Landmark 4 - Department of Geography, Cambridge - University of ...

LANDMARK

Issue number 4 Spring / Summer 2010

T H E

A L U M N I

N E W S L E T T E R

O F

T H E

D E PA RT M E N T

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G E O G R A P H Y

Development of Social Difference Sarah Radcliffe writes about human geography and rights to development

Alumni

Department of Geography

Welcome

In this issue

Welcome to the fourth edition of “Landmark”, the alumni newsletter of the Department of Geography at Cambridge. This issue pays particular attention to fieldwork in the department, both past and present, and provides a striking sense of the extent to which the content and location of departmental field trips have changed. Whenever you graduated we hope that through the newsletter you will gain a sense of how we are developing and how we remember ourselves. Above all the newsletter provides you with a means of sustaining contact with us and those who have graduated from the department over at least the last 80 years.

1 2 3 4 5 6-7 7-8 8 9 10 Back

With the fourth edition of Landmark we have now completed two full years in which we have aspired to increase our contact with departmental alumni. In this regular publication we now offer a flow of information about recent developments in the department and offer our graduates opportunities to update us on their careers and to register their memories of Downing Place in years past.

Welcome Department News New Mphil in Conservation Leadership Department Talks Nigel Gates Britain’s Island Heritage By Phil Gibbard Science Festival By Andy Hacket-Pain Thinking about Development and Social Difference By Sarah Radcliffe Girton Geographers 40 Years On By Corrinne Swain Geography Field Trips By Juliet Gayton Mount Erebus, Antarctica By Clive Oppenheimer Human Settlements By Bharat Dahiya Undergraduate Study By Bea Ledingham Postgraduate Study By Andy Hacket-Pain CUGS Founders By Reggie Simone Geoff Willett-Librarian 1946-49 Cambridge Bangweulu Expedition 1949 Friends of Geography at Cambridge

Having welcomed in October 2009 the first intake of graduates for an innovative multidisciplinary MPhil in Gender Studies we are preparing, following the appointment of Professor Nigel Leader-Williams, to admit in October 2010 the first of those who will be taking another multi-disciplinary MPhil in Conservation Leadership which involve collaboration with 5 other departments in 3 other schools. Such initiatives do demonstrate unambiguously that Geography can justifiably lay claim to being the inter-disciplinary subject par excellence in Cambridge, extending its links across the humanities, social and natural sciences. Evidence of such breadth can be seen in short articles by Sarah Radcliffe and Clive Oppenheimer reporting on their research respectively on human rights and development and the eruption cycles of volcanoes. Alumni who graduated in the years immediately following World War II reveal just how much it has changed since those times and the general austerity that surrounded their academic pursuits at that time. Nonetheless they also show what interesting careers they were subsequently able to build for themselves. Finally I would like to note the retirement this year of Professor Andy Cliff who has served the department well for almost four decades as an exceptionally productive and distinguished scholar, as head of department and as a University Pro-Vice Chancellor. Also retiring is Dr Jim Duncan who brought a distinctive style of cultural geography to Cambridge and in that respect made huge contributions to the way the subject evolved departmentally as well as internationally. We wish them well in what we are sure will be productive retirements as their scholarly interests continue to flourish. Finally I would like to extend my best wishes to Professor Sue Owens who takes over from me as head of department on 1 October 2010. Professor Richard Smith

Page 1 Issue number 4 Spring / Summer 2010

LANDMARK THE ALUMNI NEWSLETTER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY

Downing Place Cambridge CB2 3EN 01223 333399 www.geog.cam.ac.uk Edited by: Marilena Gonella and Alison Harvey. Graphic design & production by: James Youlden. Cover picture: Women in Tixan, Ecuador. Dr Sarah Radcliffe.

Department News

We are delighted to announce that Professor Nigel Leader-Williams joined the Department as Director of Conservation Leadership in October 2009. We are hosting an exciting new interdisciplinary MPhil in Conservation Leadership that will take in its first students in October 2010. The new course is aimed at conservation professionals with leadership potential, who will gain the training in business and management skills, as well as in conservation, to help avert the growing biodiversity crisis worldwide. Unusually, students will hear from academic staff in a partnership of University departments including Judge Business School, Plant Sciences and Zoology, Land Economy and the Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership. A further unique feature of the course will be the interactions made possible by the many conservation organizations located in and around Cambridge. Nine of nearly 50 such organizations have formed a collaboration known as the Cambridge Conservation Initiative. A key aspect of this course will comprise teaching and supervision that highlights the experiences of the conservation organizations, to achieve what we hope will be an unique marriage in the field of conservation training between academia and practice focused on future leaders.

forward detailed course planning to ensure its effective delivery. Nigel was previously Professor of Biodiversity Management and Director of the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology at the University of Kent. His research has a broad focus around conflicts between large mammals, conservation and people. He brings considerable experience of building capacity among international conservation professionals.

