Lead nominator: Professor Michael Kendall, Professor of Earth Sciences.
James Rae has contributed enormously to building links between various Schools in the Faculty of Science. His achievements include setting up an interschool palaeoclimate group, bringing together research students from Earth Sciences, Geographical Sciences, Chemistry, Biology and Archaeology. James organises two scientific meetings a year, with talks and poster sessions, maintains a webpage and coordinates a fortnightly student reading group. He has established an Earth Sciences student seminar series with the aim of presenting PhD student research to undergraduates, postgraduates and staff in a friendly environment. He has worked hard to increase undergraduate interest in and attendance at events and the seminar series is now particularly well attended. James has also been the postgraduate representative for BUGGS, the undergraduate subject society, and has been instrumental in extending it from a purely social organisation to one that now also offers academic talks and expeditions to sites of geological interest. James is also the School Coordinator for the World Universities Network Earth Systems Science virtual seminars.
On top of all this, James has appeared on a documentary called ‘The Last Trillion Tonnes’, about the work scientists do to study climate change, speaks on BURST student radio ‘Green Waves’ show and still finds the time to play several musical instruments, including the bagpipes, and is an active member of the university mountaineering clubs and is involved in several other societies as well.
His nominator says: “James is an all-round good citizen and an ambassador for his subject.”