How Hard is too Hard? An Introduction to Complexity

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Friday

Nov 14

14:15

Gabriela Ramos on "Natural and Moral History of the Indies" by José de Acosta

14:30

The Creative Freelancer’s Experience

15:30

Valuing The Future: Re-evaluating Investment Risk and Return

17:00

The Four Talent Giants: Talent Development Strategies in Japan, Australia, China, and India and Their Implications for Korea

17:30

Clarendon Lecture Series 2025 - 2026: Science, Technology and the Constitution of Modernity

18:00

Human Rights: The Case for the Defence - with Baroness Shami Chakrabarti CBE, PC

RDI Address 2025

18:30

Greece’s economic and digital transformation: in conversation with Kyriakos Pierrakakis

19:00

Palestine on film

Saturday

Nov 15

10:00

Escape and Escapism – Art and the GDR

10:30

Veronica Forrest-Thomson at Girton

16:00

GLOBAL CULTURES: EXPERT TASTES 15 NOV 2025

Monday

Nov 17

16:30

King's Population Health Institute Vanguard Seminar: Howard Bauchner

17:00

Phoebe Giannisi in conversation with Brian Sneeden and A. E. Stallings

17:30

Can Democracy Survive War? The Ukrainian Experience

Reclaiming Pluralism: Lessons from South Africa for a Divided Britain by Ebrahim Rasool

Leadership in the Era of Quantum and AI

18:00

Debating the role of nuclear weapons in the 21st century and the challenge of democratic resilience

The Later Years: Organisation, Independence and Peace of Mind

Inaugural Lecture with Professor James Lee

Distinguished Speaker Seminar: Asif Sadiq, Chief Inclusion Officer at Warner Bros. Discovery

18:30

Milner Prize Lecture: How to spot and debunk misleading content

EVENT CANCELLED: Is the US still a democracy? Authoritarian populism in the Trump era

Tuesday

Nov 18

09:30

Women in Science: historical perspectives

12:00

Anti-colonialism, Abolition and the Nationalist Backlash

13:00

Robotics in Education and Healthcare

Public Policing and Private Security: Insights from the UK

14:00

Capital (cultural); Appropriation; Debt/borrowing

17:00

Realism, Surplus, Mourning

17:30

Cinematic cartography

18:30

Temptation of Influence

How racism reclaimed its identity

Britain in a changing world

Gender and the law: how law matters to gender or how gender matters to law?

Fixed: why personal finance is broken, and how to make it work for everyone

19:00

Japonisme Across Time: From 19th Century Inspirations to Contemporary Visions

19:30

Giver of Life: The Holy Spirit in the Nicene Creed

Wednesday

Nov 19

13:00

Discussing 'Bad Language'

16:00

NHLI Athena SWAN Lecture – Professor Dame Ijeoma Uchegbu

16:45

Inaugural Lectures: Professors Elizabeth Davies & Simon Pitchford

17:30

Encounters with Slapstick and Sympathy: Falling Down

The hypocrisy trap: how changing what we criticise can improve our lives

Professor Sam Norton - Inaugural Lecture

18:00

David Kohn Architects: Stages

Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences Annual Graduate Lecture 2025 - Stories at the Edge of Empire: Newfoundland, 1763-1829

18:30

Is there a Trump doctrine? Making sense of US foreign and security policy since Trump’s return to the White House

19:30

Acting up: Using the power of your presence

Thursday

Nov 20

15:45

Infrastructures of Kindness in the Context of Migrant Arrival

16:00

NIHR Cambridge BRC Public event on infants, children & young people (CYP) research

16:30

2025 Annual Uehiro Lectures: Reproductive Rights (Lecture 3/3)

17:00

Francis Spufford on Faith and Imagination

17:30

Public Policy Lecture 2025: Public policy in the age of disruption

Encounters with Slapstick and Sympathy: Slosh

18:00

Is a faith shaped peace only powerful for the 1930s, not 2030s?

