Podcasts about heriot watt university

Plant trees down high streets. Retrofit schools, hospitals and care homes with external shading. Cool down beds and install ceiling fans. Legislate for minimum indoor temperatures. Ban glass towers. Paint roofs white. Set up a cooling refuge in every community. Reduce glazing and install windows that open. These are just some of the measures discussed by our panel of leading experts on climate and the built environment in this month's 21CC podcast, convened to brainstorm what we can do, starting right now, to make towns and cities safe and liveable even as the long-predicted, human-caused warming intensifies. Chairing this brisk and purposeful discussion is Saul Humphrey FCIOB, this year's president of the Chartered Institute of Building: an industry veteran and professor of sustainable construction management at Anglia Ruskin University. Giving us their insights are: Dr Arash Beizaee, senior lecturer in building energy at Loughborough University, an expert on thermal comfort, overheating and health in buildings who is developing practical, low-energy interventions to safeguard wellbeing; Dr Macarena Cardenas, senior advisor for resilience and nature at the UK Green Building Council and leader of industry-scale programmes across the built environment; Dr Hayley Fowler, professor of climate change impacts at Newcastle University and recipient of a Royal Society Faraday Discovery Fellowship for her Extreme Futures project improving how we forecast flash floods and prolonged storms more accurately; Dr Susan Roaf, emeritus professor of architectural engineering at Heriot Watt University and co-author of Adaptive Thermal Comfort: At the Extremes (Routledge, 2026), which calls for a revolution among building designers, owners, managers, and occupants to prepare for the future that is upon us; Jordan Turner, senior lecturer at the University of the Built Environment. The future is here; there's no time to lose.

Lord Heseltine tells the story of the birth of the European Space Agency. Why post-Apollo, when the US was spending £1.2 billion a year on space, the whole of Europe was spending just £200 million. Why the birth of ESA was driven by the self-interest of three major countries. Why the US general with a $29 billion budget for the Star Wars project wanted to invest in Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. Why, the idea that Britain could compete alone with the technologies that were accumulated and available to the American capitalist system was “simply laughable”. Why “being European is not selling out British interests”. And why Margaret Thatcher told him: “If you want to get on and put your budget into this, you can, but you're not getting any of mine." Join Alice and Lord Heseltine as they pick apart the negotiating contrivances and the wheeling and dealing to circumnavigate “turkeys not voting for Christmas” that ultimately put European space on the map.Contributors:Alice Bunn, President of UKspace Dr Alice Bunn OBE FIMechE FRAeS CEng | LinkedInUKspace: Overview | LinkedIn Lord Heseltine, Member of the House of LordsKey topics covered:Creation of the European Space Agency (ESA)US "Star Wars" program and brain drainGeopolitical case for European R&D collaborationImpact of Brexit on science and technology Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lord Heseltine tells the story of the birth of the European Space Agency. Why post-Apollo, when the US was spending £1.2 billion a year on space, the whole of Europe was spending just £200 million. Why the birth of ESA was driven by the self-interest of three major countries. Why the US general with a $29 billion budget for the Star Wars project wanted to invest in Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. Why, the idea that Britain could compete alone with the technologies that were accumulated and available to the American capitalist system was “simply laughable”. Why “being European is not selling out British interests”. And why Margaret Thatcher told him: “If you want to get on and put your budget into this, you can, but you're not getting any of mine." Join Alice and Lord Heseltine as they pick apart the negotiating contrivances and the wheeling and dealing to circumnavigate “turkeys not voting for Christmas” that ultimately put European space on the map.Contributors:Alice Bunn, President of UKspace Dr Alice Bunn OBE FIMechE FRAeS CEng | LinkedInUKspace: Overview | LinkedIn Lord Heseltine, Member of the House of LordsKey topics covered:Creation of the European Space Agency (ESA)US "Star Wars" program and brain drainGeopolitical case for European R&D collaborationImpact of Brexit on science and technology Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lord Heseltine tells the story of the birth of the European Space Agency. Why post-Apollo, when the US was spending £1.2 billion a year on space, the whole of Europe was spending just £200 million. Why the birth of ESA was driven by the self-interest of three major countries. Why the US general with a $29 billion budget for the Star Wars project wanted to invest in Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. Why, the idea that Britain could compete alone with the technologies that were accumulated and available to the American capitalist system was “simply laughable”. Why “being European is not selling out British interests”. And why Margaret Thatcher told him: “If you want to get on and put your budget into this, you can, but you're not getting any of mine." Join Alice and Lord Heseltine as they pick apart the negotiating contrivances and the wheeling and dealing to circumnavigate “turkeys not voting for Christmas” that ultimately put European space on the map.Contributors:Alice Bunn, President of UKspace Dr Alice Bunn OBE FIMechE FRAeS CEng | LinkedInUKspace: Overview | LinkedIn Lord Heseltine, Member of the House of LordsKey topics covered:Creation of the European Space Agency (ESA)US "Star Wars" program and brain drainGeopolitical case for European R&D collaborationImpact of Brexit on science and technology Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lord Heseltine tells the story of the birth of the European Space Agency. Why post-Apollo, when the US was spending £1.2 billion a year on space, the whole of Europe was spending just £200 million. Why the birth of ESA was driven by the self-interest of three major countries. Why the US general with a $29 billion budget for the Star Wars project wanted to invest in Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. Why, the idea that Britain could compete alone with the technologies that were accumulated and available to the American capitalist system was “simply laughable”. Why “being European is not selling out British interests”. And why Margaret Thatcher told him: “If you want to get on and put your budget into this, you can, but you're not getting any of mine." Join Alice and Lord Heseltine as they pick apart the negotiating contrivances and the wheeling and dealing to circumnavigate “turkeys not voting for Christmas” that ultimately put European space on the map.Contributors:Alice Bunn, President of UKspace Dr Alice Bunn OBE FIMechE FRAeS CEng | LinkedInUKspace: Overview | LinkedIn Lord Heseltine, Member of the House of LordsKey topics covered:Creation of the European Space Agency (ESA)US "Star Wars" program and brain drainGeopolitical case for European R&D collaborationImpact of Brexit on science and technology Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lord Heseltine tells the story of the birth of the European Space Agency. Why post-Apollo, when the US was spending £1.2 billion a year on space, the whole of Europe was spending just £200 million. Why the birth of ESA was driven by the self-interest of three major countries. Why the US general with a $29 billion budget for the Star Wars project wanted to invest in Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. Why, the idea that Britain could compete alone with the technologies that were accumulated and available to the American capitalist system was “simply laughable”. Why “being European is not selling out British interests”. And why Margaret Thatcher told him: “If you want to get on and put your budget into this, you can, but you're not getting any of mine." Join Alice and Lord Heseltine as they pick apart the negotiating contrivances and the wheeling and dealing to circumnavigate “turkeys not voting for Christmas” that ultimately put European space on the map.Contributors:Alice Bunn, President of UKspace Dr Alice Bunn OBE FIMechE FRAeS CEng | LinkedInUKspace: Overview | LinkedIn Lord Heseltine, Member of the House of LordsKey topics covered:Creation of the European Space Agency (ESA)US "Star Wars" program and brain drainGeopolitical case for European R&D collaborationImpact of Brexit on science and technology Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lord Heseltine tells the story of the birth of the European Space Agency. Why post-Apollo, when the US was spending £1.2 billion a year on space, the whole of Europe was spending just £200 million. Why the birth of ESA was driven by the self-interest of three major countries. Why the US general with a $29 billion budget for the Star Wars project wanted to invest in Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. Why, the idea that Britain could compete alone with the technologies that were accumulated and available to the American capitalist system was “simply laughable”. Why “being European is not selling out British interests”. And why Margaret Thatcher told him: “If you want to get on and put your budget into this, you can, but you're not getting any of mine." Join Alice and Lord Heseltine as they pick apart the negotiating contrivances and the wheeling and dealing to circumnavigate “turkeys not voting for Christmas” that ultimately put European space on the map.Contributors:Alice Bunn, President of UKspace Dr Alice Bunn OBE FIMechE FRAeS CEng | LinkedInUKspace: Overview | LinkedIn Lord Heseltine, Member of the House of LordsKey topics covered:Creation of the European Space Agency (ESA)US "Star Wars" program and brain drainGeopolitical case for European R&D collaborationImpact of Brexit on science and technology Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Maria Koskinopoulou is an Assistant Professor in Robotics and Computer Vision at Heriot-Watt University. She co-leads the ARM²Lab – Autonomous Robotic Manipulation & Multi-Agent Systems Lab at Heriot-Watt and the National Robotarium, alongside Ignacio Carlucho. Her research interests include robotic manipulation, perception, robot vision, medical robotics, human-robot interaction, and machine learning. She is involved in major UKRI and EU-funded research projects advancing robotic manipulation, surgical and underwater robotics, autonomous assembly, and waste sorting.   Check out the bonus episodes from the European Robotics Forum: https://www.patreon.com/posts/robot-talk-at-157276631  Join the Robot Talk community on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ClaireAsher

Send us Fan MailWe used to think of DNA as something we read. Now we're starting to treat it like something we write - and that changes everything about how medicine gets made.Dr. Patrick Finn, Ph.D. is President and COO of Twist Bioscience ( https://www.twistbioscience.com/ ), a company that's helping turn biology into something you can engineer, iterate, and even industrialize. Dr. Finn has spent his entire career building the infrastructure layer of modern biotech - from sequencing and sample prep at Beckman Coulter and Invitrogen, to scaling commercial platforms at Agilent Technologies and now Twist.Dr. Finn also served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Enzymatics (recently acquired by QIAGEN), leading commercial activities for North America and Europe, delivering significant top line growth and expanding the base of business to business customers.So this isn't just a conversation about the future - it's about how the tools that make the future possible are actually built and deployed.On this episode we go beyond the buzzwords and dig into what it really means to “program biology”, and how close we actually are to designing medicines the way we design software.In addition to his role at Twist, Dr. Finn currently serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of Lasergen and previously served on the Scientific Advisory Board of Enzymatics. He holds a PhD in Nucleic Acid Chemistry from Southampton University and a BSc Hons in Chemistry from Heriot-Watt University.#SyntheticBiology #Biotech #DrugDiscovery #AIinHealthcare #ArtificialIntelligence #DNA #Genomics #Bioengineering #ProgrammableBiology #CRISPR #GeneTherapy #Biotechnology #LifeSciences #MachineLearning #AIResearch #PharmaInnovation #Biology #SciencePodcast #FutureOfMedicine #Biodesign #SyntheticDNA #GenomeSequencing #Bioeconomy #DeepTech #HealthTechSupport the show

Dr. Al Grauer hosts. Dr. Albert D. Grauer ( @Nmcanopus ) is an observational asteroid hunting astronomer. Dr. Grauer retired from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2006. travelersinthenight.org From November 2025. Today's 2 topics: - Dr. Uisdean Nicholson from Heriot-Watt University and his team of 9 co-authors analyze 3D seismic imaging and drill cuttings from a 1980s oil well to make a convincing case that the Silverpit crater was produced by a the impact of a 1.5 football field diameter asteroid approximately 45 million years ago.   - In a recent 60 day period asteroid hunters tracked 24 space rocks which came closer than our Moon. My team the University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey operates 5 telescopes in the mountains around Tucson, Arizona. Our goal is to find objects like 2025 RM1 which are on an impact trajectory with our home planet in advance so that people in the effected area can be warned to stay away from doors and windows.   We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs.  Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donate as much as you can! Share the podcast with your friends and send the Patreon link to them too!  Every bit helps! Thank you! ------------------------------------ Do go visit http://www.redbubble.com/people/CosmoQuestX/shop for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness! http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations.  Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!) ------------------------------------ The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Planetary Science Institute. http://www.psi.edu Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org.

