Royal Society Soiree

I've briefly mentioned before, but Brian and I were invited to attend the Royal Society's Summer Soiree last night on July 5. And it was a black tie affair! We were looking forward to going and of course I had some shopping preparations to do this past month. (Oh darn!) We didn't really know what to expect for the event and also really didn't know anyone as well. But we figured it was be a great experience and opportunity for Brian to network with fellow important scientists. Plus, the Royal Society funds his grant and got us to England, so figured we better get our butts there if we were invited!

Preparations mainly involved finding outfits for a black tie affair. Instead of saying "Black Tie" they say "Dinner Jacket". So first we had to figure out what Dinner Jacket really meant (formal? semi-formal? shirt and tie?). Once that was understood, we were on the lookout for a tux for Bri and a cocktail dress for me. We decided it made most sense to buy a tux for Bri so he could own one instead of hiring each time. We realized there were at least a total of four occasions where he's need to wear one here in Oxford, so it made financial sense to buy one. It only took us a rainy afternoon in the city center to find a nice one at a good price. It took more than one afternoon for me to find a dress, but luckily found a style and fit off the rack in a high street clothes shop in the UK. And I even got it at 40% off - Marcy taught me well! Had to get some shoes and little jacket to match (since it's still rainy and cool here). We think we did well - hope you do to!

The Royal Society has been having a Summer Science Exhibition for hundreds of years. In the past, it's when all the well-known scientists get together to show off their projects and research and to teach one another. Currently, it's a similar process, but it's not the Fellows of the RS anymore, rather they invite up and coming scientists from different universities and their students to showcase their research projects. It's basically a cross between a high-level science fair and trade show. The exhibition is open to the public for over three days. Then the Soiree is in the evening of the last day. The Soiree is invite only, and this is when the really big well-known scientists of the UK show up. The exhibitions continue, and the students also get to dress up and show off their projects to the big wigs. It's a great experience for them and you can tell they really enjoy their time talking about their projects.

We left Oxford about 1 p.m. on the train to London. Arrived around 2:30 and had to take detour on the Underground (which is very typical) as there was a "person on the tracks" in one of our lines. Not sure if that is as awful as it may sound - they don't give out details. We went straight away to the RS as we had worn regular clothes, but brought our formal wear with us. We were able to keep it in the coat room, and could walk around the exhibit for a bit in the afternoon. Then we just changed in the loo (actually they were really posh with a primping area, so it wasn't so bad) and headed out to the theatre district for a pre-evening drink (or two) at the pub. We had about two hours to kill, so you can imagine we got a bit lubed up. But it was a fun little pub which Charlie Chaplin frequented much back in the day, as he performed at the theatre right across the street.

About 7 p.m. we headed back to the RS for a bit more primping (my hair wasn't working well in the evening's rainy weather) and since it started at 7:30 p.m. On our walk back, we went by the London premiere movie screening of "Hairspray" with John Travolta. Didn't have time to wait to see him, but heard a lot of screaming girls! We checked in at the RS for our name tags and received a program. Finally was able to learn about how the evening would go. We assumed it would be pretty formal with a sit down dinner and speakers, etc. But quickly realized for dressing so formal, it was a rather informal plan of the evening. Which really was quite nice. So we walked around the exhibits a bit more again, but mainly to people watch this time and take pics. The other invitees were a mix of old and young, but definitely skewed more old and grey hair. And many of the gentleman scientists had their medals on (which was also part of the attire requirement). Many well known scientists receive scientific medals for their achievements in their field from various scientific bodies across the world. And there were a lot of medals in the building! We were in the midst of many many amazing scientists and yet it was really hard to know who they were and what they had accomplished. I think Brian was in science heaven!

We visited with a few attendees and also with a few of the Royal Society staffers whom Brian has met at previous RS meetings. We visited the most with Hans, who is a German working at the RS, and is head of the international grants programs, which Brian is a recipient of. So he was kind enough to show us around, take some pics for us and eat dinner with us. The dining situation was a buffet out on the marquee under a nice big tent and it was just a seat yourself kind of thing. But that way we were able to meet and chat with a few other scientists/wives.


The most exciting part of our evening was after we had asked one of the wait staff to take our photo at the table. The shot was a bit far away, and this scientist with a huge medal on came up to us and said he'll take a few pics for us since those probably won't turn out very well. He took a couple more pics for us and they were much better. So we asked who he was/from what institution, etc. and he was really humble just saying he was just a small town bloke from Scotland, etc. But after talking a bit more, we noticed his name was Sir Thomas McKillop (Sir is bestowed on you from The Queen) and was the past CEO of AstraZeneca and current Chairman of the Bank of Scotland. He's also a prominent scientist and head of the Science Council. Now this is exciting for us since my dad worked for many years for ICI Americas and AstraZeneca, and that Sir McKillop is a prominent science figure in the UK and in the world. And he volunteered to take our picture! Pretty fun. We also had Albert Einstein's look-alike take a picture for us and I'm serious that how you might picture an English scientist - it's really how they look! Well to wrap up the evening, we had a great time and it went by quickly since at about 10:30 people were leaving. The champagne had been flowing all night, so it was getting to be that time for us too, but Brian and I like to party til the end. But we knew we had long tube/train/taxi back home so we left about 10:45.

On our way to the tube, we walked on Haymarket Street and right next to club Tiger Tiger, where the Mercedes car bomb was left last week. Since it was a Thursday night, and only a week later, there was heavy police coverage there. It must have been since we were dressed up, but one of the Metropolitan policemen stopped us to ask us if we had been in the area last Thursday and if we had seen anything or had any information. He was really nice actually about it and must have thought we were somehow related to the theatre or music area. Wow, weird to be questioned and walk by all of that. The club was open and busy as usual, so good to see Londoners regularly going about their lives.

We had to wait for the last train of the night back to Oxford, so we sat at the train station for almost an hour and didn't get back to our flat until about 2 a.m. So we are really tired today!