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Macaulay Lectures

Each year the Trust, in partnership with The James Hutton Institute, organise the annual Macaulay lecture.

The aim of the lecture is to stimulate thinking and dialogue about contemporary environmental issues in order to honour the vision of Dr T B Macaulay from whose endowment in 1930 both the Trust and the Hutton trace their origins. Further information about Dr Macaulay can be found here.

The lectures are aimed at an informed, professional audience and each one is given by a world renown academic. An archive of recent lectures is available here.

45th TB Macaulay Lecture: Valuing nature for transformation: innovations in policy, finance and practice around the world

We are absolutely delighted to announce that the 45th TB Macaulay lecture will be delivered by globally renowned environmental expert, Professor Gretchen C. Daily on 10th September at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.

Presented in partnership with the Macaulay Development Trust and The James Hutton Institute; the event aims to connect scientific evidence with civic society around critical issues affecting land and people.

Professor Daily is co-founder and Faculty Director of the Stanford Natural Capital Project, Bing Professor of Environmental Science and Director of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University; and is also a member of the First Minister’s Environment Council in Scotland.

In her lecture, she will describe how important it is to understand human dependence on nature, from the material basics such as nutrition, health, climate security and economic security, to the more ethereal concepts of belonging, beauty, and spirit. She will argue that being able to access and action this understanding is crucial when it comes to making the necessary transformations in society and in taking the decisions that are required to secure the biosphere and our human future. 

The event is free to attend. Please register now to reserve a seat: bit.ly/3VFbnRz

Programme:

17:00-18:00: Pre-lecture exhibition

18:00-19:30: 45th TB Macaulay Lecture and Q&A session

19:30–21:00: Post-lecture reception

About the T.B. Macaulay Lecture

Dr Thomas Bassett MacaulayThe annual T.B. Macaulay Lecture is held to honour the vision of Dr Thomas Bassett Macaulay, President and Chairman of the Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, whose benefaction founded the original Macaulay Institute for Soil Research in 1930. He was a descendant of the Macaulays from the Island of Lewis and his aim was to improve the productivity of Scottish agriculture. This vision continues today in its successor the James Hutton Institute, a world leader in land, crop, water, environmental and socio-economic science.