Public Lecture Series: Earth and Beyond: Exploring the Past, Present and Future

  Click here to view the poster
 

About the Public Lecture Series

HKU Department of Earth Sciences investigates the natue and evolution of Earth and other planets through three research themes:
   (1) the Solid Earth & Planetary Sciences
   (2) Earth's History and Global Change
   (3) Applied Geosciences 

This lecture gives a taster of the breadth of research we do across different time scales, including research relating to our warming world.

The Talks

Title: Exploring Mars in the Infrared: A Time Capsule of the Early Earth

Speaker: Dr Joseph Michalski, Associate Professor, Department of Earth Sciences & Deputy Director, HKU Laboratory for Space Research

About the talk:
The Earth and Mars had similar early histories, but on Earth, most of our ancient geological and biological record has been destroyed by erosion and plate tectonics. Mars, as less geologically active planet, has preserved much of its ancient history, providing a Rosetta Stone of sorts for us to understand how life might have originated on either planet.

Title: The Atlantic Ocean Circulation: Past, Present and Future

Speaker: Dr Benoit Thibodeau, Research Assistant Professor, Environmental Geochemistry & Oceanography Research Group, Department of Earth Sciences & Swire Institute of Marine Science

About the talk:
The circulation in the Atlantic Ocean is a key feature that regulates global climate. In this talk, the speaker will introduce what drives the Atlantic circulation, how it evolved through time and how it is affected by global warming.​

Title: Flying Dinosaurs: The Origin Story of Flight in Birds

Speaker: Dr Michael Pittman, Research Assistant Professor, Vertebrate Palaeontology Laboratory, Department of Earth Sciences

About the talk:
Birds are dinosaurs with the gift of flight, but there were once other types of flying dinosaur. Find out what we know about how dinosaurs evolved the ability to fly and what questions we are currently trying to answer. 

ALL ARE WELCOME
 

 For enquiries, please contact Mr Benjamin Miu at 3917 2683.