The Vega Symposium

The Vega Day 2023

Date: Friday April 21, 2023, 14.00–17.45.

Venue: Beijersalen, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, KVA, Lilla Frescativägen 4 A, Stockholm (metro: Universitetet; bus stop: Universitetet norra)

The Power of the Past: Tracking Lake Ecosystem Changes in an Anthropocene World

The 2023 Vega Symposium honours John P. Smol, Distinguished University Professor at Queen’s University (Kingston, Canada), who has been awarded SSAG’s Vega Medal 2023 for his scientific contributions to Physical Geography. He is recognized as one of the foremost experts on the study of long-term global environmental changes to lakes and rivers. John Smol is unquestionably one of the most prolific scientists in paleolimnology, and certainly the most prolific regarding northern lake systems. The theme of the symposium will focus on “The Power of the Past: Tracking Lake Ecosystem Changes in an Anthropocene World”. One of the greatest challenges faced by ecologists, regulators, and other environmental scientists is using appropriate time scales to assess environmental change. Due to the lack of systematic long-term monitoring data, it is often difficult to determine the nature, timing, and causes of ecosystem changes. Nonetheless, the ecosystems around us have been (indirectly) archiving records of past environmental change in a wide spectrum of sources, including lake and river sediments (i.e. the field of paleolimnology). The Symposium will focus on the importance of using paleolimnological approaches to assess long-term environmental changes in lakes, and how this information can provide critical data required for evidence-based policy to address future environmental challenges.

Programme

14.00 Opening of the Vega Symposium.
Associate Professor Madeleine Bonow, President SSAG and Chair of the symposium.

14.10 Introduction Associate professor Lina Polvi Sjöberg, Umeå University.

14.20 Lakes in the Anthropocene: Using the past to better prepare for the future. Professor John P. Smol, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

15.00 The power of palaeoecology for understanding and managing shallow lakes. Professor Helen Bennion, University College London.

15.30 Coffee

16.00 The first arrival of people and the changing environment in northernmost Greenland.
Professor Raymond Bradley, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA.

16.30 Medieval globalization and the transformation of the Swedish landscape. Professor Richard Bindler, Umeå University.

17.00 Discussion

17.30 Closing of the Symposium

Invitation 2023 (pdf)
Queen’s professor turns 40 years of playing with mud into prestigious Vega Medal; at CBC News

The Vega Day 2022

Movie from the Vega Symposium 2022
Poster 2022 (pdf)

The Vega Day 2021

Movie from the Vega Symposium 2021
Poster 2021 (pdf)

The Vega Day 2020

The 2020 Vega Symposium was cancelled due to the developments regarding the coronavirus and Covid-19.

Poster 2020 (pdf)

The Vega Day 2019

Poster 2019 (pdf)
Movie from the Vega Symposium 2019
Pictures from the Vega Day 2019
Professor Emily Martin receives SSAG’s Medal in Gold from the patron of the Society, His Majesty the King of Sweden (Swedish Royal Court)

The Vega Day 2018

Invitation 2018 (pdf)
Poster 2018 (pdf)
Movie from the Vega Symposium 2018
Pictures from the Vega Day 2018

The Vega Day 2017

Invitation 2017 (pdf)
Poster 2017 (pdf)
Movie from the Vega Day 2017
Pictures from the Vega Day 2017
Chinese scientist Yao Tandong receives 2017 Vega Medal in Stockholm (Xinhuanet, Xinhua News Agency)
Chinese scientist Yao Tandong receives 2017 Vega Medal in Stockholm (China Global Television Network, CGTN)
Kungen delade ut Vegamedaljen (Swedish Royal Court)

The Vega Day 2016

Invitation (pdf)
Movie from the Vega Day 2016
Movie of when His Majesty the King hands out SSAG’s medal in gold 2016
Pictures from the Vega Day 2016

The Vega Day 2015

Movie from the Vega Day 2015
Pictures from the Vega Day 2015