Please register here.
3.00pm Welcome from Professor Frank Windmeijer, Head of Department of Statistics
3.05pm Introduction of speaker
3.10pm The Corcoran Memorial Lecture
Speaker: Professor Frank Noe, Freie Universität Berlin/Microsoft Research AI for Science (Berlin)
Title: Biophysics in the age of AI
Bio: Frank has a Bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering, a Master degree in Computer Science and a PhD from University of Heidelberg (Germany) in Computer Science and Biophysics. For 10 years he has been professor for AI for Science at Freie Universität Berlin and since 2022 he is Partner Research Manager at Microsoft Research AI for Science, leading the lab in Berlin. Frank is still honorary professor at Freie Universität Berlin and adjunct professor at Rice University Houston. Frank's research focuses on the development of AI methods to advance the molecular sciences, in particular addressing fundamental challenges such as the electronic structure problem in quantum Chemsitry, the many-body sampling problem in statistical Mechanics and the modeling and simulation of biomolecular structure, dynamics and function. His research was awarded with two grants of the European Research Council (ERC), Frank is an ISI highly cited fellow, a member of Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) and a fellow of the American Physical Society (APS).
4.10pm Award of the Corcoran Memorial Prize by Professor Frank Windmeijer
4.20pm Short talk by 2026 prize winner
Speaker: Alissa Hummer, Stanford University
Title: Investigating the volume and diversity of data needed for generalizable antibody binding affinity prediction
4.45pm Finish
A drinks reception will follow in the ground floor social area.
The Corcoran Memorial Lecture is an annual event with a Corcoran Memorial Prize awarded biennially to students of the Department of Statistics for outstanding graduate work.
The Corcoran Memorial Lectures
The Corcoran Memorial lectures are named in memory of Stephen Corcoran who was a graduate student in the Department of Statistics until his death in 1996. Stephen was a student of Wadham College, Oxford and graduated First Class Honours in Mathematics in 1991. He subsequently gained a Diploma in Mathematical Statistics from Cambridge University before returning to Oxford to study for a D.Phil in Statistics.
Stephen's research was in the field of empirical likelihood. He made substantial progress in this work but sadly his thesis remained unfinished at the time of his death from cancer. Part of Stephen's uncompleted thesis was edited by Professor A. C. Davison and published in Biometrika (1998, pages 967-972).
A family bequest has established an annual lecture in honour of Stephen in which distinguished guest lecturers are invited to deliver a lecture on important aspects of their work. In addition, the Corcoran Memorial Prize is awarded every two years to students of the Department of Statistics for outstanding graduate work. The prizewinners are also invited to give a lecture.
For full details of all prize award winners and lectures see here.