The School of Geography and the Environment's Academic Administrator, Dr Lorraine Wild, has won a Divisional Teaching Excellence Award for Outstanding Achievement.

A new analysis by The Pew Charitable Trusts and SYSTEMIQ, in collaboration with the University of Oxford, the University of Leeds, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and Common Seas, found that the annual flow of plastic into the ocean could nearly triple by 2040. The release of this report coincides with the publication of 'Evaluating Scenarios Toward Zero Plastic Pollution', in the journal Science and co-authored by Richard Bailey (Professor of Environmental Systems).

Ellen Kujawa, a current student on the MSc in Water Science, Policy and Management programme, is one of nine recipients to be awarded a 2020 Science Policy Fellowship on the United States' National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Gulf Research Program, which seeks to benefit Gulf Coast communities and ecosystems.

Congratulations to recent graduate Rai Saad Khan (2020, Christ Church) who has been awarded the 2020 undergraduate dissertation prize by the Royal Geographical Society's Development Geographies Research Group for his paper titled, 'Lahore's Performative Statehoods: A study of the form and practices of statehood of the Walled City of Lahore Authority in Pakistan'.

As Arctic summers warm, Earth's northern landscapes are changing. Using satellite images to track global tundra ecosystems over decades, a new collaborative study involving the University of Oxford and global institutions across the world, found the region has become greener, as warmer air and soil temperatures lead to increased plant growth.

Jesús Aguirre Gutiérrez has been awarded a new five-year Independent Researcher Fellowship from the Natural Environment Research Council to understand tropical forest responses to global change drivers, working with contacts from around the world including Brazil, Ghana, Mexico, Australia, Costa Rica, and Oxford and Leeds (UK).

In the quest for the best of all societies, Professor Danny Dorling provides insights on his latest book, exploring what can be learnt from Europe's most equitable country and what's made it the world's happiest country for three years running.

Oxford University researchers have recorded the wettest October day since daily rainfall records began at the Radcliffe Meteorological Station in January 1827. 60.0 mm of rainfall was observed in the rain gauge on Saturday 3rd October 2020, which was the sixth wettest day of the 70,000 days in the records, and the rainiest day in Oxford for over 47 years.

School of Geography and the Environment undergraduate student Eliza Norris (Keble College) has been awarded the Royal Geographical Society's Political Geography Research Group Undergraduate Dissertation Prize 2020 for her work on subterranean hospitals in the Middle East.

Laura Antona has been awarded an 18-month postdoctoral fellowship by the ESRC to build on her doctoral research, which focusses on the experiences of migrant domestic workers who are no longer willing or able to work-for or live with their employers in Singapore.