Tuesday 17 June saw the final Tuesday Talks of the academic year. No event seems to me to bring the community together more than Dining with Dinosaurs/Tuesday Talks. This was my first time attending a Student Takeover edition, where there are six short student talks instead of the usual longer guest talk. What’s more, we got to hear a beautiful performance from the college choir! It was an absolute treat to see and hear about such a diverse array of work going on among our students.
Talks and topics
Emma McMillian
Emma McMillian spoke first, explaining her DPhil research on how AI is changing cardiology through offering new ways we can do 3D reconstructions of hearts. It’s not heart surgery, but it’s pretty close - yet she broke it down for us all very well. There were insights about how machine learning allows us to interpolate between the 2D images that MRI scans give, and about the implications of better 3D imaging for early detection, personalised care, and health equity.
Puravi Panda
Next, Puravi Panda offered us a fantastic introduction to her work on the rare Niemann-Pick Disease Type C (NPC). You might have also noticed that Puravi has done a recent social media take-over for Reuben, showing us into her lab and life around Oxford. It was great to get both that and an exploration of her research at the same time! NPC is a rare disease that results in accumulation of lipids in the lysosome, which she analogised as cars (lipids) and traffic lights (NPC-type membrane transporters). She then showed how a traffic jam can end up stopping lipids getting out, which results in a vast array of serious symptoms in those with the disease.
Eloise Bishop
Eloise Bishop capped off the last of the pre-dinner talks, with a fascinating look at work that (to examiners’ loss, I should think) didn’t make it into her Master’s dissertation. We learned about the history of intimate clothing, reflecting critically on why some objects make it into museums and others don’t, and how they reflect the experiences of past wearers. The removal of intimate clothing from people in death camps by the Nazi regime might represent an under-recognised way of establishing power and dominance. It seems to me that the forcible removal of bras from women, with their both functional and aesthetic uses, are the epitome of this. Women resisted, some making their own bras, and the objects they left to museums are clear reminders of their bravery and resilience.
Shreya Ganguli
The second set of talks start with Shreya Ganguli’s presentation. She used videos to great effect, showing us the intimacy between Indian and Chinese domestic workers with children in the twentieth-century British empire. It really struck me how the social status of childcare seems to be always changing, and how the domestic workers had such an important role in families at the same time as being exploited.
Jonathan Rystrøm
Jonathan Rystrøm lightened the mood with a hilarious talk on the six degrees of separation theory from network analysis, and how this might connect us all through our sexual connections. Only, it’s one extra degree of separation for those you’re connected to around the world through sexual encounters. Whilst this isn’t a core part of his research, it raises important questions for an area like mine, too, when I look at the ethics of network analysis in areas as different as STI tracing and crime prediction.
Qijing Shen
The final talk was delivered by Qijing Shen, discussing her work on human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes. There were some more great analogies around the ‘red flags’ that infected cells put up, and how our T cells recognise infections to address them. Since this is determined by HLA type, which is genetically influenced, this can lead to big differences in how well we recover from infection.
Signing off for the year
Overall, it was a beautiful evening of good conversation, great talks, a beautiful choir performance, and yummy food. Thanks to all involved and the organising team, and see you all next year!
