Networking

Welcome Drinks

A welcome drinks reception will be held between 6pm and 8pm on Sunday 9th July at the historic Oxford University Examination Schools. The reception is included in the price of your conference registration and an additional ticket may be purchased for an accompanying person.

Dress code for this event is casual.

Walking Tours

Oxford packs hundreds of years of history into a compact area and for those who want to find out about the city we have two walking tours on Monday and Tuesday evenings. The tours will depart the conference venue, once the programme for the day has finished and will last approximately 90 minutes.  Your guide will be sure to point out great places to eat and drink on the way.

On Monday evening the tour will look at literature and some of the authors that have studied and worked at Oxford University including CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien, TS Elliot, Lewis Carroll and Oscar Wilde.

On Tuesday evening there is a focus on the history of three colleges (Trinity, Balliol and New College) as well as the oldest parts of University (St Mary’s Church) and the Library.

For those of you still around on Friday morning, we are able to offer a slightly longer tour which also gives access to part of the Bodleian Libraries where some scenes from Harry Potter were filmed and to either New College, Trinity College or Balliol College.

A great option if you want to learn more about Oxford at a leisurely pace.

Women in Fusion

We’re delighted that Gabriela Hearst has agreed to join us for the Women in Fusion dinner at 7:30pm on Monday 10th July.  Gabriela, the Creative Director of Chloe, the ready-to-wear luxury fashion brand, was born on a ranch in Uruguay and grew up with an entrenched understanding of ethical consumption.  It wasn’t until October 2021 when she read an article on the feasibility of fusion that she started to do her research.  Laban Coblentz, ITER Communications Director said of her visit there “she was the most well-educated layperson on fusion sciences I had ever seen”

In November ’22 she led a panel on fusion energy at COP27 in Egypt.

Since developing this new interest, she has infused her designs and shows in fusion; once sending eight fuchsia fabric swatches  to a company so their team could colour match for plasma, and creating a runway designed to resemble a tokamak.

Gabriela will be in conversation with Celestine Cheong, Head of External Communications at UKAEA.

Heather Lewtas, Head of Innovation at UKAEA will also be hosting a panel of five other inspirational people in fusion finding out more about how they carved out their careers and how you could steer your career in the direction you want.

The panel will comprise

  1. Kathryn McCarthy PhD, Director, US ITER Project Oak Ridge National Laboratories
  2. Melanie Windridge PhD, Founder and CEO, Fusion Energy Insights
  3. Prof Sir Ian Chapman, CEO, UKAEA
  4. Lyanne McLean MBE, Director of Operations, Tokamak Energy 
  5. Sehila Gonzalez PhD, Global Director, Fusion Energy Clean Air Taskforce

We’ll kick off this casual, informal evening with drinks and canapes, followed by bowl food in the convivial surroundings of Lancaster Room, with its view of the Ashmolean Museum, in the historic Randolph Hotel.  There’ll be plenty of opportunity to network with both panellists and other guests.  Please click here to log-in to your account and register for what promises to be an interesting and informative evening.

If you have already registered for another event that evening, please let us know and we will refund you if you would like to switch.

Young Professionals Reception

We have booked The Varsity Club for the Young Professionals reception on Tuesday 9th July. We have a private room and the reception will start shortly after the conference ends.  Your first drink is free, and you’re welcome to stay at the venue as long you wish. You might decide to head up to the roof-top bar and enjoy the view of the city of dreaming spires.

Dress code for this event is casual.

The SOFE Young Professionals Reception is sponsored by

Tokamak Energy Logo
St Catherine’s College

Gala Dinner

The Gala Dinner will be held at the dining hall of St Catherine’s College, at 7:30 on Wednesday 12th July.

Designed by renowned Danish architect, Arne Jacobsen, who is perhaps most known for designing the “Christine Keeler chair”, this light and airy hall is perfect for a summer’s evening. Weather permitting pre-dinner drinks will be held in the gardens, also designed by Jacobsen, and food will be sourced locally and sustainably.

Dress code for this event is smart.