Ken Sargent (CFF 1957-58) All Harkness Stories, Environment, International Affairs, Up to 1959
, OBE, graduated in Forestry at Edinburgh University in 1945, with the Elizabeth Sinclair Irvine prize as best student and joined the Kenya Forest Department for 12 years. Working on a wide variety of field assignments, he became deeply interested in the role of forestry in the environment and its interrelationship with other sectors. His 1957 fellowship enabled him to study at Harvard University with Professor J.K. Galbraith and undertake extensive travel arranged by the US Forest Service. He returned in 1965 to present a key-note address on forest policy to the first Tropical Forestry Symposium. Ken moved on to a successful career in many countries linking forestry, land use and agricultural policies with national economic and social policy. His model for analysis of these issues was taken up by the World Bank for broader application in developing countries. In recognition of this success, Ken was presented with the prestigious B.R. Sen Award of FAO (1974), the first Englishman and the first Forester to receive this. In 1966 Ken was elected an Honorary Member of the Society of American Foresters, and was appointed an OBE in 1967. In retirement he became Treasurer then Chairman for a Housing Association. In 2012, at the age of 88, Ken privately published “Beyond the trees – a forester’s reminiscences of adventure, international travel and a fascinating career”. Ken died in October 2020 and is survived by his wife, Gwen, who travelled with him on his fellowship, and his two sons, Michael and Peter.
Last updated: 22nd March 2021
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James Bathurst (HF 1977-79) 1970s, All Harkness Stories, Environment, Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths
was encouraged to apply for a fellowship by a previous HF while a PhD student. The fellowship allowed him to undertake post-doctoral research on mountain river hydraulics at Colorado State University (CSU), Fort Collins. An immediate outcome of his fellowship was the co-founding, together with colleagues from CSU and the UK, of what has become an internationally recognized programme of workshops on Gravel-bed Rivers that have been held every five years since 1980. In 1979 James joined the then Natural Environment Research Council’s Institute of Hydrology at Wallingford, Oxfordshire, (now the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology) and became part of a European collaboration to develop an advanced river catchment model (the Système Hydrologique Européen) for use in predicting the impacts of climate and land use change. James also continued his rivers research through a collaboration with the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland. He was seconded to a research unit at Newcastle University in 1985, and subsequently joined the University as a staff member in 1992. While there, he carried out technology transfer projects for the catchment model in India and Chile and applications to Mediterranean desertification, landslide hazard and forest impacts on floods in Latin America. James acquired his knowledge of landslides during a Churchill Fellowship visit to New Zealand in 1990. Most recently he has worked with colleagues in Chile on the impact of forests on floods, an occupation he continues following his retirement from Newcastle University in 2020 as Reader in Erosion and Sediment Transport.
Last updated: 14th March 2021
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Anthony Long (HF 1977-79)) 1970s, All Harkness Stories, Environment, Politics & Public Services, Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths
studied how controversial UK land use policy conflicts at that time, particularly new motorways, might be handled differently in federal government systems. Catapulted from the planning department in the remote Colne Town Hall on the edge of the Pennines to the U.S. Capitol in Washington DC, he joined the Congressional Fellowship Programme of the American Political Science Association working first for Senator John Culver (D-Iowa) and then Representative Les AuCoin (D-Oregon). In his second year, he joined AuCoin’s successful 1978 electoral campaign in Oregon, followed by six months assisting an unusual majority coalition in the State Legislature of New Mexico. Returning to the UK, he joined the Council for the Protection of Rural England working on many nationally significant land use planning controversies. After a short research tenure in Paris in 1986, Anthony joined the staff of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in the UK. In 1989 he established and led a dedicated WWF policy office in Brussels to influence EU environmental policy and legislation, a role he continued to undertake until his retirement in 2015 He has published several articles on environmental lobbying and was visiting professor at the College of Europe in Bruges. He maintained close links with the US through his 10-year membership of the Sustainability Advisory Council of the Dow Chemical Company in Michigan. Continuing to reside in Brussels, Anthony advises local, national and international non-governmental and advocacy organisations, occasionally teaches environmental politics and is a Trustee of the Andrew Lees Trust-UK. (Tony wrote this in 2020. He passed away in February 2022.)
Last updated: 20th February 2022
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