Martin McNicoll, founder of Distillerie des Cantons de l’Est This is the first episode in an occasional In The Channel series called “Life after the channel” – conversations with people who built careers in the Canadian IT channel and then went on to do something completely different. Martin McNicoll founded Gurus Solutions, originally ERP Guru, and grew it into one of NetSuite’s most decorated Canadian partners over nearly two decades – President’s Club, nine consecutive years as a Five Star Award winner, and offices from Montreal to Chicago. He sold the company in 2022 and turned his attention to something that had been brewing since a 50th birthday trip to Scotland: whisky. Distillerie des Cantons de l’Est is a grain-to-bottle operation in Mansonville, Quebec, where Martin and his team are growing organic barley and rye using regenerative agriculture, distilling on-site, and aging their whisky in oak casks. First barrels went in in December 2024, with the first whiskies expected around 2028. In this conversation, we talk about the failed attempt to buy a cask at Balvenie that started it all, the sale of Gurus and what made him finally say yes, why the skills he built running an ERP consultancy translate surprisingly well to running a distillery, and what it means to retrain a SaaS-speed brain for a product that takes years to mature. Martin also shares the story behind the McNicoll brand – his Scottish ancestors who came to Quebec with the 78th Fraser’s Highlanders in 1757 – and talks about the fight to get a distillery approved on Quebec agricultural land, replanting American oak for barrels that won’t be ready for 30 years, and what’s coming next, including a butterscotch liqueur later this year. Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt: Hello and welcome to In The Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel community for the last 16 years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor of ChannelBuzz.ca and your host for the show. This episode is a little different from what you’re used to hearing on In The Channel. It’s the first in what I’m hoping becomes an occasional series I’m calling “Life After the Channel” – conversations with people who built careers in the Canadian IT channel and then went on to do something completely different. My guest today is Martin McNicoll. If you were in the NetSuite ecosystem in Canada at any point over the last two decades, you probably know Martin. He founded ERP Guru, which was later rebranded to Gurus Solutions, grew it into one of NetSuite’s top partners in the country, picked up every award in the book, and eventually sold the company in 2022. And then he went and did something that nobody saw coming. Martin’s now building a grain-to-bottle whisky distillery in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, growing his own organic barley and rye, aging his own barrels, and building a brand rooted in his family’s Scottish heritage going back to the 1700s. It’s a great story. So let’s get right into it, my chat with Martin McNicoll. [MUSIC] Robert: Martin, thanks for taking the time. Thanks for joining us. Martin McNicoll: Robert, it’s great to be here with you today. Robert: Nice to catch up. We ran into each other a lot at SuiteWorld. And for years, when I talked to Craig West about the channel in Canada for NetSuite, you guys would be one of the first names that came up. President’s Club, Five Star, the whole nine yards. And now you’re making whisky in the Eastern Townships. Walk me through that. How did we come to be where we’re at today? Martin: Well, it’s a note on Craig. He was my RSM. He was the guy managing me and Gurus when you started. He wasn’t like head of the channel. He actually came down to Montreal to help me start the practice. So we connected for all that time. But to go back to the whisky business, I’m a Scotch fan. I’m a whisky fan. And now, like eight years ago, for my 50th birthday, I went to Scotland with a bunch of friends and had a great time visiting distilleries for a full week, just drinking Scotch and having fun and eating good food. And when we came back, a couple of years later, it was COVID. And COVID, I think, happened and a lot of people got ideas of what they really want to do. And I have a cottage in the Eastern Townships, which is, for your listeners, a bit up north of Vermont. I’m 15 minutes from Jay Peak, which is a ski resort in Vermont, on the Canada side. Beautiful place. And we stayed there for the first year of COVID. We had amazing success with Gurus. I think for everybody in the channel, cloud services companies really boomed during that time. Everybody wanted to run their business from home. It was a great time. And I said, what can we do? We had supply chain issues our customers were trying to solve. And I said, what can I do? What can I contribute? I started with ideas of being a farmer. These were shut down pretty fast. But a friend of mine said, you know what, we can grow barley and rye and we can make whisky. And I said, oh, that’s a great idea. And then the hunt was on. We found some land – I mean, that’s the only thing we could do during COVID, drive around and look for land – and found great land with a great combination of good water and enough acreage to grow the cereals. And it started like that. And then a French company approached us to buy Gurus. And it was just the right timing. So everything happened. It just gave me more money to spend on booze, sort of saying. Robert: As it should be. So to your point on that 2018 trip to Scotland, I read that the dream sort of began with a mission of bringing home a cask of whisky. Is that true? Martin: It is true. We tried to, actually. When we went to the Balvenie and we said we’d like to buy one of your casks. And they looked at us like aliens. It’s like going to a Michelin restaurant and asking to buy the pan of the chef, right? Because the cask is part of the process. That’s what gives some of the aromas to the whisky. That’s where it’s aging. So you just can’t leave with the cask. You just can’t. I mean, I guess there were some barrel programs today, but you leave the cask there. You buy the liquid that’s in the cask, that’s all yours, but you can’t leave with the cask. But that was funny. That led to very interesting conversations at the distilleries in Scotland. Crazy Canadians trying to buy a cask. That’s the IP. That’s the trade secrets of the industry. Robert: So you had Gurus for 18 years, Alan Allman Associates comes knocking. You said initially you didn’t want to sell. What changed your mind? How much of it was about making room for the distillery that was already percolating in the back of your mind versus just feeling like it was the right time to do something new? Martin: I mean, it was that. I wanted to dedicate more time, because at that point the guy running Gurus was my COO, Dominic, and he was doing a great job. I was taking more time off and giving him more bandwidth on the business to run it. And I wanted him to be the president and continue running it. And these guys came in and they said, “We want to buy your company.” I said, “Okay, I’m not interested.” So they came back a couple times and the second time said, “Okay, how much do you want?” And I gave what I thought was a crazy number and they said yes. So I was done. And today it’s one of the most profitable businesses they have in their portfolio, and they’ve added other ERPs to the mix buying other companies in North America. And for the French, Quebec and Canada is kind of the bridgehead to go to the rest of Canada and the US. They needed a company that can speak English, which Gurus dealt with very well all the time. Not all of them do. But it was great for them. A great acquisition on their side. I’m still sitting on their board in Montreal every quarter, so it keeps me connected to the business, having fun there and very proud to see the company continue to thrive. Robert: You guys built Gurus through a string of acquisitions – Enabled Success, NetStra, MD Technical Resources. You had offices from Montreal to Chicago. When you look at what you’re doing now with the distillery – buying land, building infrastructure, hiring a master distiller – does it feel like it’s the same muscles that you built in building up Gurus, or is it completely different? Martin: It is the same thing. That’s very funny. I thought it would be something else. It’s not. It’s just managing people, managing providers. I mean, the problems are different – it’s like a truck being stuck emptying a cargo of casks going to the distillery, or a pump that is broken. But it’s like following up with the providers, finding the right partners, researching, researching, researching, reading. And all the skills that I’ve developed in BI and everything that we’ve built with Gurus is fully applied here at the distillery. So I started with cloud solutions first, and we’re using all the Google stack, which I always used, with their Google Cloud. All the data of the distillery is stored in a Google Cloud database and we can do analysis. It’s just great to look at it from a data perspective and have the right people to do the job. And I recognize what I’m good at and what I’m not good at. So I break stuff sometimes. That keeps me away from some pieces of equipment. Robert: One thing that jumped out on the website for the distillery was the grain-to-bottle concept. You grow the grain, you distill it, you age it, you sell it. You control the whole chain. For 20 years you kind of sat as the middleman doing the consulting and implementation in between NetSuite and the customer. Was it something about that experience that made you want to own the whole thing this time around? Martin: Definitely. And as you know, Robert, in the ERP channel, it’s not your software, it’s NetSuite. And my team understood the software, and the best successes we had were when we found a customer, sold NetSuite, understood the requirements, gave them a realistic estimate, implemented, and took them live with the right time frame. So that to me was like the perfect – everything that would work great, boom, boom, boom. We sold, we implemented, we took them live, converted all their data. Happy customers stayed with us for years. And that was a bit of that, right? Where the channel model is changing – like the Salesforce model, even NetSuite is changing where there’s more of a side where you need to work with a direct sales team, which by definition have different objectives. Their objective is to sell the software for as much as possible. As for a partner, when you do the implementation, there’s a lot in it for you also in year two and year three. So you want the whole thing to go as smooth as possible. Different pros and cons there. And I think that was definitely an inspiration in owning the whole supply chain and making the product. And even then, I need to buy bottles from China. Robert: Yeah, it’s the classic case study, right? If one person could make a nail, it would be completely impossible to gather all the skills you would need to go from getting the metal out of the earth to producing a nail, much less a bottle of whisky, much less enterprise ERP. The distillery website says patience is part of your essence, and whisky obviously is a product that has to age for years before you can sell a bottle. In the channel, again to the contrast you were just describing, everything’s about this quarter’s numbers, this year’s President’s Club. It’s fast, it’s iterative, things change very quickly, new features are added rapidly. How do you retrain your brain from SaaS speed to whisky speed? Martin: I’m still impatient. But you know what, you go out in the field. And in the last couple years we had a lot of rain. And we had issues with weeds going into our fields, because we took fields that were used for hay to give to cows. So there’s a lot of seeds that you need to take out of that land. And we’re doing it with regenerative agriculture techniques, where we don’t use Roundup, we don’t use chemicals. And sometimes you just sit there and you prepare the soil and then you go into the field and you make it super nice and you plant. And then two weeks later it’s full of weeds. Like hectares of weeds just popping up on top of your barley. And you’re like, yeah, what are you going to do? You try, you go in there first and you try to pull them out, and then you realize the scale of this. It’s impossible, right? So patience is pushed on you, I would say, in agriculture. And for the whisky, I mean, we’re tasting it. I love whisky. And we have now barrels that are one year old. And these are rye – rye is something that grows very fast, very high, super easy. It’s like a weed in itself if you talk to the farmers. So we had a great crop of rye and we made our first rye last year. So we were opening up that cask and tasting it now, and it is great. But you can taste after one year the immaturity of the whisky. So I think you have to trust your taste buds and say, okay, this is great. There’s something nice, nice colour, this is the direction I want it to take. But it’s not ready. So you sit on it, you put the cork on top of it, hammer it down, and then just wait again. And I’m telling people, when is it ready? It’s going to be ready when it’s ready. It’s going to be great. Robert: Can’t rush it. You’re working 60 acres of organic grain, you’re building your rickhouse, you’re hiring a master distiller, you’re planning a tasting centre. This doesn’t sound like a hobby thing for retirement. This is a full second career. Do you find you’re working harder now than you were when you were running Gurus? Martin: Definitely. Because at the end, when you build a business, you assemble a team and people know what to do. You’ve got a PMO office, a back office, and a marketing team. And now you’re alone. So I’m like, can I get some help here? I have nobody. So you’re back into entering data in QuickBooks. No, I’ve solved that, I delegated that. But it’s tough. And the problem is, when I sold the business, I told my wife I’m retiring. And she said, yeah, yeah, you’re retiring. But I didn’t think, and she didn’t think, it would be this intense in terms of running it. And you’re fighting against all the bureaucracy and you have to understand all the rules, environmental rules. And you have to understand, to be a farmer, you have to apply for a permit to be a farmer. So what’s your background, sir? Well, I’m a software engineer. So really, good thing. Do you know about farming? Absolutely not. Okay, what are you going to do about it? Well, I’m going to hire someone. Who is it? I don’t know. Well, you need to get the licence first. So no, I found someone actually that really helped me and was working in the prairies in Saskatchewan for more than 10 years, working with cereals there. So it’s assembling a team, making it work together, putting all the resources in place so they can succeed. It’s the same thing. What I like is the manual labour, which you don’t get in tech. I’ve lost some weight. So that’s good, being out there and working with the equipment. One of the projects we’re working on now – for your listeners, we’re in March and mid-March in Quebec, it’s still very cold, it’s like minus 15 Celsius – so it’s the last time we’ll be able to go in the forest. And what we’re doing is harvesting some trees to plant oak trees. We’re introducing Quercus alba, which is the American oak, into our forest, because we have more forest than we have land. And the goal would be in, I don’t know, 30 years – I won’t be there – to make some barrels, maybe. So again, in that supply chain of getting there. But there’s no more oak in the area. It was all cut down for the lumber industry. So we’re replanting. That’s one of the side projects. So we’re going to go out with the equipment on Friday and go in the woods and cut some trees. That’s something I didn’t used to do. And that’s what my job involves now. A chainsaw. I’m happy. Robert: This is what you get to invent for yourself. And if you’re happy, that’s brilliant. You’re making three types of whisky as I understand it – a single malt, you touched on the rye, and a Canadian bourbon, which is not a concept I’d heard before. Very interesting. I enjoy a whisky, I am not a well-educated drinker. But for those who are listening, what’s the vision of the distillery? What are you going for with the whisky products? Martin: So we’re looking to develop high-end whisky. We’re talking about $100 bottles. So it really needs to be fine-tuned to the taste of the different products that you build. When you talk about rye whisky, it’s mainly – the cereal has to be rye. Single malt is just barley. And when you talk about bourbon, or if you talk about bourbon in Kentucky, it’s mainly based out of corn. So we have corn also on the land and we’ve added some wheat that we’ve tried. It’s a mix of different – they call it a mash bill. So our mash bill, the cereals that get taken into the equipment for the mash to create a beer. We make a beer, then we distill that beer and that’s the whisky at the end. The big difference is the cereals. So that batch we had, I think it was two years ago, big winter, and we couldn’t get the rye out of our silos because of the amount of snow and ice that was out there. So we said, hey, we have some corn there. Why don’t we make some – it’s all Canadian whisky, right? If you look at the official denomination, it’s Canadian whisky. Don’t confuse marketing with the real stuff. But it’s a mash bill that involves more than 50% corn. In this one I think it’s 65% corn. And it has that – you’ll recognize it if you’re a bourbon drinker – that very sweet, mellow taste of corn that you get into the whisky. That’s what you get from bourbon. So that’s what we’re making with that corn. Robert: I look forward to trying that, actually. Hopefully someday. On your website, I love the clan story – the McNicoll ancestors coming over with the 78th Fraser’s Highlanders in 1757, fighting at Louisbourg and Quebec, settling in La Malbaie. And now you’re bringing that Scottish whisky tradition back to Quebec soil. How much of this, as well as the ability to play with the chainsaw and hopefully bring in some casks, how much of this is about honouring that heritage? Martin: Well, that was a big part. When I started to enjoy more whisky and go back to Scotland, I went back to the land of my ancestors. So that was Portree, close to the Isle of Skye. And there’s another area also, another region, that there’s two big areas that the McNicoll clan were. So I got to visit that. That was always part of the story. And then as I was publishing some of my content on Scotland, a professor from a university here in the Eastern Townships contacted me. He said, you know, I wrote a book on the McNicoll clan, the whole story. So we started to talk and that became a very nice collaboration between him and the distillery to tell more of the story, to the point where we decided to call the whisky McNicoll. So the whiskies are going to be called McNicoll, with the different types of whisky we’re going to sell. The brand itself is my last name, which is an honour to this Scot who came to America, really, because they fought down, they went down to New York with the 78th, and the original dude came back north. And my mother has French ancestry – she’s a Chevalier, she’s French, French, French – and then Scottish, Scottish, Scottish. And then there’s a mix. You can see there’s a mix in between those two. And you look at the genealogy, and that professor went back and he found all the ancestors and all the churches here in Quebec and went down to New York, went to Scotland to find all the origins. Very interesting to see the different clans and the French into making our population today. Robert: Very cool. You touched a little earlier on the bureaucracy and that kind of fun. You went through an interesting fight with Quebec’s Agricultural Land Protection Commission to get permission to build a distillery on farmland. Without getting too deep into the legal weeds, what was that like? And is that a challenge other people thinking about agritourism or value-added agriculture should be ready for? Martin: Definitely. And doing business in anything that involves food – there are some guidelines and some rules of law that you need to follow, which is, I would say, much harder than to open a NetSuite provider or a NetSuite partner licence. I had offices all across the US and also in the rest of Canada. It was 100 times easier to open an office in California than to start an agri business in Quebec, or even I would say Canada. Some provinces are easier than Quebec, but it was always a challenge. But I knew I was right. So one thing you learn is that you surround yourself with great people. My lawyers – that’s the thing you can do when you have money, you just lawyer up. But they were great at understanding everything that was going on. I found the expert and this woman knew exactly what was happening. She found some other people that were able to go through it. And we just had to go through all the legwork and convince the commission that what we’re doing is okay. And here’s why. But it’s a process and it’s frustrating because you’re there and you want to do this project. And you’re like, I’m going to be environmentally friendly. I’m going to do this from the grain to the bottle. I want to do all those different things. And then you see all those obstacles. But I think it’s part of the challenge, going through them and winning. At the end, I won. So that’s what counts. Robert: It is exactly what counts. So if someone in the channel who’s in a place that you were at when you were with Gurus is listening to this and thinking, I’d love to do something like that someday – not necessarily to be a competitor to you, but to sell the practice, go off and do something completely different, that’s their dream – what would you tell them, having gone through this process as far as you have now? Martin: I think the fact that they have done it before – starting a consulting firm and running it and dealing with customers – they’ve built their knowledge and their expertise and their resilience into doing anything else. I would always say that implementing an ERP system is the Formula One of computer science, because you have so much complexity. And if you fail, the company can die. They will not operate. Products will not ship. Invoices will not go out. You can cripple a business by doing a wrong implementation. So I would say you’re really prepared to do anything, in my mind, after the channel, after running that type of business. I think it’s just to look at what you like to do and what’s your ambition and take it head on. Robert: Good advice. Good advice from someone who has done it and is doing it. And my last and no doubt most important question – when do we get to actually taste the whisky? When do you get to market with your products? Martin: At least two years. So to be whisky, to be called whisky, it needs to be three years in a cask, in an oak cask. And for us, we just reached our first anniversary in December. So we still have a good two years to go. And we have to decide if we are going to put it in a bottle or not. We’re going to taste it and say, is it ready or not? And if not, I’m just going to sit on it again. However, we’re coming out with a liqueur that we’re making. It’s a butterscotch liqueur that our master distiller has been developing. And he’s working also on another liqueur that we want to put out, and we’re going to sell locally. Just to get some things out of the distillery with a Scottish-type accent. Our master distiller has also some Scottish ancestry. He went to school at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh to learn about the trade. So he’s got all those ancient recipes of Scottish liqueurs. We’re pulling out of that book to create some interesting products. So that should come in a couple of months, hopefully, if I can get my bottles from China. Robert: Fascinating stuff. Good luck. It’s been very interesting catching up and it’s always fascinating to hear about the journeys of folks who’ve made a career in the channel and see what they’re doing afterwards. All the best with getting that liqueur out, and the longer term getting those three whiskies out the door. Martin: Thank you, Robert. Robert: There you have it – Martin McNicoll, formerly of Gurus Solutions, currently of Distillerie des Cantons de l’Est. I’d like to thank Martin for his time and honestly for his openness. It’s not every day that someone walks you through what it’s actually like to trade quarterly SaaS targets for fields of organic barley and barrels that won’t be ready for three years. A couple things that stuck out for me in this conversation. First, the idea that the same muscles that Martin built running a channel business – the acquisitions, the growth planning, the systems thinking – are the same muscles he’s using to build the distillery. Different industry, same instincts. I think anyone running a channel practice will recognize themselves in that. And second, the patience piece. Martin talked about planting trees today for barrels he won’t use for 30 years. That’s a fundamentally different relationship with time than most of us have in the tech world. And I think that’s something worth sitting with. If you want to learn more about what Martin’s building, you can find the distillery at distilleriedescantons.ca, and we’ll have a link for that in the show notes. Keep an eye out for the butterscotch liqueur, which should be available before the whisky is. If you enjoyed the episode, do me a favour – follow or subscribe wherever you’re listening, whether it’s Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever else you find your podcasts. And if you’re feeling generous, a rating or review goes a long way for a small show like ours. Until next time, I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, and I’ll see you in the channel.

