Our online research lecture series is open to the public. To register to attend, please click to expand the events list below.

Recordings of some of our past events are available on YouTube.

2023-2024 research lecture series

This year's lectures will be held online. Please visit the event pages below for more information and a booking form to register your place. For further information please contact the organisers, Dr Jim Jeffers and Dr Giovanna Gioli.

Previous lecture series

2022-2023 research lecture series
2021-2022 research lecture series
2020-2021 research lecture series

Past events

Unhealthy Rivers: Emerging Contaminants and Water-related Diseases

Talk by Professor Mark G Macklin (University of Lincoln UK, Massey University NZ, La Trobe University, Australia)

Part of the Hazard, Risk and Disaster (HRD) Research Seminar Series 2020.

Wednesday 11 March 2020
Newton NE.101
4.00pm–6.00pm

Professor Mark G Macklin is an authority on river systems and global environmental change, and a multi-award-winning physical geographer.

In this presentation the concept of unhealthy rivers was considered from catchment science and hydromorphology perspectives in the context of ecosystem and human health.

More information and abstract.

Iceland in the Anthropocene

Iceland in the Anthropocene posterLecture by Emeritus Professor Chris Caseldine

Presented by the Geography Society

Wednesday 24 February 2020
CM.223, Newton Park, 5.00pm

Free for all to attend. Join us at the SU after.  

Speaker biography

Chris Caseldine is Emeritus Professor of Quaternary Environmental Change at the University of Exeter.

Chris first visited Iceland in 1975 to carry out research on glacial changes around southern Vatnajökull and since then has undertaken research on Holocene climatic change using both glacial data and analysis of lake cores, especially from sites in northern and western Iceland. Results from these have appeared in over 30 research papers and two edited books.

Chris is currently completing an interdisciplinary-based book on understanding the physical landscape of Iceland, which is due out in 2021.

Abstract

Geologists may be lukewarm about the reality of an Anthropocene but Iceland provides an opportunity to look at Anthropocene change in action.

After briefly showing how it may be possible to identify the shift to this proposed new epoch in Iceland, the idea of the Anthropocene is used to examine three key environmental challenges that Iceland is currently facing:

  • The future for its glaciers and ice caps
  • Demands for clean energy
  • How it deals with alien species (plants and animals).

In considering these issues, an opportunity will be taken to look more widely at what is traditionally known as the Land of Ice and Fire, and there will be passing reference to Sigur Rós and some idiosyncratic Icelandic cinema.

HiFlo-DAT

Please see our project page for further details. 

Disaster risk reduction

Please see our project page for further details. 

Dr George Adamson – The Co-Production of El Niño and Society

March 2019

The El Niño Southern Oscillation is often described as the most important source of natural climatic variability on decadal timescales. Yet the phenomenon can be somewhat of a contradiction. Apparently successful forecasts of the event up to 6 months in advance have been hailed as a key success of long-range forecasts, yet every El Niño (and La Niña) event produces surprising characteristics and it is apparently become more difficult – not easier – to understand what the phenomenon is. Research over the last decade has suggested that there may be several El Niños, not just one.

This presentation will trace the historical developments that led to the construction of the phenomenon that we now call the El Niño Southern Oscillation. It will argue that our current understanding of the phenomenon is related as much to historical accident as it is to ‘objective’ science. As such it will explore the concept of ‘path dependency’ in earth system science.

George Adamson is a Lecturer in Geography at King’s College London. His research explores the production and use of climate knowledge in a number of different historical and contemporary contexts. Particular foci are the El Niño Southern Oscillation, hazard early warning, and how adaptation options are constrained by historical processes and path dependencies.