Nigel Leader-Williams BVSc, PhD, MRCVS

Director of Conservation Leadership and Fellow of Churchill College

Nigel Leader-Williams works to build capacity in conservation through interdisciplinary research and teaching that sits within both natural and social sciences, with a focus on large mammals that conflict with human interests http://www.geog.cam.ac.uk/graduate/mphil/ conservation/

Judge Business School Department of Zoology Department of Geography Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership Department of Plant Sciences Department of Land Economy

CambridgeConservationInitiative transforming the landscape of biodiversity conservation

Support for the new programme was generously provided by the MAVA Fondation Pour la Nature. Professor Bill Adams and Dr Bhaskar Vira skillfully negotiated the course through the approval stages, before Nigel was appointed, and he is now taking


Department

“Talks”

Andy Hacket-Pain

Nigel Gates, 1970 – 1973 Emmanuel

Nigel will be coming back to the Department on Tuesday 27th April to give a talk to students and alumni. The talk will be at 5pm followed by a small drinks reception until 7pm. All Welcome. Since leaving Cambridge, Nigel worked in higher education as a geographer (largely in the field of teacher training) for thirty-three years until he retired in December 2004. During that time he also became the National Chairman (for two years) of the Association of University and College Lecturers.

Britain’s Island Heritage

This year, for the first time, the Department took part in the annual Cambridge Science Festival, where the University science departments put on events to help the public find out more about “The Diversity of Science”, taking part in hands-on activities and learning about cutting edge research. On the 13th March, as part of “Science on Saturday”, the Department (including the Scott Polar Research Institute) ran a drop-in event in the Small Lecture Theatre, which attracted over one hundred children and adults. Staff and students were on hand throughout the day to explain their research and answer questions, and with the help of displays, a wave tank, a polar tent, a meteorological station, and one or two volcanoes, inspire enthusiasm and excitement about science!

Reconstructing half a million years of history - the latest instalment of a 20-year study to understand how Britain became an island completes a tale of megafloods and super-rivers. Professor Phil Gibbard from the Cambridge Quaternary Group was interviewed on the Radio 4 Today programme about his research on Britain’s Island Heritage and he also gave an interview for BBC World Service TV. His latest article has been published online in the University’s Research Horizons magazine and can be found at: http://www.research-horizons.cam.ac.uk/features/ -p-britain-s-island-heritage--reconstructing-half-amillion-years-of-history--p-.aspx


In addition to the drop-in event on Saturday, on Friday Dr Neil Arnold kept over 30 local school children spellbound as he gave a demonstration-filled lecture on how glaciers flow and what global environmental change will mean for the Cryosphere. One school was so impressed that they have now created a long-term link-up with the Department in an effort to continue motivating and developing their children’s obvious passion for science. As well as being a great opportunity to provide the public with access to the latest research techniques and findings, the day provided a great chance for the Department to showcase some of the important and highly relevant science that is being conducted by current staff and students. We look forward to an even more successful event next year! Above: Meteorological station on display Below left: A Polar explorer sets up base -camp in the Geography Department’s Small Lecture Theatre. Photos: Alexa Van Eaton

Thinking about development and social difference Human geography and rights to development Sarah A Radcliffe Many students come into undergraduate geography programmes because they are interested in and inspired by issues of international development. Schoolchildren in the UK receive exciting introductions to development issues, and feel - quite rightly - that a university geography degree will offer them a chance to study development issues in more depth. My work is similarly inspired by the development issues that human geographers - in the UK and further afield - are researching. Specifically, I am currently exploring how development policy and implementation (through projects and programmes) is tackling the disadvantages faced by indigenous populations in South America. With a multicultural society containing around one-fifth indigenous peoples (who claim descent from the populations that existed before the arrival in 1492 of Christopher Columbus and Spanish settlers), countries have had to think carefully about how to guarantee equal yet culturally appropriate development for its citizens. This requirement has gained particular salience with international conventions addressing indigenous rights, and grassroots demands for rights from different ethnic organisations. In collaborative research in Ecuador and Bolivia, my colleagues and I found that although there was increasing convergence around the need for special types of development for indian populations, strong divergences of opinion existed about the kinds of development required and how it was to be implemented. Moreover, indigenous development models grew out of transnational networks of rights organisations, Indian organisations and development agencies that spanned national borders, institutions and ethnic groups. Disentangling these networks was a fun part of the research, as we travelled from Brussels to La Paz to Washington DC and Lima!