STEM study and research are responsible for much of humanity's most transformative knowledge and technology. Discoveries and products that emerge from STEM will continue to define how we live now and in the future. So, it should concern everyone that STEM fields are still overwhelmingly male dominated. And it's not just women who are underrepresented, this also applies to minority ethnic groups. Women make up just 16.9 per cent of the 6.4 million people working in engineering and technology in the UK - compared to 56 per cent in other occupations. While minority ethnic groups make up just 14 per cent of the workforce, according to EngineeringUK's 2025 workforce report. On this week's podcast, in homage to International Woman's Day, we speak to an academic who has built a successful career as a woman in the male dominated field of chemical engineering, to find out how being an outlier shaped her approach to her career and what she thinks needs to change to diversify her discipline. Raffaella Ocone became the first female professor of chemical engineering in Scotland – second in the UK – when she was appointed to the post at Heriot-Watt University in 1999. She is currently serving as president of the Institute of Chemical Engineering, marking the organisation's first female president and CEO partnership. She is also a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Institution of Chemical Engineers, and the Royal Society of Chemistry. In 2007 she was appointed Cavaliere of the Italian Republic and in 2019 in the Queen's New Year Honours she was appointed Officer of the British Empire (OBE) for services to engineering. But it all started for Raffaella in a small village, Morcone, in the hills of Campania in Southern Italy where, as she explains, few people backed her chances of becoming a professional engineer. Listen on to hear how she proved them wrong.

