‘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

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.

Talk followed by questions and discussion

All welcome

This is the latest in a series of eight weekly talks. The full list is:

Brexit: archaic techniques of ecstasy
Thursday 17 January: 7:30pm–9:00pm
Wesley Memorial Church (New Inn Hall St)

Shamanism: taking back control
Thursday 24 January: 7:30pm–9:00pm
Wesley Memorial Church (New Inn Hall St)

Tithe, timber, and the persistence of the ancien régime
Thursday 31 January: 7:30pm–9:00pm
Oxford Town Hall (St Aldates)

Hegelian dialectics and the prime numbers (part 2)
Thursday 7 February: 7:30pm–9:00pm
Wesley Memorial Church (New Inn Hall St)

Christopher Caudwell (1907–1937) and ‘the sources of poetry’
Thursday 14 February: 7:30pm–9:00pm
Wesley Memorial Church (New Inn Hall St)

Television: remote control
Thursday 21 February: 7:30pm–9:00pm
Wesley Memorial Church (New Inn Hall St)

Fascism and populism: can you spot the difference?
Thursday 28 February: 7:30pm–9:00pm
Wesley Memorial Church (New Inn Hall St)

The epos of everyday life
Thursday 7 March: 7:30pm–9:00pm
Wesley Memorial Church (New Inn Hall St)

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.

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!”

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.

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’.

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.

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.

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.

Tuesday 7th May 2019: The Violet Postage Stamp
Thursday 9th May 2019: Landscape in Chains
Tuesday 21st May 2019: The Aerial Warfare of Images
Thursday 23rd May 2019: For the Dying Calves
The lectures will explore the way history impinges on ordinary lives and finds its way
into the literary imagination. Anyone born in the twentieth century – this century of
wars and divisions – will have found themselves already historicised even as a child.
These lectures consciously take account of, and reflect, the breaks and discontinuities
of German history. True to the modus operandi of the author’s own poems, they
employ a collage technique that demands the imaginative collaboration of reader and
audience alike.

In a recent anthropological discussion on the concept of person in Ancient Israel R. Di Vito claimed that in the Old Testament the person is “lacking … ‘inner depths’” and is “’authentic’ precisely in their heteronomy”. However, in a culture where people lack ‘inner depths’ or experience themselves as heteronomous and dependent on others, explicit interior communication within the person is difficult. This paper contributes to this anthropological discussion by dealing with soliloquy in the Psalms. In contrast to the psychological phenomenon of self-talk, soliloquy is a literary device that is widespread in ancient Near Eastern and Old Testament narrative, usually marked by introductory formulas, while explicit passages in the Psalms are not so frequent. This talk gives an overview of the major psalms where a speaker is talking to his “heart” (leb) or “soul” (nefesh) and takes a closer look on their contents and contexts. These psalms dramatize the inner life of the speaker and demonstrate that in their struggles with foes, illness, social isolation, divine absence or wrath they are not alone and their communication with their inner soul is a counterbalance to this.

Tuesday 7th May 2019: The Violet Postage Stamp
Thursday 9th May 2019: Landscape in Chains
Tuesday 21st May 2019: The Aerial Warfare of Images
Thursday 23rd May 2019: For the Dying Calves
The lectures will explore the way history impinges on ordinary lives and finds its way
into the literary imagination. Anyone born in the twentieth century – this century of
wars and divisions – will have found themselves already historicised even as a child.
These lectures consciously take account of, and reflect, the breaks and discontinuities
of German history. True to the modus operandi of the author’s own poems, they
employ a collage technique that demands the imaginative collaboration of reader and
audience alike.

In our first of two seminars on the future of work after automation Dr Brendan Burchell will investigate the potential for a five-day weekend society.

Machine-learning and robotics technologies promise to be able to replace some tasks or jobs that have traditionally been performed by humans. Like previous technologies introduced in the past couple of centuries, this possibility has been met with either optimism that will permit liberation from the tyranny of employment, or pessimism that it will lead to mass precarity and unemployment.

This presentation will draw upon both qualitative and quantitative evidence to explore the possible societal consequences of a radical reduction in the length of the normal working week. Drawing upon the evidence for the psychological benefits of employment, we look at the evidence for the minimum effective dose of employment. The paper also considers why the historical increases in productivity have not been matched with proportionate reductions in working time.

About Brendan Burchell:

Dr Brendan Burchell is a Reader in the Social Sciences in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge. He is also a Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge.