often less likely to have good development indicators (in relation to health, education, security) than either indian men or non-indian women. In other words, social differences here are more complex than with indigenous vs. mainstream development. Yet indian women’s experiences of development have been little examined and remain poorly understood. So the challenge has been to talk to indian women from different ethnic groups from diverse parts of Ecuador, to find out about how they think development has let them down. My work aims to assist indian women’s organisations in clarifying their specific demands, and ensuring their needs are fully taken into account. Talking to women from the Kichwa group (front cover) and the Tsachila ethnic population (this page) highlights how varied women’s experiences of development are, and the different strategies they have for trying to improve their situation. Tsachila women grow cocoa near their homes, allowing them to maintain households as well as earn some money; some also produce crafts for tourists. In the Andes, Kichwa women also work in family farms but combine this work with gaining secondary education and forming local women’s groups. Yet when Tsachila and Kichwa women compare their daily circumstances of long working days, limited access to services (eg. healthcare), and racist treatment by officials, they often find that they share many experiences.

The challenge in my work is to distinguish between the factors that are more generally applicable to indigenous women, and those that may be culturally and locally specific. Growing income inequalities at the global level are having unequal impacts on societies characterised by differences of gender, race and ethnicity, region and religion. Despite the efforts of many governments and international development organisations to raise living standards across the board (as in the Millennium Development Goals), there remain considerable challenges to realising those goals for everyone. Listening to the groups most affected by the failures of ‘standard’ development perhaps offers a chance to include them more successfully. For further information about Sarah Radcliffe please visit: http://www. geog.cam.ac.uk/people/ radcliffe/ Further reading: Andolina, R., Laurie, N. and Radcliffe, Sarah A. 2009 “Indigenous Development in the Andes: Culture, power and transnationalism” Duke University Press, London/Durham NC. http://www.dukeupress.edu/books. php3?isbn=4540-4

We also found that development outcomes varied, depending on the way that nation-states involved indigenous people in decisionmaking and awarded them spaces for carrying out development. Recently, my research has extended the above work to explore how indian women fare in development programmes. Indian women are


Girton Geographers 40 Years On! The eight geographers who came up in 1969 met to celebrate and reminisce in July 2009. We met with our families and friends at my parents’ house and garden in the Cotswolds, as we have been doing each 10 years in the interim. As we exchanged news about our working lives, it struck me what a wide variety of careers our geography had equipped us for – from planning to teaching to policy making and community work. Geography really is a good foundation from which to launch a career. Although not wholly appreciated at the time, the discipline of the weekly essay has certainly paid off as some of us tackle ever more complicated report writing – I for one have never had a fear of a blank piece of paper (or screen)! And in our personal lives too, the spirit of adventure and the interest in other countries is still alive and kicking as we exchanged news about leisure interests and holidays. Corinne Swain

Girton geographers 1969-1972 26 July 2009 Left to right (Maiden names in brackets – but as a sign of the times, several of us retain our maiden names despite being married) Rear: Ann Plackett, Corinne Swain, Eileen Anderson (Bonsor), Catherine Bell (Howe), Kate Hoare (Mabey). Front: Margaret Evans (Eaves), Gail Chester, Liz Cassidy. As we were at our MA ceremony (Not present Eileen Bonsor and Gail Chester)

Geography Field Trips Regarding the article ‘Departmental Field Trips’ written by Tim Bayliss-Smith in Issue No 3 – I must write briefly to say that if he thinks that exciting Field Trips were not organised in the later 1960’s then he clearly was never a Historical Geographer !

As an exact contemporary of Tim’s studying at Girton, I and other historical geographers were delighted to be offered the opportunity of a Field Trip to France organised by Alan Baker in 1968/9. We travelled to Blois in the Loire valley, and were there to study

‘Remembrement’ – the French land reform which was then under way. We were paired off and sent to various Communes, where using our halting French we were able to consult and note local records. I have a photograph of myself and study-partner in a wheat field asking for directions to the Mairie ! I hope that we contributed to Alan’s research at the time, because inevitably my rather stronger memories are of visiting Chartres cathedral; various ‘son et lumières’ in Loire chateaux; and of a prank which Alan played on us one evening which involved a splendid visit to a ‘Vouvray’ cave with wine tasting. All this was most memorable and enjoyable and has had permanent aftereffects upon me. Primarily I have enjoyed ‘Vouvray’ sparkling wine ever

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since; I try to visit France every year; and yes in retirement I am now embarked upon a PhD in 17th century agricultural land transfer ! With best wishes,

Juliet Gayton

Girton, Geography 1966-69

Mount Erebus, Antarctica A Potted History Of Exploration & Scientific Discovery Clive Oppenheimer covered with rock dust and the smoke was yellow with sulphur and disagreeable in the extreme.”

