Professor Steven Connor: Quantum writing: literature and the world of numbers

Roger Mosey, Master of Selwyn College and former BBC executive, delivers a public lecture at Madingley Hall on 18 November 2015. Roger’s roles at the BBC included being editor of the Today programme, head of Television News and director of Sport, before being put in charge of the BBC’s coverage of London 2012. In this lecture, he talks about lessons from his career in broadcasting and also about the opportunities for the established media to be a force for good in the digital world.

Dr Alison Pearn, Associate Director of the Darwin Correspondence Project, delivers a public lecture at Madingley Hall on 2 July 2015. In it she argues that putting the public Darwin back into his personal context makes both the man and his ideas come alive in fascinating new ways for modern audiences.

Professor David Cardwell, Head of the Department of Engineering at Cambridge, delivers a public lecture at Madingley Hall on 11 May 2015. In it he describes the properties of superconductors, their manufacture and their potential for engineering applications, which include frictionless bearings, energy storage systems, MRI and high field permanent magnets.

Professor Geoff Ward, Principal of Homerton College Cambridge, delivers a public lecture at Madingley Hall on 3 March 2015. In it he tries to get to the source of the discomfort that many readers experience in their encounters with modern poetry.

Lord Browne of Madingley, Member of the House of Lords and former Chief Executive of BP, delivers a public lecture at Madingley Hall on 8 October 2014. John Browne (Lord Browne of Madingley) was CEO of BP from 1995 to 2007, where he built a reputation as a visionary leader, transforming BP into one of the world’s largest companies. He was the President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a foreign member of the US Academy of Arts and Sciences and Chairman of the Trustees of the Tate Galleries. He holds degrees from Cambridge and Stanford Universities, was knighted in 1998, and made a life peer in 2001. The lecture is chaired by Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, and introduced by Dr Rebecca Lingwood, Director of Continuing Education. Please note that the lecture proper begins at the 04:28 minute point in the video.

Professor Ian Cross, Director of the Centre for Music and Science at the University of Cambridge, delivers a public lecture at Madingley Hall on 6 May 2014. Since 1980 Prof Cross has been involved in experimental investigations of the perception of tonal structures as well as of the role of culture and formal education in shaping musical cognition. He has explored the general limits and constraints on scientific accounts of music and is particularly involved in research into the relation between music and evolutionary theory. He is the author of over a hundred papers and book chapters, and was co-editor of Musical Structure and Cognition (1985) and Representing Musical Structure (1991), both published by Academic Press. More recently, he has co-edited the Oxford Handbook of Music Psychology and the volume Language and Music as Cognitive Systems (2011), both published by OUP. Ian Cross is also a guitarist. The lecture is chaired by Professor John Rallison, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education at Cambridge, and introduced by Dr Rebecca Lingwood, Director of Continuing Education. Please note that the lecture proper begins at the 03:25 minute point in the video.

Professor Stephen Emmott, Head of Computational Science at Microsoft Research Cambridge and author of '10 Billion', delivers a public lecture at Madingley Hall on 2 April 2014. Prof Emmott leads an international, interdisciplinary research programme and scientific team, centred on Microsoft's Computational Science Laboratory, in Cambridge, whose goal is to make, enable and accelerate transformational advances in science in areas of societal importance. His team is responsible for developing the Madingley Model – so called because it was first proposed during a meeting at Madingley Hall between UNEP-WCMC and the CEES group at Microsoft Research. The Madingley Model is a global ecosystem model (GEM) which simulates how the structure and function of ecosystems at global scales emerges from the underlying ecology of individual organisms. The lecture is chaired by Professor Paul Linden, G I Taylor Professor of Fluid Mechanics at Cambridge, and introduced by Dr Rebecca Lingwood, Director of Continuing Education. Please note that the lecture proper begins at the 04:08 minute point in the video.

Professor Nicola Clayton and Clive Wilkins, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, deliver a public lecture at Madingley Hall on 21 January 2014. The lecture is chaired by Professor Trevor Robbins, Head of the Department of Psychology at Cambridge, and introduced by Dr Rebecca Lingwood, Director of Continuing Education. Please note that the lecture proper begins at the 03:30 minute point in the video.

Professor Alison Sinclair, Professor of Modern Spanish Literature and Intellectual History at the University of Cambridge, delivers a public lecture at Madingley Hall on 23 October 2013. The lecture is chaired by Professor Manuel Eisner, Professor of Comparative and Developmental Criminology at Cambridge, and introduced by Dr Rebecca Lingwood, Director of Continuing Education. Please note that the lecture proper begins at the 03:53 minute point in the video.

Professor Steven Connor, Grace 2 Professor of English at the University of Cambridge, delivers a public lecture at Madingley Hall on 13 June 2013. The lecture is chaired by Professor Helen Cooper, Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at the University of Cambridge, and introduced by Dr Rebecca Lingwood, Director of Continuing Education. Please note that the lecture proper begins at the 03:55 minute point in the video.