CONVERGENCE SPEAKERS
Prof Maria Ubiali
Prof Maria Ubiali is a particle physicist with a passion for mathematics, based at Cambridge and CERN.
Maria Ubiali read Physics at the Università degli Studi of Milan, in Italy, gaining a First Class Honours degree.
She obtained a joint doctoral degree from the University of Edinburgh and the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium.
She has been working at the University of Cambridge as a post-doctoral research associate since 2013. She was awarded a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellowship in October 2016 and in 2017 became Lecturer in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics.
In 2020 she became Principal Investigator of an ERC grant studying the “Physics beyond the Standard Proton.”
Maria is the Sheila Edmonds Lecturer in Mathematics at Newnham,
Prof. Giuseppe Pezzini
Prof. Giuseppe Pezzini is a Tutor and Fellow in Latin at Corpus Christi College, Oxford which he joined in 2021, after five beautiful years of teaching in St Andrews (2016–2021), and research fellowships at Magdalen College Oxford (2013–2015) and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (2016).
He worked as an assistant editor for the Oxford Dictionary of Medieval Latin and has published especially on Latin language and literature, philosophy of language, and the theory of fiction, ancient and modern.
He is the Tolkien Editor for the Journal of Inklings Studies and an Associate Member of the Institute for Theology, Imagination, and the Arts at the University of St Andrews.
AI - SPEAKERS
Dr Jonah Lynch
Saturday 23 March
4.30 -6.30 pm
Since childhood, Jonah pursued a renaissance ideal: competence in many fields, and endless curiosity. He began his search for knowledge as a Physics student at McGill University and then broadened into humanistic interests, including studies in philosophy, a doctorate in theology and service as a priest. Today he resides in Italy and divides his time between scientific research, consulting, and teaching.
Since age seven he has been a computer programmer and wrote a best-selling book about technology and human relationships, The Scent of Lemons.
He recently completed a second doctorate at the University of Pavia in digital humanities, entitled “Method and Intelligence: Digital Approaches to Memory and Communication in Historiography”.
Jonah has dedicated much of his career to education. He holds an M.Ed in Science Education from George Washington University and has taught at all levels. He currently serves as Lead of the Neodata Group Academy, teaches "Elements of statistics, probabilistic reasoning, and R” at the University of Milan-Bicocca, and is the Executive Director of the Opus 73 Foundation, an educational non-profit.
Currently, he is collaborating in two AI-based art projects, including the land-art Compos[t]ing project with Ingrid Ogenstedt and Ingrid Mayerhofer-Hufnagl sponsored by the European Union JRC.
Francesco Pasqualotto
Saturday 23 March
4.30 -6.30 pm
Francesco Pasqualotto (1982) resides in Italy. In 2004 he has graduated with honours from Conservatorio Verdi in Milano, where he was admitted as private student. He attended the experimental composition course given by Maestro Sandro Gorli at the same Conservatoire.
He has attended master classes that have allowed him to be exposed to teachers and concert artist of international fame like Maestro Franco Scala, Bruno Canino, Louis Lortie, Filippo Gamba, Paolo Bordoni Konstantin Bogino, Pier Narciso Masi, Trio Altenberg, Emilia Fadini.
Now he is employed in the execution of “Integrals Piano Opera” of L. Van Beethoven and G. Ligeti. He also played the Second and the Fifth Piano Concert of Beethoven’s.
From 2019 it is available the CD “A. Bruckner’s piano works” for Brilliant Classics.
In 2021 he recorded for Urania a CD with Bartók’s music (Im Freien, Suite op. 14, Bagatelles op. 6 ecc ecc)
In 2014 he recorded Mozart’s Requiem in Czerny’s Four Hands version with D. Maccagnola and C. Porta Choir directed by A. Greco. He also recorded Bartók’s Sonata and Etudes, Ligeti’s Etudes, Schumann’s Etudes (2015), Liszt’s Paganini Etudes, Chopin Piano Etudes op. 10.
His concertistic activity brought him to play in several European Countries. He plays with great artists as Cristiano Rossi, Natasha Korsakova, Ginevra Petrucci, Manrico Padovani, Diego Maccagnola. He is frequently invited to play for Vatican Radio classical programs. Finally, he is the artistic director of the musical festival “Spirto Gentil” in Gallarate.