Figure 1. Mount Erebus seen from Cape Royds. Shakleton’s hut, seen in the foreground, was the base for the first ascent of the volcano in 1908.

“Erebus not only commands a view of incomparable grandeur and interest, but is in itself one of the fairest and most majestic sights that Earth can show.” Mount Erebus is indeed one of the most magnificent landmarks of Antarctica and among the world’s most active volcanoes, famous in volcanological circles for its long-lived lava lake. James Clark Ross and members of his expedition were the first to sight the mountain in 1841 “…emitting flame and smoke in great profusion”. Naming the mountain after one of the two ships under his command, Ross added that “The discovery of an active volcano in so high a southern latitude cannot but be esteemed a circumstance of high geological importance and interest, and contribute to throw some further light on the physical construction of our globe”. His words have proved prescient since Erebus is indeed proving to be very illuminating in building our understanding of how volcanoes work as well as of their impacts on the environment. A century ago, Ernest Shackleton and Robert Scott established several bases at the foot of Erebus, and geologists collected and mapped the volcanic rocks dominating the local landscape. In March 1908, a party belonging to Shackleton’s 1907–9 “Nimrod” British Antarctic Expedition made the first ascent of the volcano, reaching the summit

Figure 2. View of the interior of the summit crater of Erebus. The lava lake is seen on the left of the photograph.

crater, which sits about 3700 metres above sea level. They included the geologists T.W. Edgeworth David and Douglas Mawson, their assistant Sir Philip Brocklehurst (who lost a few toes in the undertaking), Alistair Mackay (surgeon, presumably kept on his toes as it were), Jameson Adams (meteorologist) and Eric Marshall (cartographer). All but Brocklehurst (who turned 21 on the ascent) reached the crater rim on 10 March 1908 and, in David’s words: “…stood on the verge of a vast abyss and at first could see neither to the bottom nor across it on account of the huge mass of steam filling the crater and soaring aloft ... After a continuous loud hissing sound, lasting for some minutes, there would come from below a big dull boom, and immediately great globular masses of steam would rush upwards to swell the volume of the snowwhite cloud which ever sways over the crater... Meanwhile, the air around us was extremely redolent of burning sulphur.” The next ascent was led by the geologist Raymond Priestly in 1912 during Scott’s last expedition. His team of six included Frank Debenham who plane-tabled his way up the icy slopes. ‘Deb’ (later to become the first Professor of Geography in Cambridge) conceived the idea of our very own Scott Polar Research Institute during the climb, though altitude sickness prevented him from reaching the crater. Tryggve Gran (Scott’s ski expert from Norway) was among the four who did arrive at the volcano’s mouth on the 12th of December, and his account of the escapade points to a lucky escape: “…I heard a gurgling sound come from the crater, and before I had realised what was happening I was enveloped in a choking vapour. The steam cloud had evidently much increased by the eruption, and in it I could see blocks of pumiceous lava, in shape like the halves of volcanic bombs and with bunches of long drawn-out hair-like shreds of glass in their interior. The snow around me was

Erebus is now recognised as one of the largest volcanoes in the world. In terms of its geological setting and evolution it shares affinities with Mounts Kenya and Kilimanjaro. All three are sited in continental rifts and all have erupted lavas known as phonolites (so called because the rocks ring like a bell when struck!). But several features of Erebus make it particularly interesting, including its perennially active lava lake, the giant crystals of feldspar (up to ten centimetres long) that grow in the magma, and the sporadic, violent explosions of lava bombs over the crater rim (narrowly dodged by Gran it seems). These and other aspects are being scrutinised using a range of field, laboratory and numerical techniques by a team of scientists based in New Mexico Tech., Cambridge Department of Geography and the French National Centre for Scientific Research in Orléans. The methods include sophisticated field measurements of gas and heat emissions from the lava lake, experiments on tiny samples of phonolite to simulate miniature magma chambers in the laboratory, and computer models that can number-crunch the physics of a century of lava lake activity in a week of computer time. My involvement in Erebus research dates back to 2003 when I was first invited to join the field team on the volcano by Phil Kyle of New Mexico Tech. Phil, a native of Wellington NZ, has been working on Erebus for the best part of forty years and knows every nook and cranny of Ross Island. I have joined him each field season since 2003 – spending the month of December in our tiny field camp perched on the upper flank of Erebus two kilometres from the fuming crater. The sustained low-level “open vent” activity makes the volcano an excellent laboratory to study the physics of molten rock in situ and to investigate the abrupt transitions in behaviour of the lava lake. I spend much of my time on Erebus at the crater rim, pointing infrared spectrometers and imagers at the lava lake, some two hundred metres below and presently about sixty metres in diameter. I also operate ultraviolet sensing instruments to measure the emission rate of gases and air sampling equipment to trap gases and particles for subsequent laboratory analysis. The tremendous support we receive from the Office of Polar Programs of the US National Science Foundation makes it possible to conduct field experiments and measurements that would even be challenging at a far less remote volcano. So, even though Erebus still takes a considerable time to reach, and the local weather can be as brutal as any encountered by Scott and his men, when conditions are favourable the


