Some face-to-face events are returning. Check carefully for any requirements.

Jan
14
Mon
Systematic reviews: the past the present and the future @ Rewley House
Jan 14 @ 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Systematic reviews: the past the present and the future @ Rewley House

‘Making decisions and choices about health and social care need access to high-quality evidence from research. Systematic reviews provide this by both highlighting the quality of existing studies and by themselves providing a high-quality summary’.- Mike Clarke and Iain Chalmers [1]

Iain Chalmers, Carl Heneghan and Kamal Mahtani will talk about the history and development of systematic reviews, their current delivery and the shortcomings in current review production and the future directions of systematic reviews, including the launch of CEBM’s Evidence Synthesis Toolkit.

Sir Iain Chalmers: James Lind Library and Fellow of CEBM
Kamal Mahtani: Associate Professor and Director of the MSc in Systematic Reviews
Carl Heneghan: Professor of EBM and Director CEBM

This talk is being held as part of the Practice of Evidence-Based Health Care 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.

[1] Clarke M, Chalmers I Reflections on the history of systematic reviews. BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine 2018;23:121-122.

Jan
18
Fri
Surgical Grand Round – ‘Communication in Healthcare: A Failure in Need of Rescue?’ @ Lecture Theatre 1, Academic Centre
Jan 18 @ 8:00 am – 9:00 am
Surgical Grand Round - 'Communication in Healthcare: A Failure in Need of Rescue?' @ Lecture Theatre 1, Academic Centre

As part of the Surgical Grand Rounds lecture series, hosted by the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, Professor Amir Ghaferi from the University Michigan in the USA, will discuss ‘Communication in Healthcare: A Failure in Need of Rescue?’

Jan
22
Tue
Valentin Nagerl – Mind the Gap: Super-resolution Imaging of the Extracellular Space of the Brain @ Oxford Martin School
Jan 22 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

The advent of super-resolution microscopy has created unprecedented opportunities to study the mammalian central nervous system, which is dominated by anatomical structures whose nanoscale dimensions critically influence their biophysical properties. I will present our recent methodological advances 1) to analyze dendritic spines in the hippocampus in vivo and 2) to visualize the extracellular space (ECS) of the brain. Using a two-photon–STED microscope equipped with a long working distance objective and ‘hippocampal window’ to reach this deeply embedded structure, we measured the density and turnover of spines on CA1 pyramidal neurons. Spine density was two times higher than reported by conventional two-photon microscopy; around 40% of all spines turned over within 4 days. A combination of 3D-STED microscopy and fluorescent labeling of the extracellular fluid allows super-resolution shadow imaging (SUSHI) of the ECS in living brain slices. SUSHI enables quantitative analyses of ECS structure and produces sharp negative images of all cellular structures, providing an unbiased view of unlabeled brain cells in live tissue.

Jan
25
Fri
Surgical Grand Rounds: ‘Novel methods for predicting growth of AAAs in humans – an update from the OxAAA Study’ @ Lecture Theatre 1, Academic Centre, John Radcliffe Hospital
Jan 25 @ 8:00 am – 9:00 am
Surgical Grand Rounds: 'Novel methods for predicting growth of AAAs in humans – an update from the OxAAA Study' @ Lecture Theatre 1, Academic Centre, John Radcliffe Hospital

As part of the Surgical Grand Rounds Lecture Series, Dr Regent Lee (Clinical Lecturer in Vascular Surgery and a Co-Principal Investigator of the OxAAA Study at the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Oxford) will discuss ‘Novel methods for predicting growth of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) in humans – an update from the OxAAA Study’.

2019 Sue Lloyd-Roberts Annual Memorial Lecture with Guest Speaker Lyse Doucet @ Jacqueline du Pre Music Building
Jan 25 @ 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm

This lecture series was established in honour of our alumna, Sue Lloyd-Roberts, an award-winning broadcast journalist whose uncompromising and courageous documentaries highlighted humanitarian issues across the world.

