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The Gregory Lecture was inaugurated in 1993 and named in honour of Professor Ken Gregory, a world-leading geomorphologist and geographer and former Head of Department, Dean of Science and Deputy Vice Chancellor and now a visiting professor at the University. He was appointed CBE in 2007 for services to geography and higher education. The aim of the Gregory Lecture series was, and continues to be, to provide a forum for academic discourse between the world’s leading geographers.
Gregory Lecture 16th October 2024:?The metabolism of a human and more-than-human planet.
The 2024 talk was given by Professor Yadvinder Malhi,?Professor of Ecosystem Science at the University of Oxford, Jackson Research Fellow at Oriel College, Oxford and Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery.
We live in a unique time in human and Earth history, when human influence on the planet is so persuasive that it is argued we have entered a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene.?The consequences of this pervasive influence underlies the many environmental challenges we face, from climate change to depletion of marine resources and the loss and degradation of natural ecosystems.
In this lecture Professor Malhi examined the functioning of the natural world and human influence on this world, ?through the concept of metabolism: how much energy flows through human societies compared to how much flows through the biosphere. We first look at the biological metabolism of the planet, how it is measured and how it is distributed over the Earth, and how the cascade of energy from plant to animals can be a measure of ecosystem health and function. He then explored how these energy flows have changed through human history and prehistory, and scenarios for how they may change over this century, where human-appropriated energy flows threaten to overwhelm the life-sustaining metabolism of the more-than-human planet.
Yadvinder Malhi is Professor of Ecosystem Science at the University of Oxford, Jackson Research Fellow at Oriel College, Oxford and Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery. His research has focused on how the biosphere is responding to global change and feeds back on global change, with a particular focus on the tropics. He has extensive experience of working with partners in the tropics, notably in establishing a global network of intensive forest monitoring plots across tropical ecosystems, in sites ranging from the slopes of the Andes and Amazonia, the forests of Africa and Borneo, the savannas of Africa and the oceanic islands of the Indian and Pacific oceans. More broadly he works on the challenges of maintaining a flourishing biosphere in the Anthropocene. Recently he has also focused on the challenge of how to generate nature recovery at scale in response to the ongoing decline of biodiversity. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, where he has chaired several of its biodiversity activities, a Trustee of the National History Museum of London, scientific advisor to several governments and Past-President of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation and the British Ecological Society.
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Previous lectures
2023
Decolonizing Asylum: Colonialism, Racism, and Humanitarianism in the Shaping of Refugees' (Un)belonging in East Africa.
The Lecture was given by Professor Patricia Daley.?
Asylum has become a stigmatized term in the West and, inevitably, in some African states where refugee policies and practices have been shaped by a humanitarianism that is informed by colonialism, racism, and the securitization agenda associated with Cold War/post-Cold War geopolitics. In this lecture, Professor Daley used historical and contemporary evidence from the East and Central African region to illustrate how humanitarianism, including neo-liberal peacebuilding, has contributed to the dehumanized treatment of refugees and displaced communities. She argues for a more humanizing approach that centres anti-racist and decolonial praxis, eschews ‘localwashing’, and is characterized by disobedience to hegemonic ways of knowing. In doing so, she draws on evidence from the anti-colonial/anti-apartheid struggles in Africa, as well as conceptual thinking about ubuntu and conviviality to demonstrate how African states/peoples might embrace ethical responsibilities that prioritize the common humanity of displaced communities.
2022
Adventures of robot geoscientists on Mars - tales of the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers
In this talk, Professor Sanjeev Gupta explained how rovers conduct landscape science on Mars and discussed his recent explorations with NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance rovers. We send robots to Mars in general to search for evidence for extraterrestrial life, in particular ancient life. This is not such an easy task. Crucial to this endeavour is finding the right rocks that might contain signature of ancient life. But how do we go about this? Sedimentary rocks are the ‘go to’ archives for this search. The goal of geographers and geologists exploring Mars with robots is to work out what processes shaped the present Martian landscape and what it looked like early in Mars’ history – at a time when life is thought to have got going on Earth. Were ancient environments on Mars suitable for life to have formed, flourished and its evidence preserved in the rock record.