Dr Burchell is director of graduate education for the Department of Sociology and director of the Cambridge Undergraduate Quantitative Research Centre. He was recently Head of Department for Sociology, as well as a Director of Studies and a Tutor at Magdalene College.

Dr Burchell’s main research interests centre on the effects of labour market conditions on wellbeing. Recent publications have focussed on unemployment, job insecurity, work intensity, part-time work, zero-hours contracts, debt, occupational gender segregation and self-employment. Most of his work concentrates on employment in Europe, but current projects also include an analysis of job quality, the future of work and youth self-employment in developing countries. He works in interdisciplinary environments with psychologists, sociologists, economists, lawyers and other social scientists.

Dr Burchell’s undergraduate degree was in Psychology, followed by a PhD in Social Psychology. His first post in Cambridge was a joint appointment between the social sciences and economics in 1985, and he has been in a permanent teaching post in at Cambridge since 1990.

Register:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/future-of-work-after-automation-towards-a-five-day-weekend-society-tickets-61028132788

This is a joint event with the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food

Dr Mike Hamm will explore the opportunity for regional food systems in-and-around cities for mutual benefit. He will approach a number of issues – including vertical farming, bio-geochemical cycles, water use, new entry farmers, and healthy food provisioning – embedded in the notion of city region food systems with reference to supply/demand dynamics.

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

Is competition in the digital economy desirable? Does it currently exist? Is it possible? Is there anything policy can do?

This talk addresses all of these questions and presents the recommendations of the Digital Competition Expert Panel which was chaired by Jason Furman and recently presented its recommendations to the government.

Tuesday 7th May 2019: The Violet Postage Stamp
Thursday 9th May 2019: Landscape in Chains
Tuesday 21st May 2019: The Aerial Warfare of Images
Thursday 23rd May 2019: For the Dying Calves
The lectures will explore the way history impinges on ordinary lives and finds its way
into the literary imagination. Anyone born in the twentieth century – this century of
wars and divisions – will have found themselves already historicised even as a child.
These lectures consciously take account of, and reflect, the breaks and discontinuities
of German history. True to the modus operandi of the author’s own poems, they
employ a collage technique that demands the imaginative collaboration of reader and
audience alike.

On Wednesday 22 May, ScreenTalk Oxfordshire proudly presents Harnessing the Power of Video in Business Communications.
An evening with Tim May, MD of Strange Films and Music, talking with Toby Low – MD of MerchantCantos an international agency specialising in bringing creativity to critical business communications; Scott Shillum – CEO of Vismedia, Winner of the 2018 Digital Impact Awards and a pioneer in creating interactive, immersive content fused with cutting edge technology; Clare Holt – Founder of Nice Tree Films in Oxford and a member of ScreenTalk provides videos for businesses, public sector organisations, charities and education; Nicky Woodhouse – Founder of Woodhouse Video Production, award-winning female director of branded content and TVCs for online and broadcast.

Join us on Wednesday 22 May from 18:15 for a drink in the downstairs Lounge Bar, Curzon, Westgate Centre in Oxford, and why not try the Curzon’s excellent Pizza – great quality! At 19:00 Tim May will be talking to Toby Low, Scott Shillum, Clare Holt and Nicky Woodhouse. Afterwards there will be Shout Outs from ScreenTalk members and facilitated networking. At ScreenTalk events we run a Card/Cash Bar so please join us and take advantage of the opportunity to catch up and network.

We expect this event to be popular and can only take pre-booked (free) tickets for entry.

Join the conversation! ScreenTalk events are an opportunity to forge and strengthen contacts in Film, TV and Associated Media.
For further information and to sign up to our mailing list please email screentalkoxfordshire@gmail.com

Will a computer ever compose a symphony, write a prize-winning novel, or paint a masterpiece? And if so, would we be able to tell the difference? Marcus du Sautoy examines the nature of creativity, as well as providing an essential guide into how algorithms work, and the mathematical rules underpinning them. He asks how much of our emotional response to art is a product of our brains reacting to pattern and structure, and exactly what it is to be creative in mathematics, art, language and music.

This lecture is open to all, and is designed for researchers from all disciplines and members of the public. The lecture will take place in the Lecture Theatre at Rewley House, Oxford. Tea and coffee will be served in the Common Room from 4pm. The lecture will be followed by Q&As.

