Lord Mayor’s Lecture | Chemistry For A Sustainable World

Background:

Sustainable Chemistry is both the implementation of sustainability in the production, use and fate of chemicals (Green Chemistry) and the application of chemistry and chemical products to enable sustainable development. The UN Sustainable Development Goals provide a framework for the creation of a sustainable common future, in which all the world’s needs are met without compromising the abilities of future generations to provide for their needs. The chemical sciences and chemical scientists have much to offer to all of the SDGs. In this talk Professor Tom Welton OBE FRSC FCGI will explore how chemistry is currently contributing to achieving the SDGs, some of the challenges to still be faced and the research that is being conducted to overcome those challenges.

Speaker:

Professor Tom Welton is Professor of Sustainable Chemistry at Imperial College London and the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Ambassador for Sustainable Chemistry Policy. Prior to this he was Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Imperial College (2014-2019), and before that Head of the Department of Chemistry at Imperial College (2007-2014).

Sustainable chemistry, Tom’s research area, combines the implementation of sustainability in the production use and fate of chemicals and the application of chemistry and chemical products to enable sustainable development. It encompasses a range of activities, such as making biodegradable products, sourcing chemicals from renewable resources and/or making chemicals processes more efficient in energy and materials.

Solvents are used in vast amounts. Hence, the development of sustainable solvent technologies is a priority. He has worked with ionic liquids throughout his career. The central academic aim of his research is to understand and exploit how the bulk properties of ionic liquids arise from the molecular properties and interactions of their constituent ions. This extends to their use as reaction solvents and the role that the immediate chemical environments they provide to reacting solutes influence the reaction process. Much of his work seeks to develop methodologies for the production of chemical products from biomass. He is the author of over 160 papers across inorganic, organic and physical chemistry.

He is widely acknowledged to be a champion of diversity in science. In recognition of these activities, he was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2017.

Lord Mayor’s Lecture | Why Has Nobody Ever Told Me This? Initiating Sustainability & Success In SMEs

Background:

Through extensive research on his MBA (1992, Open University) and PhD (2022, Sheffield Hallam) into the dynamics behind training and development programmes for small and midsize enterprises (SMEs), Dr Glyn Cartwright increasingly recognised a frustrating lack of relevant evidence offered to SME professionals and leaders attending these courses. A core problem lies in the offer of a significant amount of business information that resulted in a low level of understanding, rarely stimulating students to take action in their own practice areas.

Comparing this to the two Erasmus programmes and UKCES programmes Glyn had written and delivered in the UK and Europe, which all resulted in the delegates taking interventions into their businesses to improve the chances of success. The objective of the research was to identify what needed to change for these training programmes offered to SME leaders to help them understand their current situation and potential future options.

The outcomes were both interesting and a little surprising: The most common feedback Glyn received throughout the whole process was “why has nobody ever told me this?”.

Speaker:

Dr Glyn Cartwright first trained as a teacher and later entered the corporate world via sales. During a successful 25 years he progressed as Sales Director, Marketing Director, Managing Director and CEO of various brand leading companies, primarily in the construction products area. For the last 15 years Glyn has owned his own companies and is now operationally involved in 5 organisations operating in over 30 countries around the world.

After completing his Marketing degree, Glyn gained an MBA in 1992 from the Open University and completed a Doctorate in Business Growth with Sheffield Hallam University in January 2022. He has tutored MBA and MSc Business students for the Open University and the University of Sheffield for the last 20 years. He co-wrote an online business assessment programme that was featured on BBC2’s “Working Lunch”. In 2002 he was awarded a Fellowship of the Charted Institute of Marketers in recognition of his contribution to the field. In 2014 Glyn became a Liveryman with the Worshipful Company of Marketors and a Freeman of the City of London in 2015. He became Master of the Worshipful Company of Marketors in 2023.

In his spare time Glyn has co-authored and delivered the Erasmus funded European Business Growth Catalyst Programme, in partnership with The University of Sheffield, ESADE Business School in Spain and Alba University in Greece, which has been cited as a “success story” by Erasmus because of the impact it has had on SMEs. More recently Glyn has co-authored and delivered another Erasmus programme targeting disadvantaged SMEs. He also wrote and delivered a UKCES ‘leadership and entrepreneurship’ programme in partnership with Doncaster Council and Doncaster Chamber of Commerce.

