Professor Karen O’Brien biography
For the last five years, Professor O’Brien has led the Humanities Division at the University of Oxford with great success. As a member of the University Council, she has been jointly responsible for the financial oversight, research strategy and equalities and access priorities of the University. During the first phase of the Covid-19 pandemic, she successfully managed the University’s preparations for operating safely during the current academic year.
Prior to joining Oxford, she was Vice-Principal for Education at King’s College London. She has held a number of national and international leadership roles, including serving on the international jury of the Institut Universitaire de France and as chair of the Russell Group Pro-Vice-Chancellors for Teaching and Learning.
Launch of interdisciplinary projects embody ‘creativity and resilience’ of UChicago faculty
The University of Chicago has long championed collaborative research as a promising strategy for addressing complex questions. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit last year, it was not clear how this form of inquiry might need to adapt. What new strategies would humanistic scholars adopt to share, develop and test new ideas online? What empirical data would social scientists be able to gather, and what insights could they glean from fieldwork dramatically constrained by new public health guidelines preventing close physical contact?
The challenges for scholars pursuing humanistic research collaborations at this moment are significant. But the 2021–22 cycle of research projects at the Neubauer Collegium are a clear sign that UChicago faculty remain committed to collaborative modes of inquiry and creative in their approach to pursuing excellence in research.
An artistic rendering of Kraken Mare, the large liquid methane sea on Saturn’s moon Titan. Astronomers estimate Titan’s largest sea is 1,000 feet deep
January 20, 2021
Far below the gaseous atmospheric shroud on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, lies Kraken Mare, a sea of liquid methane. Cornell astronomers have estimated that sea to be at least 1,000 feet deep near its center – enough room for a potential robotic submarine to explore.
After sifting through data from one of the final Titan flybys of the Cassini mission, the researchers detailed their findings in “The Bathymetry of Moray Sinus at Titan’s Kraken Mare,” which published Dec. 4, 2020, in the Journal of Geophysical Research.