For details of more University events open to all please visit www.ox.ac.uk/events-list
Visit https://talks.ox.ac.uk for details of a diverse range of events, talks and workshops. Each event listing indicates whether it is open to all or to members of the University
Competition
We have one pair of tickets to give away for a day at the Blenheim Horse Trials, which is taking place from 19 to 22 September.
To enter the prize draw simply send an email with your contact details to internal.communications@admin.ox.ac.uk by 5pm on Monday 16 September. Please type ‘Horse Trials’ into the subject line of the email.
The trials, the largest sporting event in Oxfordshire, will showcase some of the best event riders in the world. There will also be entertainment for the children on offer, together with an artisan food walk and over 200 stalls.
Entry fees starts from £8 and children under 12 go free, but you can save over 35% when booking in advance.
Meeting Minds: alumni weekend event
Friday 20 September to Sunday 22 September is the annual Meeting Minds alumni event. Around 1,500 alumni will return to Oxford with their families and friends for a weekend spent experiencing the best of the University in 2019. Events are being held in colleges and departments across the city from 2.30pm on 20 September until 7pm on 22 September. The main programme is taking place at the Mathematical Institute on Woodstock Road.
Please be aware there could be more traffic than usual on the roads and buses on Friday afternoon and during Saturday.
Please note that University staff are welcome to come to the Maths Institute throughout the event and purchase any available tickets to sessions they wish to attend.
Talks
Made in Oxford
Saturday 14 September, 2.30pm, History of Science Museum
Join us for these special highlight tours and discover intricate objects and unusual stories from Oxford. For Oxford Open Doors 2019. https://www.hsm.ox.ac.uk/whats-on
Lectures and Seminars
When Life Got Hard (booking required)
Tuesday 10 September, 6.30pm to 7.30pm, University Museum of Natural History
Museum researcher Dr Duncan Murdock tells us about the first animals that built skeletons and what they did with them. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/oxford-university-museum-of-natural-history-6303283269
David Sumpter - Soccermatics: could a Premier League team one day be managed by a mathematician? (booking required)
Wednesday 18 September, 5pm to 6pm, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter
Former Barcelona, Bayern Munich and current Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola is considered by many to be a footballing genius. He has revolutionised the tactical approach to football and that revolution has come about through his careful study of the geometry of the game. But can abstract mathematics really help a team improve its performance?
David Sumpter, Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Uppsala in Sweden, thinks it can. Unlike the simple statistics applied to (lesser) sports, football is best understood through the patterns the players create together on the field. From the geometry of shooting, through the graph theory of passing, to the tessellations created by players as they find space to move into, all of these patterns can be captured by mathematical models. As a result, football clubs are increasingly turning to mathematicians. https://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/node/30770
The unlikely history of radium (£7 charge - booking required)
Thursday 19 September, 6pm, History of Science Museum
Radium: a present for a queen, a housewife’s secret aid, and an everyday cure-all for the ailments of the early 1900s.
In this talk Lucy Jane Santos, freelance writer and historian, tells the fascinating, curious, and sometimes macabre story of radium from its rise as a desirable item to its gradual downfall through the eyes of the people who bought, sold and eventually came to fear it. This talk will take you into the odd areas where science and consumerism touch, as well as telling a more nuanced tale about the entrepreneurs and consumers in radium’s history who have until now been considered quacks, or fools, or both.
Concerts
Andrew Chamblin Memorial Concert
Thursday 19 September, 8pm to 9pm, Christ Church Cathedral
The thirteenth annual Andrew Chamblin Memorial Concert will be given by David Titterington HonFRCO HonRAM. Mr Titterington will play an hour-long programme of organ works by Bach, Muffat, Scheidemann, Wesley and Ritter. Admission is free with everyone welcome. No tickets are required and there are no reserved seats.
