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Fellows' Research Weekend

24 - 25 September 2016 12:30 - 13:30
UCI World Cup Manchester 2009. Lizzie Armitstead winner Womens Points Race winner. (C)2009 John Houlihan www.johnhoulihan.com ?100 use fee if no byline given. Byline: JohnHoulihan.com

Join hosts Professor Joanna Haigh CBE FRS and Professor Laurence Hurst FMedSci FRS at this Fellows' Research Weekend. Each day will feature a series of talks connected by the diverse theme of extremes. There will be an opportunity to explore and enjoy Chicheley Hall and its beautiful surroundings.

Research Weekends at Chicheley Hall are part of the Fellows' Social Programme at the Society. These meetings have a relaxed 2-day format, which aims to bring together our Fellows to share interesting science in an informal and social setting.

To cover some of the accommodation and catering costs we ask for a contribution of £85 from Fellows and Foreign Members. Guests of Fellows are very welcome, and we ask for a contribution from guests of £110.

To book a place on the research weekend please complete the booking form or for further information please contact fellowship@royalsociety.org.

Organisers

  • Professor Joanna Haigh CBE FRS, Imperial College London, UK

    Joanna is Professor of Atmospheric Physics and Head of the Department of Physics at Imperial College London. Her expertise is in the area of radiative transfer in the atmosphere, climate modelling, radiative forcing of climate change and the influence of solar irradiance variability on climate.  She has been Editor of Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, a Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment and acted on many UK and international panels. Currently she is the UK representative to the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences, Editor of the American Meteorological Society’s Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, a Member of the Royal Society’s Climate Change Advisory Group and President of the Royal Meteorological Society.  She is a Fellow of the Royal Society, of the Institute of Physics and of the Royal Meteorological Society. She has been awarded the IoP Chree (now Appleton) Medal and Prize, and the RMetS Adrian Gill Prize, for her work on solar influences on climate.

  • Professor Laurence Hurst FMedSci FRS, University of Bath, UK

    Laurence Hurst works on fundamental problems in the evolution of genetic systems, such as understanding why some sorts of mutations are less damaging than predicted whilst others are more damaging. Mutations that change proteins are, surprisingly, often not especially deleterious. Laurence showed that this was because the genetic code is structured in a way that renders it highly error-proof. Similarly, in applying network representations of gene interactions, he revealed why many deletions of genes have little effect and which deletions tend not to be recessive. By contrast, Laurence revealed that genomic changes often considered to be relatively harmless — such as gene order changes and mutations at ‘silent’ sites — are under selection for unanticipated reasons. He also showed how synonymous mutations can disrupt the way gene transcripts are processed. Similarly, in showing that genomes are arranged into gene expression domains, Laurence revealed that genes can affect the expression of other genes in their vicinity. Translation of this fundamental work to medicine is a focus of his current research. Laurence is the founding Director of The Milner Centre for Evolution and of The Genetics and Evolution Teaching project both at The University of Bath.