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Editorial |
1 Chairman of the Engineering Group
Received for publication 10 August 2001. Accepted for publication 10 August 2001.
Denys Brunsden is Emeritus Professor of Geomorphology at the Department of Geography, King's College, London. He was born in Torquay in 1936 and, after his National Service with the RAF Joint Air Photographic Interpretation Unit, he joined King's College in 1956 as a geography undergraduate, studying also geology and social anthropology. His major influences at King's were Professor S W Wooldridge and, later, Professor Jake Hancock. He went on to spend his entire career at King's. Following his PhD on the geomorphology of the River Dart in 1963, he was appointed to the academic staff, culminating in Emeritus Professor in 1996 and Fellow of King's College in 1998. He has also seen his fair share of other institutions, as visiting lecturer or professor, in the UK, USA, Germany and New Zealand.
Denys is no stranger to the distinguished lecture circuit, having given state-of-the-art presentations in most British universities and over 40 others world-wide, from Australia to Uzbekistan. Organisations such as the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), The Association of American Geographers, The Royal Society, The International Geographical Union, The US Corps of Engineers and the UK National Co-ordination Committee for the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (and many more besides) have all asked Denys to speak. We are greatly honoured that he has agreed to give the 5th Glossop Lecture.
Professor Brunsden is a distinguished applied geomorphologist of truly international statue, specializing in landslides, high mountains, deserts, coasts and the applications of geomorphology. He has been honoured with, amongst others, the Gill Memorial of the Royal Geographical Society, the Linton Award of the British Geomorphological Research Group, the Erskine Fellowship of the University of Canterbury, New Zealand and the William Smith Medal of our own Geological Society, which was awarded in 2000. He is an honorary member of a number of learned societies including the International Association of Geomorphologists which he was instrumental in founding in 1990, acting as its first President until 1993.
It is often said that the best geologists are those who have seen the most rocks. I guess the same goes for geomorphologists and landscapes. Denys has undertaken field work in a wide range of geomorphic environments in something like 30 countries of the world. He has been the recipient of research grants from a number of sources but, in addition to his purely academic interests, he has worked with a number of major consultancy firms, putting engineering geomorphology firmly into the picture, in the process completing over 50 consultancy reports. He was a co-founder of Geomorphological Services Ltd in 1972 along with Dr. John Doornkamp, and Professors David Jones and Ronald Cooke.
Professor Brundsen has worked for a range of local and national government bodies including English Nature, the former Department of the Environment and the Department of Education and Science, for the latter on aspects of the National Curriculum. Geomorphological Services’ landslide database of the UK will be familiar to many of you. This work formed the basis of Planning Policy Guidance Note PPG14. He has been the chairman of the Dorset Coast Forum, an organization of over 100 institutions dealing with the long-term strategic management issues of the Dorset coast including the bid for World Heritage status and an EU demonstration project. He has a vested interest, living as he does at about 30 m above sea level, less than a kilometre from some of the UK's major coastal features!
Denys is no stranger to the world of publishing. In addition to a string of editorial board and review duties, Denys has written and performed a number of TV and radio series including the Channel 4 Landshapes programmes, which were aired in 1992. Arguably, this was the turning point in natural history TV documentary series—the one which began the process of shifting the balance towards the earth sciences and away from the biological sciences, as typified by the Attenborough style of ‘bugs and bunnies’ programmes. Denys was for a time the chairman of the RGS Film Board during which period 5 films were produced for the BBC. His traditional academic publications run to over 100 papers and 15 books.
It goes without saying that Professor Brunsden is a renowned teacher. The press release on his appointment to Fellow of King's College stated that he was probably the single individual in the department who would be best remembered for his enthusiasm and dedication to undergraduate teaching, field work and encouragement of the subject. He has supervised over 20 MSc and PhD students, many of whom are now distinguished practitioners in there own rights. So let us sit back and enjoy the 5th Glossop Lecture: "Geomorphological Roulette for Engineers and Planners: Some Insights into an Old Game".
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