23 Aug 2013
The London Group’s weekly lecture series in partnership with UCL will return from 1 October. The Group is holding an exciting range of lectures, spanning different scientific disciplines from materials chemistry to food science, from genetics to the chemistry and physics of bitumen and asphalt.
On 8 October, we will pay tribute to Catherine Side, former London Group committee member, who sadly died in 2012. Derek Prentice, Master Brewer and Brewing Manager at Fuller’s Brewery, will explain the science behind beer-making, the industry where Catherine started her career. You will also have the opportunity to sample some of the beer highlighted in this talk.
There will also be opportunities to seek advice from members of UCL’s alumni on their chosen career paths. A diverse range of speakers on 22 October will talk about their work in law, teaching, publishing, politics, information technology and business development and how their degrees in Chemistry and related sciences got them there.
In November, we will go outside the auditorium for a special, private tour of The Grant Museum, UCL’s Zoological Museum and the only remaining university zoological museum in London. It houses around 67,000 specimens, covering the whole Animal Kingdom. Founded in 1828 as a teaching collection, the Museum is packed full of skeletons, mounted animals and specimens preserved in fluid. Many of the species are now endangered or extinct including the Tasmanian Tiger or Thylacine, the Quagga, and the Dodo.
For those interested in history, December is the month to attend as we run up to the Christmas holidays with two historical related talks.
On 3 December, Andrew Cobbing, a Japanese historian from the University of Nottingham, will explain the fascinating tale of the Choshu Five, and why five young samurai escape their native land in 1863 and travel across the world to enrol at UCL, and why they went on to make such an impact in Meiji Japan, achieving high places in the new government, including the country's first cabinet minister. This will talk focus on what they took with them back to Japan from Britain and how the experience influenced their subsequent careers and the shaping of modern Japan.
On 5 December, Ben Russell, the curator of mechanical engineering at the Science Museum, will give a historical overview of the museum, exploring its journey from the collections of the Patent Museum in the 1850s to the modern Science Museum we know today. Along the way he will give an insight into its formative decades, which were haphazard and even chaotic, taking in elements of blackmail, curatorial skulduggery, and even unauthorised exhumation!
All these events are free to attend and no booking is required. Click on the individual events for more information.
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