Lord Mayor’s Lecture | What Does Quantum Computing Mean For Cybersecurity?

Background:

Quantum computing promises a massive increase in processing power, opening up a world of calculations the like of which we have never seen before. We’ll be able to solve global problems by crunching data much more quickly. But this new era also threatens to crack the encryption algorithms used to secure our private messages and financial transactions. This lecture explores how the business world can rise to this challenge, and the potential impact of quantum computing on other aspects of cybersecurity, including real time automated defence.

Speaker:

Professor Victoria Baines is a leading authority in the field of online trust, safety and cybersecurity. She frequently contributes to major broadcast media outlets – BBC Newsnight, Radio 4, and Sky News among them – on digital ethics, cybercrime, and the misuse of emerging technologies such as Extended Reality and Artificial Intelligence. Her most memorable media appearance to date was a live face-off with Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain, which she maintains she won.

She is Professor of Information Technology at Gresham College, London’s oldest higher education institution, where she is responsible for delivering public lectures that demystify world-changing technologies for ‘ordinary’ people. Victoria has published on cyberspace governance, online surveillance, the future of cybercrime, and the politics of security. Drawing on her Classical education, her book Rhetoric of Insecurity (Routledge, 2021) sheds light on 2000 years of security speech and is a toolkit for understanding why security issues always seem to be so novel, urgent and divisive.

For several years Victoria was Facebook’s Trust & Safety Manager for Europe, Middle East, and Africa. Before joining Facebook, Victoria led the Strategy team at Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), where she was responsible for the EU’s cyber threat analysis. Prior to this, Victoria was Principal Analyst at the UK Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre. She began her career in law enforcement as a Higher Intelligence Analyst for Surrey Police. In 2008, the International Association for Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysts recognised Victoria’s work with a global award for outstanding achievement.

She is co-host of the award-nominated Cyber Warrior Princess podcast, explaining cybersecurity for a popular audience. She regularly addresses both specialist and non-specialist audiences and has been named as one of the top 25 women in cybersecurity (IT Guru & SC Magazine). She is a Liveryman of the City of London and Chair of the Security Panel of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, the voice of the IT industry in the City. She serves on the Advisory Boards of Snapchat, cybersecurity provider Reliance ACSN, and is a trustee of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation.

Victoria is a graduate of Trinity College, Oxford and holds a doctorate from the University of Nottingham. She is a Senior Research Associate of the Intellectual Forum at Jesus College, Cambridge, and Senior Research Fellow at the British Foreign Policy Group. From 2017 to 2020 she was a Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University and was a guest lecturer at Stanford University in 2019 and 2020.

Lord Mayor’s Lecture | Beware The Techno-Fixes Draped In Sickly Green!

Background:

I think we all get it now: the days of our dependence on fossil fuels are numbered. But just how big is that number? Incumbent fossil fuel companies are massively powerful players in today’s global economy – and geo-politics – and they will stay dug in defending shareholder’s interests until they’re killed off by far better technological solutions to today’s energy, transport and manufacturing challenges.

Part of their die-in-a-ditch campaign is Predatory Delay: advocating fiercely for false solutions that keep the hydrocarbons-first business model ticking over for a little bit longer. Blue hydrogen is the classic predatory delay phenomenon. But what about Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)? And Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) in particular? Sorting out true green from faux-green is proving a big challenge for politicians today – especially those whose loyalties still lie in the world of fossil fuels.

Speaker:

Jonathon Porritt is an eminent writer and campaigner on sustainable development. For the last 30 years, Jonathon has provided strategic advice to leading UK and international companies to deepen their understanding of today’s converging environmental and climate crises. He is also focused on intergenerational justice, supporting young people in their activities around sustainable development issues as they face a future defined by the twin crises of the Climate Emergency and Biodiversity Emergency.

