Please join us for a seminar on spatial proteomics with the CellScape Precise Spatial Biology platform on Thursday 17th of July 9:50am-11:00am in the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology lecture theatre. The Digital Pathology Omics Core (DPOC) currently hosts the CellScape PSP spatial biology platform, which combines single-cell resolution and high dynamic range (HDR) microscopy to enable truly quantitative phenotyping to take your research from discovery to translation. You can register for the seminar with tea and coffee at: https://go.brukerspatialbiology.com/OxfordCoffeeandlearn.html
Lesson of the week, clinical cases and research. All clinical and academic staff and students welcome. Coffee, Tea and Cake will be served.
Interactions between the host and its microbiota influence many aspects of immunity, including responses of T cells against infection and cancer. Sammy will discuss the impact of the microbiota on T cell differentiation and memory, outlining a role of microbiota-derived short-chain fatty acids in promoting oxidative metabolism and stemness of CD8+ T cells and effector function CD4+ T cells, and will examine their relevance in cancer, infection and immunopathology. Sammy’s research seeks to advance our understanding of how immune responses are initiated, tailored to the specific conditions associated with a given infections or disease, and eventually tuned down when the initial threat is overcome. While his work focusses on the fundamental underlying principles, ongoing efforts seek to apply these insights to the development of better therapies against infections and cancer. Specific areas include DC function in infection and immunity, molecular signal integration by DC and how these signals are decoded by T cells, cell death regulation during infections by myeloid cells and T cells, the relationship between the microbiome, its metabolites and T cell immunity.
For our next talk, in the Digital Phenotyping seminar series, we are delighted to host Ben Busby, Senior Alliance Manager for Genomics at NVIDIA on 17 July 2025, 1:00 pm, BDI seminar room 1. Title: Ideas for accelerated and integrated compute in imaging, genomics, and devices, in Biobank and other datasets Date: 17 July 2025 Time: 13:00 – 14:00 Venue – BDI/OxPop seminar room 1 Abstract As we enter the age of AI, agents will play a larger role in analysis and knowledge management and contextualization will become critical. The scientific (and practical) implementation interfaces will not be limited to AI and chatbots. Accelerated scientific computing is extremely likely to play an expanding role in traditional analysis, particularly when using biobank scale data. Some vignettes on specific topics in acceleration will be offered: - Sequence alignment and annotation - Synthetic image generation - Knowledge graphs as memory - Single cell analysis - On-device computing - Estimation of cis- and trans- effects on variant penetrance by background haploblocks We’ll end with a discussion of contextualization, validation, and garbage collection of model generated datasets with a focus on improvement of healthcare systems. Bio: Ben Busby is the Senior Alliance Manager for Genomics at NVIDIA, where he focuses on areas such as prototyping, disease subtyping, deep learning, and knowledge graphs. He also holds an adjunct faculty position in the Computational Biology Department at Carnegie Mellon University and serves as an advisor to both Johns Hopkins University and Research to the People at Stanford. Ben earned his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and did a postdoc in evolutionary genomics at NCBI. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hybrid Option: Please note that these meetings are closed meetings and only open to members of the University of Oxford. Please respect our speakers and do not share the link with anyone outside of the University. The purpose of these seminars is to foster more communication among employees throughout the University, so we strongly advise in-person attendance whenever feasible. Microsoft Teams meeting Join the meeting now Meeting ID: 377 252 440 130 6 Passcode: PB3pp2pZ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you wish to know more or receive information related to trainings and events at BDI, please subscribe by emailing bdi-announce-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk. You'll then receive an email from SYMPA and once you reply you'll be on the list!
This course is designed for undergraduates aiming for postgraduate study, graduate students who want to strengthen their skills, and professionals seeking to advance their expertise. Participants will delve into key areas such as economic theory, applied mathematics, and econometrics, equipping themselves with essential quantitative skills and analytical tools. Join us in Oxford for an immersive programme that includes a welcome reception, college formal dinner, and exclusive social activities and tours—the perfect opportunity to network and experience Oxford’s academic life firsthand. Visit the website for more information and registration: https://ouess.web.ox.ac.uk/event/fundamentals-of-graduate-economics
Forced displacement and refugee protection are among the most pressing moral and political challenges of our time. Scholars across disciplines increasingly recognise that understanding and responding to these challenges requires not only empirical knowledge of migration dynamics and state policies, but also normative reflection on justice, rights, and global responsibility. This interdisciplinary workshop brings together researchers working at the intersection of political philosophy, sociology, law, anthropology, and policy studies to explore how normative and empirical approaches can meaningfully inform one another. Yet such collaboration raises a host of methodological and conceptual questions. For instance, how can empirical research on migration governance, humanitarian practice, or refugee agency be brought into conversation with normative theories of justice—accounting for both state and non-state-based obligations towards displaced people? What is gained—or potentially lost—when concepts such as citizenship, belonging, or protection are used simultaneously as analytical categories and as moral ideals? How can scholars navigate the tension between critical distance and political engagement, especially when working on issues as politically charged and ethically urgent as forced displacement? Moreover, this workshop will consider the epistemic and political implications of interdisciplinary work in this field. What assumptions underpin the authority of different kinds of expertise in refugee research? How can scholars engage with affected communities and policymakers in ways that are both intellectually rigorous and ethically responsible? And in an era where both refugee rights and academic freedom face increasing threats, what role should scholars play in shaping public discourse and institutional responses? By grappling with these questions, the workshop aims to foster deeper methodological self-awareness, promote constructive dialogue across disciplinary boundaries, and support research that is both critically informed and socially impactful. This event is made possible thanks, in part, to funding from the Alfred Landecker Programme.
This is the third in the Richard Wollheim Centenary Project 2025 workshop series ‘Words and Pictures. How Art makes the Mind’. Speakers’ titles and abstracts, along with details of past workshops, may be viewed under Programme of Events at https://wollheimcentenary.org/programme-of-events/
Heart attack or myocardial infarction (MI) triggers an immune response, whereby phagocytic cells remove dead tissue and assist with subsequent repair. High load and persistence of immune cells, however, contributes to further fibrosis, pathological remodelling and ultimately progression to heart failure. We have shown that the adult cardiac lymphatics traffic macrophages to draining mediastinal lymph nodes post-MI, to effect optimal repair and improve function. We are currently investigating which subsets of cleared macrophages correlate with improved outcome. We have further investigated their role across the regenerative window in neonatal mice (post-natal days 1-7; P1-P7). Normal lymphatic growth and sprouting is evident in intact neonatal hearts until P16, which coincides with a transition in lymphatic endothelial cell junctions from “zipper” (impermeable) to “button”-type (permeable) junctions. Moreover, the response to injury is significantly altered, with decreased lymphangiogenesis and minimal clearance of macrophages in P1 compared to P7 mice, 7-days post-MI, consistent with the need to maintain a pro-regenerative population of macrophages in the P1 injured heart. To gain molecular insight into potentially altered lymphatic endothelium-macrophage interactions across this period, we have generated unbiased scRNA-Seq datasets from P1 versus P7 infarcted hearts and observe significant differences in cellular cross-talk. Finally, in mice lacking lymphatic endothelial receptor-1 (Lyve1), that exhibit impaired macrophage trafficking, we surprisingly observed impaired functional outcome in P1 mice 28-days post-MI. This suggests a distinct role for Lyve-1 in tissue resident macrophages during neonatal heart regeneration. Further mechanistic studies may provide therapeutic insights into immunomodulation of the adult infarcted heart.
In this talk, I will present work on a tripartite approach to audiovisual display that integrates Linked Open Data (LOD), Music Information Retrieval (MIR), and Digital Library (DL) technologies. The result is an interactive online resource for capturing, querying, and visualising metadata related to musical performances. As a case study, the approach is applied to the Eurovision Song Contest, spanning entries from the present back to the event’s inception in 1956. The content for the resulting DL is seeded through a single SPARQL query to DBpedia, to which is added voting data and musically derived features such as tempo and key—all integrated within the existing ingest workflow of the digital library software. Beyond traditional DL search and browse functions, the system includes a user-driven visualisation tool that supports further exploration of the dataset. This interactive capability is powered by the LOD-based data model established during ingest, enabling a unified and flexible framework for dynamic visual representation. And just in case this description sounds a bit removed from the pan-European spectacle that is Eurovision, let me reassure you that in the talk I’ll be sure to show some visuals that give you pause for thought—and play a quirky or kitsch song or two along the way! (*) All Kinds of Everything was the winning entry at Eurovision 1970, sung by Dana representing Ireland. It pleasingly evokes the affordances of Linked Data to bridge perspectives and datasets. About the speaker: David Bainbridge is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Waikato in New Zealand, with research interests spanning digital libraries, human-centred computing, and music information retrieval. He has published widely in these areas, including the book How to Build a Digital Library, with colleagues Ian Witten and Dave Nichols. A strong advocate of open-source software, he leads the university's digital library research lab, which has developed a range of freely available tools, including the Greenstone Digital Library software. Through his research, David has collaborated with national libraries, heritage organisations, the BBC, and UN agencies such as UNESCO and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
For a deeper dive on writing for The Conversation, join our interactive workshop via Zoom, where you will: • Gain practical insights into writing style, tone, and structure. • Explore real-world examples and different article formats. • Have the opportunity to pitch ideas and receive personalised feedback directly from an editor. Places for the interactive workshop are limited, and attendees will be expected to participate with cameras on for maximum engagement.
As populations contend with the climate crisis, it has become more pressing for individuals to adopt attitudes, behaviours, and social engagement patterns that align with an increasingly carbon-constrained world. The concept of "carbon capability" reflects this approach, as its research domains not only gauge personal consumption-based emissions (i.e. energy, transport, food, and shopping) but also how the broader public-sphere roles that individuals embrace (i.e. influence and citizenship) can manifest low-carbon tendencies. However, is that willingness to act unconditional and irrespective of place, or rather contingent on how invested people are on their immediate localities? In this talk, we apply this concept of "place attachment" in a Global South context and take as our focus the residents of metropolitan Jakarta, which constitutes a novel demographic focus yet to be explored in past studies on carbon capability. We specifically explore this relationship between place attachment and carbon capability, hypothesising a positive correlation between the two variables. The ongoing data collection process will be discussed, along with planned statistical analyses and expected findings. This research project is funded by the Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP) and is part of an MSc dissertation supervised by Dr Sam Hampton.
