Weather scientist features in underground art exhibition

A Meteorology professor at the University of Reading has been featured in a London art exhibition in recognition of his contribution to weather research.

A striking photographic portrait of Professor Giles Harrison is among eight on display at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, recognising figures who are continuing the scientific and architectural legacy of 17^th century architect Sir Christopher Wren.

The Wren: What legacy now? exhibition, by photographer Hamish MacPherson, can be visited for free in the Ripley Tunnel, which runs underground between the historic College’s Painted Hall and Chapel of St Peter and Paul.

Professor Harrison’s research has progressed scientific methods of recording atmospheric properties, such as electric charge in clouds, using weather balloons.

Wren: What legacy now? draws attention to modern-day people continuing architect Sir Christopher Wren’s lesser-known scientific legacy, three hundred years after his death.

Although best known as England’s greatest architect, Christopher Wren was engaged in a wide range of scientific and social questions throughout his life. This included designing the first ever automatic weather recording system in 1662.

Also featured in the exhibition are Fahima Hussain, a British Sign Language teacher at Deaf-led organisation Remark!; Rob Gow, a beehive designer; Professor Jaideep Pandit, who works at the forefront of anaesthesia research at the University of Oxford; Professor Katherine Blundell OBE, a University of Oxford astronomer and astrophysicist who researches how matter behaves near black holes; Dr Lucy Collinson, Head of Electron Microscopy at The Francis Crick Institute; Sarah Coutts, Head of Design and Planning at Barking Riverside Ltd, which is delivering thousands of new London homes just as Wren did after the Great Fire of London in 1666; and Lyndsey-Jane Lupton, the designer of Admiral Jellicoe House, a care home for veterans in Portsmouth.

For more information about the exhibition and how to visit, and to listen to an audio description of Giles Harrison’s portrait, visit the exhibition web page.

Photo credit: Luisa de la Concha