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Join us for the 41st T.B. Macaulay Lecture: The challenge of sustainable development

Professor Jacqueline McGlade will deliver the 41st TB Macaulay Lecture
"Professor McGlade will discuss the lives and experiences of those facing the day-to-day challenges associated with climate change"

We have recently lived through three years in a row of the hottest temperatures recorded worldwide, a clear sign that our climate is changing, and changing fast. Is this enough to spur us into tackling climate change and other sustainable development priorities? Are we aware of the complexities of communicating what sustainable development means?

These issues, and many others, will be at the centre of the 41st T.B. Macaulay Lecture, held every year by the Macaulay Development Trust in partnership with the James Hutton Institute. This year’s event will feature Professor Jacqueline McGlade, a British-born Canadian marine biologist and environmental informatics whose work as Chief Scientist at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) was fundamental for the development of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Professor McGlade will discuss the lives and experiences of those facing the day-to-day challenges associated with climate change. She will share insights from her work in Kenya, and will draw on her experience at the UN, sharing the lessons learnt during the development and implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, as well as discussing their practical impact.

The 41st T.B. Macaulay Lecture will take place on Wednesday 3rd October 2018, 5.30 to 9.30pm, at Our Dynamic Earth, 112-116 Holyrood Gait, Edinburgh EH8 8AS, and is aimed at directors, policymakers, researchers, elected representatives and anyone interested in sustainable development issues. Entry is free, but booking is essential. To book, visit our Eventbrite event page, or watch the lecture live on our YouTube channel.

The annual T.B. Macaulay lecture is held to honour the vision of Dr Thomas Bassett Macaulay, President and chairman of the Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, whose benefaction founded the original Macaulay Institute for Soil Research in 1930. He was a descendant of the Macaulays from the Island of Lewis and his aim was to improve the productivity of Scottish agriculture. This vision continues today in its successor, the James Hutton Institute.

Recent T.B. Macaulay Lecture speakers include Bill Adams, Moran Professor of Conservation and Development in the Department of Geography at the University of Cambridge; William J. Sutherland, Miriam Rothschild Professor of Conservation Biology, University of Cambridge; Diana H Wall, University Distinguished Professor and Director, School of Global Environmental Sustainability, Colorado State University; Robert Costanza, Crawford School of Public Policy Distinguished Professor at the Australian National University; and Tim Jackson, Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Surrey and Director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP).

Press and media enquiries: 

Bernardo Rodriguez-Salcedo, Media Manager, Tel: +44 (0)1224 395089 (direct line), +44 (0)344 928 5428 (switchboard) or +44 (0)7791 193918 (mobile).


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The James Hutton Research Institute is the result of the merger in April 2011 of MLURI and SCRI. This merger formed a new powerhouse for research into food, land use, and climate change.