Conservation at Cambridge

Abstract

From the first lullabies that soothe an infant to the anthems of adolescence, song traces the map of our becoming. More than entertainment, it is a medium through which children learn to attend, remember, speak, and feel with others. This lecture follows development from infancy through adolescence to show how song supports language growth, memory formation, emotional regulation, and social connection. I will use brief examples from Arabic, French, and American children’s songs. These examples will show how familiar repertoire reflects cultural identity in language, imagery, and style. They will also show shared design features such as repetition, small pitch ranges, and a steady beat, which support learning and belonging. Drawing on music education, psychology, and neuroscience, I will outline what changes across stages and what endures: the voice as the most immediate instrument, rhythm as an organizer of attention, and shared singing as a practice that builds trust and community. Practical implications for families, schools, and community programs will include simple routines that nurture resilience and inclusive classrooms. In an age of uncertainty, song remains a durable resource for growth and cohesion, binding individuals to themselves, to one another, and to the wider world.

Biography

Dr Ibrahim H Baltagi is a music educator and lecturer at the Lebanese American University and Head of Music at Al Makassed schools in Beirut. He has taught at The Ohio State University and Baldwin Wallace University. He earned a PhD in music education from The Ohio State University and holds certificates in the Kodály method and Orff Schulwerk approach. He has led workshops in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Cyprus, and the United States. His scholarship includes chapters in the International Handbook of Research in Arts Education, peer reviewed publications, and regular conference presentations on song and child development. His work with UNICEF Innocenti focuses on music, learning, and childhood wellbeing, and he has been featured as a music expert in UNICEF parenting masterclasses. He is the author of the Music Garden series and Let’s Read and Write Music, available in Arabic, English, and French. These series provide a pathway for learning through singing, movement, instruments, and creative music making, with emphasis on music literacy, performance, listening, and joyful classroom practice.

• Speaker: Dr Ibrahim Baltagi, Lebanese American University
• Friday 06 February 2026, 17:30-18:30
• Venue: Lady Mitchell Hall, Sidgwick Avenue.
• Series: Darwin College Lecture Series; organiser: Janet Gibson.

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Abstract

Between 1936 and 1948, Palestinian music experienced a transformative period shaped by the establishment of the Palestine Broadcasting Service (PBS) and the Near East Broadcasting Station (NEBS). These radio stations became influential cultural platforms that enabled Palestinian musicians to explore, refine, and project a national identity through music. They created an ecosystem in which diverse traditions could intermingle, inviting voices from across Palestine and the broader Arab region to contribute to a vibrant musical landscape. Within this environment, vocal genres underwent significant evolution, as traditional folk melodies expanded into shaʿbī songs and new forms such as the Palestinian Qaṣīda emerged. Instrumental compositions also flourished, crafted for both local and Western ensembles, while choirs and children’s programming deepened the reach of musical production. Palestinian musicians simultaneously engaged with Egyptian popular styles and preserved classical traditions, including the muwashshaḥāt. The opportunities for recording and broadcasting provided by PBS and NEBS not only elevated the visibility of Palestinian musicians but also ensured the preservation and dissemination of their works. This cultural renaissance, marked by innovation and cross-cultural exchange, fostered a distinctive Palestinian musical identity that reflected both regional diversity and local creativity.

Biography

Issa Boulos is an internationally acclaimed composer, lyricist, researcher, and songwriter whose works have been performed worldwide. Trained from an early age in piano, ‘ūd, and voice, he later studied composition with Gustavo Leone, Athanasios Zervas, and William Russo at Columbia College Chicago, followed by Robert Lombardo and Ilya Levinson at Roosevelt University. He earned his PhD in ethnomusicology from Leiden University. Boulos is known for blending traditional instruments with contemporary innovation, creating music for orchestras, chamber, and mixed ensembles, as well as hundreds of songs, several of which became hits. His commissions include four works for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a project with the Silk Road Ensemble, and scores for award-winning films, documentaries, plays, and musicals. His career spans the United States, the Middle East, and Europe, earning recognition for both performance and scholarship. He directed the Middle East Music Ensemble at the University of Chicago for nearly a decade, co-founded the Qatar Music Academy in 2010 and served as its Head of Music, and co-founded the Palestinian Institute for Cultural Development (NAWA). Today, Boulos is Manager of the Harper College Community Music and Arts Center, adjunct music faculty, and a board member of organizations including Amwaj Choir.

• Speaker: Professor Issa Boulos, University of Chicago
• Friday 06 March 2026, 17:30-18:30
• Venue: Lady Mitchell Hall, Sidgwick Avenue.
• Series: Darwin College Lecture Series; organiser: Janet Gibson.