In Conversation on Escalation: Applying Deterrence Concepts to Space

18:30

Lines drawn by empire: displacement, belonging, and borders

World Children’s Day: digital futures for children – children’s rights under pressure in the digital environment

19:00

Trees Through Time

Friday

Nov 21

10:00

Behind the Bench: Tackling Antibiotic Resistance

13:00

Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery, Looking Back, Looking Ahead: An Assessment of 25 Years under the UN Trafficking Palermo Protocol

14:00

God and Science: A Seminar of Contemporary Viewpoints

15:00

The Inaugural Joan Reece Lecture 2025

17:15

Keble Debate with Sir Rufus Norris, Artistic Director of the National Theatre (2015-2025)

18:00

Free Radicals - In conversation with Mike Jay

19:00

Listening to Landscape book launch

Saturday

Nov 22

13:30

Discover John Taverner: A Study Afternoon

Monday

Nov 24

18:30

How do we fix climate change?

19:00

Webinar for NEW CPD Courses: Working Therapeutically with Children and Young People, Mother-infant Observation

Tuesday

Nov 25

13:00

SECRETS AND LIES: DOES MORE TRANSPARENCY MAKE FOR BETTER POLITICS?

The Divided Mind - A new way of thinking about mental health

14:00

Shards; Collage; Contagion

15:00

Discovering our Collections through Artists' Books

16:00

Beyond Interpretation Judicial Authority in the Face of Unjust Norms

17:00

Designing Sound, Sculpting Gesture

Scholars' Library: Robert McGill on 'Simple Creatures'

Constantine Cavafy: A New Biography

Scholars' Library: Robert McGill on 'Simple Creatures'

18:00

Becoming AI – Your Journey to Assimilation?

18:30

Archive of Prefiguration: Writing Spatial Futures

King's Business School Alumni Club Launch in Beijing

Wednesday

Nov 26

08:30

'Breakfast with Birkbeck' Environment & Sustainability Webinar #9

16:45

Inaugural Lectures: Professors Sheeba Irshad & Shaihan Malik

17:30

Professor Anthony Vernon - Inaugural Lecture

Prisoners of Our Own Device

How technology meets business: the role of networks in the development of innovation

Professor of Poetry lecture: Rhyme as Experiment/Rhyme as Alchemy

18:00

Invisible

St Catharine's Political Economy Seminar Series - Dr Melissa Sands- Title TBC

Hecate: Mistress of Magic

18:30

The Beauty of the Earth: the Art of May and William Morris with Suzanne Fagence-Cooper

Thursday

Nov 27

12:00

The political riskiness of public policy messaging on corruption

13:00

Where Is China Heading under Xi Jinping?

15:45

The Politicisation of Local Integration Policy-Making in Western European Small and Medium-sized Towns and Rural Areas

17:30

Inaugural Lecture Series: Professors Emilia Onyema and Lutz Oette (College of Law)

18:30

AAxCCS Propositions: Counter World-building in Speculative Capitalism

An Evening with Baroness Shami Chakrabarti CBE PC: in conversation with Professor David Latchman CBE

19:00

Anaesthesia

Friday

Nov 28

10:00

‘Nature spoke to her’: women scientists in the Royal Society

14:15

Virginia Davis on "Life of William of Wykeham" by Robert Lowth

15:30

Sick Architecture

17:00

Seminar 6: Powering the Future: How Sustainable and Scalable are Emerging Energy Solutions?

17:30

Buddhist Archaeology and the Silk Roads

Saturday

Nov 29

11:30

BSL Interpreted Tours of Expecting

Monday

Dec 1

17:00

Launch of Waning Crescent: the rise and fall of global Islam

18:00

Museum Closure in the UK 2000–2025: an invitation

Photobiography

Tuesday

Dec 2

14:00

Liquidity; Intoxication; Haunting

18:15

Affordable Housing and Climate Change

18:30

writing with: transversal stories and voices

19:30

Growing healthier adult bodies: Lessons from rainforest communities

Wednesday

Dec 3

17:30

Costs and consequences of immunity

18:00

Distinguished Speaker Seminar: Dr Mishal Pate in conversation with Prof Blanca Rodriguez

