keble college

Mark Goldring describes his distinguished career in international development, including his role as Chief Executive of Oxfam. Drawing upon his own experiences in Borneo, Bangladesh, Syria and beyond, he highlights the causes of poverty, and solutions. In this podcast interview, Goldring identifies the major global challenges ahead, including conflict, climate change and inequality, and he shows how Oxfam is tackling them through long-term development projects and humanitarian relief. Goldring also speaks about the humility and confidence he gained at Oxford, where he studied Law as an undergraduate.

Professor Gui-Qiang G. Chen presents in his inaugural lecture several examples to illustrate the origins, developments, and roles of partial differential equations in our changing world. While calculus is a mathematical theory concerned with change, differential equations are the mathematician's foremost aid for describing change. In the simplest case, a process depends on one variable alone, for example time. More complex phenomena depend on several variables - perhaps time and, in addition, one, two or three space variables. Such processes require the use of partial differential equations. The behaviour of every material object in nature, with timescales ranging from picoseconds to millennia and length scales ranging from sub-atomic to astronomical, can be modeled by nonlinear partial differential equations or by equations with similar features. The roles of partial differential equations within mathematics and in the other sciences become increasingly significant. The mathematical theory of partial differential equations has a long history. In the recent decades, the subject has experienced a vigorous growth, and research is marching on at a brisk pace.

Professor Daniel Javitch (Emeritus Prof. Comparative Literature, New York University) gives a talk for the Keble College ASC Creativity lecture series on 28th May 2013.

Professor Richard Sennett (London School of Economics) gives a talk for the Keble College seminar series.

Professor Helen Hackett gives a talk for the Keble College Seminar Series on 26th April 2013.

Prof. Margaret Boden (Philosophy, Sussex) delivers a lecture as part of the Keble College Creativity series. Creativity is likely to remain a neuroscientific mystery for many years. Of the three types of creativity (combinational, exploratory, and transformational), only the first has been significantly illuminated by neuroscience. And even that is not fully understood in neural terms. The other two are even more recalcitrant. This is due to difficulty in defining thinking styles in art or science, and in identifying the various computational processes that are involved in using them. Without doing that, helpful neuroscientific questions simply cannot arise. One key problem is that hierarchical systems -- including many creative "styles"-- cannot yet be effectively represented by (connectionist) computer models inspired by the neural networks in the brain. Another is the difficulty of explaining the recognition of relevance in computational/theoretical terms.

Professor Susan Greenfield explains how neuroscience can make innovative contributions to creativity by offering a perspective at the level of the physical brain.

Professor Susan Greenfield explains how neuroscience can make innovative contributions to creativity by offering a perspective at the level of the physical brain.

Professor Steve Rayner (University of Oxford) presents creative and innovative potential solutions to the energy crisis and problems caused by climate change. Steve Rayner is Director of the Insitute for Science, Innovation and Society (InSIS) at the Saïd Business School of the University of Oxford, from where he also directs the Oxford Programme on the Future of Cities. He is also a Professorial Fellow of Keble College, Oxford and Honorary Professor of Climate Change and Society at the University of Copenhagen. His most recent book is Unnatural Selection: The Challenges of Engineering Tomorrow's People (Earthscan, 2009).

Professor Steve Rayner (University of Oxford) presents creative and innovative potential solutions to the energy crisis and problems caused by climate change. Steve Rayner is Director of the Insitute for Science, Innovation and Society (InSIS) at the Saïd Business School of the University of Oxford, from where he also directs the Oxford Programme on the Future of Cities. He is also a Professorial Fellow of Keble College, Oxford and Honorary Professor of Climate Change and Society at the University of Copenhagen. His most recent book is Unnatural Selection: The Challenges of Engineering Tomorrow's People (Earthscan, 2009).

Tim Ingold (University of Aberdeen) discusses his current research, on the comparative anthropology of the line, exploring issues on the interface between anthropology, archaeology, art and architecture. Tim Ingold is Professor of Social Anthropology and Head of the School of Social Science at the University of Aberdeen. He has carried out ethnographic fieldwork in Lapland, and has written on the role of animals in human society, on language and tool use, and on environmental perception and skilled practice. His key publications include: Evolution and Social Life (Cambridge University Press), Tools, Language and Cognition in Human Evolution (co-edited, with Kathleen Gibson, Cambridge University Press), The Perception of the Environment (Routledge) and Lines: A Brief History (Routledge).

