LSE: Public lectures and events

Speaker(s): Professor Christian Hilber | Editor's note: The question and answer is not included in the podcast. In his inaugural lecture Christian Hilber explains how Britain’s planning system and tax policy cause the country’s housing crisis and contribute to rising inequality. He will explore how we can do better. Christian Hilber (@ChrisALHilber) is Professor of Economic Geography. He is an Associate of the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) and the Spatial Economics Research Centre (SERC). Christian is also a member of the Academic Panel of the What Works Centre. He is the Director of LSE’s MSc Real Estate Economics and Finance. Paul Cheshire is Emeritus Professor of Economic Geography at LSE. The Department of Geography & Environment (@LSEGeography) is a centre of international academic excellence in economic, urban and development geography, environmental social science and climate change.

Speaker(s): Professor Charles Spence | Why do we consume 35% more food when eating with one more person, and 75% more when with three? Why are 27% of drinks bought on aeroplanes tomato juice? How are chefs and companies planning to transform our dining experiences, and what can we learn from their cutting-edge insights to make memorable meals at home? These are just some of the ingredients of Gastrophysics, in which the pioneering Oxford professor Charles Spence shows how our senses link up in the most extraordinary ways, and reveals the importance of all the "off-the-plate" elements of a meal: the weight of cutlery, the colour of the plate (his lab showed that red is associated with sweetness - we perceive salty popcorn as tasting sweet when served in a red bowl), the background music and much more. Whether dining alone or at a dinner party, on a plane or in front of the TV, he reveals how to understand what we're tasting and influence what others experience. Meal-times will genuinely never be the same again. Professor Charles Spence is the head of the Crossmodal Research Laboratory at Oxford University, which specializes in cognitive psychology, consumer psychology and sensory marketing. He has consulted for multinational companies including Toyota and ICI. Charles was awarded an IG Nobel prize for his ground-breaking work on the 'sonic crisp' and has been profiled in publications including the Guardian and the New Yorker. He sits on the scientific advisory board of PepsiCo and his book The Perfect Meal won the 2015 Popular Science Prose Award. The Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science (@PsychologyLSE) study and teach societal psychology: the psychology of humans in complex socio-technical systems (organisations, communities, societies). Our research deals with real-world issues, we train the future global leaders.

Speaker(s): Andrew G Haldane | Productivity growth has weakened across a number of economies over recent years, particularly in the UK. Does this reflect a slowing of innovation? What role can public policy play in supporting productivity growth? Andrew G Haldane is the Chief Economist at the Bank of England. He is also Executive Director for Monetary Analysis, Research and Statistics, and a member of the MPC. Andrew has responsibility for research and statistics across the Bank. Andrew has an Honorary Doctorate from the Open University, is Honorary Professor at the University of Nottingham, a Visiting Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, a member of the Economic Council of the Royal Economic Society, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and a Member of the Research and Policy Committee at Nesta. Andrew is Chairman and co-founder of Pro Bono Economics, a charity that matches volunteer economists with charitable projects. Andrew has written extensively on domestic and international monetary and financial policy issues and has published over 150 articles and four books. In 2014, TIME magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Wouter den Haan is Co-director for the Centre for Macroeconomics and Professor of Economics at LSE. The Department of Economics at LSE (@LSEEcon) is one of the largest economics departments in the world. Its size ensures that all areas of economics are strongly represented in both research and teaching. The Centre For Macroeconomics (@CFMUK) brings together world-class experts to carry out pioneering research on the global economic crisis and to help design policies that alleviate it.

