Memorial Lecture to be given by land quality expert – University of Reading
10 October 2006This year's renowned Edith Mary Gayton Memorial Lecture at the University of Reading's School of Agriculture, Policy and Development will be given by Helen Wakeham, Head of Land Quality at the Environment Agency. Helen will be speaking at 8pm on Monday, 6 November, on the topic of 'Land Management for the Future'. It constitutes the 2006 Edith Mary Gayton Memorial Lecture which is an annual event, now in its 23rd year, at the University where issues of concern to farming and land use are debated. As head of Land Quality, Helen leads a department which aims to protect and prevent damage to the land from the multiple uses to which we put it. Human activities and natural events may pollute or degrade the land's physical structure and as a result put human health, wildlife as well as the water environment at risk. Helen began her career at the National Rivers Authority in 1989, working as a field officer in biology and then pollution control. She has fulfilled a number of roles for the NRA and then the Environment Agency in pollution management, science and agriculture. Since 2005 she has been responsible for the Environment Agency's policy on land as a whole including farming, soil, land contamination, diffuse pollution and groundwater. She has a degree in Zoology from the University of Nottingham (1988), a Masters in Aquatic Resource Management from Kings College, London (1990) and a Diploma in Water and Environmental Management from Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (1993). The event is open to all and free, no ticket required. It takes place at the John Madejski Theatre in the Agriculture building at 8pm on Monday 6 November. For further information, please contact Professor Tahir Rehman in the School of Agriculture on (0118) 378 8480, e-mail: t.rehman@reading.ac.uk. End