He is President of The Conservation Volunteers and is involved in the work of many other NGOs and groups. In 1996, he co-founded Forum for the Future, a leading international sustainable development charity, working with business and civil society to accelerate the shift toward a sustainable future. Jonathon was formerly Co-Chair of the Green Party (1980-83) and Director of Friends of the Earth (1984-90). He stood down as Chair of the UK Sustainable Development Commission in 2009, after nine years providing high-level advice to Government Ministers, and served a ten-year term as Chancellor of Keele University (2012-2022).

Jonathon was awarded a CBE in January 2000 for services to environmental protection. His latest book, Hope in Hell (Simon & Schuster, 2020, revised 2021) is a powerful ‘call to action’ on the Climate Emergency.

Lord Mayor’s Lecture | The Future Of Building Foundations In The City: Energy Generating Assets

Background:

Modern multi-storey buildings in the City of London are usually supported on piled foundations; long columns of concrete that take the building loads into the ground. When sites are redeveloped each new building has tended to have a new set of deep foundations. This means that the ground is becoming very congested as foundations cannot be easily removed. The lecture will discuss the advantages of the new HIPER pile that minimises the use of concrete, can cool and heat the building and facilitates reuse when a new or modified building is constructed. The HIPER pile was developed with City, University of London which is closely connected to the City of London and was originally established with the backing of the Worshipful Company of Skinners when they first extended their involvement in education in the 1890s an interest which is continuing to expand today mainly with the support of school education.

Speaker:

Professor Sarah Stallebrass became a lecturer at City University in 1992 and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1999 and to a Chair in Soil Mechanics in 2010. She was a member of the British Geotechnical Association Committee from 2004 becoming Chairman from 2009 until 2011. Sarah collaborates with colleagues on research including physical and numerical modelling of construction processes in geotechnical engineering. The current focus of this work is innovative sustainable deep foundations and the behaviour of working platforms. Her personal expertise is in the constitutive modelling and numerical analysis of soils especially stiff clays.

She is a Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Skinners’, where she is primarily involved in the Company’s educational activities. She has been a governor of Skinners School for Girls and Tonbridge School and chair of the Skinners’ Kent Academy Multi Academy Trust. She is currently vice chair of the new Skinners’ Academies Trust.

Lord Mayor’s Lecture | Will The Next Dick Whittington Please Step Forward? Harnessing Entrepreneurship In The City Of London To Help Build A World-Class, 21st Century Economy

Background:

The City has a long and profound history of an entrepreneurial mindset. It has innovation and invention in its DNA. Much of this has been driven by smart thinkers who are natural problem solvers, many of whom come from socially and educationally diverse backgrounds.

I’d like to explore the hypothesis that since the global crash and increased regulation, “risk” as a concept has been driven out of the City, replaced with a conservative, defensive, steady as we go mindset. In a nutshell, no place for the smart thinkers, who build things. Perhaps best encapsulated by the corporate mindset. They are trying to innovate, but honestly, they lack the entrepreneur’s ability.

As we now explore the benefits of a diverse and inclusive workforce, driving a new era of equity, so we have the opportunity to really bring these smart thinking, problem solvers from their diverse backgrounds to rediscover the secret sauce of enterprise and invention again. Harnessing it to create a new era of inclusivity and equity, really challenge the status quo and build a truly unique knowledge mile, where the only boundaries of the art of the possible are human creativity. Maybe we’ll even find a modern day Dick Whittington of legend…

Speaker:

Mark Huxley has worked within the globally iconic Lloyd’s insurance Market for nearly 50 years. He was originally a front-line practitioner at a Lloyd’s Underwriter for the first 20 years of his working life, leaving in the late 1990s to found his first company, which pioneered a new claims service solution for the industry. Growing the company to significant scale within a short timeframe, Mark exited and began what has become his primary focus for the last 20 years. He gained a reputation for his expertise in launching startups, scaling them, delivering operational organisation and helping create brands focused upon mission and cause. The intervening years seeing him help a vast number of clients become the best versions of themselves.

Ever the curious soul he has continued his own entrepreneurial journey founding a number of insurance related businesses, including an early insurtech provider, now a thriving motor insurance provider. More latterly he has become an occasional angel investor, is an active mentor, advisor and NED. He has actively supported the Lloyd’s Lab, innovation hub since its creation. Most recently Mark has taken on the Chairman’s role of Breathe Points, a startup focused upon building behavioural changes in city citizens, encouraging them to reduce their personal carbon impact. Very much the enterprise thinker therefore.

