Join CAT students for a free lecture by Dr Cathy Cole: ‘Our vital ocean: healthy seas for a healthy planet.’ Runs Monday 9 March at 7pm.  

We are delighted to welcome guest lecturer Dr Cathy Cole to CAT during our postgraduate teaching week for the ‘Ecosystems and Ecosystem Services’ module. 

As record breaking climate extremes become part of our daily news reels, tackling climate change can seem insurmountable. Yet, we have a vital ally on our side: the ocean. Our water world is fundamental to all life on Earth, and it absorbs heat and carbon dioxide on an enormous scale. In this lecture and Q&A, Dr Cathy Cole will reflect on how alongside deep emissions cuts, restoring and protecting our ocean ecosystems would change the course of our climate story, and give hope to future generations. 

Key information

• Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
• Date: Monday 9 March 2026 
• Start and finish times: 7pm-8:30pm
• Location: Sheppard Theatre, WISE building
• Free entry but limited spaces so please sign up in advance
• Book an evening meal in CAT’s café and join our students to discuss and debate before the lecture begins.

  • This can be prebooked for £10 alongside your public lecture booking below.
  • Will be served at 6:00pm before the lecture begins.
  • This can only be prebooked before the event and cannot be purchased onsite.
  • Donnelly’s bar open from 8.30pm.  

• Lecture is recorded for student learning purposes only and won’t be available publicly online. Book to join us in person.

If you have any questions about this event please direct them to gsmo@cat.org.uk.

Speaker bio

Dr Cathy Cole is a Specialist Advisor on Marine Water Quality for Natural Resources Wales and was, until recently, Senior Lecturer at Centre for Alternative Technology. With a background in oceanography, climate change, and science communication, she lectures primarily on communicating transformational social change, and on our changing ocean in the context of climate change. 

Cathy holds an MSc in Oceanography, and a PhD in Marine Biogeochemistry, both from the University of Southampton. As a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Andrews, she investigated the biomineralization of tropical coral skeletons under changing ocean conditions. She has also held the position of Climate Science Communicator at the Met Office and worked at the Department of Science Communication at the University of Otago as a Lecturer. Cathy initiated a project to bring ocean climate data to life in local communities (https://www.moretosea.net/), through the co-creation of powerful visual stories sharing changes underway at a local scale.