Geography at Leicester

20/05/2026

22/04/2026

🌍 This Earth Day, we're sharing how our research is changing the world.

The Institute for Environmental Futures at the University of Leicester turns research funding into real-world outcomes across borders, disciplines, and policy frameworks. Here's the evidence of some of our activities, but there is much, much more:

🛰️ FORESTS PROTECTED AT SCALE
A satellite-based forest alert system, co-developed with the Kenya Forest Service, is actively reducing illegal logging and poaching across East African counties. Recognised with a Special Achievement in GIS Award by ESRI. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAbLMSuWYtE

🤖 AI FOR SUSTAINABLE LAND MANAGEMENT
The AI4NetZero project, led by Professor Heiko Balzter as a cross-university collaboration with Loughborough and Bristol, developed Self-Learning Digital Twins to model emission reduction strategies for farmers and policymakers, targeting the 12% of UK greenhouse gas emissions linked to ruminant and peatland farming. https://digitaltwinhub.co.uk/self-learning-digital-twin-for-sustainable-land-management/

🌿 PEATLAND SCIENCE INFORMING GLOBAL POLICY
The first comprehensive assessment of human impacts on tropical peatland biogeochemistry was led by Professor Susan Page. It shaped international conservation frameworks and carbon accounting standards. https://borneonaturefoundation.org/news/bnf-trustee-receives-mbe-for-services-to-tropical-peatland-conservation/

🌍 DEFINING THE ANTHROPOCENE
Led by Professor Mark Williams, we contributed to a landmark paper in the journal Earth Science Reviews that shows how human activity has permanently altered the geological record. This is science that underpins climate accountability worldwide. https://figshare.le.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/Palaeontological_signatures_of_the_Anthropocene_are_distinct_from_those_of_previous_epochs/26169709?file=47414323

🌐 GLOBALLY RECOGNISED
In 2026, the University of Leicester ranked 125th globally and 34th in the UK in the QS World University Rankings: Sustainability, a 32-place rise in a single year. And our researchers showcased their research at the COP30 climate summit.

Every breakthrough here begins with a partnership that believes in rigorous interdisciplinary science being able to change the world.

📩 Contact us: [email protected]

🕶 View our institute web site here ➡️ https://le.ac.uk/research/institutes/environmental-futures

📧 Subscribe to our quarterly institute newsletter here ➡️ https://le.ac.uk/research/institutes/environmental-futures/newsletter



University of Leicester Geography at Leicester Geology at Leicester

15/04/2026

24/03/2026

Tess Osborne, Lecturer in Human Geography, had her book A Research Agenda for Emotional Geographies published last month.

Elgar Research Agendas outline the future of research in a given area. Leading scholars are given the space to explore their subject in provocative ways, and map out the potential directions of travel. They are relevant but also visionary.

This forward-looking book examines emotional geographies as both a subdiscipline and a practice. Written collaboratively, the authors demonstrate the diverse ways in which emotions influence research, knowledge and everyday life, inviting readers to recognise emotions as a fundamental component of human understanding, actions and relationships.

Chapters highlight how the study of emotional geography provides crucial insights into pillars of daily life, such as power, work, care and social change. Drawing on feminist and embodied traditions, the book combines conceptual reflection, methodological innovation and lived experience to outline the impact of emotional geography on key challenges such as political unrest, the climate crisis, migration and technological change. Tracing the evolution of the field, the authors emphasise its future potential in research and practical applications, as well as its capacity to foster a more empathetic world.

shorturl.at/f3pf7

05/03/2026

28/01/2026

Leicester Leads Prestigious Journal Issue on Humanity’s Impact on the Biosphere 📘

Professor Mark Williams is guest editor of the latest issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, published on 22 January 2026, dedicated to ‘The biosphere in the Anthropocene’.

👉 Read more: https://le.ac.uk/news/2026/january/prestigious-journal-human-impact-biosphere
📘 Access the journal issue: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/issue/381/1942

The issue also features an illustrative figure drawn by Kerry Allen and Lisa Barber from the Cartographic Unit.

25/01/2026

🔬 Ancient fossils reveal the oldest known vertebrates had four eyes 👀👀

A newly published study (21 January 2026) by an international team of researchers, including palaeontologist Emeritus Professor Sarah Gabbott reveals that the earliest known vertebrates — myllokunmingids from over 518 million years ago, possessed four fully developed camera-type eyes, rather than the two found in modern vertebrates.

👉 Read more: https://le.ac.uk/news/2026/january/ancient-fossils-vertebrates-four-eyes

📷 Image: Artist’s reconstruction of a myllokunmingiid, the oldest known vertebrate, with four eyes that helped it see and navigate its ancient world. Credit: Xiangtong Lei and Sihang Zhang

24/01/2026

🌊 Rising Ocean Temperatures Could Be Melting Ice Sheets Faster Than We Thought ❄️

Dr Tim van Peer has contributed to a groundbreaking new Nature Geoscience paper, 'Spatially variable response of Antarctica’s ice sheets to orbital forcing during the Pliocene.'

He played a key role in the study’s findings, drawing on research he conducted aboard the JOIDES Resolution during IODP Expedition 374 to the Ross Sea.

Tim said, “Our study emphasises that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is sensitive to ocean warming. These geological archives capture past ice sheet variability and we use them to test the accuracy of climate models projecting future melting scenarios.”

👉 Read more:

Ancient Antarctica reveals a ’one–two punch’ behind ice sheet collapse 12 January 2026 The expedition team on the JOIDES Resolution during IODP Expedition 374 to the Ross Sea, including University of Leicester researcher Dr Tim van Peer. Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn Share on Twitter Sha...

23/01/2026

🌐 Tess Osborne is joining Digital Geography and Society as Co‑Editor‑in‑Chief! 🖥️

For Tess, this is a journal that speaks directly to the worlds we are now living in; where digital systems continue to structure everyday life, shape inequalities, and rework how space, work, and connections are organised.

Tess is really looking forward to the work ahead, supporting new digital ideas, and helping shape where the journal goes next.

🔗 Learn more about Digital Geography and Society here:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/digital-geography-and-society

16/01/2026

Crucial insights on the UK’s energy and net-zero policies here from Thomas York. Another University of Leicester human geographer making vital interventions into major current debates. 🔥

👉

Offshore wind contracts are ready – but ships, ports and cables are not.

15/01/2026

Good luck and many congratulations to all those from the School of Geography, Geology and the Environment who are graduating today - Thursday 15 January at 1.30pm. 🎓🎉

🎥 Watch live via https://le.ac.uk/graduation