Distinguished Lecture Series: Vice-Chancellor Alison Richard
“Cambridge and the Environment”
Professor Alison Richard was installed as the 344th Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge in 2003. The Vice-Chancellor is the principal academic and administrative officer of the University, and Professor Richard is the first woman to hold the position full-time. An anthropologist with a first degree from the University of Cambridge and a doctorate from the University of London, Professor Richard joined the faculty of Yale University in the USA in 1972. She was appointed full professor in 1986, chairing the Department of Anthropology at Yale from 1986 to 1990, and later serving as Director of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, where she oversaw one of the most important university natural history collections in the USA. She was appointed to the Franklin Muzzy Crosby chair of the Human Environment in 1998. Her academic leadership at Yale culminated in her appointment as Provost of Yale in April 1994. The Provost is the chief academic and administrative officer of the University after the President, and as Provost Professor Richard oversaw major strengthening of Yale’s financial position and significant growth in academic programmes.
Professor Richard spoke to Gates Scholars on the 18th of February as part of the Gates-sponsored “800 years” week during the Lent Term. While she often gets the opportunity to speak to groups on her role as head of one of the oldest educational institutions in the world, here took the opportunity to speak about her research, based in Madagasgar, and how that has helped her in understanding how to bring Cambridge into the more environmentally conscious 21st century.
A recording of the lecture given on the 18th of February is available at the following link: http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/594660/Vice%20Chancellor%20Richards.WMA
The recording will available for streaming as an mp3 file shortly.