Speaker(s): Alessandro Allegra, Berris Charnley, Dr Stephen John, Jenny Molloy | From medicine and GMOs to cyber-security and climate change, scientific research is vital to modern life. On the other hand, many of us struggle to get to grips with its increasing complexity. How does this fit with our ideals of democracy? And in an era of mistrust of experts, does science have a legitimacy problem? Our panel considers a radical proposal to rethink the distinction between scientist and citizen. Alessandro Allegra (@a_allegra) is a Doctoral Researcher, University College London. Berris Charnley is a Researcher, St. Anne’s College, University of Oxford. Stephen John is Hatton Senior Lecturer in Philosophy of Public Health, University of Cambridge. Jenny Molloy (@jenny_molloy) is Coordinator, Synthetic Biology SRI and OpenPlant, University of Cambridge. Peter Dennis is a Fellow, Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, LSE and Forum for European Philosophy Fellow. The Forum for European Philosophy (@ForumPhilosophy) is an educational charity that organises a full and varied programme of philosophy and interdisciplinary events in the UK.

Speaker(s): Professor Andrew Walder | As the Mao era, and in particular the Cultural Revolution fade in memory, its history has fallen out of focus and has been infused with myth. Drawing on his recent book, China Under Mao: A Revolution Derailed, Andrew Walder will take up two related questions. First, what were Mao's intentions and what were the actual outcomes of his radical initiatives? Second, why did these outcomes occur? Mao emerges from the historical record as a revolutionary whose radicalism was undiminished by the passage of time. His initiatives frequently had consequences that he had not intended and that frustrated his designs. Despite creating China's first unified modern national state and initiating its modern industrialisation drive, Mao left China divided, backward, and weak. Andrew Walder is the Denise O'Leary and Kent Thiry Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences, and Senior Fellow in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. A political sociologist, Walder specializes on the sources of conflict, stability, and change in contemporary China. He received his Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Michigan in 1981. Before coming to Stanford in 1997 he taught at Columbia, Harvard, and also headed the Division of Social Science at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Robin Archer is Director of the Ralph Miliband Programme at LSE. The Ralph Miliband Programme (@RMilibandLSE) is one of LSE's most prestigious lecture series and seeks to advance Ralph Miliband's spirit of free social inquiry.

Speaker(s): Professor Sarah Conly, Joel Kibazo, Robin Maynard, Johan Norberg, Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter | In this new series of debates entitled Glass Half Full, being recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio 4, Fi Glover pits optimists against pessimists in a new topical debating format. A lead speaker on each side presents their argument, and both question expert witnesses to support their point of view. At the end of the debate, the audience votes and declares in favour of an optimistic or pessimistic view of the subject - Glass Half Empty - or Full! This second debate will discuss if projected population growth will be an environmental and social catastrophe, or will economic growth, education and ingenuity offer the solution? The first debate, We Can Look Forward to a Healthier Future, takes place at LSE on 9 March. The final debate is on 28 March, and is entitled Digital Technology is Making Children's Lives Richer. Sarah Conly is a Professor of Philosophy at Bowdoin College and is the author of One Child: Do We Have the Right to More? and Against Autonomy: Justifying Coercive Paternalism. Joel Kibazo (@joelkibazo) is a Managing Director at FTI Consulting and is on the policy committee of the Centre for the Study of African Economies at the University of Oxford. He was formerly a Director at the African Development Bank, an Associate Fellow at Chatham House, a Financial Times journalist, and a member of the World Economics Forum Global Agenda Council. Robin Maynard (@RobinMaynard55) is a campaigner, writer and strategist, now Chief Executive of the charity Population Matters. In his 30-year career he has held senior positions at Friends of the Earth and the Forestry Commission, as well as presenting programmes for BBC Radio 4. Johan Norberg (@johanknorberg) is a best-selling author, TV presenter, and lecturer. His book Progress: Ten Reasons to Look forward to the Future was a 2016 Book of the Year for the Economist and the Observer. He is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington D.C. David Spiegelhalter (@d_spiegel) is the Winton Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk at Cambridge University and a fellow of the Royal Society. He is a regular contributor to Radio 4 and blogs at Understanding Uncertainty. Fi Glover (@fifiglover) is a multi-award winning broadcaster. She is one of the country's best-known radio voices, having worked on BBC Radio 4, 5 Live, Radio 2, Radio 1 and GLR. She currently presents BBC Radio 4's The Listening Project.

