Visiting Speakers

We welcomed an impressive programme of visiting speakers who hosted talks almost every Thursday evening during term time on a diverse range of subjects. Sadly, as lockdown started, we could not continue to get together in person, but we hosted a number of successful online talks for the series #LucyinLockdown.

Many students, alumnae and friends attended and continue to do so on a regular basis. We are always delighted to welcome back our friends and supporters. The talks, both in person and online, continue to be open to the general public too, and are sometimes booked up quickly by groups from the University Departments who come to hear from experts and famous names in their fields.

Thank you to all of our speakers this year.

Formal Hall

Halloween Formal Hall – 31 October. Dr Christopher Smith, British consultant virologist and lecturer based at Cambridge University, talked about his flagship weekly science show ‘the Naked Scientist’.

Medicine and Veterinary Medicine Formal - 7 November. Renowned virologist Professor Ian Goodfellow delivered a talk on the academic theme ‘Connections’ titled ‘Capacity Building and Public Engagement in Post-Ebola Sierra Leone’.

College Community Formal Hall - 14 November. Dinner was followed by the AstraZeneca Speed Mentoring event. Sabine Jaccaud, Director of Cambridge Corporate Affairs at AstraZeneca, talked about the student programmes they offer. Burns Night and History, Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, Music and Theology Formal - 23 January. Dr Heather Thompson discussed why American mass incarceration matters in the UK.

English Formal - 20 Feb. Our Library hosted a display of rare books from the college collection curated by Lucy Alumna Gillian Saxon. Hollie Wells led an informal Q&A on rare books and archives’ work.

Law and Criminology Formal – 27 February. Alumna and Lawyer Busola Johnson discussed what happens when the rule of law crumbles.

#LucyInLockdown

6 May: Interactive Q&A with David Ault, internationally acclaimed voice actor and narrator.

13 May: Discussion about ‘The race of illegality in the face of pervasive border control’ with Dr Lorena Gazzotti, Lucy alumna and Alice Tong Sze Research Fellow.

20 May: College Fellow, The Reverend Canon Adrian Daffern, offered his wisdom and insight as we all find our ‘new normal’.

03 June: Dr Karen Stroobants MRSC, Science Policy Unit Lead at Royal Society of Chemistry shared some insights on how to decide whether to stay in science, or go, what to think about when you decide to change tracks, and what a career in science policy can offer you if that’s a direction you’d be considering.

10 June: An evening of interdisciplinarity, between poetry and engineering. Dr Zhong-Nan Wang gave us an example of using supercomputers to reduce fluid noise of aircrafts. Dr Mary Murphy read a story she wrote through poetry called Dying of Love, Voices of the Unrequited.

17 June: Dr Jane Greatorex helped us understand about the viruses that cause pandemics, in particular SARS-COV2. She covered the virus structure, life cycle, its pathogenesis, how it’s transmitted and why we take the mitigations we do.

Anna Bidder Research Evenings

6 November: Dr Mary Brazelton discussed mass vaccination, citizens’ bodies and state power in modern China. 1 July: Lucy’s Alice Tong Sze Research Fellow and Economic Sociologist, Dr Niamh Mulcahy on ‘Investment into the community: local authorities and the financialisation of welfare provision’.

15 July: Professor Vicky Ann Cremona on ‘Murder, corruption and political activism’ in Malta

22 July: Dr Corinne Duhig explained how human remains can tell the life stories of the deceased.

24 July: During the pandemic and lockdown in particular, every nation has had to put restrictions on the rights we usually take for granted. Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, talked about the way in which the rule of law has suffered in this period.

29 July: Dr Maria Colzani and Dr Maria Rosa Pozzi on the effects of the Covid infection on cardiovascular biology, and a first-hand experience of treating Covid patients in Milan.

Due to the increasing popularity of these talks, the series will continue in Michaelmas Term 2020 as #LiveFromLucy. We hope you will join us online and we are looking forward to seeing you all again at Formal Hall.

4 March: Volcanologist Dr Emma Liu, former Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, talked about drone-based measurements at active volcanoes.