Alumni Weekend in Asia 2014

Oxford University Vice-Chancellor Professor Andrew Hamilton kicks off a stimulating day of academic sessions in Hong Kong for the inaugural Alumni Weekend in Asia.

With topics ranging from prime numbers to the lottery, from lemmings to bending balls like Beckham, this creative session with Professor Marcus du Sautoy, Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science, provides an entertaining and unexpected approach to explain how mathematics can be used to predict the future.

From drug discovery to novel anti-cancer therapies, from the role of big data to the insights on the genetic origins of psychiatric disorders lent by one of the world's first truly large scale study of depression in China, Oxford academics discuss what they think are the biggest threats to human health and what Oxford is going now that will craft the medicines of the future. Speakers: Chas Bountra, Professor of Translational Medicine, Head of Structural Genomics Consortium Xin Lu, Professor of Cancer Biology, Director of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research Oxford branch Jonathan Flint, Professor of Molecular Psychiatry, Wellcome Trust Principal Fellow Moderator: Professor Nick Rawlins, Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Experimental Psychology.

Will this be the Asian Century? Four leading voices from Oxford University debate this motion, moderated by the Chancellor, Lord Patten of Barnes. For the motion: Rana Mitter, Director of the Oxford China Centre and Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China Linda Yueh, Chief Business Correspondent for the BBC and Fellow of St Edmund Hall Against the motion: Ngaire Woods, Dean of the Blavatnik School of Government Peter Tufano, Dean of the Said Business School Moderator: University Chancellor, Lord Patten of Barnes

Between 21 -- 23 March, Oxford University hosted the inaugural Meeting Minds: Alumni Weekend in Asia in Hong Kong. The three days of festivities was hosted by University Chancellor, the Rt Hon Lord Patten of Barnes, and the University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Andrew Hamilton, and brought together more than 500 graduates, friends and world-leading academic figures for sessions on the impact of current Oxford research, social events and the opening of the exhibition of the Bodleian Library's Selden Map at the Hong Kong Maritime Museum.