Departmental Events

VC Dept Visit - 22 Feb 2024

The VC, Charlie Jeffery, visited DEG on Thursday 22nd February as part of his biennial round of dept visits. Many thanks again to those of you who submitted questions and voted on the questions, and to those of you who joined us in the Lecture Theatre for his all-staff presentation. Before his presentation, the VC had a short meeting with the E&G Leadership Team where our recent teaching, research and operational highlights were presented. This was then followed by a discussion on sustainability initiatives within the department and across UoY with a view to increasing the visibility of our in-house expertise, and consequently, our overall impact. 

There are links below for anyone who missed the all-staff presentation and would like to catch up. 

• Click here to watch the VC presentation (audio and slides only) via Panopto (if you have any trouble with Panopto, try watching via this Google Photos link).

• Click here to view the VC slides only. 

DEG Seminar - celebrating International Women’s Day! 🎉

Date / Time: Tuesday 5th March at 12:05

Location: Hybrid/in-person (ENV/005 and Zoom - Zoom link)

Chair: Prof Kiran Trehan. Speakers: Prof Sarah West and Dr Karen Parkhill

Title

A Talk to celebrate International Women’s Day - “Beyond the Norm: Narratives of Academic Achievement Amidst Challenges”

The Department of Environment & Geography invites you to a session of captivating talks featuring two remarkable speakers who have defied conventions and overcome obstacles on their path to academic success. The session will be chaired by the Pro-Vice Chancellor for Enterprise, Partnerships & Engagement, Prof Kiran Trehan.

Session Speakers

Prof Sarah West: Join Sarah as she shares her unconventional journey to becoming a professor. Gain valuable insights and top tips for navigating life's choices and discovering your true calling.

Dr Karen Parkhill: Discover Karen's inspiring story of triumph. Explore the challenges she faced and the "potholes" she encountered on her road to success. Do join us and be part of this empowering event! We look forward to seeing you there

💻 Click here to watch last week's DEG Seminar! Passcode: M^ut!b0X

⬇️ PLUS!

Click here to sign up for our International Potluck lunch next Friday 8th March between 12pm and 2pm. Please join us and bring something delicious, either sweet or savoury, that represents you/your culture!

➡️ PLUS……

NOW AVAILABLE TO VIEW: Our Wall of Inspirational Women is now displayed in the Environment Foyer - please take a moment to read our fantastic poster submissions next week when you are in the building

Sustainability Education Conversation - Wednesday 6th March at 12:05

Location: Zoom - Zoom link

Speaker: Rachel Coxcoon

Title

Reflecting on ideological biases in environmental communication

"Rachel will consider segmentation of the UK population’s attitude to climate change and consider how we unconsciously use normative assumptions as incontrovertible truths rather than value judgements. Within the workshop Rachel will ask the attendees to use a segmentation tool to see how ‘normal’ they are as a group and will reflect on "hidden words of woke" found in university courses"

Sustainability Week - Plant and book swap on Wednesday 6th March!

For Sustainability Week (4-8 March) the Green Impact Labs Team is bringing back the now-legendary 🌻🌱Plant Swap! Anything from house plant cuttings to vegetable seeds and seedlings! So if you’ve been over-exuberant with your planting, please bring your spares and pick up something new! We’ll be in the foyer 1-3pm on Wednesday 6th March.

Donations of plant pots are welcome anytime! 

We are also launching our 📚Non-Academic Book Swap (please save any academic texts for Nic’s charity sale later in the year). If you have any donations to start the ball rolling, please drop them off in the foyer, with a note or at the technical office.  Many thanks!

Other Events

Sustainability Week: Where Nature and Smartphones Meet!

Step away from the desk or lab for an hour during Sustainability Week to explore "Where Nature and Smartphones Meet"!

Join us from 2-3pm on Wednesday, 6th March, as we start off at the Envi/Geo building ground floor foyer and go for a very slow exploratory walk through different habitats recording wildlife! 

Sign-up here (a few spaces left!) and bring your smartphone with iNaturalist downloaded!

Best wishes, Dr. Smriti Safaya

You cannot serve from an empty glass - being a resilient activist!

