Community Public Lectures

The Dana Centre - Speed Dating for Gay and Lesbians.

13th June 2006.
A two-hour event with a 30 minute lecture on body language and 60 minutes of speed dating for gay and lesbian members of the general public.
Contact: Kat Niellson.

The Dana Centre - Speed Dating.

22nd February 2006.
A two-hour event with a 30 minute lecture on body language and 60 minutes of speed dating for members of the general public.
Contact: Richard Fenning.

The Dana Centre - Speed Dating.

14th February 2006.
A two-hour event with a 30 minute lecture on body language and 60 minutes of speed dating for members of the general public.
Contact: Richard Fenning.

Gloucester Media Group - "Body Language in the Media".

31st May 2006.
Contact: Greg Browning.

University of Sheffield - "The Chemicals of Pleasure".

5th May 2006.
This was part of the event ‘Biological Sciences Division Poster Day’.
Contact: Ed Guccione

Watershed (Bristol), Tunnel Vision Series - "How to really detect lies told on television".

9th Mar 2006.
Part of art and science collaboration (SciArt) programme.
Contact: Clare Reddington.

Brighton Science Festival - "Music, Pleasure and the Brain".

25th Feb 2006.
This was a 1 hour lecture for 60 members of the general public.
Contact: Richard Robinson.

Brighton Science Festival - "Current Issues in Science".

25th Feb 2006.
This was a panel discussion including Tim Radford.
Contact: Richard Robinson.

Brighton Science Festival - "Sex, Crimes and Videotape".

24th Feb 2006.
This was a 1 hour lecture for 60 members of the general public.
Contact: Richard Robinson.

London Science Museum and Dana Centre for the Brain - "The Body Language of Love" followed by a speed dating session for the attendees.

14 Feb 2006 and again 22 Feb 2006.
After presenting a lecture on romantic body language, the 30 men and 30 women who attended each night took part in a speed dating session.
Contact: Gaetan Lee, London Science Museum.

YES Group (Bristol) - "How you can get more pleasure: from synapses to learning".

31st Jan 2006.
60 minute lecture demonstration on the science of pleasure.
Contact: John Cato.

Open University - "What you have said before you open your mouth".

26th Jan 2006.
This was a 90 minute lecture for the South-West Regional MBA Alumni Association. It was with Karen Gillam, an image consultant, and was a demonstration on body language and image.
Contact: Christine Sargent at Open University.

Kingston University - "Sex, Crime and Video Tape – Reality TV and Game shows: Big Brother and Fame Lab".

9 Nov 2005.
This was a cross-disciplinary academic talk and was aimed at students and lecturers in media studies. It described my experiences as a commentator on Big Brother.
Contacts: Niran Bahjat-Abbas.

Biosciences Federation - "Further Qualifications".

5 Nov 2005.
This was part of Life Sciences Career Conference 2005 at the University of Bristol. This 30 minute lecture was meant both as guidance and inspiration for aspiring bioscientists.

The Regional Annual Conferences of Resolution (The Solicitors’ Family Law Association).

23 Sept 2005 & 4 Oct 2005 (4 × 75 minute workshops, each to ~ 25 solicitors specialising in family law).
This was a series of regional performances of the workshops done for the SFLA National Conference in Cheltenham earlier in the year.

Oxford University (Modern Art Oxford, with the Department of Astrophysics) - "Body language and detecting lying – art and science: a response to Jem Finer’s sculpture ‘the Centre of the Universe’".

17 June 05.
This lecture was part of a series of lectures celebrating the completion of Jem Finer’s year as artist in residence at Oxford University’s Astrophysics Department. Each lecture brought in an expert of a diverging discipline to give their response to Finer’s work.
Contact: Professor Pedro Ferreira, Department of Astrophysics, Oxford.

Birmingham Future (City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Centre) - "The Truth about Body Language".

2 Nov 2004.
With Dr. Andrew Bass and Paul Clusker of BassClusker Consulting.
Birmingham futures is the organisation for young business professionals (esp. accountants and lawyers) in Birmingham (it is the part of Birmingham Forward for professionals under 35).  We demonstrated as part of its personal skills development series.  In this 90-minute event we presented our contrarian view about Body Language as presented by the “Comic Book” body language books.  We base our interpretation upon the original research.  A variety of personal development exercises were included.
Contact: Amardeep Gill, Birmingham Future. www.birminghamfuture.co.uk

The BA Festival of Science (Exeter) - "X-change with Quentin Cooper".

