Professor Nathalie Seddon joins the Oxford Smith School
Nathalie Seddon, Professor of Biodiversity at the University of Oxford, has joined the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment as founding Director of the Nature-based Solutions Initiative, a position shared jointly between the Oxford Smith School and the Department of Biology.
“A healthy biodiverse natural world is the foundation of a thriving economy, so I’m delighted to continue my research on Nature-based Solutions alongside Smith School colleagues in economics, finance, law and other disciplines,” said Professor Seddon. “By strengthening our work together, we can help answer the urgent questions raised by climate change and biodiversity loss, identify holistic, equitable and genuinely sustainable solutions to these crises, and in so doing transform the economy so that is in service of life, rather than its unravelling”.
“Professor Seddon is an internationally highly reputed researcher, known for her ground-breaking work on nature-based solutions to societal challenges. I am truly delighted to welcome her formally into the Oxford Smith School community, and to have the opportunity to build on our existing collaborations and work with her to develop new future projects together ,” said Professor Mette Morsing, Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment.
Professor Seddon’s past research sought to understand the origins and maintenance of biodiversity and its relationship with global change. She now focuses on the ecological and socioeconomic effectiveness of nature-based solutions to societal challenges, and how to increase the influence of robust biodiversity science on the design and implementation of climate and development policy.
Seddon is also Director of the Agile Initiative and is a Senior Research Fellow at Wadham College and the Oxford Martin School. In addition, she sits on the UK Climate Change Committee and is a trustee of the Circular Bioeconomy Alliance. She trained as an evolutionary ecologist at Cambridge University and has over 25 years of research experience in a variety of ecosystems across the globe.
The Nature-Based Solutions Initiative was founded in 2017. In a University of Oxford interview, Seddon described how the term was not widely known before. “Now, it’s gone mainstream, viral even; now everyone seems to be talking about them – not just the conservation organisations, but those working in development, health, local businesses, banks, international corporations and governments,” she said.
In 2021, the Initiative launched the Nature based Solutions to Global Challenges Foundation Course in partnership with the Oxford Smith School.
The Nature-based Solutions Initiative has a vacancy for a Deputy Director, visit their website for more information.
