Registration Link: For HKU members / Non-HKU members
MH Conversations and Connections Series – Lunchtime Seminar
Title: Improv in Medicine and Music: A Conversation at the Crossroads of Creativity
Date: 14 November 2025 (Friday)
Time: 12:30 – 1:45 pm HKT
Venue: G/F, William MW Mong Block, LKS Faculty of Medicine, HKU
Registration Link: For HKU members / Non-HKU members
Abstract:
Join us for a lively, spontaneous, and thought-provoking exploration of human creativity at the intersection of music and medicine. Set around the piano in the HKUMed lobby, critically acclaimed jazz pianist and interdisciplinary researcher Prof Mark d’Inverno and family medicine doctor Nicolette Ray will engage in spontaneous musical and intellectual exchange to explore how music improvisation – which incorporates ideas such as adaptability, intuition, values, openness, joy and collaboration—parallels medical practices such as history-taking, clinical decision-making, and ethics.
Speaker:
Professor Mark d’Inverno
Professor, Academy of Music, Hong Kong Baptist University
Bio:
Professor Mark d’Inverno is an interdisciplinary researcher at the interface of music performance and improvisation, participatory design of new technologies, AI, ethics and the humanities.
Mark completed a BA in mathematics at St Catherine’s College, Oxford University, followed by an MSc in Computing. He then joined UCL, where he completed a PhD in Symbolic Artificial Intelligence entitled “Agents, Agency and Autonomy.”
According to Google Scholar, Mark has over 150 peer-reviewed articles, charting an early mainstream theoretical computer science research that became increasingly interdisciplinary over the last two decades, with a strong focus on music and creativity.
His interest in interdisciplinary research stems from his tenure as Director of Research at Goldsmiths (Pro-Warden (PVC) Research and Enterprise) between 2013 and 2017, as well as his four decades of professional experience as a musician.
He has received critical acclaim as a jazz pianist (including BBC National Radio stations, Jazz FM, BBC Music Magazine, The Guardian, The Observer and specialist Jazz magazines) and has performed nationally and internationally since the 1980s.
Mark has a strong track record in public engagement, including appearances on BBC National TV, BBC National Radio, New Scientist Live, Sky Arts TV, and various international concerts, keynotes, and workshops. He aims to connect with diverse audiences, often at the piano, drawing on his experiences as a musician to discuss the opportunities and challenges of using AI to support human creativity.
Recent invited talks on the interface of AI with creativity, music, ethics and learning include “ARMON.IA – Workshop Creativity and Improvisation with AI” (Barcelona 2025), “Jazz I Am” Conference (Barcelona, 2023 and 2024), Creative Machine (Jesus College, Oxford University, 2023), EdTech World Forum (London, 2022 & 2023), AI for Good Conference (2022), LEGO Ideas Conference 2020, Music Most Wanted Festival (Berlin, 2019), and The Conference, (Malmo, 2019).
He has a track record of supporting interdisciplinary and arts-based research nationally and internationally, recognising its criticality as part of any groundbreaking and forward-reaching research ecosystem. He was the Deputy Convenor for the Creative Arts, Performing Arts, and Design Panel of the Hong Kong Research Assessment Exercise for 2020 and again in 2026, until he stepped down to become a local panel member.
He was on the Interdisciplinary Research Advisory Panel (IDAP) for the UK’s REF 2021 and initially joined the Research Diversity Advisory Panel for REF 2029.
Discussant:
Dr Nicolette Ray
Lecturer, Medical Ethics and Humanities Unit (MEHU) & Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care (FMPC)
School of Clinical Medicine, HKUMed
Welcome to join us!
Enquiry: Please contact Mr Edison Cheng (mehu@hku.hk).