Welcome to the Geography and the July edition of King's Choice News.

In addition to offer holder news and useful links, we have picked stories from the Department to give you a taste of life as a King's student in Geography.

NOTICE BOARD

Do you have any questions about Geography and student life at King's.  Our student buddies are waiting to hear from you. Olivia is there for our BSc students and Scott can answer questions from our BA students.

To reach Scott and Olivia email sspp-student@kcl.ac.uk

ATTOLLO LINGERIE MORE SUCCESS

Alice and Fleurette, two of our third year geography students, won second prize in the Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Awards for their company Attollo Lingerie. 

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SPIDER PLANT: INTERNET OF THINGS

“WATER ME!” tweets the potted spider plant in Dr Tom Smith’s office on the 7th floor of the King’s Building. The pot plant, named ‘Ardie’, proceeds to tweet “my soil moisture level is 4% Air temperature: 28.7C Relative humidity: 32.6%

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ACADEMIC INTERVIEW: ROB FRANCIS

Dr Rob Francis, Senior Lecturer, Earth and Environmental Dynamics Research Group

Why do you love geography?
Geography is the best discipline for understanding global environmental issues - it is interdisciplinary by nature, and this allows a more holistic approach to study and research that is fundamental for truly understanding and addressing the environmental problems that are so important to our modern society. There is always something new to learn, and geographers have so many varied research specialisms.

What are your research passions?
I think it is essential for society to move beyond traditional ideas of nature conservation as a form of ecosystem 'preservation', and instead find ways to ecologically engineer our environment to support both humans and biodiversity. This is sometimes termed 'reconciliation ecology' and is a very practical and applied form of conservation that embraces ecological novelty and is particularly relevant to heavily modified ecosystems, such as cities.

Which undergraduate courses do you teach?
.I teach on The Changing Natural Environment ('Biodiversity crisis' section) and Geography Tutorials in Year 1; Landscapes: Ecology, Biogeography and Management in Year 2; and Current Research in Geography in Year 3.

Why did you choose to work at King's?
The Geography Department at King's is excellent and is widely recognised for its interdisciplinary research as well as the wide variety of programmes of study on offer. It also attracts a lot of excellent students! London is also a great site for field research.

Your secret London tip?
London is over 60% green space, so if you are an outdoors person there is more to do than you might think!