Previous Research Cafes

March 2021 (café number 39) - The first online virtual café!

A health themed cafe for Southampton Science and Engineering Festival goes digital 2021

Recording of the event

March 2021 (café number 39) - The first online virtual café!

• A health themed cafe for Southampton Science and Engineering Festival goes digital 2021

·         How is the world getting on with its pandemic response?

·         Why weren’t we better prepared?

·         A pandemic of inequalities – how inequalities (gender, wealth, ethnicity) affected how people were impacted by Covid-19

·         There will be another pandemic – will it be different next time?

Dr Michael Head's profile

March 2021 (café number 39) - The first online virtual café!

• A health themed cafe for Southampton Science and Engineering Festival goes digital 2021

·         What is obstetric violence?

·         Where is this happening in the world?

·         Why should we talk about experiences of abuse during childbirth?

·         What can be done to ensure every woman and person giving birth receives respectful care?

Kaveri Mayra's profile

March 2021 (café number 39) - The first online virtual café!

• A health themed cafe for Southampton Science and Engineering Festival goes digital 2021

·         What is the role of communities in supporting health and wellbeing?

·         How is austerity affecting health and wellbeing: is tackling loneliness a luxury?

·         Are loneliness and social isolation feminist issues? How might gender inequalities affect who experiences loneliness and social isolation?

·         What needs to be considered when developing community-based initiatives to tackle loneliness and social isolation?

Dr Jaimie Ellis's profile

May 2018 (café number 34) - Mettricks Old Town

National Clean Air Day special Research Café.

We were delighted to have world-leading respiratory disease expert Professor Stephen Holgate CBE as our keynote speaker, who spoke on "The health challenges of outdoor and indoor air pollution - the hidden public health problem of our time: what needs to be done".

There was also short talks from a range of people working on the effects of air pollution and what can be done to tackle the problem in Southampton:
- Dr Matt Loxham - particulates and their effects on health
- Dr James Dyke - imagining an environmentally safe and economically fair Southampton: the importance of clean air
- Josh Taylor , Solent Air Watch - citizen science (all welcome!), working to tackle air pollution in Southampton and the surrounding areas
- Sai Harrod , Mutrend Lab - social innovation to transform Southampton City Centre

November 2017 (café number 31) – The Mitre

• Carried-on the conversation from the World Café, which focused on “imagining a healthier, fairer, more positive Southampton”

For Claire Diaper's profile please click here .

For Rosie Cooper's profile please click here .

For Tony Curran's profile please click here .

November 2017 (café number 31) – The Mitre

• Carried-on from The Race is On film preview and discussion, which is a Southampton-made film about tackling climate change by 2040

For James Dyke's profile please click here .

November 2017 (café number 31) – The Mitre

• Discussion of Healthwatch, and the Ideas for Wellbeing project
• Announcement of a new Community Health and Wellbeing Hub in Southampton, and asking what people want from it

For Rob Kurn's profile please click here .

Speakers have been drawn from all of the University's Faculties, from Lloyd's Register and other external organisations. Open up the sections below to find out what was discussed at previous Research Cafes (listed in alphabetical order by topic).

May 2017 - Coffee#1

• How are waste molecules/proteins cleared from the brain?
• What happens if this clearance mechanism fails and how does it lead to Alzheimer’s disease?
• What therapeutic interventions may aid clearance of these waste products from the brain?

For Nazira Albargothy's profile please click here

April 2015 - Mettricks cafe

• What do we mean by population dynamics?
• Why is it important to understand the way a population changes?
• What causes human and butterfly populations to change?
• What patterns of population change do we see?

January 2016 - Mettricks cafe

• What competing factors are in place when people choose how to travel?
• What behaviour change techniques work?
• Would those behaviour change techniques work in a Southampton-wide transport setting?
• How will we know if our techniques have worked?

October 2016 - Mettricks cafe - as part of Southampton Sustainability Week

• What are climate tipping points?
• Why do tipping points happen?
• How could tipping points affect us?
• Can we predict tipping points in advance?

Hear the podcast here

June 2015 - Mettricks cafe

• Is climate change affecting the Arctic?
• Is this just another warm phase?
• Can we use the past as analogue for the future?
• It’s getting warmer, things are going to change, so what?!

For Dr Maarten van Hardenbroek's profile please click here .

