Gresham Professor of Physic

The Gresham Professorship in Physic and Other Biological Sciences retains the title originating in its 16th century origins, although recently it has been interpreted to cover questions from immunology to vision and the eye.

Latest lecture

Colour

Wednesday 30 March 2011

Professor William Ayliffe FRCS PhD

Current Professor

Professor William Ayliffe FRCS PhD

Professor William Ayliffe is a Consultant Ophthalmologist in the NHS and at the Lister Hospital in London. As well as being a practising clinician and teacher, he also continues to carry out clinical research into the prevention of blindness.

After taking a first in Immunology at Imperial College, Professor Ayliffe qualified in Medicine in St. Bartholomew's Hospital London. Specialising in inflammatory eye diseases and corneal and cataract surgery he held a...

Past professors

1 Matthew Gwinne - 1596/7
2 Peter Mounsell - 1607
3 Thomas Winston - 1615
4 Paul de Laune - 1643
5 Thomas Winston - 1652
6 Jonathan Goddard FRS - 1655
7 John Mapletoft - 1675
8 Henry Paman - 1679
9 Edward Stillingfleet - 1689
10 John Woodward - 1692
11 Henry Pemberton - 1728
12 Thomas Healde - 1771
13 Christopher Stanger - 1789
14 Henry Herbert Southey - 1834
15 Henry Powell - 1865
16 E Symes Thompson - 1867
17 Fleming Mant Sandwith - 1907
18 Robert Armstrong-Jones - 1918

19 George Newman - 1929
20 James Alison Glover - 1934
21 Vincent Sutherland Hodson - 1937
22 Hamilton Hartridge - 1946
23 John Leonard d'Silva - 1955
24 Arthur John Buller - 1962
25 H Harris and D V Davies - 1964/65
26 J P Quilliam - 1965
27 H C Stewart - 1968
28 David Slome - 1970
29 John Daniel Griffiths - 1986
30 Sir Kenneth L Stuart - 1988
31 Francis G Cox - 1992
32 Baroness (Susan) Greenfield - 1995
33 Hilary Rose and Steven Rose - 1999
34 Keith Kendrick - 2002
35 Christopher Dye - 2006

