List of past events OUR PROGRAMME Our lectures are open to the public and intended for a non-specialist audience. Subjects and their speakers have included the following: 2016 - 2017 Bitcoins, Blockchains and smart contractsProfessor William Knottenbelt The future of artificial intelligenceProfessor Murray Shanahan Synthetic biologyProf Richard Kitney Large Hadron Collider updateProfessor Paul Dauncey Transitioning to low carbon energyProfessor Geoffrey Maitland Quantum physics on stageDr Simon Foster and masters students Soiree: Interdisciplinary innovationDr Nick de Leon The compatibility geneProfessor Daniel Davis Quantum gravityProfessor Fay Dowker Why is life the way it is?Dr Nick Lane Turning the tables on cancerProfessor Charles Coombes Is there Life below Antarctic Ice?Professor Martin Siegert 2015 – 2016 Water: weirdest chemical in the universeAlok Jha, science correspondent ITV News Healing the BrainProfessor David Sharp Improbably things always happenProfessor David Hand Adventures in the AnthropoceneGaia Vince, Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books Quantum mechanics in a nutshellDr Simon Foster and his CQD physics students Mountains, magmas and mushesProfessor Matthew Jackson Soiree: Antarctic honours and hazardsRoderick Rhys Jones, Chairman Friends SABRE - a novel rocket engineDr Robert Bond Science policy advice to GovernmentProfessor Sir Mark Walport 2014 - 2015 Modelling the HeartProf Peter Kohl The random universeProfesssor Andrew Jaffe Matter from LightProf Steven Rose Soiree: moon SymphonyPaul Gladstone Read MBE Solar revolutionEmeritus Professor Keith Barnham Stuff matterProfessor Mark Miodownik Landing on comets and moonsProfessor David Southwood Quantum showcase: joushellDr Simon Foster and his CQD physics students Blue green city dreamProfessor Cedo Maksimovic Epidemiology of TwinsProf Tim Spector Creating artificial cellsDr Oscar Ces Bio-inspired aerial vehiclesDr Mirko Kovak A biography of General RelativityProfessor Pedro Ferreira 2013 - 2014 Brain sex; - health and diseaseProfessor Glenda Gillies Food, water and energy securityProfessor Sir John Beddington The search for dark matterProf Alan Heavens The battle against influenzaProf Peter Openshaw Data is the new oilProfessor Yike Guo Graphene: super materialProfessor Neil Alford My conversion to scienceBaroness Eliza Manningham-Buller 2012 -2013 Engineering novel biological systemsProfessor Richard Kitney OBE, FREng Changing human behaviorProfessor Nelson Phillips Driving the Mars RoverProf Sanjeev Gupta Amazing quantum worldsDr Simon Foster and CQD physics students The origin of our speciesProfessor Chris Stringer, NHM Breaking into the brainDr Aldo Faisal Unveiling the secrets of the universeProfessor Sir Tejinder Virdee 2011 - 2012 The extended mindDr Rupert Shelldrake Celebrating chemistryEmeritus Professor David Philips OBE Genomics: 21st century MedicineProfessor Timothy Aitman Oddities of physicsDr Simon Foster and his CQD students Where does life come from?Dr Zita Martins Plastic electronic revolutionProfessor Donal Bradley Changing lives globallyProfessor the Lord Darzi of Denham 2010 – 2011 The end of ageingProfessor Nadia Rosenthal Does the Sun drive our Climate?Professor Joanna Haigh Can humanity survive in the information age?Emeritus Professor Igor Aleksander Chaotic cards and dynamic diceDr Frank Berkshire Swarm robotics drug delivery?Dr Frantisek Stepanek Does God play dice?Dr Antony Valentini 2009-10 Self-healing broken heartsProfessor Michael Schneider Engineering and emotionDr Chris Wise Nazi persecution: Britain's science gift Dr Ralph Kohn Seeing is believing – eye and brainProfessor Christopher Kennard Theatre of the Quantum AbsurdDr Nic Harrigan and his troupe of CQD physicists Extraterrestrial life in the solar system?Professor Michele Dougherty FRS How cells switch genes "on" and "off"Professor Richard Festenstein Hunt for the Higgs BosonProfessor Jordan Nash 2008 - 2009 Is human evolution over? Professor Stephen Jones The eco-cities of ChinaDr Peter Head Eleven dimensions of the Unifying TheoryProfessor Michael Duff Alternative medicine or trickeryDr Simon Singh The evolution of musicProfessor Armand Leroi Can science make you happy?Professor Lord Robert Winston 2007 – 2008 Great technologies shaping the 20th CenturyProfessor David Egerton Nanotechnology