Bringing stem cell therapy research from lab to bedside and market faces many challenges ranging from ethical and religious controversial, healthcare regulation, high standard bio-manufacturing to patient affordability or insurance reimbursement. Taking all these points into consideration, it appears that stem cells derived from human umbilical cord membrane tissue namely Cord Lining Epithelial Stem Cells (CL-EpiSC) and Cord Lining Mesenchymal Stem Cells (CLMSC) are the ideal source of stem cells that can make translational stem cell therapy happen in reality. Every month, tens of thousands of umbilical cord tissue units are collected and cryopreserved in the US, EU and Asia together with cord blood for future use as the source of autologous and allogenic stem cell transplant . With regards of allogenic stem cell therapy, freely donated umbilical cord tissue samples are easily and inexpensively collected and qualified in the Colorado Cord Blood Bank. With billions of stem cells isolated from a single cord membrane tissue at low passages in FDA-licensed GMP Stem Cell Facility in Colorado and Roslin Cell Therapy in Scotland, the cost of Cord Lining Epithelial Stem Cells (CL-EpiSC) and Cord Lining Mesenchymal Stem Cells (CLMSC) products can be potentially lower and make more affordable to healthcare receivers. Translational stem cell therapy is an expensive game and highly capital intensive. To keep it sustainable and make it profitable is another big challenge. Over 30 mins of presentation and discussion, the author will share with audience his story to make CellResearch Corp become a most successful stem cell biotech company in Singapore and the region. A graduate of the Military Medical University, Hanoi, Vietnam in 1991, Dr Phan has had a strong interest in wound healing since the earliest days of his medical and scientific career. His interest led him to hands-on experience during his four-year surgical residency in Hanoi at the National Burns Centre and at the Department of Trauma Surgery, Military Hospital 103. Dr. Phan's commitment and excellence in laboratory research was proven when he spent two years at the prestigious Wound Healing Institute and Department of Dermatology in Oxford, England. He arrived in Singapore in 1997 to join the Department of Plastic Surgery at the Singapore General Hospital. In 1998, he met Dr Ivor Lim, and together they established the Wound Healing and Stem Cell Research Group focusing on skin and keloid scar biology. The Wound Healing and Stem Cell Research Group was the first group in the world to explore the role of epithelial-mesenchymal interactions in keloid pathogenesis and is recognised today as one of the world leading groups in keloid and scar biology research. Prior to taking up his faculty position at the Department of Surgery, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore, Dr. Phan completed two years of post-doctoral research at the Stanford University Institute for Stem Cell Research and Regenerative Medicine As a successful academic researcher and entrepreneur, Dr. Phan is author of more than 80 publications in international peer-reviewed journals, two book chapters, has more than 80 granted patents and founder of multiple successful biotech and healthcare companies in Singapore and Vietnam. His recent innovative research work is the discovery of a novel source of stem cells from the umbilical cord lining membrane with translational potential for regenerative medicine, tissue engineering and cell-based therapy.
Understanding how deep brain structures like the claustrum shape cortical dynamics requires both mechanistic insight and technical innovation. In the first part of this talk, I will present recent findings on how the claustrum modulates neuronal dynamics in the dorsal prefrontal cortex (dPFC). Using two-photon calcium imaging combined with optogenetic stimulation of claustrum axons, we identified distinct neuronal subpopulations with altered responsiveness to combined visual and optogenetic inputs. Claustrum activation enhanced both neural variability and network homogeneity — effects that persisted during Pavlovian training. Silencing experiments further revealed that the claustrum may operate bidirectionally to maintain elevated variability and coordinated activity in the dPFC. In the second part, I will introduce a practical adaptive optics-assisted three-photon (3P) imaging system developed to enable deep functional imaging in behaving mice. Motivated by the challenge of imaging the claustrum, we implemented a three-tier correction strategy targeting aberrations from the microscope, cranial window, and tissue. This approach significantly improved resolution and signal quality across distinct cortical regions and will support direct imaging of the claustrum and other deep brain structures in future studies. SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY Dr. Huriye Atilgan is a Sir Henry Wellcome Fellow in the Lak Lab. Her research focuses on how sensory information is transformed into internal neural representations that guide learning, decision-making, and action. She combines behavioral paradigms with advanced optical imaging techniques — including two-photon and three-photon microscopy with adaptive optics — to study the dynamics of neural circuits in the prefrontal cortex and deep brain regions such as the claustrum. Huriye completed her PhD in Auditory Neuroscience at University College London in the lab of Professor Jennifer Bizley, where she investigated multisensory integration and auditory scene analysis. She then pursued postdoctoral training in Alex Kwan’s lab at Yale University, focusing on the role of the medial prefrontal cortex in value-based decision-making. She joined the University of Oxford in 2020, where she has since led projects on claustrum-prefrontal interactions and developed deep imaging methodologies to enable high-resolution recordings during behavior. Her work has been recognized with numerous fellowships and awards, and she continues to contribute to both fundamental neuroscience and the development of novel experimental approaches.
In our July event, Professor Mary Anne Franks (Louisiana & Wadham 1999) will discuss her book Fearless Speech: Breaking Free from the First Amendment. Dr. Mary Anne Franks is the Eugene L. and Barbara A. Bernard Professor in Intellectual Property, Technology, and Civil Rights Law at George Washington Law School. Her areas of expertise include First Amendment law, Second Amendment law, law and technology, criminal law, and family law. She is also the President and Legislative & Tech Policy Director of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI), the leading U.S.-based nonprofit organization focused on image-based sexual abuse. Her model legislation on the non-consensual distribution of intimate images (NDII, sometimes referred to as “revenge porn”) has served as the template for multiple state and federal laws. She is the author of two books: Fearless Speech: Breaking Free from the First Amendment (Bold Type Books, 2024) and The Cult of the Constitution: Our Deadly Devotion to Guns and Free Speech (Stanford Press, 2019). Her scholarship has also appeared in publications such as the Harvard Law Review, the California Law Review, and UCLA Law Review, and her popular writing has been featured in the New York Times, Ms Magazine, and Slate, among others. She is an Affiliate Fellow with the Yale Law School Information Society Project and a Fellow with the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom. She holds a JD from Harvard Law School and a doctorate from Oxford University, where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar. She is admitted to practice in the U.S. Supreme Court and the District of Columbia.
Welcome to Oxford Battery Modelling Symposium (OBMS), a unique event for the battery community. OBMS brings together mathematicians, chemists, physicists and engineers from academia and industry to discuss the latest modelling research and applications. Our philosophy is to invite a small number of outstanding speakers spanning a range of topics from atomistic to continuum modelling, controls and beyond, giving broad and inspiring presentations and open discussions. Our first event in 2019 was attended by 170 people with leading experts including John Newman speaking; our subsequent events were held online during lockdown periods but continued to be wildly popular. We are delighted to invite you back to join us for Oxford Battery Modelling Symposium 2025, which will return as an in-person meeting hosted at the Examination Schools in Oxford. Further details on the event can be found on the event website: https://batterymodel.ox.ac.uk. The event will also include a poster session and a wonderful dinner at Rhodes House.
Lesson of the week, clinical cases and research. All clinical and academic staff and students welcome. Coffee, Tea and Cake will be served.
Dr. Iain Scott received his PhD in 2006 from the University of St. Andrews, for research on the machinery regulating mitochondrial morphology and dynamics. He then moved to the National Institutes of Health in the United States for his postdoc, where he worked on apoptosis, mitochondrial metabolism, and lysine acetylation. Dr. Scott joined the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology in August 2014, and was promoted to Associate Professor of Medicine with Tenure in June 2020. His laboratory focuses on altered mitochondrial bioenergetics and fuel substrate metabolism in cardiometabolic diseases
Are you baffled by open, confused by embargoes? Does the mention of the colour gold or green catapult you into a realm of perplexed irritation? Come to this session, where we’ll break down open access and all its many jargon terms, confusing publishing structures and hint at the advantages you can reap by publishing open. Intended audience: Oxford students, researchers, other staff.
A precise control of cell morphology is key for cell physiology, and cell shape deregulation is at the heart of many pathological disorders. Furthermore, transitions in cellular fate and state are often associated with changes in cell shape, and strong evidence points to the existence of feedbacks between mechanics, morphology and fate decisions. Cell morphology is intrinsically controlled by mechanical forces acting on the cell surface, to understand shape it is thus essential to investigate the regulation of cellular mechanics. I will discuss how cellular mechanical properties drive cellular shape changes, and the cross-talk between mechanics and state in cellular transitions. SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY Ewa Paluch graduated in Physics from the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Lyon in 2001 and did a PhD in Biophysics at the Curie Institute in Paris between 2001 to 2005. She started her research group in 2006 at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, as a joint appointment with the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw. In 2013, she was appointed Professor of Cell Biophysics at the MRC LMCB, University College London. From 2014 to 2018, she also headed the new UCL Institute for the Physics of Living Systems, which promotes collaborations between physicists and biologists at UCL. In 2018 she was elected Chair of Anatomy at the University of Cambridge. Ewa is the 19th Professor of Anatomy at Cambridge, and the first woman to hold this Chair in its 300-year history. She has received a number of awards, including the Hooke Medal from the British Society for Cell Biology in 2017, EMBO membership in 2018, the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists in the UK in 2019, and the DGZ Carl Zeiss Lecture Award in 2022. In 2024, she was featured as one of “50 Scientists that inspire” for the 50th Anniversary of Cell Press. Ewa leads a cross-disciplinary lab combining molecular and cell biology, biophysics, quantitative imaging and modelling to investigate the fundamental principles underlying cellular morphogenesis. The lab’s research directions span cell surface mechanics regulation, the control of cell shape during cell division and migration, and the cross-talk between cell mechanics, cell shape and cell fate during cellular transitions. Lab website: https://paluchlab.uk
Surveys, screeners, and patient assessments are often shortened to decrease response burden and cost of administration. While there are many methods for shortening screeners, they often aim to reproduce the original score while inducing the smallest amount of measurement error. One consideration that is often overlooked is that these instruments are often used less for precise measurement of some latent construct, but instead for accurate prediction of an even more costly or time consuming diagnosis or expert judgment. As such, we present an alternative method that addresses these concerns through the use of a Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm with simulated annealing (MCMC-SA). To maintain ease of use of the eventual form, we use MCMC-SA to explore the combinatorial search space of short forms using a loss function that optimizes prediction based upon an unweighted sum score. This method is orders of magnitude more efficient than brute force search and has the advantage of optimizing for prediction of the desired outcome directly, instead of optimizing on the measurement of an intermediate outcome that may not be well aligned with the decision criteria of interest. When applied to a screener for alcohol use disorder, we demonstrate that under the unweighted sum score scoring constraint, shortened forms can more accurately predict expert judgments than full forms.
