In February, I travelled up to Cambridge to meet with Diarmuid O’Brien. The Dubliner was the pro-vice chancellor of innovation at the city’s iconic university, essentially overseeing all innovative output from one of the most important academic institutions globally. He spoke at length about the work that had gone into developing a “forward-looking” innovation story for the University of Cambridge, and charted his own journey through the world of academia. But what was obvious from speaking with him was his rigid belief in the life-changing capability that research and innovation possessed. O’Brien outlined how his PhD on organic light-emitting displays…

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