Water on Earth and Beyond Lecture Series

Water has a dramatic influence on the chemical and physical properties of natural materials, and so has played a central role in shaping our environment. Most importantly for us, it has dominated the evolution of our own planet and appears to have been essential for the emergence of life. These public lectures will cover a range of topics, starting with Earth based phenomena - water and volcanism and a better understanding of ocean processes - before moving on to cover extraterrestrial topics including water on Mars, a search for water frozen billions of years ago, and the importance of water in defining the "habitable zone" of extra-solar planetary systems.

The level of the talks will be aimed at a general audience to encourage everyone from undergraduates, non-science faculty and the interested general public to attend, and there will be time for questions following each lecture. All the public lectures are free to attend. Synopses of each lecture will appear on this page in due course. For further details please contact enquiries.ias@durham.ac.uk