Welcome to Café Scientifique Launceston
Next meeting:
Tuesday 14 February 7.00pm
at Eagle House Hotel, 3, Castle Street,
Launceston PL15 8BA
Professor Steven Rowland
University of Plymouth
“A bird in the hand: forensic identification of a mystery pollutant which
killed hundreds of seabirds”
When dead seabirds were washed ashore, authorities and the public were
mystified as to the cause. The birds were coated in colourless or white,
sticky goo, quite unlike the more usual spills of crude oil. What was
it? Where had it come from? Would it happen again?This talk describes
how a team of chemists from the University of Plymouth solved the problem,
leading to a rapid change in maritime law.
Steven Rowland is Professor emeritus at the University of Plymouth, a
Honorary Professor at the University of Exeter and was Blaustein Fellow
at Stanford University, USA in 2005. Hewas made a European Research Council
Advanced Investigator from 2009-2014 and received a €2,000,000 research
award for his work on marine pollution. He has studied pollution events
at sea for over 45 years and in 2021 was a co-recipient of the Queen’s
Anniversary prize awarded at Buckingham Palace for his research into microplastics.
Steve has published over 250 research papers, held several patents and
supervised 35 PhD students in 35 years.
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Café Scientifique Launceston, founded in 2010 by Professor Colin Webb
MBE FRS, is a branch of the national Café
Scientifique network.
Meetings are held most months from February to November now downstairs at the Eagle House Hotel 3, Castle Street Launceston PL15 8BA at 6.45pm. After the talk by a guest speaker, there is a short break but in these post Covid times, no refreshments at the moment. The audience then reassembles for a question and answer session and general discussion. Anyone can ask a question and those which begin "This might be a stupid question but ……. ?" are positively welcomed.
Cafés are free..However, we hope that non-student members of the audience
will make a contribution of at least £5 to cover the hire of the venue
and equipment and the speaker’s travel expenses. This can be done online.
Contact us for the bank account details.
If you want to have a meal at the Eagle House before the meetin, please
contact the hotel direct.
If you are not already on our email list and you would like to be kept informed please use the Contact Us page to send us your email address. Suggestions for future talks are extremely welcome.
A list of Cafes for 2022 is posted on the Cafes Page.
More info on our on our News page