The Planet Beyond team has been recording live from the International Partnering Forum (IPF) 2024 in New Orleans. In this first episode of six recorded at the event, we look at the role underwater archaeology plays in supporting offshore wind project development. Jon Baston-Pitt speaks to explorer and diver Peter Tattersfield, founder of Kaxaan Nautical…
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In this second full-length episode recorded live at the UN Ocean Decade conference we hear from participants in the second plenary session of the event, on Science and Solutions for a Sustainable and Resilient Ocean Economy. In the session—and in their conversation with Jon Baston-Pitt—Claire Jolly, from the OECD; Sergi Tudela, from Catalonia’s regional government;…
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The SKAO, or Square Kilometre Array Observatory, will allow scientists to peer through time into the universe’s distant past. Its telescope arrays in South Africa and Australia, along with its HQ at Jodrell Bank in the UK, have been designed to capture a picture of the universe as the first galaxies formed, the so-called ‘epoch…
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The UN Ocean Decade conference took place in Barcelona in April 2024. The Planet Beyond team was there, recording episodes at our on-site studio. During the conference, we released three short episodes looking at each day’s agenda. And we recorded interviews for five long episodes that will run every fortnight, up until Ocean Day, June…
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What will be the future of our planet? Dakota Peebler, an 18-year-old leader in ocean conservation, emphasises the crucial role of collective youth action in shaping a better future for our planet. Dakota, co-founder of Heirs To Our Ocean, shares her incredible journey from childhood fascination to leading a movement for ocean preservation. She discusses…
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The Planet Beyond podcast is heading to New Orleans for the International Partnering Forum (IPF) 2024. IPF brings together global leaders and businesses in the wind energy supply chain. And we’ll be there, recording a mini series on the offshore wind revolution, speaking with experts, being inspired by leaders, and drawing hope from the younger…
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This week, Planet Beyond is recording live at the 2024 Ocean Decade conference in Barcelona. In this last of our three daily live episodes, we speak to Jyotika Virmani, executive director of the Schmidt Ocean Institute, a non-profit foundation established in 2009. The Institute’s goal is to advance innovative oceanographic research and discovery. It provides…
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This week, Planet Beyond is recording live at the 2024 Ocean Decade conference in Barcelona. In this second of our three daily live episodes, we look back over the first day of the event, and look forward to the next. We speak to Ambassador Peter Thomson, the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean….
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This week, the Planet Beyond team are recording live at the 2024 Ocean Decade conference in Barcelona. At the event, delegates will focus on delivering essential science for sustainable oceans. This episode is the first of three shorts to be released during the Ocean Decade Conference, to bring you the sounds and ideas from the…
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In a little over a week, Planet Beyond will be recording live at the UN Ocean Decade conference in Barcelona. In the run up to the event, we’re considering the value of oceans. In our last episode, we looked at the value of the ocean as a way to store carbon and mitigate the effects…
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How do we innovate? Often, says Femke De Jager, by failing. The keys to success are resilience and persistence. It’s all about trying things out, sometimes failing, but always learning. Throughout her career, Femke has focussed on developing new ways of managing and maintaining assets, at world leading companies including PwC and ConQuaestor, DSM and…
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We need to manage our coast lines to reduce the impact of climate change. But coastal areas, and mangroves in particular, also offer one of the most effective naturebased mechanisms for capturing carbon. At COP 28 in the UAE last November, the importance of the oceans to climate change was a key focus, and the…
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How can business development professionals help customers find solutions they may not even know they need? That has been Michael Neuhaus’s mission, in a career at Fugro spanning three decades. Every sales professional needs a compelling product to offer customers. That was what Neuhaus had, as he started his career, with Fugro’s pioneering cone penetration…
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We live in a fast changing world, with impacts on how we all work. That’s as true for those in finance and leadership, as it is for anyone. In this episode we sit down with Fugro CFO Barbara Geelen to explore how changes in society, and the evolving crisis of climate change, are reshaping leadership…
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Jeff Richardson is an experienced Remote Operations Centre Manager however, we spoke to him for this episode not about his job but what it is he does in his spare time: he is a dedicated volunteer Coast Guard rescue officer. He shares with us his experiences, and explains what drives him to take on two…
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Earlier this year, Katherine Scrimgeour posted on LinkedIn about her own experiences of dealing with dyslexia. It’s a condition that can undermine confidence at work, but that doesn’t mean it should hold anyone back. It struck a chord with Planet Beyond host Jon Baston-Pitt, who also experiences dyslexia. In this short, Jon and Katherine talk…
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As we travel through the energy transition, we must rapidly develop new forms of propulsion that reduce or eliminate carbon emissions. This has been a key driver of research and development at vessel builder SEA-KIT International. Jon Baston-Pitt first spoke to SEA-KIT CEO Ben Simpson almost two years ago, for Episode 16 of the Planet…
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How does experience in the field inform product innovation? David Tindall trained as a geologist, before working as a cone penetration testing (CPT) truck operator. After years travelling the world, he took up a role as Global Product Owner, Geotechnical Equipment, at Fugro. In this role, he leads innovation in many of the key land-based…
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How can we help the next generation of girls set and achieve their goals? Often, by showing them what other women have achieved, and sharing the expertise they developed on the way. This autumn, championship winning golfer Kylie Henry shared her expertise with young golfers at a Girls Golf Day at Castle Buchanan, near Glasgow….
