Speaker: Bo TaoVenue: 2A-203, ZJE Building, Haining CampusAbstract: Understanding the intricate cellular architecture and molecular signaling within complex disease microenvironments remains a major challenge, limited by technological bottlenecks. This talk will introduce a suite of originally developed, multidimensional spatial-omics technologies that break through these barriers. These tools, including Patho-DBiT and epi-Patho-DBiT, are uniquely compatible with clinical FFPE tissue samples, enabling unprecedented analysis of genomics, epigenomics, and proteomics within a preserved spatial context. We have pioneered the application of these methods to perform in-depth dissections of both atherosclerosis and the tumor microenvironment. This presentation will demonstrate how our spatial approach can directly link molecular data to biological function.

Speaker: Nicolas GisinVenue: 4-311, Chengjun CourtAbstract: Physics is traditionally formulated using timeless, axiomatic mathematics, making it challenging to incorporate indeterminism or the concept of creative time into physical theories. An alternative approach, based on intuitionistic mathematics—rooted in time-evolving processes—offers a perspective more aligned with our experience of physical reality. Nearly a century ago, Brouwer, the father of intuitionism, introduced such processes as “choice sequences”. However, Brouwer conceived these evolving sequences as generated by a creating subject, an idealistic notion that is quite foreign to physics. In contrast, we propose a naturalistic interpretation of intuitionism, where choice sequences evolve through a form of creating time. This perspective brings intuitionistic mathematics closer to the frameworks used by physicists, bridging the gap between mathematical formalism and the dynamic nature of physical reality.

Speaker: Georg StengerVenue: 4-311, Chengjun Court, Zijingang CampusAbstract: Es geht in diesem Vortrag um grundlegende Ansätze und Erläuterungen dreier bedeutender Phänomenologen im 20. Jahrhundert. Hierzu werden die wichtigsten Wegstrecken von Husserl – „Transzendentale Phänomenologie“ und „Lebenswelt“, - Heidegger – „ontologisch grundierte Phänomenologie“ und „Seinsgeschichte“, sowie Rombach - „Strukturphänomenologie“ und „Philosophische Hermetik“ aufgezeigt und diskutiert. Dabei erweisen sich die drei philosophischen resp. phänomenologischen Ansätze bis heute als sowohl grundlegend wie inspirierend für das philosophische Selbstverständnis der Gegenwart im globalen Maßstab.

Speaker: Renaud BarbarasVenue: 4-311, Chengjun Court, Zijingang Campus

Speaker: Georg StengerVenue: 4-311, Chengjun Court, Zijingang CampusAbstract: This presentation analyzes the development of phenomenology resulting from its engagement with East Asian thought, with a specific focus on Japanese philosophy. It charts the self-reflexive progression of the discipline from Husserl's 'horizon consciousness' and Heidegger's 'being-in-the-world' to pivotal concepts introduced by thinkers like Nishida ('world turn') and Rombach ('ontological identity' of situations). The core of the analysis demonstrates how this intercultural dialogue fosters a 'new turn' in phenomenology, which pluralizes the 'world' concept and incorporates broader dimensions of 'world experience'—including artistic, religious, ethical, and social domains. This process marks a significant move beyond the discipline's original Western-European provenance and points toward its future intercultural potential.

Speaker: ZHEN XiaoyongVenue: 9-301, Chenjun Court, Zijingang Campus Abstract: This paper examines the causal impact of Berkeley’s sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax on beer purchases and prices using scanner data from 2014–2015. Employing both synthetic control and difference-in-differences (DID) methods, we find that the tax led to an 11% decrease in beer purchases, with no significant change in beer prices. These results are robust across multiple specifications. Medium-run analysis shows that the decline in beer purchases intensified over time, reaching 21.4% by 2019, suggesting habit formation. These results demonstrate that SSB taxes can generate unintended spillover effects on other consumption behaviors with meaningful public health implications.

Speaker: Richard JardineVenue: Kunhe Multi-function Hall, Anzhong Building, Zijingang CampusAbstract: The talk describes how the ALPACA and ALPACA Plus Joint Industry projects, led by Imperial College London and Oxford University ran from 2017 to 2022 to investigate the behaviour of piles driven in chalk, a very weak limestone. The main driver was an urgent need to better support foundation design for the large offshore windfarms being developed at northern European chalk sites, and also inform other port and bridge projects that employ large open steel piles driven in chalk strata. The talk describes how the research led to more rational, representative and reliable design procedures than were available previously, based on secure knowledge regarding pile driving at chalk sites, the piles’ subsequent ageing behaviour and their responses to monotonic-and-cyclic, axial-and-lateral, loading. The research included intensive characterisation of the chalk at the St Nicholas at Wade (SNW) onshore test site in Kent, in the UK. This work progressed in parallel with advanced field testing on over 40 piles driven at SNW. Close analysis of these experiments led to new design methods which are now being applied in developing offshore wind farms and other onshore works. The ALPACA JIPs advanced in parallel with analytical and database studies, including the ALPHA 3D-FE lateral loading analysis project reported by Pedone et al (2023), the analysis of independent driven pile in chalk testing conducted at other sites, as reported by Jardine (2023) and Vinck et al (2023) and the axial load-displacement analyses described by Wen et al (2023). The work has been published extensively in Geotechnique and elsewhere; many of the researchers involved have subsequently taken up academic posts at a range of well-known universities. 

Speaker: WEI ZhiwuVenue: 7-426, Chenjun Court, Zijingang CampusAbstract: Does political polarisation influence actual economic behaviours? Using British nationally representative surveys and administrative data, we document how the Brexit referendum triggered stark divergences in individual micro and macro expectations between Leave and Remain supporters. Compared to existing research, we show how these polarising effects were mostly unrelated to traditional partisan identities. We also show how these diverging beliefs influenced major real financial decisions. Leavers became more likely to purchase durables and engage in housing transactions, and areas with higher proportions of Leave voters experienced increased housing transaction volumes and rising prices. Our findings highlight the heterogeneous response of households to the Brexit vote, offering a potential explanation for why many economists' pessimistic forecasts regarding Brexit’s short- and medium-term economic con sequences have not fully materialized.

Speaker: Søren Harnow KlausenVenue: Meeting Room 311, Building 4, Chengjun Yuan, Zijingang CampusAbstract: The report will explore how phenomenology can be most effectively applied and which topics are most worthy of phenomenological intervention. Currently, the academic community tends to apply phenomenology almost exclusively to the study of lived experience, thereby reducing it essentially to a branch of the philosophy of mind—or even subsuming it under the "case-based" research approaches of anthropology or the humanities. In contrast, I will adopt a classical phenomenological understanding, treating phenomenology as the study of how "things" manifest themselves, and as an effort to clarify their meaning and ontological status by describing their typical modes of givenness.  I will further examine how "eidetic variation" can be developed under contemporary epistemological and methodological standards—for instance, through empirical or practical constraints, or by incorporating experiential descriptions from different individuals to supplement the phenomenologist’s own imagination. These descriptions can then be synthesized to form a kind of "phenomenological reflective equilibrium."  Additionally, I will briefly illustrate my understanding of "applied phenomenology" and its potential by examining several phenomena closely related to contemporary society, such as aging, health and illness, and war. This will demonstrate how phenomenology can offer insights into our understanding of these issues.