Exploding stars, prisons and scientific chaos on lecture menu at York
Posted on 10 January 2007
The Director-General of the Prison Service Phil Wheatley will ask What are prisons for? in a lecture examining one of the major challenges facing the UK’s justice system.
Professor Brian Fulton of the Department of Physics will give the Merchant Adventurers’ Science Discovery Lecture, on Exploding stars and making people: your link to the stars. Entry to the event in York’s medieval Merchant Adventurers’ Hall in Fossgate is by free ticket only (see below for booking details).
Professor Jim Matthew and Dr Sarah Thompson, of the University of York will give the Archbishop Holgate’s Annual Science Lecture, Is science chaotic? They will mix experiments with computer predictions to put chaos into perspective and probe the true nature of science.
Other highlights include Oxbridge academics giving the York Biology Lectures, speaking on Making a frog: signals and responses, The promise of stem cell research and Sudden impact? The effect of genome information, new biology and new strategies on neglected tropical diseases.
Two lectures on Practical Ethics feature John Harris from the University of Manchester speaking on The moral obligation to improve upon humankind and University of Lancaster’s John O’Neill, on Sustainability and human well-being.
Four University of York professors will also give inaugural lectures covering European housing, wireless communications in space and time, 21st Century renewable feed-stocks and writing imperial history after 9/11.
As a precursor to a series of lectures and events at the University later this year to celebrate the bicentenary of the abolition of slavery, Professor Jim Walvin will give a Historical Association Lecture on Why did the British abolish the slave trade?
Notes to editors:
- Phil Wheatley, Director General of the Prison Service, will give his lecture on Thursday 18 January at 6pm in room P/L001, Physics.
- Both Practical Ethics lectures will take place at 6.30pm in room P/L002, Physics. John Harris will talk on Tuesday 23 January and John O’Neill on Monday 19 February.
- All York Biology Lectures take place at 1.15pm in room B/002, Biology. Professor Jim Smith of the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge, will speak on Making a frog: signals and responses; Professor Austin Smith, Institute for Stem Cell Biology, University of Cambridge will speak on The promise of stem cell research and Professor Keith Gull, Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford, will speak on Sudden impact? The effect of genome information, new biology and new strategies on neglected tropical diseases.
- The Merchant Adventurers’ Science Discovery Lecture will take place on Monday 5 March at 7pm. Tickets for the event can be obtained by contacting 01904 432622 or email communications@york.ac.uk
- The Archbishop Holgate’s Annual Science Lecture will take place on Monday 12 March at 7pm at the National Science Learning Centre.
- The five inaugural lectures are: Housing in the new Europe by Professor mark Stevens of the Centre for Housing Policy, on Monday 5 February; Pushing the bounds: wireless communications in space and time by Professor Alister Burr of the Department of Electronics, on Monday 12 February; From seed biology to designer oils: renewable feed-stock for the 21st Century by Professor Ian Graham of the Department of Biology, on Monday 26 February and Faith in empire: writing imperial history after 9/11 by Professor Miles Taylor of the Department of History, on Monday 12 March. All inaugural lectures start at 5.30pm and are held in P/L001, Physics.
- The Historical Association Lecture will take place on Tuesday 16 January at 8pm in room P/L001, Physics.
- All lectures are free and open to the public. For details on venues and times, please visit the public lectures website at www.york.ac.uk/admin/presspr/ppr/pprpublecs.htm or contact the Communications Office