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Abstract

We have no shortage of evidence about the importance of song in the ancient world, including written descriptions of music in literature, songs embedded in narratives, standalone hymnic texts, and collections of psalms and hymns. While we can only imagine the melodies and modes of performance, the surviving texts reveal an imaginal world in which the divine and the human were inextricably interwoven. In Greco-Roman antiquity we see how songs of one time and place became an evocative source for later generations to reflect on their particular realities in light of larger forces they saw at work in the world, including in the divine benefactions of their rulers. Early Jewish and Christian psalms and hymns show that their authors had complex ways of reworking traditions and themes to meet the needs of a new era, both religiously and politically. This lecture explores the rich treasury of ancient religious song, looking especially at how songs functioned for the communities that preserved them. We will pay attention to the affective dimensions of ancient songs, their power to shape a community’s perception of reality, and their suitability to serve as vehicles of resistance through the reimagining of earlier images and forms. If we listen carefully, even today we can hear echoes of religion and resistance in the songs of antiquity.

Biography

Matthew E Gordley is a scholar of Christianity and Judaism in antiquity who has been researching and writing on the influence and impact of ancient song for more than two decades. His work on early Christian and Jewish psalms and hymns seeks to situate these poetic compositions within their ancient historical and cultural contexts so that they may be more fully appreciated by readers today. His scholarly monographs on the subject include The Colossian Hymn in Context (2007), Teaching through Song in Antiquity: Didactic Hymnody among Geeks, Romans, Jews, and Christians (2011), and New Testament Christological Hymns: Exploring Texts, Contexts, and Significance (2018). His latest book, Social Justice in the Stories of Jesus: The Ethical Challenge of the Parables (2024), uses a similar historical and cultural approach to understand how the stories Jesus told continue to engage and challenge readers to this day. He earned a PhD from the University of Notre Dame and currently serves as Interim Provost and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Carlow University (Pittsburgh, PA), where he also holds a tenured faculty appointment as Professor of Theology.

• Speaker: Dr Matthew Gordley, Carlow University
• Friday 13 February 2026, 17:30-18:30
• Venue: Lady Mitchell Hall, Sidgwick Avenue.
• Series: Darwin College Lecture Series; organiser: Janet Gibson.

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Abstract

“Throat-singing” is timbre-centred vocal music typified by the simultaneous separate sounding of a musical drone and its overtones or undertones by a solo vocalist. Here I also include the timbral vocal technique of heroic epic performers. Often perceived as otherworldly, these vocal sounds have entranced global listeners and inspired many to attempt the technically difficult styles and substyles. My extensive fieldwork among Indigenous nomadic peoples of Inner Asia, the cradle of this genre, revealed how these sounds “place” the bodies of performers and listeners in the local acoustic landscape and mountain-steppe ecology, enable nomadizing along cross-border pathways in an animist tripartite universe, and create kinship relations with living and ancestral humans and spirits. Tyvan “throat-singer” Radik Tülüsh’s suggestion that these connections form a “philosophy”, inspired my theory of “ontological musicality,” that is, an inter-relational musical complex that connects Inner Asian nomadic identities, ways of being, spirituality, personhood, community, and senses of place. Finally, I ask: can Inner Asian “throat-singing” as an ontological musicality, with its respect for the environment and mediation of the potentially opposing notions of movement and place, be of equal relevance to its technical accomplishment in our own “ways of being” in the world?

Biography

Dr Carole Pegg is an affiliated Senior Researcher in the Mongolia & Inner Asia Studies Unit, University of Cambridge, and alumna of Lucy Cavendish College. After gaining her degree and PhD in Social Anthropology at Cambridge University, she undertook postdoctoral research on the music of nomadic peoples of Inner Asia (Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, southern Siberian republics of Altai, Khakhassia and Tyva). Two ethnographies ensued: Mongolian Music, Dance and Oral Narrative: Performing Diverse Identities (Washington University Press, 2001) and Drones, Tones & Timbres: Sounding Place among Nomads of the Inner Asian Mountain-Steppes (Illinois University Press, 2024). She has served as Chairperson of the British Forum of Ethnomusicology, founding co-editor of the British Journal of Ethnomusicology (now Ethnomusicology Forum), Senior Editor of traditional world music for the New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians (second edition), and editorial board member of the journal Cambridge Anthropology. As an English singer-fiddler, she has recorded as a solo artist, with the folk-rock band Mr Fox, and with throat-singer Radik Tülüsh (of the Tyvan band Huun-Huur-Tu). As director of Inner Asian Music and 7-Star Records, she has toured musicians from her fieldwork areas and produced compact discs of their music.

• Speaker: Dr Carole Pegg, University of Cambridge
• Friday 30 January 2026, 17:30-18:30
• Venue: Lady Mitchell Hall, Sidgwick Avenue.
• Series: Darwin College Lecture Series; organiser: Janet Gibson.

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Abstract

Since two decades it is possible to measure the seismic activity of stars with high precision. This is thanks to dedicated telescopes operating from space. Using these recorded ‘songs of the stars’, asteroseismologist can gaze into stellar interiors. By doing this, it is possible to probe the physical conditions and chemical composition of these hot balls of gas millions of light years away. Asteroseismology is a unique and powerful tool to determine the size, mass, and age of stars to a higher precision than ever before. It also offers a way to better understand the fastest rotators in the Universe on their way to supernova explosions and gravitational waves. Using the insights gained, astrophycists are able to perform archaeology in our Milky Way galaxy, and to characterise exoplanets. In this talk, 2022 Kavli and 2024 Crafoord Laureate Conny Aerts will explain how to use the songs of the stars to unravel their stories and to see the invisible.

