Superb start to the Summer Term Head Masters Lecture Series

The Head Master’s Lecture series brings exceptional thinkers, leaders and practitioners to Lancing to engage students with ideas that shape the contemporary world. Drawing on expertise from academia, global policy, science, the arts and industry, the series broadens horizons and models lives of curiosity, service and intellectual courage. Through these encounters, students are challenged to think deeply, connect ideas across disciplines, and see how education can lead to lives of purpose, enquiry and responsibility. 

The speakers this term follow a long line of experts covering a diverse and, at all times topical subjects, ensuring that all Lancing students can gain access to inspiring speakers, the very best in their area. Where possible, lectures are made available for a wider Lancing audience online and can be heard here.

Professor Chris Howe (May 2026) – Genes, Medieval Manuscripts, Persian Carpets and Folklore: what they all really have in common. (review by Fahad) 

A packed audience of students and some parents enjoyed a superb lecture on May 11. 

Professor Christopher Howe captivated Lancing students with his intriguing development of this subject. His lecture showed how different disciplines can be brought together to develop new ideas, using both scientific tools and evidence from the humanities. Above all, Professor Howe showed us the magnificence of science: you never know what you are looking for until you find it. As he showed, in all of these very different fields, from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales to variations on the Red Riding Hood tradition, there are signs of the tree-branching evolutionary model of development, and genetic techniques can be used to help solve long-debated questions of precedence. Professor Howe was also hugely generous in answering questions not just about his research but about Cambridge, where he is Professor of Biochemistry and President of Corpus Christi College, giving us a real boost in our own academic ambitions. Above all, as an aspiring medic and scientist, his lecture emphasised to me how through scientific research we have in our hands the possibility of an accumulation of vital breakthroughs, critical to human progress. 

Two further lectures will take place this term, read more and register to attend. 

• Monday 8 June – Dr Wendy Harrison, CEO of Unlimit Health 

Animal Health, Human Health, and Global Policy: A Career at the Intersection 

Head Master’s Lecture – Professor Christopher Howe | WATCH IN FULL