Free environmental lectures at university

A new series of free public lectures at the University of Edinburgh has been launched to raise awareness about contemporary global issues that plague the human population.

The eight-part 'Our Changing World' lecture series, which is being presented by the University of Edinburgh professors, focuses on issues such as global health, environmental change and degradation, and socio-cultural challenges arising from an increasingly globalized world.

Speaking at the opening lecture, Professor Steve Hillier, Vice Principal International at the University, said that the “background to the series is the growing recognition across the world of the urgency of tackling a range of difficult, complex, and interconnected issues that effect human wellbeing, in general.”

Key lectures include a discussion of the developments in stem cell research by Dr Siddharthan Chandran and Professor Charles French-Constant, as well as an assessment of the risk of global health by Dr Sue Wellburn.

“These issues are well known to us all”, said Professor Hiller. “They include food, energy, water, security, infectious diseases, and development in technology, medicine, climate, and they go on and on.”

The final lecture will be given by media personality Jon Snow on Friday 19 November. Mr Snow will examine the impact of digital technology, social websites, and citizen journalism on media, and his presentation will also serve as Edinburgh University’s 2010 Enlightenment Lecture.

Running in conjunction to the lectures is a pilot first-year undergraduate course, aimed at “engaging you in thinking about these global issues across subject boundaries, and to understand the relevance and impact of your own subject in relation to the broad challenges.”

Dr Sutherland Maciver told The Journal: "Students on the course will attend the lectures, research the topics in depth, participate in facilitated group discussions on each topic, work in small groups to produce a collaborative wiki on a chosen topic, and produce an individual research report on a topic which may be closer to their own subject area.

"We want the students, as well as the public, to appreciate the role of interdisciplinary research and scholarship in addressing these global issues, which are going to impact not just on our lifestyles but on those of the next generation.”

Professor Paul van Gardingen, director of the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation Programme at Edinburgh presented the first lecture, entitled ‘Global challenges: The Perfect Storm’. He urged undergraduate students to “use the opportunity to think about some of these major challenges and how you can pick up skills, knowledge, information, networks, that you can contribute to the solution.”

“Research and science needs to adopt new ways of working to provide the evidence required to meet the new global challenges - that is going outside our traditional disciplines – [and] new ways of working which links disciplines, and which links researchers around the world,” said Professor Gardingen.

Lectures run every Tuesday at 6.30pm until 12 November. Tickets must be reserved online beforehand.