Speaker(s): Professor Leonard Smith, Dr Trevor Maynard, Professor Robert Rosner | Science gives us predictions and probabilities that are sometimes remarkably accurate. And sometimes not. Our ability to use scientific information in decision-making is explored in a variety of real world contexts, from monitoring the risks jellyfish pose to nuclear power stations, to framing policy on carbon emissions to avoid dangerous climate change. Interestingly, it turns out that scientific evidence can be both useful in decision-making and fundamentally misleading from a mathematical point of view. Is the challenge in the maths? In the science? Or with the decision- makers? Leonard Smith is Director of the LSE Centre for the Analysis of Time Series (CATS). His research focuses on real world challenges to academic concepts of nonlinear dynamical systems and predictability. This includes the role of probability in decision support, and the implications uncertainty, ambiguity and ignorance hold when relating mathematical results to reality. He is a Selby Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and received the Royal Meteorological Society's Fitzroy Prize for his contributions to applied meteorology. He is author of Chaos: A Very Short Introduction (2007). He received his PhD (Physics) from Columbia University. Currently a Professor of Statistics at LSE, he has also been a Senior Research Fellow (mathematics) of Pembroke College, Oxford since 1992. Trevor Maynard is Head of Innovation at Lloyd’s of London. Robert Rosner is the William E. Wrather Distinguished Service Professor in the Departments of Astronomy & Astrophysics and Physics, and in the Harris School of Public Policy Studies, at the University of Chicago. Brian Hoskins is Chair of the Grantham Institute at Imperial College, and Professor of Meteorology at the University of Reading. The Centre for the Analysis of Time Series (CATS) (@CATS_LSE) was established in 2000 and is based within the Department of Statistics at LSE. The School has a long and distinguished history in time series analysis and as part of its strategic plan has invested heavily in developing a world-class centre of excellence in this area. LSE Works is a series of public lectures, that will showcase some of the latest research by LSE's academic departments and research centres. In each session, LSE academics will present key research findings, demonstrating where appropriate the implications of their studies for public policy. A list of all the LSE Works lectures can be viewed at LSE Works.

Speaker(s): Professor Clemencia Rodríguez | The presence of armed groups and the proximity of armed violence and war have a tremendous impact on a community’s daily life, social fabric, local political and economic processes, and inter-communal relationships and interactions. This talk will examine the different ways war impacts communities and how citizens’ media can counter these impacts. Through a series of examples from Professor Rodriguez's fieldwork in Colombia, the talk will illustrate the complex and multidimensional roles citizens’ media have in contexts of armed violence. Instead of conceiving of media exclusively as tools for information or persuasion, she will explain how well-grounded community media can meet complex communication needs that include repairing torn social fabrics, reconstructing eroded bonds, reclaiming public spaces, resolving intra-community conflicts, fostering horizontal communication and interaction, and privileging aspects of community life that have not been hijacked by war. Clemencia Rodríguez is Professor in the Department of Media Studies and Production at Temple University. Shakuntala Banaji is Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communications, LSE. Nick Couldry (@couldrynick) is Professor of Media, Communications and Social Theory in the Department of Media and communications at LSE. The Department of Media and Communications (@MediaLSE) undertakes outstanding and innovative research and provides excellent research-based graduate programmes for the study of media and communications. The Department was established in 2003 and in 2014 our research was ranked number 1 in the most recent UK research evaluation, with 91% of research outputs ranked world-leading or internationally excellent.

