Tickets are free, registration opens one month before the lecture.
Discussion
Thu
26
Nov 2026
Gresham in the North Public Lecture
The Life Cycle of a Holiday
Professor Ian Mudway
This lecture unmasks the hidden biological debt incurred by global mobility. We trace the lifecycle of a holiday from the invisible wake of aviation, its effect on our respiratory health to infections being transported around the globe. Has the modern traveller become a primary delivery mechanism for systemic harm?
From the diversion of water to luxury resorts to the digital destruction of fragile ecosystems, we conclude by asking how we might travel well. We explore the shift from extraction to restoration where the presence of the traveller supports rather than depletes the life-support systems of the earth.
About the speaker:
Dr Ian Mudway is Visiting Professor of Environmental Health. He is a senior lecturer in the School of Public Health at Imperial, a member of the MRC Centre for Environment and Health; MRC & Asthma UK Centre in Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma and the NIHR-PHE Health Protection Research Units in Environmental Exposures and Health and Chemical and Radiation Threats and Hazards.
He has over 25 years of experience researching the impacts of air pollution on human health and in the development of assays to quantify the toxicity of the chemical cocktails that pollute the air we breathe. Over this period Dr Mudway has published over 100 research papers, reports and book chapters on these topics, as well as providing advice to the local, national and international governments and NGOs. Dr Mudway is passionate about the communication of science to lay audiences and has worked extensively with artists and educationalist to promote the public understanding of the risks associated with environmental pollutants. Currently his work is focused on understanding early life impacts of pollutants on the development of the lung and cognitive function in children living within urban populations, as well as furthering our fundamental understanding of the mechanisms that drive these adverse effects and modify an individual’s susceptibility to air pollution.
About Gresham:
Gresham College has been providing free public lectures since 1597 when Sir Thomas Gresham’s vision of a college to bring the ‘new learning’ to Londoners was realised. Today we carry on Sir Thomas’s vision, bringing some of the world’s most brilliant minds to speak in fields ranging across the arts and sciences. Now in a special partnership with St John’s College, a series of lectures by leading experts is coming to Durham.
