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SUMMARY:A life in science: from academia to industry and back. - Sir Peter
  Williams from The Royal Society 
DTSTART:20121025T133000Z
DTEND:20121025T143000Z
UID:TALK40466@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Caroline Newnham
DESCRIPTION:In the present era\, every young scientist\, regardless of dis
 cipline\, must be wondering how the future will evolve in terms of persona
 l opportunity in the face of austerity and mounting economic stress in the
  major nations of the world.  Research in the UK has in fact fared well in
  the past decade or so\, though concerns remain\, especially in view of th
 e likely postponement of the Government’s spending review until after th
 e next general election.  But the good news is that there is nothing new i
 n all this – history does indeed repeat itself!\nMy own career spanned t
 he ‘oil shock’ in major economies in the 1970’s\, the Thatcherite re
 volution of the early 1980’s\, ‘Black Wednesday’ in 1992 in the Majo
 r era\, the ‘Dot Com’ bust of 2000 and so forth.  All these recessions
  called into question the affordable level of public funding\, but science
  survived and prospered.  However for me\, economic austerity prompted a d
 ifferent personal response and I left academia aged 30 in 1975 to put my s
 cientific skills to the altogether different test of industry.  From surfa
 ce science to the birth of the MRI scanner\, from Japan to the Antarctic\,
  it has been an interesting journey. It has also taken me full circle back
  to academia\, with excursions advising government along the way.\n
LOCATION:Part II Room\, Department of Genetics
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