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Visiting Scholars

The aim of a Visiting Scholar is to discuss and share ideas with another academic in our Department who works within the same, or closely related, field of interest. From this mutual collaboration may come ideas, joint publications and grant applications for future joint research projects.

Our Visiting Scholars have a PhD degree, are carrying out research and looking to collaborate with academics in the Department of Geography at Cambridge while they are taking a sabbatical from their home institution. While a Visiting Scholar will have a prime point of contact – their ‘host’ – we hope that they will engage more widely with our research activities, through attending meetings of our Thematic Research Groups and through discussions with individual researchers in the Department. And we encourage links with researchers in other Faculties and Departments in Cambridge over the course of their stay.

The Department of Geography accepts Visiting Scholars from a wide range of backgrounds and research fields. They can be either supported by their institutions or self-funded.

Current Visiting Scholars in the Department:

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Dr Tito Arosio, collaborating with Prof Ulf BĂĽntgen

Research:

Tito Arosio is a post-doc supported by the Swiss National Foundation.
He pursued his PhD at the University of Bern, Department of Physics. He collaborated with Prof. Leuenberger and Prof. Nicolussi. He studied the stable isotopes of tree rings in a large database of wood samples that covers the last 9,000 years, to understand paleoclimate in the Alpine region. He has measured the values of the stable isotopes of Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Carbon in thousands of samples and has identified some non-climate signals they carry. He discovered that larch wood carries a deuterium signal different from other conifer species, a finding that is useful for the analysis of archeological timber specimens. His research now focuses on the analysis of the values of three stable isotopes in various databases to try to reconstruct alpine climatic variations during the Holocene.

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Dr Agata Buchwal, collaborating with Prof Ulf BĂĽntgen

Research:

Agata Buchwal is a visiting scholar supported by Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA).
She pursued her PhD at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan (Poland), Faculty of Geographical and Geological Sciences. She studies tree rings of arctic shrubs in relation to changing climate in Low and High Arctic tundra ecosystems. She conducted numerous arctic expedition to Spitsbergen, Greenland, Alaska and Siberia. Her recent synthesis revealed divergent tundra shrub growth in relation to declining sea ice extent in the Pan-Arctic region. Her recent research focuses on the analysis of Juniperus nana growth ring from northern Scandinavia. Specifically, she is interested in blue rings formation, i.e., not fully lignified growth rings related to cooling events in the Northern Hemisphere in last ca. 300 years. In her Home University she enjoys teaching classes on Arctic in a Changing Climate and Dendrochronology. She enjoys tutoring activities with research-oriented students.

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Dr Leon Hirt, collaborating with Prof Mike Hulme

Research:

Leon Hirt is a postdoctoral researcher supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation, working on the project entitled, “Imagining negative emission technologies: looking to the past and present to contemplate futures”. This project seeks to illuminate how scientists imagine negative emission technologies in the case of human-induced climate change and in relation to climate mitigation and adaptation measures.

Leon undertook his PhD at the University of Geneva jointly in the Geneva School of Social Sciences and the Faculty of Sciences. His doctoral research focused on uncovering the socio-technical transition dynamics around solar photovoltaic (PV) in Switzerland and provided insights into short-term and practical actions to accelerate the uptake of PV as well as indications of long-term socio-political transformations spurred by this technology.

Dr Mathias Ingholt, collaborating with Dr Romola Davenport

Research: (Details to follow)

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Dr Jakub Kronenberg, collaborating with Prof Chris Sandbrook

Research:

Jakub Kronenberg is an ecological economist working on environmental values and the institutional context of nature conservation, in particular with regard to urban green spaces and birds. Among other things, he investigates problems with the neoliberal governance of nature.
He is an Associate Professor at the University of Lodz, Faculty of Economics and Sociology, where he established and led, until leaving for Cambridge, the Social-Ecological Systems Analysis Lab. Since 2009, he has been a member of the board of the Sendzimir Foundation, which promotes sustainable development in Poland.
During his stay at the University of Cambridge, Jakub works on the project entitled “Environmental values and conservation rhetorics: exploring economic and other arguments for the conservation of birds,” funded by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA).

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Dr John Marazita, collaborating with Prof Mike Hulme

Research: (Details to follow)

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Dr Snizhana Zahorodnia

Research:

Dr. Snizhana Zahorodnia, Senior Researcher, Department of Environmental Research, Institute of Telecommunications and Global Information Space, National Academy of Sciences, Kyiv, Ukraine. She defended her Ph.D. on the topic "Evaluation of the ecological state of the nature reserve fund using geoinformation technologies" from the specialty "Environmental safety."

The main directions of scientific research are ecological safety of the system of nature management, lake ecosystems, wetlands, and territories of the nature reserve fund of Ukraine using the toolkit of geoinformation technologies and methods of remote sensing of the Earth. Cartographic support for managing the nature reserve fund using geoinformation systems, combining remote and on-site research.

Key subjects are developing models for analyzing anthropogenic factors' influence on the ecosystem of the nature reserve fund and improving the technology of ecological cartographic assessment of the ecological state of natural objects using geoinformation systems to support management decision-making regarding environmental safety.

Applications

In order to be an academic visitor in the Department you need to be invited by a member of the Department academic staff.

We cannot provide Visiting Scholars with any help finding accommodation, setting up childcare facilities, or other personal welfare. Please note that the University of Cambridge does not provide childcare support to visitors. The University Accommodation service may be able to help with accommodation.

Latest news for Visiting Scholars

  • Department Seminars
  • Newcomers and Visiting Scholars Society
  • Work Permits – If you are from a non-EU country, you need to check with your British Embassy regarding the necessity of a visa and/or work permit. The Home Office has recently changed its rules for visitors and has not yet provided a specific new channel through which a potential visitor may apply.