DIRDI entered the 2025/2026 academic year with our first dinner held in the Fellows’ Dining Room at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge. Hosted by Dr Gareth Conduit FDIRDI, a Fellow of the College, the dinner saw lively and convivial discussion between scientists and policy experts.
During the dinner, speeches were given by:
- Professor Alexander Piotrowski of the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge spoke about his work in understanding the chemistry of the oceans over million year timescales.
- Dr Aaron Knoll of the Department of Aeronautics at Imperial College London gave an overview of the short, medium, and long term outlooks of Plasma Propulsion technologies and the physics which underpins them.
- Dr FermÃn Moscoso del Prado MartÃn of the Department of Computer Science and Technology at the University of Cambridge spoke about his work in computational linguistics and applying new statistical methods at the convergence of language and neurochemistry.
- Professor Carl Hunter, DIRDI’s Director-General, also gave a speech to mark the occasion of Trafalgar Day.
The presence of several DIRDI undergraduate members, some of whom have already contributed to the Institute’s research projects, brought a welcome sense of connection across generations, as well as across institutions and disciplines. DIRDI has recently launched several new workstreams at partner universities, reflecting our commitment to fostering both emerging and established talent. In his opening remarks, the Director, Mr Daniel Dobrowolski, emphasised the importance of mentorship, collaboration, and the role of young scientists in driving discovery. Supporting early-career researchers will remain a central focus of DIRDI’s work throughout the coming academic year.
The dinner marked DIRDI’s second at Cambridge, which, alongside other events at Oxford, Durham, and London, reflects DIRDI’s recent growth into a more nationally-focused research institute. As part of this growth, we are establishing a number of sub-units focused on advancing public service collaboration in UK Science. Expect several exciting announcements on this in the coming months.