Speaker(s): Ruth Hunt | Ruth Hunt, Chief Executive of Stonewall, will reflect on Stonewall’s history, the progress made and the work still to be done regarding equality for LGBT people with an emphasis on women. Ruth Hunt (@ruth_hunt) was appointed Chief Executive of Stonewall in August 2014. She has successfully developed Stonewall’s groundbreaking policy, campaigns and research outputs and has spearheaded its commitment to campaign for trans equality. Julia Black is currently interim Director of LSE, also Pro Director for Research at LSE and Chair of the Athena SWAN Self-Assessment Team. She joined the Law Department in 1994. The British Library of Political and Economic Science (@LSELibrary) was founded in 1896, a year after the London School of Economics and Political Science. It has been based in the Lionel Robbins Building since 1978 and houses many world class collections, including The Women's Library. Spectrum (@LSESpectrum) is the LGBT+ staff network at LSE which represents staff from lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other minority sexual orientation and gender identities.

Speaker(s): Professor Kevin Fenton, Vivienne Parry, Dr Richard Smith, Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, Professor Tony Young | In this new series of debates entitled Glass Half Full, being recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio 4, Fi Glover pits optimists against pessimists in a new topical debating format. A lead speaker on each side presents their argument, and both question expert witnesses to support their point of view. At the end of the debate, the audience votes and declares in favour of an optimistic or pessimistic view of the subject – Glass Half Empty – or Full! In this first debate panellists will discuss if we heading towards disaster or will a better lifestyle and technological innovation save the day? Two other debates will take place at LSE. On 15 March the topic is A Global Population of 9 Billion is Sustainable, while the third debate on 28 March will discuss Digital Technology is Making Children's Lives Richer. Kevin Fenton (@ProfKevinFenton) is the Public Health England National Director for Health and Wellbeing. He oversees PHE's national prevention programmes including screening for cancer and other conditions, Health Checks, national health marketing campaigns, public mental health, and a range of wellbeing programmes for all ages. As well hosting medical programmes for BBC Radio 4 and writing widely on health, Vivienne Parry (@vivienneparry) is also Head of Engagement at Genomics England, which is delivering the 100,000 Genomes Project (the project will sequence 100,000 genomes from 70,000 people, aiming to create a new genomic medicine service for the NHS). Richard Smith (@Richard56) is the Chair of icddr,b (formerly International Centre for Diarroheal Disease, Bangladesh) and of Patients Know Best, a company that puts patients in contrl of their records. He was formerly been Editor of the British Medical Journal and the BBC Breakfast Time doctor. Helen Stokes-Lampard (@HelenStokesLam) is Chair of Council for the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP). She is a part time GP partner in Lichfield and until September 2016 was Head of Primary Care Teaching (undergraduate) at Birmingham University’s School of Medicine. Tony Young (@DrTonyYoung) is National Clinical Lead for Innovation at NHS England. He is also a practicing frontline surgeon, Director of Medical Innovation at Anglia Ruskin University. He co-founded the £500m Anglia Ruskin MedTech campus which is set to become one of the world’s largest health innovation spaces. Fi Glover is a multi-award winning broadcaster. She is one of the country’s best-known radio voices, having worked on BBC Radio 4, 5 Live, Radio 2, Radio 1 and GLR. She currently presents BBC Radio 4’s The Listening Project. This event will be broadcast at 8pm on Wednesday 5 April 2017 on BBC Radio 4.

Speaker(s): Professor June Barrow-Green | British mathematicians responded to the First World War in several different ways. There were those who volunteered their mathematical skills for work at the Royal Aircraft Factory where they could experience the practice of flying as well as develop its theory, the National Physical Laboratory where they used wind tunnels, or the Anti-Aircraft Experimental Section of the Ministry of Munitions where they worked on ballistics; those who followed a military path; and those who, for reasons of conscience, refused to take an active part in the War at all. In this talk Professor Barrow Green will discuss the war-time activities of a variety of British mathematicians and examine the impact of the War on their careers as well as on mathematics itself. June Barrow-Green is Professor of History of Mathematics, Open University and Visiting Professor in Department of Mathematics, LSE. Martin Anthony (@MartinHGAnthony) is Professor of Mathematics and Head of Department of Mathematics at LSE. The Department of Mathematics (@LSEMaths) is internationally recognised for its teaching and research in the fields of discrete mathematics, game theory, financial mathematics and operations research.