volcanological opportunities are hard to rival. Among our discoveries, we have found that Erebus is the largest point source of numerous gas and aerosol species to the Antarctic atmosphere on the whole continent. These include emissions of sulphur, chlorine, bromine trace metals and nitrogen oxides. This brew modifies the composition of the atmosphere at least on a local scale. In particular, we have discerned that ozone from the ambient air mixed into the volcanic cloud is depleted . Atmospheric modelling has also shown that Erebus emissions are dispersed over much of the Antarctic continent so we are keen in future to track the longer range atmospheric impact of the volcano. We have also recently identified the pulse of the lava lake! Mathematical analysis of long sequences of infrared images of the lava lake combined with repeated spectroscopic measurement of the composition of the gas plume it emits have revealed a striking, cyclic correspondence between the vigorous surface motion of the lake, and its heat and gas output. These observations reflect the episodic arrival of blobs of gas-charged magma into the lake combined with percolation of carbon dioxide-rich gases released at greater depth. In this way we are beginning to construct a detailed

picture of the volcano’s plumbing system from the surface right down to its source region twenty or more kilometres below the surface. It is also worth pointing out the role of Erebus and Antarctic research more generally in the development of surveillance methods capable of application in extreme environments. This extends not just to instrumentation but importantly to power and communication systems. One of the significant achievements of the Mount Erebus Volcano Observatory has been to maintain year-round monitoring using low power, autonomous networks of seismometers and other sensors. This aspect of research in Antarctica paves the way for work in other extreme environments including deep space. One key question we are trying to address at Erebus is why it episodically explodes. When this happens, the lava lake becomes the site of several large explosions per day. These events are characterised by the arrival of a gigantic bubble of gas – perhaps 30 metres across – at the surface of the lava lake. The bubble then ruptures, violently flinging lava bombs up the size of a small car over the crater rim. I saw this happen repeatedly during our fieldwork in December 2005 and was able to collect several of the still molten chunks of phonolite fizzing in the snow. How

and where the gas accumulates to generate these prodigious bubbles, and why the volcano switches from passive to explosive mode remain some of Erebus’ most complex mysteries. Our spectroscopic instruments perched on the crater rim were able to record a very distinctive gas composition in the explosively released gas, yielding important clues. Unlocking these puzzles could go a long way in understanding comparable transitions in eruptive style at many other volcanoes around the world, where the implications for hazard assessment are often considerable. In particular, there is one other volcano of phonolite composition that is much better known and far more infamous than Erebus – namely Mount Vesuvius. At the time of writing this article (March 2010) it appears that Erebus has just entered another explosive phase. So, I am especially looking forward to returning at the end of this year!

For further information about Clive Oppenheimer please visit: http://www. geog.cam.ac.uk/people/ oppenheimer/

Human Settlements

UN Habitats, United Nations Settlements Programme sister institution) and an Overseas Research Student Award. After a brief meeting with Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, the Patron of NTCU and wife of late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, along with other Nehru Cambridge Scholars, I left Delhi for Cambridge.

