Mobilising the Geeks: Bringing science back to the centre of policy

This CSaP Distinguished Lecture will be held in Downing College at 5.30pm on 17th May and will be followed by a drinks reception in the Grace Howard Room.

Speaker: Mark Henderson, Head of Communications at The Wellcome Trust

Whether we want to improve education or cut crime, to enhance public health or to generate clean energy, science is critical. Yet politics and public life too often occupy a science-free zone.

It isn't only that scientific understanding is passed over as decisions are made; the experimental methods of science aren't applied to evaluating policy either. Ministers have ignored, and even sacked, scientific advisers who offer inconvenient evidence; whilst groundless media scares, taken up by politicians, poison public debate on issues from vaccines to nuclear power.

In this talk, Mark Henderson will build a case for science to become more central to government and the wider national conversation, but suggests that things will only change when people who care about science get politically active. In his words, “It is time to mobilise the geeks.”

His book on this subject "The Geek Manifesto: Why Science Matters", will be publish by Bantam Press on May 10, 2012.

Venue (Map)

Howard Lecture Theatre
Downing College
Regent Street
Cambridge
CB2 1DQ

The Howard Lecture theatre will be signposted from the Porter's Lodge on Regent Street.

There will be a networking and drinks reception following the lecture in the Howard Grace Room, during which Mark Henderson's book 'The Geek Manifesto: Why Science Matters' will be available to purchase.

To register, please click here.