19:00

From Mars with Love: Postcards from 50 Years of Exploring The Red Planet

Thursday

Dec 4

14:30

The Year Ahead at the Ashmolean, with Xa Sturgis

15:00

DPhil student talks

15:45

Welcoming Cities: How newcomers shape urban policy making (book launch)

16:00

Crick Lecture | Professor Giles Yeo

Lights Up and Audio Described Tours of Expecting

17:00

'Voice-parts and voice-types in Tudor England'

17:30

Handle with Care: Conversations Through Objects

32nd Annual Roger W.H. Sargent Lecture

18:00

Donald Trump and the Death Penalty

18:30

Hacking Worldbuilding

19:00

Plant Evolution through the Lens of Plant Microfossils

Friday

Dec 5

14:30

Akram Khan in conversation

18:15

Written in the stars: Astronomy weekend at Newnham - celebrating remarkable astrophysicist Dr Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin

Saturday

Dec 6

11:00

Celebrating 125th anniversary of eminent astrophysicist Dr Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin and Astronomy at Newnham.

Monday

Dec 8

18:00

The Sir Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art Annual Lecture 2025

19:00

A Celebration of Black Women Theologians in Britain

Wednesday

Dec 10

17:30

At the heart of vulnerability: plaques, patients and the pursuit of purpose

18:00

Life, Death and Judgement in the Art and Times of Hieronymus Bosch (d. 1516)

Thursday

Dec 11

17:30

Inaugural Lecture Series: Professor Nana Sato-Rossberg and Professor Julia Sallabank

Wednesday

Dec 17

18:00

A Tudor Christmas

Tuesday

Jan 13

18:00

Economics and Artificial Intelligence

Wednesday

Jan 14

13:00

Applicant Drop-In Session

18:00

Music of Light and Colour

Tuesday

Jan 20

18:00

Constable's "The Cornfield": A Bicentenary Harvesting

Wednesday

Jan 21

17:30

How to build a heart at 180 BPM

18:00

Why Do We Grieve?

Thursday

Jan 22

17:00

Foundations

17:30

Mahāyāna Without the Concept of Mahāyāna: Evidence From an Early Kharoṣṭhī Manuscript from Gandhāra

18:00

Oligarchs and Their Discontents

Monday

Jan 26

18:30

Leeuwenhoek Prize Lecture by Professor Sir Michael Ferguson CBE FMedSci FRS

Tuesday

Jan 27

17:00

Crafting Order

18:00

The Shape of Shells: She Sells Self-Similar Spiral Seashells on the Seashore

Wednesday

Jan 28

17:30

COPD and the idea of justice

18:00

LATE at Kettle's Yard

Mithras: Master of Mystery

Thursday

Jan 29

17:00

Media

18:00

An Ocean of Air

Friday

Jan 30

10:00

The Inevitability of Mannerism

Saturday

Jan 31

10:00

The Family Forum

Tuesday

Feb 3

17:00

Coming to Terms

18:00

Will You Be AI’s Pet?

Wednesday

Feb 4

17:30

Supporting SMEs: real economic effects

19:00

Alien Earths: What Makes Us Special?

Thursday

Feb 5

17:00

Self

18:00

Death Investigation: What Do Coroners Do?

Monday

Feb 9

18:30

Clifford Paterson Prize Lecture by Professor Philipp Kukura FRS

Tuesday

Feb 10

17:00

The Capacity of Power

18:00

Lee Miller's Indelible Images

Thursday

Feb 12

17:00

State and Economy

Tuesday

Feb 17

17:00

Making Equality

18:00

The Price of Pixels: Unmasking the Environmental Impact of Our Digital Lives

Wednesday

Feb 18

17:30

Salty tales: impacts of salinity in the subsurface

18:30

Michael Faraday Prize Lecture: This is not the AI we were promised

Thursday

Feb 19

17:00

Self and Society

18:00

The Ground We Stand On

Tuesday

Feb 24

17:00

The Sense of Beauty

17:30

Exclusive Members' Event – Egyptian Statuettes

18:00

Work, Out of Reach

Wednesday

Feb 25

17:30

Thinking in water systems

18:00

Music of Earth and Space

Thursday

Feb 26

17:00

Self vs. Society

Tuesday

Mar 3

17:00

Democratic Form

18:00

The Shape of Gravity: Why On Earth Are Planets Spherical?

