Academic and adventurer describes climbing and cataloguing remote regions of the South American Andes mountains
Dr Suzie Imber from the Department of Physics and Astronomy is giving a talk about a unique adventure which saw her scale and catalogue a remote corner of the Andes mountains.
Dr Imber will host 'Nameless Peaks of the Andes' on Wednesday 12 October at our University, during which she will describe the often perilous project which saw her fulfil every mountaineer’s dream: to be the first person to identify, climb, and then officially record a series of uncharted mountains in the remote, high altitude Andes.
The lecture is taking place as part of Ada Lovelace Day, which celebrates the achievements of women in science, and is part of a programme of events being organised by our University.
Dr Imber's talk will describe how she used the University supercomputer to construct the first objective and accurate list of mountains above 6,000, and subsequently above 5,000 metres, working alongside fellow climber Maximo Kausch.
Dr Imber said “It’s the dream of every mountaineer to climb a peak that nobody has succeeded in summiting before.
“We targeted some of the most remote mountains in the Andes, facing 100 mph winds that destroyed our tents and temperatures so low they froze our vehicles to eventually summit nine of these mountains.
“We discovered Incan ruins on the summit of several of these peaks, leading to further questions of how and why the Incas, centuries ago, preceded our journey.”
The lecture, sponsored by the Institute of Physics, takes place on Wednesday 12 October at 6.30pm in Lecture Theatre A of the Physics and Astronomy Building.
It will be preceded at 6.00pm, in Lecture Theatre C by a facilitated discussion on creativity in science as part of Ada Lovelace Day, celebrating the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths.
- Research at the University of Leicester not only informs its teaching, it is inseparably intertwined with it. This relationship sees researchers bring their innovation into the classroom and its students inspired to research and is at the heart of Leicester’s ambition to pioneer a distinctive elite of universities.
- To reserve seats please visit the website
- You can read a feature on Dr Imber’s Andes Adventures here
- Press release