Wed 07 May 14:00: Reconstructing wintertime seawater pCO2 on the data-barren shelf of the western Weddell Sea based on summertime bottom water measurements
The dense waters formed on the broad shelf of the western Weddell Sea are a source of Weddell Sea Bottom Water (WSBW), which transports anthropogenic CO2 along the continental slope to the bottom of the ocean. Our updated time series shows a positive trend of carbon in WSBW . To understand the drivers for this pathway for carbon sequestration, we need to understand the processes affecting carbon concentrations in shelf waters at the time of dense water formation, which is predominantly during sea ice formation in winter. Unfortunately, wintertime marine observations are particularly scarce in the western Weddell Sea. We are therefore testing a method that reconstructs the seawater partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) representative of wintertime conditions in this dense-water formation region, using carbonate chemistry observations made in WSBW in the summer. Results suggest that atmospheric CO2 uptake is the main driver of increasing carbon in WSBW , and thus that equilibration of surface seawater with the atmosphere is possible despite year-round sea ice cover in this region.
- Speaker: Elise Droste (University of East Anglia)
- Wednesday 07 May 2025, 14:00-15:00
- Venue: BAS Seminar Room 1.
- Series: British Antarctic Survey - Polar Oceans seminar series; organiser: Dr Birgit Rogalla.
Tue 06 May 14:30: Sums along binary cubic forms.
We discuss ongoing work with Joseph Leung in which we obtain estimates for sums of Fourier coefficients of GL(2) and certain GL(3) automorphic forms along the values of irreducible binary cubics.
- Speaker: Mayank Pandey (Princeton)
- Tuesday 06 May 2025, 14:30-15:30
- Venue: MR13.
- Series: Number Theory Seminar; organiser: Jef Laga.
Tue 27 May 14:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Emad Heydari Beni & Lode Hoste, Nokia Bell Labs
- Tuesday 27 May 2025, 14:00-15:00
- Venue: Webinar & LT2, Computer Laboratory, William Gates Building..
- Series: Computer Laboratory Security Seminar; organiser: Anna Talas.
Tue 17 Jun 14:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Michael A. Specter, Georgia Tech
- Tuesday 17 June 2025, 14:00-15:00
- Venue: Webinar & LT2, Computer Laboratory, William Gates Building..
- Series: Computer Laboratory Security Seminar; organiser: Anna Talas.
Thu 01 May 14:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Michael A. Specter, Georgia Tech
- Thursday 01 May 2025, 14:00-15:00
- Venue: Webinar & LT2, Computer Laboratory, William Gates Building..
- Series: Computer Laboratory Security Seminar; organiser: Anna Talas.
Thu 12 Jun 14:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Prof. Marina Filip (Oxford)
- Thursday 12 June 2025, 14:00-15:30
- Venue: Seminar Room 3, RDC.
- Series: Theory of Condensed Matter; organiser: Bo Peng.
Thu 05 Jun 14:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Prof. Chris Hooley (Coventry)
- Thursday 05 June 2025, 14:00-15:30
- Venue: Seminar Room 3, RDC.
- Series: Theory of Condensed Matter; organiser: Bo Peng.
Thu 23 Oct 14:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Prof. Felix Flicker (Bristol)
- Thursday 23 October 2025, 14:00-15:30
- Venue: Seminar Room 3, RDC.
- Series: Theory of Condensed Matter; organiser: Bo Peng.
Tue 17 Jun 11:15: Love Bites: The Deadly Romance of Spider Pulsars
Pulsars in binary systems are fantastic physics laboratories, primarily because their orbital dynamics allow us to probe binary evolution, test gravity theories, measure neutron star masses, etc. Among them are the “black widows” and “redbacks”, which are nicknamed after the deadly arachnids because the millisecond pulsar they contain gradually destroys their low mass companion. The strongly irradiated dayside displayed by the low-mass companions in these systems is reminiscent of what is observed in exoplanets called “hot jupiters”. In the last decade, the number of known spiders has grown exponentially to the point of becoming the most prevalent type of fast rotating binary pulsars. In this talk, I will present some of the recent efforts undertaken with the MeerKAT telescope to uncover these pulsars and review some of the key advances they have provided for our understanding of binary evolution, stellar physics under extreme irradiation, and measurement of neutron star masses.
- Speaker: Prof. Rene Breton (University of Manchester)
- Tuesday 17 June 2025, 11:15-12:00
- Venue: Martin Ryle Seminar Room, Kavli Institute.
- Series: Hills Coffee Talks; organiser: Charles Walker.
Fri 30 May 14:00: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Johanna Ziegel (ETH Zurich)
- Friday 30 May 2025, 14:00-15:00
- Venue: MR12, Centre for Mathematical Sciences.
