Eleven years since Britain’s first (peer-reviewed) green roof experiment, this field of research has attained a zenith of sorts.  Never before have so many postgraduate (PG) students across the land been engaged by Master’s and PhD degrees as direct contributions to green roof research and application.

To celebrate and unite young researchers in Britain and beyond, the University of Sheffield and  The Green Roof Centre are proud to announce the 1st National Green Roof Student Conference, 16th- 17th May 2011.   In addition to sharing findings and facilitating discussion, the aim of the conference is to help develop a community of early stage researchers focused on green roof function, performance, benefits and design.

This 1st National Green Roof Student Conference partly represents the critical mass that green roofs are approaching in Britain, but it also reflects momentum hosted in Sheffield. Currently, at least 10 postgraduate (PG) students are doing green roof research at the University of Sheffield, and several departments are involved in green roof projects at undergraduate levels.   A major cause of momentum is possibly the biggest international green roof research projects ever, as supported by a  EU Marie Curie Industry Academia Partnership grant.

Overall, the Marie Curie project is supporting 6 early career researchers (including 3 PhDs), 3 experienced researchers, and the exchange of permanent staff between the University of Sheffield and its industry partner in Germany,  ZinCo GmbH.

I’m one of the PhD students in this scheme, and am hosted by the Department of Landscape to work on the plants package (I may share a blurb of my work soon, so stay tuned!).   Another PhD student, Gianni Vesuviano, is in the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering and looking at matters of hydrology and modelling.   The third PhD student will start next year, with the role of whole systems investigation.

The University of Sheffield has a global reputation for both teaching and research, but also for innovation in the structure and delivery of graduate education.   According to Shanghai Jiao Tong Institute’s Academic Ranking of World Universities 2003, out of more than 500 European universities, Sheffield ranks 18th.   It is also one of the largest UK universities, with over 23,000 students (5,000 postgraduate) from over 120 countries.

With regards to green roof research, the Green Roof Centre at the University of Sheffield has built significant networks with public end-users in the UK (e.g., municipal authorities).  The Green Roof Centre is the only British research group to join the informal network of green roof associations around the world (e.g. Sweden, Switzerland, U.S., Canada).   Outside of big-city London, Sheffield has the most green roofs of any city in Britain.

Update: Abstracts to the  1st National Green Roof Student Conference must be submitted by 25th  March to the Green Roof Centre.  Full papers are due by 25th April.   The conference fee ( £25) must be made by cheque to ‘University of Sheffield’ before the event.   Please see the Green Roof Centre link for complete details.

I hope to see you there!

~ Christine