Biography

Conny Aerts graduated as mathematician from Antwerp University (1988) and defended her PhD thesis in astrophysics at KU Leuven (1993). Competitive personal grants allowed her to work as independent postdoctoral fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders (1994 – 2001), performing numerous stays in Europe, Chile and the USA . She was appointed as Lecturer (2001), Associate Professor (2004), and Full professor (2007) at KU Leuven. She also leads the Chair in Asteroseismology at the Radboud University Nijmegen (NL, 2004+) and is External Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society (Heidelberg, 2019+).

Conny’s research covers stellar astrophysics, including stellar structure & evolution and variable stars. She is a pioneer of asteroseismology, which received a major boost thanks to the CoRoT (2006+), Kepler (2009+), and TESS (2018+) space missions. Prior to high-precision space photometry, Conny developed rigorous mathematical methods to detect and identify non-radial stellar oscillations in high-resolution time-series spectroscopy. Her team also designed and applied statistical classification methods in a machine-learning context, discoving numerous gravity-mode pulsators in space photometry. As Chair in Asteroseismology at the Radboud University Nijmegen, Conny introduced herself into the topic of subdwarf stars, their binarity and pulsations, with current focus on development and exploitation of BlackGEM in tandem with gravitational wave studies.

In 2008, Conny was awarded an ERC Advanced Grant, PROSPERITY to exploit CoRoT and Kepler space photometry. Her PhD students made major contributions, such as the discovery of non-radial pulsation modes, of dipole mixed modes, and of non-rigid rotation in red giants, following her own detections of internal mixing and rotation in massive stars. The ERC offered her a 2nd AdG, MAMSIE (Mixing and Angular Momentum tranSport in massIvE Stars, 2016-2021) to bridge stellar physics, asteroseismology, and 3D simulations in order to quantify limitations in stellar evolution theory. This culminated in the 2012 Francqui Prize and the 2020 5-year FWO Excellence Award, also termed Belgian and Flemish Nobel Prizes, where Conny was the first woman to receive these prestigious awards in Science & Technology since their creation in 1933 and 1960, respectively. Conny is the recipient of the 2022 Kavli prize in Astrophysics and the 2024 Crafoord Prize in Astronomy; she acts as corresponding Principle Investigator of the 2022 ERC Synergy grant 4D-STAR.

• Speaker: Professor Conny Aerts, KU Leuven
• Friday 27 February 2026, 17:30-18:30
• Venue: Lady Mitchell Hall, Sidgwick Avenue.
• Series: Darwin College Lecture Series; organiser: Janet Gibson.

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

Abstract

The early 20th century in Vienna saw an extraordinary flowering of talent and creativity in music, literature and visual art, as well as in philosophy and psychology. This period is particularly known for the networks of personal and professional relationships that linked creative people in different fields, such as the painter Gustav Klimt, the composer Arnold Schoenberg and the writer Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Until recently, however, the contribution of women to Vienna’s artistic life, has largely been ignored. This lecture shows how research into the lives and musical creativity of some of Vienna’s outstanding women musicians can help us to rethink Vienna’s artistic networks, enlarging our understanding of this extraordinary period, as well as rediscovering some fascinating lives and some exceptional music.

Biography

Dr Carola Darwin combines a career as an opera and concert singer with research and writing about music. She teaches musicology at the Royal College of Music in London and recently published chapters in The Routledge Companion to Women and Musical Leadership: The Nineteenth Century and Beyond (Routledge 2024) and Elizabeth Maconchy in Context (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming in 2026). Her research into the Viennese composer Johanna Müller-Hermann was part of BBC Radio 3’s Forgotten Women Composers project and was the basis for a recent Composer of the Week on Müller-Hermann, for which Carola was also interviewed. In 2019 she was awarded an Arts Council grant to commission a new work by Cheryl Frances-Hoad, setting texts about evolution and the environment ,which she premièred at the Oxford Lieder Festival. Carola is currently writing a book – The Other Voice: Women musicians in Alma Mahler’s Vienna, to be published by Equinox. Her CD of songs by Viennese composers Johanna Müller-Hermann and Mathilde Kralik (recorded with pianist Marie-Noëlle Kendal) is due to be released in 2026.

• Speaker: Dr Carola Darwin, Royal College of Music
• Friday 20 February 2026, 17:30-18:30
• Venue: Lady Mitchell Hall, Sidgwick Avenue.
• Series: Darwin College Lecture Series; organiser: Janet Gibson.

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

Abstract

We have no shortage of evidence about the importance of song in the ancient world, including written descriptions of music in literature, songs embedded in narratives, standalone hymnic texts, and collections of psalms and hymns. While we can only imagine the melodies and modes of performance, the surviving texts reveal an imaginal world in which the divine and the human were inextricably interwoven. In Greco-Roman antiquity we see how songs of one time and place became an evocative source for later generations to reflect on their particular realities in light of larger forces they saw at work in the world, including in the divine benefactions of their rulers. Early Jewish and Christian psalms and hymns show that their authors had complex ways of reworking traditions and themes to meet the needs of a new era, both religiously and politically. This lecture explores the rich treasury of ancient religious song, looking especially at how songs functioned for the communities that preserved them. We will pay attention to the affective dimensions of ancient songs, their power to shape a community’s perception of reality, and their suitability to serve as vehicles of resistance through the reimagining of earlier images and forms. If we listen carefully, even today we can hear echoes of religion and resistance in the songs of antiquity.