All Gresham Professor of Physic lectures


Colour	Professor William Ayliffe FRCS PhD	Wednesday 30 March 2011
Why we see what we do	Professor William Ayliffe FRCS PhD	Wednesday 16 February 2011
Blindness in Children: The Global Perspective	Professor William Ayliffe FRCS PhD	Wednesday 12 January 2011
Diabetes, Hypertension and Vascular Diseases of the Eye	Professor William Ayliffe FRCS PhD	Wednesday 8 December 2010
Correction of Optical Defects: From Spectacles to Lasers	Professor William Ayliffe FRCS PhD	Wednesday 17 November 2010
Fun with Visual Illusions	Professor William Ayliffe FRCS PhD	Wednesday 13 October 2010
Inflammatory Eye Disease	Professor William Ayliffe FRCS PhD	Wednesday 24 March 2010
Visual Perception	Professor William Ayliffe FRCS PhD	Wednesday 17 February 2010
The History of Cataract Surgery	Professor William Ayliffe FRCS PhD	Wednesday 20 January 2010
i-dentity	Professor William Ayliffe FRCS PhD	Monday 2 November 2009
Braille and the history of blindness	Professor William Ayliffe FRCS PhD	Wednesday 21 October 2009
The Human Eye and Vision	Professor William Ayliffe FRCS PhD	Wednesday 30 September 2009
How many healthy people can the earth support?	Professor Christopher Dye	Thursday 23 April 2009
Are human beings still evolving?	Professor Christopher Dye	Thursday 26 March 2009
Mercury rising: health warnings for a hot planet	Professor Christopher Dye	Thursday 26 February 2009
Luck, Leadership and Liberty: health through cultural evolution	Professor Christopher Dye	Thursday 20 November 2008
For a diet of worms: too much hygiene can damage your health	Professor Christopher Dye	Thursday 23 October 2008
Tribes and Diatribes: race, genes, and diseases	Professor Christopher Dye	Thursday 25 September 2008
What is a human life worth?	Professor Christopher Dye	Thursday 24 April 2008
Why is Africa still the poorest continent?	Professor Christopher Dye	Thursday 13 March 2008
London: A microcosm of global health	Professor Christopher Dye	Thursday 14 February 2008
Costing the arms race: drugs, super-bugs and the appliance of science	Professor Christopher Dye	Thursday 22 November 2007
Is the world flat?	Professor Christopher Dye	Thursday 25 October 2007
Is wealth good for your health?	Professor Christopher Dye	Thursday 27 September 2007
Getting a life: Limits to health in the 21st century	Professor Christopher Dye	Thursday 26 April 2007
Lifestyle diseases: The burden of choice?	Professor Christopher Dye	Thursday 15 March 2007
Birth control, death control and the demographic transition	Professor Christopher Dye	Thursday 15 February 2007
Hygeia and Panacea: Is prevention better than cure?	Professor Christopher Dye	Thursday 23 November 2006
Pathogens and parasites; plagues and pandemics	Professor Christopher Dye	Thursday 19 October 2006
The times of our lives: a history of longevity	Professor Christopher Dye	Thursday 28 September 2006
The future biology of happiness: lifestyle changes or recreational drugs?	Professor Keith Kendrick	Thursday 29 June 2006
The fragile biology of social genes and the evolution of human societies	Professor Keith Kendrick	Thursday 18 May 2006
'When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child and I acted as a child...'	Professor Keith Kendrick	Thursday 6 April 2006
Why do we gamble and take needless risks?	Professor Keith Kendrick	Thursday 2 March 2006
Music, art and the brain	Professor Keith Kendrick	Thursday 15 December 2005
The left, right and centre of male and female brain politics	Professor Keith Kendrick	Thursday 27 October 2005
So just how does a brain work and can we design machines the same way?	Professor Keith Kendrick	Thursday 26 May 2005
Creating new species: the future of man and his dominion over other animals	Professor Keith Kendrick	Thursday 7 April 2005
Addicted to love, beauty or sex?	Professor Keith Kendrick	Monday 14 February 2005
Aggression: the biology of war and peace	Professor Keith Kendrick	Thursday 13 January 2005
Diet and obesity: manna from the Gods or the food of destruction?	Professor Keith Kendrick	Thursday 11 November 2004
Stress, anxiety and depression (SAD)	Professor Keith Kendrick	Thursday 7 October 2004
Turning back the hands of time: ageing gracefully!	Professor Keith Kendrick	Thursday 25 March 2004
Biological clocks: Human and animal concepts of time	Professor Keith Kendrick	Thursday 26 February 2004
To sleep, perchance to dream: Why do we and other animals sleep?	Professor Keith Kendrick	Thursday 29 January 2004
Memories are made of this; but what about intellect?	Professor Keith Kendrick	Thursday 4 December 2003
Human and animal emotions: Are they the same?	Professor Keith Kendrick	Thursday 6 November 2003
Talking with Beasts: Human and animal languages	Professor Keith Kendrick	Thursday 2 October 2003
“Knowing you, knowing me”: can other animals have an identity crisis?	Professor Keith Kendrick	Thursday 20 March 2003
“Getting to know you”: how do animals recognise each other and us?	Professor Keith Kendrick	Thursday 20 February 2003
Animal senses: how do they perceive the world and what important things can they sense that we cannot?	Professor Keith Kendrick	Thursday 23 January 2003
Is having a good parent more important than having good genes?	Professor Keith Kendrick	Thursday 5 December 2002
Sexual conflict and the emergence of sexual equality and monogamy	Professor Keith Kendrick	Thursday 7 November 2002
Hormones, sex and animal passion: making pleasure out of necessity?	Professor Keith Kendrick	Thursday 10 October 2002
Assessing the Three New Science & Society Commissions	Professor Steven Rose	Saturday 6 July 2002
Regulating human genetics	Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws QC	Monday 4 February 2002
Gene Therapy for Battered Brains?	Professor Hilary Rose	Monday 2 April 2001
Tailor-Made Drugs?	Professor Steven Rose	Monday 5 March 2001
Pharmacogenomics: Revolution in Health Care?	Professor Hilary Rose	Monday 5 February 2001
Conflict and Consensus in the Age of the New Genetics: Mad, Bad or Sad	Professor Hilary Rose	Monday 4 December 2000
Evolutionary Theory at the Millennium	Professor Steven Rose	Monday 2 October 2000
Dolly Carrots and Sex	Professor Steven Rose	Monday 3 April 2000
The Biological Construction of Risk: From Mendel’s ‘Hidden Determinants’ to DNA Sequences - Lecture Two	Professor Hilary Rose	Monday 6 March 2000
The Biological Construction of Risk: From Mendel’s ‘Hidden Determinants’ to DNA Sequences - Lecture One	Professor Steven Rose	Monday 7 February 2000
Genetics, Evolution and Eugenics - Lecture Two	Professor Hilary Rose	Monday 6 December 1999
Genetics, Evolution and Eugenics - Lecture One	Professor Hilary Rose	Monday 1 November 1999
Genes in the Headlines: Promises, Problems and the Panics	Professor Steven Rose	Monday 4 October 1999
Windows on the Mind: Exploring the Brain	Baroness Greenfield of Otmoor	Tuesday 27 January 1998
Exploring the Brain: The Brain as Computer	Baroness Greenfield of Otmoor	Thursday 27 November 1997
Exploring the Brain: Alzheimer's Disease	Baroness Greenfield of Otmoor	Tuesday 25 November 1997
Exploring the Brain: Parkinson's Disease	Baroness Greenfield of Otmoor	Thursday 20 November 1997
Sleep and Dreams	Baroness Greenfield of Otmoor	Thursday 6 March 1997
Exploring the Brain: Aspects of Language	Baroness Greenfield of Otmoor	Thursday 27 February 1997
Exploring the Brain: Memory	Baroness Greenfield of Otmoor	Thursday 20 February 1997
Tropical Diseases	Professor Francis Cox DSc	Tuesday 13 October 1992