Photo Credit (above): Karl Harrison
What is the North West Science Network?
Research and teaching fellows from the University of Oxford and other research-intensive universities deliver a series of lectures across the scientific disciplines, whilst the Science Network also provides students from the North West with the opportunity to visit regional laboratories (such as SuperSTEM at Daresbury), attend local 'Maths in Science' Spring Events, and attend a summer school at Corpus. The scheme aims to reach as many students as possible, with lectures particularly large in scale (places on lab visits and residential events are limited).
For more information, please contact admissions.office@ccc.ox.ac.uk and follow the NWSN on Twitter. You can also watch previous talks on the Network's YouTube channel. The North West Science Network cooperates with Oxnet, an access initiative which places universities into the heart of local communities. More details about Oxnet and its projects can be found on its website.
The North West Science Network 2024-25
Launch
This year's launch took place on Wednesday 9 October 2024, at Blackburn College. Jon Lloyd, Professor of Geomicrobiology at the University of Manchester, gave a talk titled 'What lies beneath... and why you should care'. This focused on how microbes within our Earth's crust interact with metal particles, and the potential positive and negative environmental impacts as a result.
The launch was coupled with a Careers/HE Fair, in which we had a stand that included a demonstration from our Materials Science department, using chocolate!
Stay tuned for upcoming dates for this year's North West Science Network events!
The North West Science Network 2023-24
Summer School
The Summer School took place from Monday 17 June to Friday 21 June at Corpus Christi College. The Network invited 30 school students to attend the week-long residential, and they took part in lectures, seminars, workshops, and science experiments! During the week, the attendees worked on a poster project each, with Abbey Ford and James Mann the winners of the competition!
Thanks to everyone for attending, as well as those from our hub colleges, Xaverian College, Cheshire College South and West, and Blackburn College! We hope you all had a great time.
Maths in Science Workshops
The Maths in Science Workshops took place on Friday 12 April at Xaverian College, Saturday 13th April at Cheshire College South and West, and on Sunday 14 April at Blackburn College.
Thank you to all those who took part! We hope you enjoyed it!
Twilight Talks
Each year, the Network's hub colleges run a series of science talks, delivered by different academics from across the country. Known as "Twilight Talks", these are run on the first Wednesday of the month (except January and February). Each talk will be hosted in person at one of the hub colleges as well as streamed live, and wherever possible, a recording will be made available on our YouTube channel.
Recent Twilight Talks have included the following topics:
- Wednesday 1 November 2023 - Cheshire College, South & West - Professor David Armstrong of Materials, University of Oxford - ‘Harder, Better, Faster Stronger – New Materials for Extreme Environments’
- Wednesday 6 December 2023 - Xaverian College - Simon Reed, Outreach and Engagement Manager at Manchester Cancer Research Centre, discussed alternative careers in medicine and science. Shika Desai - medical student studying for a PhD, discussed her journey into Higher Education, and her experiences studying at that level.
- Wednesday 10 January 2024 - Blackburn College - Chris Talbot, PhD student (Materials Science) at the University of Cambridge, discussed X-rays and the importance of structure.
- Wednesday 14 February 2024 - Cheshire College, South & West - Dr Christian Dunn, a world-leading specialist in wetland science at Bangor University, delivered a talk about Bioscience and Zoology. He has a particular interest in water quality including research into the chemical contamination of our waterways.
Launch 2023-2024
This year's launch took place on Wednesday 4 October at Xaverian College, Manchester. Saiful Islam, Professor of Materials Modelling at the University of Oxford and 2016's Royal Institution TV Christmas Lecturer, gave a talk about major breakthroughs in green energy and about supplying low carbon energy, one of the greatest challenges of our time.
Photo credit above: Saiful Islam
The North West Science Network 2022-2023
The North West Science Network Summer School 2023 took part in June. Thank you to everyone who attended!
The Summer School gave participants a week at Corpus Christi to experience life as a university student. They were given an assignment to research as well as attend tutorials, lectures, trips out, and lab work.
Summer School participants at Corpus Christi College June 2023
2022-2023 Twilight Talks
The Twilight Talks were delivered in-person for the NWSN programme 2022-23. The talks took place on:
- Wednesday 9 November 2022 - Blackburn College - Seeing is Believing: how electron microscopy plays a role across science by Prof Pete Nellist (Corpus Christi College, Oxford). Click here to watch the talk online.
- Wednesday 7 December 2022 - Cheshire College South and West (Crewe) - What is Chemical Engineering? by Dr Daniel Belton (University of Huddersfield)
- Wednesday 18 January 2023 - Blackburn College - From Chemistry to Engineering - Catastrophic Consequences of Sand in Pipelines by Raeesa Bhamji, PhD researcher in corrosion science (University of Leeds), and My Journey to a PhD in Chemistry - Making Amino Acids Glow by Dr Leanne Riley (University of Glasgow)
Spring Maths Workshops 2023
The NWSN Maths Workshops took place on Saturday 29 April at Blackburn College and on Sunday 30 April at Xaverian College, Manchester. Thank you to everyone who attended - we hope you enjoyed the day!
2022-2023 Launch
The NWSN 2022-2023 Launch took place on Wednesday 5 October 2022, with talks from Matt Haynes (University of Oxford), Jen Hewitt and Miles Ellis (University of Bangor). Following this, there was a STEMM Fair to inspire students with demonstrations of research in action. The event was hosted in person at Cheshire College Crewe Campus, as well as being livestreamed to those across the North West of England. It was a great day and if you joined us, we hope you enjoyed it!
You can watch the launch video, available on YouTube.
