It's the season when the Gresham Professors announce their forthcoming lectures so, drum roll, here are mine:
12th October 2021 at 6:00pm GPS
23rd November 2021 6:00pm Compression
1st Feb 2022 6:00pm Error Control Coding
8th March 2022 6:00pm Cellular Phones
12th April 2022 6:00pm Integral Transforms
31st May 2022 6:00pm Operating Systems
All times are in UK time, and covid allowing, you will be able to watch live at the Museum of London -- you can book tickets via the Gresham College website. Or, like most of us, you can tune in live.
The title of the season is Six tech inventions that changed the world. Obviously I wanted to avoid the obvious ones - the computer, the telephone and so on. So I hope I have picked innovations that have led to cultural shifts yes I feel have not yet been adequately acknowledged.
When I have showed this to friends, the eyebrow raising one is Integral Transforms. First, are they even an invention? Well they are not a patentable invention (mathematical formulae being not allowed) but the Fourier, Laplace, z-transforms have all led to critical new insights in technology we use everyday (have you noticed how Zoom and Teams no longer seem to have problems with echoes? That's the z-transform for you). And if we consider Radon-type transforms then medical imaging becomes an open book.
I've started work on the lectures now and I really help you will be able to tune-in to my final year as a Gresham Professor. It's been fun, if a little stressy,