Outreach & Teaching

The Biophysics Design Project

The BioPhysics Design Project is a collaborative project to explore the physics of living systems using unconventional approaches. By using creative design as a tool to investigate the structure, mechanics and interactions of biological building blocks, new representations and understanding of biological systems are uncovered. This novel approach provides a fresh and alternative viewpoint of otherwise complex biological systems and uncovers surprising scientific insight which would not be possible with conventional approaches. Find out more about The Biophysics Design Project

Pint of Science – Life on the edge, May 2016

Life is simply amazing. Over millennia humans have tried to understand and explain its origins. Today this process goes on in the laboratories of scientists across the world. Join us for this night where eminent researchers from the University of Leeds will talk about the latest research exploring the fundamentals of life and how it can exist in the most extreme of environments. The event takes place on the first floor function room at O’Neill’s pub in Leeds

Biochemical Society – Diversity in Science Grant 2016

Thanks to funding from the Biochemical Society we are taking part in a textiles collaboration with artists and makers Andy Wilson, Rhiannon Gregory and Paul Turner. We are contrasting the methods and mathematics behind weaving and textile production with that of protein sequences and how these inform their function. We are creating a collection of woven patterns, inspired by the amino-acid sequences of cold-shock proteins from extremophile organisms. As part of the project, we are making use of weaving looms, working out how to transliterate amino-acid sequences to peg plans in non-arbitrary ways, and are even looking at constructing a custom loom. You can find out more at the BioLeeds website and in this report in the Biochemist magazine

The Astbury Conversation, April 2016

More than 250 eminent researchers from all over the world attended the Astbury Conversation, the first international event of its kind at the University, dedicated to the subject of molecular biology. The two-day event began with an academic symposium which was followed by a public exhibition showcasing the research and technologies used in the University’s Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology.

Recent Invited Talks

Yorkshire Philosophical Society, York, February 2018
Leeds Astronomical Society, Leeds, November 2017
Bradford Grammar School, Christmas Lecture, December 2016
ISIS Neutron and Muon User meeting, Warwick, July 2016
RMS Scanning Probe Microscopy Meeting, Warwick, July 2016
Soft Comp annual meeting, Ancona, Italy, June 2016
University of Sheffield, Physics department, May 2016
Physics of Life, From Molecules to Systems Winter School, Oxford, UK, January 2016
Deep Carbon Observatory Workshop on Extreme Biophysics: Molecular Adaptation to Life at the Extremes, Washington DC, USA, November 2015