Covid-19 media engagement
Shortly after China lock-downed Wuhan, I was contacted by Apoorva Mandavilli for a piece originally intended for the New York Time. That piece was cancelled due to the fast progressing of events. Fortunately Apoorva saved part of our conversation in this opinion piece in the Undark Magazine on if China can prevent the next epidemic. The fragmented … Continue reading
Dec 2019 – Climate Science Legacies
Before Christmas, I spoke at the conference, Climate Science Legacies and Contemporary Climate Policy & Action, at the University of Birmingham’s Brussels research office. It was a real delight to know Jon Oldfield, the conference organiser, and an expert on Russian environmental politics and his AHRC project Soviet Climate Science and Its Intellectual Legacies. It was a one-day conference, packed … Continue reading
Dec 2019 – ENGAGE 2019
You may find it odd, but one of my favourite annual conferences in the UK is the Engage series hosted by the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE). Although the conference seems to be mainly for public engagement professionals, I always find it extremely informative and insightful for anyone who is interested in Science and … Continue reading
Dec 2019 – Royal Society SPEAC Discussion
It was a real pleasure to give a short talk at the Royal Society’s Science Policy Expert Advisory Committee (SPEAC) Christmas dinner. Charles Parton (OBE) and I each provided our views on how to promote accountable and productive international science collaborations, especially in relation to China. It was a rare opportunity to discuss transnational research … Continue reading
Dec 2019 – UCU Strikes Back & SOAS
At the beginning of December, I had a dilemma: I’ve agreed a while back to give a seminar at the SOAS China Institute, but then there was the UCU strike. At Kent, or more specifically, at SSPSSR, my colleagues and I were protesting on universities’ failure to make improvements on pay, equality, casualisation and workloads. To … Continue reading
Nov 2019 – PEALS 20th Anniversary Seminar
It was a real pleasure to be able to contribute to the series of event celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the founding of PEALS centre at Newcastle University. And thanks to PEALS’s amazing organisation, besides the seminar, I had a full day of discussion with various staff beforehand. The day ended with a colleague thanking me … Continue reading
Oct 2019 – iGEM
Yes it’s THAT time of the year again! Another iGEM Jamboree! Another get-together of the Human Practices committee in Boston. This was not my first year to attend iGEM but my first year to act as judge – a steep learning curve! It happened that the day before the Jamboree was Halloween. Instead of trick-o-treating, … Continue reading
Oct 2019 – NSF success!
I’m delighted to say that the project, Ethical Issues Surrounding Human Germline Genome Editing, that I’ve been developing with Kathleen Vogel (PI, University of Maryland) and Sonia Ben Ouagrham-Gormley (George Mason University) has been funded by the National Science Foundation in the US. In the next 36 months, we will collaboratively (1) examine how U.S. and Chinese scientists … Continue reading
Oct 2019 – World Conference on Scientific Literacy
Delighted to give a presentation at the World Conference on Scientific Literacy in Beijing this October at the invitation of China’s Research Institute for Science Popularisation. Hosting these international events may be the best way to speed up the creation of a more transparent and engaging research culture in China. At the end of the … Continue reading
Oct 2019 – Newton Workshop
In October, the six of us (see below) pulled off a very successful interdisciplinary and cross-cultural workshop on ‘Promoting Social Embeddedness of New Biotechnologies:Co-Developing Public Engagement in and with China’ , funded by the Newton Fund. – No modesty reserved, as we had a group of wonderful delegates from China and the UK. I’m confident … Continue reading
Joy Zhang 