Oxford

This past week I went to Oxford for a conference on synthetic and systems biology, the field that my research falls into. The conference was held at St. Anne's College in Oxford, in the engineering section of the college... that is, outside of the city centre and not on any maps. I got lost the first day, but managed to find it alright. Since I registered late, I couldn't arrange accommodations there and ended up taking the train there and back everyday. It's about an hour from Paddington train station, about 20 min from our flat. I would leave around 7:30ish and get home around 8 or 9 at night.

It was a great experience - I listened to lectures from the top researchers in the field and got an idea of what opportunities exist. The most interesting part of the conference was getting the European view of the field - a lot of politics was discussed as the term synthetic biology, essentially a new name for a pre-existing field, is politically charged. The discussions about that become fairly charged as well. It was well worth the two hour commute each day!

After the conference finished on Wednesday, I took some time to explore the city. I only spent an hour or so, but it was a fairly small city - especially compared to London. There's about 100,000 people there, and the centre revolves around the colleges. St Anne's is one of the newer - there is an old building there but it is undergoing renovation. By the time I got into the centre the colleges had closed, but I got to walk around the courtyards and admire the architecture - most of which seems to be attributed to Christopher Wren, who is quickly becoming my favorite architect (his stuff is everywhere!).