Wednesday 22nd April 2026 
Walter Moberly Building (WM1.01), 6pm  

We are delighted to welcome Carolyn Davidson MBE as a guest speaker for the eighth Professor Fumiko Yonezawa Memorial Lecture Series. Drawing on her nearly 40-year career in the British diplomatic service across four continents, Carolyn will explore the importance of regions as well as nations in international diplomacy, the role of Osaka and Western Japan as a regional and global hub, and its interconnectedness with the world from the perspective of someone who has represented the UK from Asia to Zambia.

Carolyn has served the UK in diverse roles across four continents, including Japan, Guatemala, Honduras, Zambia, Slovakia, Thailand, Belgium, and Germany as well as in the UK. A trailblazer in modern diplomacy, she and her husband were the world's first job-sharing Ambassadors when they were jointly appointed as British High Commissioners to Zambia in 2008, and Carolyn has been widely recognised for her innovative leadership and commitment to international engagement.

In August 2021, she was appointed as the British Consul General to Osaka in Japan, where she championed UK links with the "economic powerhouse" of Kansai - a region with a GDP larger than many G20 nations. Most recently, she served as the UK Commissioner General to Expo 2025 Osaka-Kansai, successfully strengthening bilateral ties through one of the world's largest soft power and business platforms.

This lecture is part of the Professor Fumiko Yonezawa Memorial Lecture Series, organised in commemoration of Professor Fumiko Yonezawa, who was the first Japanese student to study at Keele from 1963 to 1964, and later achieved significant accomplishments as a theoretical physicist. Fumiko became the first female president of the Physical Society of Japan and a laureate of the L'Oreal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science for her pioneering theory and computer simulations on amorphous semiconductors and liquid metals in 2005.

This lecture series is supported by the Yonezawa family. 

This event is FREE and no booking is required.

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