Blackett Lecture 2022


Our annual Blackett Lecture was held on 7 December 2022 at Prince Phillip House in London. The OR Society's Vice President Professor Christina Pagel, who is widely known for her position within Independent Sage which provided analysis and advice during the COVID-19 pandemic, presented a talk entitled "UK response to the COVID-19 pandemic: the vicious circles, the brilliant science and where science was not enough"

Christina discussed how the fundamental nature of COVID-19 transmission and illness led to a vicious circle of repeating waves of infection, disproportionately affecting those in more deprived communities. She highlighted how there was a great deal of brilliant science in play to tackle the pandemic but uncoupled from other expertise and responsive policy and without a systems approach, some major issues were never resolved.

View our 2022 Lecture:

Our 2022 Lecturer

christina_pagel.jpeg

Prof Pagel is also Professor of Operational Research and Director of the Clinical Operational Research Unit at University College London, using mathematical tools to support the delivery of health services and runs a large programme to understand and communicate outcomes in congenital heart disease. She is co-director of the new UCL CHIMERA hub where researchers examine anonymised data to develop a better understanding of how people’s physiology changes during intensive care.

Awards at the 2021 Blackett Lecture

Last year's event celebrated excellence within the fields of operational research, and OR Society President Edmund Burke announced the winners of many of our most prestigious awards.

Read full citations on our Awards pages

Available to view: previous Blackett Lectures

Our 2021 Blackett Lecturer, Professor Anthony Finkelstein, spoke on the topic 'A Systems View of National Security'. You can view his talk, and other previous Blackett Lectures, here:

View previous Blackett lectures

What is the Blackett Lecture?

Our annual lecture provides a forum for leading industry figures to bring to your attention current affairs in the areas of analytics, data science and artificial intelligence.

The lecture is named in memory of Patrick Blackett, a physicist, Nobel Prize winner and one-time president of the Royal Society. Blackett was one of the pioneers of operational research (OR) during the Second World War, when he advocated the employment of scientists to advise on matters of strategy and tactics.

Find out more about Patrick Blackett in our animated video.

View previous blackett lectures here