Academic

Gill Miller
Rachael Bullingham
Professor Jeremy Black
Professor Iain Stewart
Dr Jeffrey DeMarco
Professor Jonathan Phillips
Professor Marcus Munafò
Dr Ceri Lewis
SPRING TERM 2017
Sixth Form Academic Events

Introduction
Welcome to the Millfield Sixth
Form Enrichment Programme,
Spring Term 2017. We are proud to
present a rich and diverse series of
events this term, designed to broaden
the intellectual horizons of our pupils.
Though many of the events are hosted
by individual departments, nearly all
are open to anyone who may be
interested, whether or not they are
studying the subject in question or in
the Sixth Form. Come along and enjoy!
Please feel free to email me at
bpb@millfieldschool.com if you
want to find out more about a
particular event.
Dr Brian Brooks
Head of Academic Enrichment
Economics
Simon Kuper, Financial Times
@KuperSimon
Soccernomics
12 January, 7.15pm
Johnson Hall
Simon Kuper’s first book, Football Against
the Enemy, which won the William Hill
Sports Book of the Year, set him on a
path of writing about the world with
an anthropologist’s eye. In his book
Soccernomics, he and his co-author apply
high-powered analytical tools to everyday
football topics, looking at data in new ways
to reveal counterintuitive truths.
ICT
Dr Jeffrey DeMarco, Middlesex University
Tackling Online Grooming and
Radicalisation
24 January, 7.15pm
Science Lecture Theatre
Criminologist and forensic psychologist
Dr Jeffrey DeMarco is Research Fellow at
the Centre for Abuse and Trauma Studies,
Middlesex University, and a member of
the European Commission’s panel on
the prevention of computer-mediated
crimes against children. He works with
governments and police forces on the
prevention and policing of online childhood
sexual abuse and online radicalisation.
Mathematics
Pi Shop
26 January, 5.15pm
Library Seminar Room
Sixth Form mathematicians offer glimpses
of topics in mathematics and the real
world that have caught their interest,
and maybe will catch yours too.
Geography
Professor Iain Stewart,
Plymouth University
@Profiainstewart
Hazards Emerge from Nature but
Disasters are made in Society
30 January, 7.15pm
Johnson Hall
Iain Stewart is a Scottish geologist, a
Fellow of the Geological Society of London
1

and President of the Royal Scottish
Geographical Society. He is Professor
of Geoscience Communication at the
Plymouth University and also a member
of the Scientific Board of UNESCO’s
International Geoscience Programme. He is
best known to the public as the presenter
of a number of science programmes for
the BBC, including the BAFTA nominated
Earth: The Power of the Planet.
Academic Society
Rachael Bullingham,
University of Worcester
@bulrac
Homophobia in Sport
31 January, 7.15pm
Science Lecture Theatre
Rachael Bullingham, former Millfield pupil
and teacher, is Course Leader for Physical
Education and Outdoor Education at the
University of Worcester’s Institute of
Sport and Exercise Science, and contributor
to the recently published Out in Sport:
The experiences of openly gay and lesbian
athletes in competitive sport.
Extended Project
Qualification
Presentations
3 February, 6.00pm
Library
Sixth Form researchers present their EPQ
projects as part of their assessment in a
relaxed, informal atmosphere of shared
interest and curiosity.
Biology and Psychology
Symposium
7 February, 11.00am - 3.45pm
Various Venues
Keynote Lecture:
Professor Marcus Munafò,
University of Bristol
@MarcusMunafo
The Replication Challenge in Medical
Science and Psychology
Meyer Theatre, 2.50pm
Marcus Munafò is Professor of Biological
Psychology at the University of Bristol
whose research focuses on understanding
pathways into, and the consequences of,
health behaviours and mental health, with
a particular focus on tobacco and alcohol
use. This work has informed ongoing
policy debates, such as the introduction of
standardised (‘plain’) packaging for tobacco
products. He also has interests in the role
of incentive structures in science, and the
extent to which these shape the robustness
and reproducibility of scientific research.
Dr Leah Maizey & Jemma Sedgmond,
Cardiff University
@LeahMaizey @JemmaSedgmond
Studying Decision Making with
Brain Stimulation
Professor George Banting,
University of Bristol @georgebanting
How do Proteins end up in the Right Place?
Dr Ceri Lewis, University of Exeter
@CezzaLew
Marine Biology on the Catlin Arctic Survey
Patrick Jordan
@patrickwjordan
Psychology in the Real World
2

