Oxford Martin School: Public Lectures and Seminars

Professor Seth Lloyd, Principal Investigator in the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) gives a talk for the Oxford Martin School. Over the past decade, experimental evidence has accumulated that photosynthetic organisms are using quantum mechanics in a sophisticated fashion to attain high energy transport efficiency. This talk shows how this...

Baroness Helena Kennedy QC gives a talk for the Oxford Martin School on women's rights. The past century has seen huge progress in women's rights, but inequality persists globally. Recent high-profile incidents of violence against women in India, continuing severe restrictions on the personal and working lives of women in Saudi Arabia, draconian punishments and the practice of genital mutilation d...

Professor David Vines gives a talk onthe financial system. Financial firms were once organisations which helped their clients to do well, and earned fees from doing so. They have become organisations which look for people from whom to make money. As a result, people who work in finance are now very different from doctors; and they are no longer trusted. How did this happen? What can we do to make...

David Clifton, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, gives a talk for Oxford Martin School.

Professor Ian Goldin gives a talk on globalization and systemic risk. Globalisation has brought us vast benefits including growth in incomes, education, innovation and connectivity. Professor Ian Goldin, Director of the Oxford Martin School, argues that it also has the potential to destabilise our societies. In The Butterfly Defect: How globalisation creates systemic risks, and what to do about it...

Charles Godfray, Ian Goldin, Sarah Harper, Toby Ord and Yadvinder Malhi discuss whether the planet is full. The panel will discuss the whether our planet can continue to support a growing population estimated to reach 10 billion people by the middle of the century?

Mike Rayner, Susan Jebb and Tara Garnett give a talk about food and feeding the population. Non-fat, low-fat, saturated fat, trans fats, healthy fats - in an era where we seem to be constantly bombarded with often conflicting messages about our diets, is all this information actually making us any healthier? How can we cut through media hysteria and make wise choices about the food we eat, and wha...

Andrew Dilnot, David Coleman, Francesco Billari, Sarah Harper and Wolfgang Lutz give a talk about world population. The future of global development as well as the end of world population growth in the 21st century will crucially depend on further progress in education, particularly of girls. Almost universally, better educated women have fewer children, have healthier children and are in better h...

Dr John Frater, Principal Investigator, Institute for Emerging Infections and Dr Ellie Barnes, Principal Investigator, Institute for Emerging Infections.

Professor Terry Dwyer, Executive Director, The George Institute for Global Health and Dr Kazem Rahimi, Deputy Director, The George Institute for Global Health.

Dr Javier Lezaun and Professor Chas Bountra give a talk about drug discovery. Dr Javier Lezaun, Co-Director, Institute for Science, Innovation and Society, Oxford Martin School and James Martin Lecturer in Science and Technology Governance and Professor Chas Bountra, Chief Scientist (SGC), Professor of Translational Medicine, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford

Professor Susan Lea, Professor Christoph Tang, Professor Jeffrey Almond and Dr Ian Feavers discuss strategies for vaccines for the 21st century. Vaccines have saved an estimated 500 million lives around the world since Edward Jenner discovered how to prevent smallpox infection in 1796. But a successful vaccine roll-out is about more than just medicine; it encompasses engineering, economics, policy...

From Neolithic burials to Mozart's Requiem and the novels of Martin Amis, humans have fashioned cultural responses to the inevitability of each individual's demise. But what does science have to say about death? In a stimulating panel discussion, scientists and writers debate the impact of future advances in science and technology on our understanding of the end.

The Innovation Enigma - Is the current growth crisis a result of decades of technological stagnation in a risk-averse society? A dynamic Oxford Union debate about innovation and the coming technological deficit involving Garry Kasparov, 13th world chess champion, writer and political activist; Peter Thiel, technology entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist; Professor Kenneth Rogoff, Thomas D. Ca...

With Dr James Martin, Founder, Oxford Martin School. This is the first time in Earth's history that humanity that can study its situation and devise powerful ways to deal with the problems. Our future could be magnificent, but time is short. In our near future there is a need for extreme paradigm shifts, diverse in nature, and for which we are almost totally unprepared. This 'Jubillee' lecture cel...

With Elon Musk, CEO and Product Architect of Tesla Motors and the CEO/CTO of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX). Elon Musk, the Founder of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, and Chairman of SolarCity, speaks from his own experiences at the forefront of technology and innovation. This inspirational Oxford Martin School presentation at the Sheldonian Theatre covers space travel, electric vehicles and sol...

With Professor Paul Klenerman Principal Investigator, Institute for Emerging Infections. Paul Klenerman demonstrates the way our immune systems work and discusses the best way to boost our natural defences in an effort to fight infection from Hep C and HIV. Dr Bennett Foddy, Deputy Director, Institute for Science and Ethics, addresses the ethical dilemmas which can arise from the process of clinic...

With Professor Liam Dolan and Professor Jane Langdale, Co-Directors, Plants for the 21st Century Institute. As we struggle to feed the world's growing population is it ethically wrong not to use all the tools at our disposal to help increase food production? Liam Dolan and Jane Langdale explore the possibilities and benefits that could be derived from using scientific advancement to enhance agricu...

With Professor Myles Allen, Co-Director, Oxford Martin Programme on Resource Stewardship. You can show people all the evidence in the world about climate change, but if the policy debate is framed in an intractable way, it won't make any difference. And that's the problem. As climate modelling and scientific projections improve how much will people's behaviour change over the coming decades?

Remote controlled and autonomous robotic weapons are bringing new levels of complexity to modern warfare. It's when such robots are designed as lethal weapons that the threshold for moral justification gets higher.

With Kary Kasparov, world chess champion, writer and political activist. The world we live in now is very different from the one that was imagined 50 years ago. Past decades foresaw a future of flying cars and supersonic jets, but commercial air travel is slower in 2013 than it was in 1976. For years we were assured that we would have abundant clean and cheap energy; instead we have record fossil...

Sachs argues that for the U.S. to regain sound fiscal health the country must also reform its politics. The lecture is immediately followed by a panel discussion with: Professor Valpy FitzGerald, Department of International Development, Professor Ian Goldin, Oxford Martin School (chair), Professor Peter Tufano, Said Business School, Professor Adrian Wood, Department of International Development, P...