Departmental news

Renato Paes Leme, Google Research New York

Thursday 4th May 2023 - MS.01 Zeeman building, at 18:15

As the famous Graham-Buffet quote says “price is what you pay; value is what you get" and every business success or failure is driven by the match or mismatch of the two. We will discuss a simple question in pricing algorithms: how to adjust prices over time to learn a buyer's valuation while minimizing revenue loss. This is a nice puzzle with a surprising solution. We will discuss the Kleinberg-Leighton algorithm and how to generalize it to multi-dimensional settings. There, we will do a detour to convex geometry and the theory of intrinsic volumes. We will also discuss how to measure the length of a potato.

Free attendance

There will be a reception after the lecture

Main contact point: K.G.Latuszynski@warwick.ac.uk

We are pleased to announce the winners of the HRC Doctoral Fellowship Competition as follows:

Gennaro Ambrosino & Kerry Gibbons (SMLC) - ‘Archaeology, Psychoanalysis and Colonialism: The Return of the Repressed in European Culture in the Modern Age’  

Bacteriophage (phage) are present wherever their bacteria hosts are. Phage have huge biotechnological potential, but lytic phages can also cause complete loss of bacterial cultures. For example in the food industry, or in every research laboratory, where rigorous sterile handing is the primary containment strategy. For industrial biotechnology using microorganisms to enable sustainable of chemicals, materials and drugs, phage infection must be addressed. In our latest (patent pending) work, in collaboration with the SagonaLab at Warwick, and Cytiva, we discovered that a simple polymer can prevent phage infection of bacteria when applied to the growth media. This process is simple, requires no change to working practises and prevents phage infections. We are still investigating the mechanistic aspects, but this is virustatic (inhibitory) rather than virucidal.

Read the press release here.
Read the paper here.

The biology of a cell is the sum of many highly dynamic processes, each orchestrated by a plethora of proteins and other molecules.

Microscopy is an invaluable approach to spatially and temporally dissect the molecular details of these processes. Hundreds of genetically encoded imaging tools have been developed that allow cell scientists to determine the function of a protein of interest in the context of these dynamic processes. Broadly, these tools fall into three strategies: observation, inhibition and activation. Using examples for each strategy, in this Cell Science at a Glance and the accompanying poster, we provide a guide to using these tools to dissect protein function in a given cellular process. Our focus here is on tools that allow rapid modification of proteins of interest and how observing the resulting changes in cell states is key to unlocking dynamic cell processes. The aim is to inspire the reader's next set of imaging experiments.

Read the paper here.

PhD student, Edward Lant, and Prof. Peter Sadler put on their lab coats (and matching multicoloured colour shirts!) to demonstrate the chemistry of global warming to St Nicholas Primary School childrenLink opens in a new window ,Alcester.

Congratulations to Dr Karolos Potamianos who has been awarded £287,845 from Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) for a research project titled 'Expanding the timing frontier: precision timing for particle tracking and identification.'

The funding will permit the procurement of a 12 GHz signal generator, a fast oscilloscope (<8ps per sample), and a logic analyser. These will enable the proper characterisation of ultra-fast silicon detectors and associated readout at realistic operating conditions, in particular enabling precise measurements of their (ultra-fast) response signals.

The research will be led by Dr Karolos Potamianos. He said,

"The use of fast silicon in collider detectors offers many new opportunities, as high-precision timing information enables distinguish between collisions occurring very close in space but well-separated in time. This will greatly help mitigate the effect of overlapping proton-proton interactions (pileup) at the High-Luminosity LHC. It is thus essential that we can properly characterise these detectors, which the procured equipment will enable. However, challenges such as ensuring proper operation of the detectors in a tough radiation environment and that sufficient bandwidth is available to transfer data out of the detector remain to make these detectors a reality at the LHC.”

The RSC Dalton Conference came to Warwick for 2023, with 420 attendees and 130+ sessions highlighting the strength and depth of Inorganic Chemistry in the UK.

The Outreach Team, at WMG at the University of Warwick, is proud to have completed a decade of Royal Institution Engineering Masterclasses.

