Series of Professorial Lectures
2017/18
‘ACCOUNTING: POLITICS, PRACTICE & EMANCIPATORY POTENTIAL’ BY PROFESSOR LOUISE CRAWFORD Professor of Accountancy at Robert Gordon University
WEDNESDAY 29 NOVEMBER 2017 6pm followed by refreshments The Sir Ian Wood Building | RGU’s Garthdee campus | Garthdee Road | Aberdeen
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Professor Louise Crawford is Director of Research at RGU’s Aberdeen Business School, with a remit to build the university’s research capacity and capability in accounting, finance, management and organisational studies. A Chartered Accountant, Professor Crawford trained with KPMG and became a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland after completing her PhD at the University of Edinburgh. Professor Crawford’s personal research agenda is to contribute to influencing contemporary research debates and directions in her discipline across areas she feels particularly passionate about. In so doing, she is committed to ensuring her research has an impact on business and society, towards facilitating equality, diversity and fairness. In her lecture, Professor Crawford will explore how politics and power influence accounting practice, in the context of globalisation. She will then explore the extent to which a transnational social movement organisation, campaigning for transparency in the extractive sector, has been successful in mobilising emancipatory accounting change across the globe, in pursuit of improving the lives of women, men and children in resource-rich countries.
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‘EMPTY BUSES & ANGRY CROFTERS: TRANSPORT IN REMOTE, RURAL & ISLAND SCOTLAND’ BY PROFESSOR DAVID GRAY Professor of Transport Policy at Robert Gordon University
WEDNESDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2018 6pm followed by refreshments The Sir Ian Wood Building | RGU’s Garthdee campus Garthdee Road | Aberdeen
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David Gray is Professor of Transport Policy in the School of Creative and Cultural Business at RGU, where he is also Strategic Lead for Research. Professor Gray is a Board member of the Highlands and Islands Regional Transport Partnership. He was seconded to the Scottish Government as an advisor during the preparation of Scotland’s National Transport Strategy, as well as on rural transport to the UK Commission for Integrated Transport. Professor Gray’s lecture will explore the issue of transport and journey-making in Scotland’s remote, rural and island communities. He will reflect on 20 years of research in the field and will consider issues such as: ·
The relationship between remoteness, accessibility and car dependence
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Empty buses, austerity and how to get better value for money from rural public transport
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Whether green transport is a ‘city luxury’ in areas where transport is a carbon intensive ‘lifeline’?
He will conclude the lecture by considering the relationship between transport and changing ways of life in remote and island communities. In particular, he will ponder the impact of high fuel prices and an angry crofter’s prediction that rising pump prices would be “more effective than the Duke of Sutherland in clearing the Highlands”.
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‘THE FUTURE OF CHRONIC DISEASE SELF-MANAGEMENT: SMART SENSORS, DEEP DATA, PERSONALISED MODELS AND AI’ BY PROFESSOR NIRMALIE WIRATUNGA Professor of Intelligent Systems Research at Robert Gordon University
WEDNESDAY 28 MARCH 2018 6pm followed by refreshments The Sir Ian Wood Building | RGU’s Garthdee campus Garthdee Road | Aberdeen
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Nirmalie Wiratunga is Professor of Intelligent Systems at RGU’s School of Computing Science and Digital Media. She has more than 15 years of research experience in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), with interests in theoretical and practical aspects of machine learning and intelligent systems, focussing on the rapidly growing problem solving field of case-based reasoning (CBR). Her PhD on machine learning and knowledge refinement was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the UK’s main agency for funding research in engineering and the physical sciences. Professor Wiratunga is a key figure in the international CBR community and has pioneered semantic indexing knowledge discovery methods for CBR. In 2004 she won best paper at the European CBR Conference, which she later applied to incident reporting tasks for the European Space Agency. Professor Wiratunga currently leads RGU’s contributions to several funded projects. Professor Wiratunga’s lecture will explore the application of CBR in the context of sensing and digital health applications. She will present the key concepts and methods in relation to Traxivity, a Human Activity Recognition (HAR) component developed by RGU as part of the European H2020 Selfback EU project. She will discuss how machine learning algorithms are being used to extract features from data to recognise physical activity, monitor achievement of activity goals and the use of interactive notifications to motivate users. The lecture will also explore how personalised (HAR) models and notifications can be generated using methods borrowed from CBR research. Series of Professorial Lectures 2017/18
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‘THE WATER ALCHEMIST’ BY PROFESSOR LINDA LAWTON Professor of Environmental Microbiology at Robert Gordon University
WEDNESDAY 18 APRIL 2018 6pm followed by refreshments The Sir Ian Wood Building | RGU’s Garthdee campus | Garthdee Road | Aberdeen
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Professor Linda Lawton is Chair of Environmental Microbiology based at RGU’s School of Pharmacy and Life Sciences. Professor Lawton joined RGU in 1994 where she established her research group, CyanoSol, which works to develop sustainable solutions for algae related problems in the aquatic environment in parallel with the exploitation of their diverse biosynthetic capabilities. With a research career spanning over 30 years, Professor Lawton has been instrumental in developing methods to detect toxins and purify them, and has collaborated worldwide on innovative research, informing government, industry and NGOs. Water is essential to all life on earth, however there is surprisingly little suitable for human use. In addition to the several litres of fresh, clean water we individually consume to live every day, we each use hundreds of litres a day in the home and thousands of litres in farming, manufacturing and other industries. Many of our activities poison the very water that we are so dependent on. As populations grow and our climate warms we need to use our water resources more wisely and develop methods to ensure that it is safe to drink. This lecture will explore the value of water, what happens when things go wrong and our new discoveries which will bring sustainable solutions. What’s more, the murk and slime of polluted waters have a silver lining as they produce chemicals which are ten thousand times more valuable than gold.
