Bentham and Beyond: Learning through Genomes, Collections and Collaborations

Since 1942, the Lunch Hour Lecture series has brought audiences together to explore pioneering ideas and research from across UCL. Join us on campus, in our bicentennial year, as we celebrate the return of this much-loved tradition with an inspiring live lunchtime lecture.

Free and open to all. A packed lunch will be provided for guests.

About the lecture

Ancient DNA research is transforming how we study the past. It is now increasingly possible to recover DNA from archaeological remains, mummies, teeth and historical museum collections, including those held at UCL.

These genetic data allow us to ask questions that cannot be answered through a contemporary lens alone, revealing new insights into human history, disease, migration and evolution. The field has also benefited from collaboration and data sharing, reflecting ideas of openness and collective benefit that resonate with aspects of Jeremy Bentham’s utilitarian philosophy.

This talk will explore how DNA is recovered from historical objects, what we can learn from these fragile genetic traces, and why ancient genomics matters today. It will also present analyses of DNA recovered from UCL collections, including the auto-icon of Jeremy Bentham.

About the speaker

Dr Lucy van Dorp is a Principal Investigator and UKRI Future Leaders Fellow in microbial genomics at UCL Genetics Institute, where she leads a group applying computational and population genetics tools to reconstruct the evolutionary history of human-associated pathogens. Her research spans the full temporal range of infectious disease - from ancient epidemics to real-time pandemic surveillance - with a particular focus on COVID-19, tuberculosis, malaria, and multidrug-resistant hospital infections. A distinctive focus of her work involves the recovery of DNA from historical objects and museum collections, including some of UCL’s most infamous collections, working in close partnership with curatorial teams to unlock genomic information preserved in archival and archaeological material. This interdisciplinary approach bridges the natural sciences and the humanities, opening up questions that benefit from dialogue across both.

About the chair

Dr Adam Rutherford is a prominent geneticist, author, and broadcaster who serves as a Lecturer in Biology and Society in the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment at UCL. A “UCL lifer”, he earned his BSc in evolutionary genetics and a PhD from the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health. Dr. Rutherford’s academic work centres on the interface between genetics and society, focusing heavily on the history and legacy of scientific racism, the modern presentation of eugenics, and the evolution of the eye. He has also written extensively for the Guardian and other newspapers and magazines, and five books on genetics, evolution, the origin of life, synthetic biology, race and eugenics.