This is the third in a series of lectures which began in 2003, organised by the Centre for Sustainable Development, and linked to the MPhil in Engineering for Sustainable Development.
Details of the 2003 and 2004 series can be found on the Department of Engineering Centre for Sustainable Development website, with links to videos and transcripts of two of last year's lectures by Sir Crispin Tickell and Professor Richard Carter:
http://www-csd.eng.cam.ac.uk
The details of the first lecture on 2nd February 2005 are given below:
Professor Roland Clift on Engineers as Honest Brokers for Sustainable Development
Amongst their other implications, the ethical principles embodied in the concept of sustainable development imply a different approach to decision-making. Public acceptance of decisions made in the face of scientific uncertainty is a particular concern. Exploring the concept of an extended peer community in public decisions leads to a new model for the role of the technical expert. This new role has implications both for the education and the social role of engineers.
Professor Roland Clift OBE FREng FIChemE HonFCIWEM FRSA: Distinguished Professor of Environmental Technology and founding Director of the Centre for Environmental Strategy at the University of Surrey; previously Head of the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering at the University of Surrey. Professor Clift is Visiting Professor in Environmental System Analysis at Chalmers University, Göteborg, Sweden. He is a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, of the International Expert Group on application of Life Cycle Assessment to waste management and of the Rolls-Royce Environmental Advisory Board, a past member of the UK Ecolabelling Board and currently an Expert Adviser to a House of Lords enquiry into energy efficiency. In 2003 Professor Clift was awarded the Sir Frank Whittle Medal of the Royal Academy of Engineering "for outstanding and sustained engineering achievement contributing to the well-being of the nation".