Presentation by Mr Peter Stevenson

Royal Society Room

Tuesday, 7th July 2009 Commencing 8.00pm until 10.00pm

 

 About the Speaker

Peter is an ex Tasmanian Geological Surveyor and an engineering geologist. Nowadays, he says he would be called called an “environmental geologist”! He has worked in the UK, South, North and South-West Africa, the Persian Gulf, Iraq, the Lebanon and Iran. His work was mostly on Groundwater and primary mapping. Peter is much exercised these days with the University of the Third Age with involvement in Geology, Islam, the English language and musical instrument making.

 

Brief Abstract of the Talk

The lecture will give an appreciation of Robert FitzRoy with emphasis on his friendship with Charles Darwin and some remarks on his later life.

Presentation by Various Speakers

Stanley Burbury Theatre, UTAS

Tuesday, 16th June 2009 Commencing 8.00pm until 10.00pm

Winter Series

 

About the Speaker

Patrick Bourke (Australian Institute of Energy), Ian Barnes-Keoghan (Bureau of Meteorology), Fraser Kirkpatrick (Tasgas), Roger Lewis (Kuth Energy)

 

Brief Abstract of the Talk

1. Overview of Tasmania’s Energy Sector. 2. Weathers Role in Tasmania’s Energy Sector. 3. The Role of Natural Gas in Tasmania. 4. Geothermal Potential in Tasmania.

Presentation by Bruce French

UTAS Tas Institute Ag. Research Building Room 349

Friday, 5th June 2009 Commencing 3..30pm until

About the Speaker

Bruce French is a graduate in agriculture from the Uni of Tas and has spent most of his professional career working in or involved with food plants and food production in Papua New Guinea. He has done field work in village settings and lectured at Vudal University. He has done a range of consultancies with FAO, CSIRO, World Bank, IBPGR, CARE (Aust), New Zealand AID and other organisations. He has published a reference set for Papua New Guinea covering Edible Plants, Insect Pests, Diseases, Crop Production, Food Composition, and also some regional studies. He is currently doing a similar series for the Solomon Islands. Currently, this work has grown into compiling a compendium as a database of edible plants of the tropical world (18,500 species), attempting to convey information in a plain English format accessible to indigenous workers. Towards this he has travelled to several Pacific, Asioan and African countries, as well as photgraphing plants in herbarium and Botanical gardens in Australia, New Zealand, and USA. In the past, some of this information has been put on FAO and Ecoport websites and some of it is available on the www.foodplantsinternational.com website. Rotary International are becoming supportive to enable the information to be delivered to schools and other groups in developing countries.

 

Brief Abstract of the Talk

This Lecture will highlight and illustrate significant features of less familiar tropical food plants, and focus on their relevance for feeding a hungry world.

Presentation by Associate Professor Natalie Jackson

Royal Society Room

Tuesday, 2nd June 2009 Commencing 8.00pm until 10.00pm

 

About the Speaker

Natalie Jackson is an Associate Professor in the School of Sociology and Social Work, University of Tasmania. She is also the national president of the Australian Population Association. Natalie gained her Ph.D. in demography from the Australian National University, and also holds a Master of Social Science in demography and anthropology from the University of Waikato in New Zealand.Her main area of research is the different rates of population ageing unfolding across Australia’s states, territories and local government areas, and the social, economic and political implications of these trends. She is widely consulted on and published in the field, and has given over 100 invited presentations on this topic over the past five years. Natalie says that as an ageing baby boomer herself, she is driven to ensuring that demographic trends are fully understood and prepared for, both for her own comfort, and for those who must change the way they presently do business.

 

Brief Abstract of the Talk

Continuing media reports of an anticipated growth in global population of some 2-3 billion over the next half century conceal a more important story: that of the end of global growth by the end of the century. Zero growth, and, in some cases absolute decline, is already extant across Europe and Japan, and will begin even in populous China well before mid century. Ironically then, after a century of hand-wringing about population growth, the emerging concern is depopulation, which is already being met in the developed world with baby bonuses and increased migration quotas. As the hands on the population clock slow, a number of unprecedented ‘cross-overs’ will occur: fewer labour market entrants than exits, more elderly than children, more deaths than births. These changes, which will unfold incongruently across and within countries, will raise many new challenges, uppermost among them labour market reform and ethical migration. This paper outlines the story.

Presentation by Ms Anita Hansen, PhD student, UTAS

Royal Society Room

Tuesday, 5th May 2009 Commencing 8.00pm until 10.00pm

This is lecture based on her Masters thesis on the orchid illustrations by William Archer 1820-1874

 

About the Speaker

Anita Hansen is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Tasmania. She is working on a joint project with the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, examining the nineteenth century natural history art collections held by major institutions in Tasmania. She recently (2007) completed her Masters, again a joint project with TMAG on the orchid illustrations of Tasmanian born artist William Archer (1820-1874). In 1993, she completed a Graduate Diploma in Art (Plant and Wildlife Illustration) at the University of Newcastle while working as a scientific illustrator and graphic designer with NSW Agriculture. Anita moved to Tasmania in 2003, where she worked as a freelance designer and illustrator before obtaining a scholarship to work on her PhD.

 

Brief Abstract of the Talk

William Archer was a member of the Royal Society from 1847. He became Secretary of the Society in 1860. Although William Archer is known as an architect (he designed Mona Vale and Hutchins School) and as a politician (he was a member of the first freely elected Parliament, standing on an Anti-transportation platform), it is not widely known that Archer is also recognised as the first Australian-born botanical illustrator and botanist. He corresponded with Joseph Dalton Hooker, sending botanical specimens to him at Kew Gardens. In 1857, Archer travelled to England to work with JD Hooker on Flora Tasmaniae (1843-1860), arguably historically the most significant publication on Australian botany. Archer had been instrumental in obtaining a Tasmanian government grant of £350 toward the printing of this book. Upon hearing of this Darwin wrote to Hooker: “What capital news from Tasmania; it really is a very credible fact to the colony” … (In this letter he then stated that his ‘castle in the air’ was to emigrate to Tasmania, and he already regarded the colony as his ‘headquarters’) It is in the introduction to Flora Tasmaniae that Hooker first writes of his belief in Darwin’s theory of the mutability of species: “In the Introductory Essay to the New Zealand Flora, I advanced certain general propositions as to the origin of species, which I refrained from endorsing as articles of my own creed: amongst others was the still prevalent doctrine that these are … created as such, and are immutable. In the present Essay I shall advance the opposite hypothesis, that species are derivative and mutable … original reasonings and theories of Mr Darwin and Mr Wallace.”

Presentation by Professor Jeff Malpas Dept of Phil.

Royal Society Room

Tuesday, 7th April 2009 Commencing 8.00pm until 10.00pm