Mental Health - speakers
Dr Giovanna Moretto
Sunday 24 March
12 -1 pm
Dr Giovanna Moretto has been a Clinical Psychologist since 2006. She has worked for the Child Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) for 15 years. She is now working as a principal psychologist for CAMHS in Cheshire. She is a qualified Interpersonal therapy (IPT-A) therapist and supervisor and evidence-based intervention for moderate and severe depression in adolescence. She is intensively involved in supporting young people presenting various severe mental health problems. Her special interests are depression, trauma and psychogenic movement disorders in young people.
Dr Martin O’Sullivan
Sunday 24 March
12 -1 pm
Dr Martin O’Sullivan is a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist since 1999. He has worked as a Consultant at Guy's Hospital, in London, Mater Hospital in Dublin and in Northland, New Zealand during that period. He is now working as a Hospital-based Paediatric Liaison Psychiatrist in Dublin. Currently, his team deal with a large number of crisis episodes of care annually.
Iman Marie-Louise Simo Dzumgang
Sunday 24 March
12 -1 pm
Iman Marie-Louise Simo Dzumgang is a Statistics and Mathematical Machine Learning PhD student at University College London since 2023. She priory completed her undergraduate degree in mathematics at the University of Cambridge. In the course of her studies, she has worked as a faculty representative and student ambassador to advocate for the improvement of well-being and mental health (WaMH) facilities in academic environments. She now champions WaMH post-COVID-19 pandemic for research students & young adults in academia.
Gisele Mendonca
Sunday 24 March
12 -1 pm
Gisele Mendonca has been a Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist since 2006. She has worked for various Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) for 15 years. For the past 8 years, Gisele has worked in her private practice, helping children of all ages and their families to understand and overcome their emotional difficulties. She also works for OXPIP (Oxford Parent Infant Project), a charity organisation which offers intensive therapeutic help to parents and infants, from conception to two years. She is a training teacher and supervisor.
neuroscience - speakers
Dr Daniel de Haan
Saturday 23 March
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE HUMAN?
2.30 -3.30 pm
Daniel D. De Haan is the Frederick Copleston Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer in Philosophy and Theology in the Catholic Tradition at Campion Hall and Blackfriars. He is the principal investigator of the Conceptual Clarity Concerning Human Nature project sponsored by the Templeton World Charity Foundation and hosted by the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion in the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford.
Before to coming to Oxford, De Haan was a postdoctoral fellow on the neuroscience strand of the Theology, Philosophy of Religion, and the Sciences project, in the Faculty of Divinity and the Translational Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge.
In 2015 De Haan received his doctorate in philosophy from the Center for Thomistic Studies, University of St Thomas, Houston, Texas and the De Wulf-Mansion Centre for Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy, at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium.
Francesco Banfi
Saturday 23 March
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE HUMAN?
2.30 -3.30 pm
Francesco Banfi is reading for the DPhil in Medieval Philosophy at Corpus Christi College.
He previously studied at Roma Tre University in Rome, reading his undergraduate and master’s in Philosophy. His master’s thesis focused on the relation between definition and demonstration in Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics II 6,7.
Francesco is now working on Thomas Aquinas’ reception and the interpretation of some of Aristotle’s logical and metaphysical themes, such as real definitions essences and hylomorphism.
Whilst interested in the whole history of philosophy, in focusing on ancient and medieval thought, Francesco’s main goal is directed towards the rediscovery of a contemplative notion of nature abandoned by the main philosophical streams of modern thought.
As a matter of general philosophical interest, Francesco is also concerned in thinking more carefully about the interaction of a proper metaphysical concept of nature and essence through key notions particularly developed in the modern period such as person, subjectivity and history.
War and reconciliation - speakers
James L. Nolan, Jr.
Saturday 24 March
"PEACE!" FROM NAGASAKI TO THE WORLD
12 - 1 pm
James L. Nolan, Jr. is the Washington Gladden 1859 Professor of Sociology at Williams College (MA, USA). His teaching and research interests fall within the general areas of law and society, culture, technology and social change, and historical comparative sociology.
Nolan’s grandfather, James F. Nolan, was a physician associated with the Manhattan Project, the US government’s secret project established during World War II to develop the first nuclear weapon. He escorted the bomb from Los Alamos to the Pacific Islands and was one of the first Americans to enter the irradiated ruins of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
James L. Nolan, Jr.’s most recent book, Atomic Doctors: Conscience and Complicity at the Dawn of the Nuclear Age, (Harvard University Press, 2020), examines the moral and professional dilemmas faced by physicians who took part in the Manhattan Project.
