SciBar is science in a bar - an invited speaker gives a talk on a scientific topic while people enjoy a drink or meal, with a Q&A afterwards. Bollington SciBar takes place at the Vale Inn in Bollington. 

The speaker in October is Danielle George, who is Professor of Radio Frequency Engineering and Associate Vice President at the University of Manchester. She was President of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) in 2020/21 and currently a Vice President of the British Computer Society. She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2016 Queen's honours list and CBE in the 2024 King's New Year's honours list for services to engineering through public engagement.

Topic of the talk: As modern humans we tend to think we are clever, and each generation typically thinks it's more intelligent than those before it. So it can be a shock to discover civilizations existing thousands of years ago possessed highly advanced knowledge and technologies capable of measuring the physical world.

The Antikythera mechanism is an astonishing Greek device that was lost for more than 2,000 years and shows we have been measuring the physical world for a long time, so what's changed? What is all the hype about? In a word, it's connectivity. We can now connect all of these disparate systems and literally instrument the entire world.

Professor Danielle George will discuss her work on solving one of the 14 World Engineering Grand Challenges and how she makes it part of her mission to show how creative engineering is. She will discuss her projects in radio astronomy, farming and aerospace and tell us about the smartest machine she knows.

No charge, all welcome. Vale Inn, Adlington Road, talk begins 6.30pm

More about the speaker: Danielle's research is dedicated to solving one the 14 world engineering grand challenges of the 21^st century; engineering the tools for scientific discovery. Her research is delivering class-leading ultra-low noise receivers for Space and Aerospace applications. She is involved in the $1B astronomical instrument, the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), is the UK lead for amplifiers for the $1B Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) telescope and has worked with NASA and ESA on the development of instrumentation for researchers exploring the Big Bang.

Her passion for raising public awareness of the positive impact engineering and science has on all aspects of our everyday lives, as well as highlighting to young people the immense depth and breadth of opportunities a career in science and engineering can offer, has led to Danielle's numerous current high-profile Ambassadorial roles. She presented the 2014 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures and has delivered a number of TED and TEDx talks. Her home town of Newcastle recognised her as a 'Great North Contemporary Great' in the 2015 Great North Culture Exhibition.