Engineering Society, Economics Society, Lit and Dram Society and Pure Sciences Society led this week’s Senior Societies with a fantastic range of lectures and webinars for our students to enjoy.
Engineering Society watched a webinar by Jessica Marshall entitled Airbus, Making the Solar Orbital. Studying the Sun from a unique distance, Solar Orbiter’s mission is to explore how the Sun creates the heliosphere – the bubble-like region of space dominated by the solar wind. Launched in February 2020, Solar Orbiter is a mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The webinar discussed the engineering design process for making this Solar Orbital and touched on astrophysics and the reasons for sending it into space.
Economics Society welcomed Sir Andrew Large for a lecture entitled, “Central Banks: What do they do and how do they do it? Sir Andrew Large has a wealth of experience in both public affairs and the private sector. From 2002-2006 he served as the Bank of England Deputy Governor for Financial Stability as well as a member of its Monetary Policy Committee. From 1992–1997, he was Chairman of the UK’s then supervisory authority, the Securities, and Investments Board. He also sat on the Board of Banking Supervision, the Takeover Panel, and the London Stock Exchange. In this talk, Sir Andrew Large explained the role of the central bank in creating money, managing inflation and ensuring financial stability. He also discussed the BoE’s role in the climate crisis, as well as the challenge posed by cryptocurrencies informed by first-hand experience. The talk also explained the historical precedent to monetary crises, and lessons to be learned by central banks going forward.
Lit and Dram Society heard from Professor Alison Shell for her talk on King Lear, Jesuits, and evil spirits. The Lord’s Prayer recited by Christians contains the line ‘Deliver us from Evil’. The shock-therapy of imagining demons, a very effective way of dissuading believers from sin, was central to education within schools run by the Jesuit religious order across Europe after the Reformation. In Elizabethan England, where Catholicism was outlawed, priests staged exorcisms involving children and young people as a way of demonstrating the power of their faith – a controversial practice that impacted upon Shakespeare’s tragedy, King Lear.
Finally, Pure Sciences Society welcomed Dr Zerrin Atakan for a talk on the effects of Cannabis on Teenagers’ Brains. Dr Atakan is a consultant psychiatrist and an honorary senior lecturer and senior research at the Neuroimaging Section of the Institution of Psychiatry, King’s College London. Dr Atakan moved to the UK with a research scholarship obtaining her membership degree from the Royal College of Psychiatrists, after completing psychiatrist training in Turkey. She worked as a psychiatric intensive care consultant for 13 years and from 2003 until 2007 was the lead consultant at the National Psychosis Unit at the Maudsley Hospital, London and is currently doing part-time private practice. Dr Atakan has extensive experience with treating and helping those with psychoses, depression, anxiety, PTSD, OCD and other forms of mental health problems. She is also known as an expert in treating treatment-resistant psychosis as well as helping those who have problematic cannabis use.