The December 2015 and January 2016 Researchers’ Cafés in Mettricks café were themed Climate Conversations to link with the Paris Climate Change Conference and the wider efforts in Southampton to raise awareness and drive action in the City (summary here ). Alongside the regular, climate change-themed topics general discussions took place, with speakers including Jenny Barnes who led the Southampton Climate Change Demonstration , Rebecca Kinge from Dangerous Ideas Southampton , Clare Diaper from Transition Southampton and Bob Whitmarsh from Winchester Action on Climate Change who wrote a useful summary of the outcomes of the Paris Agreement here .

March 2015 - Boldrewood Campus

• Can composites replace steel in ships?
• How easy is it to inspect composite ships?
• Are current Non Destructive Examination (NDE) techniques effective?
• What NDE techniques are emerging?
• Can we learn from aerospace industry?

November 2015 - Boldrewood Campus - engineering theme

• What are the emissions from passenger ships' funnels?
• What do we do to control emissions from ships?
• How can Selective Catalytic Reduction help?

April 2017 - Mettricks cafe

• Muslim ban
• ISIS plan
• JSOC and drones

For Dr Chris Fuller's profile please click here

December 2016 - Boldrewod campus - Engineering theme

• What do we mean by a cyber-enabled ship?
• What is actually happening now in cyber-enablement?
• What are the emerging regulatory frameworks for the cyber-enabled ship?
• How can we assure performance for the cyber-enabled ship?

For Tim Kent's profile please click here

April 2016 - Boldrewood Campus

November 2018 - took place as part of Southampton's Dead Good Days Festival.

May 2016 - Highfield Campus - as part of the Festival of Doctoral Research

For Frances Dunn's profile please click here .

November 2016 - Mettricks cafe - Hope and Fear theme, as part of the Human Worlds festival

• Does Humanity’s destiny lie in outer space?
• What do visions of the future tell us about the societies they come from?
• Why do nations spend vast sums of money on space exploration?
• What does the Space Race tell us about the Cold War?

For Tom Ellis' profile please click here

Hear the podcast here

December 2014 - Mettricks cafe

• Will beef become a luxury food in the future?
• What challenges do we face if we want to feed farm animals on insects?
• The UK is small; how can we make it a competitive research and enterprise hub for the growing insect industry?
• What skills can engineers, psychologists, biologists, lawyers, dieticians and marketing experts offer?

May 2015 - Boldrewood Campus

• What use is eco-driving anyway?
• Can we encourage drivers with in-vehicle information, and if so how?
• Should we really be pushing certain types of behaviour?
• Come on a tour of the Southampton University Driving Simulator, drive a Jaguar XJ Saloon and have a go with our eco-driving support yourself!

February 2017 - Observatory, Building 85, Highfield campus

• Equality, Diversity & Inclusion in the Univesity strategy
• Unconscious bias: a get out of jail free card?
• Gender identity and gender journeys
• International students: English and other challenges

November 2014 - Highfield Campus

• Do we explore mining metals from the city today?
• Are metals lost in any period significant to human beings?
• What could residents do to access scarce metals? Can we obtain ethical fairly produced electronics?

January 2016 - Highfield Campus

• What do you think and do when you’re feeling stressed? How does our mind influence our body?
• Can we change the way we react to stress?
• Should we avoid or accept stress?

For Dr Leanne Morrison's profile please click here . For Dr Judy Joseph's profile please click here .

January 2016 - Highfield Campus

• Are debt and financial difficulties linked to mental health problems?
• Do financial difficulties impact mental health or do mental health problems impact finances?
• Might there be a vicious cycle? What might explain this relationship?

May 2017 -  Coffee#1

• Why are we aiming to avoid the surgical routes for treating degenerative diseases?
• What is the potential role of Stem Cells and Clay in this?
• Will we be able to find the injectable Clay/Stem Cell formula to regenerate human tissues?
• What are the promising impacts on the future of Medicine?

For Mohamed Mousa's profile please click here

February 2015 - special Silicon Valley Researchers' Café

• How do we increase environmental data literacy for trash?
• How do we make zero waste living a commonplace behavior?
• What kind of game mechanics can we apply to environmental data and zero waste behaviors?
• How do we raise consciousness about the embodied environmental impact of items we throw out, rather than only focus on end of life?

November 2015 - Avenue Campus - humanities theme as part of the Being Human festival

• How has the way men and women are discussed in the media changed?
• How does this impact people's everyday lives?
• What needs to be done?
• What is being done?
• Can individuals make a difference?

April 2015 - Mettricks cafe

• What is big data?
• What are the challenges and opportunities?
• What is the current state of the art?
• How do we use it to improve our lives?

