UCL Lunch Hour Lectures: Spring 2023

Date of lecture: Thursday 12 January 2023

About the Lecture:
UK science has chronic diversity issues and shortages of specialist teachers in schools. Orbyts is a multi-award-winning movement founded at UCL, and now running across the UK, that creates partnerships between scientists and schools that are proven to address these issues. The programme provides school students with relatable science role models while empowering them to conduct original research projects. This structure of regular interventions, inspirational role models and active ownership of research is proving to be transformative; dispelling harmful stereotypes and profoundly shifting perceptions of science and scientists. It is particularly impactful for groups historically excluded from science. For example, our partner schools report 100% increases in girls uptake of A-level physics, following participation in an Orbyts project at GCSE. The programme has enabled more than 220 school students to become authors of scientific papers in the last 5 years. 
This year, Orbyts researchers will partner with schools to support research projects on: medical physics, exoplanets, aurorae, AI and machine learning, plasma, space weather and quantum physics.  Dr William Dunn will showcase a whistle-stop tour through some of last year's Orbyts projects, where possible letting recorded presentations by the schools do the talking.  

A﻿bout the Speaker:
Dr. William Dunn, Ernest Rutherford Fellowship at UCL Astrophysics group

Orbyts: Research-with-Schools Projects that Transform Inclusivity in Science

Date of Lecture: Thursday 19 January 2023

About the Lecture:
After the Second World War new international rules heralded an age of human rights and self-determination. Supported by Britain, these unprecedented changes sought to end the scourge of colonialism. 
Yet in the 1960s, a secret decision was taken to offer the US a base at Diego Garcia, one of the islands of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, create a new colony (the ‘British Indian Ocean Territory’) and deport the entire local population. 
For four decades the government of Mauritius fought for the return of Chagos. In 2019, the World Court in The Hague, which ruled that Britain illegally detached Chagos, that the islands belonged to Mauritius, and that the UK must end its illegal occupation. 
For three years Britain resisted the ruling. A few weeks ago, however, it changed its mind, and began negotiations with Mauritius to return the islands and allow the Chagossians to resettle. 
Philippe Sands shares a story about the making of modern international law and the fight for justice, as told in his new book The Last Colony.

A﻿bout the speaker:
Philippe Sands QC is Professor of Law at University College London and Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard.

Lunch Hour Lecture | The Last Colony

Date of Lecture: Tuesday 24 January 2023

About the Lecture:
Ukraine’s Jewish history has come into focus in multiple ways since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Russia has abused the history of World War II and the Holocaust in justifying its aggression, while the fact that Ukraine has a wildly popular Jewish president challenges notions of the country as antisemitic. Meanwhile, Russian bombs have fallen on important Holocaust memorial sites inside Ukraine. To better understand the significance of all this, it is important to examine the long, rich, and often difficult history of Ukrainian-Jewish cultural interaction and tension that lies behind it. The lecture will outline how Ukrainian and Jewish cultures, as they struggled to assert themselves within repressive imperial contexts, grew apart, yet also managed to find surprising moments of dialogue. This history, if it is recovered with sensitivity and openness, can be a great cultural resource in forging a new Ukraine after the ongoing war.
A﻿bout the speaker:
Uilleam Blacker, Associate Professor of Ukrainian and East European Studies at UCL SSEES.

Together & apart: remembering Jewish Ukraine in the context of empire & war

Date of Lecture: 31 January 2023

About the Lecture:
The UCL Energy Transitions Modelling Lab has developed a series of energy system models over the last 20 years that have had a profound impact on UK energy policy.  The most recent model, UK TIMES, was used by the UK Government to develop scenarios for both the Clean Growth Strategy and the Net Zero Strategy.  These models straddle the boundaries between economics, engineering and the natural environment.  In this lecture, we will dissect the UK TIMES model to explore how it works, its strengths and weaknesses, and how it can be used (and misused) by policymakers and researchers.  We will then consider future developments of the model and how it could help us to plan a low-carbon transition where you live.

A﻿bout the Speaker:
Paul Dodds, Professor of Energy Systems at UCL Energy Institute

Lunch Hour Lecture | Building the foundations of the UK’s Net Zero Strategy

Date of Lecture: Thursday 15 June 2023

About the Lecture:
Several neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric circuit disorders are characterized by intermittent episodes of pathological activity. Although genetic therapies offer the ability to modulate neuronal excitability, a limiting factor is that they do not discriminate between neurons involved in circuit pathologies and ‘healthy’ surrounding/intermingled neurons. Dr Lignani will present his recent study where he described a gene therapy strategy that down-regulates the excitability of overactive neurons in closed loop and tested it in models of epilepsy as proof of principle. This novel way of thinking can be applied to many neurological diseases such as schizophrenia, autism and migraine. Activity-dependent gene therapy is a promising on-demand cell-autonomous treatment for all brain circuit disorders. 

A﻿bout the speaker:
Dr Gabriele Lignani is an Associate Professor at UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology in the Department of Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy. He received his PhD in 2012 in Experimental Neuroscience from the University of Genoa and he did his first postdoc at the Italian Institute of Technology. Then he moved to UCL for his second postdoc and was awarded a Marie-Curie individual fellowship to develop new CRISPR-based editing tools to treat epilepsy. In 2018 he started his own lab as Epilepsy Research UK Emerging Leader to further develop novel gene therapies for epilepsy. He then obtained an MRC New Investigator Award to develop new CRISPR-based technologies and obtained several other discovery and translational grants. He is board member of several committees and Associate editor for Frontiers in Gene Editing and Contributing Editor for Epilepsy Currents; he also leads the Athena Swan initiative for gender balance in his Institute. Recently he has been awarded the Harinarayan Young Scientist Award by ILAE for his research in gene therapy for epilepsy, and the Michael Prize 2023 for the best scientific contribution to progress in the field of experimental epilepsy. The focus of his lab is to develop gene therapy and editing techniques for neurological disorders, to study the role of homeostatic plasticity in epilepsy and understand the basic epileptic mechanisms.

