed in children. She contributed to the design of the pre-natal tests used around the world. Her team isolated a key gene sequence for the potential treatment of the disease, and she’s now leading clinical trials for the development of a cure. Learn about this scientific journey, and engage in a
conversation with one of the most remarkable Oxford scientists.

Leopold Eyharts flew on the Atlantis Shuttle to the International Space Station in 2008. Part of his mission included the installation of the Colombus Space Laboratory, the main contribution of Europe to the International Space Station. In 1998, Leopold flew
on a Soyouz Space Shuttle to the Russian MIR station. Engage in a conversation about his adventures and the future of manned exploration of space. Chaired by Valerie Jamieson, Editorial Content Director, New Scientist.

What would it have been like to visit your physician in the 19th century? Researcher Melissa Dickinson takes you on a time travel to discover how the sounds of the body helped determine medical diagnoses thanks to surprising instruments.

Visualise the world in the 21st century in seven new maps! Geographers Ben Hennig and Danny Dorling present some of the key challenges and questions relating to the future of people across the world, using a series of seven thought-provoking maps about our lives on the planet.

Date/Time: Sunday 26 June, 14:30
Venue: Story Museum, Pembroke Street, Oxford
Admissions: £5/£4(conc.)/£16(fam.)
Suitability: 14+
Book here: http://www.oxfordshiresciencefestival.com/sun-opening-weekend.html

How to assess potential treatments for a disease such as Ebola, during the largest outbreak in history? Peter Horby’s team run clinical trials under such challenging conditions. Share this scientific and humanitarian mission, with insights from clinical studies led in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

How to create in the lab the process taking place at the heart of the stars? How to harvest this energy to power the world? Nuclear fusion is arguably the hardest technical challenge humanity works on at the moment. The UK significantly contributes to this world-wide research effort with the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy. Get insights from the lab, and learn everything you need to know about nuclear fusion!

Book here: http://www.oxfordshiresciencefestival.com/sun-opening-weekend.html

Date/Time: Monday 27 June 12:30-13:15
Venue: Blackwell’s Bookshop, Oxford
Admissions: Free, Drop-In
Suitability: 14+
Find out more: http://www.oxfordshiresciencefestival.com

Explore mental health questions with authors of the ‘A very short
introduction’ series, and researchers and health practitioners from the Oxford Academic Health Science Network.

Today’s session: Schizophrenia, psychotic disorders, bipolar disorders… get ‘a very short introduction’ to severe mental illness and dive into a thought provoking discussion with psychiatrist Tom Burns.

In the era of the development of technologies like robotics and artificial intelligence, machines are more and more capable of outperforming human beings at work tasks. What will be the decline of today’s professions? What are the prospects for
employment, and how will professions like doctors, teachers, architects, the clergy, lawyers, and many others adapt to this emerging world? What could be the new models to produce and distribute expertise in society?

Book here: http://www.oxfordshiresciencefestival.com/monday.html

Date/Time: Tuesday 28 June 12:30-13:15
Venue: Blackwell’s Bookshop, Oxford
Admissions: Free, Drop-In
Suitability: 14+
Find out more: www.oxscifest.org

Explore mental health questions with authors of the ‘A very short
introduction’ series, and researchers and health practitioners from the Oxford Academic Health Science Network.

Today’s session: Get ‘a very short introduction’ to mental health during adolescence and dive into a thought-provoking discussion with psychiatrist Belinda Lennox and psychologist Peter Smith

Date/Time: Wednesday 29 June 12:30-13:15
Venue: Blackwell’s Bookshop, Oxford
Admissions: Free, Drop-In
Suitability: 14+
Find out more: www.oxscifest.org

Explore mental health questions with authors of the ‘A very short introduction’ series, and researchers and health practitioners from the Oxford Academic Health Science Network.

Today’s session: Drugs can help patients suffering from various mental illnesses like depression, anxiety or schizophrenia. How do these drugs work in the brain? How to ensure the safety of patients? Get ‘a very short introduction’ to drugs for psychotherapy, and dive into a thought-provoking discussion with pharmacologist Les Iversen.