Biography

Matthew E. Gordley is a scholar of Christianity and Judaism in antiquity who has been researching and writing on the influence and impact of ancient song for more than two decades. His work on early Christian and Jewish psalms and hymns seeks to situate these poetic compositions within their ancient historical and cultural contexts so that they may be more fully appreciated by readers today. His scholarly monographs on the subject include The Colossian Hymn in Context (2007), Teaching through Song in Antiquity: Didactic Hymnody among Geeks, Romans, Jews, and Christians (2011), and New Testament Christological Hymns: Exploring Texts, Contexts, and Significance (2018). His latest book, Social Justice in the Stories of Jesus: The Ethical Challenge of the Parables (2024), uses a similar historical and cultural approach to understand how the stories Jesus told continue to engage and challenge readers to this day. He earned a PhD from the University of Notre Dame and currently serves as Interim Provost and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Carlow University (Pittsburgh, PA), where he also holds a tenured faculty appointment as Professor of Theology.

• Speaker: Dr Matthew Gordley, Carlow University
• Friday 13 February 2026, 17:30-18:30
• Venue: Lady Mitchell Hall, Sidgwick Avenue.
• Series: Darwin College Lecture Series; organiser: Janet Gibson.

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

Abstract

From the first lullabies that soothe an infant to the anthems of adolescence, song traces the map of our becoming. More than entertainment, it is a medium through which children learn to attend, remember, speak, and feel with others. This lecture follows development from infancy through adolescence to show how song supports language growth, memory formation, emotional regulation, and social connection. I will use brief examples from Arabic, French, and American children’s songs. These examples will show how familiar repertoire reflects cultural identity in language, imagery, and style. They will also show shared design features such as repetition, small pitch ranges, and a steady beat, which support learning and belonging. Drawing on music education, psychology, and neuroscience, I will outline what changes across stages and what endures: the voice as the most immediate instrument, rhythm as an organizer of attention, and shared singing as a practice that builds trust and community. Practical implications for families, schools, and community programs will include simple routines that nurture resilience and inclusive classrooms. In an age of uncertainty, song remains a durable resource for growth and cohesion, binding individuals to themselves, to one another, and to the wider world.

Biography

Dr. Ibrahim H. Baltagi is a music educator and lecturer at the Lebanese American University and Head of Music at Al Makassed schools in Beirut. He has taught at The Ohio State University and Baldwin Wallace University. He earned a Ph.D. in music education from The Ohio State University and holds certificates in the Kodály method and Orff Schulwerk approach. He has led workshops in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Cyprus, and the United States. His scholarship includes chapters in the International Handbook of Research in Arts Education, peer reviewed publications, and regular conference presentations on song and child development. His work with UNICEF Innocenti focuses on music, learning, and childhood wellbeing, and he has been featured as a music expert in UNICEF parenting masterclasses. He is the author of the Music Garden series and Let’s Read and Write Music, available in Arabic, English, and French. These series provide a pathway for learning through singing, movement, instruments, and creative music making, with emphasis on music literacy, performance, listening, and joyful classroom practice.

• Speaker: Dr Ibrahim Baltagi, Lebanese American University
• Friday 06 February 2026, 17:30-18:30
• Venue: Lady Mitchell Hall, Sidgwick Avenue.
• Series: Darwin College Lecture Series; organiser: Janet Gibson.

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

Abstract

Throat-singing” is timbre-centred vocal music typified by the simultaneous separate sounding of a musical drone and its overtones or undertones by a solo vocalist. Here I also include the timbral vocal technique of heroic epic performers. Often perceived as otherworldly, these vocal sounds have entranced global listeners and inspired many to attempt the technically difficult styles and substyles. My extensive fieldwork among Indigenous nomadic peoples of Inner Asia, the cradle of this genre, revealed how these sounds “place” the bodies of performers and listeners in the local acoustic landscape and mountain-steppe ecology, enable nomadizing along cross-border pathways in an animist tripartite universe, and create kinship relations with living and ancestral humans and spirits. Tyvan “throat-singer” Radik Tülüsh’s suggestion that these connections form a “philosophy”, inspired my theory of “ontological musicality,” that is, an inter-relational musical complex that connects Inner Asian nomadic identities, ways of being, spirituality, personhood, community, and senses of place. Finally, I ask: can Inner Asian “throat-singing” as an ontological musicality, with its respect for the environment and mediation of the potentially opposing notions of movement and place, be of equal relevance to its technical accomplishment in our own “ways of being” in the world?