We are delighted that our speaker this year will be world-renowned, award-winning Lyse Doucet, Chief International Correspondent and Senior Presenter for BBC World News television and BBC World Service Radio. Lyse was a BBC foreign correspondent with postings in Jerusalem, Amman, Tehran, Islamabad, Kabul and Abidjan for 15 years, before becoming a presenter in 1999. She was paramount in the coverage of the “Arab Spring” across the Middle East and North Africa and, for the past 20 years, has continued to cover all major stories in this area.

The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception. Both are free, but please register to attend. Booking deadline: 21 January.

Feb
1
Fri
Surgical Grand Round: “Stent assisted coiling of broad based intracranial aneurysms” @ Lecture Theatre 1, Academic Centre, John Radcliffe Hospital
Feb 1 @ 8:00 am – 9:00 am
Surgical Grand Round: “Stent assisted coiling of broad based intracranial aneurysms” @ Lecture Theatre 1, Academic Centre, John Radcliffe Hospital

As part of the Surgical Grand Rounds lecture series, hosted by the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences at Oxford University, Dr Wilhelm Kueker, Consultant Neuroradiologist at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, will discuss “Stent assisted coiling of broad based intracranial aneurysms”.

“She Decides: Women and Bodily Autonomy” with Robin Gorna @ Sir Joseph Hotung Auditorium, Mansfield College
Feb 1 @ 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Robin Gorna, leader of the support team for the SheDecides movement; has over three decades of experinecer leading global and national health organisations. Author of “Vamps, Virgins & Victimes: How can women fight AIDS?”

Feb
5
Tue
Cambridgeshire’s bryophytes – a dynamic flora – Dr Chris Preston @ St Margaret's Institute
Feb 5 @ 8:00 pm – 9:15 pm
Cambridgeshire's bryophytes - a dynamic flora - Dr Chris Preston @ St Margaret's Institute

Warburg Memorial Lecture – Joint with BBOWT
Bryophytes in Cambridgeshire have been recorded continuously since 1927 and with increasing intensity in recent decades. A detailed analysis of the records reveals the remarkably dynamic nature of the bryophyte flora of lowland England.

Feb
8
Fri
Surgical Grand Round: ‘Brain tumour surgery – awake and novel imaging’ @ Lecture Theatre 1, Academic Centre, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford
Feb 8 @ 8:00 am – 9:00 am
Surgical Grand Round: 'Brain tumour surgery - awake and novel imaging' @ Lecture Theatre 1, Academic Centre, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford

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’.

Hirsch Lecture 2019 (Materials, Engineering and Medical) @ Lecture Room 1, Thom Building (Dept of Engineering)
Feb 8 @ 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Hirsch Lecture 2019 (Materials, Engineering and Medical) @ Lecture Room 1, Thom Building (Dept of Engineering)

‘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

Power-posing politicians, human pheromones, and other psychological myths with Tristram Wyatt @ Rewley House
Feb 8 @ 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm
Power-posing politicians, human pheromones, and other psychological myths with Tristram Wyatt @ Rewley House

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.

Feb
20
Wed
Michael Hastings – Cell-autonomous and Circuit-level Mechanisms of Circadian Timekeeping in Mammas: Genes, Neurons and Astrocytes. @ Oxford Martin School
Feb 20 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

In mammals the cell-autonomous circadian clock pivots around a transcriptional/post-translational feedback loop. However, we remain largely ignorant of the critical molecular, cell biological, and circuit-level processes that determine the precision and robustness of circadian rhythms: what keeps them on track, and what determines their period, which varies by less than 5 minutes over 24 hours? The origin of this precision and robustness is the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the basal hypothalamus, the principal circadian pacemaker of the brain. The SCN sits atop a circadian hierarchy that sustains and synchronises the innumerable cell-autonomous clocks of all major organs to solar time (and thereby to each other), by virtue of direct retinal innervation that entrains the transcriptional oscillator of the 20,000 or so component cells of the SCN. I shall describe real-time imaging approaches to monitor circadian cycles of gene expression and cellular function in the SCN, and intersectional genetic and pharmacological explorations of the cell-autonomous and circuit-level mechanisms of circadian timekeeping. A particular focus will be on “translational switching” approaches to controlling clock function and the surprising discovery of a central role for SCN astrocytes in controlling circadian behaviour.

