Boyd Roberts welcomed Professor Richard Dawkins to the IBSCA (IB Schools and Colleges Association for the UK and Ireland) Conference as keynote speaker in a day of discussion on the topic of Science and Ethics..

He spoke to an audience of over 200 students and staff drawn from 10 UK IB Diploma schools and colleges. This is the second such student conference for UK IB students from state and independent schools and colleges. The first was held at St. Clare's in 2000.

The conference draws to a close a year of celebrations marking the 25th anniversary of the IB Diploma at St. Clare's. The conference gave students the opportunity to discuss such topics as positive and negative eugenics, stem cell research, the use and mis-use of science, nuclear power, euthanasia, ethical scientific research, genetic modification of plants, animals and humans within the framework of the Theory of Knowledge programme of the IB Diploma.

Professor Dawkins holds the Charles Simonyi Chair in the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford. A graduate of Oxford, he did his doctorate under the Nobel-prizewinning ethologist Niko Tinbergen.

Professor Dawkins's first book, The Selfish Gene (1976) became an immediate bestseller and has been translated into all the major languages. Its more technical sequel, The Extended Phenotype, followed in 1982. The Blind Watchmaker (1986) won the Royal Society of Literature Award in 1987. His other best sellers include River Out of Eden (1995), Climbing Mount Improbable (1996) and Unweaving the Rainbow (1998). He has lectured all around the world, and in 1991 he gave the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures in London.

Tom Walsh, Assistant Principal,
organiser of the Conference,
with Professor Dawkins