Christmas lectures

The LivWiSE (Liverpool Women in Science and Engineering) Christmas lecture is an annual event at the University of Liverpool celebrating women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics with short TED-style talks and networking opportunities. 

Christmas lecture 2025

Our most recent Christmas lecture took place on Thursday 4 December 2025. Seasonal sustainability was a key theme of the talks, from festive energy consumption to single-use waste. 

Christmas unwrapped: All sparkle and no glitter? Exploring seasonal sustainability

• Speaker: Dr Hannah Whitby
• Video timestamp 0:00-9:48.

This talk explores the environmental footprint of our festive habits, particularly the sudden surge of single-use waste that is generated each Christmas. While we often work hard to make sustainable choices throughout the year, the arrival of the festive season often sees those good habits pushed aside in a flurry of wrapping paper, glitter and throwaway trimmings.

Powering Christmas sustainably: What energy data reveals about festive consumption

• Speaker: Cynthia Ifeanyi
• Video timestamp: 10:06-15:47.

This talk explores how data analytics and forecasting can help reduce waste and manage holiday energy demand for a greener festive season. It connects real-world energy trends with sustainable practices during the holidays.

Engineering Christmas sustainability: Using lignocellulosic biomass

• Speaker: Dr Firdaus Parveen
• Video timestamp: 16:33-24:04.

Festive celebrations often come with challenges-from the waste created by traditional gift wrapping and decorations to the environmental impact of travel, lighting, fireworks, and leftover food. But no joy is ever sacrificed! We’re on a mission to spread holiday cheer powered by a spark of lignocellulosic magic.

Since lignocellulosic biomass comes from non-food sources, it doesn’t compete with the food supply-making it a truly sustainable choice. With it, we can create eco-friendly holiday materials, such as craft decorations made up of biofibres and lignocellulosic wood, bioplastic ornaments and gift wrap, alternative fuels, bioenergy-powered lighting, and even net-zero-carbon fireworks.

The aim is simple: to celebrate the season in a way that protects the future while keeping sustainability and joy perfectly in balance.

Festive drinks, cleaner water: Membranes for a greener Christmas

• Speaker: Dr Evrim Celik-Madenli
• Video timestamp: 24:29-32:02.

There is a surge every holiday season in global beverage consumption, whether it’s soft drinks, beer, or festive spirits. Behind these joyful traditions lies a hidden challenge, which is the significant water footprint required for their production.

In this short talk, we examine how increased holiday beverage production impacts water demand and wastewater generation, and why this is crucial for a "Green Christmas." Then, we'll examine how advanced membrane technologies can support water purification, recovery, and circulation in the beverage industry.

Christmas treasures from the deep? Long-term impacts of deep-sea mining

• Speaker: Dr Rachel Jeffreys
• Video timestamp: 32:47-44:08.

With millions of pounds spent every Christmas on tech gadgets, what on earth does deep-sea mining have to do with modern technology?

Dr Rachel Jeffreys introduces us to the astounding world of the deep-sea and the rare earth materials that are found there. We'll find out why modern technology needs these rare materials and the long-term impacts of deep-sea mining on these ecosystems.

As our technological demands increase, are these deep-sea ecosystems under threat from exploitation by the mining industry?

Christmas lecture 2024

Taking place on Thursday 5 December 2024, our annual Christmas lecture included talks on topics from 3D printing, advances in bioengineering, and the geophysical processes of magma movement in volcanoes, to molecular structures, illuminating dark matter, and gamma ray imaging.

Many of these talks followed up on presentations made 10 years earlier to reveal what's changed or been discovered in the meantime.

Transforming 3D printing: A solution-focused approach to global innovation

Speaker: Professor Kate Black.

In a previous LivWiSE lecture, Kate and a panel discussed the future of 3D printing technology (also known as additive manufacturing). In 2024, this talk gave an updated look at how 3D printing has evolved to become a huge part of global innovation.

Nano advances: New opportunities in bioengineering

Speaker: Professor Jude Curran.

Jude's previous research has proven that cells and components within the human body sense and respond to stimulus at the sub-micron and nano scale. 

In this talk, she discusses how her team and network of international collaborators have used this knowledge to design and manufacture new directly implantable materials capable of generating nerve, bone, and cartilage tissue.

She also presents a new cost-effective, label-free, real-time technology for tracking nano entities through complex biological and synthetic environments. This technology has the potential to revolutionise pre-clinical screening technologies for new therapeutics and antimicrobial materials.

Cracking volcanoes - 10 years on

Speaker: Professor Janine Kavanagh.

Janine takes us on a journey through the plumbing system of a volcano, sharing some of the latest research findings from the Liverpool Mechanical and Geological Model Analogues (MAGMA) Laboratory and reflecting on how our understanding of the geophysical processes of magma movement, and how these are preserved in the geological record, have changed over the past ten years.

Building with molecules - with the help of technology – 10 years on

Speaker: Professor Anna Slater.

At the Christmas Lecture in 2014, Anna presented about the challenges and opportunities when trying to build structures out of extremely small things. This talk takes a look at how this has changed, 10 years on.

Illuminating dark matter - 10 years on

Speaker: Dr Helen Hayward.

Since the confirmation of dark matter in 1970, scientists have been trying to measure and explain this mysterious substance. In this talk, a brief summary of search for dark matter in the last 10 years will be presented. 

Next generation gamma ray imaging

Speaker: Professor Laura Harkness-Brennan.

Gamma ray imaging is a technique used to visualise and analyse objects or processes by detecting gamma rays, which are a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. In this talk, Laura shares ways in which gamma-rays can be imaged using state-of-the-art radiation detectors.

Previous Christmas lectures