News Rock Stars 09.03.2022

On Friday 18th February storm Eunice closed schools and colleges across West Sussex. For the Geology students at Collyer’s this might have stopped their weekly enrichment slot from going ahead, but no! The session was instead creatively delivered on-line by Dr Jodie Fisher from Plymouth University, covering the use of binocular microscopes to study microfossils.

Dr Ian Carr, Head of Geology and Environmental Science at Collyer’s, explained: “Dr Fisher had travelled up from Plymouth and was staying in a hotel in the centre of Horsham. When Storm Eunice struck the in-person lecture had to be cancelled, but Dr Fisher still delivered the session, from the lounge via Zoom to 15 students.”

Dr Jodie Fisher is the founder of the ‘Girls into Geoscience’ group, that have given four talks as part of the Kirsty Brown events, a series of talks at Collyer’s, in memory of geologist and marine biologist Kirsty Brown, who studied geology at Collyer’s. The Kirsty Brown Fund is generously covering the costs of the talks and a number of activities in this area, to help educate and inspire young people.

Ian Carr added: “The events have been enormously successful and attracted speakers from Portsmouth, Plymouth, Royal Holloway, Southampton, Birmingham Universities, and Imperial College London, and speakers from industry, on topics as diverse as microfossils to dinosaurs, plate tectonics and missions to Venus, and included three online talks on Polar Geology from Leicester University!”

Vice Principal (Curriculum) Rob Hussey said: “Huge thanks to Ian, the students, and Dr Jodie Fisher for making the event possible. Particularly impressive given the impact of Storm Eunice!”