The Royal Society of Tasmania 2025 Hobart Lecture Series
Lectures will be held face-to-face at the various venues listed. Recordings of each lecture will be available on the RST YouTube channel after each event.
Details may change. So check this program regularly for the latest information.
Use this link to download a PDF version of this program suitable for printing.
Venues and times may vary so always check the details for the event of interest.
THURSDAY 6 MARCH 2025 – RST Annual General Meeting and Lecture
Speaker: Professor Nathan Bindoff
Title: The Role of the Southern Ocean and Antarctica in the Climate System
Venue: The Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, Marieville Esplanade, Sandy Bay
Time: 4.00 pm
Professor Nathan Bindoff, distinguished climate scientist and physical oceanographer in the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), will deliver the Clive Lord Memorial Lecture following the AGM of the Society.
WEDNESDAY 26 MARCH 2025 – RST Celebrates Tasmania Reads 2025
Speaker: Mr David Owen
Title: What’s Up Pufferfish?! DI Franz Heineken and the mysterious Danish Connection
Venue: RST Rooms, Customs House Building, TMAG, Davey Street
Time: 10.30 am
Tasmania Reads 2025 talk by David Owen centres on two forthcoming novels in his popular Fullers Publishing detective series. The Pufferfish novels are fast-paced with a literary touch, taking the reader all over Tasmania and often beyond. David will also build into his talk aspects of Tasmania Reads Week and Hobart’s new status as a UNESCO City of Literature.
SUNDAY 6 APRIL 2025 – Lecture
Speaker: Dr Rob Johnson
Title: The Australian Weather Puzzle: Assembling a National Forecast from an Ensemble of Global Weather Models
Venue: Geology Lecture Theatre, UTAS, Sandy Bay Campus
Time: 3.30pm for pre-lecture refreshments, 4pm for the lecture
Please join us for Dr Johnson’s expert lecture on how weather is predicted, forecast and modelled. Dr Johnson is the Senior Research Scientist at Bureau of Meteorology and Team Leader in Forecast Improvement.
SUNDAY 4 MAY 2025 – Lecture
Speakers: Dr Sally Bryant AM and Dr Eric Woehler OAM
Title: Inconvenient truths: Tasmania’s threatened birds from mountain to coast.
Venue: Geology Lecture Theatre, UTAS, Sandy Bay Campus
Time: 3.30pm for refreshments, 4pm for the lecture
This joint lecture, delivered by two of Tasmania’s leading bird ecologists and public commentators, Dr Sally Bryant AM and Dr Eric Woehler OAM, will discuss the future trajectory of Tasmania’s threatened bird species, the drivers of their decreases and what we should be doing to reverse this.
SUNDAY 25 MAY 2025 – Annual Tasmanian Aboriginal Lecture
Speaker: Mr Rob Anders
Title: How to better manage Aboriginal cultural landscapes in Tasmania
Venue: Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery, 2 Invermay Road, Inveresk, Launceston
Time: 1.30pm
Mr Rob Anders, a Tasmanian Aboriginal leader, education officer and spatial technician, will deliver the annual Tasmanian Aboriginal Lecture in Launceston. Please join us for this important lecture to learn more about our First Nations people and their management of landscapes.
SUNDAY 1 JUNE 2025 – Lecture
Speaker: Drs Jan Herrmann and Sara Morawetz
Title: Measurement for All Times, for All People
Venue: Geology Lecture Theatre, UTAS, Sandy Bay Campus
Time: 3.30pm for refreshments, 4pm for the lecture
Measurements are everywhere around us. People have measured things since times immemorial to help make sense of the world. Measurements can be powerful tools for driving scientific discoveries and technological innovation. Their results inform decisions in almost every sphere of human endeavour, and quantum theory tells us that the very act of measurement is changing the world.
Join metrologist Dr Jan Herrmann and artist Dr Sara Morawetz for a reflection on the history and future of measurement as we commemorate the signing of the Metre Convention 150 years ago that established the foundations for how we take the world’s measure today – ‘for all times, for all people’.
WEDNESDAY 18 JUNE 2025 – RST Medal Awards Evening
Event: Royal Society of Tasmania 2024 Award Presentations
Awards: 2024 Peter Smith Medal and the inaugural 2024 Louisa Anne Meredith Medal presented
Venue: Government House, Hobart Domain
Time: 5.30pm
Please join us at Government House when Her Excellency the Honourable Barbara Baker AC will present the 2024 Peter Smith Medal to Dr Edward Doddridge, the inaugural 2024 Louisa Anne Meredith Medal jointly to Professor Cassandra Pybus and Fiona Hall AO and announce the 2024 Doctoral Award winners Dr Ingrid Cox and Dr Manon Simon.
