2023 MSc graduate Ashwini Petchiappan has won the Alfred Russel Wallace Prize for her dissertation research on The Impact of Climatic Oscillations on Bird Migrations. The prize is awarded once per year by the Examinations Board for the MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management for an outstanding dissertation. 

We are marking International Women’s Day – a time to reflect on the progress women have made and their ongoing fight for equality. The theme for IWD2024 is Inspire Inclusion. We asked SoGE students and staff to tell us about women who inspire them, and what they think inclusion means in the context of gender equality. They highlighted the influence and contributions of an incredible range of women, including activists, entertainers, academics, politicians, their own mothers, and many more. Here is what they had to say…

Raphaella Mascia, postgraduate student on the MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation, and Management (BCM) course, recounts her experience on the Tenerife field trip and the importance of positive conservation outcomes.

Two academic members at the School of Geography and the Environment (SoGE) have been awarded the title of Professor by the Vice Chancellor of the University of Oxford, in recognition of their outstanding contributions to their fields of research, teaching and academic service. Congratulations to Louise Slater, Professor of Hydroclimatology, and Christian Brand, Professor of Transport, Energy and Climate Change, on this richly deserved achievement.

Researchers face ethical dilemmas in every step of the research process, often unforeseen despite our best efforts of anticipation in the research design. Many complex ethical questions arise from the best intentions of producing inclusive and responsible research while avoiding harm to participants and researchers. These questions become more salient with the emergence of diverse creative and innovative research methods in the field, such as 'go-along', visual, and digital methods. Responding to the ethical and practical challenges in qualitative research, Dr Jennie Middleton, Dr Rosalie Warnock, and Professor Gillian Rose convened a two-part workshop on Thinking Care-fully with Method at SoGE in May.

Second year geography undergraduate Tony Farag is contributing author in The Sunday Times’ piece on how student vloggers are playing an important role in Oxbridge access campaigns. He pitched, researched and worked on the article, which explores the positive impact that youtubers are having on diversity at Oxbridge, whilst working on the news desk for two weeks over the Christmas break.

An innovative study led by Dr Katrin Wilhelm, Researcher and Departmental Lecturer at the School of Geography and the Environment, uses Oxford’s historic structures as geochemical "clocks" to reveal past pollution trends.

Oxford's School of Geography and the Environment has appointed Dr David Moreno-Mateos as Associate Professor in Physical Geography who will take up post on 1st September 2023. Dr Moreno-Mateos will replace Rob Whittaker (Professor of Biogeography), who retires from the School later this year. The new appointment is in association with Oxford's St Edmund Hall where Dr Moreno-Mateos will hold the position of Tutorial Fellow in Physical Geography.

Alumna Natalie Chung (MPhil 2021), founder of V'air Hong Kong, voyaged alongside accomplished deep ocean activist Dr Sylvia Earle to advocate for policies to protect nature's most important carbon sink - the Ocean.