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Professor Sian Harding
The exquisite machine: the new science of the heartSian Harding is Emeritus Professor at Imperial College London. She was Head of the Cardiovascular Division there, as well as Director of the British Heart Foundation Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine Centre. Her scientific work has focused on the cardiomyocyte in heart failure, and the new techniques of gene and cell therapy.…
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Professor Sarah Cunningham-Burley
Towards a public bioethicsSarah Cunningham-Burley is Professor of Medical and Family Sociology at the University of Edinburgh where she is also Dean for Molecular, Genetic and Population Health Sciences in the Medical School and the University lead for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. She is co-director of the Wellcome supported Centre for Biomedicine, Self…
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David Edgar
All the world’s a play……David Edgar’s original plays include Destiny (1976), Maydays (1973) and a series of plays about Europe in the wake of the cold war. Like his original plays, many of his adaptations have been premiered by the Royal Shakespeare Company, including a multi-award winning version of Dickens’s Nicholas Nickleby. He was…
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Professor Hester Parr
Why we should think about the relationship between climate change and mental health in ScotlandHester Parr is Professor of Human Geography at University of Glasgow and is an award-winning Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and Academy of Social Science. Her research looks at relationships between place and mental health, often informed by people with lived experience of mental ill-health. She is a co-convenor…
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Stephen Venables
Everest East Side StoryStephen Venables is a writer and mountaineer who was the first Briton to climb Mt Everest without the aid of supplementary oxygen. He is a former president of the the Alpine Club and of the South Georgia Association, having led ten expeditions to that sub-antarctic island. He has published twelve…
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Dr David Rosario
Back to the beginning of time; exploring the mysteries of star and galaxy formation with the James Webb Space TelescopeDr David Rosario Back to the beginning of time: exploring the mysteries of star and galaxy formation with the James Webb Space Telescope Dr David Rosario is a senior lecturer in Astrophysics at Newcastle University. His research focuses on growing supermassive black holes and the galaxies that sustain them. As…
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Professor Miles Padgett
Does God play dice? – Kelvin LectureProfessor Miles Padgett FRS, is a Royal Society Research Professor and also holds the Kelvin Chair of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow. He leads an optics research team covering a wide spectrum from blue-sky research to applied commercial development, funded by a combination of government, charity and industry.…
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Sir John Kay
From the pin factory to the iPhone – the complete history of capitalism – The Adam Smith LectureSir John Kay is an economist whose career has spanned the academic world, business and finance, and public affairs. He has held chairs at the London Business School, the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics and is a Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford, where he began…
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Dr Gavin Francis
Free For All: Why the NHS is Worth savingGavin Francis qualified in medicine in 1999, and has written nine books of non-fiction. He works as a GP in Edinburgh and in the Scottish Highlands. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, the Royal College of General Practitioners, and the Royal Society of…
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Professor Neil Adger
Changing Places: Migration and Climate ChangeProfessor Neil Adger Neil Adger is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Exeter. He has published across the social and natural sciences on risk and adaptation to long-term climatic changes by people and the natural world. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and received…
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Professor Tim Birkhead
The Great Auk: greed, death and regretTim Birkhead FRS is emeritus professor of behaviour and evolution at the University of Sheffield. His research on promiscuity and sperm competition in birds re-shaped our understanding of bird mating systems. He has also maintained – through Crowd Funding —a fifty-year long-term study of guillemots on Skomer Island, Wales. The…
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Professor Steve Brusatte
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs…. and The Rise of the MammalsSteve Brusatte is Professor of Palaeontology and Evolution at the University of Edinburgh. He studies the evolution of dinosaurs and mammals, and has written over 170 research papers and several books, including the bestselling popular science books The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs and the Rise and Reign of…
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Professor Lord Paul Bew
Why have the British never understood Ireland/Northern Ireland The British Academy LectureRegistration requiredLord Professor Paul Bew, Queens University Belfast Paul Bew is emeritus professor of politics at Queen’s University Belfast and a cross-bench peer in the House of Lords. He was chair of the Northern Ireland Centenary Historical Advisory Panel. His publications include Churchill and Ireland (2016) and Ancestral Voices in Irish…
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Professor Anil Seth
From beast machines to dreamachinesAnil Seth is Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex and author of the bestselling book Being You: A New Science of Consciousness. His research brings together many different disciplines, from neuroscience to philosophy to computer science to physics, to explore the biological basis of consciousness…
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Professor Pat Monaghan
What can birds tell us about how to age slowly?This is a change to our advertised programme as the train operators strike on 16th March has severely impacted the travel of our speaker scheduled for the 15th March and so we have to postpone his talk to a later date. Pat is the Regius Professor of Zoology at the…
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Sir Philip Augar
The big end of town? Coming to terms with the CitySir Philip Augar A former banker, Philip has been commenting on the City for over twenty years. A PhD in History, he has written seven books, contributes to the Financial Times, Sunday Times and the BBC and chaired the UK government panel reviewing English tertiary education in 2018-19. The big…
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Sally Beamish
InspirationSally Beamish was born in London. She began her career as a viola player with the Raphael Ensemble, Academy of St Martins and London Sinfonietta, before moving to Scotland in 1990 to focus on composition. In 2018 she won the Award for Inspiration at the British Composer Awards, and in 2020…
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Lucasta Miller
John Keats: Body and SoulDr Lucasta Miller is a critic and biographer with a particular interest in finding new ways to approach literary lives. She is the author of The Bronte Myth and of L.E.L.: The Lost Life and Mysterious Death of the Female Byron. Keats: A Brief Life in Nine Poems and One Epitaph is her most recent…
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Professor Gerry Carruthers
Robert Burns and 18th Century ThoughtProfessor Gerard Carruthers Professor of Scottish Literature, University of Glasgow Gerard Carruthers FRSE is Francis Hutcheson Professor of Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow. He is General Editor of the Oxford University Press edition of the multi-volume edition of the Collected Works of Robert Burns and Principal Investigator of…
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Changing the Lens on Mental Health.
Alastair Campbell
Alastair Campbell Communicator, Writer, Strategist Alastair Campbell is a writer, communicator and strategist best known for his role as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s spokesman, press secretary and director of communications and strategy. Still active in politics and campaigns in Britain and overseas, he now splits his time between…