In 2017 Mark was elected a Freeman of the Company of Entrepreneurs, an aspirant Livery Company within the City of London. November 2023 sees him installed as its 10th Master. He is passionate about social inclusivity and equity and serves a number of charities, foundations and other organisations that strive to make the workplace fairer for underserved communities. He is also an occasional visiting lecturer on Entrepreneurial Mindset and Leadership.

Lord Mayor’s Lecture | Computational Medicine and Digital Twins Improving Medical Care

Background:

Novel medical technologies are being introduced at unprecedented rates, demanding scientific evidence of their safety and efficacy at an unprecedented pace to ensure patient safety and benefit. With success in both in-vitro/in-vivo studies, products are tested on clinical trials assessing use in humans. Predicting low-frequency side effects has been difficult because such side effects may not become apparent until many patients adopt the treatment. When medical devices fail at later stages, financial losses can be catastrophic. Testing on many people is costly, lengthy, and sometimes implausible (e.g., paediatric patients, rare diseases, and underrepresented or hard-to-reach ethnic groups).

Computational Medicine underpins In-silico trials (IST), i.e., computer-based trials of medical products performed on populations of digital twins (aka virtual patients). Computer models/simulations are used to conceive, develop, and assess devices with the intended clinical outcome explicitly optimised from the outset (a-priori) instead of tested on humans (a-posteriori). This will include testing for potential risks to patients (side effects) and exhaustively exploring medical device failure modes before being tested in human clinical trials. In-silico evidence is still consolidating but is poised to transform how health and life sciences R&D and regulations are conducted. UK can take a leadership position in in-silico trials, which would cement its position as a global leader in health and life sciences, help drive the UK economy and provide UK citizens with early access to innovative health products.

In this talk, I will introduce the attendees to this world of new possibilities and summarise progress made in this new paradigm among academia, industry, regulators, and policymakers. A recent landscape report would be a helpful companion to this talk: Frangi, AF, et al. Unlocking the Power of Computational Modelling and Simulation Across the Product Lifecycle in Life Sciences: A UK Landscape Report. InSilicoUK Pro-Innovation Regulations Network, 2023, doi:10.5281/zenodo.8325274.

Speaker:

Professor Alejandro F Frangi FREng is the Bicentennial Turing Chair in Computational Medicine at the University of Manchester, Man-chester, UK, with joint appointments at the Computer Science and Health Sciences Schools. He is Director of the Christabel Pankhurst Institute on health technologies research and in-novation. He is also the Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies, with a focus on Precision Computational Medicine for in silico trials of medical devices. He is an Alan Turing Institute Fellow. His research vision was recently awarded an ERC Advanced Grant from the European Research Council under the Computer Science and Informatics (PE6) panel. He also leads the InSilicoUK Pro-Innovation Regulations Network.

Professor Frangi’s primary research interests lie at the crossroads of medical image analysis and modelling, emphasising machine learning (phenomenological models) and computational physiology (mechanistic models). He is particularly interested in statistical methods applied to population imaging and in silico clinical trials. His highly interdisciplinary work has been translated into cardiovascular, musculoskeletal and neurosciences.

Lord Mayor’s Lecture | Design For Life: Why Social Connectivity Matters (More Than Ever)

Background:

The lecture will explore the role of social capital and connectivity in nurturing health, wealth and happiness, including through inter-generational progress and drawing on recent research in the field. It will also discuss how public policy might be refocussed to build social capital.

Speaker:

Andrew Haldane CBE is the Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA). He was formerly Chief Economist at the Bank of England and a member of the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee. Andrew is Founder and President of the charity Pro Bono Economics, Vice-Chair of the charity National Numeracy and Chair of the National Numeracy Leadership Council. Andrew chairs the Government’s Levelling Up Advisory Council and is a member of the Chancellor’s Council of Economic Advisors. He was the Permanent Secretary for Levelling Up at the Cabinet Office from September 2021 to March 2022. Among other positions, he is Honorary Professor at the Universities of Nottingham, Manchester and Exeter, Visiting Professor at King’s College, London and a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Academy of Social Sciences.