April 2017 - Mettricks cafe

• Can populists transition from opposition to government?
• What does populist rhetoric mean in practice?
• Is Trump all talk and no substance?
• Will Trump’s populist rhetoric unite an electoral base?

For Professor Russell Bentley's profile please click here

November 2014 - Highfield Campus

• Is human use of earth’s resources sustainable?
• Is the planet doomed or will everything be fine?
• What needs to be done? What is being done?
• Can individuals make a difference?

For Dr Tony Curran's profile please click here .

June 2017 - Boston Tea Party

• What are gravitational waves?
• How do you make gravitational waves?
• How do neutron stars grow mountains?
• How tall are these mountains?

November 2015 - Avenue campus - humanities theme as part of the Being Human festival

• What is it about the play Hamlet that attracts comparison and adaptations around the globe?
• How is Hamlet understood in Pakistan – an Islamic country where revenge is both current and pervasive?
• Does it allow us to understand the emotive meaning of ‘revenge’ in a range of religious and cultural contexts?

For Mohammad Muazzam's profile please click here .

November 2015 - Avenue campus - humanities theme as part of the Being Human festival

• Who was Hannah Arendt?
• How important was religious experience in her political thinking/writing?
• What was Arendt’s sense of her Jewishness? Is Hannah Arendt – the gadfly, the public intellectual, the enemy of the state – deserving of our grace?

January 2015 - Boldrewood Campus

• Why do we need to reduce energy consumption?
• How can we encourage people to do it?
• What new technologies will help?
• Can we better manage energy demand?

October 2016 - John Hansard Gallery, Highfield campus - coinciding with British Art Show 8 in Southampton

• What does art mean to you?
• In what way does art inspire people generally?
• Creativity in solving problems in art and science
• Art and science examples

Jennifer Alderson is Artist and Diagnosis Scientist

March 2017 - Mettricks Café - as part of the Southampton Science and Engineering Festival

• How do you notice vibration through your body?
• Is feeling vibration often enjoyable or unpleasant for you?
• Where do you feel vibration in your body during car journeys?
• Could it be possible to predict vibration discomfort by simply measuring the physical motion of body movement?

May 2015 - Boldrewood Campus

• What is Ice Class?
• How has damage been prevented in the past?
• What is the future for ships operating in ice?
• How do we try to stop propulsion system damage in the Rules and Regulations?

March 2017 - Mettricks Café - as part of the Southampton Science and Engineering Festival

• Why are black holes so interesting to the general public? And why is black hole research important?
• Why do some black holes have jets? Shouldn’t everything get sucked in?
• What is the difference between a supermassive black hole and a stellar black hole, other than size?
• Could black holes be portals to other dimensions?

For Dr Sadie Jones' profile please click here

April 2016 - Mettricks cafe

For Professor Ian Williams' profile please click here .

May 2015 - Highfield Campus

• Why do we care about sinking krill poo?
• How else does carbon get to the seafloor?
• How do scientists collect krill poo?
• Why should anyone but penguins care about the Southern Ocean?

April 2015 - Mettricks cafe

• Is human use of earth’s resources sustainable?
• Can we use our rubbish as a resource to replace everything from plastics to petrol? Can we create a circular economy where everything is recycled and reused? How is this possible?
• What is being done?

June 2017 - Boston Tea Party

• Why should we care about biodiversity?
• How is biodiversity changing?
• How are humans contributing to biodiversity loss?
• What can people do to help protect nature?

For Dr Tony Curran's profile please click here

June 2017 - Boston Tea Party

• Why are black holes ‘light and dark’?
• What’s the point of black holes anyway?
• How do we know so much about such distant objects?
• Do astronomy & astrophysics have practical applications?

March 2015 - Highfield Campus

• How do we address the shortage of tissues and organs for transplantation?
• Can we harness stem cells to make new tissues? How do we make pieces of 3D tissue in the lab? Will it work?
• Are there ethical questions?

For Dr Nick Evans' profile please click here .

Friday 11 March 2016 - Highfield Campus - as part of International Women's Week Southampton programme, in partnership with SUSU.

May 2018 (café number 34) - Mettricks Old Town

·       Why is air pollution a problem?

·       How can we better assess air pollution in our cities?

·       What low-cost solutions are there? What are their obstacles?

·       Are there downsides of generating too much data?

For Florentin Bulot's profile please click here .

June 2015 - Mettricks cafe

Anna introduced the existing technologies in neuromotor rehabilitation and then discussed the future challenges in this research domain based on her own experience in developing a novel hand rehabilitation system.

For Dr Anna Soska's profile please click here .

·       What is career success?

·       Who can have career success?