Dr Gabriele Di Comite
Saturday 24 March
"PEACE!" FROM NAGASAKI TO THE WORLD
12 - 1 pm
Gabriele Di Comite is the president of the association Friends of Takashi and Midori Nagai, the canonical actor for the promotion of beatification and canonization of the Nagai spouses.
Gabriele is the author of two publications in Italian on the life of Takashi and Midori Nagai and on the history of Christianity in Japan. He has translated from Japanese into Italian and has curated the edition of four books by Takashi Nagai. Two of those books are available in English (Thoughts from Nyokodō and The Pass of the Virgin, Amazon).
Born and raised in Italy, Gabriele is an MD/PhD, who worked for several years as a hospital clinician and then moved to the pharmaceutical industry for five years in Switzerland. Since 2019 he has been living in Tokyo, Japan where he currently leads the Women’s Cancer Medical Team of AstraZeneca Japan.
Friends of Takashi and Midori Nagai
Friends of Takashi and Midori Nagai is a Committee, recognised as Canonical Actor by the Diocese of Nagasaki, established in Rome on 23 March 2021 by friends who have known the history and faith of the Nagai couple and have been deeply affected by it.
The purpose of the Committee is to spread the testimony of this married couple and promote their cause for beatification.
Finance crisis - SPEAKERS
Hans van Mourik Broekman
Sunday 24
Economy and Society: WHAT IS IN IT FOR ME?
10 - 11 am
Hans van Mourik Broekman is the Principal of Liverpool College, a 4-19 heavily oversubscribed, state-funded, mixed ability, academy day and boarding school in the heart of Liverpool.
Hans is a native of the Netherlands. He attended high school in the USA and then gained his Masters Degree with Honours in Classics from the University of St Andrews in Scotland. Following teaching positions in the UK, Hans returned to the USA where he served as a deputy headmaster, headmaster and Principal in Washington DC, Arkansas, and Tennessee.
He was appointed the 17th Principal of Liverpool College in July 2007 and took up the appointment in June 2008. Since he arrived at the College, Hans has pursued an ambitious development programme which has included major College-wide refurbishment and restructuring programmes and the re-introduction of boarding at the school. In June 2012, Liverpool College announced that the Secretary of State for Education had accepted its submission to transition the College to Academy status (an academy is an independent school funded directly by the central government). This followed a comprehensive and strategic review of the future options for developing Liverpool College, led by Hans and the governing body. The Times of London described this development as “the Berlin Wall in education coming down.”
Since conversion, the College has expanded its facilities and curriculum to cater to substantial demand for places. From serving primarily wealthy citizens of Liverpool, the school now reflects in its student body every ethnic background, every advantage and disadvantage, every faith tradition, and every country of origin found in inner city Liverpool. The National School Inspectorate awarded the school an Outstanding rating in all areas in November 2019.
Hans is committed to improving social mobility and life chances and creating a culture of learning that ensures that every young person has the potential to excel regardless of their background or any disadvantage. He is the author of three books which seek to inspire educators, parents and students to explore their deepest desires for what a school could and should be..
Carlo Corradini
Sunday 24
Economy and Society: WHAT IS IN IT FOR ME?
10 - 11 am
Carlo Corradini is a Professor of Regional Economics at Henley Business School (University of Reading), where he is also Director of the Centre for Real Estate and Planning and an RREF Board Member. Before joining Henley Business School, Carlo worked as an Associate Professor in Regional Economics at Birmingham Business School. He holds a PhD from Nottingham University Business School and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Carlo is actively engaged in the scholarly debate on several topics ranging from regional economics to technological change and industry dynamics, as well as regional industrial and innovation policy. His research has been published in several top-ranked journals including the Journal of Economic Geography, Regional Studies, Research Policy, Environment and Planning A, Cambridge Journal of Economics, Small Business Economics and Industrial and Corporate Change. He also serves as Associate Editor for the journal Regional Studies.
Over the last few years, he has been particularly active in research and public debates addressing the important levelling-up agenda of the British government. He has also advised public bodies and policymakers on issues related to his research and beyond.