Tim Ingold (University of Aberdeen) discusses his current research, on the comparative anthropology of the line, exploring issues on the interface between anthropology, archaeology, art and architecture. Tim Ingold is Professor of Social Anthropology and Head of the School of Social Science at the University of Aberdeen. He has carried out ethnographic fieldwork in Lapland, and has written on the role of animals in human society, on language and tool use, and on environmental perception and skilled practice. His key publications include: Evolution and Social Life (Cambridge University Press), Tools, Language and Cognition in Human Evolution (co-edited, with Kathleen Gibson, Cambridge University Press), The Perception of the Environment (Routledge) and Lines: A Brief History (Routledge).

Professor Richard Harper (Microsoft Research, Cambridge) presents on how to design for 'being human' in an age when human-as-machine type metaphors, deriving from Turing and others, tend to dominate thinking in the area. Richard Harper is Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research in Cambridge and co-manages the Socio-Digital Systems group. Trained as a sociologist, he has recently published his book, Texture: Human expression in the age of communication overload, (MIT Press).Amongst his prior books is the IEEE award winning The Myth of the Paperless Office (MIT Press), co-authored with Abi Sellen. He is currently working on an edited collection called At Home with Smart Technologies: the future of domestic life (Springer). His work is not only theoretical or sociological, but also includes the design of real and functioning systems, for work and for home settings, for mobile devices and for social networking sites. Numerous patents have derived from his work.

Professor Richard Harper (Microsoft Research, Cambridge) presents on how to design for 'being human' in an age when human-as-machine type metaphors, deriving from Turing and others, tend to dominate thinking in the area. Richard Harper is Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research in Cambridge and co-manages the Socio-Digital Systems group. Trained as a sociologist, he has recently published his book, Texture: Human expression in the age of communication overload, (MIT Press).Amongst his prior books is the IEEE award winning The Myth of the Paperless Office (MIT Press), co-authored with Abi Sellen. He is currently working on an edited collection called At Home with Smart Technologies: the future of domestic life (Springer). His work is not only theoretical or sociological, but also includes the design of real and functioning systems, for work and for home settings, for mobile devices and for social networking sites. Numerous patents have derived from his work.

Professor Gui-Qiang G. Chen presents in his inaugural lecture several examples to illustrate the origins, developments, and roles of partial differential equations in our changing world. While calculus is a mathematical theory concerned with change, differential equations are the mathematician's foremost aid for describing change. In the simplest case, a process depends on one variable alone, for example time. More complex phenomena depend on several variables - perhaps time and, in addition, one, two or three space variables. Such processes require the use of partial differential equations. The behaviour of every material object in nature, with timescales ranging from picoseconds to millennia and length scales ranging from sub-atomic to astronomical, can be modeled by nonlinear partial differential equations or by equations with similar features. The roles of partial differential equations within mathematics and in the other sciences become increasingly significant. The mathematical theory of partial differential equations has a long history. In the recent decades, the subject has experienced a vigorous growth, and research is marching on at a brisk pace.

Professor Gui-Qiang G. Chen presents in his inaugural lecture several examples to illustrate the origins, developments, and roles of partial differential equations in our changing world. While calculus is a mathematical theory concerned with change, differential equations are the mathematician's foremost aid for describing change. In the simplest case, a process depends on one variable alone, for example time. More complex phenomena depend on several variables - perhaps time and, in addition, one, two or three space variables. Such processes require the use of partial differential equations. The behaviour of every material object in nature, with timescales ranging from picoseconds to millennia and length scales ranging from sub-atomic to astronomical, can be modeled by nonlinear partial differential equations or by equations with similar features. The roles of partial differential equations within mathematics and in the other sciences become increasingly significant. The mathematical theory of partial differential equations has a long history. In the recent decades, the subject has experienced a vigorous growth, and research is marching on at a brisk pace.