Wednesday

Mar 4

17:30

From concept to clinic: how algorithms commute

18:00

Why Do We Hate?

18:30

Royal Society Rising Star Africa Prize Lecture delivered by Professor James Okwe Chibueze

Tuesday

Mar 10

18:00

Bridget: Goddess and Saint

Thursday

Mar 12

18:00

The Death of Athenian Democracy?

Tuesday

Mar 17

18:00

Born Supremacy – AI as a Pale Shadow of Real Humanity

Wednesday

Mar 18

19:00

The Universe’s 100th Birthday: Galactic Fireworks and Little Red Dots

Monday

Mar 23

18:00

A Living Planet

Monday

Apr 13

16:00

The Annual Lady Mayor's Lecture

Tuesday

Apr 14

16:00

A World Without Work

Wednesday

Apr 15

16:00

Music of the Mind

17:30

Royal Society Africa Prize Lecture delivered by Professor Ara Monadjem

Tuesday

Apr 21

16:00

Taming AI

Wednesday

Apr 22

16:00

Why Do We Love?

Tuesday

Apr 28

16:00

The Shape of Tiles: Regular and Irregular, Hard and Soft

Wednesday

Apr 29

17:00

The Sky at Night, Tonight: A New View of the Changing Sky

Tuesday

May 5

16:00

Music, Death and Afterlife

Wednesday

May 6

16:00

Dionysus: Lord of Misrule

Monday

May 11

16:00

How Hard is too Hard? An Introduction to Complexity

Tuesday

May 12

16:00

The Pill and the Planet: Can We Have Both a Healthy Aging Population and a Sustainable Future?

17:30

Bakerian Prize Lecture by Professor John Rogers FRS

Wednesday

May 13

16:00

Music of the Body

Wednesday

May 20

16:00

Should We Manipulate People’s Emotions?

Thursday

May 21

16:00

The White Knight: Ice

Tuesday

May 26

16:00

Education – And Its Limits

Thursday

May 28

16:00

Plato to Polybius on Constitutional Change

Tuesday

Jun 2

16:00

Forging Better Futures for You and AI

Wednesday

Jun 3

17:00

Pluto Isn’t a Planet

Tuesday

Jun 9

16:00

The Shape of Knots: From DNA to Shoestrings and Solar Flares

Wednesday

Jun 10

16:00

Music of Sleep and Dreams

Thursday

Jun 11

16:00

Cicero In and On Political Crises

Monday

Jun 15

16:00

The Annual Gray's Inn Reading 2026

Tuesday

Jun 16

17:30

Royal Society Environment Prize Lecture by Professor Andrew Balmford FRS

Wednesday

Jun 17

16:00

The Morrigan: The Nightmare Queen

Thursday

Jun 18

16:00

The Death of the Roman Republic?

Tuesday

Jun 23

17:00

On the Nature of Time According to Modern Physics

Wednesday

Sep 16

13:00

Scholars' Library: Dr Brian Wong on 'Moral Debt'

Wednesday

Oct 14

17:30

Francis Crick Prize Lecture by Professor Kayla King

end

How Hard is too Hard? An Introduction to Complexity

Gresham College

May 11

4:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Event link calender

Some mathematical problems can easily be solved on a computer, whilst some are probably impossible. Complexity theory is how we analyse difficulty, and one of the most famous open problems in mathematics is the question of whether P = NP: if the answer to a problem is easy to check, is the problem actually easy to solve? This lecture introduces the work of Alan Turing and other pioneers in the subject, before bringing us up-to-date with some recent progress.

This is the Annual lecture hosted with the London Mathematical Society.