Events

Cambridge in America Day San Francisco

The Commonwealth Club of California: San Francisco  
595 Market Street, 2nd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105

 
Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz succeeded Professor Dame Alison Richard as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge at the end of her seven-year term on October 1, 2010. The Vice-Chancellor is the full-time, resident head of the University and its most senior academic officer. The role dates back to 1412 and Professor Borysiewicz is the 345th office-holder.

Previously Professor Borysiewicz was Chief Executive of the Medical Research Council and was knighted in the 2001 New Year's Honours List for his research into developing vaccines, including a vaccine to prevent the development of cervical cancer.

Sir David Wallace
Master of Churchill College
 
Five Millennia of Mathematics

Most of us are conditioned by our education to think of mathematics originating with the ancient Greeks 2,500 years ago.  In fact numbers and mathematics were integral to the development of the earliest civilization in Sumer and Babylon (now Iraq) 5,000 years ago.  Sir David will give examples of their achievements, and conclude by talking about some of the research at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences: Fermat’s last theorem, how to make money on the internet, and how to lose it in futures trading in financial markets. 
 
Sir David, Director of the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, was the former Vice-Chancellor of Loughborough University and also a former Treasurer and Vice-President of the Royal Society.

From 1972 to 1979 he was Lecturer, then Reader, in Physics at the University of Southampton. From 1979 to 1993 he was Tait Professor of Mathematical Physics at the University of Edinburgh where he was also Head of Physics from 1984 to 1987. He has been chairman of numerous national and international bodies, and has written on theoretical physics and computing. He was awarded a CBE for services to parallel computing in 1996, and knighted in 2004 for services to UK science, technology and engineering.  

Mr. Michael Kitson  
University Senior Lecturer in Global Macroeconomics 
Cambridge Judge Business School, Fellow of St. Catharine's College

New Developments in Innovation Practice and Policy

Businesses are continually striving to be innovative and governments see innovation as a major source of economic growth - as well as a means to deal with economic shocks and crises.  But there is confusion about what innovation means; how it may be stimulated; and its impact on business and economic performance. This timely talk argues that much of the conventional wisdom is too narrow and does not embrace new forms of innovation.

Mr. Michael Kitson is University Senior Lecturer in global macroeconomics at the Cambridge Judge Business School, Knowledge Hub Director of the UK- Innovation Research Centre, Director of the Programme on Regional Innovation at the University of Cambridge, Fellow of St. Catharine's College, and Research Associate of the Centre for Business Research at the University of Cambridge.

Click here to download Mr. Kitson's presentation.