Biography

Dr Carole Pegg is an affiliated Senior Researcher in the Mongolia & Inner Asia Studies Unit, University of Cambridge, and alumna of Lucy Cavendish College. After gaining her degree and PhD in Social Anthropology at Cambridge University, she undertook postdoctoral research on the music of nomadic peoples of Inner Asia (Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, southern Siberian republics of Altai, Khakhassia and Tyva). Two ethnographies ensued: Mongolian Music, Dance and Oral Narrative: Performing Diverse Identities (Washington University Press, 2001) and Drones, Tones & Timbres: Sounding Place among Nomads of the Inner Asian Mountain-Steppes (Illinois University Press, 2024). She has served as Chairperson of the British Forum of Ethnomusicology, founding co-editor of the British Journal of Ethnomusicology (now Ethnomusicology Forum), Senior Editor of traditional world music for the New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians (second edition), and editorial board member of the journal Cambridge Anthropology. As an English singer-fiddler, she has recorded as a solo artist, with the folk-rock band Mr Fox, and with throat-singer Radik Tülüsh (of the Tyvan band Huun-Huur-Tu). As director of Inner Asian Music and 7-Star Records, she has toured musicians from her fieldwork areas and produced compact discs of their music.

• Speaker: Dr Carole Pegg, University of Cambridge
• Friday 30 January 2026, 17:30-18:30
• Venue: Lady Mitchell Hall, Sidgwick Avenue.
• Series: Darwin College Lecture Series; organiser: Janet Gibson.

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Abstract

From Renaissance princes and popes to modern-day democrats and dictators, those who rule countries, religious communities and empires have often kept a close watch on singers, songs and those who compose them. Equally, song has often been used as a subversive weapon, a tool of protest and a call to arms, as well as to bolster communal or national pride and morale. The tensions around songs and singers are no less prominent today than in the past, as is shown by the recent controversies surrounding what gets broadcast from the Glastonbury Festival, who gets to sing at Covent Garden, or which nations are allowed to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest. But does music have a real capacity to change society, rather than merely acting as a vent for strong emotions? How does singing affect us as individuals? Can it actually make us feel better – physically, mentally and spiritually? Can it change minds? Conversely, can the withdrawal of opportunities to sing, whether for political, religious or medical reasons, be regarded as a crime against humanity? And does the act of singing as a community bind us together, or reinforce tribal divisions?

Biography

Richard Morrison has worked for The Times for more than 40 years, first as a classical music and opera critic, then as arts editor and now as chief culture writer. For the past three decades he has written a wide-ranging weekly column commenting on the impact of the arts on society and politics, and vice versa. He also writes a monthly column in the BBC Music Magazine and is an occasional broadcaster on BBC Radio 3. His centenary history of the London Symphony Orchestra was acclaimed as a “warts-and-all” chronicle of an orchestra’s struggle to survive, flourish and make great music through the turmoil of the 20th century. Educated at University College School and Magdalene College, Cambridge, he has also been the organist and director of music at a North London parish church for all his adult life. He is married and has four children.

• Speaker: Richard Morrison, The Times
• Friday 13 March 2026, 17:30-18:30
• Venue: Lady Mitchell Hall, Sidgwick Avenue.
• Series: Darwin College Lecture Series; organiser: Janet Gibson.

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Abstract

Between 1936 and 1948, Palestinian music experienced a transformative period shaped by the establishment of the Palestine Broadcasting Service (PBS) and the Near East Broadcasting Station (NEBS). These radio stations became influential cultural platforms that enabled Palestinian musicians to explore, refine, and project a national identity through music. They created an ecosystem in which diverse traditions could intermingle, inviting voices from across Palestine and the broader Arab region to contribute to a vibrant musical landscape. Within this environment, vocal genres underwent significant evolution, as traditional folk melodies expanded into shaʿbī songs and new forms such as the Palestinian Qaṣīda emerged. Instrumental compositions also flourished, crafted for both local and Western ensembles, while choirs and children’s programming deepened the reach of musical production. Palestinian musicians simultaneously engaged with Egyptian popular styles and preserved classical traditions, including the muwashshaḥāt. The opportunities for recording and broadcasting provided by PBS and NEBS not only elevated the visibility of Palestinian musicians but also ensured the preservation and dissemination of their works. This cultural renaissance, marked by innovation and cross-cultural exchange, fostered a distinctive Palestinian musical identity that reflected both regional diversity and local creativity.

Biography

Issa Boulos is an internationally acclaimed composer, lyricist, researcher, and songwriter whose works have been performed worldwide. Trained from an early age in piano, ‘ūd, and voice, he later studied composition with Gustavo Leone, Athanasios Zervas, and William Russo at Columbia College Chicago, followed by Robert Lombardo and Ilya Levinson at Roosevelt University. He earned his Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from Leiden University. Boulos is known for blending traditional instruments with contemporary innovation, creating music for orchestras, chamber, and mixed ensembles, as well as hundreds of songs, several of which became hits. His commissions include four works for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a project with the Silk Road Ensemble, and scores for award-winning films, documentaries, plays, and musicals. His career spans the United States, the Middle East, and Europe, earning recognition for both performance and scholarship. He directed the Middle East Music Ensemble at the University of Chicago for nearly a decade, co-founded the Qatar Music Academy in 2010 and served as its Head of Music, and co-founded the Palestinian Institute for Cultural Development (NAWA). Today, Boulos is Manager of the Harper College Community Music and Arts Center, adjunct music faculty, and a board member of organizations including Amwaj Choir.

