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17 Mar 2010 15:52:01
A gentleman and a scholar – that’s environmental expert Professor James Crabbe from the University of Bedfordshire.
Dean of the Faculty of Creative Arts, Technologies and Science (CATS), Professor Crabbe’s busy month has seen him gain election as an unpaid trustee of the Guild of Benevolence of the Institute of Marine, Engineering, Science and Technology.
This is a charitable fund which originated from a fund set-up in 1912 by the institute in co-operation with The Daily Chronicle to help families of the engineer officers of the Titanic which sank on 15 April, 1912 after striking an iceberg in mid-Atlantic.
In modern times, the fund grants assistance to those from the marine community, and their dependents, who are in need.
Professor Crabbe has also accepted an invitation to become a patron of Coral Cay Conservation (CCC).
This is an award-winning organisation in coral reef and tropical forest conservation, and it is currently helping to enable the creation of one of the world’s largest coral marine protected areas on the Chagos islands in the Indian Ocean.
For further details on the CCC, visit www.coralcay.org
And more than 3,500 people attended the recent Oceanology International 2010 meeting at ExCeL London last Wednesday (10 March) at which Professor Crabbe gave an invited lecture on coral reefs.
He was also invited to be part of a special international workshop at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). This was to decide on particular coral species to specially protect due to their evolutionary distinctiveness (ED) and global endangerment (GE).
Professor Crabbe was among 15 invited participants from the UK, Australia, the USA, mainland Europe and Taiwan.
He said: “The outcomes include defining 10 EDGE species which will be subject to conservation actions by EDGE Fellows appointed to work where the coral species are in danger. This programme will build on the experience of current EDGE programmes for mammals and amphibians.”
For an overview, visit www.edgeofexistence.org
His coral and climate change work will continue in the summer in Bali after being awarded a grant from the Royal Society.
And, closer to home, Professor Crabbe is giving a talk on coral reefs and climate change to the Luton Astronomical Society this week.
The talk, as part of National Science Week, is at the Putteridge Bury campus on Thursday (18 March) night, starting at 7.30pm.
