The Department of Geography Annual Report Picture by Prof Ulf Büntgen 2016-17 Contents Introduction 3 Staff Updates 4-5 Promotions, Honours and Prizes 5 Anthena Swan Award 5 Research 6-10 Key Grants Awarded 6 Research Features 7 Research Outreach 8 Books 2016-17 9 Postdoctoral Research Fellows 10 Departmental Seminars 10 Visiting Scholars 10 Distinguished International Visitors 10 Undergraduate Studies 11 Distinctions and Prizes 12 First Class Dissertations 13 Cambridge University Geographical Society 14 Graduate Studies 15 PhDs Submitted and Completed 16 Communications Updates 17 Technical Services 18 Staff 19 Tenerife Fieldtrip Annual Report 2016-17 2 Department of Geography Introduction Main Geography Building Ash Amin Head of Department 2016-17 has been a busy and productive year for the Department of Geography as we welcomed a clutch of new academic staff, following a large number of staff retirements the previous year. These new colleagues will push our teaching and research into fresh and exciting directions, and we bid them all a very warm welcome to Cambridge. It has been a year of achievements and awards: in June, total of £5,026,851 in research grants awarded, and Andrew Cliff became the eleventh Cambridge academic published over 154 monographs, articles, chapters and to win the Royal Geographical Society Victoria Medal, working papers. Our sub departments, the Scott Polar and in April Charlotte Lemanski received a Geographical Research Institute and the newly launched University Association Journal Article Award. We have also enjoyed of Cambridge Conservation Research Institute, both success in our forays into film. Matthew Gandy’s film continue to serve as centres of excellence within their Natura Urbana won ‘Best German Biodiversity Film’ at respective fields. the NaturVision Film Festival and Clive Oppenheimer’s 2016 Netflix documentary Into the Inferno with Werner Since January the Department has introduced lively Herzog has recently been nominated for a 2017 News & social media channels and rolling reporting of research Documentary Emmy Award. news on our website. We are also developing new ways to engage with our alumni, in particular through a Undergraduate teaching is flourishing. In total, we were relaunch of the alumni magazine Landmark. delighted to award 87 Firsts and 13 starred Firsts to In June we welcomed back the class of 1964 to students across all three years. CUGS hosted a series of celebrate 50 years since their graduation. We look talks with leading Geographers from around the world forward to more such events as we begin preparations and ended the year with a sunny garden party in Hughes for celebrating the centenary of the Tripos in 2019. Hall. The highlights of the year for the postgraduate As we look to the year ahead, we are aware of the new community were the Third Year PhD Conference and challenges that we will face in beginning preparations MPhil presentations day, which were great opportunities for REF 2021, taking part in the new Teaching Excellence to showcase the enormous diversity of projects currently Framework exercise, rolling out new ITC and Laboratory being undertaken by graduate students at Cambridge. strategies, celebrating our Centenary, developing Perhaps one of the largest events of the year was the plans for moving to a new building and navigating the Department’s Strategic Research Review in May 2017, uncertainties of Brexit. But I am sure that, given the the results of which were extremely favourable, with combination of expertise, enthusiasm and innovation the panel stating that ‘the Department is a world- that defines our community here in Cambridge, we will leading centre of excellence in geographical research’. continue to thrive. The Review was conducted by a panel of leading Geographers from around the world and involved staff members from across the Department, and we are very grateful to all who took part. We have attracted a number of new prestigious grants, with a fantastic Annual Report 2016-17 3 Department of Geography Staff Updates This year we welcomed Prof Christine Lane We are saying goodbye to Dr David Beckingham as 1993 Professor of Geography from the (Sidney Sussex) who is taking up a post in Nottingham, University of Manchester, Prof Ulf Büntgen as Dr Alice Evans who is moving to King’s College London, Professor of Environmental Systems Analysis Dr Jess Hope who is moving to the University of Bristol, and Prof Phil Gibbard who is retiring. from the Swiss Federal Research Institute and Dr Richard Powell as Lecturer in the Among the research staff, we welcomed Human Geography of Polar Regions from Senior Research Associate Paul Krusic, Research the University of Oxford. This September Associates Dr Sam Halvorsen, Dr Maros Krivy, we are also welcoming Prof Mike Hulme Dr