The UB to confer an honorary doctorate on ecologist Belinda Medlyn

PRESS RELEASE

News | Institutional
22/10/2024

Belinda Medlyn, an expert in plant ecophysiology and the study of vegetation responses to climate change, will receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Barcelona on 29 October, in a ceremony open to the general public that will take place in the Paranymph Hall of the Historic Building at 12:00 noon. This is the highest award by the UB given in recognition of the merits achieved and the career someone has followed in the academic, scientific or cultural fields, his or her values, and a special link with the UB. The event can be followed online on UBtv.

News | Institutional
22/10/2024

Belinda Medlyn, an expert in plant ecophysiology and the study of vegetation responses to climate change, will receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Barcelona on 29 October, in a ceremony open to the general public that will take place in the Paranymph Hall of the Historic Building at 12:00 noon. This is the highest award by the UB given in recognition of the merits achieved and the career someone has followed in the academic, scientific or cultural fields, his or her values, and a special link with the UB. The event can be followed online on UBtv.

Professor Medlyn will receive the title in a solemn ceremony presided over by Joan Guàrdia, rector of the UB. The sponsor of the ceremony will be Professor Santiago Sabaté, director of the Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences and member of the Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF).

The effects of climate change on forests

Medlyn is a professor at the Western Sydney University (Australia) and has been listed as one of the world’s most influential experts by Clarivate Analytics’ Highly Cited Researchers (2018-2022). She is a distinguished figure in the international scientific scene, for she has contribted to improving the understanding and modelling of vegetation responses to environmental conditions, especially in the scenario of increasing threats arising from the impact of climate change and extreme events.

Medlyn’s research activity has provided a robust scientific basis for facilitating long-term prediction of how plants will respond to rising carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentrations, warming temperatures and droughts. Her work has helped to bridge the traditional divide between experimental ecology and modelling with innovative quantitative syntheses. Working at the interface between practical experiments and theoretical models, she has developed evidence-based models to decipher how global change will directly affect ecosystem productivity, water use and species composition. In the context of ecology, Professor Medlyn’s research has been integrated into mathematical models used to predict Earth system dynamics across the world.

Boosting the role of women researchers in science

Beyond research activity, Medlyn has also played a leading role in opening the way for women researchers — especially in paths considered non-traditional — and thus alleviating the gender imbalance that persists in the world of science. The author of more than 170 articles in high-impact journals, she is editor of the journal New Phytologist — one of the most prestigious scientific journals in plant biology — and a member of the editorial board of Global Change Biology.

Belinda Medlyn is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and has been awarded the Ralph Slatyer Medal (2022), the Western Sydney University Researcher of the Year 2019, and the ARC Georgina Sweet Australian Laureate Fellowship (2019), among others.

Scientific session at the Faculty of Biology 

On Wednesday 30 October, from 10.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m., Belinda Medlyn will be one of the participants in the scientific conference “Forests and Climate Change. Understanding plant responses to help Forest Management”, which will take place in the Faculty of Biology’s Aula Magna.

The session, which is open to the public, will be opened by Rosina Gironès, dean of the Faculty of Biology and coordinator of the Global Sustainability Hub, and Professor Santi Sabaté (UB-CREAF). Medlyn will then give the lecture “Understanding plant responses to changes of environmental conditions”.

Among the participants will be the experts Jordi Martínez-Vilalta, from CREAF-UAB (Mediterranean forests and drought); Víctor Resco de Dios, from the University of Lleida and Agrotecnio (Drivers of forest fairs and management options), and Dani Nadal-Sala, from the UB’s Faculty of Biology and CREAF-UB (Synergies and trade-offs of Forest Ecosystem Services). At noon, there will be a colloquium moderated by Professor Santi Sabaté with the participation of Belinda Medlyn, Jordi Martínez-Vilalta, Víctor Resco de Dios, Dani Nadal-Sala, Teresa Baiges (Centre de Proprietat Forestal-CPF, Government of Catalonia) and Joan Botey (Consorci Forestal de Catalunya).

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