University

08 Sep 10

The design of the Darwin plinth, by Oxfordshire schoolgirl, Poppy Simonson, which will be unveiled at 10am on Saturday

Colleges, departments and museums are inviting the public to go behind the scenes this weekend (11-12 September), as the Oxford Preservation Trust and University of Oxford host Oxford Open Doors 2010. University buildings usually closed to the public will be opened up to visitors, who can enjoy tours, displays and other activities.

At 10am on Saturday morning the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Andrew Hamilton, will unveil the Darwin plinth outside the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, on the spot where the Huxley-Wilberforce evolution debate was held 150 years ago. The debate plinth was designed by Poppy Simonson, a student at St Helen and St Katharine School, and sculpted by Alec Peever, who carved the gargoyles which were unveiled at Oxford Open Doors 2009.

Oxford’s strong debating tradition will continue with four short ten-minute lectures about evolution by distinguished Oxford academics in the Museum of Natural History’s lecture theatre at 10.30am on Saturday morning. Dr Tristram Wyatt will discuss pheromones and evolution; Dr Mark Fricker will talk about how slime moulds and fungi can produce networks as efficient as the railways designed by people; Dr Sunetra Gupta will explain how blood disorders such as sickle cell disease can protect against other diseases like malaria; and Dr Robin Dunbar will talk about how evolution limits how many friends you can have at any one time.

There will be guided tours of the Oxford University Press museum and archive (Thursday 11am and 2pm, Friday 11am, booking required), the Ashmolean Museum conservation department (four tours on Saturday 10am-6pm, booking required), the Museum of the History of Science (tour on Saturday 10.30am) and the Pitt Rivers Museum (three tours on Saturday 2-3.30pm, booking required).

Plans for the University’s landmark Radcliffe Observatory Quarter (ROQ) development will be displayed at St Luke’s Chapel, accessed via the former Radcliffe Infirmary on Woodstock Road, on Saturday and Sunday 9am-5pm. Visitors can access the first floor boardroom and external courtyard of the Infirmary – from where they can view the whole site. At midday on Saturday nurses who came trained at to the Radcliffe Infirmary in the 1960s will meet on its steps for a reunion, and take a tour of the ROQ site.

Oxford University’s Real Tennis Club will demonstrate Henry VIII’s sport of choice from 11am-3pm on Saturday, at the world’s second oldest court which is located on Merton Street, while Corpus Christi has put on an exhibition about college barges on its own barge on Meadow Lane, 11am-6pm on Saturday.

The full programme for Oxford Open Doors on Saturday and Sunday, including timings, access, booking and all other necessary information, is available on the Open Doors website.

Oxford University participants in Oxford Open Doors 2010 are as follows:

Colleges

Jesus, Keble, Kellogg, Magdalen, Merton, New, St Catherine’s, Pembroke, All Souls, Wolfson, Wadham, University, Exeter, Christ Church, Lady Margaret Hall, St Edmund Hall, Nuffield, Corpus Christi barge

Museums

Museum of the History of Science, Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Pitt Rivers Museum, Ashmolean Museum

Departments and other

Oxford University Press, Chemistry Research Laboratory, new Biochemistry building, Stelios Ioannou School for Research in Classical and Byzantine Studies, Rhodes House, Radcliffe Infirmary and St Luke’s Chapel, Bodleian Library, Christ Church Cathedral, University Parks, Real Tennis Club at Merton College, Said Business School, University Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford Centre for Developmental Science