The Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow

News

The first lecture of the 208th Lecture Series will be held on 7th October 2009.

Professor Jane Dawson, John Laing Professor of Reformation History in the University of Edinburgh will be lecturing on

"Knox, Calvin and Scotland : the creation of a Protestant nation ?"

Marking the 500th anniversary of John Calvin's birth in 1509, the lecture will take a fresh look at his influence upon John Knox and upon Scotland. In particular, it will examine what Geneva contributed to the Scottish Reformation which erupted 450 years ago in 1559 and to the subsequent attempts to create a Protestant nation.

Science Connects

Members may be interested in the following lecture sponsored by the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow

“Three Degrees of Climate Change”

Professor Sue Roaf, Heriot Watt University

June 11th 2009, 7.00pm in the Boyd Orr Building, University of Glasgow.

A number of public lectures have been organised as part of the Glasgow University Science Festival which takes place during May and June 2009. The lecture on 11th June is entitled “Three Degrees of Climate Change”. This lecture, together with two workshop sessions for secondary school pupils on “Low Carbon Living” (which take place earlier the same day), is being sponsored by the Society, primarily from income from the society’s MacKenna bequest. Science Festival lectures do not require booking and all members of the Society are very welcome at this event.

In her presentation Professor Roaf will stress the importance of building ecologically in order to avoid ruining the earth with buildings that are profligate consumers of energy and producers of more than half of all greenhouse gases. Her experiences in building her own ‘eco houses’ are used to demonstrate technologies in practice. Professor Roaf’s current research includes issues such as passive building performance, intelligent controls for low carbon buildings and natural ventilation of buildings.