Lesson of the week, clinical cases and research. All clinical and academic staff and students welcome. Coffee, Tea and Cake will be served.
Join science writer Simon Singh on a whistle-stop tour through two decades of his bestselling books. 'Fermat’s Last Theorem' looks at one of the biggest mathematical puzzles of the millennium; 'The Code Book' shares the secrets of cryptology; 'Big Bang' explores the history of cosmology; 'Trick or Treatment' asks some hard questions about alternative medicine; and 'The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets' explains how TV writers, throughout the show’s 35-year history, have smuggled in mathematical jokes. Please email external-relations@maths.ox.ac.uk to register to attend in person. The lecture will be broadcast on the Oxford Mathematics YouTube Channel on Wednesday 27 August at 5-6pm and any time after (no need to register for the online version). The Vicky Neale Public Lectures are a partnership between the Clay Mathematics Institute, PROMYS and Oxford Mathematics. The Oxford Mathematics Public Lectures are generously supported by XTX Markets.
Throughout the social world, predictive algorithms are a means to an end. They provide forecasts of future events with the aim to improve human decisions and drive positive changes in core life outcomes (increase graduation rates, life expectency, etc.). Given that higher welfare — not accuracy — is the ultimate goal of prediction, it’s clear that algorithms are just a small piece of the puzzle. There are many things we can do to improve welfare beyond improving the accuracy of predictive systems. Given this broad design space, when is investing in prediction truly “worth it”? This talk will discuss a new line of research that aims to formalize foundations for this question. Based on joint work with Christoph Kern and Unai Fischer-Abaigar.
In our August event, Daniel R. Porterfield (Maryland & Hertford 1984) will discuss his book Mindset Matters: The Power of College to Activate Lifelong Growth. Dan Porterfield has served as President and CEO of the Aspen Institute since 2018. He has been recognized as a visionary strategist, leader, and advocate for young people and purpose-driven leadership. A lifelong educator, he is the author of the 2024 book, Mindset Matters: The Power of College to Activate Lifelong Growth. Porterfield previously served as the President of Franklin & Marshall College, Senior Vice President for Strategic Development and an award-winning professor of English at Georgetown University, and communications director and chief speechwriter for the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. He was named a White House Champion of Change in 2016 and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations. He earned B.A. degrees from Georgetown and Oxford—where he was a Rhodes Scholar—and his Ph.D. from The City University of New York Graduate Center.
Abstract TBC.
Abstract Integrating phenotype and genotype data with functional genomic annotations can deepen our understanding of the genetic basis of complex traits. Previous studies have shown that the distribution of genetic effects varies across functional annotation categories, partly shaped by natural selection. In this presentation, I will discuss statistical methods we have developed to leverage functional annotations for improving polygenic prediction of complex traits and for genome-wide fine-mapping of causal variants. I will also review current strategies for integrating functional genomics with GWAS data to identify cell types associated with complex traits, share key lessons we learned from benchmarking different methods, and present our findings from applying a temporal single-cell transcriptomic data analysis to psychiatric disorders. Biography Dr Jian Zeng is a Group Leader in statistical genetics and an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) at the University of Queensland (UQ). He received his PhD in Quantitative Genetics from Iowa State University and joined the Program in Complex Trait Genomics at UQ in 2016. His research focuses on developing and applying innovative statistical methods to understand the genetic architecture of complex traits. He works on identifying genetic variants, genes, and molecular phenotypes associated with trait variation, as well as disease risk prediction using genome sequence data. Since 2022, Dr Zeng has also served as Director of the Genetics & Genomics Winter School, an annual in-person course held each July, which provides training in computational methods for genetic data analysis.
From the Laboratory to the Clinic is an annual translational research conference established in 1984, held at Trinity College, Oxford. The conference brings together an international mix of basic scientists, clinicians, and industry researchers to explore how the latest discoveries in immunology and molecular medicine can be applied to improve clinical medicine. The major topic this year's conference is vaccines, along with other therapy-related topics of Gene Therapy and Regulatory T-Cells. The meeting will be in-person and streamed live online.
Hostility to seats of learning is now bundled into general ambivalence towards higher education. Besides rows about exploiting students, corporate highhandedness, eye-watering executive pay and lukewarm engagement with societal needs, universities have been dragged into disputes over ideological indoctrination, freedom of speech and support for violent extremism. I examine the following disputes: Luxury goods. Top universities have been caught red-handed serving unresponsive, global elites. Exuberance. Campuses have become one-sided engines of indoctrination. By-products. Higher education’s training of sharp minds has also bred progressive, values-led opinion. Inequity. Universities have created opportunities for new participants but not enough and unevenly. Values. Higher education has been poorly served by corporate managerialism and structures. Engagement. Academics’ loyalties to knowledge and truth renders them as aloof and monk-like. Are some critics asking universities to upend their universal mission to inquire, teach, share and apply? Universities remain the best machine invented to discover, test, curate and distribute knowledge at scale. They embody the human genius of combining intelligence, toolmaking and cooperation. This is an overlooked feature. Therefore, is it fair to conclude that weaponisation is unavoidable?
Talk titles TBC
The Social Outcomes Conference is the annual convening of the world's leading researchers, policymakers and practitioners working to improve social outcomes. The conference will feature discussions on the latest thinking and findings from academic research alongside insights from the emerging practice across different geographies, disciplines and policy areas. Hybrid conference: We will host the conference in hybrid mode. We will stream all the conference sessions online (Zoom), as well as offering in-person places for those who wish to attend at the Blavatnik School of Government in Oxford. Photography and Video: All sessions of the Social Outcomes Conference that are streamed online are recorded and recordings will be distributed online after the session. Please be aware that by joining the session online, you consent to these conditions. For in-person attendees, there will be photographers taking pictures and filming during both days of the conference. This year's keynote speaker: Mario Calderini We are delighted to announce that the keynote address at this year’s SOC25 will be delivered by Professor Mario Calderini, a global leader in social innovation, impact finance, and mission-oriented governance. Mario Calderini is Professor at the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano, where he teaches Management for Sustainability and Impact and directs Tiresia, the School’s Research Centre for Impact Finance and Innovation. His work has shaped government policy, advanced the impact investing field, and positioned social innovation as a key strategy for tackling today’s most pressing challenges. With a PhD in Economics from the University of Manchester, he has served as a senior advisor to multiple Italian ministers and was Sherpa for the G7 Italian Presidency. In 2021, he was named one of the World’s Most Influential Academics in Government by Apolitical. His keynote will speak directly to SOC25's theme - Institutionalising outcomes and impact: partnerships for systemic change - exploring how innovation and impact can be embedded into public institutions and cross-sector collaboration. Join us for an inspiring keynote that will help set the stage for a conference focused on turning isolated successes into sustainable, system-wide impact!
More information to follow.
Sleep problems are quite prevalent in children and young people, and they are associated with the development of a range of poor outcomes in the short, medium and long term. Further, in most cases sleep problems in children do not occur in isolation but are the consequence of early life risk factors surrounding the child. In this presentation, I will share findings from my research in which we have explored how sleep patterns develop in children and adolescents, the factors contributing to sleep difficulties during childhood, and the impact of childhood sleep problems on health-related outcomes (primarily mental health problems) throughout childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. For this, I will present results from my studies using secondary data analyses from existing birth cohort studies in Finland and in the UK. Finally, I will also present relevant methodologies that can be used with large longitudinal cohort studies to explore sleep development across several time points, as well as to investigate more complex associations between sleep and mental health, including potential underlying mechanisms.
