Auckland Museum offers a rare opportunity to hear leading European academic and policy advisor Sir Brian Heap lecture on the effect of consumption on happiness.

Professor Sir Brian Heap will be lecturing on 'the massive and unsustainable consumption of the Western World' at Auckland Museum on Thursday April 17 on the invitation of the Royal Society and Auckland Museum Institute. Auckland Museum offers a rare opportunity to hear leading European academic and policy advisor Sir Brian Heap lecture on the effect of consumption on happiness.

Professor Sir Brian Heap will be lecturing on 'the massive and unsustainable consumption of the Western World' at Auckland Museum on Thursday April 17 on the invitation of the Royal Society and Auckland Museum Institute.Sir Brian (CBE ScD FRS), a biologist whose main current research is in the area of sustainability, consumption and production and environmental policy, will discuss risks, challenges and possible strategies for sustainability while acknowledging today's complex political, social and economic environment.

An expert in his field, Heap is currently working with the British Government's Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and chairs a group of European academics working on the future of energy, instigating long term research on such projects as the generation of power using nuclear fusion.

He has also held visiting posts in the Universities of Nairobi, Murdoch Western Australia and Guelph Canada.

Heap has also been a Master at the University of Cambridge and a World Health Organization consultant for pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors. In 1989, the Royal Society elected him a fellow. Following this accolade he held positions at the Royal Society including Vice President, Foreign Secretary, Executive Editor of the Philosophical Transactions and was one of the founders of the International Society for Science and Religion.

Additionally he is a member of the Faraday Advisory Board of The Faraday Institute; an institution that has a Christian ethos, but encourages engagement with a wide diversity of opinions concerning interactions between science and religion.

Sir Brian visits New Zealand in his capacity at this point in time as Principal Scientific Advisor to ZyGEM Corporation Limited, a rapidly growing biotechnology company with a range of innovative enzyme-based products and technologies based on the company's exclusive collection of micro-organisms from extreme environments.

Lecture takes place 6:30pm, Thursday April 17th in the Auditorium
Tickets $10 (members $5) and require bookings. Please contact the Museum on bookings@aucklandmuseum.com or (Ph) 09 306 7048
For more information, visit www.aucklandmuseum.com

31/03/08