In conversation with Professor Iain Stewart
Before the inaugural Australian Mine Waste Symposium in February 2024 (was it that long ago now!), I had the opportunity to meet with Professor Iain Stewart. Since 2003, Professor Stewart has partnered with BBC Science where he made many mainstream television documentaries about planet Earth. These documentaries, including the BAFTA nominated ‘Earth: The Power of the Planet (2007), How Earth Made Us (2009), Rise of the Continents (2013) and Journeys from the Centre of the Earth (2014) inspired many high school students (particularly in the UK) to become geologists!
Professor Stewart is currently Director of the Sustainable Earth Institute and a Professor of Geoscience Communication at University of Plymouth, in addition to his role as co-Director of the Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability at Ashoka University. Currently he is the Jordan-UK El Hassan bin Talal Research Chair in Sustainability at the Royal Scientific Society in Jordan. He is a UNESCO Chair in Geoscience and Society and formerly a member of the Scientific Board of UNESCO's International Geoscience Programme.
As the Research Chair in Sustainability, Professor Stewart is increasingly dealing with environmental challenges, so we wanted to get his expert views on opportunities for mine waste valorisation, circular economy and indeed, attracting more students into the geosciences. I couldn’t resist asking if we might see him back on our screens to perhaps make his next landmark documentary on mine waste…