| PROGRAMME FOR 2009/2010 | ||
| September 2nd The Fundamentals of Matter | Dr Keith Moseley | A beginners guide to what atoms are made of, how we found out and what we are trying to discover next. The talk includes some simple physics, both theoretical and practical, to supplement the journey through particle and quantum physics in the 20th century. |
| October 7th The Fundamentals of Matter | Janet & Mark Robinson | Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes - An Anniversary. |
| November 4th AGM | David Norfolk New Nuclear Authorisations Manager | After graduating in natural sciences at Cambridge, David joined the CEGB’s nuclear research
laboratories at Berkeley, where he worked to extend the operating life of the UK’s Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors (AGRs).In the run-up to privatisation David joined
a new team forging a place for nuclear generation in the new business environment. After a spell on the management team at Hartlepool power station on Teesside,
he moved back to Gloucestershire to work on improving control of waste and decommissioning liabilities. Subsequently David has held posts at Dungeness B in Kent, building
a strategic partnership with major engineering firms to upgrade performance; in Toronto, on acquisition of the Bruce power station; on the management team at Sizewell B in
Suffolk; and in British Energy’s internal regulator organisation, driving up standards of environmental performance. Currently he is with the EDF Energy team preparing the way for a
new generation of nuclear power stations.
In his lecture David will set out the policy factors that led the Government to decide that nuclear generation should continue to be part of the electricity mix into the future, the actions it is taking to facilitate this, and EDF Energy’s work to achieve its intent that its first new nuclear station will be operational by the end of 2017. |
| December 2nd Basic Local Geology | Jerry Calderbank | With special reference to Herefordshire. |
| January 6th Cosmology | Dr Chris Baddiley | From the Big Bang to the present. THIS MEETING WAS CANCELLED DUE TO HEAVY SNOW |
| February 3rd What Has Art Got To Do With It? | David Gepp | David will talk about Goethe's Theory of Colour and the similarity between the roots of 'good' science
and 'good' art. He will refer to the ideas of Faraday and Newton. David Gepp was born in Belfast in 1948 and has lived in Wales for the last 20 years. His work is in collections at The Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris and the National Library of Wales. Recent commissions producing bodies of work include The Silent Echo, pictures from a Breton Island described as "this exquisitely poetic body of work", The Narrow Road to the Deep North, work undertaken in Northern Ireland, scheduled for the Ulster Museum, Belfast in May 1997, and Venezia Stenopaeica a study of Venice in colour with a 5x4" pinhole camera. The making of that work appeared as the critically acclaimed BBC documentary An Italian Dream. For the last 15 years David has taught Techniques, Discourse and History of Photography at Hereford College of Arts. |
| March 3rd Influenza and the Threat of Bird Flu | Dr Ray Collett BA, PhD, CBiol, FRHS | Ray retired from full-time university work in September 2007. I now do a small amount of external verification for
Open College Network West Midlands Region as a Curriculum Area Moderator for biology and physical sciences & engineering modules
in Access to Higher Education courses at about 15 colleges in the West Midlands. I am also a volunteer Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics Ambassador
(STEMNET) and will visit science teachers in schools in Worcestershire if requested. I was formerly Principal Lecturer
in The Institute of Health & Social Care at University of Worcester in September 2007. I had administrative, research and teaching
responsibilities. I have undertaken work as a specialist subject reviewer for the Quality Assurance Agency and have been an external examiner
for undergraduate courses at Brunel University and the Buckinghamshire New University.
My research included microbiology and clinical trials and I supervised two PhD students and one MPhil student to completion. I have examined PhD theses. At various times I have been course leader
for the MSc in Health & Social Care (now called Advanced Social and Health Care Studies), Human Biology,
Health & Wellbeing and Biological Perspectives courses at Worcester and I have led curriculum development teams to establish
courses in biology and health care at Worcester. I taught students reading BSc Biology, DipHE Nursing Studies,
BSc Health Studies, and MSc Health & Social Care. During some of this time I was a Governor of University College Worcester. Previous to this appointment, I was Director of Studies for
Health Studies having advised senior staff and Governors on the incorporation of Nurse and Midwifery Education into the higher education curriculum at Worcester. I originally joined the staff
at Worcester as a Senior Lecturer in the Science Division to lead the development of Human Biology. Previously I taught in the
Department of Chemistry at the University of Loughborough developing the biology curriculum of BSc and MSc Medicinal & Pharmaceutical Chemistry.
My first teaching appointment was as full-time University Demonstrator in the Department of Veterinary Pharmacology at the Royal (Dick)
School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Edinburgh, having previously worked as a Technical Officer for the Medical Research Council
Human Reproductive Sciences Unit. For my talk my main theme will be our species' place in nature, because it is concentrations of susceptible populations - birds and humans - and their migrations that allow epidemics to become devastating pandemics. Bird Flu: Emerging threats to public health. Nature of viruses: Colds and influenza. The influenza virus: Human influenza Avian influenza. 2004 pandemic: Impact on business. Disease control: When is the next human pandemic? |
| April 7th Meteorology in Ross | Dr Andrew Rogers | A talk about the Ross weather station. |
| May 5th Geographic Information Systems (GIS), the Global Positioning System (GPS) and Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) - their application in countryside studies. | David Lovelace | Over the last two decades the digital revolution has transformed communication and information processing and has more recently
had a major impact on consumer applications of geography with Satnavs and sites such as Google Earth. This talk focuses upon the science and application of GIS, GPS and LIDAR to mapping,
field survey, ecology, planning and historical research in rural areas, specifically Herefordshire. David Lovelace (1948 - ): BSc Physics (1971), research on solid state lasers and optical fibers (1972-79) at Standard telecommunications Laboratories (STL). In 1980 moved to Herefordshire and has since been involved in the study and conservation of the county’s countryside. Having given up one scientific career, the digital revolution enabled a second one in later years. |