Bharat Dahiya Sidney Sussex, 1996-2001

In August 1995 I had almost missed the last chance to apply for a Nehru Cambridge Scholarship, but for a friend who reminded me, showing a newspaper announcement, of the deadline for collecting forms from the Nehru Trust for Cambridge University (NTCU) in New Delhi. I was then able to apply for the all-India selection process and, in July 1996, after a year-long and gruelling process of short-listing and interviews, I had secured a full scholarship from the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust (NTCU’s

On the sunny afternoon of 3 October 1996, with autumn leaves adorning the trees I arrived in Cambridge and dragged my suitcase to Sidney Sussex College (or Sidney). Belonging to Sidney helped generate a lot of discussion at formal halls and other social events about: (i) Oliver Cromwell and his head allegedly buried in the College premises with nobody knowing exactly where!; (ii) the Sidney’s ever-elusive ‘ghost’; and (iii) the fact that Sherlock Holmes seems to have read at Sidney... The feeling of having arrived in Cambridge was overwhelming. To be face-to-face with the medieval architecture of Cambridge and walking in its narrow lanes and allies gave a


unique feeling. Going for long walks along ‘the Backs’ was one of my hobbies along with playing tennis. I learnt the art of cooking Indian curry from Indians who were senior to me, a survival skill which literally kept me alive in Cambridge. Being at the Geography Department and meeting some of the faculty members whose work I had read in India was amazing. Randomly, things that I remember at Geography included having coffee and tea in the Common Room, talking with Dr. Clive Oppenheimer (another Sidney Fellow) about the promise of Volcanology in the “then” future (that prophecy, I guess, has now been fulfilled), being part of the Geography’s communal, and quite spiritual, exercise of bursting bubble-wrap strips for Julian Green’s PhD research on fluvial hydraulics. My doctoral research on urban governance and environment in India, took me several times to Chennai and its peri-urban settlements which constituted the case study. In 1999 I got an opportunity of working as a Summer Intern at the World Bank HQ in Washington DC, where I wrote a background note on the Bank’s urban development projects for the preparation of the Bank’s first Environment Strategy. In January 2002, I received an offer and in April 2002 joined World Bank HQ again to work on an Urban Environment project

which would result in the co-authored book, Urban Environment and Infrastructure: Towards Livable Cities (2004, with Anthony G. Bigio). This led me to work on technical advisory and operational projects in China, India, Iran, Mongolia, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Working on and visiting these countries (except Saudi Arabia) on missions gave me unique opportunities to learn from different cultures, people and their governance systems about their urban development problems and to contribute to finding locally-suited solutions. In July

2006 I joined the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (or UN-HABITAT), which is the “city agency” of the UN system. At its Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, based in Fukuoka, Japan, I have been managing UN-HABITAT technical cooperation by providing advice and support on sustainable urban development to national and local governments in China, India, Iran, Mongolia, Nepal and Vietnam and by inspiring developmental actions to transcend the perceived constraints of reality. Also I am currently the project leader

of the first State of Asian Cities Report 2010, which is being prepared in cooperation with two other UN agencies and United Cities and Local Governments. In August 2009 the Government of Mongolia awarded me with the Certificate of Honour, the highest award given to an international technical specialist who has made outstanding achievement, for my contributions to the Road, Transportation, Construction and Urban Development sector in the past six years.

Undergraduate Study in Geography Bea Ledingham As Lent term finishes and Easter term looms ahead of everyone, I find it very strange to think that my first year as an undergraduate in the department will soon come to an end. It does not feel very long ago that I was sitting in the large lecture theatre on my very first day being given staff introductions and safety briefings. The past two terms as a Geography undergraduate have consisted of a mixture of lectures, supervisions, practical skills work and essays. We study five different papers, with two being human orientated and incorporating issues such as social inequalities, globalisation and historical geography, two physically orientated with areas such as biogeography, coasts and Quaternary change, and one that falls

between the two that looks at human interactions with environmental issues. All the papers in the first year are compulsory as it provides us with a wide knowledge base with which to move into the following years where we can specialise in areas of interest. The papers complement each other well and there are always links worked in between them. The practical skills sessions are the only part of the course that is assessed during the year, and they provide us with the expertise that we need to undertake our dissertations as well as being designed to assist us in future workplaces. We study statistics, human geography methods such as interviewing, documentary and archival data, spatial data analysis and field and laboratory physical environment methods. There was also a field trip during Lent term where we all got to go to a beach in Norfolk for the day- sadly when I went it was very wet, cold and windy (as is inevitable

for all fieldtrips it seems) but we still had fun doing field sketches, measuring beach angles and comprising our own coastal management strategy. There was even a competition for the brightest patterned Wellington boots! Of course the department also provides the opportunity to socialise with other geographers: CUGS organises talks and events, our student year representatives organise a weekly lunch at Wetherspoons and we often have Geography formals at different colleges. I have really enjoyed my first year and found that what is great about being an undergraduate here is being given the chance to learn key geographical skills whilst being taught the most up to date and relevant geographical issues. It seems to be a constantly evolving tripos that has without a doubt changed a lot over the years.

