Speaker Dinner 2026 (21/10/2026)

Wed, 21 Oct 2026 07:45:00 GMT

Speaker Dinner 2026

21 October 645pm at The Kelvin Club

Last calls for our Speaker Dinner with Emeritus Professor John Dewar AO, Australian legal scholar and academic leader, former Vice-Chancellor of La Trobe University. Professor Dewar will be in conversation with our President, Dr Hannah Gould, on the topic,

What is Happening in Universities?

Join us at our AGM, Dinner and a Fireside Chat at 645pm at the Kelvin Club with guest speaker Emeritus Professor John Dewar AO.

Networking and bar drinks: 6.45pm-7pm

AGM: 7-7.30pm

Dinner: 7.35pm following the AGM - includes a main meal, dessert and a glass of wine: $85pp

Formalities close 9.15pm

OUSV Speaker Lunch Wednesday 18 November 2026 (18/11/2026)

Wed, 18 Nov 2026 01:30:00 GMT

The guest speakers for our November Lunch are Professors Brendan Abrahams and Stuart Batten

The lunch is to celebrate last year’s Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, Professor Richard Robson.

Professor Robson read Chemistry at Oxford (BNC) and completed his DPhil in the Dyson Perrins (organic chemistry) laboratory in 1962.

After a couple of post-doctoral fellowships in the USA, he moved to the Chemistry Department in the University of Melbourne in the mid-1960s and has worked there ever since.

In the 1970s, he discovered a new type or class of molecule, now known as Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) which have subsequently been developed for all sorts of applications and are especially useful in separation technology. A key attribute of MOFs is their very large internal surface area compared with their volume.

Two of Professor Robson’s post graduate students in the early days of developing MOFs in Melbourne were Brendan Abrahams and Stuart Batten, now Professors of Chemistry at the University of Melbourne and Monash University, respectively.

At our lunch, Professors Abrahams and Batten will describe what MOFs are, how Professor Robson got the idea of developing techniques to make MOFs and what they subsequently have been used for. The actual Nobel award ceremony itself will also be described, including what it was like to be in Stockholm for the ceremony.

To understand Professor Robson’s ground-breaking work, check out: https://www.nobelprize.org/the-2025-chemistry-prize-mofs-molecular-structures/ and to view his acceptance speech see: Nobel Prize lecture: Richard Robson, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2025 - YouTube .

Lunch is at the Kelvin Club (www.kelvinclub.com) where we meet from 12-30 pm onwards. A two-course meal is served at 1 pm and the formal part of the proceedings will conclude around 2-15 pm.

The price for OUSV and CSV members and guests is $75. Drinks may be purchased at the bar in advance. For non-members the price is $85.

Queries: please contact secretary.ousv@gmail.com

Oxford University Society in Victoria Inc. upcoming events

Speaker Dinner 2026 (21/10/2026)

Speaker Dinner 2026

OUSV Speaker Lunch Wednesday 18 November 2026 (18/11/2026)