Our September Summer School is tailored for postgraduate students, researchers, and professionals in economics. Your application includes enrolment in two academic courses in Applied Microeconomics, Macroeconomics or Econometrics (from two different disciplines, or focusing on a single field of interest), along with a formal dinner and welcome reception at an Oxford college, daily lunch and refreshments, and a certificate of completion. Visit the website for more information and registration: https://ouess.web.ox.ac.uk/september-summer-school
*08:45 Registration and Coffee* *09:20 Welcome* | _Professor Chas Bountra, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Innovation_ *9:30 Launch of Medical and Life Sciences Translational Fund (MLSTF) 2025 Autumn* | _Dr Deepak Kumar, Head of the Translational Research Office (TRO)_ 09:45-09.55 Cancer Research Horizons (CRUK) Innovation Fund | _Dr Ruth Barrett_ 09:55-10:05 University Challenge Seed Fund | _Ms Aaliyah Wallace_ 10:05-10:15 EPSRC IAA, MPLS Impact Office, Oxford | _Mrs Hyea Matthews-Palmer_ *10:15 Refreshment Break* *10:45 MLSTF Case for Support Form: What the Panel Are Looking for?* | _Dr Kavita Subramaniam, Translational Research Office_ *11:00 How to showcase your AI and Digital Health Approach in Your Proposal? Considerations and Skill Building Masterclass* | _Dr Oliver Harrison - Entrepreneur in Residence at University of Oxford - Koa Health_ This talk will provide an overview of two initiatives aimed at strengthening the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital health within health research and impact. The first half will introduce a newly implemented section in the MLSTF application form, designed for projects that involve significant use of AI. This change reflects the growing need within the University to support the responsible and impactful use of AI in health innovation. The second half of the talk will present the new Masterclass in AI and Digital Health, a curated learning series developed to support researchers across the University in building competencies in AI tools, data-driven approaches, and digital methodologies relevant to health. *11:20 Emerging Translational Innovators* | _Mrs Vlada Yarosh, Translational Research Office_ *11:30 Have you discussed your IP strategy with Oxford University Innovation?* | _Dr Matthew Carpenter (Deputy Head of Licensing & Ventures – Life Sciences at Oxford University Innovation (OUI)_ *11:50 MLSTF Successful Case Studies* | _Moderator: Mrs Anna Camera, Translational Research Office_ *Talk 1: Navigating the early stages of translational research - an Early-Career Researcher’s journey with MLSTF* | _Speaker: TBC_ An early-career researcher will share how MLSTF served as a crucial stepping stone in launching their translational programme. Having received multiple awards they will highlight how MLSTF helped to de-risk early ideas, build credibility, and open doors to new opportunities. Attendees will gain insights into navigating the early stages of translational research, and how targeted support can catalyse meaningful progress. *Talk 2: From technology to clinical impact - a Senior Academic’s perspective* | _Speaker: TBC_ A senior academic will discuss their experience translating research into real-world clinical outcomes, with a focus on how MLSTF played a pivotal role in securing major follow-on funding. Drawing from their path from discovery to implementation, they’ll outline lessons learned, strategies for long-term impact, and how MLSTF fits into broader translational planning. *12:20 Lunch and Networking* *13:20 Fireside Chat 1: Mastering the Milestone Mindset* | _Moderator: TBC; Panel: TBC_ You are expected to plan for a reasonable go/no-go milestone in your MLSTF proposal. This fireside chat will include discussions on how to strategically plan, execute, and present your project milestones effectively. Gain insights from funding panel members on what makes a manageable and realistic milestone and how cultivating a milestone-focused approach can enhance your grant proposals, increasing your chances of securing funding and advancing your research or project. A well-defined, realistic go/no-go milestone is a critical expectation in any MLSTF proposal. This session will explore how to strategically design, implement, and communicate milestones that demonstrate progress and de-risk future investment. The fireside chat will feature insights from funding panel members on what distinguishes a strong milestone from an unconvincing one. The session will help researchers adopt a milestone-driven mindset that strengthens funding applications and project delivery alike. *14:00 Fireside Chat 2: Regulatory Path Plans and Considerations for your Project* | _Moderator: Dr Toni Day; Panel: TBC_ Join us for an insightful talk exploring how a robust regulatory strategy, coupled with strong in-house support, is crucial for successfully advancing your innovation projects. Discover how proactive regulatory planning can de-risk your ventures, accelerate time to market, and ensure your groundbreaking ideas not only comply with essential guidelines but also thrive in a competitive landscape. *14:40 Refreshment Break* *15:10 Fireside Chat 3: The Translational Funding Landscape* | _Moderator: TBC; Panel: TBC_ Moving from proof-of-concept funding to securing substantial follow-on grants is a significant step in translational research. This session explores the evolving UK funding landscape, highlighting pathways and opportunities across preclinical to clinical stages. Designed for researchers aiming to move their findings closer to patient impact, the session will offer practical guidance on long-term and higher-scale translational funding schemes. It will also demonstrate how the sections covered in MLSTF proof-of-concept funding closely align with the structure and expectations of major translational grant applications. *15:50 Fireside Chat 4: The Investor Perspective* | _Moderator: TBC; Panel: TBC_ *16:30 Closing Remarks*
So, you’ve got a great idea for a research study – but what approvals do you need before you can start? Who do you apply to? And how do you go about doing this? Join an online presentation through Microsoft Teams for an overview of: • how research is governed in the UK • which approval bodies are involved • a step-by-step guide on how to apply for approval • handling amendments to your study
Accountability in higher education is a global phenomenon and important area of scholarly inquiry and policy attention. How did scholarly conversations develop and communities form? How did ideas of accountability evolve and travel? Using longitudinal, mixed-methods social network analysis, we examine co-citation networks of 450 articles on higher education accountability published between 1992 and 2016. We identify 24 knowledge communities that coalesce around different accountability topics, fields, and contexts. Through this approach we are able to capture the transformation of accountability in certain fields as well as its adaptation and integration across the globe.
Our vision is to transform research and healthcare in dementia. Dementia Research Oxford, led by Professors Masud Husain and Cornelia van Duijn, brings together researchers and clinicians across the University, our hospitals, patients, and industry partners to translate our growing insights in the basic molecular origin disease into effective treatment and prevention. We aim to take science further from drug target to treatment, from molecular pathology to early diagnosis and prognosis and from early intervention to prevention.
Are you baffled by open, confused by embargoes? Does the mention of the colour gold or green catapult you into a realm of perplexed irritation? Come to this session, where we’ll break down open access and all its many jargon terms, confusing publishing structures and hint at the advantages you can reap by publishing open. The session will cover: what is open access? Key terms – Gold, Green, Article Processing Charges; where to get more information and help; where to look for open access material; and useful tools to assist you in publishing open access. Intended audience: Oxford students, researchers, other staff.
The third in the series of Christ Church 500th Anniversary Lectures, Humanist Learning: A Vision for Today? to be given by The Right Reverend Dr Rowan Williams.Dr Williams will discuss faith in today's world and uncover education's integral role in the creation of human beliefs.
Working towards universal access to safe, affordable surgical, anaesthesia and obstetric care. This intensive five-day course, in person, in Oxford, is suitable for those in all disciplines interested in global surgery, anaesthesia and obstetrics. The course comprises presentations, discussions and seminars looking at major topics in global surgery such as burden of disease, health workforce capacity, training, partnership, supplies, service management, research needs, advocacy and ethics, and resource allocation. There will also be a half-day session on practical preparation for going to work in new contexts alongside local surgical teams. Traditionally surgery has been taught as a technical and practical specialty; however this short course takes a completely different approach and looks at the provision of surgical services at a global level. The term 'Global Surgery' in this course encompasses all related specialities including obstetrics, gynaecology and anaesthesia/critical care. For more information, please visit the Global Surgery Course website.
Understanding The Hebrew Bible presents interdisciplinary coverage of biblical scholarship from archaeological, gender, historical, linguistic, literary, sociological, theological, and visual cultural perspectives. It connects sacred texts and religions of the Mediterranean world, including reception history, literary theory, and commentaries. Edited by Revd Prof John Barton, FBA, the book features contributions from the following Members of the SOTS (Society of Old Testament Studies): James K. Aitken (†) , John Barton, Richard S. Briggs, George J. Brooke, Caroline Blyth, Kevin J. Cathcart, C. L. Crouch, Eryl W. Davies, Sue Gillingham, John Jarick, Paul M. Joyce, Anja Klein, Ekaterina E. Kozlova, Reinhard G. Kratz, Nathan MacDonald, Tsaurayi K. Mapfeka, Hilary Marlow, Holly Morse, Carol A. Newsom, Hugh S. Pyper, Laura Quick, Deborah Rooke, Mark Scarlata, Joachim Schaper, David J. Shepherd, Katherine E. Southwood, Francesca Stavrakopoulou, Jim West, H. G. M. Williamson. The book provides academics, Bible students, clergy and rabbis, and intelligent general readers with a snapshot of the main approaches and issues in the study of the Hebrew Bible since (approximately) the year 2000.
The turn of the 21 Century was a period of optimism for the process of globalization that included open science, international efforts to confront the world’s major scientific and health challenges, and the value of cross-cultural interchange. But this globalist vision has unravelled. A new geopolitical Cold War has emerged, and in turn a Neo-Academic Cold War. One cause is the rise of neo-nationalist movements that harbor distrust of public institutions and their leaders, including universities and their academic communities. In that vain, Trump’s attacks on American universities include the rhetoric that universities are the “enemy” of his MAGA movement. He and his administration are pursuing draconian funding cuts to academic science, brute intervention in campus autonomy, and isolationist policies that hinder talent mobility. All are playing an outsized role in shaping the Neo-Academic Cold War. This presentation will discuss Trump’s attacks on colleges and universities and how it is eroding America’s higher education advantage. But Trump is not the only cause of the Neo-Academic Cold War. There are a series of contributing traumas: 9/11 and fears related to terrorism, the impact of the Great Recession, Russia and China’s re-emergence as geopolitical adversaries to the US and the EU, shaped in part by the war on Ukraine, the arrival of the pandemic, the global trend toward illiberal democracies, as well as the return of Trump. The net effect is that science and cultural diplomacy, and the concept of collaboration and open access data and research, has declined as a global value. A new bifurcated world of transnational academic engagement has emerged — multipolar environment with new adversarial relations even with traditional allies, including between the US and the EU. In the Neo-Academic Cold War, questions to ponder include the long-term and detrimental impact on open science and attempts to meet social and environmental challenges that are global, as well as which nations and transnational alliances will be in some form benefactors.
An introduction to the what, why and how of public involvement
This two-day public event across two locations will bring together researchers, clinicians, local organisations, and the neurodivergent community to collaborate and drive meaningful change. Conference Themes: Strengthening partnerships across research, community, and organisations Advancing mental health research and support for neurodivergent individuals Promoting inclusivity, innovation, and long-term impact Day 1: Identifying Gaps and Advancing Mental Health Research (Saïd Business School) Identifying Gaps and Advancing Mental Health Research Featuring flash talks, panels, and lived experience speakers across the lifespan. Day 2: Community Support, Advocacy, and Lived Experience (Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital) Community Support, Advocacy, and Lived Experience Includes workshops, mindfulness, and discussions on practical support and research engagement. Each ticket includes refreshments and lunch.