2021
Remembering Professor Ken Gregory
The 2021 Gregory Lecture gave people the chance to reflect on the enormous contribution Professor Ken Gregory made to geographical research in Physical Geography. The event saw six speakers including 4 former postgraduate students, provide summaries of Ken's research career over the past 55 years. These included people's personal memories of working with Ken, reminding us all of his kindness and professionalism and his strong support to colleagues.
It was also a chance to formally thank his wife Christine for her support over his lifetime which enabled us all to benefit from Ken's scientific insights and wider contributions to the discipline.
2020
Participatory Action Research and Geographies of Trauma 2020
Professor Rachel Pain ,
Professor of Human Geography at Newcastle University and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences
2019
Beyond Production: A Food System Approach to Climate Change Research
Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig , Senior Research Scientist - NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the co-located Columbia University Earth Institute’s Center for Climate Systems Research. Professor in the Department of Environmental Science at Barnard College
2018
The politics of land value capture: Defining the form of the future city in London, Johannesburg and Shanghai
Professor Jennifer Robinson (University College London)
2017
The Influence of Ice Sheet Hydrology on Ice Dynamics
Professor Robin Bell , PGI Lamont
2016
Moving Beyond Averages: Embracing Variation in Population Health
Professor S V Subramanian , Harvard Chan School of Public Health
2015
Tracing Antarctic climate evolution: from a forested arctic to the present
Professor Julie Brigham-Grette , University of Massachusetts-Amherst
2014
Earth System Science: the Big Picture
Steven W.Running , University of Montana
2013
Resilience and the Economic Landscape: How do regional economies react to shocks?
Professor Ron Martin , Professor of Economic Geography University of Cambridge
2012
Can we improve forecasting of Antarctic sea level rises?
Professor Chris Clark , Sheffield University
2011-1993
2011 Minding Geography
Prof Chris Philo FBEA , School of Geography
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2010 Changing climate, human evolution & the revival of environmental determinism
Prof David Livingstone OBE , FBA, School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, University of Belfast
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2009 Acid rain and acid lakes: has the problem been solved
Prof Rick Battarbee FRS , Emeritus Professor of Environmental Change, Department of Geography, University College London
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2008 Earth Science to the Rescue?
Prof Compton J. Tucker , NASA/Goddard Space Center
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2007 Capitalism and urbanization in a new key?
Professor Allen J Scott , Department of Geography, UCLA
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2006 Fine sediment in river basins
Professor Des Walling , Department of Geography, University of Exeter
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2005 Where have all the forests gone? Using remote sensing to monitor the Earth’s vegetation
Professor John Townshend , Department of Geography & Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland
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2004 Neoliberalism on the Loose
Professor Jamie Peck , Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin – Madison
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2003 Environments of Southern Britain before Lowland
Professor Jim Rose , Department of Geography, Royal Holloway
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2002 Augmenting Geographical Reality
Professor Michael Goodchild , Department of Geography, UC Santa Barbara
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2001 Urban Futures: Myths and Realities
Professor Sir Peter Hall , The Bartlett School of Planning, University College London
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2000 New Cultures of Work
Professor Linda McDowell , Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics
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1999 Intimations of the Future from the past
Professor David Bowen , Department of Earth Sciences, Cardiff University
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1998 Putting Voters in their Places
Professor Ron Johnston , Department of Geography, University of Bristol
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1997 Restoration of Impounded American rivers
Professor William Graf , Regent’s Professor, Arizona State University, USA
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1996 Rogues and Regulation in Global Finance
Professor Gordon Clark , Oxford University
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1995 Physical Geography, Remote Sensing and Global Change
Professor Alan Strahler , Professor of Geography, Boston, USA
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1994 Socialist Perspectives on Space, Place and Environment ?
Professor David Harvey , Professor of Geography, John Hopkins University, USA
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1993 Geographical Aspects of Epidemics
Professor Peter Haggett , Professor of Urban and Regional Geography, University of Bristol