Speaker(s): Professor Michele Lamont | Michèle Lamont’s book contributes to the study of everyday racism and stigma management, the quest for recognition, and the comparative study of inequality and processes of cultural change. Michèle Lamont (@mlamont6) is Professor of Sociology and of African and African American Studies and Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies at Harvard University. She has been named winner of the 2017 Erasmus Prize, which recognises individual or group contributions to European culture, society, or social science. Mike Savage (@MikeSav47032563) is Martin White Professor of Sociology at LSE and co-Director of the International Inequalities Intitute. The International Inequalities Institute at LSE (@LSEInequalities) brings together experts from many LSE departments and centres to lead critical and cutting edge research to understand why inequalities are escalating in numerous arenas across the world, and to develop critical tools to address these challenges.

Speaker(s): Eva-Maria Bonin, Professor Martin Knapp, David McDaid | Mental health issues will affect one in four of us. This seminar focuses on the economic case for the promotion of better mental wellbeing and prevention of mental illness. Eva-Maria Bonin (@evabonin) is Assistant Professorial Research Fellow within the Personal Social Services Research Unit at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Martin Knapp (@martinknapp) is Professor of Social Policy and Director of the Personal Social Services Research Unit at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Director of the NIHR School for Social Care Research. David McDaid (@dmcdaid) is Associate Professorial Research Fellow within the Personal Social Services Research Unit at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Antonis Kousoulis (@AKousoulis) joined the Mental Health Foundation in February 2016 as the Assistant Director for Innovation & Development Programmes. Sarah Carr (@SchrebersSister) is Associate Professor of Mental Health Research at Middlesex University. Sara Evans-Lacko is Associate Professorial Research Fellow within the Personal Social Services Research Unit at the London School of Economics and Political Science. The Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU) (@PSSRU_LSE) is one of the leading social care research groups in the world, and has contributed in many ways to the development of national and local policies and frontline practice in the UK and elsewhere. Its reputation for high-quality, robust research has encouraged many national and local policy-makers, commissioners and service providers to request its support in generating evidence to inform discussions and decisions. Since its establishment in 1974, PSSRU has had considerable impact on national social care policy in the UK and in a number of other countries. PSSRU has also established itself as the leading European group on mental health economics and policy, and has an excellent worldwide reputation for its work in this field. LSE Works is a series of public lectures, that will showcase some of the latest research by LSE's academic departments and research centres. In each session, LSE academics will present key research findings, demonstrating where appropriate the implications of their studies for public policy. A list of all the LSE Works lectures can be viewed at LSE Works.

Speaker(s): Professor Daniel Paravisini | Europe for policy research into financial markets. It is the focal point of the LSE's research communication with the business, policy making and international finance communities. The FMG works alongside the Department of Finance to understand problems in financial markets and in the decision-making processes of corporations, banks and regulators.

Speaker(s): Professor Charles Kupchan | Editor's note: We apologise for the poor quality audio in the Q and A. From 2014-2017 Professor Kupchan served as Special Assistant to the President for National Security in the Obama White House. Here he explores how America’s international priorities and policies will be affected by the new administration. Charles Kupchan is Professor of International Affairs in the School of Foreign Service and Government Department at Georgetown University. He is also Whitney H. Shepardson Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and was Director for European Affairs on the National Security Council during the first Clinton administration. He is the author of numerous books and articles on international and strategic affairs. Peter Trubowitz (@ptrubowitz) is Professor of International Relations and Director of the US Centre at LSE. The United States Centre at LSE (@LSE_US) is a hub for global expertise, analysis and commentary on America. Its mission is to promote policy-relevant and internationally-oriented scholarship to meet the growing demand for fresh analysis and critical debate on the United States.