Frontiers in Natural Sciences: Dean's Annual Lecture

Frontiers in Natural Sciences: Dean's Annual Lecture

Established in 2022, the Dean’s Lecture explores the breadth and variety of activity at the frontiers of natural sciences.

This annual lecture series sees world-renowned speakers, who are chosen by each department in the Faculty, discuss the future of science and the fundamental work that underpins our most ambitious endeavours.

The Dean’s Lecture has evolved from the Schrodinger Lecture – a hugely successful lecture series which ran for nearly 30 years – to focus on expertise across all the natural sciences, highlighting fantastic work from across our subject areas, and enthusing the Imperial community and wider public about the wonders of science.

Recordings of each year’s Dean’s Lecture are available below.

Professor Sir Shankar Balasubramanian is the Herchel Smith Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Cambridge and senior group leader at the Cambridge Institute delivered the inaugural lecture, 'Reading your DNA: What can it tell us?' Play video
Professor Sir Shankar Balasubramanian is the Herchel Smith Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Cambridge and senior group leader at the Cambridge Institute delivered the inaugural lecture, 'Reading your DNA: What can it tell us?'

Past lectures: watch again

Professor Sir Shankar Balasubramanian works on the chemistry, structure and function of nucleic acids. He is a co-inventor of the leading next generation DNA sequencing methodology, Solexa sequencing (now Illumina) that has made routine, accurate, low-cost sequencing of human genomes a reality and has revolutionised biology. He presented the inaugural keynote lecture Reading your DNA: What can it tell us? 

A panel session Disruptive startups including university spinouts are key to UK economic growth – what are the barriers to their growth and how do we unlock the potential of this sector? followed featuring Professor Sir Shankar Balasubramanian, Sir Mark Walport, Chief Executive of UK Research and Innovation, Dr Malcolm Weir, formerly CEO Heptares Therapeutics Ltd, Sarah Haywood, Managing Director, Advanced Oxford, and Richard Broyd, ScaleSpace.