The third ONT User Group Meeting will take place on the 23rd September at 11.30am – 13.00pm. Please save the date and register via this link: https://nanoporetech.swoogo.com/Ox_UGM3/register More info to follow.
Access to post-secondary education in low- and lower middle- income countries (LMICs) is very low. In this paper, we systematically review academic research and grey literature published between 2012-2022 to 1) lay out the state of the evidence on the transitions of students from secondary to post-secondary education in LMICs, 2) describe factors that enable or constrain these transitions, 3) aggregate the effects of programs and policies that have successfully improved student admission and enrollment in post-secondary education, and 4) propose a conceptual framework to guide future empirical work, emphasizing the need for a global research agenda on the topic.
The adult body of an animal has two histories. One is its embryonic history, in which it is built anew each generation from a fertilised egg cell. The other is its evolutionary history, how evolutionary selection has shaped the diversification of adult forms over the 600 million years since the first animals arose. Central to both is how the information encoded in the genome is turned into shape and form by the processes of developmental biology. In September’s Balliol Online Lecture Professor Shimeld will explore how some of these processes work, the surprising amount we as humans share with even distantly related animals like worms and jellyfish, and how changes to genes and mechanisms may result in changes to the final adult form and what this means for how diversity has evolved. Professor Sebastian Shimeld studied zoology as an undergraduate and developmental genetics as a postgraduate, before working for a while at Guy’s Hospital in London. In 1995 he was awarded a Fellowship by the Medical Research Council to initiate work on the evolution and control of spinal cord development in embryos. In 2004 he relocated his research group to Oxford, where he is the Julian Huxley Fellow at Balliol and Professor of Evolutionary Developmental Biology in the Department of Biology. His work uses experimental approaches from evolutionary biology, developmental biology, cell biology and genomics to ask how the information in the genome regulates the development of animal embryos, and how these mechanisms have changed through evolutionary time to give us the huge diversity of animal forms that inhabit our planet.
This year’s Energy Day will explore how data-related opportunities can advance energy technologies, materials and systems, and benefit scientific, engineering & social science research. The event will show how new data can enable innovation and provide improved policy, governance and decision-making to support delivery of a just energy transition. It will also address risks associated with increasing energy demand from data and computationally intensive activities, and the impact of AI throughout the energy system.
The fiftieth lecture in the Astronomy for All Lecture Series, which Charles Barclay began in 2006 to strengthen and reinforce the link between Green Templeton College, home of the Radcliffe Observatory, and astronomy and the Oxford Astrophysics Department in particular. All are welcome. Speaker: Charles Barclay is an Associate Fellow of Green Templeton College and joined the Oxford Physics Department as an Academic Visitor in 2003. He served two terms on the Council of the Royal Astronomical Society and became Vice President (2017-2019) He directed the Blackett Observatory at Marlborough College in Wiltshire for 25 years, where he taught Astronomy and Physics. He was a UK National Astronomy Education Coordinator for the International Astronomical Union (2022-2024), UK Team Leader for the Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad (2015-2021) and was Chair of Examiners for Astronomy GCSE for twelve years. Charles was recognised by the Royal Astronomical Society 2023 Service Award for his outstanding contribution to Astronomy education. Synopsis: When Thomas Hornsby as Savilian Professor persuaded the Radcliffe Trust to build an Observatory, his aim was not only to put Oxford Astronomy on the World map but also to have a grand building with facilities for teaching. The Observatory fulfilled this aim and for a while was perhaps the most desirable facility in the world. Though its fortunes waned during the 1800s and light pollution from the growing city diminished the potential of its larger instruments and necessitated relocation to South Africa, the foundations had been laid for the teaching of Astronomy and Astrophysics. Now the large and very successful Astrophysics sub-Department is once again linked with the College and through outreach events and lectures, Astronomy and Astrophysics can return to its roots here. The talk will illustrate the (often very human) story behind this Oxford icon. Chaired by Professor Rob Fender.
Two of the most striking features distinguishing human cortical pyramidal neurons (CPNs) from other mammals which are thought to play a role in the emergence of our unique cognitive abilities are: (1) human CPNs receive significantly more excitatory and inhibitory synapses than any other mammalian species including non-human primates and (2) synaptic development is strikingly neotenic in humans, taking years to reach maturation compared to weeks or months in other mammalian species. Our lab identified two human-specific gene duplications called SRGAP2B/C which, by inhibiting all known functions of the ancestral postsynaptic protein SRGAP2A, leads to slower (neotenic) rates of excitatory (E) and inhibitory (I) synaptic maturation and increased E and I synapse number (Charrier et al. Cell 2012; Fossatti et al Neuron 2016). We demonstrated that induction of expression of human-specific genes SRGAP2B/C in mouse CPNs increases specifically the number of cortico-cortical synaptic connections they receive leading to changes in the coding properties of these neurons in vivo as well as improved behavioral performance in a sensory discrimination task (Schmidt et al. Nature 2021). I will also present recent evidence demonstrating the function of human-specific SRGAP2B/C in human neurons as key mediators of synaptic neoteny, using a novel xenotransplantation model, in collaboration with Pierre Vanderhaeghen’s lab (Libé-Philippot et al. Neuron 2024). These results also provide the first evidence that human-specific genes such as SRGAP2B/C are not only relevant to understand human brain evolution but also constitute human-specific disease modifiers. I will also present new results demonstrating that human-specific SRGAP2B/C genes also act as master regulators of the timing of structural and functional maturation of microglial cells using both humanized mouse models and SRGAP2B/C loss-of-function approaches using human iPSC-derived microglia xenotransplantation in mouse neonatal cortex. Our results demonstrate that SRGAP2B/C-dependent induction of neotenic maturation of microglial cells participates non-cell autonomously to the delayed timing of synaptic maturation in cortical pyramidal neurons. Our results reveal that, during human brain evolution, human-specific genes SRGAP2B/C coordinated the emergence of neotenic features of synaptic development by acting as genetic modifiers in both neurons and microglia. SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY Since 2013, Franck Polleux is a Professor of Neuroscience at Columbia University and a Principal Investigator at the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute in New York. He obtained his PhD in 1997 at Université Claude Bernard in Lyon France under the supervision of Henry Kennedy and Colette Dehay. He then did his postdoctoral training with Anirvan Ghosh at Johns Hopkins University. From 2002-2010, he started his independent research career at UNC-Chapel Hill, then moved to Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA. Throughout his scientific career spanning three decades, Dr Polleux has focused on the identification of novel cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the development and function of synapses, neurons and circuits in the mammalian neocortex. More recently, his lab started studying the genetic basis of human brain evolution by focusing on the role of human-specific gene duplications as genetic modifiers of synaptic connectivity, circuit function and their impact on cognition. His work demonstrates that human-specific genes such as SRGAP2B/C not only represent human-specific modifiers of brain development but also represent unique human-specific disease modifiers in the context of neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorders. In collaboration with the lab of Attila Losonczy, he recently started to study the synaptic and molecular basis of feature selectivity of place cell emergence using mouse CA1 hippocampal pyramidal neurons as a model. For his numerous scientific contributions, he was awarded several prestigious awards such as the Albert L. Lehninger Research Prize for postdoctoral research, the 2005 NARSAD Young Investigator Award, the 2015 Foundation Roger De Spoelberch Prize, a 2021 Nomis Foundation Award and the 2021 R35 Research Program Award, a career award from the NIH-National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).
The second in a duo of courses (attendees should attend the Fundamentals course prior to Logistics) that will cover the logistics of researching, publishing, and locating open scholarship resources and tools at the University of Oxford. Subjects include: what is the Oxford University Research Archive?; depositing work into ORA via Symplectic Elements; depositing data into ORA-data; applying for one of Oxford’s APC block grants; registering or connecting your ORCID; how to be included in the rights retention pilot; and locating and checking funder policies. Intended audience: Oxford students, researchers and other staff.
Biography Robin Evans is a Professor of Statistical Science at the University of Oxford. His research interests include causal inference, multivariate and graphical models, latent variable models, and algebraic statistics. He is particularly interested in causal simulation, and in how evidence from different kinds of study might be combined. His previous work has been applied to systems biology, quantum information theory, and the social sciences.
Philosopher Menachem Fisch and visual artist Debra Band present the first illuminated manuscript of the entire biblical text of the Book of Ecclesiastes and the first philosophical analysis of the argument. Professor Fisch uncovers Qohelet’s twin concerns: life is short, and situated as we are, far below the heavens, we can never be assured of comprehending our world, or understanding divine will and intent. Since we can never fully predict or understand our fortunes or the heritage we leave behind us, the best we can do is to live our lives fully, relating to others attentively, always aware of the limits of human life. In her glowing, immersive, and discursive illuminated paintings of the entire text, Debra Band imagines Qohelet’s teachings, employing the grandest of palaces, the Alhambra, as the central metaphor for the beauty and impermanence of human life and accomplishments. She fills its halls and gardens with often surprising imagery, symbolism, and related poetry, creating a visual midrash that reveals the relationship of Qohelet’s thought to other biblical texts and Jewish lore and its reverberations across the centuries and cultures of Western civilisation, from ancient Israel to today’s America. Each illuminated page is complemented by lucid commentary explaining its full meaning. Renowned scholars Ellen F. Davis and Moshe Halbertal crown the work with a penetrating foreword and preface.
Attacks on universities, faculty and students have escalated dramatically in the early months of Trump’s second presidential term. The pace and ferocity of these attacks have taken almost everyone by surprise, including those who have been subject to political intervention for some years in Republican-led states such as Texas and Florida. What makes the latest oppressive phase so devastating is the clear intent to dismantle all research and scientific expertise that does not conform to the far-right’s ideological viewpoint. Silence and self-censorship have descended on most campuses, and growing numbers of scholars and students seek new institutions outside the country to study, teach and conduct research on health, climate, poverty, racism and other pressing global issues. As a result, the international status of US higher education is plummeting. Trump has, in effect, declared war on higher education, and in so doing has arguably abandoned the immediate and long-term needs of the American population and jeopardized the futures of all societies.
