Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford
Lecture by Dr Kazuo Inamori: From a Society of Greed to a Society of Altruism

Dr Kazuo Inamori will be speaking to an invited audience on the topic 'From a Society of Greed to a Society of Altruism'. The talk will be livestreamed in both English and Japanese. This will be available on the Blavatnik School of Government YouTube channel and also on the homepage of this website.

Biography

Kazuo Inamori was born in Kagoshima, Japan in 1932.

Livestream
Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford
Public Lecture with Dr Tasuku Honjo: Serendipities of Acquired Immunity

If the greatest enemies of humankind in the 20th century were infectious diseases, cancer has clearly become the major foe in the 21st century. Acquired immunity holds the keys to overcoming both of these difficult medical challenges. Dr Honjo presents the fortuitous developments that he has experienced during his time as a researcher, leading to the discovery that PD-1 inhibition could be effective in treating cancer. This new breakthrough immunotherapy is being hailed as a 'penicillin moment' in cancer treatment.

Livestream
Public lecture
Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford
Public Lecture with Dr Martha Craven Nussbaum: Aging, Stigma, and Disgust

Age is the only category of discrimination that includes all humans. However, ageing people are stigmatised in popular culture and discourse, and regarded with a disgust closely linked to fear. Dr Nussbaum argues that stigma against the ageing is a social problem, producing unhappiness and injustice such as discrimination in employment and social interactions, not to mention what she calls a ‘huge social evil’ – that of compulsory retirement.

Livestream
Public lecture
Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford
Public Lecture with Dr Takeo Kanade: Think like an Amateur, Do as an Expert: Fun Research in Computer Vision and Robotics

For Dr Kanade, good research derives from solving real-world problems and delivering useful results to society. As a roboticist, he participated in developing a wide range of computer-vision systems and autonomous robots, including human-face recognition, autonomously-driven cars, computer-assisted surgical robots, robot helicopters, biological live cell tracking through a microscope, and EyeVision, a system used for sports broadcast. Dr Kanade will share insights into his projects and discuss how his “Think like an amateur, do as an expert” maxim interacts with problems and people.

Livestream
Public lecture
Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford
Public Lecture by Dr Graham Farquhar - Adventures across disciplines: studying biophysics, and observing the shaping of policies

Public Lecture by Dr Graham Farquhar, Kyoto Prize 2017 Laureate for Basic Sciences

With his work spanning physics, applied mathematics and plant physiology, Dr Farquhar’s remarkable work on models of photosynthesis has helped understand and mitigate the effects of climate change on plants, including developing drought-resistant strains of wheat. In his lecture he will share insights from his work as a scientist as well as the contributions he has made to policy as a scientific advisor during key climate change negotiations.

Livestream
Public lecture
Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford
Public Lecture by Dr Takashi Mimura - My fifty years with the transistor
Public Lecture by Dr Takashi Mimura, 2017 Laureate for Advanced Technology From the first ever glimpse of Neptune transmitted by Voyager 2 in 1989, to the base stations used every day for our mobile phones and antennas, the High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT) was instrumental in allowing broadcasting-satellite systems to spread around the world. In his fascinating talk, Dr Mimura will explore the succession of events that led him to invent the device and how this achievement changed the worlds of both information and communications technology and physics studies of electrons.
Livestream
Public lecture
Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford
Public Lecture by Dr Richard Taruskin - How to win a Stalin Prize: Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet

Public Lecture by Dr Richard Taruskin, 2017 Laureate for Arts and Philosophy, and a performance by the Villiers Quartet and Jeremy Young, piano

In this lecture combined with music, Dr Taruskin will focus on Shostakovich’s popular Piano Quintet – supported by the University of Oxford’s quartet in residence. Musicologist, critic, historian and author of landmark study “The Oxford History of Western Music”, Dr Taruskin has transformed contemporary perspectives on the performance and the study of music through his convention-defying historical research and essays.

Livestream
Public lecture
Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford
Illuminating the brain

Public lecture by neuroscientist Dr Karl Deisseroth, 2018 Laureate for Advanced Technology

Dr Deisseroth has been a pioneer in ‘optogenetics’ – a breakthrough method for studying the brain in which neurons can be activated or inhibited on the millisecond scale using light.

The lecture will be preceded by an official welcome from the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, Professor Louise Richardson.

Photo courtesy of the Inamori Foundation.

Registration is now closed.

Public lecture
Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford
Fifty years with algebraic analysis

Public lecture by mathematician Dr Masaki Kashiwara, 2018 Laureate for Basic Sciences

Dr Kashiwara established the theory of D-modules, thereby playing a decisive role in the creation and development of algebraic analysis. His numerous achievements have exerted great influence on various fields of mathematics and contributed strongly to their development.

Photo courtesy of the Inamori Foundation.

Registration is now closed.

Public lecture
Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford
Joan Jonas: 1968 to the present

Public lecture by artist Ms Joan Jonas, 2018 Laureate for Arts and Philosophy

Ms Jonas created a new artistic form by integrating performance art and video art, and has continuously evolved her original medium, remaining at the forefront of contemporary art.

This lecture will be followed by a drinks reception.

Photo courtesy of the Inamori Foundation.

Registration is now closed.

Public lecture