Reading in the news - Tue 28 Apr

Autism event: Dr Jo Billington (Psychology) and Professor Elizabeth McCrum, Pro-Vice Chancellor (Education and Student Experience) were quoted by Reading Today on an upcoming Centre for Autism event for local families. From our story: Free event on supporting autistic children to thrive

Heritage and culture:

• Professor Mark Pagel (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) was quoted by Smithsonian Magazine about language in early humans, with quotes from Professor Steve Mithen (Archaeology) in the Daily Mail , Kabarsebelas, BritBrief and Mogaz News.
• Town and Country (republished by AOL and Yahoo News) mentioned research into the historical association between the monarchy and bees.

Food and farming:

• Professor Jane Parker (Food and Nutritional Sciences) commented about ‘natural’ food labelling in Descopera.
• Dr Laurence Smith (Agri-food Economics) featured in an episode of Farm Gate, discussing the EU Horizon research project.

#PlanetPartners: working with global partners to protect the environment

• The Guardian’s sport and climate newsletter The Hotspot featured updated climate stripes by Professor Ed Hawkins (Meteorology). From our story: Cities and countries warming fast, new climate stripes show
• Dubai News mentioned research into the effects of cloud seeding.
• MSN republished an article from NDTV which quotes Dr Akshay Deoras (Meteorology) on heatwaves in India, with coverage in Bharat National, DT Next, Mathrubhumi, The Hindu, and others about the impact of monsoon activity.
• Professor Paul Williams (Meteorology) was interviewed for Morning Live on BBC One about climate change impact on clear air turbulence.
• Head Topics and Gizmodo quoted Professor Andrew Charlton-Perez (Meteorology) about AI weather forecasts.
• Professor Nicolas Bellouin (Meteorology) wrote for The Conversation (republished by MSN and Yahoo News) about how plane contrails affect climate heating. From our story: Contrailsensors aim to cut aviation's climate impact
• Comments from Dr Thomas Clements (Biological Sciences) about a giant octopus fossil were featured by The Week, Velvet Classic, and ZME Science.
• Professor Hannah Cloke (Geography/Meteorology) was interviewed by BAFTA Albert about how BBC Sport TV coverage of the Oxford-Cambridge boat race could convey important environment information.

Other coverage:

• Student Ahmed Gilani will be taking part in the Futurebuild 2026 panel discussion, reports Construction Management.

Alumni:

• Business News, Asfalistiki, and INews (Greece) provided further coverage of Reading graduate Sotiris Markatos, who has been appointed Vice President of the Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Commission.
• An upcoming talk from Dee Dyer, Reading graduate and Farm Environment Advisor at Norfolk Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group was featured by Newman Associates.
• ODaily mentioned that economist Fu Peng graduated from Reading.
• The Guardian (republished by AOL, Inkl, and Yahoo News) provided an obituary for educationist and sociology graduate Julia Feihn.