in magnetic materials Professor Russell Cowburn The biological rationale for beliefsProfessor Lewis Wolpert Why Americans play BaseballProfessor Stefan Szymanski 2006 – 2007 Invisible cloaks and a perfect spyglassProfessor Sir John Pendry, FRS Relieving forgotten diseasesProfessor Alan Fenwick Upgrading humans technicallyProfessor Kevin Warwick Imperial Innovations flotationDr Susan Searle, Chief Executive 2005 – 2006 The emergent mindEmeritus Professor Igor Aleksander FREng Mad cows, monkeys, and Chinese ducks Professor Sir Roy Anderson Planes, trains and automobilesProfessor Rod Smith 2004 - 2005 Big BangDr Simon Singh MBE Curing rheumatoid diseasesProfessor Sir Ravinder Maini Is sustainability achievableJulia Marton Lefevre 2003 - 2004 Spinning goldDr Susan Searle, CEO Imperial Innovations Imaging our bodiesProfessor Richard Kitney The evolution of female promiscuity Dr Olivia Judson 2002 – 2003 Railways of Britain: quo vadisProfesssor Rod Smith Cognitive neuroscienceProfessor John Gruzelier The hunger hormoneProfessor Sir Stephen Bloom Behind-the-scenes visits Friends organises a series of visits to laboratories at the College for members and their guests. They have included: Environmental Engineering The Energy Futures Lab St Mary’s Academic Health Centre NHS Trust The Porter Institute Institute of Systems and Synthetic Biology Grantham Institute for Climate Change The Institute of Biomedical Engineering Nanostructured Materials and Devices Group Institute for security science and technology The Institute of Mathematical Sciences Department of Materials Lifelong Health Project Silwood Park Postgraduate study of ecology, evolution, and conservation Blyth Center for Music and Visual Art Imperial Centre for Translational and Experimental Medicine Photonics Group Dyson Robotics Lab Data Science Institute Next Generation Neural Interfaces Lab Imperial Bio-engineering and Royal British Legion Centre for Blast Injury Studies Science visits Friends organises a series of member only visits to laboratories outside the College. They have included: Diamond Light Facility, Harwell Science Park Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot Natural History Museum, South Kensington Imperial White City Campus Orion Laser, Aldermaston Science Museum Collider Exhibition Diamond Light, Harwell Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire University of London Observatory, Mill Hill Heritage Tour of the Royal Institution, Mayfair JET Tokamak, Culham Science tours Friends have organised a number of tours to European science facilities where Imperial College has links including: Visits to CERN to view the Large Hadron Collider, a visit to the Science Museum on the waterfront in Geneva and a talk about the city’s links with science in the old town. A five-day Science in Tuscany tour, included a guided tour of the stabilising of the Leaning Tower of Pisa by Professor John Burland; the European Gravitational Wave Observatory, Pisa; the science and technology departments at Pisa and Florence Universities; and the Galileo Museum in Florence. A group joined a three week tour of the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the Antarctic led by the Chairman of Friends in 2015. Social events The Chairman and committee members are keen to make everyone who attends the lectures feel welcome. They are greeted on arrival and after each lecture they are encouraged to join the speaker, members and other guests for a glass of wine. In addition there is a lively Friends supper table at a local restaurant after our lectures when we entertain the speaker. Each summer we entertain our speakers and college academics and students to a Summer Party which has been jointly sponsored by the College for the last two years. Friends has also contributed to the Imperial Festival held in May by organizing discussions with science authors on their books. Membership and benefits Membership is £20 a year. Members have the satisfaction of helping to promote the public understanding of science and benefit from reduced prices for tickets for public lectures. In addition they have the opportunity to attend a number of member-only events with a guest. Public lecture prices are £12.00 non-members, Members £5.00, Member’s Guest £10.00, Staff £5.00, Students £3.00 and school pupils free. Join Friends