So, you’ve got a great idea for a research study – but what approvals do you need before you can start? Who do you apply to? And how do you go about doing this? Join an online presentation through Microsoft Teams for an overview of: • how research is governed in the UK • which approval bodies are involved • a step-by-step guide on how to apply for approval • handling amendments to your study
How did the US Army emerge as one of the most powerful political organizations in the United States following World War II? In Warriors in Washington: Henry Stimson, the US Army, and the Politics of American Power in World War II, Grant H. Golub asserts that this remarkable shift was the result of the Army’s political masters consciously transforming the organization into an active political player throughout the war. Led by Henry Stimson, the Secretary of War and one of the most experienced American statesmen of the era, the Army energetically worked to shape the contours of American power throughout the war, influencing the scope and direction of US foreign policy as the Allies fought the Axis powers. The result saw the Army, and the military more broadly, gain unprecedented levels of influence over US foreign relations. As World War II gave way to the Cold War, the military helped set the direction of policy toward the Soviet Union and aided the decades of confrontation between the two superpowers.
During the last 50 years, dramatic improvements in safety have been made in industries, including energy production, rail, air transport and construction. However, the rate of accidental harm to patients from their treatment has not changed much in healthcare, despite 30 years of research. In this lecture, Professor Peter McCulloch will explain particular problems of the healthcare environment and the challenges to developing ultra-safe care.
War and human flourishing exhibits strong spatial bias across geographical scales. Geography matters in conflict and cooperation but no mathematical framework thus far ties them together at the global scale. Here, we show that simple network models can explain the spatial patterns of conflict and cooperation with accuracy and robustness, reinforced and explained by simple agent-based-modeling. We go on in our second piece of work to add tipping dynamics to understand how cascades can happen or be prevented. This was then linked to several branching projects: (i) how will future climate change and migration affect the model (MET Office), and (ii) how can we model causal latent spaces in climate change and conflict. More generally, I am interested in how to better understand networked tipping dynamics and how it contributes to our understanding of global tipping dynamics in climate-society-technology ecosystems in the Tipping Points Report.
Are you baffled by open, confused by embargoes? Does the mention of the colour gold or green catapult you into a realm of perplexed irritation? Come to this session, where we’ll break down open access and all its many jargon terms, confusing publishing structures and hint at the advantages you can reap by publishing open. The session will cover: what is open access? Key terms – Gold, Green, Article Processing Charges; where to get more information and help; where to look for open access material; and useful tools to assist you in publishing open access. Intended audience: Oxford students, researchers, other staff.
RGEA is pleased to announce the launch of a new course ‘Good Clinical Practice (GCP) for laboratory staff’. The course is for University of Oxford staff working in laboratories handling samples derived from clinical trials, and outlines the principles of GCP from the perspective of the laboratory. It will be delivered in-person at Boundary Brook House (Old Road Campus), by members of RGEA who have previous experience of working in laboratories.
Medical Statistics Drop In Session with Dr Lei Clifton,Lead Statistician, Applied Digital Health (ADH) Group, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford. Day: Thursday Date: 16 October 2025 Time: 11:00 -12:00 Venue: BDI conference room (lower ground, near the cafe) Registration: https://forms.office.com/e/b8UEEgrBrY?origin=lprLink Do you have a burning medical statistics-related question that you would like to discuss with the wider Oxford Biomedical community? Submit your question in advance and join the drop-in session, where Lei Clifton will address your query. If you’re interested in being part of the conversation but don’t have a specific question, feel free to attend the session in person and follow along. This is an excellent opportunity to engage in knowledge exchange with your peers. The session will be informal and conversational, encouraging participants to share their perspectives on medical statistics. There will be no set agenda or specific topics of focus; instead, discussions will be spontaneous, shaped by the questions and interests brought forward on the day. Attendees will have the freedom to drop in and ask questions without restrictions, allowing for an open and dynamic exchange of ideas. While the session will not include presentations or detailed statistical analysis, general advice on study design and statistical methods will be provided. The emphasis will be on applying statistical thinking to real-world questions rather than conducting in-depth explorations of predefined topics. This is an in-person event only.
Religion-related violence is the fastest spreading type of violence worldwide. Attacks on religious minorities follow a clear pattern and are preceded with early warning signs. Until now, such violence had no name, let alone a set of policies designed to identify and prevent it. A unique attempt to create a new moral and legal category alongside other forms of persecution and mass murder, Religicide explores the roots of atrocities such as the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, the Bosnian war, and other human rights catastrophes. The authors tap into their decades of activism, interreligious engagement, and people-to-people diplomacy to delve into a gripping examination of contemporary religicides: the Yazidis in Iraq, the Rohingya in Myanmar, Uyghur Muslims and Tibetan Buddhists in China, and the centuries-long efforts to wipe out Indigenous Americans. Yet, even in the face of these horrific atrocities, the authors resist despair. They amplify the voices of survivors and offer a blueprint for action, calling on government, business, civil society, and religious leaders to join in a global campaign to protect religious minorities.
The United States has undergone two massive shifts in housing and schooling in the past 40 years. First, residential income segregation has markedly increased, especially among families with children. Second, postsecondary enrollment has greatly expanded, likely as a result of higher wages for college-educated workers. As these two secular trends have ascended side-by-side, a puzzle has emerged: Are families competing for neighborhoods that can ensure their children’s success in the college game? If so, are families increasingly hoarding geo-spatial opportunities to maximize their children’s socioeconomic success? To illuminate possible answers to these questions, I examine three successive cohorts of restricted data on students going to college in the early 1980s, the mid-2000s, and the late 2010s to understand whether the neighborhoods in which students grew up have increasingly differential impacts on their college enrollment and college selectivity outcomes. Using geocoded data from the NLSY 1979, NLSY Children and Young Adults, and transcript data from the High School Longitudinal Study, I track students from childhood and adolescence through young adulthood and find that the neighborhoods where they grew up indeed do have increasingly differential impacts on their college outcomes across these three cohorts of students. I discuss the potential implications for future economic disparities as increased competition for housing among families contracts students’ access to higher education.
On October 23-24, 2025, the University of Oxford, will host the IX Workshop on Migration, Health, and Well-Being, following the success of the previous editions. The workshop’ focus is broad, covering empirical economic research on the topics of immigration, health economics, economics of migration and wellbeing. Spanning two days, the event will feature a select number of hour-long research presentations, fostering in-depth discussions. The workshop aims to strengthen connections among scholars with shared interests in these fields.
Our vision is to transform research and healthcare in dementia. Dementia Research Oxford, led by Professors Masud Husain and Cornelia van Duijn, brings together researchers and clinicians across the University, our hospitals, patients, and industry partners to translate our growing insights in the basic molecular origin disease into effective treatment and prevention. We aim to take science further from drug target to treatment, from molecular pathology to early diagnosis and prognosis and from early intervention to prevention.
Biography Professor Carbone (MD, PhD) is an Associate Professor of Hepatology at the University of Milano-Bicocca and Honorary Consultant Hepatologist at the Niguarda Liver Transplant Centre, Milan. He qualified in Medicine in Rome, Italy and trained in hepatology in Italy and in the UK. His research interest mainly relates to study disease mechanisms in autoimmune and cholestatic liver diseases. He runs a research programme in autoimmune and cholestatic liver diseases that encompasses joint modelling of molecular, histological and radiological data, and their conversion into meaningful outputs that can inform mechanistic understanding, health care decisions, and the design of innovative clinical trials. He is member of the International Clinical Research Network of PSC Partners, steering committee member of the Global PBC study group, and Vice-Chair of the PBC Foundation Medical Advisory Board. He founded and co-chairs the Italian Registry of PBC and PSC. He serves on the panel of the national guidelines for PBC and PSC. He is the recipient of the Rising Star in Gastroenterology award by the United European Gastroenterology (UEG) and the Europena Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) Sheila Sherlock Fellowship. He is Associate Editor of Digestive and Liver Disease, serves on the editorial board of Hepatology, and co-authored more than 144 articles in peer-reviewed journals (h-index 35).
Worldwide, only around 7% of refugees attend university, despite the financial, psychological, social, and career benefits it offers. Recognising these benefits, UNHCR has set a target of 15% of refugees accessing higher education (HE) by 2030. Drawing on interviews with participants from refugee backgrounds, universities, Further Education colleges, NGOs and local authorities, this research explores the barriers and possibilities for refugees’ access to HE in the UK, with a focus on the south-west region. Findings highlight how increasingly hostile immigration policies, rigid academic systems, and resource shortages combine to restrict access to HE, while also documenting the growing expertise and support offered within some sectors. It calls for coordinated, transformative action to remove systemic barriers and build a socially just, refugee-centred approach, including enhanced financial support, alternative entry pathways, and transparent institutional accountability.
In this session we will cover how to locate and interpret journal level metrics such as the Journal Impact Factor (JIF). We will examine the tools you can use to locate journal level metrics, such as Journal Citation Reports and Scopus Sources. We will also consider the uses, limitations and pitfalls inherent in these metrics and how they can be used responsibly. By the end of the session, you will be familiar with: the major journal metrics and how these are calculated; accessing journal citation data using Journal Citation Reports and Scopus Sources; using JIF, CiteScore and SJR journal metrics to rank journals; and the limitations of different metrics, including how journal metrics may be skewed or distorted. Intended audience: Oxford students, researchers and other staff.
The Symposium will highlight areas of stem cell research with trajectories towards treatments of diseases including metabolic disorders, neurodegeneration, vascular diseases, heart failure, cancer and new bioengineering strategies.