Met Tim Bloomer. Tim is the co-founder and sustainability director at Fell Brewery, an independent brewery based in Cumbria. He holds an MSc in Brewing & Distilling from Heriot-Watt University and was Head Brewer at Fell for many years, helping shape the brewery's beers and processes before moving into a dedicated sustainability role. Tim now leads Fell's practical, data-led decarbonisation programme. Following a full, all-scope carbon footprint analysis in 2024 with Small World Consulting, the brewery developed a clear emissions-reduction plan and has already reduced carbon intensity from 300 to 230 gCO₂e per pint since 2023, tracking towards 151 gCO₂e per pint by 2028. In this talk, recorded in Newcastle, Tim shares real-world lessons from an SME brewery: where to start, what to measure, and examples of changes that deliver results, from renewables and efficiency to supplier choices and culture change.

In sports, the rules are meant to be sacrosanct. But when it comes to performance-enhancing drugs, the slope is super-slippery. (Part one of a two-part series.) SOURCES:April Henning, associate professor of international sport management at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland.Aron D'Souza, founder of the Enhanced Games.Floyd Landis, former professional cyclist, founder of Floyd's of Leadville.Louisa Thomas, staff writer at The New Yorker. RESOURCES:Doping: A Sporting History, by April Henning and Paul Dimeo (2022)."The Man Who Brought Down Lance Armstrong," by Matt Hart (The Atlantic, 2018).Cycle of Lies: The Fall of Lance Armstrong, by Juliet Macur (2014).Positively False: The Real Story of How I Won the Tour de France, by Floyd Landis (2007).Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll (1865). EXTRAS:"Has Lance Armstrong Finally Come Clean?" by Freakonomics Radio (2018). Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode of Equality in Housing, hosts Gareth Young (UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence) and Pedro Cameron (Tenants Information Service) are joined by Dr Sacha Hasan, Assistant Professor of Human Geography at Heriot-Watt University. Sacha's work centres around inclusive placemaking, just urbanism and wellbeing. In this conversation, our hosts speak with Sacha about a recent piece of work she has recently undertaken in partnership with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Specialist Learning Disability Services alongside housing associations exploring the barriers that people with complex needs face when accessing suitable homes in Scotland. Podcast notesYou can read Sacha's full report here and here's a link to Sacha's bio. Scotland's Housing to 2040 strategyComing Home Implementation reportInformation about Dynamic Support RegistersInformation about the Independent Living Fund

Meet Tamar Banner, a veteran of the craft beer industry, having started brewing professionally in the US in 2001. In more than 24 years of brewing, she has worked in the brewhouse, cellar, packaging, quality, and management. She is currently the brewmaster at To Øl Brewery in Denmark where she manages brewing, packaging, quality and recipe development. Prior to To Øl, she worked for Harpoon Brewery in both Boston and Vermont, New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado, and BrewDog Brewery in Canal Winchester, Ohio. As a Certified Cicerone, she has a passion for beer/food pairing, and speaks regularly at beer dinners, festivals, and events. She holds a bachelor's degree from Yale University and a master's degree in Brewing and Distilling Science from Heriot Watt University.  She has been on the board of two different chapters of the Master Brewers Association of the Americas, and is currently an active member of the Danish Brewmasters Association.  In her spare time, she loves experimenting with other forms of fermentation, and makes her own cheeses at home. And with such a decorated career, we invited Tamar to deliver a keynote address at our Brewers Congress event in London last Autumn. In this extract from that talk, Tamar asked brewers if they thought their beer tastes the way they intended when the customer is drinking it? And if brewers are satisfied with how their beer tastes at the end of its shelf life. She also emphasised the need for industry collaboration, better refrigeration practices, and consumer education to ensure fresher beer.

We are joined by Kathrin Stark, a professor at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. Kathrin works on program verification with proof assistants, so her focus is not exactly on Haskell, but on topics dear to Haskellers' hearts such as interactive theorem provers, writing correct programs, and the activities needed to produce them. We discuss many aspects of proofs and specifications, and the languages involved in the process, as well as verifying and producing provably correct neural networks.

Guest: Dr Clayton Magill, Associate Professor of Biogeochemistry at Heriot-Watt University in Scotland

In this episode of Plan Sea, hosts Anna Madlener and Wil Burns sit down with Dr. Phil Renforth and Dr. Mijndert Van der Spek of Heriot-Watt University to unpack their newly published, harmonized framework for evaluating the viability of ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) pathways. Moving beyond lab-scale assumptions, their approach integrates techno-economic analysis (TEA) and lifecycle assessment  (LCA) to allow the exploration of 54 known OAE variations and how they perform under future, decarbonized energy scenarios. The conversation highlights why real-world data, a cleaner energy grid, and feasibility assessments are important for determining which OAE pathways will deliver results in global scale carbon removal. With any emerging solution, both feasibility and cost must be effectively evaluated. Renforth and Van der Spek combine two essential lenses – techno-economic analysis (TEA) and lifecycle assessment (LCA) – to build a comprehensive picture of OAE's real potential. TEA determines if a pathway is economically viable and scalable, while LCA screens for its full environmental impacts, not only if it is net-negative, but also whether it engages in “burden shifting,” or solving one problem while creating another. Operating far beyond “carbon balancing,” LCA works across a range of categories, from greenhouse gas emissions to terrestrial and marine acidification, resource use, and pollution. Together, the two tools are meant to provide a level of quantification for decision-makers investigating the viability of any CDR approach. In looking at the framework, Dr. Renforth and Dr. Van der Spek began by introducing  the framework's structure through a case study of BPMD and its functionality as OAE technology. Rather than offering predictions, the framework helps to show how different technologies perform under current assumptions. This means the framework should not be viewed as forecasting long-term outcomes on its own, but instead as a tool to see how each pathway changes. While these tools are powerful, they are incomplete and alongside rigorous research into the broader social, regulatory, and ethical implications of each potential pathway. For example, LCA aims to measure global stressors by normalizing impacts, but it does not have the ability to detect localized effects. This highlights that any comparison drawn from the framework must be paired with site-specific environmental assessments. Together, these layers of analysis provide a more realistic understanding of where OAE pathways may be within reach. Join us as we dive deeper into this framework and how it aims to spur further evaluation and innovation in OAE by listening to the episode above! Subscribe on your preferred podcast platform and find the entire series here. ACRONYMS / CONCEPTS:CDR: Carbon Dioxide RemovalOAE: ocean alkalinity enhancement TEA: Techno-Economic AnalysisLCA: Lifecycle AssessmentBPMED: Bipolar Membrane ElectrodialysisPlan Sea is a semi-weekly podcast exploring ocean-based climate solutions, brought to you by the Carbon to Sea Initiative & the American University Institute for Responsible Carbon Removal.

In the world of drinks production it's not unusual to find a mutual admiration between brewing and distilling. Especially if you were a graduate of the world-famous Heriot-Watt University’s Brewing and Distilling School in Edinburgh. And Ben Murphy is one such graduate. Boasting a wealth of brewing and distilling experience, he's now helping put a Northumberland business on the international stage. He's the head distiller at Ad Gefrin. Officially opening in 2023, Ad Gefrin was the first whisky distillery to open in North Northumberland in 2000 years. And from the off, its mission was clear. That's to celebrate the region's unique culture and heritage, revive a long tradition of whisky making in Northumberland and generate jobs in the area. At Ad Gefrin, he is driving the distillery forward on its journey towards its first single malt release. Paving the way for that launch has seen Ben and the team launch a number of other highly-regarded whiskies, too. Earlier this year, one such release was the Cognac Cask Finish Tácnbora. In Old English, Tácnbora means “standard bearer” – the ceremonial figure who walked ahead of Northumbria's kings, leading royal processions with a symbolic banner. In the same way, Tácnbora leads the way for Ad Gefrin's whisky journey, paving the path toward the distillery's own Northumbrian Single Malt, which is maturing on-site and anticipated for release in 2026. In this episode, we speak to Ben about his time at Heriot-Watt and the foundations it gave him. We discuss his drive helping Ad Gefrin produce their first single malt, his approach to whisky drinking and why there's no point putting a good spirit in bad wood. He also says that while how he has his own child at home he feels that he also has some 1300 other wooden children at the distillery, too.

Dr Uisdean Nicholson from Heriot-Watt University and his team of 9 co-authors analyze 3D seismic imaging and drill cuttings from a 1980s oil well to make a convincing case that the Silverpit crater was produced by a the impact of a 1.5 football field diameter asteroid approximately 45 million years ago.

16 Oct 2025. Heriot-Watt University is expanding into Saudi Arabia after receiving the green light to open a new campus. We speak to Professor Dame Heather McGregor, Provost and Vice Principal of Heriot-Watt Dubai, about what this means for the university’s regional footprint. Plus, on Day 2 of our broadcast from Ajman, we turn the spotlight on Al Zorah - the coastal community fast becoming a luxury hotspot. We speak to CCO Salim Fleifel about how the emirate is shaping its place on the UAE’s real estate map. And Espace Real Estate reveals what their Q3 data says about the direction of Dubai’s property market.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A new report says that the presence of microplastics in seafood has been overstated by the media. The paper, by researchers at Heriot-Watt University, says although media reports tended to concentrate on seafood contamination, the levels of microplastics in seafood is no greater than in other foodstuffs. It also says that dust and indoor air contain more microplastic particles than food.All week, we're taking a closer look at county council tenant farms. These farms have traditionally been a first step on the ladder, often for young aspiring farmers to get a foothold in agriculture. However county council tenancies have become harder to find and in recent years many cash-strapped councils have sold off a significant number of their farms. Not so in Staffordshire, where one young farmer Tom Chapman is building up his herd of sheep after securing a tenancy. Farm machinery manufacturers who export to the United States say their trade is being made 'almost impossible' after tariffs on steel and aluminium were extended. Originally tariffs on steel and aluminium were just for bulk items, but now, if a UK-made tractor is exported to the US, every steel or aluminium component - down to individual nuts and bolts - has to be taxed on the basis of where it came from, so the correct overall tariff payment is made. We speak to the Agricultural Engineers Association.Presenter = Anna Hill Producer = Rebecca Rooney

26 Sep 2025. Saudi Arabia has frozen rent hikes in Riyadh for the next five years to tackle soaring prices. We ask Matt Myers of Heriot-Watt University why Saudi is doing this and what it means for investors and the wider property market. Plus, we wrap up AI Week with Presight’s Chief Growth Officer on where the company is heading next. And Matt Stanley of Keplr brings us the latest on the oil market.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thousands of people who could benefit from weight-loss jab Mounjaro could be missing out due to NHS finding shortfalls.We're joined by project manager Rowanne Miller from the UK's National Robotarium to hear how engineers have developed a flexible robot which could prevent deep sea divers from having to carry out risky underwater inspections.Also in this episode…Domestic abuse charities raise concerns that Sunday's nationwide Emergency Alerts test could reveal hidden phonesThe launch of Hollow Knight: Silksong creates a global gaming frenzy bringing down major gaming storesSky-watchers prepare for Sunday's total lunar eclipse as the Moon turns red over the UKThe image used for this episode shows the tentacle-like underwater robot developed at the UK's National Robotarium which is based at Heriot Watt University's campus in Edinburgh. Credit: Ben Glasgow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's guest is Jurriaan Hage. Jurriaan is a professor at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh who's worked with and on Haskell for many years. He's known for the Helium Haskell compiler, specifically designed for teaching, and he has plenty of other projects related to Haskell, including improvements to the type system, the generation of better error messages, or detection of plagiarism. 

