
David Farrier: Nature’s Genius
25th April 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM BST
Life on Earth is changing; the question is, can we change with it? Can we remake the world to be fit for all life to thrive once more? In his new book Nature’s Genuis: Evolution’s Lessons for a Changing World, Professor David Farrier takes us on a profound journey into this ever-changing natural world, encouraging us to think creatively about finding ways that we can adapt, ways to stop the destruction we’re causing to the planet.
Speaker Biographies

David Farrier is Professor of Literature and the Environment at the University of Edinburgh. David’s first book, Footprints: In Search of Future Fossils, looked at the marks we are leaving on the planet and how these might appear in the fossil record in the deep future. It was named by both The Times and Telegraph as a Book of the Year, earned praise from Robert Macfarlane and Margaret Atwood, and has been translated into ten languages. He has had pieces published in The Atlantic, BBC Future, Emergence, Prospect, Daily Telegraph, Orion and The Washington Post. He has spoken at numerous online events, has given an invited lecture at the Royal Geographical Society, and has appeared on radio and podcasts such as BBC’s Free Thinking and Little Atoms.

Hermione Cockburn is an Honorary Fellow of the School of Geosciences at the University of Edinburgh and former Scientific Director at Dynamic Earth. She began her career in research working on landscape evolution in Africa, Antarctica and Australia before moving on to present science programmes for the BBC including an 8-part television series about British palaeontology for which she wrote an accompanying book. She is passionate about empowering people with understanding and empathy for the Earth and enabling life-long learning. She was an associate lecturer with the Open University in Scotland teaching environmental science for many years and now works with a variety of organisations to support learning for a range of audiences. Hermione is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a trustee of National Museums Scotland and in 2020 was awarded an OBE for services to public engagement in science.