Date / Time: Thursday 14th March, 12pm-1:30pm (Taking Place During the University Mental Health Day)

Location: SLB/211

Activists would typically describe themselves as motivated by high levels of social connectedness. Indeed this is strongly associated with higher levels of wellbeing. However, a core aspect of wellbeing that goes undermentioned is resilience - and the literature suggests that having low levels of resilience can undermine our wellbeing in the long run. Therefore, it is not enough just to be passionate about increasing the life opportunities of our fellow man, we need to understand how to adapt and cope well with the hurdles involved in our activism journeys. This workshop aims to explore a range of research-backed methods for becoming resilient activists, and will encourage attendees to not only be critical of their current approaches, but also leave with a deep understanding of how to become resilient in the face of challenging activist work. 

Attendees will be provided with a workbook and light refreshments.

Job Opportunity

Ph.D position - Release of heavy-metal pollutants from estuary sedimentary banks - IFREMER / University of Western Brittany.

Please find here details of an offer for a Ph.D. position we just opened at our institute.

The PhD has for goal to study the release of inherited heavy-metal pollution by the sedimentary banks of the Aulne estuary, located in western Brittany (France). We are seeking candidates with geochemistry and/or hydrogeology backgrounds, with a strong appeal to work with geosciences remote-sensing and sedimentology methods. The PhD will be based in Brest (France), and co-hosted by IFREMER (French national institute for Ocean Science, https://en.ifremer.fr) and the University of Western Brittany.

Please feel free to forward this offer to anyone you believe may be interested. For any supplementary information, please contact: jerome.goslin@ifremer.fr , matthieu.waeles@univ-brest.fr, nicolas.briant@ifremer.fr

Applications close on April 15th.

Third year Dissertation Survey on Social Media

Please help Eve Exley, a third-year Human Geography and Environmental Sciences student, by filling out her dissertation survey on consumer behaviours and crisis perception during the Covid-19 pandemic. The questionnaire should take around 15-20 minutes to complete.

Good News and Media Engagement

⭐ The synthesis paper from YESI’s Topical Collection "Accrual of Climate Change Risk in Six Vulnerable Countries" (mainly funded by BEIS) was published this week in Climatic Change. More information via the Tyndall Centre here. Congratulations to Oliver Andrews! Warren, R., Price, J., Forstenhäusler, N., Andrews, O. et al. Risks associated with global warming of 1.5 to 4 °C above pre-industrial levels in human and natural systems in six countries. Climatic Change 177, 48 (2024). Click here to read.

⭐ Sarah Bridle gave a talk to York Fabians about food and climate change.

⭐ Sam Buckton has had a blog published by FixOurFood about regenerative systems.

Research Opportunities and Updates

Funding Announcement: University Internally-distributed Funding (IDF) Spring Call 2024

The Internally-distributed Funding (IDF) Spring Call 2024 will be launched on 4 March 2024. Details of the Call and available funding are available on our website. The deadline for applications is Friday 5th April at 12 noon.

Funding will be available across a wide range of disciplines - full details will be on the website. A schedule of future calls is also available on the Internally-distributed Funding webpage. 

If you have any questions please email re-internal-funding-team@york.ac.uk.

Nature Awards for Inspiring Women in Science

The Nature Awards for Inspiring Women in Science, in partnership with the Estee Lauder companies, are now open for applications. The deadline for applications is 8th April 2024. The awards celebrate and support the achievements of women in science, and all those who work to encourage girls and young women to engage with STEM subjects and stay in STEM careers around the world.

Awards will be made in two categories:

Scientific Achievement - Applicants who have made an exceptional, demonstrable contribution to scientific discovery, and may have faced significant personal or professional challenges. The applicant should exhibit the potential for developing and leading an independent research group, and have completed their PhD or MD within the last 10 years.

Science Outreach - Initiatives that have encouraged girls or young women to engage with and study natural sciences, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEM) or increased retention of women in STEM careers, with a focus on providing tools to support women through their career progression in a STEM discipline.

Please get in touch with your research support team and the CFP team - sharon.godwin@york.ac.uk and audrey.bounaix@york.ac.uk - if you are interested in applying.

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