- Series: Statistics; organiser: Qingyuan Zhao.
Tue 17 Jun 14:30: Title to be confirmed
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Patrick Allen (McGill)
- Tuesday 17 June 2025, 14:30-15:30
- Venue: MR13.
- Series: Number Theory Seminar; organiser: Rong Zhou.
Fri 02 May 10:30: Biologically Inspired Soft Robotics
Robotics has the potential to address many of today’s pressing problems in fields ranging from healthcare to manufacturing to disaster relief. However, the traditional approaches used on the factory floor do not perform well in unstructured environments. The key to solving many of these challenges is to explore new, non-traditional designs. Fortunately, nature surrounds us with examples of novel ways to navigate and interact with the real world. Dr. Tolley’s Bioinspired Robotics and Design Lab seeks to borrow the key principles of operation from biological systems and apply them to robotic design. This talk will give an overview of recent projects in the lab that investigate the ways in which the use of non-traditional materials can help solve challenging problems in robotics. These projects seek to develop bioinspired systems capable of navigating the world by walking, digging, and swimming (inspired by animals like turtles, worms, and squid) and of interacting safely with humans and delicate objects.
The seminar will be held in JDB Seminar Room , Department of Engineering, and online (zoom): https://newnham.zoom.us/j/92544958528?pwd=YS9PcGRnbXBOcStBdStNb3E0SHN1UT09
- Speaker: Michael T. Tolley UC San Diego
- Friday 02 May 2025, 10:30-11:30
- Venue: JDB Seminar Room, Department of Engineering and online (Zoom).
- Series: CUED Control Group Seminars; organiser: Fulvio Forni.
Fri 20 Jun 13:00: Well-posed initial value formulation of general effective field theories of gravity
In this talk, I will show that all higher-derivative effective field theories (EFTs) of vacuum gravity admit a well-posed initial value formulation when augmented by suitable regularising terms. These regularising terms can be obtained by field redefinitions and do not affect the dynamics in the regime of validity of EFT . I will explain how our result applies to the quadratic, cubic, and quartic truncations of the EFT of gravity and to various truncations of a simple EFT of a scalar field. Finally, I will also discuss some numerical results on the non-linear dynamics of this simple scalar field theory.
- Speaker: Aron Kovacs, Queen Mary University of London
- Friday 20 June 2025, 13:00-14:00
- Venue: Potter room/Zoom.
- Series: DAMTP Friday GR Seminar; organiser: Daniela Cors.
Tue 06 May 14:00: Cocktail Effects in Superconductivity: High-Entropy Approach to Antimonide Compounds
High-entropy compounds, stabilized by configurational entropy, have attracted considerable attention due to their unique properties and functionalities [1-3]. In this study, we applied the high-entropy concept to antimonide systems and discovered an entropy-stabilized antimonide compound with a NiAs-type structure [4]. Specifically, we investigated the superconducting properties of (RuRhPdIr)₁₋ₓPtₓSb and found that the superconducting transition temperature (Tc) and upper critical field (Hc₂) exhibit strong composition dependence [5]. A maximum Tc of 3.1 K and a significant enhancement in Hc₂ were observed at intermediate compositions, indicating a novel “cocktail effect” arising from chemical disorder. These results demonstrate the potential of entropy engineering in designing new superconducting materials.
[1] J. W. Yeh et al., Adv Eng Mater 6, 299 (2004).
[2] B. Cantor et al., Materials Science and Engineering: A 375 –377, 213 (2004).
[3] C. M. Rost etal., Nat. Commun. 6, 8485 (2015).
[4] D. Hirai et al., Inorg. Chem. 62, 14207 (2023).
[5] D. Hirai et al., Chem. Mater. 36, 9547 (2024).
- Speaker: Professor Daigorou Hirai, Nagoya University
- Tuesday 06 May 2025, 14:00-15:00
- Venue: RDC Seminar East.
- Series: Quantum Matter Seminar; organiser: Mads Fonager Hansen.
Wed 07 May 14:30: Excitations with a Twist
Quantum geometry allows us to quantify the distance between quantum states. It underpins numerous phenomena in condensed matter physics, from electron transport in flat band systems to topological twists of electronic wave functions. In this talk, I will give an overview of how quantum geometry can be extended to explore the excited states of materials. Focusing on excitons, bound electron-hole pairs, I will first give an overview of the possible exciton topological phases as they arise from the underlying electron and hole states. I will next describe how quantum geometry dictates that topological excitons are larger than their trivial counterparts and show how this results in enhanced exciton diffusion. I will use a family of organic semiconductors hosting topological excitons to illustrate these ideas.
