Up-coming Arctic-related events at St Andrews

Two Arctic-related events are scheduled for the coming weeks:

• Artic Talks, hosted by Greenpeace St Andrews, will take place in Wednesday 27th February at 6:30pm in School 1. It will include talks from University lecturers, experts in the field and a Greenpeace guest speaker. 

• A screening of the film Chasing Ice, which is taking place on Monday 4th March at 7pm in School 3 as part of the “Take One Action” film festival. The film follows National Geographic photographer James Balog as he brings to life the Extreme Ice Survey (EIS), a photography project which placed cameras across three continents to gather visual evidence of the Earth’s melting ice. The film will be followed by a panel discussion with experts engaged in the climate change debate today, including Mike Robinson, chair of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. 

Both events are open to the public.

Prestigious US award for St Andrews Geologist

Dr Tony Prave, Department of Earth Sciences, has been elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of America.  This prestigious award is in recognition of Tony’s leading role in piecing together the history of the Earth during the Neoproterozoic, some 750 to 550 million years ago, and in mentoring outstanding young scientists. Tony’s work is based on detailed field investigations over many decades in Scotland, western North America and southern Africa that highlighted an environment that ranged from glaciations enveloping the whole globe to equally extensive, abnormally tropical conditions. Through careful geochemical and isotopic analysis of the rock record, Tony and co-workers have helped to unravel the surficial and deep Earth processes driving this period of extreme environmental perturbations.

Prof Hawkesworth awarded highest geological award

Professor Chris Hawkesworth,  Deputy Principal and Vice-Principal (Research) and Professor in Earth Sciences, has been awarded the Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society of London. This is the highest award granted by the world’s oldest geological society and reflects Professor Hawkesworth’s sustained and broad contributions across the Earth Sciences, particularly in isotope geochemistry.

The medal is named after William Hyde Wollaston (1766-1828) and was first awarded in 1831 (William Smith received the first medal). It was originally made of palladium, a metal discovered by Wollaston.