Mon 3rd October, 2011
Professor James Crabbe, the Dean of the Faculty of Creative Arts, Technologies and Science (CATS) at the University of Bedfordshire has just completed a series of lectures in Cairns and Sydney, Australia.
His lectures took place at the new Sydney Institute of Marine Sciences (SIMS), headed by the New South Wales University, in collaboration with Macquarie and Sydney Universities, and where he gave the Inaugural Seminar, the Cairns Institute of James Cook University – and video-linked simultaneously to their Townsville campus, and the Climate Futures Centre at Macquarie University and at the University of Sydney.
The talk covered reefs in Indonesia and Jamaica, as well as the barrier reefs off the coast of Belize, and how they recover from environmental disturbances such as hurricanes and bleaching.
Professor Crabbe said: “It was a great experience overall – I made wonderful contacts with the staff and students that should be useful for staff and students at the University of Bedfordshire in the future.
“One of my most enjoyable experiences was over an hour's coffee discussion with four PhD students, who came from Columbia, Kenya, Brazil and Australia.
“The new Sydney Institute of Marine Sciences has considerable potential to bring together temporal and tropical marine ecology.”
Professor Crabbe, a professor of Biochemistry, has developed computational models of coral reefs and is currently working on the genetics, recruitment, conservation and survival of reef-building corals around the world.
Professor Crabbe has won several awards, including the Aviva/Earthwatch International Award in 2006 for Climate Change Research and the Great Contributors to China Creative Industries award in 2008.
Latest news» 2011» October» University professor heads down under for coral reef lectures
