Category Archives: Social

OPunting 2024

This week (2024-08-07) instead of our usual group meeting, OPIG took to the high seas. The OPIGlets pooled our resources and procured punts from many different berths. Organised by Admiral Nele, we departed from the Cherwell boathouse and shipped out the 0.5 nautical miles (3.28801867e-6 light seconds for those playing along in metric) upriver to the Vicky Arms.

Despite visiting the odd bush on the way, scurvy scallywags one and all were herded in a generally upstream direction with Matt and Eoin leading the way. With the first two punts having safely reached dry land and refuelled their ethanol fuel cells, the question remained where on earth everyone had got to. Sagely concluding they’d probably all sunk another pint was had in their honour.

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Le Tour de Farce v11.0

“They don’t make them like they used to!”

With much experience of all things farcical, it was my delight to have returned just in time for the 2024 edition of OPIG’s Tour de Farce, which took place on 11th July. This year’s route was 8 miles long and encompassed four of the finest establishments Oxford has to offer (nothing “unusually conservative” to see here Eoin).

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OPIGmas, 2023

Our annual, end-of-Michaelmas OPIG celebrations took place this at the start of December in the MCR (Middle Common Room) at Lady Margaret Hall.

OPIGmas is a much-anticipated combination of pot luck, Secret Santa, and party games.

Perhaps Jay’s megaphone topped the list of gag gifts…

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OPIG Retreat 2023

With the new academic year approaching, OPIG flew off to the rural paradise of Wilderhope Manor in sunny Shropshire for their annual group getaway. The goal of this retreat was assumed to be a mixture of team building, ‘conference-esque’ academic immersion, a reconnection with nature in the British countryside, and of course, a bit of fun. It is fair to say OPIG Retreat ‘23 delivered on all accounts, leaving the OPIGlets refreshed and ready for what the next year may bring.

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Tales of an OPIG Jamboree

Jamboree
(1) a large gathering, as of a political party or the teams of a sporting league, often including a program of speeches and entertainment.;
(2) a large gathering of members of the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts, usually nationwide or international in scope

Oxford Dictionary

This October marks twenty years since our supreme leader, Charlotte Deane, came to Oxford to start the first protein informatics group in this university.

Twenty years is a really long time, and at OPIG we like to celebrate things in style. From the beginning, it was clear that we would be doing what we know best: get together, consume lots of food and drinks, and perhaps talk about science. But, frankly, that’s what we do all the time. This simply wasn’t enough to celebrate two decades of scientific production. So Charlotte entrusted several of us with an ambitious goal: to reach out to our former members, and to ask them to join us, in Oxford, to celebrate two decades of protein informatics. And that’s what we did.

For two months, we painstakingly tracked down every person that has ever been part of our group, and attempted to gather their contact details to invite them to Oxford. Attempted to, for the most part. While LinkedIn gave us some early victories, some alumni had managed to cover their tracks very well, including one person we could only found after tracking down their three previous jobs. Nevertheless, after much digging, we managed to find updated contact details for every person that has ever passed by our lab, and nearly thirty of these former alumni (almost 50% of them!) made their way to Oxford on October 8th* to hold the first OPIG Jamboree.

From the first student (Sanne Abeln, rightmost in the second row) to the most recent (Kate, whose hair can barely be seen on the leftmost third row), we are all here!
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Le Tour de Farce v9.0

With many tours (Farcical and otherwise) restricted due to Covid, 2022 celebrated the resurrection of OPIG’s glorious Tour de Farce. This year’s route was nine miles and an unusually conservative four pubs.

After listening to Lewis’ conference prep talk, we left the Statistics Department around 5pm for a leisurely trundle through Mesopotamia, The Oxford Psychopath, Old Marston and out to our first rest stop, The Victoria.

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OPIG Retreat 2022

Finally, after two years of social distancing, we were able to continue the tradition of OPIGtreat – a 2-3 day escape to the countryside for a packed schedule of talks and fun.

This year, the lovely YHA Wilderhope Manor in Shropshire was chosen by Lewis, our trip organizer. With a hostel in the middle of nowhere, with no phone signal, this trip promised to be an exciting get-away from our plugged-in lives at the university.

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