From Small Seeds, Mighty Trees Will Grow

The University of Lincoln is pledging to plant one new tree for each application received at its Postgraduate Open Day on Saturday 7th March.

The environmental pledge comes as part of the University’s work to help raise awareness of the current climate emergency and to make a positive impact on this global challenge.

The theme of Sustainability will run throughout the upcoming Postgraduate Open Day, which invites prospective students from across the UK and beyond to explore the wide portfolio of Masters and PhD programmes at Lincoln. The new trees will be planted at the University of Lincoln’s Riseholme Campus – the centre for its extensive agricultural and forestry research.

Lincoln is ranked in the top 200 institutions worldwide for its teaching and research in these areas, and scientists at Riseholme are undertaking pioneering studies in sustainable energy and in agroforestry, looking at the benefits of woodland to landowners and farmers alike.

George Onoufriou is an MPhil/PhD student currently working at the Riseholme Campus on a new research project designed to tackle the problems caused to the national grid by a sporadic supply of renewable energy. Using the University’s Refrigeration Research Centre “the first of its kind in the world” George is a postgraduate data scientist working within a wider research team, aiming to react to and balance the national grid, and therefore support a more sustainable energy model.

George said: “The University of Lincoln, I would argue, has been absolutely critical to my development as an individual. It has definitely developed my confidence. The University has given me the medium to understand myself, I’ve learned all sorts of new skills, and I’ve come to understand the world of academia much more clearly and where I can go from here.”

All students making applications at the Postgraduate Open Day (Saturday 7th March) will also be considered for a new Environmental Scholarship of £3,000 to support their postgraduate studies.

The scholarship is open to all subject areas, with applicants being asked to state how their postgraduate study will help them personally to make an impact on the climate emergency.

Farhan Ahmed, Dean of Postgraduate Education at the University of Lincoln, said: “We look forward to welcoming the next cohort of prospective students and their families to our Postgraduate Open Day this weekend. Not only will it offer a fantastic opportunity to get a taste of the programmes we offer, meet some of the great academic minds you could learn from and work alongside, and explore the all-important facilities, just by applying on the day applicants could be responsible for the planting of a new tree – supporting our work to tackle the climate emergency.”

The Postgraduate Open Day will take place from 11am-3pm in the University of Lincoln’s Isaac Newton Building, where visitors will also be able to see the University’s ‘Garden of Reflection’ with trees that are descendants of Sir Isaac Newton’s apple tree. The University of Lincoln was gifted a number of rare cuttings from the tree which still survives in Newton’s birthplace at Woolsthorpe Manor, from which he reputedly saw an apple fall causing him to speculate upon the nature of gravity.

The cuttings were carefully cultivated and nurtured into young trees by the University’s scientists, and last year they were planted next to the Isaac Newton building to inspire the next generation of scientific minds.To book your place on the University of Lincoln Postgraduate Open Day on Saturday 7th November, visit the website.