All lectures, which are free and open to the public, start at 5.30pm and take place in Ken Edwards Lecture Theatre 3 or Attenborough Lecture Theatre 1. As recognition for delivering projects inspired by the London 2012 Games, the ICSEMIS 2012 public engagement programme has been awarded the London 2012 Inspire Mark.

Director of Sport, Colin Hide commented: "The Olympics is the greatest show on Earth and will excite a generation of sports - and non sports - fans. This lecture series will attempt to make sense of the Olympics both past and present and begin the University’s engagement with London 2012."

The University of Leicester was selected to be part of the public engagement programme linked to the International Convention on Science, Education and Medicine in Sport (ICSEMIS 2012), which will bring together the worlds leading scientists, academics and researchers in disciplines related to sport in advance of the 2012 Games. The pilot programme, which aims to use the excitement and interest generated by the Games to is being run by Research Councils UK and Podium.

The first lecture will take place in Ken Edwards Lecture Theatre 3 on Thursday 21 October with Dr Fiona Fairhurst, CEO of Zero Point Zero One, speaking on 'Supersuits' - The Design and Development of Aerodynamic & Hydrodynamic Equipment for Sport.

Fiona was Director of Research and Development for Speedo, and whilst in post developed the Speedo Fastskin models of racing swimsuits. These were used at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and swimmers wearing them scooped the majority of the medals. At the 2004 Athens Olympics, swimmers wearing the second-generation of the Fastskin suit (which then featured a unique hydrodynamic cut that fits swimmers like a “second skin”) earned a total of 47 medals.

Fiona will speak about their development and how studying shark skin gave them a unique insight which influenced the makeup of the material that the suits were subsequently made of. This lecture will give the inside track on the technological development of revolutionary sportswear and discuss the role of the performance apparel which caused global controversy within sport.

On Monday 8 November in Attenborough Lecture Theatre 1, Professor Gary D. Rawnsley will deliver the lecture on Media and Communications at Beijing.

The Beijing Olympics of 2008 are considered as China's 'coming-out' party, representing the country's 'peaceful rise', astounding economic development and growing stature in the global community. On the other hand, it is clear that hosting the Olympics was a huge risk: with thousands of foreign journalists descending on Beijing, all of whom were promised unprecedented freedom of movement, China was in the world's spotlight like never before.

This lecture provides an overview of Chinese public diplomacy and soft power - China's attraction via national values and cultural appeal - and tries to understand how the Olympics and their media coverage helped the projection of modern, dynamic and peaceful China.

On Thursday 2 December in Ken Edwards Lecture Theatre 3, Dr Harry B. Rossiter will deliver the lecture on The Limits to Human Performance: Lesson from Olympia’s.

This lecture is from the “popular science” tradition and attempts to compare and contrast the limits of human performance over the ages. It uses historical examples from around the world to probe the limits to human performance. For example, it looks at examples spanning the energy cost of pyramid building in ancient Egypt to the running postmen of Japan in the 17th century and compares these to modern day exploits and attempts to answer the question: Who’s the fittest?

Free tickets can be requested via sport@le.ac.uk or on the door on the night