On the 341st episode of You Know I'm Right, Nick Durst and Joe Calabrese are joined by former TNA World Champion, Joe Hendry to discuss: - First app he checks in the morning - What made him want to pursue a career in wrestling and when did it happen? - Has a Master's degree in business and marketing from Heriot-Watt University, which is a rare asset in wrestling. How has he applied specific marketing strategies to craft his persona? - Working a six sided ring as opposed to a traditional four sided - Getting signed to TNA - Becoming TNA champ - Dream wrestling stable to lead - Musician he would like to perform with - Would he consider doing reality tv such as America's Got Talent, American Idol, The Voice, Big Brother or Traitors? - How often does he dye his hair? - Slammiversary and other upcoming TNA shows - You Know I'm Right moment https://linktr.ee/youknowimright Follow our show on instagram - instagram.com/YKIRPodcast Like our show on facebook - https://www.facebook.com/YouKnowImRightPodcast Follow our show on twitter - twitter.com/YKIRPodcast Follow Nick on twitter - twitter.com/Nick_Durst Follow Joe on twitter - twitter.com/JCalabrese1

Livestock moving from England to Wales will have to be tested from next month. The Welsh Government says that once the whole of England becomes a restricted zone for the bluetongue disease on the first of July, animals will have to test negative for the disease before they can go into Wales. There have been no cases of bluetongue in Wales, or in Scotland this year. There the government also decided earlier this month that animals should be tested if they're coming from a restricted zone. Earlier this week the Livestock Auctioneers Association warned on this programme that limiting the movement of animals across the boarders would be 'catastrophic'. As the UN Oceans summit in Nice draws to a close, it's hoped that more countries will ratify a High Seas Treaty and so bring it into force. This agreement was made two years ago to put 30% of international waters into marine protected areas by 2030. However even within those areas, bottom trawling is allowed. Bottom trawling is already banned in some English waters and the government is consulting on plans to extend that ban. We speak to Michael Kaiser professor of fisheries conservation at the Lyell centre at Heriot Watt University. All week we've been following the journey from field to bread bin - and today we're at the millers. 85% percent of the wheat used for our bread is grown and milled in the UK. We import about 15 percent of bread wheat from Canada and Germany. We visit a miller in Essex who can trace his milling roots right back to the Domesday book. Presenter = Charlotte Smith Producer = Rebecca Rooney

How a new Quantum Optical Ground Station is hoping to prevent cyber attacks. Dr Ross Donaldson from Heriot-Watt University tells Tech & Science Daily how their new £2.5 million facility will help secure next-generation communications against cyber threats.TikTok has been fined 530 million euros by the Irish data protection watchdog for breaching EU privacy rules around transferring user data to China.And a ‘shark skin' coating for planes, which could save the airline industry $34 billion in fuel costs.Also in this episode:British public says AI should not fully replace NHS doctorsScientists warn of the threat of a bubbling underwater volcanoThe sea lion who has better rhythm than humans Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Starting around age 30, we lose about 1% of our muscle mass each year. But during perimenopause, that number can jump to a staggering 10%. Muscle is one of our most powerful tools for blood sugar balance, bone protection, strength, and longevity. So what do we do when building muscle gets harder—but we need it more than ever? Enter Targeted Compression Training —a game-changing approach to fitness that helps us maintain and build muscle, even with lighter weights. In this episode, I sit down with Alex Birks, founder of Suji, a tech-forward company that's making smart, safe compression training more accessible. We cover: What's the difference between Blood Flow Restriction and Targeted Compression Training (TCT)? How TCT boosts growth hormone, improves vascularity, and supports brain health Why it's ideal for midlife women dealing with hormonal shifts, injuries, or joint issues What the research says about compression training  and menopause Who shouldn't use this technology (contraindications you should know) How Suji is making training safer, smarter, and more affordable as we age Alex Birks is a robotics engineer, athlete, and founder of Suji, a breakthrough company bringing smart, safe targeted compression training to everyone from pro athletes to everyday movers. A top graduate from Heriot-Watt University with advanced study at Oxford, Alex combines cutting-edge tech with a deep passion for human performance and recovery. Suji's compression technology is already used by one-third of U.S. professional sports teams, and now their consumer products are making waves in the wellness and longevity space. Alex's mission? Help people move pain-free, train smarter, and build strength for life—especially as they age.   10% off code ZORA https://www.trysuji.com/?ref=ZORA Check the website FAQ for contraindications https://www.trysuji.com/apps/frequently-asked-questions CONTACT Email: customerservice@trysuji.com  Website: https://trysuji.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/trysuji Facebook: https://facebook.com/trysuji   Give thanks to our sponsors: Qualia senolytics and brain supplements. 15% off with code ZORA here. Try Vitali skincare. 20% off with code ZORA here https://vitaliskincare.com Get Primeadine spermidine by Oxford Healthspan. 15% discount with code ZORA ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Get Mitopure Urolithin A by Timeline. 10% discount with code ZORA at https://timeline.com/zora Try Suji to improve muscle 10% off with code ZORA at TrySuji.com https://trysuji.com Get Magnesium Breakthrough by Bioptimizers. 10% discount with code HACKMYAGE at https://bioptimizers.com/hackmyage Try OneSkin skincare with code ZORA for 15% off https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=2685556&u=4476154&m=102446&urllink=&afftrack= Join ⁠⁠⁠Biohacking Menopause⁠⁠⁠ before May 1, 2025 to win a bottle of Accelerated Health iodine and Essential Amino Acids! 10% off with code ZORA at AcceleratedHealth.com   Join the Hack My Age community on: Facebook Page: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@⁠Hack My Age⁠     Facebook Group: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@⁠Biohacking Menopause⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠  Private Women's Only Support Group: https://hackmyage.com/biohacking-menopause-membership/ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@⁠HackMyAge⁠    Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HackMyAge.com⁠   

Transition Engineering with Susan Krumdieck and Josh Susan Krumdieck (PhD, mechanical engineering) is a Professor at Heriot-Watt University in Scotland and is the foremost global proponent of the emergent discipline of Transition Engineering. Susan figured out “Doomer Optimism” before it was a thing and asked herself, “What can I do as an engineer?” The answer was to elaborate a novel approach to tackling wicked challenges, dismantling the unsustainable systems that modernity depends on, and replacing them with systems that can serve people and ecosystems for the long term. She formed the Global Association for Transition Engineering to work at the grassroots and with academics, businesses, municipalities, and regional governments to advance Transition Engineering projects. Her seminal textbook on Transition Engineering can be downloaded for free from the publisher.

During RNIB Scotland's Inclusive Design for Sustainability Conference, university students were invited to take part in an inclusive design challenge. Find out what they came up with as students from Heriot-Watt University, Abartay University, and University of Glasgow present their ideas. Hear all audio from the conference here: Audioboom / Inclusive Design for Sustainability Conference 2025 Image description: A dramatic, angled shot of an empty stage. At the front a pink podium reads "RNIB Scotland, Inclusive Design for Sustainability Conference." Behind, a line of grey chairs awaits experts for the panel discussions and a large pink IMAX screen hangs above.

Support the show and get 50% off MCT oil with free shipping -- just leave us a review on iTunes and let us know!https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/live-beyond-the-norms/id1714886566 Most longevity research overlooks the powerful connection between reproductive function and lifespan. According to Zack Varkaris, maintaining fertility longer might be the secret to gaining up to 20 extra years of vibrant health—with the research showing women who experience menopause just 5 years later than average live 11 years longer.In this episode, Zack reveals how autologous stem cell treatments can rejuvenate ovarian function, potentially reversing menopausal symptoms and extending the reproductive window. He also introduces the concept of "Freudenspanne"—how our emotional states directly impact biological aging markers."If you can extend [fertility], it's much better than actually reversing infertility." ~ Zack VarkarisAbout Zack Varkaris:Zack Varkaris is the scientific director and Founder of Austin Biotec. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Marine and Molecular Biology from Heriot-Watt University. Working by the ethos that "a functional reproductive system and aesthetic maintenance is the foundation for a fully extended life," Zack is developing technologies that could extend lifespan by up to 20 years. His work focuses on stem cell therapies for ovarian rejuvenation and the connection between emotional state and biological aging.Connect with Zack Varkaris:- Website: https://www.austinbiotec.com/ - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/austinbiotec Connect with Chris Burres:- Website: https://www.myvitalc.com/ - Website: http://www.livebeyondthenorms.com/ - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrisburres/ - TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@myvitalc - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisburres/ 

What would philosopher and political economist Adam Smith think of Donald Trump’s love of tariffs? What would he make of the Republican president’s approach to taxes and deregulation? On this episode of Merryn Talks Money, recorded last week in Dubai, a special panel joins host Merryn Somerset Webb to try and answer those questions using Smith’s texts as a guide. They also talk about the global investment landscape and how the Gulf region, and particularly the United Arab Emirates, is a good place to launch a career. In front of an audience at the Heriot-Watt University campus, Webb was joined by Adam Dixon, chair in sustainable capitalism at Panmure House, Ashley Hunter, founding partner of A. Hunter & Co., and Iqbal Kham, chief executive of Fajr Capital Group, an impact-driven investment firm. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is always a good time to reflect and get excited about a new calendar year. To help put the industry into perspective and to think about how to strengthen beer in the year to come, I've asked three smart and plugged in folks to share their insights, knowledge, and even offer some homework. If you're a small brewer navigating these tough craft beer waters, there's a lot you can learn and hopefully take to heart. Guests:Steve Parkes. He is the owner and lead instructor at the American Brewers Guild Brewing school in Vermont. He graduated from Heriot-Watt University, with a degree in Brewing Science in 1982 and has spent the last 42 years working in small and medium sized breweries on both sides of the Atlantic. He has built breweries from scratch using both used and new equipment, and has years of experience in practical problem solving. He has been a regular speaker at the annual Craft Brewers Conference, is a veteran GABF and World Beer Cup judge, held office at the regional level with MBAA, and at a national level with the AOB board of advisors. In 2009 he was the recipient of the Association of Brewers Russell Scherer award. He is also the owner of Drop In Brewing in Middlebury Vermont.Laura Lodge began her craft beer journey in the distribution tier in the late 1990s working with a small, independent distribution company in the mountains of Colorado. As anyone in small business knows, “everything” is your job description. She shares her experience to benefit the artisanal/craft business owner in Distribution Insight for the Craft Brewer. Today, Laura is the owner of Customized Craft Beer Programs, a consulting business offering insight and assistance with all things craft beer. With experience over all 3 tiers, she has consulted for breweries and distributors, created retail programs for destination resorts, is the Executive Director for the well-known Big Beers, Belgians & Barleywines Festival held in the Colorado Rocky Mountains each year (pre-pandemic), and has participated with the creation and production of educational & experiential craft beer events throughout the country. During the pandemic, Laura became the Co-Founder of Start A Brewery, LLC, a business created to help dreamers, breweries in planning, and growing breweries by pulling together a community of savvy industry professionals and resources across the brewing industry. Free to the public, StartABrewery.com divides the daunting process into phases and breaks it down by category, further augmented by a library of information. Start A Brewery has turned out to also be a resource and connection hub for her participation the Brewers Association Mentorship Program. Laura grew up in the Cleveland, Ohio area, and now splits her time there with home in Vail, Colorado, where she lives and enjoys the outdoor lifestyle.For the last 29 years Ashton Lewis has worked for Brew Your Own Magazine as technical editor and “Help Me, Mr. Wizard” columnist. His day job since December 2016 has been with RahrBSG where he is currently Manager of Training and Technical Support. Prior to working in the world of ingredients, Ashton was the Staff Master Brewer and Brewing Group Sales Manager for the Paul Mueller Companyliving in the world of custom stainless steel. He was also a partner in the Springfield Brewing Company (SBC) in Springfield, Missouri, and SBC's master brewer from 1997 to 2019. Ashton holds a B.S. in Food Science from Virginia Tech (1991) and a M.S. in Food/Brewing Science from UC Davis (1994), and is currently the MBAA District Great Plains Technical Chair. In his spare time, he enjoys music, cooking,homebrewing, talking about beer, and playing with Excel.The BYO Nano Podcast Episode 60  is sponsored by:FermentisHow can you make your NEIPA truly exceptional? While there may not be a single answer, one thing is clear: yeast is key to crafting a recipe with a distinctive character! Discover the Fermentis NEIPA range, designed to help you create the beer you want:SafAle™ K-97: Perfect for delicate and hop-forward beers.SafAle™ S-33: Ideal for a hoppy and fruity profile.SafAle™ S-04: Delivers balanced fruity notes.Available in 11.5g, 100g, and 500g formats.Ready to take your brew to the next level? Visit www.fermentis.com to explore the range!BYO Nano+ MembershipGet access to hundreds of hours of on-demand videos covering small craft brewery strategies with BYO's Nano+ Membership. Learn from craft beer experts watching replays of past NanoCon seminars plus a complete library of in-depth workshops. You'll also have full online access to all of BYO's digital content and an annual digital magazine subscription. Check out byo.com/nanoplus for more details.BYO Nano Brew Podcast Episode 60Host: John HollGuests: Laura Lodge, Steve Parkes, Ashton LewisContact: nano@byo.comMusic: Scott McCampbell

