Bridging the gap between engineering and environmentalists

Associate Professor Will GlamoreOriginally published by www.engineering.unsw.edu.au

The School of Civil and Environmental Engineering would like to congratulate Associate Professor Will Glamore on his move from Senior Research Fellow to Associate Professor. His expanded research and teaching role will provide our students with the benefits of his extensive practical and research based experience.

William Glamore is an impressive and much awarded researcher; from an early career Churchill Fellowship to an International Willems-De Paepe Award to his Green Globe award in 2015. Over the last ten years alone he has garnered over $8 million dollars in research funding.

A commonly overlooked issue, wetlands provide an important service to humans in reducing flood impacts, cushioning the influence of coastal tsunamis, filtering pollutants and helping communities during severe droughts.

 

He is also recognised on the ground and in the swamp, by those outside academia working in the field of climate change remediation and environmental restoration.

One area close to his heart is wetland protection. This year, on February 2nd, Dr Glamore celebrated World Wetland Day with a social media post: “today we celebrate the global movement to improve, restore and create wetlands. A commonly overlooked issue, wetlands provide an important service to humans in reducing flood impacts, cushioning the influence of coastal tsunamis, filtering pollutants and helping communities during severe droughts. Recent research suggests that wetlands will be even more important in reducing disaster risks under increased sea levels and storminess from climate change.”

In response, Max Osborne, Senior Land Services Officer at North Coast Local Land Services celebrated William’s twenty one years of service to the environment: “I wonder what your "look what I have done for wetlands list" is going to look like at your 50th-year-of-service party? I hope I will be there to read it out for you!”

Where William hopes to lead the field is bridging the gap between engineering and environmentalists. As an engineer, he looks to nature for answers and prizes indigenous as well as scientific knowledge.  And he is man who looks to the larger picture of life.

In 2015, William was part of a showcase at the Manly Art Gallery investigating the junction of art and science with a focus on the cultural, scientific and creative meaning of saltwater. In 2012 as Co-Founder and Technical Director, he created an software application for protecting family memories, driven “by our desire to create a baby book for our first son”. Above the din of the collective awwwh, we can see a man with a life that includes family and art and firmly held belief systems as well as ambition and professional drive. Perhaps it is this balanced attitude to the broader elements of life that have made Associate Professor William Glamore so successful. We can only hope our students appreciate being guided by such a thoughtful and contemporary man.

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