Geology for Global Development

#GfGDconf – happening NOW!

After many months of planning, the first Geology for Global Development National Conference is finally here! It’s 10am, and we are expecting over 150 delegates at the Geological Society of London, ready to listen to some opening remarks from Jeremy Lefroy MP. Jeremy is the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Tanzania, and a member of the international development select committee.

We’ll be proceeding to explore the role of geology within international development, with talks from a range of experts in disaster risk reduction, water and sanitation, engineering geology and mining geology. After lunch, the winners of our blog competition will be presented with their awards, followed by an interactive session on effective communication for effective development. We will end the day with a keynote address from Martin Smith, Science Director for the Global Geoscience programme at the British Geological Survey. Finally – phew – we’ll be having a glass of wine and taking the chance to have a look at the posters on display (prizes are available for best posters!).

This one-day event will bring geology students and recent graduates, with an interest in international development, together with a series of professionals from across the sector.

Tickets are sold out, but if you aren’t able to attend today, you can follow all the action on twitter – keep an eye on #GfGDconf.

The GfGD team will be tweeting throughout the day, and we encourage attendees to join in too. Please share any key quotes, insightful conversations or personal highlights with us!

We are very grateful to the Geological Society for their support, to all of our speakers and session chairs today, as well as those presenting posters, and for the invaluable help of the many individuals that have been working behind the scenes. A busy and exciting day lies ahead – here goes!

Rosalie was the Himalayas Programme Officer for Geology for Global Development and writer for the GfGD blog. She is a geochemist and a postdoc at the University of Oxford.