So, you’ve got a great idea for a research study – but what approvals do you need before you can start? Who do you apply to? And how do you go about doing this? Join an online presentation through Microsoft Teams for an overview of: • how research is governed in the UK • which approval bodies are involved • a step-by-step guide on how to apply for approval • handling amendments to your study
Many prominent social scientists have advocated for random-draw lotteries as a solution to the “problem” of college admissions. They argue that lotteries will be fair and equitable, eliminate corruption, reduce student anxiety, restore democratic ideals, and end debates over race-conscious admissions. In response, we simulate potential lottery effects on U.S. student enrollment by race, gender, and income, using robust simulation methods. If we went to a lottery system, what would happen to student diversity? And how could this change the built relationship between students and selective colleges?
If you are new to the University of Oxford and want to find out more about the University’s network of libraries or have been at the University a while and would like a refresher, join us for this online introduction to understanding and accessing the libraries, their services and resources. By the end of the session, you will: be familiar with the network of Oxford libraries; know the logins needed to access Bodleian Libraries services; be able to conduct a search in SOLO (the University’s resource discovery tool), filter results and access online and print resources; and know how to manage your library account including loans and requests. Intended audience: All Oxford library users.
In this session we will examine article level metrics. We will discuss how citation counting can help identify influential papers in particular fields and how altmetrics provide a different perspective on research output. Using tools such as Web of Science, Google Scholar and Scopus you will learn how to locate different article metrics. The session will also allow you to appreciate the limitations of different metrics and the importance of their cautious interpretation. By the end of the session, you will be familiar with: using Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar to track and count citations to papers and individual researchers; measuring impact using altmetrics; understanding how to contextualise metrics against other, similar papers in a field; and the limitations of different metrics. Intended audience: Oxford students, researchers and other staff.
Are you baffled by open, confused by embargoes? Does the mention of the colour gold or green catapult you into a realm of perplexed irritation? Come to this session, where we’ll break down open access and all its many jargon terms, confusing publishing structures and hint at the advantages you can reap by publishing open. The session will cover: what is open access? Key terms – Gold, Green, Article Processing Charges; where to get more information and help; where to look for open access material; and useful tools to assist you in publishing open access. Intended audience: Oxford students, researchers, other staff.
The T J Clark Seminar at Keble Poems about paintings have long been part of literary tradition, and many such poems go on being written. Why? What is hoped for from them? What is involved in the passage from picture to word? This seminar series will look at particular poems and paintings, ancient and modern, with such questions in mind. Professor Timothy Clark is one of the world’s most renowned art historians. He taught for many years at the University of California, Berkeley, and is the author of several books, including The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and his Followers (1985), Farewell to an Idea: Episodes from a History of Modernism (1999), The Sight of Death: An Experiment in Art Writing (2006), Picasso and Truth: From Cubism to Guernica (2013), Heaven on Earth: Painting and the Life to Come (2018), and If These Apples Should Fall: Cézanne and the Present (2022). The Poetry & Painting seminars will take place three times a year. There are no sign-up lists or reserved places (free entry, and all are welcome). A few weeks in advance of each seminar a handout will be made available via a downloadable link which will feature the poetry and painting to be discussed. At the seminar Clark will introduce the material and lead the discussion. Questions to be explored will include: Is this poem ‘about’ the picture it says it is about? What does ‘about’ mean in this case? Is it clear what, in or about the picture, provoked the poem? Why write a poem about a picture? Or, is writing a poem about a picture different from writing one about, say, the scene or situation that the picture is ‘of’? Does the poem we’re reading propose an answer to these questions? What would failure in a poem about a picture be like? And success? Is there a moment in the poem when you sense the resistance of the ‘visual’ or ‘pictorial’ to poetic translation producing poetry (or the opposite)? How many of these questions are reversible? That is, do we have strong cases of pictures that are, or claim to be, about poems? Does this poem, whether or not we think it successful in describing or evoking the picture it says it’s about, make a difference to our understanding of the picture? Does it alter our seeing of it? How much does this poet care about painting (or sculpting etc.)? Does it matter if the answer is ‘not much’? i.e. does it matter to the poetry? How do we approach poems that are clearly homages to painting, even to particular paintings, but seem deliberately to refuse a one-to-one (descriptive) ‘aboutness’? How indirect can a poem about a painting be before the painting disappears? Or is ‘disappearance’ necessary (to poetry)? The next seminar, entitled Poems About Cezanne, will take place in the Pusey Room at 5.30 pm on 6 November. Professor Clark writes: “Not for the first time in this series, the word ‘about’ in my title will be a matter for discussion. Are the poems I’ve chosen about Cézanne? If so, how? These questions fold into a further one: What are Cézanne’s paintings about? In particular the paintings of his last years, when death was imminent. (That might have meant ‘death’ was the last thing his art would be about. [Read that sentence whichever way you like.] But death seems to figure largely in writing about him.) Wordplay aside – and it’s striking that Cezanne’s art does bring on wordplay – I for one need help deciding on the relation of several of the poems chosen to Cézanne. The Charles Wright ‘Homage’ is the central, difficult case. But so is the Gertrude Stein ‘Cézanne’, and even the Carlos Williams. Which raises the question: Why do poems about Cézanne tend to put ‘aboutness’ so markedly in question? I have included a poem of my own, which will inevitably seem pedestrian, not to say naïve, alongside the others. I stand by the poem; but it may well suggest to many of you why poems ‘about Cézanne’ don’t go in for the kind of description mine does. Cézanne seems to provoke poetry in English not French. This is strange. As compensation, I add a tremendous poem by René Char on Courbet’s Stonebreakers, which Samuel Beckett proved to be untranslatable.” A link to the handout is available below. Free entry, all welcome, no tickets or booking required. Enquiries: please contact Matthew Bevis.
This OxPeace annual Day-Conference explores developments in peacebuilding at all levels, and in particular in the involvement of women, in the 25 years since UNSC Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) and the 30 years since the 1995 Beijing Declaration on the rights of women. Examples will be explored, and several speakers will present fresh research. Further details nearer the time. You are invited to reflect on this significant and growing field with fellow students, academics, practitioners, and policy-makers.
Obesity is the fifth leading cause of death globally and one of the leading causes of disability. While the general medical impacts of obesity, including cerebrovascular complications, are relatively well-recognized, the less obvious effects on brain health are often overlooked. Obesity is frequently linked with brain cortical thinning, subcortical atrophy, accelerated brain aging, cognitive impairments, and an increased risk of dementia, even in absence of additional cardiovascular risk factors. This is particularly concerning in people with severe mental illness (SMI), where the rates of obesity are high and the brain effects of obesity and psychiatric disorders may interact. Indeed, we and others have demonstrated that obesity adds to brain gray and white matter alterations in SMIs. Variations in extent of obesity contribute to variations in extent of brain alterations in people with bipolar disorders or schizophrenia. Importantly, obesity related brain changes explain part of the cognitive impairment already in people with first episode of psychosis. Moreover, baseline weight or weight gain predict future acceleration of brain aging and hippocampal atrophy across SMIs. These brain effects could explain why obesity in SMI is associated with worse psychiatric outcomes, including greater psychiatric morbidity, chronicity, disability, functional decline, and worse responses to psychiatric medications. Monitoring weight and body composition thus becomes relevant for managing psychiatric, cognitive and brain health. Future research should investigate if prevention or treatment of obesity, i.e. with GLP1 agonists, could prevent or improve neurostructural changes and related psychiatric outcomes, including cognitive impairment.
This lecture explores how digital academic education is being reshaped by the fusion of emotional governance and technological design. Drawing on 20 in-depth interviews with learning designers working in Israeli EdTech companies, I examine how these professionals—positioned between private platforms and public universities—construct educational environments that are simultaneously affective and algorithmic. At the center of this analysis is the concept of “supervised autonomy”, which captures a core paradox: students are imagined as autonomous, self-regulating learners, yet also as emotionally vulnerable subjects in need of constant technological oversight. Surveillance technologies such as learning analytics dashboards are reframed by designers as tools of emotional care and personalized support. This dual logic extends to the role of professors, who are reimagined as both emotional caregivers and performative presenters—expected to maintain engagement, deliver emotional connection, and respond to behavioral data. In this new emotional-technological architecture, autonomy becomes not a withdrawal from control, but a condition shaped and sustained through ongoing algorithmic monitoring and therapeutic discourse. The lecture argues that the digitalization of academic life cannot be understood solely through the lens of market rationality. Rather, it reflects a deeper cultural reordering—where emotional expectations are embedded into digital infrastructures, and educational roles are redefined through a convergence of care, performance, and control.
In this session we will examine metrics for individual researchers. Using tools such as Web of Science, Google Scholar and Scopus you will learn about the researcher h-index and its limitations. You will be introduced to additional metrics tools such as author beamplots which help to contextualise a researcher’s output over time. By the end of the session, you will be familiar with: accessing citation data for specific researchers on Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar; understanding how the h-index is calculated and its inherent limitations; creating an ORCID number to help track all your own research outputs; and the importance of research outputs beyond journal and conference papers when assessing a researcher’s impact. Intended audience: Oxford students, researchers and other staff.