·       How should career success be measured?

·       How can we empower everyone to achieve career success?

November 2018 - as part of the University's Human Worlds Festival.

October 2016 - Mettricks cafe - as part of Southampton Sustainability Week

• Why is organic not sufficient?
• What good has permaculture done?
• How can permaculture help with climate change?
• How can we use permaculture locally, and on a larger scale?

Jenny Barnes is the main organiser of Southampton Sustainability Week

Hear the podcast here

March 2017 - Mettricks Café - as part of the Southampton Science and Engineering Festival

• Photonics: what’s it all about? Where can I find it?
• Can we control light? How do we use it?
• What do we need to make a photonic device?
• Will we ever make an optical computer?
• Why are photons being used for quantum technology?

For Matthew Posner's profile please click here

February 2015 - Mettricks cafe

• How should we conceive of the physical and metaphysical relationships between a pregnant women and her foetus?
• What about the relationship between a woman and her future offspring – and between us and our mothers?
• What do these relationships mean for moral relations and obligations during pregnancy and birth?

For Dr Elselijn Kingma's profile please click here .

October 2015 - Nuffield Kitchen on Highfield Campus

• How can cancer escape the immune defences?
• Why does our immune system need help?
• Is immunotherapy revolutionising cancer treatments? What still needs to be done?

November 2016 - Mettricks cafe - Hope and Fear theme, as part of the Human Worlds festival

• How has male rape been represented on film?
• How do films aimed at a family audience represent male rape in a comedic way?
• How does comedy impact on rape representations?
• In the context of our ‘hopes and fears’ theme, what do these representations symbolise?

For Isaac Gustafsson Wood's profile please click here

Hear the podcast here

April 2016 - Mettricks cafe

April 2017 - Mettricks Old Town Café

• What myths in American history did Reagan (‘Morning in America’) and Trump’s (‘Make America Great Again’) rhetoric as presidential candidates draw upon?
• Do Reagan’s difficulties with organization, leaks, and scandals during his presidency hold lessons for Trump?
• Do Trump’s foreign policies thus far signal a return to or a rejection of Reagan’s?

For Dr Jonathan Hunt's profile please click here

June 2015 - Mettricks cafe

• What we can and can't see from satellites?
• How scientific satellite images are different from Google Earth, and why they are important?

For Dr Robin Wilson's profile please click here .

January 2015 - Boldrewood Campus

• What is a human powered submarine?
• Why are we building a submarine?
• What engineering challenges will we face?
• How will submarine races help with underwater research and exploration?

For Sarah Neenan's profile please click here .

October 2016 - Mettricks cafe - as part of Southampton Sustainability Week

• What are we doing to the planet that is not sustainable?
• What impacts will we see? How will they affect earth, humans and other species?
• What solutions can we come up with to tackle the causes, and to mitigate the consequences?
• Musings on a sustainable future

For Dr Tony Curran's profile please click here

Hear the podcast here

November 2015 - Boldrewood Campus - engineering theme

• Does the way in which spacecraft are launched and flown affect the sustainability of mankind?
• Can we just ignore this area of sustainability entirely, at least for a few decades?
• How can we make spaceflight more sustainable?
• What are people doing currently?
• Can we, as the University, make a difference?

For Aleksander Lidtke's profile please click here .

November 2014 - Highfield Campus

• What is asthma?
• What’s causing the current global epidemic?
• How can we explore the immune system in real people with asthma?
• What hope is there for a cure?

March 2017 - Mettricks Café - as part of the Southampton Science and Engineering Festival

• What is the moral relationship between people in affluent countries and the global poor?
• What moral obligations, if any, do we have towards those living in severe poverty?
• How should we decide which aid and development organisations to support?

For Dr Brian McElwee's profile please click here

March 2018 (café number 33) - Mettricks Old Town

• The Ocean Plastic Problem. Researchers explored questions such as what can individuals do to minimise plastic use? Where should the change come from? What needs to be done locally? What is being done?

• Creating plastics that don’t harm the world. Researchers explored questions such as is it possible to switch to bio-materials only? Is there enough ‘bio’ to go around? Can we reduce plastic use in the meantime – and how?

We also referred back to the ‘Plastic Ocean’ film and discussion that took place on Monday 12th, and did some live citizen science, tagging drone photos of UK beaches where plastic can be spotted, to contribute to the British Science Week’s Plastic Tide campaign.

