The Ockham Lectures

The Ockham — or Occam — Lectures, named in honour of one of the greatest (if contested) alumni of the College, and of his philosophical principle of intellectual discipline, started in 2009 and are held once a term. The lectures are organised by the physics tutors of the College and aim to promote both intellectual curiosity and social cohesion amongst the Merton Physics community.

Trinity term 2013 saw the first Ockham Debate between philosopher Simon Saunders and physicist James Binney, on 'The Problem of Quantum Measurement'. The second Ockham Debate, held in Trinity term 2022, again featured Professor Simon Saunders, who discussed the question 'Does Physics Imply Atheism?' with Professor Ard Louis, Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Oxford.

Attendance at the lectures, which are preceded by a reception and followed by dinner in Hall, is solely by invitation. All Merton physicists belonging to the Junior, Middle and Senior Common Rooms are invited, as are Old Members. Guests are also accommodated when space permits - please email Professor Alex Schekochihin if you wish to attend

To find out more about the Ockham Lecture series, and see details of previous events, visit the Ockham Lecture webpage.

Past speakers have included:

• Dr Chiara Marletto (2013), Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford, and Research Associate at the Department of Materials, University of Oxford
• Professor of Physics at the University of California, Berkeley Professor Stuart Bale
• Savilian Professor of Astronomy and Head of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford Professor Steven Balbus FRS
• Luke Blossom Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University Professor Roger Blandford FRS
• Fellow and Tutor in Chemistry Professor Madhavi Krishnan, Associate Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Oxford.
• Professor Slava Rychkov, Professeur permanent, Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, MHI-ENS Chair Professor in High-Energy Physics, École normale supérieure, Paris, and Research Staff Member, Theoretical Physics Department, CERN.
• Nuffield Chair of Anaesthetic Science and Head of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neuroscience Professor Irene Tracey
• Wyliot Fellow Dr Peter Braam, Founder, CEO, President and Director, Cluster File Systems, Inc.
• Professor of Particle Physics at the University of Birmingham Professor David Charlton FRS
• Princeton University's Professor Frans Pretorius
• CEO of the UKAEA Steven Cowley FRS
• Quantum physicist Anton Zeilinger
• SLAC Director Persis Drell
• Nobel-Prize winner Sir Anthony Leggett
• Lord May of Oxford FRS
• Sir John Beddington CMG FRS, the government's Chief Scientific Adviser

Previous Lectures

Not all lectures were video recorded, but for those that were, a link is provided.

1st Ockham Lecture - 'Science and Technical Challenges of Fusion Power', Professor Steven Cowley

2nd Ockham Lecture - 'Systemic Risk: The Dynamics of the Banking System', Professor Lord May of Oxford FRS

3rd Ockham Lecture - 'Less Reality, More Security', Professor Artur Ekert

4th Ockham Lecture - 'Quantum Games and Free Will', Professor Dr Anton Zeilinger

5th Ockham Lecture - 'The Turn On of LCLS: The X-Ray Free-Electron Laser at SLAC', Professor Persis Drell

6th Ockham Lecture - 'Why Can't Time Run Backwards?', Professor Sir Anthony Leggett FRS

7th Ockham Lecture - 'Physics in Unexpected Places: What Physics Has to Say About Social Networks, Cartography, and Space Aliens', Professor Mark Newman

8th Ockham Lecture - 'Black Holes and Spin Offs', Professor Katherine Blundell

9th Ockham Lecture - 'Is the World Geometric or Algebraic?', Professor Frank Arntzenius

10th Ockham Lecture - 'Dealing with Risks and Emergencies in Government', Professor Sir John Beddington CMG FRS

11th Ockham Lecture - 'From Excitons to Soot: the Unexpected Outcome of a Physics Education', Dr Anthony Hansen

12th Ockham Lecture - 'The Problem of Quantum Measurement'. Professor Simon Saunders vs. Professor James Binney FRS

