To commemorate our 20th anniversary, the Canon Foundation Invited Lecture was established in 2007. The lecturer is an outstanding person in academia, government or professional organisation and will be invited to deliver a lecture on a theme which is topical and of relevance to the international community. The lecturer will be nominated by the Executive Committee members of the Canon Foundation in Europe.

In co-operation with the Cavendish Physical Society,
the Canon Foundation in Europe
has the honour of inviting you to the lecture

Creative tensions between science and technology

by
Professor Sir Richard Henry Friend

The lecture will be given on 24 November 2010
at 4.00pm in the
Pippard Lecture Theatre, Cavendish Laboratory
Dept. of Physics
University of Cambridge

JJ Thomson Avenue
Cambridge CB3 0HE

Attendants are invited to drinks after the lecture

CREATIVE TENSIONS BETWEEN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Many of the big discoveries in science have come about after a breakthrough in technology (Galileo needed lens-making technology before he could construct his telescope). However, current popular perceptions of the scientific method are different – too often science is presented as a series of ‘grand challenges’ where we all know where the important next problem lies. The Large Hadron Collider at CERN is thus presented as the machine to find the Higgs boson. Long-range research is now the preserve of the universities in much of the industrialized world. The relationship between university researchers and the generators of new technology in industrial and commercial organizations is not always valued appropriately, but can provide real value in both directions. Sir Richard will draw on local examples of university- industrial cooperation, drawing attention both to interactions with smaller companies and also larger organizations, such as the Japanese companies that have played a strong role in this.

Professor Sir Richard Friend is the Cavendish Professor at the University of Cambridge where he leads the Optoelectronics Group in the Cavendish Laboratory. He has been involved in the scientific discoveries underlying the emergence of plastic electronics and in its commercial development. Professor Friend has over 600 publications and more than 60 patents. He was knighted for "Services to Physics" in the Queen's Birthday Honours List, 2003.

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