Postgraduate Study in Geography The Growth Response of Beech Trees to Climate Change Andy Hacket-Pain Common Beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) is the species that forms the focus of my PhD project investigating the impact that current environmental change is having on Europe’s forests (supervised by Dr Andrew Friend). While (controversially) considered native only to the south of England, the species has a very broad range throughout Europe, with beech found as far north as southern Sweden and Norway, and as far south as the flanks of Mount Etna, although at these latitudes it is found only high on mountain slopes.

The growth of beech, measured using tree ring widths obtained from tree cores, is very sensitive to the climate, in particular to drought stress caused by hot dry summers. In addition to exploring the response of growth rates to climate change, I will also be looking to develop a better understanding of what climatic and other environmental factors limit the edge of beeches range. This information is vital for developing models that will be able to simulate future changes in forest growth and also the range shifts for beech. My research will be based on the creation of a dataset of tree ring widths and wood densities, from across Europe. This will involve fieldwork campaigns across the continent, and also many hours in the Geography Department labs poring over microscopes measuring the tree rings! As well as staff within the Department, I will be working with people from across the UK

and Europe, particularly from Stirling and also Glasgow, where I plan to have the wood density of my tree cores measured. Having completed my undergraduate degree in Geography last summer, this is my fourth year in the Department, so it’s great to be a position where I know many of the people in the Department (and hence which doors to knock on when I’m stuck or need a hand!). Being the only “biogeography” graduate student, my desk is downstairs with the Volcanologists, who I think are sometimes a bit suspicious of my ecology journal articles and maps of tree species distribution, but it’s actually great to be surrounded by a different mix of people – which is after all one of the great benefits of being a Geographer!


CUGS Founders Guy King-Reynolds & Reggie Simone Along with my old friend, Guy King-Reynolds, we resurrected CUGS in 1945/6 and by the time we took our degrees in 1947 it was on a regular footing again, with a new committee. In June 1947 we had our first dinner and I thought you might be interested to see the menu. During our time at Cambridge, we went on two field days/outings in the period 1945-7. One was to Grimes’ Graves; the other was to the Suffolk wool villages. Sparse resources and general austerity prevented us from doing anything more exciting I fear. As far as my life is concerned, almost as soon as I came down from Cambridge in 1947 I joined the Royal Navy as an Instructor Lieutenant, specialising in meteorology, on a three year Short Service Commission. After a training course I spent the next three years at Lee on the Solent (headquarters of the Naval Air Command) as a weather forecaster. (This was a very suitable form of national service for me because during my degree course I had greatly enjoyed the good fortune of having one to one supervisions with the late Gordon Manley. He simulated a passion for meteorology and climatology which I have had ever since and I am still an avid reader of “Weather” magazine and an occasonal contributor to it).

In 1950 I took the exam for the civil service and joined the Admiralty in the administrative class. After working on naval policy, officer recruitment and finance there I moved in 1959 to the UK Atomic Energy Authority. I had a succession of jobs there, mainly in London, concerned with finance, economic assessments, security, personnel management and overseas matters. I stayed there until retirement 1988, ending up as the Board Member for Finance and Administration. This was a very wide-ranging job, which included among the less obvious roles, being Chairman of the UKAEA Police Authority and President of the European Atomic Energy Society. On retiring from full time work in 1988 I became Adviser to the Chairman of Nuclear Electric plc in a very busy part time role which I carried on until privatisation of the company in 1996. Since then I have enjoyed full time retirement with much travel in Europe.

Guy King-Reynolds

Reggie Simone

Geoff Willett-Librarian

I went up to St Catharine’s (then the leading college for geography) in 1946 from the smallest grammar school in Cornwall. I was seventeen, which would have been young in normal times but this was the year in which nine out of ten of the freshmen had fought in the Second World War. Alfred Steers, my director of studies, made me realise how important it was in research to proceed cautiously, patiently

and thoroughly. However, the man who influenced me then and afterwards was R W Stanners. He had a formidable intellect and a sharp tongue, and I was afraid of him, but that did not stop me learning from him how to think and widen my horizons. On graduating in 1949, I expected to be called up for National Service but was eventually rejected as medically unfit. Steers, who by then had become Professor of Geography, hearing that I was thinking of becoming a librarian, offered me the post in the Department when it fell vacant in 1950. I was to remain in it for the next twelve years. I soon realised that the way the books were arranged was inadequate and devised a new classification based on Bliss and geared to the new tripos. Fortunately the stock was small enough for me to apply it during one Long Vacation. When I last visited the Department in 1996, I found it still in use, so it seems to have stood up to the test of time. I subsequently revised the catalogue. Among other jobs, I acted for some years as Treasurer of the Geographical Society,