Novel ways to treat the brain with gene therapy

Date of Lecture: Tuesday 23 May 2023

About the Lecture:
Taking action to reduce health inequalities is a matter of social justice. In developing strategies for tackling health inequalities we need to confront the social gradient in health not just the difference between the worst off and everybody else.  There is clear evidence when we look across countries that national policies make a difference and that much can be done in cities, towns and local areas. But policies and interventions must not be confined to the health care system; they need to address the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age.  The evidence shows that economic circumstances are important but are not the only drivers of health inequalities. Tackling the health gap will take action, based on sound evidence, across the whole of society.

A﻿bout the speaker:
Professor Sir Michael G. Marmot CH, MBBS, MPH, PhD, FRCP, FFPHM, FMedSci, FBA, Director of the Institute of Health Equity at UCL Department of Epidemiology & Public Health

Social justice and health equity

Date of Lecture: Thursday 25 May 2023

About the Lecture:
Human populations are getting older. Older age is associated with a broad functional decline and increased susceptibility to disease. But what determines how we age? Most of the variation in human longevity is due to environment. Intriguingly, environments encountered throughout our life appear to shape our old age. We have been using the fruit fly to understand how conditions encountered in youth impact later-life health. Our recent findings point to persistent changes in gene expression as a mechanism linking early experiences with later health. Such understanding of the biology of ageing may provide us with the means to improve human health in older ages.

A﻿bout the speaker:
Dr Nazif Alic is an Associate Professor at the UCL Institute of Healthy Ageing. The work in his laboratory aims to understand how the ageing process can be modified, specifically though changes in gene expression.

Early life experiences shape later life health

Date of Lecture: Tuesday 25 April 2023

About the lecture:
When Joe Biden entered the Oval Office in 2021, he promised to heal America from four turbulent years of Donald Trump. Since that time, however, partisan polarization hasn’t waned in the United States, and many critics have accused Biden of abandoning his original pledge to govern from the center in favor of a bolder, more progressive agenda. More than two years into his presidency, and with uncertainty surrounding his and the Democratic Party’s future, which depiction of Biden is more accurate? Where has Biden succeeded in fulfilling his goals, and where has he fallen short? And how will he approach the final two years of his term in office? 

A﻿bout the speaker:
Thomas Gift is Associate Professor of Political Science at UCL. As founding director of UCL's Centre on US Politics.

Joe Biden: Moderate Pragmatist, or Progressive Trailblazer?

Date of Lecture: Thursday 8 June 2023

About the Lecture:
The UK is experiencing its biggest wave of industrial action in over a decade following a long period of wage stagnation for many, particularly in the public sector.  At the same time union membership has been in decline for four decades, raising questions about the future of trade unions.  Just how relevant are they in the modern workplace? What influence do they have over outcomes that matter to workers and to employers, and what can unions do to improve working conditions and productivity in Britain?  Professor Alex Bryson will draw on empirical evidence from his own research and that of others to explain what unions do, both in the UK and elsewhere, and what we can expect from them in the future. 

A﻿bout the speaker:
Professor of Quantitative Social Science at UCL’s Social Research Institute.

Are Trade Unions Still Relevant Today?

Date of lecture: Tuesday 2 May 2023

About the lecture:
Anxiety can be physically, emotionally and socially debilitating. Left untreated, anxiety is associated with other serious illnesses and self-harm. This lecture summarises the recent increase in anxiety recorded in primary care, compares available drug treatments, and examines the treatments used for anxiety in UK primary care. We will also discuss the impact of the pandemic on pre-existing anxiety trends, and what will likely be needed to address anxiety going forward.

A﻿bout the speaker:
April Slee received her PhD in Primary Care and Population Health at UCL in 2022. She has worked as a biostatistician on design and analysis of clinical trials for the past 21 years, and is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the UCL Institute of Clinical Trials and Methodology.

Do we live in more anxious times and are we equipped to deal with them?

Date of Lecture: Thursday 11 May 2023

About the Lecture:
Complaints at the high cost of ‘childcare’ keep coming - but high cost is just one symptom of a dysfunctional early childhood system in England, spanning services and parenting leave, a system that fails children, parents and society. Successive governments tweak and fiddle, avoiding the hard work of analysing and fixing systemic faults. Based on 50 years research at the Thomas Coram Research Unit (now part of UCL), and on how England and Sweden responded to similar problems with very different results, Peter Moss will offer a diagnosis of the state we find ourselves in today in England - and a possible course of treatment, starting with dropping our national obsession with ‘childcare’. 

A﻿bout the speaker:
Peter Moss, Emeritus Professor at Thomas Coram Research Unit at UCL

Farewell to childcare: transforming England’s broken early childhood system

Date of Lecture: Thursday 18 May 2023

About the lecture:
This lecture will describe recent research that exposed the fact that there is no convincing evidence to support the claim that depression is caused by low serotonin. It will describe the author’s previous work which challenges the general idea that the drugs prescribed for mental health problems work by targeting an underlying biological abnormality. It will present an alternative explanation for the action of these drugs that highlights how they are substances that change normal brain chemistry and thereby modify normal mental activity and behaviour. Finally it will consider what this means for the use of drugs such as antidepressants, and suggest that we need to fundamentally re-evaluate the pros and cons of using them. 

A﻿bout the speaker:
Joanna Moncrieff is a Professor of Critical and Social Psychiatry at University College London.

Debunking the chemical imbalance theory of depression

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