Discovery visit to the Penryn Campus
A Warm Welcome to Exeter University Club and Friends for a Discovery Visit to Penryn Campus, Cornwall
Members of the Exeter University Club (EUC) and friends were recently given a warm welcome at the Penryn campus to view some of the latest developments.
The visit was attended by 18 EUC members and five friends of the University, comprising alumni and spouses, who were particularly keen to learn more about the developments of the University of Exeter in Cornwall. Alumni local to the South West had the opportunity to enjoy an informal yet informative visit to the campus for a briefing on the exciting range of research being undertaken.
Guests were given guided tours of the new buildings at Penryn, led by University of Exeter Cornwall academics. After an informal lunch and warm welcome from Professor Dave Hosken, Dean of Strategic Development, Cornwall, the group began their tour of the Penryn Campus.
They were able to see first-hand the labs that researchers are using to tackle environmental issues at the Environment and Sustainability Institute (ESI). Professor Juliet Osborne, ESI Director, spoke to the group about how the research is having a real life impact on our world today, including how we can track potential invasions of insects as they come ashore across the south coast and through micro antennae we can help identify where they nest to inform Defra of a response e.g. to any potential threat to our native ecosystems (and our honey bees).
Following this, the group had a discussion around the Centre for Ecology and Conservation led by Brendan Godley, Professor of Conservation Science and Director of the Centre for Ecology & Conservation in the Peter Lanyon building. He shared how his team has studied the effects of global warming on sea turtle populations, and how increases in temperature not only determine whether a turtle hatchling is male or female during its development in the egg (with a bias to female hatchlings through global warming), and also impacts negatively on survival success rates.
The group then visited the Cambourne School of Mines (CSM) Museum where Professor Frances Wall, Applied Mineralogy led a discussion on CSM and took questions from the group who were very interested in the work carried out and how expertise is expanding in response to the increasing variety of minerals sought by today’s technological industry manufacturing.
Finally the day ended with a talk from the FXU (student union for Exeter and Falmouth) sabbatical officers. Dean Pomeroy, Exeter President; Harry Bishop, President for Community & Welfare and Jamal Clarke, President for Student Experience briefed the guests first-hand on the student experience in Cornwall today, and how funding is helping support our students.
We are grateful to have received expressions of interest in supporting the Cornwall Opportunity Fund – for further details please see the Cornwall Opportunity Fund brochure.
Photos from the day can be viewed online.
Date: 25 July 2017