Catherine Martin-Jones, Dr Piero Montebruno as Chair in Human Geography from King’s Bondi, Rachael Turton and Dr Celine Vidal and Research College London, Dr Evangelia Apostolopoulou Assistants Rogelio Luque Lora and Rachel Taylor. from the University of Oxford as Lecturer in But we had to say goodbye to Dr Ruth Reef (Marie Environment, Economy and Innovation, Curie), Dr Robert Doubleday, Dr Sina Frank, Dr Amy Donovan from King’s College London Dr James O’Neill, Dr Dragana Radicic, Dr David Rose and - we wish them all the very best. as Lecturer in Geography and Dr Anja Schmidt Dr Julien Savre as Lecturer in Climate Modelling from the University of Leeds. Annual Report 2016-17 4 Department of Geography Staff Updates Among the support staff Laura Healy became our new Athena Swan Award Laboratory and Field Equipment Services Technician, Dr Alma Piermattei our new Technical Laboratory In March 2017, the Department’s new Equality Team Research Assistant, Anna Jenkin our new Assistant met for the first time. The Team is made up of 14 Departmental Administrator and Katrina Purser our individuals from across the Department who meet on a new Graduate Administrator. At the same time we said regular basis to explore issues concerning equality and a fond farewell to Jan Parsons (Senior Secretary), Gae diversity. The first task for the team is to prepare the Matthews (Graduate Administrator) and Rebecca Tyler Department’s application for an Athena Swan Bronze (Data Entry Clerk, CAMPOP). Award, due in November 2018. As part of this, the team has been scrutinising data on gender and equality and will soon be launching staff and student surveys to Promotions better understand equality issues in the Department. Congratulations to Dr Bhaskar Vira who has been promoted to Professor, Dr Poul Christoffersen who has been promoted to Reader and Dr Charlotte Lemanski who has been promoted to Senior Lecturer. Honours and Prizes In Autumn 2016 Prof Matthew Gandy’s book The Fabric of Space won an award for “the most innovative book in planning history” from the International Planning Historical Society (IPHS), while Prof Clive Oppenheimer’s Netflix documentary Into the Inferno was nominated for ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Documentary Feature’ at the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards and for ‘Best use of wildlife and natural history footage’ at the FOCAL Awards. It was Prof Matthew Gandy’s screened at the Telluride Film Festival and Toronto Film film Natura Urbana Festival. In Summer 2017, it was further nominated for received the award for a News & Documentary Emmy Award. ‘Best German Biodiversity Film’ In April 2017, Department Lecturer Dr Charlotte Lemanski won a Geographical Association Journal Article award for her article ‘Poverty: multiple perspectives and strategies’ published in Geography, Spring 2016, while in May Department Reader Dr Bhaskar Vira delivered the keynote address at the 12th Session of the United Nations Forum on Forests and Food Security in New York. In June 2017, Professor Emertius Andrew Cliff was awarded the prestigious Royal Geographic Society Victoria Medal for research excellence in spatial epidemiology. He is the eleventh Cambridge academic to receive the award. In August 2017, Prof Matthew Gandy’s film Natura Urbana received the award for ‘Best German Biodiversity Film’ at the NaturVision Film Festival. It was also awarded an Honorable Mention at the Karlsuhe Science Film Days. Prof Clive Oppenheimer’s In the Department the Geography Science Laboratories Netflix documentary Into the Inferno have been awarded a Platinum Award in the NUS Green was nominated for ‘Best Director, Impact Award scheme and the Department of Geography Best Documentary Feature’ at the has been awarded a Silver Award. The Department was judged on categories that included procurement, Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards events, social media, recycling, communication and and an Emmy Nomination in the 2017 News environmental awareness. Many congratulations to all of and Documentary Emmy Awards the Green Team for their hard work. Annual Report 2016-17 5 Department of Geography Research Professor Tom Spencer Director of Research From the Director of Research’s point of view, the most significant event of the year (I hesitate to say ‘highlight’…) was our University Strategic Research Review, involving the whole Department in two days of intensive meetings and discussions with a distinguished panel of international geographers. We are still digesting their final report but the headline statement makes for pleasing reading – ‘In terms of intellectual position and agendas, Cambridge Geography is right where it needs to be: its research is agenda-setting; it is evolving its primary research foci in a way that builds