- Speaker: Professor Bartomeu Monserrat, University of Cambridge
- Wednesday 07 May 2025, 14:30-15:30
- Venue: Unilever Lecture Theatre, Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry.
- Series: Theory - Chemistry Research Interest Group; organiser: Lisa Masters.
Fri 30 May 14:00: PhD Students' talks
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Speakers listed in abstract in due course
- Friday 30 May 2025, 14:00-17:00
- Venue: MR3.
- Series: Fluid Mechanics (DAMTP); organiser: Professor Grae Worster.
Fri 16 May 14:00: Does AI help humans make better decisions? A statistical evaluation framework for experimental and observational studies.
The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), or more generally data-driven algorithms, has become ubiquitous in today’s society. Yet, in many cases and especially when stakes are high, humans still make final decisions. The critical question, therefore, is whether AI helps humans make better decisions compared to a human-alone or AI-alone system. We introduce a new methodological framework to empirically answer this question with a minimal set of assumptions. We measure a decision maker’s ability to make correct decisions using standard classification metrics based on the baseline potential outcome. We consider a single-blinded and unconfounded treatment assignment, where the provision of AI-generated recommendations is assumed to be randomized across cases with humans making final decisions. Under this study design, we show how to compare the performance of three alternative decision-making systems— human-alone, human-with-AI, and AI-alone. Importantly, the AI-alone system includes any individualized treatment assignment, including those that are not used in the original study. We also show when AI recommendations should be provided to a human-decision maker, and when one should follow such recommendations. We apply the proposed methodology to our own randomized controlled trial evaluating a pretrial risk assessment instrument. We find that the risk assessment recommendations do not improve the classification accuracy of a judge’s decision to impose cash bail. Furthermore, we find that replacing a human judge with algorithms— the risk assessment score and a large language model in particular—- leads to a worse classification performance.
- Speaker: Kosuke Imai (Harvard University)
- Friday 16 May 2025, 14:00-15:00
- Venue: MR12, Centre for Mathematical Sciences.
- Series: Statistics; organiser: Qingyuan Zhao.
Fri 30 May 14:00: PhD Students' talks
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Speakers listed in abstract in due course
- Friday 30 May 2025, 14:00-17:00
- Venue: MR2.
- Series: Fluid Mechanics (DAMTP); organiser: Professor Grae Worster.
Thu 05 Jun 15:00: Translation Validation for LLVM's AArch64 Backend
Alive2 is a practical oracle for determining whether a transformation on LLVM IR is a refinement—that is, whether it is valid under the rules for LLVM optimizations. In this talk I’ll describe an analogous translation validation solution for LLVM ’s AArch64 backend that we’ve used to find 42 miscompilation bugs, many of which were in architecture-neutral code and hence could have also affected other backends. Our tool, arm-tv, reuses Alive2 as a source of LLVM semantics and offers a choice of two AArch64 semantics, one that we wrote by hand and the other derived from ARM ’s machine readable specification of their ISA .
John Regehr is a computer science professor at the University of Utah, USA . He liked to build tools for compiler developers to use, and then write papers about them.
If you want to attend the compiler social, please remember to sign up: https://grosser.science/compiler-social-2025-06-05/
- Speaker: John Regehr - University of Utah
- Thursday 05 June 2025, 15:00-16:00
- Venue: Computer Laboratory, William Gates Building, LT1.
- Series: compiler socials; organiser: Luisa Cicolini.
Tue 13 May 13:00: Explainable AI in Neuroscience: From Interpretability to Biomarker Discovery
Explainability plays a pivotal role in building trust and fostering the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare, particularly in high-stakes domains like neuroscience where decisions directly affect patient outcomes. While progress in AI interpretability has been substantial, there remains a lack of clear, domain-specific guidelines for constructing meaningful and clinically relevant explanations. In this talk, I will explore how explainable AI (XAI) can be effectively integrated into neuroscience applications. I will outline practical strategies for leveraging interpretability methods to uncover novel patterns in neural data, and discuss how these insights can inform the identification of emerging biomarkers. Drawing on recent developments, I will highlight adaptable XAI frameworks that enhance transparency and support data-driven discovery. To validate these concepts, I will present illustrative case studies involving large language models (LLMs) and vision transformers applied to neuroscience. These examples serve as proof of concept, showcasing how explainable AI can not only translate complex model behavior into human-understandable insights, but also support the discovery of novel patterns and potential biomarkers relevant to clinical and research applications.
- Speaker: Mike Mamalakis (University of Cambridge)
- Tuesday 13 May 2025, 13:00-14:00
- Venue: Lecture Theatre 2, Computer Laboratory, William Gates Building.
- Series: Artificial Intelligence Research Group Talks (Computer Laboratory); organiser: Mateja Jamnik.