In December, the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health hosted the 7^th Irene Manton Lecture, in partnership with the prestigious Linnean Society of London.

The lecture celebrates the significant contribution made by women to the natural sciences and is named after British botanist Irene Manton who, as well as being the first female president of the Linnean Society, studied for her PhD here at the University.

Guest speaker Dr Kat Coyte, Presidential Fellow (Research) at The University of Manchester, highlighted how we can combine mathematics, big data and simple experiments to understand, and perhaps even manipulate, our own microbial communities, through her talk entitled ‘Worlds within our Guts‘.

The event culminated in a Q&A session, facilitated by Professor Mahesh Nirmalan, Vice Dean for Social Responsibility and Public Engagement.

Commenting on the event Mahesh said, “Kat gave an absolutely inspiring lecture, she spoke with clarity and authority and it was fascinating to hear about the integration between biology, computing, mathematics and philosophy. The annual Irene Manton Lecture has evolved into a highlight event in the Faculty’s Social Responsibility calendar.”

• You can now watch the event here.