2021 Walters Kundert Expedition Award recipient Karen Cameron and team sampling the glaciofluvial environment of Greenland. Credit: Rune Kraghede
The Society is pleased to announce this year’s projects selected for funding through its senior research grants. These grants support accomplished early-career and established researchers undertaking geographical fieldwork across physical, environmental and sustainability geography.
Professor Lee Brown from the University of Leeds has received this year’s Ralph Brown Expedition Award for research in aquatic environments, to explore the long-term response of river ecosystems to glacier retreat. Lee's fieldwork in Greenland and Norway will resample sites previously assessed 25 years ago, directly observing temporal changes.
Dr Samuel Derbyshire from the University of Oxford has been selected as this year’s Thesiger-Oman International Fellowship recipient for research in arid environments. Samuel's work will explore how pastoralist communities in the remote, arid Turkana region of northern Kenya are managing the environmental uncertainty of climate change. By documenting regional perspectives, recollections and knowledges, Samuel will contribute to scholarly debates about the relationship between drylands pastoralism and uncertainty.
Dr Dieter Tetzner from the British Antarctic Survey is this year’s recipient of the Walters Kundert Fellowship for research in arctic and high-mountain environments. Dr Tetzner’s project aims to determine the impact of recent climate change on the glaciers of the previously unexplored Cordillera Darwin icefield. By drilling the first ice core in Cordillera Darwin, this work will that will enable the reconstruction of an unprecedented environmental record over the last century.
Three projects have been selected as recipients of this year’s Environment and Sustainability Research Grants:
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Dr Aleksandra Kosanic from Liverpool John Moores University will examine the availability of nature’s contributions to disabled populations in biosphere reserves. The research aims to improve policy making around the well-being of disabled populations, which will be disproportionately impacted by climate change.
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Dr Anna Laing’s research investigates Indigenous-led climate financing mechanisms as a key aspect of climate justice struggles and climate change mitigation, at a time when Indigenous movements worldwide are seeking to strengthen their sovereignty over climate change decision making and funding.
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Dr Rebecca Windemer and Dr Carla De Laurentis’ research will examine case study evidence from Italy (a current pioneer of wind energy) and produce a best-practice checklist to guide onshore wind turbine end-of-life decision-making. This is important given approximately 34,000 onshore turbines in Europe are approaching the end of their lifespan.
This year’s Gilchrist Fieldwork Award, awarded by the Gilchrist Educational Trust, is given to Dr Max Webb from Royal Holloway, University of London. Max's project will connect geologists and biologists working to understand how mountain building affected the origin and diversification of New Guinea’s fauna.
The next deadlines for the Society’s senior research grants are in November 2022.
Find out more and apply