Time: Thursday 20 Aug 2020 from 19:15 for 19:30

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this event will be delivered online. More details can be found here.

TITLE: Passive Covert Radar and similar ESM systems: what they are, and what they can do.

War-fighters have always trying to get good “observation” – preferably without being observed in turn.  Passive systems like Passive Covert Radar, which “piggybacks” on emissions from other sources like for example radio, TV or phone signals,  provide a very useful capability.  While the battlefield implications have always driven “Electronic Support Measures” (ESM) like these, there are far wider benefits in the preservation and use of the limited electromagnetic spectrum by using existing emissions rather than cluttering up the spectrum.This talk covers the advantages and disadvantages of these, and the illuminators we can use, ending with a sharpened focus on a particular war fighting role that can deeply affect aircraft used in war.

Speaker: Andy Cooke

Andy Cooke joined the RAF as an Engineering Officer after a degree in Physics from Imperial College, doing tours in Air Defence Radar, Satellite Communications and Spacecraft Operations, Air Traffic Systems Engineering Authority, Secure deployable IT systems, and Electronic Warfare Analysis (following a further degree at Cranfield University with a thesis on Sensor Fusion of Multistatic Radars of Opportunity).  He retired from the RAF as a Squadron Leader in 2012 and is now an Enterprise Architect specialising in secure IT systems and a District Councillor for Vale of White Horse.

Time: Thursday 16 July 2020 from 19:00 for 19:30

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this event will be delivered online. More details can be found here.

TITLE: The Immune System: From Basic Knowledge to Novel Anti-tumour Treatments

Our immune system is essential for our survival. It constantly battles pathogens, without us even realising it. To efficiently tackles all types of invaders we encounter, the immune system is composed of multiple cell types, which have to coordinate their actions to avoid spreading of the invading pathogen. During the first part of this talk, I will present the complex journey the different players of the immune system take to ascertain they keep our body healthy. In the second part of the talk, I will move on to situations where the immune system is not working appropriately, focusing on the immune response to cancer. Finally, I will present examples on how we can harness the immune system and train it to control cancer.

Speaker: Audrey Gerard

Audrey Gerard is a group leader at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, University of Oxford. Audrey has been trained as an immunologist in France, and worked in the Netherlands and the US before starting her group in the UK. Her group is interested in understanding how immune cells communicate and how these communication channels are co-opted during carcinogenesis to evade the immune system.

Time: Thursday 18 June 2020 from 19:00 for 19:30
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this event will be delivered online. More details can be found here.

TITLE: Personal Dosimetry: History and Latest Developments

Personal Dosimetry Services, as part of wider Public Health England, has been in existence in one form or another for around 50 years, but comprehensive legislation that governs working with radiation has not been around nearly as long. This talk discusses the history of nuclear regulation, the developments and improvements of different standards, and how this benefits employers and workers.

A briefing at the end will give a short update as to how Public Health England’s Personal Dosimetry Services department has been supporting the NHS and other key stakeholders during the recent COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaker: Hugh Schönemann

Hugh Schoenemann has been working at Public Health England for the last three years. He heads up the customer services team of PHE’s Personal Dosimetry Services department, which currently supports over 5,000 client organisations across the UK and abroad. PDS is responsible for calibrating, despatching, receiving and reading over 500,000 personal dosemeters per annum across a range of industries – from the NHS, dental and veterinary, through academia and research, to general industry and its requirement for non-destructive testing. PDS also provides a Dose Record Keeping service for those workers (typically classified workers) working in elevated risk environments.

Hugh has had a 35+ year highly successful career in industry (predominantly in the IT and high-tech sectors), working both in the UK and abroad. He holds a degree in Mathematics from the University of Bath.

We could not make an in-person visit to the DIAMOND Light Source as originally planned, but the facility has provided a virtual tour here.

Aditionally, why don’t you take a vitual tour of the ISIS facility, which is also in Harwell?

• Virtual Tour of the ISIS Facility
• Powering a Particle Accelearator (YouTube video filmed at ISIS)
• A day in the Life of ISIS
• Download your Accelerator Simulation Kit (instructions included)

Time: Thursday 21 May 2020 from 19:00 for 19:30
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this event will be delivered as a livestream. More details can be found here.

TITLE: Supercomputers and Seagulls – The Story of Weather Prediction

The changing weather affects every aspect of our lives, even if we don’t always realise it. Far beyond prompting us to pick up our umbrella as we go out for the day, weather forecasts shape the actions of farmers, power plants, disaster relief organisations, and a dozen other important industries and sectors. But how do we actually make these predictions of hurricanes, heat-waves and hailstorms, and why is it still so difficult to peer far into the atmosphere’s future?

We’ll take a look at the long history of weather forecasting, a journey from witchcraft and hot-air balloons to satellites and supercomputers. On the way we’ll discover some remarkable truths about the boundaries of scientific prediction, and the important role of Chaos in the natural world.”