SoGE brings alumni together for series of events
In September, alumni from the University of Oxford's School of Geography and the Environment (SoGE) came together to reconnect at a number of events.
SoGE has more than 9,000 alumni in over 80 countries around the world. We were delighted that this autumn the School's programme of alumni events could resume, and it was wonderful to see people not only gather on screen, but also in person again.
Here, SoGE's Alumni Relations Officer, Christine Baro-Hone, reflects on our recent alumni events.
ECI Alumni Dinner 2021
The Environmental Change Institute (ECI) has been holding Alumni Dinners since 1996 without fail, so after the 2020 edition had to be cancelled due to COVID, it was high on the agenda to make this event happen in person again this year, not least to give the leaving cohort of ECM students a good send off at the end of a more than unusual MSc year.
It was a rather overwhelming experience to see 110 guests arriving at Somerville College - with many travel restrictions still in the place the group was less international than normal, but a large crowd of last year's ECM graduates came to catch up on their celebrations.
To start with, ECI alumnus Raman Nanda (ECM MSc 1996 and DPhil 1999) gave a remarkable and high-powered pre-dinner talk on his journey to leading SoftBank's solar investments. SoftBank is one of the world's leading solar energy players and Raman has helped install industrial-scale swathes of solar across India - and now in the US.
Raman cut his teeth at McKinsey before going into the front line to run a struggling network of pharmacies across India. McKinsey gave Raman the secret insights they don't tell you about for Excel and PowerPoint. The pharmacy franchisees gave him a fast track lesson in people and cultural co-operation. His big break was taking the chance to meet with the head of the Japanese multinational conglomerate SoftBank and stimulate their green energy interests. They - and Raman - now have 18 of the world's 100 largest solar plants. Raman sees modern solar installation as a miracle in the race against climate change. But, while an optimist (as befits a high-class triathlete!), he urged his fellow ECIers to pursue the several more miracles that will be needed in this decade to win the race.
Over drinks and dinner students, alumni and staff had plenty of opportunity to mingle and network, catch up with their class mates and build new connections across year groups. Planet-saving conversations continued long after the bar had closed, into the early hours of a (slightly too) mild September night.
Meeting Minds Global - September
For the last decade or so, mid-September has been the time of Meeting Minds, the Alumni Weekend in Oxford - the town buzzing with former students wearing dark blue lanyards and carrying branded canvas bags ("I'd rather miss Christmas"), wandering from college to department venue to listen to an array of talks across Oxford's amazing range of current research topics.
While COVID first banished the alumni wanderers to behind their screens last autumn, the change to virtual has enabled even more minds to meet, across countries, continents and time zones. After a successful "Meeting Minds Global" week in April, the School was proud to contribute to another high-profile programme on 13 and 14 September.
With our talks we started a series introducing our MSc Course Directors and the research they pursue when they are not teaching their graduate students. Dr Mark Hirons, who has been heading up our MSc course in Environmental Change and Management since 2018, attracted a large online audience on Monday morning with his insights into the complexities of where we are on our journey to achieving more sustainability.
At Tuesday teatime Dr Kevin Greksch, the new Course Director for Water Science, Policy and Management, presented his research on water scarcity and how to prevent it to a group of 70 very engaged alumni.
On both days, SoGE researchers, students and staff were available at lunchtime to meet alumni in our virtual booth to answer questions or for an informal chat. But nothing can beat a real Herbertson Lunch with sandwiches, drinks and proper face-to-face conversations, so we are very much hoping to welcome our alumni back in person again in September 2022.
50th Anniversary Reunion of 1970 and 1971 Oxford Geographers
Following the initiative of a 1966 alumnus, we have been organising Golden Anniversary Reunions for Oxford Geographers for a few years now with great success. On 29 September 2021 it was the 1971 cohort's turn to celebrate 50 years since they matriculated and first set foot into the School of Geography at 3 Mansfield Road, and a bunch of 1970 alumni joined them to catch up on their cancelled reunion last year.
The group gathered at the 'new' home of Oxford Geography on South Parks Road for a tour of the ongoing refurbishment works, updates by Head of School Professor Gillian Rose and Director of Undergraduate Studies Professor Derek McCormack and a whistle stop tour of SoGE's impressive research impact.
Drinks and lunch at St John's College (with special guest Dr Tony Lemon, Emeritus geography fellow at Mansfield) were followed by a visit to the Weston Library, were Bodleian Map Librarian Nick Millea and his colleague and Oxford geography alumna Debbie Hall (St Hugh's 1990) presented a fascinating selection of newly acquired maps, ranging from a Victorian "Chart exhibiting the Light Houses and Light Vessels on the Coasts of Great Britain and Ireland and also on the N.W. coasts of Europe" to a 2020 Footways map showing a "network of quiet and interesting streets for walking in London". Meanwhile, SoGE DPhil students Tim Baxter and Sam Woor took the other half of the group to the Sheldonian Heads and New College Lane, introducing the alumni to recent research projects of the School's "Oxford Resilient Buildings and Landscapes Lab", examining deposits on limestone to learn more about historic air pollution - and a more contemporary layer of mysterious microplastics!
Back at the School, SoGE's very own Sue Bird, emeritus geography librarian, but also an alumna of 1970, co-cut the celebration chocolate to round off a golden return for another year of very impressed and inspired Oxford geographers.