18 Nov 2024. We have the latest from the big economic issues on the table at today's G20 meeting in Brazil. Plus, the battle of the supermarkets is getting ever more competitive in the UAE: we get the inside story from the consultancy Oliver Wyman. And, as the Dubai precious metals conference gets underway this week... we look at what's happening to the price of gold with John Reade of the World Gold Council. We also speak to Professor Dame Heather McGregor of Heriot-Watt University to discuss the significance of women on audit committees. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Zack Varkaris is the Scientific Director and founder of Austin Biotec. He holds a BSc in Marine and Molecular biology from Heriot Watt University. In 2011, he developed an algae to biofuel system, which produced an unexpected byproduct of anti-ageing compounds. Whilst researching the effectiveness of these molecules he created anti-ageing topical creams, progressing into stem cell rejuvenation.   Working by the Ethos: A fully functional reproductive system and aesthetic maintenance is the foundation for a completely extended life resulted in the creation of the Rejucvacyte™️ procedure to maximize Human Health and lifespan.  Schedule a consult https://www.austinbiotec.com/ Use code ZORA for a special offer on Kalahari Gold marula oil https://kalaharigold.com/ Contact Zack Varkaris: Website: https://www.austinbiotec.com/ Instagram: @zackvarkaris Instagram: @austinbiotec Facebook: Austin Biotec Email: Info@austinbiotec.com Get Primeadine by Oxford Healthspan. 15% discount with code ZORA ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here. Get Mitopure by Timeline. 10% discount with code ZORA at timeline.com/zora Join ⁠⁠⁠Biohacking Menopause⁠⁠⁠ before November 1, 2024 to win a bottle of Oxford Healthspan's Primeadine spermidine valued at ($90). 15% off with code ZORA here. Join the Hack My Age community on: Facebook Page : ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@⁠Hack My Age⁠ Facebook Group: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@⁠Biohacking Menopause⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@⁠HackMyAge⁠ Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HackMyAge.com⁠ ⁠Biohacking Menopause⁠ membership group Email: zora@hackmyage.com This podcast is edited by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠jonathanjk@gmail.com We covered: -   What it means to rejuvenate the ovaries -   How women can live longer better with their own production of hormones -   What are the probabilities of actually having a baby in your 50s -   Who can qualify and who doesn't for the Rejuvacyte procedure -   The cost and steps of skipping the HRT and creating your own estrogen. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/hackmyage/support

Yvonne Jewkes, Professor of Criminology at the University of Bath, talks to Laurie Taylor about the design of prisons and the importance of an architecture of hope which nurtures the possibility of rehabilitation, from Limerick to Norway. They're joined by Lynne McMordie, Research Associate at the Institute for Social Policy, Housing and Equalities Research at Heriot-Watt University, whose research suggests that the congregate nature of hostels and shelters for homeless people often compound the problems of residents, rather than providing a safe space or route to secure housing. Producer: Jayne Egerton

We know noisy classrooms and learning environments can negatively impact students and teachers. However, these problems can be compounded for those with autism. We talk to Carmen Rosas-Pérez (Heriot-Watt University) about her research to better understand the experiences of autistic people in daily life acoustic environments. Associated paper: Carmen Rosas-Pérez, Laurent Galbrun, Mary E. Stewart, and Sarah R. Payne. "How can anyone learn or teach? Experiences of autistic people with sound in schools and universities," Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 51, 015001 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1121/2.0001741.Read more from Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics (POMA).Learn more about Acoustical Society of America Publications. Music Credit: Min 2019 by minwbu from Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=1022

After close to three decades of the hegemony of free market ideas, the state has made a big comeback as an economic actor since the 2008 financial crisis. China's state-owned companies and international financial institutions have made headlines for their growing influence in the world economy. State-backed investment vehicles based in the Gulf states have made high-profile investments in global real estate markets and professional sports, while their state-owned firms have become world leaders in the logistics and natural resource sectors. Governments around the world – including in the heartlands of advanced capitalism – have promoted the interests of ‘national champion' companies in strategic economic sectors, bailed out financial institutions by taking toxic assets off of their balance sheets, and implemented industrial policies with the aim of moving into the most profitable segments of global value chains. What accounts for this renewed prominence of states in global capitalism? Does the increased activism of states mark the end of neoliberal hegemony? And how do contemporary state-led economic initiatives compare to the heyday of Keynesian and developmentalist policy agendas in the decades immediately following World War II? The book that we are discussing today, The Spectre of State Capitalism (Oxford UP, 2024) by Ilias Alami and Adam Dixon, marks the culmination of a highly productive research project that the authors have led on the compulsions and constraints that shape the ‘new' state capitalism. The book aims to challenge narratives that pathologize state capitalism as an authoritarian deviation from the ‘normal' course of free market capitalism while also showing how new forms of state activism depart from earlier models of state-led development. Ilias Alami is a University assistant professor in the political economy of development at Cambrdige University. His previous book is Money Power and Financial Capital in Emerging Markets (2019). Adam Dixon holds the Adam Smith Chair in Sustainable Capitalism at Heriot Watt University's Ediburgh Business School. He is the author of several books, most recently Sovereign Wealth Funds: Between States and Markets (2022). This book is available open access here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

After close to three decades of the hegemony of free market ideas, the state has made a big comeback as an economic actor since the 2008 financial crisis. China's state-owned companies and international financial institutions have made headlines for their growing influence in the world economy. State-backed investment vehicles based in the Gulf states have made high-profile investments in global real estate markets and professional sports, while their state-owned firms have become world leaders in the logistics and natural resource sectors. Governments around the world – including in the heartlands of advanced capitalism – have promoted the interests of ‘national champion' companies in strategic economic sectors, bailed out financial institutions by taking toxic assets off of their balance sheets, and implemented industrial policies with the aim of moving into the most profitable segments of global value chains. What accounts for this renewed prominence of states in global capitalism? Does the increased activism of states mark the end of neoliberal hegemony? And how do contemporary state-led economic initiatives compare to the heyday of Keynesian and developmentalist policy agendas in the decades immediately following World War II? The book that we are discussing today, The Spectre of State Capitalism (Oxford UP, 2024) by Ilias Alami and Adam Dixon, marks the culmination of a highly productive research project that the authors have led on the compulsions and constraints that shape the ‘new' state capitalism. The book aims to challenge narratives that pathologize state capitalism as an authoritarian deviation from the ‘normal' course of free market capitalism while also showing how new forms of state activism depart from earlier models of state-led development. Ilias Alami is a University assistant professor in the political economy of development at Cambrdige University. His previous book is Money Power and Financial Capital in Emerging Markets (2019). Adam Dixon holds the Adam Smith Chair in Sustainable Capitalism at Heriot Watt University's Ediburgh Business School. He is the author of several books, most recently Sovereign Wealth Funds: Between States and Markets (2022). This book is available open access here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/political-science

After close to three decades of the hegemony of free market ideas, the state has made a big comeback as an economic actor since the 2008 financial crisis. China's state-owned companies and international financial institutions have made headlines for their growing influence in the world economy. State-backed investment vehicles based in the Gulf states have made high-profile investments in global real estate markets and professional sports, while their state-owned firms have become world leaders in the logistics and natural resource sectors. Governments around the world – including in the heartlands of advanced capitalism – have promoted the interests of ‘national champion' companies in strategic economic sectors, bailed out financial institutions by taking toxic assets off of their balance sheets, and implemented industrial policies with the aim of moving into the most profitable segments of global value chains. What accounts for this renewed prominence of states in global capitalism? Does the increased activism of states mark the end of neoliberal hegemony? And how do contemporary state-led economic initiatives compare to the heyday of Keynesian and developmentalist policy agendas in the decades immediately following World War II? The book that we are discussing today, The Spectre of State Capitalism (Oxford UP, 2024) by Ilias Alami and Adam Dixon, marks the culmination of a highly productive research project that the authors have led on the compulsions and constraints that shape the ‘new' state capitalism. The book aims to challenge narratives that pathologize state capitalism as an authoritarian deviation from the ‘normal' course of free market capitalism while also showing how new forms of state activism depart from earlier models of state-led development. Ilias Alami is a University assistant professor in the political economy of development at Cambrdige University. His previous book is Money Power and Financial Capital in Emerging Markets (2019). Adam Dixon holds the Adam Smith Chair in Sustainable Capitalism at Heriot Watt University's Ediburgh Business School. He is the author of several books, most recently Sovereign Wealth Funds: Between States and Markets (2022). This book is available open access here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/critical-theory