13th Ockham Lecture - 'Black Holes and Fundamental Physics', Professor Frans Pretorius

14th Ockham Lecture - 'Beyond the Jet Engine', Alan Bond

15th Ockham Lecture - 'Some Small Steps Toward Artificial Life', Professor Paul Chaikin

16th Ockham Lecture - 'Breaking into Your Brain', Dr Aldo Faisal

17th Ockham Lecture - 'Physics in the World of Ideas: Complexity as Energy', Professor Dr Yuri Manin

18th Ockham Lecture - 'Magnetised Universe in a Plasma Lab', Professor Cary Forest

19th Ockham Lecture - 'Physics in the City', Jonathan Flint CBE FREng

20th Ockham Lecture - 'Fusion Energy with a Twist', Professor Dr Per Helander

21st Ockham Lecture - 'Nuclear Forensics', Professor Bill Dorland

22nd Ockham Lecture - 'From High-Carbon Baby to Low-Carbon Boardroom', Juliet Davenport OBE

23rd Ockham Lecture - 'Twisting the Neutron Wave Function', Professor Charles W. Clark

24th Ockham Lecture - 'Beyond the Higgs Discovery: The Coming of Age of ATLAS and the CERN LHC', Professor David Charlton FRS

25th Ockham Lecture - 'Extreme Computing for the SKA Telescope', Dr Peter Braam

26th Ockham Lecture - 'From Neurons to Perception: How Physics Opened the Black Box', Professor Irene Tracey FRCA, FMedSci

27th Ockham Lecture - 'Reductionism vs. Bootstrap: Are Things Big Always Made of Things Elementary?', Professor Slava Rychkov

28th Ockham Lecture - 'How to Trap Your Nano-Object: New Frontiers in the Control, Manipulation and Measurement of Matter at the Nanometer Scale', Professor Madhavi Krishnan

29th Ockham Lecture - 'Confirmation, Conviction and Cosmology', Professor Roger Blandford FRS

30th Ockham Lecture - 'Life's a Beach: the Moon, the Tides, and the Emergence of Terrestrial Vertebrates', Professor Steven Balbus FRS

31st Ockham Lecture - 'To Hell and Back with a NASA Spacecraft: the First Perihelia of the Parker Solar Probe', Professor Stuart Bale

32nd Ockham Lecture - '"The Physics of Can and Can't": From the Universal Computer to the Universal Constructor', Dr Chiara Marletto

33rd Ockham Lecture - 'Does Physics Imply Atheism?' Professor Ard Louis vs. Professor Simon Saunders

34th Ockham Lecture - 'How Does the Earth Generate its Magnetic Field?', Professor Peter Davidson

35th Ockham Lecture - 'From Merton to Maranello: Physics on the Race Track', Ravin Jain

36th Ockham Lecture - 'Understanding the Emergent Properties of Complex Systems', Professor Steven Kivelson

37th Ockham Lecture - 'Emergent Laws of Physics and Biological Simplicity', Professor Ilya Nemenman

38th Ockham Lecture - 'Chasing Cosmic Dawn with the James Webb Space Telescope', Professor Charlotte Mason

39th Ockham Lecture - 'Levels and Effects of Radiation Exposure: Are We Too Scared or Not Scared Enough?', Malcolm Crick

40th Ockham Lecture - 'Creating and Controlling Beams in Plasmas', Professor Tunde Fulop

41st Ockham Lecture - 'Occam's Razor: Are Simple Explanations Better?', Professor Vijay Balasubramanian

42nd Ockham Lecture - 'The Meaning of Relativity: What It Was, What It Is, and What It Could Be', Professor Samuel Fletcher

43rd Ockham Lecture - 'Equations and Equality: Physics, People, and Power in a Changing Climate', Professor Myles Allen CBE FRS (Video to arrive shortly)

UPCOMING 44th Ockham Lecture - 'Always on Call: AI in Oncology', Professor Mireia Crispin-Ortuzar