THURSDAY 3 JULY 2025 – Midwinter Dinner and Lecture
Speaker: Susannah Fullerton OAM, FRSN and Adrian Dickens
Title: Jane Austen’s Legacy: 250 Glorious Years (SF) and The Jewels of the Regency Period (AD)
Venue: The Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, Marieville Esplanade, Sandy Bay
Time: 4.45pm for a 5pm lecture Adrian Dickens; Dinner at 6.15pm followed by lecture by Susannah Fullerton at 7.15pm
Join Susannah Fullerton, one of Australia’s renowned experts on Jane Austen and Mr Adrian Dickens, a bespoke jeweller with extensive knowledge on some of the world’s most famous jewel collections, for an engaging midwinter lecture and dinner at The Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania. Please join us.
SUNDAY 3 AUGUST 2025 – Lecture
Speaker: Professor Dugald Close
Title: In Pursuit of the ‘Cherry on Top’: how Ecophysiological Research enables Practice
Venue: Geology Lecture Theatre, UTas, Sandy Bay Campus
Time: 3.30pm for refreshments, 4pm for the lecture
Professor Dugald Close is Associate Head of Research at the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture. His current research interests focus on temperate tree crop and wine grape nutrition, water and carbohydrate ecophysiology, including post-harvest science with the object of impact and outcomes via his contributions to industry development and extension.
SATURDAY 9 and SUNDAY 10 AUGUST 2025 – The RST Art Roadshow Hidden Treasures
Event: The Heritage and Bullock Festival, Oatlands
Title: Hidden Treasures from the RST Art Collection
Venue: historic township of Oatlands, in Tasmanian Midlands
Time: Open during the weekend as part of the Heritage and Bullock Festival
This is a fantastic opportunity to view some of the RST historic Art Collection specially curated for the Heritage and Bullock Festival being held in Oatlands. Please visit the web site for more details.
THURSDAY 28 AUGUST 2025 – Beer Aquatic / National Science Week Event
Time: 5.30pm for pre-lecture drinks, 6pm for the lecture
Celebrate National Science Week with a special lecture at the Hobart Brewing Company, presented in partnership with the Beer Aquatic. An informative and entertaining evening awaits! Check the website closer to the date for more details.
SUNDAY 7 SEPTEMBER 2025 – 2024 Peter Smith Medal Lecture
Speakers: Dr Edward Doddridge
Titles: Antarctic Sea Ice loss: Causes and Impacts of ‘Gobsmacking’ Changes
Venue: Geology Lecture Theatre, UTAS, Sandy Bay Campus
Time:3.30pm for pre-lecture drinks, 4pm for the lecture
Please join us for a revealing lecture presented by Dr Edward Doddridge, recipient of the RST 2024 Peter Smith Medal. Loss of Antarctic Sea Ice is of global concern. Why is it happening and what are the ramifications of this catastrophic event?
SUNDAY 21 SEPTEMBER 2025 – The RST Spring Art Auction
Event: Spring Harvest: Art & Collectibles
Venue: Private home, 96 King Street, Sandy Bay
Time:3pm
Please join us for an engaging afternoon enjoying festive drinks and delicious treats and including our Objets D’art and Collectables Auction to help raise funds for restoration of our precious Art Collections.
SUNDAY 5 OCTOBER 2025 – RST Doctoral Award Lectures
Speakers: 2024 RST Doctoral award winners Dr Ingrid Cox and Dr Manon Simon
Title: Titles will reflect the status of their research at the time.
Venue: Geology Lecture Theatre, UTAS, Sandy Bay Campus
Time: 3.30pm for pre-lecture drinks, 4pm for the lecture
Our Doctoral Medallist for 2024 Dr Ingrid Cox and Dr Manon Simon will present on their most current research findings. Dr Cox studies the population, their environment, influences on their health and access to healthcare resources. Dr Simon studies transferability of lessons from the governance of weather modification techniques to the governance of solar radiation management. We honour and celebrate their academic achievements.
SUNDAY 2 NOVEMBER 2025 – Lecture
Speaker: Professor David Bowman
Title: In a warming world, how do we coexist with fire?
Venue: Geology Lecture Theatre, UTAS, Sandy Bay Campus
Time: 3.30pm for pre-lecture drinks, 4pm for the lecture
Professor David Bowman is an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and the Director of the transdisciplinary Fire Centre at UTas where he holds a research chair in Pyrogeography and Fire Science. David is recognised as a thought leader in wildfire science and management publishing influential research in high-impact journals, providing policy advice to government, and serving as an expert media commentator. Professor Bowman will examine the current fire research, especially what has been done on the global problem, and our contributions to solving it.
THURSDAY 4 DECEMBER 2025 – Annual Christmas Dinner and Lecture
Speaker: Dr Danielle Wood
Title: Words and ‘Wordability’
Venue: University Staff Club, 38a Dobson Road, UTAS Campus Sandy Bay
Time: 6pm for dinner and lecture
Dr Danielle Wood is a Senior Lecturer in English in the School of Humanities UTas, and a well-known author and commentator on human-social issues. Danielle says ‘The English language is in a constant state of evolution. Each year, the world’s major English language dictionaries nominate a Word of the Year: often a neologism, but sometimes an old word that’s come back into vogue (perhaps with a new meaning or inflection)’. Danielle’s lecture will explore the words we’ve used, loved, rejuvenated and redefined in 2025.