• Speaker: Professor Issa Boulos, University of Chicago
• Friday 06 March 2026, 17:30-18:30
• Venue: Lady Mitchell Hall, Sidgwick Avenue.
• Series: Darwin College Lecture Series; organiser: Janet Gibson.

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

Abstract

Since two decades it is possible to measure the seismic activity of stars with high precision. This is thanks to dedicated telescopes operating from space. Using these recorded ‘songs of the stars’, asteroseismologist can gaze into stellar interiors. By doing this, it is possible to probe the physical conditions and chemical composition of these hot balls of gas millions of light years away. Asteroseismology is a unique and powerful tool to determine the size, mass, and age of stars to a higher precision than ever before. It also offers a way to better understand the fastest rotators in the Universe on their way to supernova explosions and gravitational waves. Using the insights gained, astrophycists are able to perform archaeology in our Milky Way galaxy, and to characterise exoplanets. In this talk, 2022 Kavli and 2024 Crafoord Laureate Conny Aerts will explain how to use the songs of the stars to unravel their stories and to see the invisible.

Biography

Conny Aerts graduated as mathematician from Antwerp University (1988) and defended her PhD thesis in astrophysics at KU Leuven (1993). Competitive personal grants allowed her to work as independent postdoctoral fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders (1994 – 2001), performing numerous stays in Europe, Chile and the USA . She was appointed as Lecturer (2001), Associate Professor (2004), and Full professor (2007) at KU Leuven. She also leads the Chair in Asteroseismology at the Radboud University Nijmegen (NL, 2004+) and is External Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society (Heidelberg, 2019+).

Conny’s research covers stellar astrophysics, including stellar structure & evolution and variable stars. She is a pioneer of asteroseismology, which received a major boost thanks to the CoRoT (2006+), Kepler (2009+), and TESS (2018+) space missions. Prior to high-precision space photometry, Conny developed rigorous mathematical methods to detect and identify non-radial stellar oscillations in high-resolution time-series spectroscopy. Her team also designed and applied statistical classification methods in a machine-learning context, discoving numerous gravity-mode pulsators in space photometry. As Chair in Asteroseismology at the Radboud University Nijmegen, Conny introduced herself into the topic of subdwarf stars, their binarity and pulsations, with current focus on development and exploitation of BlackGEM in tandem with gravitational wave studies.

In 2008, Conny was awarded an ERC Advanced Grant, PROSPERITY to exploit CoRoT and Kepler space photometry. Her PhD students made major contributions, such as the discovery of non-radial pulsation modes, of dipole mixed modes, and of non-rigid rotation in red giants, following her own detections of internal mixing and rotation in massive stars. The ERC offered her a 2nd AdG, MAMSIE (Mixing and Angular Momentum tranSport in massIvE Stars, 2016-2021) to bridge stellar physics, asteroseismology, and 3D simulations in order to quantify limitations in stellar evolution theory. This culminated in the 2012 Francqui Prize and the 2020 5-year FWO Excellence Award, also termed Belgian and Flemish Nobel Prizes, where Conny was the first woman to receive these prestigious awards in Science & Technology since their creation in 1933 and 1960, respectively. Conny is the recipient of the 2022 Kavli prize in Astrophysics and the 2024 Crafoord Prize in Astronomy; she acts as corresponding Principle Investigator of the 2022 ERC Synergy grant 4D-STAR.

• Speaker: Professor Conny Aerts, KU Leuven
• Friday 27 February 2026, 17:30-18:30
• Venue: Lady Mitchell Hall, Sidgwick Avenue.
• Series: Darwin College Lecture Series; organiser: Janet Gibson.

Add to your calendar or Include in your list

Abstract

The early 20th century in Vienna saw an extraordinary flowering of talent and creativity in music, literature and visual art, as well as in philosophy and psychology. This period is particularly known for the networks of personal and professional relationships that linked creative people in different fields, such as the painter Gustav Klimt, the composer Arnold Schoenberg and the writer Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Until recently, however, the contribution of women to Vienna’s artistic life, has largely been ignored. This lecture shows how research into the lives and musical creativity of some of Vienna’s outstanding women musicians can help us to rethink Vienna’s artistic networks, enlarging our understanding of this extraordinary period, as well as rediscovering some fascinating lives and some exceptional music.

Biography

Dr Carola Darwin combines a career as an opera and concert singer with research and writing about music. She teaches musicology at the Royal College of Music in London and recently published chapters in The Routledge Companion to Women and Musical Leadership: The Nineteenth Century and Beyond (Routledge 2024) and Elizabeth Maconchy in Context (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming in 2026). Her research into the Viennese composer Johanna Müller-Hermann was part of BBC Radio 3’s Forgotten Women Composers project and was the basis for a recent Composer of the Week on Müller-Hermann, for which Carola was also interviewed. In 2019 she was awarded an Arts Council grant to commission a new work by Cheryl Frances-Hoad, setting texts about evolution and the environment ,which she premièred at the Oxford Lieder Festival. Carola is currently writing a book – The Other Voice: Women musicians in Alma Mahler’s Vienna, to be published by Equinox. Her CD of songs by Viennese composers Johanna Müller-Hermann and Mathilde Kralik (recorded with pianist Marie-Noëlle Kendal) is due to be released in 2026.

