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US academics discuss global resources
Two American academics whose pioneering scientific research and technology applications have been used in military and natural disaster situations will present a public lecture at the University of the Sunshine Coast this Friday 2 July.
Professor Allan Falconer and Dr Alexander (Ted) Woodcock of the George Mason University in Virginia will be at USC for staff and student workshops on topics such as fisheries and climate change.
They will present an open lecture on Global Resource Management on Friday at 11am.
It is a rare chance for Sunshine Coast people to hear first-hand their findings and predictions before they deliver a paper about global fish stocks at the Second International Conference on Climate Change in Brisbane from 8-10 July.
Professor of Geography Allan Falconer has been employed by governments, businesses and universities around the world to apply geospatial technology to natural resources management in locations ranging from deserts to oceans.
His work supported NASA technology and business programs and he is now developing a “green engineering” distance learning initiative to support studies of alternative power sources. Another project is a laboratory for remote sensing of marine environments.
Professor Falconer has a special connection to new USC Vice-Chancellor Professor Greg Hill.
“Allan Falconer supervised my doctorate and introduced me to the world of remote sensing technology in the 1970s when the first earth resources satellites were launched,” Professor Hill said.
“I’m delighted, on a personal and a professional level, that he is bringing his decades of high-level expertise to this University for two days.”
Dr Woodcock, a biologist, has been recognised internationally for pioneering the use of mathematics to model critical systems.
Working on disaster-relief operations, counter-terrorism and Iraq warfare, his models are based on the biological and ecological dynamics of competition between people for resources.
Anyone wanting to attend the public lecture can contact Kathy Wood, USC Faculty of Science, Health and Education, at kwood3@usc.edu.au.
Workshops will include:
- Thursday 9.30am: Geographical Information Systems (GIS), fisheries and climate change. GIS is computer mapping that records features of the earth’s natural and built environments to study interaction between humans and the physical world.
- Friday 9am: Sustainability, Climate Change and Global Politics – policy models for the future.
- Friday 11am-12.30pm: Public lecture on Global Resource Management (Lecture Theatre 3).
– Julie Gatehouse