Last weekend I returned to Hull to catch up with friends from my undergraduate days for the first time in more than 20 years! We were all based at the University of Hull “Ferens Hall” hall of residence for our first year (1995-1996), following this we shared houses in the streets around the university main campus. Over the last twenty years later we have all headed off along different an meandering paths in life, but catching up with everyone felt very normal. A testement to the solid friendships developed during those three years at Hull. The reunion was helped along by some Manchester Bitter and Yorkshire stout (not avaliable on tap in the Netherlands) and some fine locations in the redeveloped Hull marina area.
Whilst at Hull, as well as making friends, I studies for a BSc (Hons) in Physical Geography. During my degree I got my foundations and inspiration for exploring past environmental change from a range of great lecturers, memorably including:
- Steve Ellis (soil science; and author of the then recently published Ellis & Mellor [1995] text book),
- Barbara Rumbsy (past river systems; who – if I remember the rumour correctly – left academia to run a tea shop in the Lake District – was this true?),
- Martyn Pedley (sedimentology; double carbonate sedimentology on a Friday afternoon was typically punctuated by a swift trip to the Student Union bar [but we always went back]),
- James Brasington (hydrology; who I remember running after down a crowded corridor for some reason long forgotten), and
- Jane Bunting (palaeoecology; who really set me on my academic path!).
As an undergraduate arriving in Hull in 1995 I could never have imagined that I would be in Amsterdam 30+ years later working as an academic. I hope that, as an academic today, I manage to convey the same energy and enthusiams for my subject as the lecturers I had at Hull did for me. Who knows where my students, staff, or I, will all be 30+ more years time, but I am sure things will change (and wierdly stay the same) just as much as they have (have not) over the last 30 years. I hope that the path is varied and interesting, and that more friendships and progress are made along the way. So on with the adventure…
References
- Ellis, S., & Mellor, T. (2002). Soils and Environment. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203415245
Ecology of the past 