• Speaker: Dr Carola Darwin, Royal College of Music
• Friday 20 February 2026, 17:30-18:30
• Venue: Lady Mitchell Hall, Sidgwick Avenue.
• Series: Darwin College Lecture Series; organiser: Janet Gibson.

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Biography: Yiling Ma is a PhD student at Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) since 2023, mainly working on developing hybrid approach that integrate machine learning with physical climate models to improve ozone modeling, particularly in the context of a changing climate. She holds a BSc in Atmospheric Science and a MSc in Climate Dynamics (2016-2023). Her research interests involve climate change, machine learning application in climate science, atmospheric chemistry modelling, ocean-atmosphere interaction. 

Abstract: Atmospheric ozone is a crucial absorber of solar radiation and an important greenhouse gas. However, most climate models participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) still lack an interactive representation of ozone due to the high computational costs of atmospheric chemistry schemes. In this talk, I will present a machine learning parameterization (mloz) to interactively model daily ozone variability and trends across the troposphere and stratosphere in standard climate sensitivity simulations, including two-way interactions of ozone with the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation. We demonstrate its high fidelity on decadal timescales and its flexible use online across two different climate models—the UK Earth System Model (UKESM) and the German ICOsahedral Nonhydrostatic (ICON) model. With atmospheric temperature profile information as the only input, mloz produces stable ozone predictions around 31 times faster than the chemistry scheme in UKESM , contributing less than 4% of the respective total climate model runtimes. In particular, we also demonstrate its transferability to different climate models without chemistry schemes by transferring the parameterization from UKESM to ICON . This highlights mloz’s potential for widespread adoption in CMIP -level climate models that lack interactive chemistry for future climate change assessments, particularly when focusing on climate sensitivity simulations, where ozone trends and variability are known to significantly modulate atmospheric feedback processes.

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ZjExMGZiMDktODQ1Ni00NzRkLWI5MmYtZjYyYjNhNGIyYmY3%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%2249a50445-bdfa-4b79-ade3-547b4f3986e9%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%228b208bd5-8570-491b-abae-83a85a1ca025%22%7d

• Speaker: Yiling Ma, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany
• Tuesday 04 November 2025, 11:00-12:00
• Venue: Chemistry Dept, Unilever Lecture Theatre and Teams.
• Series: Centre for Atmospheric Science seminars, Chemistry Dept.; organiser: Yao Ge.

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Biography:  After completing a BSc in Physics (minor in Meteorology) and MSc in Meteorology at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, Laura pursued a PhD on “The role of methane for chemistry-climate interactions” at the German Aerospace Center, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, where Laura remained for a year as post-doctoral researcher. In April 2025, Laura joined the University of Cambridge as Research Associate to work on the FETCH4 project – an international collaboration focusing on a better understanding of the methane cycle.

Abstract: Methane (CH₄), the second most important greenhouse gas directly emitted by human activity, is removed from the atmosphere through chemical decomposition, which depends on temperature and atmospheric composition. This seminar examines how changes in the chemical sink under a warming climate feed back on atmospheric CH₄ using a CH₄-emission-driven setup of the chemistry–climate model EMAC . This approach allows CH₄ mixing ratios to evolve explicitly in response to changes in emissions, climate, and atmospheric chemistry. Results from perturbation simulations driven either by increased CO₂ concentrations or by increased CH₄ emissions will be presented.

Increasing CH₄ emissions leads to a substantial rise in CH₄ mixing ratios. Remarkably, the factor by which CH₄ mixing ratios increase exceeds the factor of the emission increase, due to the extended atmospheric lifetime of CH₄. In contrast, the individual effect of global warming is to shorten CH₄’s lifetime, thereby reducing its mixing ratios. The explicit evolution of CH₄ mixing ratio also enables secondary chemical feedbacks on the hydroxyl radical (OH) and tropospheric ozone (O₃).

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ZGNkNTEzOTQtNjllNy00ODNjLWFhM2UtZjQyNGFiYTFlZmVi%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%2249a50445-bdfa-4b79-ade3-547b4f3986e9%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%228b208bd5-8570-491b-abae-83a85a1ca025%22%7d

• Speaker: Dr Laura Stecher, University of Cambridge
• Tuesday 07 October 2025, 11:00-12:00
• Venue: Chemistry Dept, Unilever Lecture Theatre and Teams.
• Series: Centre for Atmospheric Science seminars, Chemistry Dept.; organiser: Yao Ge.