January 2017 - the Bridge Bar on Highfield Campus - as part of the Student Union’s 'You Are More Than Your Thesis' programme for postgraduate researchers

• The imagined self: what imagery can tell us about mental health and emotional well being
• Combating Imposter Syndrome
• The University's peer support scheme and other wellbeing services for PGRs

For Prof Lusia Stopa's profile please click here

Andrea Pafford is the Union Peer Support Coordinator at the University of Southampton

October 2015 - Nuffield Kitchen on Highfield Campus

• Are most scientific findings really wrong?
• Do career concerns induce manipulation and bias?
• Does science need an institutional revolution?
• What needs to be done?
• What is being done?
• How can economics help?

For Dr Thomas Gall's profile please click here .

March 2015 - Boldrewood Campus

• Public engagement and outreach - why do it?
• What makes a good piece of outreach?
• Marine Engineering Connections began on the WightLink ferries – what happened next?
• What’s happening now locally and nationally?

For Steve Dorney's profile please click here .

May 2016 - Highfield Campus - as part of the Festival of Doctoral Research

April 2017 - Mettricks cafe

• Does Trump have an Indian policy?
• Why is the link between Trump and Andrew Jackson important?
• How does the history of the U.S. Supreme Court fit into Trump’s policies on Indians?

April 2017 - Mettricks cafe

• How has the Trump presidency affected the ‘special relationship’?
• What form has anti-Trump activism taken at home & abroad?
• Why have women been at the forefront of anti-Trump activism?
• How will Trump’s presidency affect the international reputation of the USA?

For Dr Charlotte Lydia Riley's profile please click here

April 2017 - Mettricks cafe

• What is the Trump administration’s world view with regard to “radical Islamic terrorism”?
• How does Trump’s approach to fighting the War on Terror differ from that of Obama?
• Would Trump’s “Muslim ban” help American national security?
• Was authorizing the CIA to undertake its own drone strikes a bad idea?

For Dr Chris Fuller's profile please click here

April 2016 - Mettricks cafe

February 2015 - Mettricks cafe

• What does an apple falling from its tree have in common with a weightless astronaut?
• What does it teach us about the nature of space and time?
• What are black holes?
• What can we learn from them?
• Beyond planets, stars and the cosmos, could gravity describe ordinary materials?

June 2017 - Boston Tea Party

• What are stem cells?
• How can we produce retinal cells from stem cells?
• How similar are cells grown in the lab to those in the eye?
• What can we learn from studying retinal cells in the lab?

February 2015 - special Silicon Valley Researchers' Café

• What is the Waste Hierarchy?
• Household waste is only ~10% of total waste: what about the rest?
• How should furniture and appliances be disposed of?
• Is a Zero Waste society a realistic aim?

For Dr Tony Curran's profile please click here .

March 2015 - Highfield Campus

• What is the waste hierarchy and how can we move up it?
• We should focus on the largest flows and most important materials - what are they?
• Is a zero waste society a realistic aim?

For Dr Tony Curran's profile please click here .

January 2016 - Highfield Campus

• What is wellbeing?
• How can I maintain my wellbeing?
• What is on offer at the University of Southampton to support wellbeing?

February 2015 - Mettricks cafe

• A long-term health condition?
• A disability?
• God’s will?
• A family crisis?
• A growing market/industry?

For Dr Ruth Bartlett's profile please click here .

December 2015 - Mettricks cafe

• Investing and divesting – are we betting for or against climate action?
• Who’s divesting and why?
• What about universities?
• What do students think about how their tuition fees are invested?
• Invest Positive UoS – working for ethical investment at the University of Southampton.

January 2016 - Mettricks Cafe

• Can Earth support 11 billion people?
• What impacts will these people produce?
• Will these impacts produce environmental disaster?
• Why should we (in the UK) care about any of this?

For Dr James Dyke's profile please click here .

December 2015 - Mettricks cafe

• How should we really measure our carbon footprint?
• How many people really live in India & the UK – you might be surprised... Where will we all live in 2050?
• I met a farmer in Bangladesh….what might he say to you?

For Dr Craig Hutton's profile please click here .

October 2015 - Nuffield Kitchen on Highfield Campus

• What are fuel cells and how do they work?
• How do different types of fuel cell compare?
• Where would they be used?
• Why aren’t fuel cells more widely used?
• When will we see fuel cell cars in Britain?

·      What is coastal natural heritage?

·       What are the threats endangering these sites?

·       What could happen in 100 years? 200 years? 300 years?

·       What solutions and adaptations could be used to help?

-  For Salma Sabour's profile please click here

Friday 11 March 2016 - Highfield Campus - as part of International Women's Week Southampton programme, in partnership with SUSU