Fire and Wire
The Vice-Chancellor’s new series highlights University communities and brings interesting Oxford stories to you.
In her Admission speech Professor Tracey said:
'The Hebbian principle in neuroscience describes beneficial neuronal behaviour in the brain: if you fire together, you wire together. My goal is to fire and wire this great University more closely with our city, this nation and the globe, working generously with the other great British universities with whom we share our higher education ecosystem.'
Building on her goal to ‘fire and wire’ the University, this series explores Oxford’s people and stories.
Episode 8: Oxford’s local and global engagement
January 2025
University of Oxford Vice-Chancellor Irene Tracey sits down with Professor Alexander Betts, Professor of Forced Migration and International Affairs. He is also the University's Local and Global Engagement Officer in the Vice-Chancellor's Office.
He shares insight into the critical work being done by Oxford to offer opportunities and pathways to refugees as part of the University's status as a Sanctuary, as well as other engagement efforts on local and international scales.
Download the full transcript of Oxford's local and global engagement (Word doc) here.
Episode 7: ... with Robots
October 2024
University of Oxford Vice-Chancellor Irene Tracey speaks to the team at the Oxford Robotics Institute to understand their work on the forefront of artificial intelligence and "robots for good".
She speaks to Nick Hawes, Director of the Oxford Robotics Institute, and Ingmar Posner, who is Professor of Robotics and the Institute’s co-founder. She wrestles a robot with post-doctorate researcher Alex Mitchell, and learns about robot sensing with Perla Maiolino and Maurice Fallon. Nick and Irene talk about the institute’s future, and how the hard work of robotics affects recruitment to the sector and the prospects for robots in our homes.
Episode 6: Bridging the subject divide
June 2024
On the latest Fire and Wire, the Vice-Chancellor and her guests discuss a new cross-curricular teaching and learning experience for undergraduates at Oxford. Launched last term, The Vice-Chancellor’s Colloquium − Climate brought together 200 undergraduates and Oxford’s world-leading academics from across the Humanities, Social Sciences and STEM subjects to tackle the global climate crisis. Programme lead, Bill Finnegan, joins Pablo Mukherjee, Professor of Anglophone World-Literature, and first-year students, Michał Pietrzak and Erin Adlard, to discuss the initiative from their personal perspectives.
Download the full transcript of bridging the subject divide (Word doc) here.
Related link: Vice-Chancellor's innovative cross-curricular programme celebrated
Episode 5: Oxford women making a global impact
March 2024
This International Women's Day (8 March), Professor Irene Tracey sat down with women from across the University who are making a global impact with their work. Professor Kokila Lakhoo, Dr Isang Awah and Professor Katrina Charles joined the Vice-Chancellor to discuss the challenges of working in an international space and the difficulties impacting the retention of women in academia.
Download the full transcript of the conversation on women making a global impact (Word doc) here.
Episode 4: Innovation and spinouts
December 2023
Mairi Gibbs, Chief Operating Officer at Oxford University Innovation and Lilly Bussmann, Principal at Oxford Science Enterprises, join Professor Irene Tracey for the latest podcast in this series to discuss innovation at Oxford.
Download the full transcript of the conversation on Innovation and spinouts (Word doc) here.
Episode 3: Fire and Wire in the Garden
September 2023
Irene speaks to Dr Chris Thorogood, the Head of Science at Oxford Botanic Garden, about the past, present and future of this extraordinary institution.
Listen to just the audio of the interview here.
Episode 2: Wellbeing in the workplace
July 2023
Professor Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Director of Oxford's Wellbeing Research Centre, speaks to Irene about why wellbeing matters in the workplace. He also discusses some of the latest research findings coming out of the Wellbeing Research Centre.
Episode 1: Women in STEM
April 2023
In the first episode, Irene speaks to Misha Patel, DPhil student in the Department of Engineering Science, and Professor Sonia Antoranz Contera from the Department of Physics. They touch on their pathways into science as women, the importance of networks and what direction their work will take next.