Institute of Continuing Education (ICE)
The past five decades have been characterised by spectacular scientific advances, spanning particle physics, molecular biology and neuroscience. Yet some of the most 'basic' building blocks of biology, the brain and the biosphere remain poorly understood. What are some of the outstanding known unknowns? What might be the key unknown unknowns in some of the most important areas of science? Finally, what might we need to do differently in future to address them?
Stephen Emmott is Head of Computational Science at Microsoft. He leads an international, interdisciplinary research programme and scientific team, centred on Microsoft's Computational Science Laboratory, in Cambridge, whose goal is to make, enable and accelerate transformational advances in science in areas of societal importance. Stephen is also Visiting Professor of Biological Computation at University College London, Visiting Professor of Computational Science at the University of Oxford, and a Distinguished Fellow of the UK National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (Nesta).
Stephen's team is responsible for developing the Madingley Model – so called because it was first proposed during a meeting at Madingley Hall between UNEP-WCMC and the CEES group at Microsoft Research. The Madingley Model is a global ecosystem model (GEM) which simulates how the structure and function of ecosystems at global scales emerges from the underlying ecology of individual organisms.
The Madingley Lectures take place at Madingley Hall, home of the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education (ICE). This lecture series, given by eminent speakers across a wide range of subjects, is an important part of ICE's commitment to public engagement.
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