Abstract

Following his acclaimed performance in ‘10 billion’ at the Royal Court, Microsoft Research’s Stephen Emmott will be speaking on the consequences of over-population and the difficult technological and societal choices we face in addressing the global challenges of the 21st century. This will be followed by a panel discussion, with bioengineering experts including Tom Knight, Claire Marris and Jim Haseloff giving their views and taking questions from the public on issues surrounding the application of Synthetic Biology to these challenges in the coming years.

Stephen Emmott is Head of Computational Science at Microsoft, and leads Microsoft’s inter-disciplinary Computational Science Laboratory. The lab is focused on tackling fundamental problems in science in areas of societal importance, by bringing together and developing new kinds of scientists, new kinds of ideas, and new kinds of computational approaches and software tools to drive a new kind of science.

Stephen Emmott’s recent media coverage includes:


The Guardian, Aug 2012 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/12/robin-mckie-climate-change-dangers 
 Forbes, Aug 2012 
http://www.forbes.com/sites/energysource/2012/08/13/microsofts-stephen-emmott-sounds-alarm-on-population-surge-in-theatrical-lecture/

Financial Times, Sept 2012 
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/12bc1ee0-f6f8-11e1-9dff-00144feabdc0.html#axzz26Li1c9C0

New Scientist, July 2012 http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2012/07/tiffany-ocallaghan-culture