The role of science and art in understanding the world

Sir Paul Nurse

Siân Ede

Press release issued: 4 December 2009

Nobel prize winner, Sir Paul Nurse, will give a free public lecture at the University tonight [4 December] with Arts Director, Siân Ede, exploring how science and art can contribute to our understanding of the world around us.

Leading scientist, Sir Paul Nurse, who shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, is President of The Rockefeller University, New York, USA. His previous role was as chief executive of the largest cancer research organisation in the world outside the United States, Cancer Research UK. Sir Paul is noted for his discoveries about the molecular machinery that regulates the cell cycle — the process by which a cell copies its genetic material and then divides to form two cells.

In addition to the Nobel Prize, Sir Paul received the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research and the Gairdner Foundation International Award among other scientific awards. A fellow of the Royal Society, he is a founding member of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a foreign member of the US National Academy of Sciences. He was knighted in 1999 and received France's Légion d'Honneur in 2002.

Siân Ede is Arts Director for the UK branch of the Gulbenkian Foundation. She led the first arts-funded Arts and Science programme to encourage artists and arts organisations to engage with new thinking and practice in science and technology. She has worked with science institutions to develop arts programmes, and with arts organisations to develop science projects. She frequently advises, writes, speaks and chairs debates on art and science in Britain and internationally.

Siân is also editor and co-author of Strange and Charmed: Science and the Contemporary Visual Arts (Gulbenkian, 2000), and Art and Science (I B Tauris, 2005). She gave the Royal Society’s Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar prize lecture on Science and Art in 2008.

Organised by Professors Stafford Lightman and Kathy Sykes for the University of Bristol’s Art Lecture Committee, the event is hosted by the British Neuroscience Association (BNA) with support from the British Science Association.

The event, part of the University’s Creative Brain Lecture Series, entitled ‘The power of science and art to understand the world’ takes place tonight [Friday 4 December] at 6 pm in the Great Hall, Wills Memorial Building, Clifton, University of Bristol. Admission is free.

Further information

The British Neuroscience Association

The BNA is the largest body representing all aspects of neuroscience, from ion channels to whole animal behaviour, in the UK.

Bristol Neuroscience

Neuroscience is one of the key areas of research at the University of Bristol. Furthermore, the city of Bristol has one of the largest concentrations of researchers engaged in neuroscience in the UK, many of whom are internationally recognised. In 2003 Bristol Neuroscience (BN) was established to enable all neuroscientists working in Bristol – both within the University and its partner hospitals across the city – to make full use of all available resources and expertise.

BN runs numerous activities to encourage the dissemination of ideas, to create opportunities for interdisciplinary research, and to facilitate the pursuit of neuroscience to the highest possible standard. For further information on BN please see www.bris.ac.uk/neuroscience or contact Dr Anne Cooke, b-n@bristol.ac.uk.

Please contact Nicola Fry for further information.