Inaugural Professorial Lecture - Professor Wayne Stephenson

Coastal erosion, sea level rise, and an earthquake: Doing Geomorphology between the rocks and a hard place 

About Professor Wayne Stephenson's research:

Wayne is a geographer with research and teaching interests in coastal geomorphology. His research is focussed on how rock coasts respond to tectonics and climate change. Since rock coasts are eroding landforms, the common expectation is that rising sea level will increase the pace of erosion, but recent results have demonstrated complex responses including diminished erosion under some sea level rise scenarios. Investigations of the impact of the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake on that coastline has been funded by a Marsden standard grant. Wayne is a principal investigator of a project in the CoRE Coastal People South Skies working with tangata whenua to understand the impact of sea level rise on their coastal communities. He has supervised numerous masters and doctoral candidates who have gone to consultancies, postdocs, and academic positions in Australia, USA, UK and China. Since 2021 he has served as Associate Dean Graduate Studies for Humanities.

This lecture will be followed with light refreshments, tea, coffee and juice.