After close to three decades of the hegemony of free market ideas, the state has made a big comeback as an economic actor since the 2008 financial crisis. China's state-owned companies and international financial institutions have made headlines for their growing influence in the world economy. State-backed investment vehicles based in the Gulf states have made high-profile investments in global real estate markets and professional sports, while their state-owned firms have become world leaders in the logistics and natural resource sectors. Governments around the world – including in the heartlands of advanced capitalism – have promoted the interests of ‘national champion' companies in strategic economic sectors, bailed out financial institutions by taking toxic assets off of their balance sheets, and implemented industrial policies with the aim of moving into the most profitable segments of global value chains. What accounts for this renewed prominence of states in global capitalism? Does the increased activism of states mark the end of neoliberal hegemony? And how do contemporary state-led economic initiatives compare to the heyday of Keynesian and developmentalist policy agendas in the decades immediately following World War II? The book that we are discussing today, The Spectre of State Capitalism (Oxford UP, 2024) by Ilias Alami and Adam Dixon, marks the culmination of a highly productive research project that the authors have led on the compulsions and constraints that shape the ‘new' state capitalism. The book aims to challenge narratives that pathologize state capitalism as an authoritarian deviation from the ‘normal' course of free market capitalism while also showing how new forms of state activism depart from earlier models of state-led development. Ilias Alami is a University assistant professor in the political economy of development at Cambrdige University. His previous book is Money Power and Financial Capital in Emerging Markets (2019). Adam Dixon holds the Adam Smith Chair in Sustainable Capitalism at Heriot Watt University's Ediburgh Business School. He is the author of several books, most recently Sovereign Wealth Funds: Between States and Markets (2022). This book is available open access here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/world-affairs

After close to three decades of the hegemony of free market ideas, the state has made a big comeback as an economic actor since the 2008 financial crisis. China's state-owned companies and international financial institutions have made headlines for their growing influence in the world economy. State-backed investment vehicles based in the Gulf states have made high-profile investments in global real estate markets and professional sports, while their state-owned firms have become world leaders in the logistics and natural resource sectors. Governments around the world – including in the heartlands of advanced capitalism – have promoted the interests of ‘national champion' companies in strategic economic sectors, bailed out financial institutions by taking toxic assets off of their balance sheets, and implemented industrial policies with the aim of moving into the most profitable segments of global value chains. What accounts for this renewed prominence of states in global capitalism? Does the increased activism of states mark the end of neoliberal hegemony? And how do contemporary state-led economic initiatives compare to the heyday of Keynesian and developmentalist policy agendas in the decades immediately following World War II? The book that we are discussing today, The Spectre of State Capitalism (Oxford UP, 2024) by Ilias Alami and Adam Dixon, marks the culmination of a highly productive research project that the authors have led on the compulsions and constraints that shape the ‘new' state capitalism. The book aims to challenge narratives that pathologize state capitalism as an authoritarian deviation from the ‘normal' course of free market capitalism while also showing how new forms of state activism depart from earlier models of state-led development. Ilias Alami is a University assistant professor in the political economy of development at Cambrdige University. His previous book is Money Power and Financial Capital in Emerging Markets (2019). Adam Dixon holds the Adam Smith Chair in Sustainable Capitalism at Heriot Watt University's Ediburgh Business School. He is the author of several books, most recently Sovereign Wealth Funds: Between States and Markets (2022). This book is available open access here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history

Inspiring Stories 049 - Dr Helen Bridle - Client Story Subscribe to the Women In STEM Career & Confidence Podcast on your favourite platform and stay tuned. Helen is an Associate Professor in bioengineering at Heriot-Watt University and Director of Let's Do Engineering, an EPSRC funded engagement project designed to tackle stereotypes around engineering with interventions for children aged 3-7 years. In this episode we talk about: Overcoming the critical mindset surrounding perfectionism and people pleasing. Ensuring we don't use avoidance and procrastination tactics when it comes to feedback so it can be tackled constructively using the 4A's framework. Tools to overcome overwhelm and burnout and being back the intentionality in your career. Connect with Helen LinkedIn: Helen Bridle Kickstart your Intentional Careers Journey: Take the Career Accelerator Scorecard: https://scorecard.intentional-careers.com/strategy Register for a free Intentional Careers workshop: https://intentional-careers.com/workshop/ Read The Book 'Intentional Careers for STEM Women' Connect with Hannah Website: hannahnikeroberts.com LinkedIn: Hannah Roberts Coaching  Facebook: Dr Hannah Roberts X (Twitter) @HannahNikeR Instagram @drhannahroberts

Retirement, often considered a period of late-life decline, can actually be a time of cognitive growth and prosperity. When we retire, all the neurologically stimulating aspects of our working life — the mental and physical challenges, socializing and strategizing with colleagues, etc. — can disappear overnight. An abrupt lifestyle change of this magnitude can be taxing for our brains, but with the right preparation, our twilight years can truly be the best of our lives. In this episode of ‘Your Brain On…', we discuss: • The neurological impacts of retirement • What we can learn from how different cultures approach retirement • How building our cognitive reserve can protect our brains as we age • The future of research into the neuroscience of retirement • Why minority populations often disproportionately struggle with retirement We're joined by FOUR experts in the field of cognitive aging: DR. YAAKOV STERN: professor of neuropsychology at Columbia University, and a pioneer of the concept of cognitive reserve DR. AMANDA SONNEGA: Research Scientist at the University of Michigan DR. SHERVIN ASSARI: Director of Research, Public Health at Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science DR. ALAN GOW: head of The Ageing Lab at Heriot-Watt University in Scotland ‘Your Brain On' is hosted by neuroscientists and public health advocates Ayesha and Dean Sherzai. Drs. Ayesha and Dean are now welcoming patients via the Brain Health Institute: https://brainhealthinstitute.com/  ‘Your Brain On... Retirement • SEASON 2 • EPISODE 9   LINKS   Dr. Yaakov Stern at Columbia University: https://www.neurology.columbia.edu/profile/yaakov-stern-phd Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaakov_Stern   Dr. Amanda Sonnega at University of Michigan: https://micda.isr.umich.edu/people/amanda-sonnega/   Dr. Shervin Assari at Charles R. Drew University: https://www.cdrewu.edu/directory/assari-md-mph-shervin/ on Twitter (AKA ‘X'): https://twitter.com/assarish   Dr. Alan Gow at Heriot-Watt University: https://researchportal.hw.ac.uk/en/persons/alan-j-gow on Twitter (AKA ‘X'): https://twitter.com/AlanJohnGow    FOLLOW US Join the NEURO Academy: NEUROacademy.com Instagram: @thebraindocs Website: TheBrainDocs.com More info and episodes: TheBrainDocs.com/Podcast