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‘MAKING THE TREND YOUR FRIEND’ BY PROFESSOR PAUL DE LEEUW Director of the Oil and Gas Institute at Robert Gordon University
WEDNESDAY 16 MAY 2018 6pm followed by light refreshments The Sir Ian Wood Building | RGU’s Garthdee campus | Garthdee Road | Aberdeen
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An energy industry veteran, Professor Paul de Leeuw was appointed Director of RGU’s Oil and Gas Institute in 2014. With a career spanning over 30 years, Professor de Leeuw has worked for a number of companies, including Shell, Marathon Oil, Amoco, BP, Venture Production and Centrica Energy. His broad business and deep commercial background includes senior leadership roles in strategy, commercial, business development, planning and supply chain. He is currently Chairman of the Oil and Gas Innovation Centre, Chairman of PlanSea, a Board member of the Oil and Gas Technology Centre and Vice-chairman of Robert Gordon College. He is also a regular commentator on developments in the oil and gas industry. Professor de Leeuw will deliver an insightful lecture which will shed light on some of the key trends affecting our lives at the moment and discuss the implications that these trends may have on how we live and work in the future. Professor de Leeuw will draw on his career to also explore what these trends could mean for the energy industry and for the people working in the oil and gas sector.
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‘TOWARDS AN ECOLOGY OF BIRTH’ BY PROFESSOR SUSAN CROWTHER Professor of Midwifery at Robert Gordon University
WEDNESDAY 13 JUNE 2018 6pm followed by refreshments The Sir Ian Wood Building | RGU’s Garthdee campus | Garthdee Road | Aberdeen
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Susan Crowther is a Professor of Midwifery based at RGU’s School of Nursing and Midwifery. With a career spanning 25 years, Professor Crowther has worked across the globe in midwifery practice, education, service development, leadership and research. She currently sits on national working groups supporting the development of educational standards for future midwives across the UK. She is a member of the International Confederation of Midwives Research Standing Committee. Professor Crowther is editor of four peer reviewed journals, a sought after reviewer and publishes books, chapters and research papers related to maternity care and midwifery. Professor Crowther’s lecture will explore the many aspects and qualities in and around childbirth, posing the questions: • What comes into play at each birth? • What are good and satisfactory births? • What enables positive birth experiences for all involved – mothers, infants, families and health care providers? • What are the optimal ways of setting up a maternity service? • How would such a service be sustainable for midwives? She will present her novel understandings of six overlapping qualities that unfold at each and every birth in whatever situation, with whoever is there or not there. The lecture will challenge the premise of high risk versus low risk, arguing that this only serves to create a false dichotomy. Professor Crowther will illustrate through real life stories how birth is always significant and meaningful, and uniquely situated within a context that is constantly changing. Series of Professorial Lectures 2017/18
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Robert Gordon University presents its 2017/18 professorial lectures from a selection of its leading academics from various disciplines. An engaging lecture series based on a wide range of topics, each is free to attend and is open to everyone.
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FURTHER INFORMATION If you would like to attend any of the following lectures, please email: Professorial.Lectures@rgu.ac.uk Wednesday 29 November 2017
‘ACCOUNTING: POLITICS, PRACTICE AND EMANCIPATORY POTENTIAL’ Wednesday 7 February 2018
‘EMPTY BUSES AND ANGRY CROFTERS: TRANSPORT IN REMOTE, RURAL AND ISLAND SCOTLAND’ Wednesday 28 March 2018
‘THE FUTURE OF CHRONIC DISEASE SELF-MANAGEMENT: SMART SENSORS, DEEP DATA, PERSONALISED MODELS AND AI’ Wednesday 18 April 2018
‘THE WATER ALCHEMIST’ Wednesday 16 May 2018
‘MAKING THE TREND YOUR FRIEND’ Wednesday 13 June 2018
‘TOWARDS AN ECOLOGY OF BIRTH’
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The Sir Ian Wood Building | Robert Gordon University Garthdee Campus | Garthdee Road | Aberdeen | AB10 7GJ
www.rgu.ac.uk 16 | Series of Professorial Lectures 2017/18