Feb
21
Thu
debate: ‘This House believes countries should restrict immigration to preserve national culture’ @ Oxford Town Hall
Feb 21 @ 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm
debate: 'This House believes countries should restrict immigration to preserve national culture' @ Oxford Town Hall

Join 6 young people from 6 different countries to debate: ‘This House believes countries should restrict immigration to preserve national culture’ chaired and presented by the BBC’s Jonny Dymond (former BBC Correspondent Brussels, Istanbul and Washington) Book a place on eventbrite.

Feb
23
Sat
OxFEST’s 8th Annual Conference: Expanding Horizons @ Lady Margaret Hall
Feb 23 @ 9:00 am – 5:30 pm
OxFEST's 8th Annual Conference: Expanding Horizons @ Lady Margaret Hall

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/

The Neuroscience of Dance @ St. Edmund Hall, Oxford
Feb 23 @ 2:00 pm – 7:00 pm
The Neuroscience of Dance @ St. Edmund Hall, Oxford

Join us at Teddy Hall next week for a fantastic event on the ‘Neuroscience of Dance’ brought to you by the Centre for the Creative Brain!

Science, dance and wine – what more could you want for a Saturday afternoon?

A few (free) tickets are still available, so be quick!

https://www.seh.ox.ac.uk/discover/research/centre-for-the-creative-brain

Feb
28
Thu
“What Women Want” – An exploration of 100 years of marketing to women @ Saïd Business School
Feb 28 @ 6:15 pm – 9:00 pm
“What Women Want” - An exploration of 100 years of marketing to women @ Saïd Business School

Brands across the UK are missing an opportunity to add up to $1bn to their brand value by failing to meaningfully reflect, represent and champion women in their marketing and advertising efforts.

In this session, we will present the findings from a research study carried out by Kantar as part of the of the What Women Want? initiative. Kantar set out to explore the concept of empowerment – what it means to women in the UK today and how brands and advertising can better connect with women. We will take a future-focused view of marketing to women discussing the Hold Her Gaze project conducted by Kantar Consulting. This work builds on the cultural conversations of today to inspire the marketing landscape of tomorrow.

You will hear from Kantar’s partners from What Women Want Steering Committee – Philippa Snare, EMEA CMO, Facebook and Justine Roberts, Founder and CEO, Mumsnet and Gransnet. In this interactive panel session, Snare and Roberts will reflect on what it takes to drive change and how it effects their brands performance, and there will be a chance for the audience to ask questions. Guided tours of the exhibition will be available both before and after the presentation.

Schedule:
18:15 – Registration opens
18:45 – Event starts
20:00 – Drinks reception (closes at 9pm)
21:00 – Close

Mar
1
Fri
Surgical Grand Round: ‘Innovations to improve outcome and patient safety in low and middle income countries’ @ Lecture Theatre 1, Academic Centre, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford
Mar 1 @ 8:00 am – 9:00 am
Surgical Grand Round: 'Innovations to improve outcome and patient safety in low and middle income countries' @ Lecture Theatre 1, Academic Centre, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford

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’.

Mar
2
Sat
Alzheimer’s Research UK Oxford Dementia Information Morning @ Academic Centre, John Radcliffe Hospital
Mar 2 @ 10:00 am – 1:00 pm

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.

Mar
5
Tue
‘Global maps of the spread of infectious diseases and their vectors’ with Dr Moritz Kraemer @ Oxford Martin School
Mar 5 @ 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm

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.

“The ethics of vaccination: individual, collective, and institutional responsibilities” With Dr Alberto Giubilini @ Oxford Martin School
Mar 5 @ 5:00 pm – 6:15 pm

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

Mar
14
Thu
Combined Medical-Surgical Grand Round: ‘Gene therapy for retinitis pigmentosa’ @ Lecture Theatre 1, Academic Centre, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford
Mar 14 @ 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Combined Medical-Surgical Grand Round: 'Gene therapy for retinitis pigmentosa' @ Lecture Theatre 1, Academic Centre, John Radcliffe Hospital, 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