Can women influence household decisions through effective communication when they lack decision rights? We conduct a field experiment in India to test whether a communication training for married women impacts female labor supply, an important decision households make and a frequent source of intra-household disagreement. The treatment shifted women’s communication styles towards the techniques taught in the training. We find positive effects on labor supply and earnings but, consistent with theory, only for women who were more interested than their husbands in the women working. These effects last at least one year post-treatment and represent a 53% increase in earnings over this period. Mechanisms analyses suggest the labor supply effects come from women changing their husbands’ preferences rather than shifts in bargaining power. A back-of-the-envelope calculation estimates this treatment to be highly cost-effective at raising female employment relative to public vocational training. Written with Namrata Kala, MIT Sloan School of Management https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LgQtwvTMExxf49YvnkgWugxhffJ2rqlF/view
The Adam Phillips Seminar at Keble The New Yorker has described Adam Phillips as ‘Britain’s foremost psychoanalytic writer’, and John Banville has praised him as ‘one of the finest prose stylists at work in the language, an Emerson of our time.’ He has been a regular writer for The London Review of Books, the Observer, and the New York Times for many years, and is the author of several books, including On Kissing, Tickling and Being Bored (1994), On Flirtation (1995), The Beast in the Nursery (1998), Darwin’s Worms (1999), Houdini’s Box (2001), Going Sane (2005), Side Effects (2006), On Balance (2010), Missing Out (2012), and Becoming Freud (2014). ‘The Poet’s Essay’ seminars take place three times a year. Each seminar lasts around one and a half to two hours. The series is free and open to all who wish to attend. There are no sign-up lists or reserved places, although there will be a small amount of required reading in advance of each seminar. Seminars focus primarily on American poetry of the twentieth century. A few weeks before each seminar, a handout will be made available via a downloadable link on this page, and at the meeting Phillips will introduce the material and lead the discussion. The series will pursue a wide range of ideas and issues, but recurring questions may include: Pragmatically, what is the problem the essay is trying to solve, or clarify that the poems can’t? What, if anything, about the poet’s future practice is being intimated or broached by the essay? What, if anything, does the poet’s essay add to or detract from our reading of the poems? Does the essay spoil, in any way, our reading of the poems? What is the poet’s essay persuading us not to do? Given the essay interrupts and continues an already ongoing cultural conversation, in what direction is the essay pushing the conversation? How is the poet in her essay persuading us, if at all, to read her poetry? What, if anything, is the poet’s essay telling us about how his readers might have failed him? What, if anything, is the poet’s essay telling us about his preferred reader of his poems? What, if anything, is the poet’s essay telling us about he mistrusts, or is unconvinced by his own poetry? How does the poet want our lives to be different after reading her essay? If we hadn’t read the poet’s essay what, if anything, might we have missed about her poems? Why might we prefer not having read the essay? Where, if anywhere in the essay, do we get a sense of the poet’s real enjoyment? Next Seminar The next seminar, on Kenneth Koch, will take place on Wednesday 12th November at 4.30 pm, Pusey Room. No tickets, free entry, all welcome. Reading material will be available via pdf link below. Enquiries: please contact Matthew Bevis.
The second in a duo of courses (attendees should attend the Fundamentals course prior to Logistics) that will cover the logistics of researching, publishing, and locating open scholarship resources and tools at the University of Oxford. Subjects include: what is the Oxford University Research Archive?; depositing work into ORA via Symplectic Elements; depositing data into ORA-data; applying for one of Oxford’s APC block grants; registering or connecting your ORCID; how to be included in the rights retention pilot; and locating and checking funder policies. Intended audience: Oxford students, researchers and other staff.
For several years now, critical perspectives on the development and current orientation of internationalisation have emerged, expressing concern about the risk of reproducing already uneven global hierarchies through mainstream internationalisation activities, particularly in institutions of the Global North and Western/ised higher education. Scholars and practitioners caution that as institutions grow more interconnected, without a redistribution of power or a reimagining of dominant relationships, longstanding inequalities may be further entrenched. There is increasing concern that prevailing approaches to internationalisation risk reinforcing colonialist, capitalist global relations and sustaining Eurocentric knowledge regimes. Drawing on eleven months of ethnographic fieldwork across the UK, Denmark, and Germany, I examine how international student mobility is embedded in wider struggles over knowledge, legitimacy, and global inequality. The research traces how dominant hierarchies are reproduced or unsettled through everyday practices within universities, as well as in broader policy, institutional, and social spaces. Attending to both structural conditions and lived experiences, the study explores how spatial associations of knowledge and global power relations are articulated through everyday interactions, educational practices, and ways of knowing. It ultimately argues for a more ethically engaged and politically reflexive approach to internationalisation - one that takes seriously the call for cognitive justice in global higher education.
The extant literature on the link between international education and socio-political development emphasises the role political socialisation in democratic host societies plays in instilling democratic values in foreign students and prompting them to advocate for democratic change in the home country. In this webinar, I will discuss such assumptions drawing on some findings of my doctoral research project which explored the impact of international educational mobility on Russian young people’s socio-political views and engagement. More specifically, I will consider the influence of studying abroad on Russian mobile students’ understandings of democracy and aspirations to engage socio-politically in Russia. The analysis draws on data from 55 in-depth interviews with Russian students and alumni of British and American universities. The findings reveal that international mobility contributes to heightened socio-political awareness and sometimes helps shape notions of democracy. However, such individual-level democratising impact is somewhat weakened by the conflicting evidence demonstrating that study abroad may contribute to scepticism about democracy as a political system and that newly acquired socio-political knowledge is sometimes impressionistic and fragmented. Furthermore, the evidence points to the paramount importance of the sending country’s political context in examining the linkage between student migrants’ democratic socialisation abroad, aspirations to enact political agency and potential to impact on the level of democratic development in the homeland.
Microbial communities contain many evolving and interacting bacteria, which makes them complex systems that are difficult to understand and predict. We use theory – including game theory, agent-based modelling, ecological network theory and metabolic modelling - and combine this with experimental work to understand what it takes for bacteria to succeed in diverse communities. One way is to actively kill and inhibit competitors and we study the strategies that bacteria use in toxin-mediated warfare. We are now also using our approaches to understand the human gut microbiome and its key properties including ecological stability and the ability to resist invasion by pathogens (colonization resistance). Our ultimate goal is to both stabilise microbiome communities and remove problem species without the use of antibiotics.
During this forum speakers from Bodleian Open Scholarship Support and across Oxford will discuss current changes in the field of open scholarship. Including subjects like data, open access, open monographs, copyright and more. It is advised that attendees of the forum have previously attended the Fundamentals and Logistics courses to improve understanding. Intended audience: Oxford students, researchers and other staff.
An introduction to the what, why and how of public involvement
In a fast-changing world, psychiatry needs to adapt to remain relevant. This presentation will summarize the changes in psychiatry that are considered to have been the most impactful for the practice and research in psychiatry since 1945. Based on this historical context, the current status of psychiatry and its future as one of the main medical specialties will be discussed.
Part of the Dementia Research Oxford seminar series Our vision is to transform research and healthcare in dementia. Dementia Research Oxford, led by Professors Masud Husain and Cornelia van Duijn, brings together researchers and clinicians across the University, our hospitals, patients, and industry partners to translate our growing insights in the basic molecular origin disease into effective treatment and prevention. We aim to take science further from drug target to treatment, from molecular pathology to early diagnosis and prognosis and from early intervention to prevention.
In this session we will cover how to locate and interpret journal level metrics such as the Journal Impact Factor (JIF). We will examine the tools you can use to locate journal level metrics, such as Journal Citation Reports and Scopus Sources. We will also consider the uses, limitations and pitfalls inherent in these metrics and how they can be used responsibly. By the end of the session, you will be familiar with: the major journal metrics and how these are calculated; accessing journal citation data using Journal Citation Reports and Scopus Sources; using JIF, CiteScore and SJR journal metrics to rank journals; and the limitations of different metrics, including how journal metrics may be skewed or distorted. Intended audience: Oxford students, researchers and other staff.
In this session we will examine article level metrics. We will discuss how citation counting can help identify influential papers in particular fields and how altmetrics provide a different perspective on research output. Using tools such as Web of Science, Google Scholar and Scopus you will learn how to locate different article metrics. The session will also allow you to appreciate the limitations of different metrics and the importance of their cautious interpretation. By the end of the session, you will be familiar with: using Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar to track and count citations to papers and individual researchers; measuring impact using altmetrics; understanding how to contextualise metrics against other, similar papers in a field; and the limitations of different metrics. Intended audience: Oxford students, researchers and other staff.
In this session we will examine metrics for individual researchers. Using tools such as Web of Science, Google Scholar and Scopus you will learn about the researcher h-index and its limitations. You will be introduced to additional metrics tools such as author beamplots which help to contextualise a researcher’s output over time. By the end of the session, you will be familiar with: accessing citation data for specific researchers on Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar; understanding how the h-index is calculated and its inherent limitations; creating an ORCID number to help track all your own research outputs; and the importance of research outputs beyond journal and conference papers when assessing a researcher’s impact. Intended audience: Oxford students, researchers and other staff.
An introduction to the what, why and how of public involvement
In this session we will cover how to locate and interpret journal level metrics such as the Journal Impact Factor (JIF). We will examine the tools you can use to locate journal level metrics, such as Journal Citation Reports and Scopus Sources. We will also consider the uses, limitations and pitfalls inherent in these metrics and how they can be used responsibly. By the end of the session, you will be familiar with: the major journal metrics and how these are calculated; accessing journal citation data using Journal Citation Reports and Scopus Sources; using JIF, CiteScore and SJR journal metrics to rank journals; and the limitations of different metrics, including how journal metrics may be skewed or distorted. Intended audience: Oxford students, researchers and other staff.
In this session we will examine article level metrics. We will discuss how citation counting can help identify influential papers in particular fields and how altmetrics provide a different perspective on research output. Using tools such as Web of Science, Google Scholar and Scopus you will learn how to locate different article metrics. The session will also allow you to appreciate the limitations of different metrics and the importance of their cautious interpretation. By the end of the session, you will be familiar with: using Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar to track and count citations to papers and individual researchers; measuring impact using altmetrics; understanding how to contextualise metrics against other, similar papers in a field; and the limitations of different metrics. Intended audience: Oxford students, researchers and other staff.
In this session we will examine metrics for individual researchers. Using tools such as Web of Science, Google Scholar and Scopus you will learn about the researcher h-index and its limitations. You will be introduced to additional metrics tools such as author beamplots which help to contextualise a researcher’s output over time. By the end of the session, you will be familiar with: accessing citation data for specific researchers on Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar; understanding how the h-index is calculated and its inherent limitations; creating an ORCID number to help track all your own research outputs; and the importance of research outputs beyond journal and conference papers when assessing a researcher’s impact. Intended audience: Oxford students, researchers and other staff.
An introduction to the what, why and how of public involvement
