CO-CURRICULAR LECTURES

On Tuesday 16 January it was a pleasure to welcome Will Barnes (OA 2014) to deliver a fascinating talk on his career as a Quantitative Trader. He spoke about the different types of trading, including High-Frequency Trading in which stock is bought and sold within nanoseconds, and how trading can go wrong, including examples of companies paying others to take their oil during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the end, pupil questions ranged from python coding and starting salaries to the ethics of trading itself!

In his talk for the Stephen Hawking Society Professor David Nowell (OA 1978) asked the important question: Can we fly net zero?

His interest in aircraft began at St Albans School, where he was once part of the airplane modelling club. Now, he teaches Machine Dynamics at Imperial College London, and has returned to illuminate the world of aircraft propulsion and low carbon flight!

In his lecture for the History and Politics Society, Dr Stephen Davies discussed Ayn Rand and her paradoxical influence on Northern American Neo-Conservatism.

Though she did not identify as conservative herself, her influence was considerable with her book Atlas Shrugged was voted the second most influential work of literature by US citizens, after The Bible.