Priestley Centre events
Book to attend a double bill of events celebrating the annual Piers Sellers Prize and the formal opening of the Priestley Building.
Piers Sellers Prize winners Petra Tschakert and Tom Slater
In 2016, the Priestley International Centre for Climate established the Piers Sellers Prize in the name of the renowned climate scientist, astronaut and Leeds alumnus, Piers Sellers, to recognise exceptional research that furthers our understanding of climate change and how to address it.
Petra Tschakert, from the University of Western Australia, whose work focuses on understanding how climate change is experienced and responded to among marginalized communities in the global south, will receive the prize for a world leading contribution to solution focused climate research.
More recently she has pioneered thinking around the science of loss, promoting the importance of cultural values in understanding loss from climate impacts. See Professor Tschakert talking about her research in this video.
The award ceremony will also see a current Leeds postgraduate researcher being presented with the prize for exceptional PhD research. This year the recipient is Tom Slater, a final year PhD student working in the NERC-funded Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling in the School of Earth and Environment.
Tom’s work involves using satellites to measure the height of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets and how they change over time, as well as their respective contributions to global sea level rise. He was nominated for the award by his supervisor, Professor Andy Shepherd, who commended him on developing new methods for processing satellite altimeter observations of the polar ice sheets.
Professor Shepherd said: “Tom’s PhD has led to significant methodological advances, extending the value of satellite altimeter data for polar science.”
The prize-giving, which includes a 30-minute lecture by Professor Tschakert and a short talk by Tom Slater, will be held at the Speakman Lecture Theatre in the Clothworkers Central Building on Monday 24 June from 2 to 3.15pm.
The event is part of a “double bill” that includes the formal opening of the Priestley Building by our Chancellor Professor Dame Jane Francis, with Vice Chancellor Sir Alan Langlands at a drinks reception in the Priestley Centre hub from 4 to 5.15pm.
Register to attend the Piers Sellers Prize giving and/or the Priestley Building formal opening using this form.
Read more about the recipients on the Priestley International Centre for Climate website.
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