Over the past 10 years staff and students, from WMG, have supported 250 pupils from 45 schools across Warwickshire and the West Midlands. The Masterclasses have opened the eyes of young people to the excitement and value of engineering and, have in turn, inspired the next generation of scientists, mathematicians and engineers.

A special celebration event was held to mark the occasion with 2023 masterclass students and their families and teachers. At the event, University of Warwick alumna and award-winning engineer, Yewande Akinola delivered a key note before presenting certificates in a mini graduation ceremony.

Professor Margaret Low, WMG’s Director of Outreach and Widening Participation said: “WMG has supported the Ri with the masterclasses, since 2013, with workshops and activities that put our cutting-edge engineering research into context for young people. We even found a way to deliver the activities online during the pandemic.

“These experiences allow students to see how their school learning applies to complicated and world-changing technologies. Through our outreach programmes we hope to inspire young people to pursue careers in STEM, widen participation in higher education and make the STEM workforce more diverse.”

Mujthaba Ahtamad (Mosh), Senior Teaching Fellow at WMG, who worked alongside Professor Margaret Low on some of the original masterclass sessions, said: “With Margaret’s enthusiasm and motivation, she really brought everything together, including inspiring the teaching team. It was really evident that the attendees were very excited to attend the Masterclasses, (perhaps more so than attending school!).”

Dr Phil Jemmett, Widening Participation Co-ordinator at WMG added: “The Royal Institution is a prestigious organisation with a long history of being at the forefront of teaching science. Partnerships between universities in the local community, and the fact that these famous, royal-chartered groups are housed only a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace, adds so much value to the student experience.

“This is not just an extra lesson that happens to be on a Saturday, this is an experience of just how far these students can go with their engineering talents. We hope that the students felt every bit of the prestige of both WMG and the Royal Institution.

“We would also like to thank the High Value Manufacturing Catapult who have supported these activities since 2019.”

Rachel Dorris, Clothworkers’ Fellow of Mathematics at the Royal Institution, said: “On behalf of the Royal Institution and the Masterclass team, I would like to congratulate you for successfully shepherding the Engineering Masterclasses at WMG to its 10th anniversary.

“We appreciate your hard work as an Ri collaborator - inspiring future generations within your community in the world of engineering.”

Find out more about WMG’s Outreach Programme here: Public engagement and Outreach (warwick.ac.uk)

11.00-11.15 Alison Cooley (Classics and Ancient History)

The Senatus Consultum de Cn. Pisone Patre (Cambridge University Press, February 2023)

11.15-11.30 Emma Campbell (SMLC)

Reinventing Babel in Medieval French: Translation and Untranslatability (c. 1120–c. 1250)

(Oxford University Press, 2023)

11.30-11.45 Sarah Wood (English)

Piers Plowman and its Manuscript Tradition (York Medieval Press/Boydell & Brewer, 2022)

11.45-12.00 David Lines (SMLC)

The Dynamics of Learning in Early Modern Italy: Arts and Medicine at the University of Bologna (Harvard University Press, February 2023)

12.15-12.30 David James (Philosophy)

Property and its Forms in Classical German Philosophy (Cambridge University Press, 2023)

12.30-12.45 Carolina Bandinelli (CMPS)

Fashion as Creative Economy: Micro-Enterprises in London, Berlin and Milan (Polity, December 2022)

12.45-13.00 Chris Bilton (CMPS)

Cultural Management: a research overview (Abingdon: Routledge, 2023)

Creativities: the what, how, where, who and why of the creative process 

Bilton, Chris, Cummings, Stephen, ogilvie, dt (2022). (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar)

13.15-13.30 Clive Gray (CMPS)

The Changing Museum (Routledge, November 2022)

13.30-13.45 Jane Woddis (CMPS)

Acting on Cultural Policy: Arts Practitioners, Policy-making and Civil Society (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023).

13.45-14.00 Harry Warwick (English)

Dystopia and Dispossession in the Hollywood Science-Fiction Film, 1979-2017

(Liverpool University Press, 2023).

A new discovery by researchers at the University of Warwick could help stop bacteria being contaminated with viruses, reducing disruption and decreasing costs in industry and research. Read moreLink opens in a new window