Marcus du Sautoy is the Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford. He is author of six books including his most recent books The Creativity Code (Fourth Estate 2019). He has presented numerous radio and TV series including a four part landmark TV series for the BBC called The Story of Maths. He works extensively with a range of arts organisations bringing science alive for the public from The Royal Opera House to the Glastonbury Festival. His play I is a Strange Loop (in which he is both actor and author) is part of the Barbican’s Life Rewired season. He received an OBE for services to science in the 2010 New Year’s Honours List and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2016.

Tuesday 7th May 2019: The Violet Postage Stamp
Thursday 9th May 2019: Landscape in Chains
Tuesday 21st May 2019: The Aerial Warfare of Images
Thursday 23rd May 2019: For the Dying Calves
The lectures will explore the way history impinges on ordinary lives and finds its way
into the literary imagination. Anyone born in the twentieth century – this century of
wars and divisions – will have found themselves already historicised even as a child.
These lectures consciously take account of, and reflect, the breaks and discontinuities
of German history. True to the modus operandi of the author’s own poems, they
employ a collage technique that demands the imaginative collaboration of reader and
audience alike.

As part of the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre’s Open Day, a panel of experts will discuss how artificial intelligence can be used to benefit patients and the challenges that it presents. The discussion will be chaired by Professor Lionel Tarassenko, world-leading expert in the application of signal processing to medical systems.

The 5th Annual Oxford Business and Poverty Conference will feature a diverse range of speakers addressing the Paradoxes of Prosperity. Sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/5th-annual-oxford-business-poverty-conference-tickets-57733957822
Hosted at the Sheldonian Theatre, the conference will feature keynotes by:
Lant Pritchett: RISE Research Director at the Blavatnik School of Government, former Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development
Efosa Ojomo: Global Prosperity Lead and Senior Researcher at the Clayton Christensen Institute
John Hoffmire: Director of Center on Business and Poverty and Research Associate at Kellogg Colleges at Center For Mutual and Employee-owned Business at Oxford University
Ananth Pai: Executive Director, Bharath Beedi Works Pvt. Ltd. and Director, Bharath Auto Cars Pvt
Laurel Stanfield: Assistant Professor of Marketing at Bentley College in Massachusetts
Grace Cheng: Greater China’s Country Manager for Russell Reynolds Associates
Madhusudan Jagadish: 2016 Graduate MBA, Said Business School, University of Oxford
Tentative Schedule:
2:15-2:20 Welcome
2:20-2:50 Efosa Ojomo, co-author of The Prosperity Paradox, sets the stage for the need for innovation in development
2:50-3:20 John Hoffmire, Ananth Pai and Mudhusudan Jagadish explain how the Prosperity Paradox can be used in India as a model to create good jobs for poor women
3:20-3:40 Break
3:40-4:10 Laurel Steinfeld speaks to issues of gender, development and business – addressing paradoxes related to prosperity
4:10-4:40 Grace Cheng, speaks about the history of China’s use of disruptive innovations to develop its economy
4:40-5:15 Break
5:15-6 Lant Pritchett talks on Pushing Past Poverty: Paths to Prosperity
6:30-8 Dinner at the Rhodes House – Purchase tickets after signing up for the conference
Sponsors include: Russell Reynolds, Employee Ownership Foundation, Ananth Pai Foundation and others

In Origin of Species, Charles Darwin described how a population explosion occurs and called the time of population explosion “ favourable seasons”, he was not to know it, but such circumstances arose for his own species at around the time of his own birth. However, the favourable seasons for human population growth were not experienced favourably, with times of great social dislocation from small scale enclosure to global colonisation. Now those seasons are over, we have experienced the first ever sustained slowdown in the rate of global human population growth. This has been the case for at least one human generation. However, we are not just slowing down in terms of how many children we have, but in almost everything else we do, other than in the rise in global temperatures that we are recording and that we have to live with. It can be argued that there is even a slowdown in such unexpected areas as debt, publishing, and in the total amount useful information being produced.

If this is true – that humanity is slowing down in almost everything that we do – what does this mean? What measurements suggest that slowdown is true? And if so much is still rising, albeit at slower and slower rates – is that such a great change? Finally how might the slowdown impact on economic thought. In many ways economics was the science of the great acceleration; a science that makes most sense when markets are expanding and demand is rising. What kind of an economics is needed in a world where enormous and accelerating growth has stopped being the normality?