arranged the seating for the annual dinner, and provided the venue for the Christmas Party. Both I and the Library survived! In 1962, I left to become librarian of the teachers’ training college in Ripon, North Yorkshire. I took early retirement in 1984. from 1986 to 1989 I shared a house with a friend in Manchester and then bought a bungalow in Bedford, which I still occupy. Being so close to Cambridge, I was able to resume contact with Gus Caesar and Patricia, his daughter, and with Dick and Rosemary Chorley. Rather oddly, through a cousin in Polperro, I also met up with Professor N J G Pounds, whom I had not seen since the late 1940s. I use the University Library a fair amount. In my sixties I developed the urge to travel, and found Central Asia, Ethiopia and Antarctica especially fascinating. I still retain an eager interest in the world and its peoples and their cultures – I think I can thank the Department for that.

The

Cambridge Bangweulu Expedition

Sixty years ago the Colonial Office became worried at the plight of the Unga people living on islands in the Bangweulu Swamp of Northern Rhodesia. Water levels there were rising and villages were endangered. So Frank Debenham, Professor of Geography in Cambridge, was asked to go out to the area and report on the situation. Professor Debenham put together a small party consisting of himself and his wife, (who was to look after all the mapping in situ), a department demonstrator named James Pook and two undergraduates, namely Donald Ould and myself. We arranged to travel out and back in the latter part of 1949 spending altogether about 3 months on the expedition. There appeared to be no accurate maps of the area, the latest having been compiled by Livingstone! So, on request, RAF planes in the Rhodesias were flown over the area and we were sent hundreds of aerial photographs, which formed the basis of a new map which Debenham produced before we left. It appeared that the swamp and its lake were about the size of Norfolk and Suffolk combined. We set off and travelled to Cape Town. From South Africa we travelled by train and truck to the edge of the swamp where we embarked on a flotilla of canoes. We disappeared into the waterways and weeds of Bangweulu and set up temporary tented camps on a variety of islands from which we carried out surveys and reported on

waterflow. The natives were quite small and very primitive. Over generations they had taken refuge in the swamps as stronger tribal groups had migrated over surrounding areas. We found the natives very friendly and cheerful. I wore glasses and was known as “Bwana Mackalashes” – Bwana with the glasses – or so it sounded. On another occasion Donald and I visited the village of Kalimankonde to see its magic pot, but it wasn’t there. When we told the district officer he was appalled. This pot represented the power of the paramount chief and the D.O. thought there might be trouble brewing amongst the islands. On further investigation he discovered that it had been sent on an official tour of the region to ‘show the flag’ and all was well. Eventually, having measured and mapped flows of water and used various strange instruments invented on the spot by Debenham such as ‘hubble bubble’ which we could never get to work, we came to our conclusions. We realized that the rising water level which had worried the Colonial Officer resulted from masses of weeds, which were clogging the channels of streams and rivers flowing out of the swamp. So when we finally departed, Pook stayed behind and with a large gang of native workers cut a major outlet channel that enabled more water to get away. We have since heard from the development officer for the inland waterway schemes in former Northern Rhodesia that our work had been considerable help to him and that today there is a very useful waterway

system there supplying a trade in fish to the Zambian copperbelt towns. The full report of the expedition can be read in the “Study of an African Swamp” by Debenham in the Department library.

Our Website

www.geog.cam.ac.uk/alumni

The Department of Geography hopes that its alumni will be able to benefit from this website and our Newsletter. If you have any interesting stories, facts or history that you think would be of interest please do contact us.


SUMMER 2008

LANDMARK

THE ALUMNI NEWSLETTER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY

LANDMARK

Issue number 3 Winter / Spring 2009

T H E

A L U M N I

N E W S L E T T E R

O F

T H E

D E PA RT M E N T

O F

G E O G R A P H Y

Inside Heart of the

Sahara an article by

John Pilkington

Explorer, lecturer, photographer, author and broadcaster

Alumni ISSUE NUMBER 2

UNIVERSITY OF

CAMBRIDGE Department of Geography

Friends of Geography at Cambridge (FGC) Supporting the Future of Geography Despite recently receiving top-rated assessments for our teaching and research the financial circumstances of the department are far from healthy. We strain to maintain our library acquisitions and laboratory facilities and the funding of fieldwork, particularly for our students is increasingly difficult to underwrite. We would be very grateful for any financial assistance that past students of the department might be able to provide. If you are interested, please contact our alumni co-ordinator, on 01223 333393 who will be very happy to advise you further.

LANDMARK Issue number 4 Spring / Summer 2010

Alumni

Department of Geography