Wollongong academic’s lecture before King of Sweden

May 11, 2006

The University of Wollongong’s Professor Lesley Head recently gave a lecture to an audience including King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden at the Royal Palace in Stockholm.

Professor Head is coming to the end of her term as the King’s Visiting Professor of Environmental Sciences, based at Kristianstad University for 2005-06. She was invited to a reception at the palace with a group of young environmental scientists who received research awards from the King.

The Chair was established on the occasion of His Majesty’s 50th birthday, about 10 years ago. It is funded by the STINT Foundation (The Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education) and MISTRA (The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research). Candidates are nominated by Swedish universities after invitation by His Majesty.

During her time in Sweden Professor Head has supervised a group of students researching environmental attitudes in the Kristianstads Vattenriket Biosphere Reserve, and undertaken guest teaching in the Landscape Science degree at Kristianstad. She has led a pilot project using ethnographic methods to analyse the cultures of Swedish environmental scientists.