Apr
2
Tue
Unsung heroes in dung – Sally-Ann Spence FLS FRES @ St Margaret's Institute
Apr 2 @ 8:00 pm – 9:15 pm
Unsung heroes in dung - Sally-Ann Spence FLS FRES @ St Margaret's Institute

Dung beetles in the British Isles are a vital part of their associated ecosystems but have been historically rather overlooked probably due to their chosen habitat. Now our native dung beetles are finally beginning to get some of the invertebrate limelight due to an emphasis on ecosystem services and a much more environmentally friendly farming future. However we are lacking on a great deal of base data about these vitally important species and surveying is the one of the best ways to get information. This means getting into dung and discovering these unsung heroes

Apr
4
Thu
Are we really advancing qualitative methods in health research? @ Rewley House
Apr 4 @ 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Are we really advancing qualitative methods in health research? @ Rewley House

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).

Apr
8
Mon
Using evidence to overcome fake news about healthcare @ Rewley House
Apr 8 @ 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Using evidence to overcome fake news about healthcare @ Rewley House

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.

Apr
11
Thu
The Battle for the Green Belt @ Assembly Room, Oxford Town Hall
Apr 11 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
The Battle for the Green Belt @ Assembly Room, Oxford Town Hall

Organised by Oxford Civic Society @oxcivicsoc. Should we prioritise the Green Belt or new homes for Oxford? In this, the first of a series of public debates to mark the 50th anniversary of Oxford Civic Society, Bob Price, former leader of the City Council, will argue that the release of Green Belt land to meet housing need can benefit the common good without undermining the enduring purposes of the Green Belt. His view will be keenly contested by Mike Tyce, Trustee of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) Oxfordshire. The audience will have a chance to have their say before the two opposing speakers wind up the debate.

Doors open 7.00pm; debate starts 7.30pm. Tickets required – no entry on the door.

Tickets for this event are £7 via Eventbrite – see https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-battle-for-the-green-belt-tickets-54594574843

Apr
17
Wed
Nearly Isotropic 3D-Imaging of Mouse Brains, Fly Brains and Human Tumors with Light Sheets Beyond the Diffraction Limit – Hans-Ulrich Dodt, Medical University of Vienna @ Oxford Martin School
Apr 17 @ 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Apr
23
Tue
Let’s Discuss… Racial Bias with Jennifer Eberhardt @ Blackwell's Bookshop
Apr 23 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Jennifer Eberhardt, associate professor at Stanford University, joins us for the next in our Let’s Discuss series. She will be discussing unconscious racial bias in the context of her new book Biased. The talk will be followed by an extended time for audience Q&A so that you can really become part of the debate.

From one of the world’s leading experts on unconscious racial bias comes a landmark examination of one of the most culturally powerful issues of our time.

We might think that we treat all people equally, but we don’t. Every day, unconscious biases affect our visual perception, attention, memory and behaviour in ways that are subtle and very difficult to recognise without in-depth scientific studies.

Unconscious biases can be small and insignificant, but they affect every sector of society, leading to enormous disparities, from the classroom to the courtroom to the boardroom.

But unconscious bias is not a sin to be cured, but a universal human condition, and one that can be overcome.

In Biased, pioneering social psychologist Professor Jennifer Eberhardt explains how.

Apr
26
Fri
Cocaine Place Conditioning Strengthens Location-Specific Hippocampal Inputs to the Nucleus Accumbens – Luke Sjulson, @ Oxford Martin School
Apr 26 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
May
3
Fri
The discovery of the Epstein Barr Virus. A recorded interview of Denis Burkitt and Professor Tony Epstein in conversation @ Lecture Theatre 1, Academic Centre, John Radcliffe Hospital
May 3 @ 8:00 am – 9:00 am

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

May
7
Tue
Aldabra Atoll, an untouchable island – April Jasmine Burt @ St Margaret's Institute
May 7 @ 8:00 pm – 9:15 pm
Aldabra Atoll, an untouchable island - April Jasmine Burt @ St Margaret's Institute

The ecology and history of one of the largest atolls in the world. Aldabra, situated in the South West Indian Ocean, supports the largest population of giant tortoises worldwide. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is a stronghold for wildlife in a region that is besieged by threats.