7 September 2004.
This is an entertaining sequence of interviews for a live audience, hosted by BBC Radio 4 presenter Quentin Cooper, and it is meant to be “The Best of the Festival.”  I was interviewed for about 30 minutes, concerning my lecture The Chemicals of Pleasure.  The other interviewees for the two hour slot included Colin Blakemore (director of the Medical Research Council), Jim Al-Khalili (physicist), and Stephen Minger (created first embryonic human stem cell line in UK).

Café Scientifique (Bristol) - "The Brain, Pleasure and Music". 

28 June 2004.
With Catherine Maytum (flute).
This 30 minute lecture/demonstration included musical demonstrations of the aspects of music that elicit responses.  It was followed by a one hour question/discussion session involving the audience.  The lecture illustrated the effects of iconic sounds, expectation (e.g. appoggiatura) and staccato/legato notes.
Contact: Robert McLean (organiser, Café Scientifique at Bristol).

London Science Museum (The Dana Centre) - "The Brain, Pleasure and Music".

24 June 2004.  
With members of the New London Orchestra: Karl Durr-Sorenson (clarinets) & Dom Nunns (French Horn)
This 20 minute lecture/demonstration for the general public was part of the Dana Centre’s “Mid-Summer Celebration”.  It was performed three times, so that people throughout the celebration could see it.  The lecture included musical demonstrations of the aspects of music that elicit responses, including extracts from Rhapsody in blue, Jaws, and Pomp and Circumstance.  The lecture illustrated the effects of iconic sounds, expectation (e.g. appoggiatura) and staccato/legato notes.
Contacts: Elaine Snell (Dana Centre) & Dr. Julian Knight (General Manager, New London Orchestra).

University of Bristol - "Pleasure and Physiology".

24 June 2004.
This 30 minute lecture/demonstration to 18 year old school leavers was in essence a recruitment lecture for the Department of Physiology; its aim was to show the most interesting and exciting things about Physiology, and to motivate young people to enrol in a Physiology degree programme at the University of Bristol.
Contact: Frankie Semenenko (Science Tutor, Department of Physiology, University of Bristol).

Cheltenham Festival of Science - "Scientific Call My Bluff".

13 June 2004 (one hour show, to ~100 paying members of the general public)
This was a panel game show (based on the popular BBC television series) about scientific word definitions, hosted by the writer from the television series, Marcus Moore.  Other panelists on the show were Professor Robert Winston (physician and television science presenter), Professors Kathy Sykes and Frank Burnet (Professors of Public Understanding of Science), Dr. Mark Lythgoe (neuroscientist) and Timandra Harkness (comedienne and actress).
Contact: Festival Director Kathy Sykes, c/o Cheltenham Festivals, Cheltenham GL50 1PP.

BBSRC Café Scientifique (Swindon) - "Body Language & Beyond".

2 March 2004.
This is part of the SciBar series of making science directly accessible to the public by presenting science in a pub and allowing for lengthy discussions after the presentation.  This was the first of the BBSRC’s series, and it took place at the Great Western Pub (the GW) in downtown Swindon.  The talk lasted one hour and questions lasted an additional hour.
Contact: Chantelle Jay, BBSRC, Swindon.

University of Bristol public outreach programme - "Body Language and Mind Reading".

6 February 2004.
This was the second of my 50 minute lectures in downtown Bristol, which was part of the University’s commitment to engaging the public with science.  Over 116 members of the public attended, making this by far the most popular and well-attended lecture in the three year history of The University of Bristol’s “Lunch-time Lectures” lecture series. 
Contact: University of Bristol Public Programmes Office (Outreach and Marketing), Ann Kimber.

University of Bristol public outreach programme - "The Chemicals of Pleasure".

2 October 2003.
This was a 50 minute lecture in downtown Bristol, which was part of the University’s commitment to engaging the public with science.
Contact: University of Bristol Public Programmes Office (Outreach and Marketing), Kim Fitzgerald.

Explore @t Bristol Hands-on Science Museum.  Continuing Professional Development Programme, School Teachers, "Molecular Biology and Long QT Syndrome".

27 June 2003.
A 30 minute talk, to 32 Biological Sciences Teachers.
Contact: Anna Jolliffe (Explore @t Bristol) and Chantelle Jay (BBSRC).