SATRA researcher speaks at Oxford University

SATRA's David Smith visited the Oxford University School of Geography and the Environment to speak on the use of the Pedatron test machine.

David Smith – a member of SATRA’s innovation and development team – recently visited Oxford University’s School of Geography and the Environment to speak to the Oxford Resilient Buildings and Landscapes Group (OxRBL). His presentation followed work conducted by SATRA on research projects run by Oxford University, described in the article 'Using Pedatron to protect the past'. David outlined SATRA’s history and facilities, and addressed a number of topics, such as the use of the Pedatron test machine, the Creaform three-dimensional high-resolution scanner and our walk-in climate chamber. While in Oxford, he toured some of the university’s laboratory facilities, including its luminescence dating laboratory.

According to OxRBL, how people and environmental conditions interact with natural and built heritage sites is at the heart of providing more resilient and better-conserved heritage assets in the future. Several of the group’s projects deal with such issues, and the body is particularly interested in interdisciplinary projects cutting across many research traditions. SATRA’s work may have relevance to other OxRBL projects, including ‘Learning from nature: evaluating site-based conservation approaches to mitigating climatic risks to earthen heritage sites in north west China’, ‘Cultural landscapes of the past: reconstructing prehistoric environmental change in south east Arabia’, and ‘Inheritance and innovation: science-based heritage conservation for sustainable economic development on the eastern Silk Road’.

It is hoped that there will be future opportunities for collaboration between SATRA and Oxford University.

Publishing Data

This article was originally published on page 4 of the April 2020 issue of SATRA Bulletin.

Other articles from this issue »

---