Vaishali Dialani is a multi-award-winning Customer Experience professional in the Middle East, has been recognized as a CXPA Emerging Leader, a finalist for CX Leader of the Year 2023, and has been ranked among the top CXMStars worldwide in both 2023 and 2024. She is a firm believer in the power of knowledge sharing to foster growth and awareness within the CX community.  With over eight years of experience as a data-savvy experienced designer, research specialists, and strategic change-maker, Vaishali passionately advocates for the integration of emotions and efficiency through customer experience research, product insights and communication. She currently serves as a Senior CX Strategist at Konabos, a consulting firm specializing in digital transformation.   Her commitment to knowledge sharing is evident through her involvement in podcasts, blogs, guest lectures, speaking engagements, and training programs. Additionally, she conducts leadership training workshops for professionals with low literacy levels, making a positive impact through collaborative efforts across diverse spheres.    Questions · Now, we always like to start off by giving our guests an opportunity as I mentioned before to share a little bit about your journey from where you are were to where you are today. · Can you share with us just a little bit about your culture, how customer experience is. If you were to give it a score, maybe on a scale of one to 10 with 10 being the best, what score would you give it and just any insights that you think would be beneficial to our listeners. · What would you say have been as a leader in the different organizations that you've worked in, maybe one or two things that you believe has made or contributed to your success in driving CX design and CX delivery? ·How have employees across different industries adapted to the integration of technologies, specifically in artificial intelligence, like ChatGPT, to enhance customer service experiences? What future trends do you predict for technology's role in CX, and do you believe human interaction will remain vital in this space? · Can you also share with us what's the one online resource, tool, website or app that you absolutely cannot live without in your business? · Can you also share with our listeners, maybe one or two books that have had a great impact on you? It could be a book that you read a very long time ago, or even one that you've read recently, but it has had a great impact on you. · Can you also share with us what's one thing that's going on in your life right now that you are really excited about, either something you're working on to develop yourself or your people. · What would you say are maybe two or three emerging trends that you believe will continue? Or will emerge over the next couple of months? · Where can listeners find you online? · Now, we always like to ask our guests before we wrap our episodes up, do you have a quote or a saying that during times of adverted adversity or challenge, you'll tend to revert to this quote if for any reason you get the real or you get off track, a quote kind of helps to get you back on track.   Highlights  Vaishali's Journey Me: Now, we always like to start off by giving our guests an opportunity as I mentioned before to share a little bit about your journey from where you were to where you are today.   Vaishali shared that she started her career back in 2015, right after she graduated from Heriot-Watt University in Dubai, and just like any other graduate, she was like, “I don't know what I want to do with my life. I think I'll start with marketing.” Right quickly as she dived into marketing in the advertising world, it was chaotic, busy, a great learning curve, she learned what she liked. But most importantly, she learned what she didn't like. And that's where her analytical journey began from, she understood that it's important to know and work on your skills that you like. She paved her way to get her MBA done, and learn more about research and analytics, and then dived into a CRM officer where she picked up different aspects of what experience means, how you're helping small businesses grow, what is innovation and research, it's a very cool experience.  And then she moved back to Dubai where she joined her FinTech company as the head of customer engagement. Now, this was a whole new world for her while she already knew marketing and analytics, but now running campaigns and media was super interesting. And just like in any other startup, you have to wear many other hats was very interesting, because normally she would play so many different roles, she had different opportunities where you would design experiences for low income migrant workers in the UAE.  It was almost like her postgraduate degree or a PhD, she would say, at no money, where she learned a lot of things. And that's where her curiosity for CX began, when she was designing experiences and working with the ideal. One thing paved to another and then she dived into CX, and she's been in the industry for almost four to five years now.   Me: All right, that is a wonderful journey.   Vaishali's Views on Customer Experience in Her Culture  Me: Now, throughout your journey, Vaishali, could you share with our listeners, I know you mentioned the different industries that you've worked in, but seeing that you've been in the CX space for a while, and our show is about navigating the customer experience, maybe you could share with our listeners a little bit about what your views are on customer experience. And I know you are in a different part of the world. And I know culture and behaviour varies depending on where you are. Can you share with us just a little bit about your culture, how customer experience is. If you were to give it a score, maybe on a scale of one to 10 with 10 being the best, what score would you give it and just any insights that you think would be beneficial to our listeners.   Vaishali shared that for the listeners, she comes from the Middle East from they say the light of gold, which is Dubai, and it's very interesting because it feels like you're always served in a platter. So, over the last few years, she's been travelling a lot, and especially to the West and the East port. And she thinks there's major cultural shock that she almost have is why somebody not serving her enough. Being in Dubai hospitality is huge; services at its peak, people come for the luxury and lifestyle in Dubai. And so, she's never had even if she goes to a restaurant, if she's in Dubai, if she asks anyone to please can you pack this, I need a take away, they'd be like, “Yeah, sure madam”, and all of that. But when she comes to the West, they give her a box, and she's like, “Oh, so am I supposed to pack myself?” So many different experiences that are such culturally different, yet you're working on designing those right kind of experiences is very interesting. Being in the space that she worked across education, FinTech, healthcare, manufacturing, nonprofit organizations, and one thing that she finds, despite no matter where you are, in which part of the world across which culture you have been raised, is that we all are humans, and we all want to feel heard. And we want to all feel listened and feel the emotion that we're feeling whether it's with another person or a brand. So, despite many, many differences, being from the Middle East, one common thing is what kind of human experiences are we really designing?   Effective Leadership Strategies for Driving Customer Experience Design and Delivery Me: What would you say have been as a leader in the different organizations that you've worked in, maybe one or two things that you believe has made or contributed to your success in driving CX design and CX delivery?   Vaishali stated that's a difficult one. But she thinks something that's really helped her, and she truly believes in this is the power of love languages, and how you can mold that and use that in designing experiences, especially customer experiences, whether it is quality time and actually speaking to your customers, making them feel heard, and understanding where they come from, to just simple words of affirmations. And this can be digital affirmations, she's not saying everything has to be in person, it's more about how you make someone feel like, “oh, this person hears me and understands me.” Do simple acts of service you do for them digitally, again, reward them that make them feel loyal to you.  So, when it comes to leadership, every different project is so different from one another despite being in the CX space, because they are spread across different verticals, from governance, to analytics to design, she's had the experience of learning that we need to understand what kind of emotions we want to create, and then create those journeys. So, for her, that's been one of the key things is, drive and understand what emotion you want to create.   AI Integration in Customer Service; Employee Adaptation, Future Trends, and the Human Touch Me: Now, a big part of CX is technology, right? Technology is here to help us and support us in delivering a more seamless and a less friction kind of experience with customers. In your part of the world, how have you seen your employees across different industries and verticals, as you had mentioned, adapting to the technologies, specifically in the area of artificial intelligence, there is ChatGPT and different things that organizations may integrate to enhance the service experience with their customers and cut down the more route type of activities that are very mundane and monotonous, they're investing in a technology to kind of reduce. How have you seen the adoption of that take place? And if you were to be a fortune teller, if you were to look into the future, where do you see this going? And do you believe human interaction will still play a very integral role in CX?   Vaishali stated, wow, what a question. It's very interesting. So, to answer the first part of the question, which is adoption levels. She thinks adoption levels are at its peak right now. We have no option but to keep up because a lot of the CX experiences and designs that they choose to design for their customers is technology driven. You can have the best of the best designs on Figma or Canva, or Miro, but to really bring them to life, you need the right tools in place. And to be able to do that, you will be able to understand which technology or business is actually using at the moment, what kind of architecture do they have in their back end systems, and what is really possible.   And in the ever evolving space, also, she thinks, today, all kinds of businesses, especially in the tech industry, they are coming up with niche tools and technologies across diverse industries specific to different features that allow them to give the best of the best services to their end users. But most importantly, they are very open to saying we'll integrate with another tool, whether it is in the healthcare industry, and you're looking at billing and medical insurance, they're creating their own tools to integrating with personalization tools to understanding when a patient needs to have their next checkup and reminding the patient about it to actually having analytical tool. There's so much that is happening in today's space and the adoption is at its absolute peak to keep up with the industry at the moment. That's the first part of the question.   And then the second part of the question is, there's so much that you can do with today's technology, no matter what you do human intervention can never be impacted directly she feels, they will always coexist in her space, she doesn't think it's going to be one or the other and completely replaceable. They will always need human beings because human beings evolve. And technology is made by humans.   Me: Very true. Alright. I love that.   App, Website or Tool that Vaishali Absolutely Can't Live Without in Her Business When asked about an online resource that she cannot live without in her business, Vaishali shared that she's a very tech person, she loves using her app, she has apps for almost everything. But at work, she uses a lot of Canva; she's creative as a person. So, whether it's the whiteboard or whether it's just designing something that she needs to just throw it out. She loves using Canva.   Me: Amazing. I like when I hear guests talk about using Canva. Recently, I did a presentation skills workshop for a client and they wanted to basically teach the team how to use Canva. And I remember, it was so fascinating, especially for persons who have never been exposed to the platform before, when they looked at the user interface of Canva versus a Microsoft PowerPoint, Canva is just like, it's like the Apple of design. Like in terms of how easy it is, you just drag and drop it, in PowerPoint, you take three steps, in Canva, you take one. And I just I find it so amazing, it really has brought design to the average person; even if you weren't creative Canva would find some way to stimulate your creativity.   Vaishali agreed, and more than anything, even like the guided templates too, they have everything, you can just create a design system in place to be able to do anything with it. Previously, developers used to use draw.io a lot to create the map and the technology flows. And like, guys no, we need to use Canva make it more colourful. And it's so easy to use.   Books that Have Had the Biggest Impact on Vaishali When asked about books that have had a great impact. Vaishali shared that she just finished two books recently, but they are more spiritual, but she thinks one of the books that she's still continuing to read, and she's amazed by it is Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck. That the book is taking her longer to complete in all honesty is because you really need to retrospect and think, is this the way I think.  And it's just the way she would want to think like from growth mindset or fixed mindset and how our childhood, the way we just appreciate it really impacts on the way we work and our personality, or our character. So, there's a lot of retrospective to do. And she thinks she'll have to read the book 2, 3 times. But for now, this has been the biggest impact on the way she's started evolving and thinking, so she'd highly recommend this book.   What Vaishali is Really Excited About Now! When asked about something she's excited about, Vaishali stated that she'll give two things. So, the first one is she's very excited because she's travelling on a personal level. She's travelling to Vancouver tonight to for her brother's graduation. And it's been a journey for their family. So, they're very, very excited for his graduation.  And professionally, what she's very excited about is at the moment, she's working on three different projects across manufacturing, healthcare, and education. And the best part about all of it is, is that all of them are across different verticals of CX, and that really shows the power of a) customer experience, but b) also how vast our growing industry is. And we all have some stuff to do and make an impact across different verticals of CX, so she feels super blessed.   Me: Alright, well, congratulations to you, brother and his graduation. That's awesome.   Emerging Trends Shaping the Near Future   Me: Now, can you tell our listeners, if you were to just think about maybe two or three trends that you believe will continue to grow and emerge as we wrap up on the second and embark on the third quarter of 2024, what would you say those are just based on working with clients, in your own business, listening to podcasts, being on podcasts, writing blogs, interfacing with other CX experts across different industries. What would you say are maybe two or three emerging trends that you believe will continue? Or will emerge over the next couple of months?   Vaishali stated, great question. And we all have been talking about this, start of the year, we were like, what's 2024 going to hold for CX and is AI going to replace but she thinks now conversations have shifted, and everyone agrees, and a lot of the conversations she's hearing about is, we are going to coexist together. So, that trend is kind of going to continue and only emerge, people are not going to lose their jobs because of AI, but they're just going to be supported better and to design better experience. So, that's definitely one.  The second one is what she sees as a shift, based on discussing with clients and having these daily one on one conversations, being the centre front of the industry is that there's a grey area that was first there was digital experience and customer experience, but she sees that becoming a grey area now to becoming actually digital customer experience, and people finding out and learning more about it. And that's a very interesting space, because it makes room for everyone to grow together and learn and share experiences, which she thinks is phenomenal. So, there are no more silos within even the experience design space anymore. And the third one she would say is, she sees extremely authenticating orthodox industries, especially such as manufacturing, or education, which had a certain way of doing certain things digitally, are now ready to evolve and embark on a transformation journey. Because they think it's extremely important to kind of keep up to the industry and the world and the customer needs. And those are massive projects that they're working on internally. So, she thinks it's very, very interesting to see that shift in the industry right now.    Me: Alright, exciting times ahead.   Where Can We Find Vaishali Online LinkedIn – Vaishali Dialani X – Vaishali Dialani    Quote or Saying that During Times of Adversity Vaishali Uses Me: Now, we always like to ask our guests before we wrap our episodes up, do you have a quote or a saying that during times of adverted adversity or challenge, you'll tend to revert to this quote if for any reason you get the real or you get off track, a quote kind of helps to get you back on track.   When asked about a quote or saying that she tends to revert, Vaishali shared that she does. And it's one of her favourite quotes that she's actually tattooed and it's called, “Fly with full faith.” So, it's always do your hard work and have faith in whatever you do. Because most of the times, it feels like we're doing so much and we still not able to get to the next place, we're stuck in a circle or a rod. And it's important to have faith and while you have faith, always, always do your hard work.   Me: All right, thank you so very much. So, Vaishali, I just wanted to extend our deepest gratitude to you again, for taking time out of your busy schedule, and hopping on this podcast with us and sharing all these great insights, especially as it relates to your culture and what's happening over there. Because the world is very small, even though we are in different continents or different places, human behaviour is still pretty much the same I believe throughout, we are through and through emotional beings. And I liked the fact that that came out in your message in terms of what we should be focused on in CX and ensuring that we're connecting with people on an emotional level, and what kind of feelings do we want them to have after they've interacted with us. So, I thought it was great that you brought that across in a message. So, thank you again.    Please connect with us on Twitter @navigatingcx and also join our Private Facebook Community – Navigating the Customer Experience and listen to our FB Lives weekly with a new guest   Links •     Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck    The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience Grab the Freebie on Our Website – TOP 10 Online Business Resources for Small Business Owners  Do you want to pivot your online customer experience and build loyalty - get a copy of “The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience.” The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience provides 26 easy to follow steps and techniques that helps your business to achieve success and build brand loyalty. This Guide to Limitless, Happy and Loyal Customers will help you to strengthen your service delivery, enhance your knowledge and appreciation of the customer experience and provide tips and practical strategies that you can start implementing immediately! This book will develop your customer service skills and sharpen your attention to detail when serving others. Master your customer experience and develop those knock your socks off techniques that will lead to lifetime customers. Your customers will only want to work with your business and it will be your brand differentiator. It will lead to recruiters to seek you out by providing practical examples on how to deliver a winning customer service experience!

In this episode we're joined by Dr. Jonathan Downie (PhD, Heriot-Watt University), who is a Consultant Interpreter and Researcher in Multilingual Churches, and the author of Multilingual Church: Strategies for Making Disciples in All Languages (w/ William Carey Publishing). Over the course of our conversation, Dr. Downie articulates the importance of multilingualism as something that churches should incorporate and embrace rather than conveniently ignore. We talk best practices, how language is more than verbal communication, how multilingualism would impact different denominations differently, and how multilingualism relates to the church's approach to topics like immigration and the global refugee crisis. Team members on the episode from The Two Cities include: Dr. John Anthony Dunne, Rev. Daniel Parham, and Rev. Dr. Nathaniel Warne. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How do you solve a problem like CO2? As the curtain closes on the world's most important climate summit, we talk to a scientist who was at COP 28 and is working to solve our carbon dioxide problem. Professor Mercedes Maroto-Valer thinks saving the planet is still Mission Possible - but key to success is turning excess of the climate-busting gas, carbon dioxide, into something useful. And as Director of the Research Centre for Carbon Solutions at Heriot-Watt University and the UK's Decarbonisation Champion, she has lots of innovative ideas on how to do this. She also has a great climate-themed suggestion for what you should say when someone asks your age… Presenter: Jim Al-Khalili Producer: Gerry Holt Audio editor: Sophie Ormiston Production Co-ordinator: Jonathan Harris