Physics
Dr Mark Lewney,
@DoctorLewney
Rock Guitar in 11 Dimensions
21 February, 7.15pm
Meyer Theatre
What causes the revolutionary, historychanging
sound of rock guitar, and how
does it help us to understand the nature of
the stuff we are made of? Famelab winner
Mark Lewney shows how string vibrations
lie at the heart of the big questions about
the universe and how the vibrations
of guitar strings can be applied to the
particles we are all made of, but with a
twist: he introduces superstring theory
by considering how guitar strings might
vibrate in many extra dimensions.
Mathematics
Dr Katie Chicot,
Open University
@KChicot
To Infinity and Beyond
1 March, 7.15pm
Science Lecture Theatre
The infinitely large and the infinitely
small are mind-blowing concepts that
have helped mathematicians to solve
some very real, and finite, problems.
Katie Chicot explores the mysteries
and misconceptions of infinity, from
ancient puzzles to some of the very latest
mathematical research, taking you to
infinity... and beyond.
History Conference
14 March, 3.00-5.30pm
Various Venues
Professor Jeremy Black,
University of Exeter
Jeremy Black is Professor of History at
the University of Exeter, is author of over
100 books specialising in eighteenth-and
nineteenth-century British and European
history but encompassing global history
from the early modern period to the
present day.
Professor Jonathan Phillips,
Royal Holloway University of London
Jonathan Phillips, Professor of Crusading
History at Royal Holloway University
of London, is a leading authority on the
contemporary history of the crusades and
on their bitter legacy, which still resonates
today in an apparently escalating clash
between Islamic and Christian cultures.
Professor David Bates,
University of East Anglia
Professorial Fellow in the School of
History at the University of East Anglia,
David Bates is an authority on England
and Normandy in the eleventh century.
His recent book on William the Conqueror
challenges traditional perceptions and
narratives of William’s life and the
Norman Conquest.
Dr Graham Goodlad, St John’s College
The Age of Lord Liverpool
Dr Graham Goodlad, Head of Government
and Politics at St John’s College,
Southsea, is a teacher with over 30 years
of experience and the author of many
textbooks and articles covering a broad
range of topics in modern British history.
3

Academic Society
‘I Don’t Want You to Make Me Happy!’
21 March, 7.15pm
Science Lecture Theatre
Following last term’s hugely successful
series of pupil presentations on the
question of perception, this term’s
presentations, curated again by
Mr Lyons, will be on the rights and
wrongs of happiness and society’s
attempt to impose its version on us.
Mathematics
Pi Shop
23 March, 5.15pm
Library Seminar Room
Sixth Form mathematicians offer
glimpses of topics in mathematics
and the real world that have caught
their interest, and maybe will catch
yours too.
identity and the challenges it faces in
becoming one nation. There are so many
contrasts and inequalities in India, from
religion and caste to the economy and
welfare, between regions and languages,
or cricket and Bollywood. How typical is
the India you imagine, and is it the real
India? This lecture hopes to make you
think twice before you write ‘e.g. India’.
Chemistry
Tim Harrison, University of Bristol,
@BristolChemLabS
A Pollutant’s Tale
28 March, 7.15pm
Science Lecture Theatre
Tim Harrison, School Teacher Fellow and
Outreach Director at the University of
Bristol’s Chemical Laboratory Sciences,
returns to Millfield to give a lecture and
demonstration on the chemistry of the
earth’s atmosphere and its pollutants.
We can expect demonstrations involving
liquid nitrogen, oxygen foam and a few
explosions.
World Development
Gill Miller, University of Chester
Bombay Mix: Is India One Nation?
27 March, 7.15pm
Meyer Theatre
India is changing rapidly. Gill Miller, Senior
Lecturer in the Department of Geography
and International Development at the
University of Chester, explores India’s
4

Street, Somerset, BA16 0YD
Tel: 01458 442291
millfieldschool.com