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A wave of unprecedented extreme weather events, breaking records worldwide, has raised urgent questions about the ability of current weather and climate models to anticipate the emerging impacts of climate change on human life and infrastructure. Among these, extreme wind speeds and gusts, often associated with midlatitude cyclones and low-level jets, pose a growing threat to critical sectors of society. In this talk, I will first present projections of near-surface extreme winds over the midlatitudes of both hemispheres under an idealized warming scenario, based on CMIP -class models. I will then illustrate how global kilometer-scale simulations may provide new insight into how the structure and intensity of North Atlantic midlatitude cyclones respond to climate warming. Finally, I will discuss results from a set of experiments with the GFDL -AM4 model that incorporate improved turbulence representation via the CLUBB scheme. These highlight the role of prognosed momentum fluxes in better capturing low-level jet dynamics and improving the simulation of the diurnal precipitation cycle. Together, these studies demonstrate the importance of refined physics and high-resolution modeling for advancing our understanding and prediction of wind extremes in a warming climate.

• Speaker: Emanuele Silvio Gentile, University of Reading
• Monday 13 October 2025, 13:00-14:00
• Venue: MR3, CMS.
• Series: Quantitative Climate and Environmental Science Seminars; organiser: Bethan Wynne-Cattanach.

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Abstract

From Renaissance princes and popes to modern-day democrats and dictators, those who rule countries, religious communities and empires have often kept a close watch on singers, songs and those who compose them. Equally, song has often been used as a subversive weapon, a tool of protest and a call to arms, as well as to bolster communal or national pride and morale. The tensions around songs and singers are no less prominent today than in the past, as is shown by the recent controversies surrounding what gets broadcast from the Glastonbury Festival, who gets to sing at Covent Garden, or which nations are allowed to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest. But does music have a real capacity to change society, rather than merely acting as a vent for strong emotions? How does singing affect us as individuals? Can it actually make us feel better – physically, mentally and spiritually? Can it change minds? Conversely, can the withdrawal of opportunities to sing, whether for political, religious or medical reasons, be regarded as a crime against humanity? And does the act of singing as a community bind us together, or reinforce tribal divisions?

Bio

Richard Morrison has worked for The Times for more than 40 years, first as a classical music and opera critic, then as arts editor and now as chief culture writer. For the past three decades he has written a wide-ranging weekly column commenting on the impact of the arts on society and politics, and vice versa. He also writes a monthly column in the BBC Music Magazine and is an occasional broadcaster on BBC Radio 3. His centenary history of the London Symphony Orchestra was acclaimed as a “warts-and-all” chronicle of an orchestra’s struggle to survive, flourish and make great music through the turmoil of the 20th century. Educated at University College School and Magdalene College, Cambridge, he has also been the organist and director of music at a North London parish church for all his adult life. He is married and has four children.

• Speaker: Richard Morrison, The Times
• Friday 13 March 2026, 17:30-18:30
• Venue: Lady Mitchell Hall, Sidgwick Avenue.
• Series: Darwin College Lecture Series; organiser: Janet Gibson.

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Abstract not available

• Speaker: Speaker to be confirmed
• Tuesday 21 October 2025, 15:00-16:00
• Venue: BAS Seminar Room 1.
• Series: British Antarctic Survey - Polar Oceans seminar series; organiser: Katherine Turner.

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Abstract not available

• Speaker: Speaker to be confirmed
• Thursday 06 November 2025, 14:00-15:00
• Venue: BAS Seminar Room 330b.
• Series: British Antarctic Survey - Polar Oceans seminar series; organiser: Katherine Turner.

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Over the last century, the supply of Pb by anthropogenic pollution has strongly exceeded the natural supply to the atmosphere, altering its cycling and resulting in serious human health consequences, and making its way into the oceans. The Arctic Ocean, while remote, has not been isolated from the impacts of Pb pollution. Over the past decade, observational campaigns associated with the GEOTRACES program have greatly expanded our knowledge of Pb cycling in the Arctic Ocean and have identified that at present, dissolved Pb (dPb) concentrations in the Arctic Ocean are considered low. Nevertheless, Pb isotope signatures suggest that anthropogenic pollution impacts the Arctic Ocean. Building on the new wealth of observations, we developed the first three-dimensional model simulating dPb in Inuit Nunangat, the Western Arctic Ocean, to assess our current understanding of Pb cycling, quantify the role of anthropogenic pollution, and to use dPb as a tracer of circulation of Atlantic and Pacific water masses. With simulations from 2002-2021, we find that current and historical anthropogenic pollution account for at least 28% of dPb addition to the Western Arctic Ocean. Advected water from the Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans convey elevated pollution-derived dPb concentrations to the Arctic and play a key role, contributing 43% to the annual dPb budget. Lastly, using dPb as tracer, we track the seasonal extension of warm Atlantic Water along the West Greenland shelf where it is a potential source of heat to marine-terminating glaciers, and we trace occasional dense overflows of Atlantic Water into the deep Baffin Bay interior. 

• Speaker: Birgit Rogalla (British Antarctic Survey)
• Wednesday 08 October 2025, 14:00-15:00
• Venue: BAS Seminar Room 2.
• Series: British Antarctic Survey - Polar Oceans seminar series; organiser: Katherine Turner.

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