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Paul Lawrie has had an impressive career as a golf pro, with 19 professional wins to his name. But he was a latecomer to the game. He only focussed on golf once he had accepted he wasn’t going to make it as a professional footballer. The secret to his success was the hard work of…
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Over twenty years at Procter & Gamble, Gill Whitty-Collins rose to become SVP Europe, India, Middle East & Africa. In this role, she led the turnaround of global leading brands such as Always, Pantene, and Olay. But when she reached the top, she found herself in an overwhelmingly male environment. She was one of the…
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The Planet Beyond podcast turned two this summer. In its first two years it has been joined by guests from the worlds of politics, of exploration, of science and of engineering. Each guest has been interviewed with the aim of understanding how to do business better. At the heart of this journey has been its…
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In February 2023 a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit near the Turkish Syrian border. Tens of thousands of people lost their lives and millions have been left homeless. It is one of the most devastating earthquakes to ever hit the region impacting an area the size of Germany. Earthquakes have always been near impossible to predict,…
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Helen Stewart is a hydrographer in the coastal resilience and ocean science division at Fugro. In this shortcast we talk about her recent keynote for the International Hydrographic Review which focuses on the importance of soft skills when working in a scientific field. Developing these skills isn’t something that always came easily to Helen but…
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In 2023 the world entered its El Niño cycle of warmer oceanic currents. Without the moderating effect of the cooler La Niña effects, climate records have been tumbling – in many cases smashed by several standard deviations. Sea ice is at record lows, and North Atlantic surface temperatures are, in places, up to 5°C warmer…
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Myrna Staring is innovation lead at Fugro, leading a team of innovation engineers working on active and passive seismic technologies for near-surface characterisation. Her work contributes to the development of tools for infrastructure and renewables developments. In this episode, she talks about the value of different kinds of empathy in building a diverse workforce. Myrna…
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Hydrography as an industry emanated from the wellspring of naval research, and ever since it has been a male dominated field. The field studies and describes the physical features of oceans, seas and other bodies of water and often requires work offshore. Attitudes surrounding women working offshore have historically restricted opportunities for women to gain…
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Daniela Taliana is geoscience manager at Fugro in Italy. Like our host, Jon, she has a passion for rocks. But in this episode she tells us about another passion: for art. Daniela is president of the volunteer arts association, Spazi all’Arte, or ‘Spaces for Art’, which seeks to foster collaborative and inclusive public art in…
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We live in a world of unparalleled complexity and risk. The structure of our societies rests upon a stack of services—utilities, communications, banking, transport, among others—that themselves rely on a mix of public services and private businesses, both large and small. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses. All face threats from bad actors, and…
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When catastrophe strikes, the top priority is to get those affected to safety. But almost as urgent is the need to get businesses and utilities up and running again. A rapid response to claims can make the difference between people getting on with their lives, and suffering harm that ripples through their community. Hurricane Ian…
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Yvan Petillot is joint academic lead at the National Robotarium, in Edinburgh. In this shortcast, he talks to Jon Baston-Pitt about some of the key challenges faced in controlling remotely operated vehicles (ROV) underwater. The core problem is data transfer speeds. And that’s why researchers have turned to nature and creatures like dolphins, to understand…
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Offshore inspections require arduous and hazardous sea travel. The coming boom in offshore wind will see tens of thousands of assets needing inspection in the North Sea alone. Building fleets of crewed vessels to perform these inspections would have significant carbon impacts. In an earlier Planet Beyond Short, Mark Bruce explained how Fugro is deploying…
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Denise Swanborn is an expedition manager with Nekton. She recently completed her PhD in marine science, at Oxford. In this episode, recorded on International Women’s Day, she talks to Jon Baston-Pitt about her own path to marine exploration, and describes the excitement and wonder of a career spent exploring the depths. Denise’s work has taken…
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Many in the West view China as a threat. The country is both a supply chain partner, and an economic and political rival. And it has, for forty years, been a key exemplar of globalisation. In this episode we look beyond the fear and rivalry to better understand China’s journey to being one of the…
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The world’s oceans are vital to maintaining the health of our planet, but are also one of its last unmapped territories. UNESCO and the Ocean Decade programme team have reached an important milestone. They have kicked-off the Ocean Decade Corporate Data Group to develop a framework for privately-collected ocean data to be made publicly available…
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Ryan Chatfield and his mates have spent their lives exploring, and filming, the world below the waves. When they turned their skills to documentary making, a new connection, film-maker Brendan Hutchins, helped them pitch a series to Disney+, Shipwreck Hunters Australia. Together, they tell the stories of shipwrecks, their victims and survivors, making a human…
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Remotely operated vehicles can perform inspections efficiently and effectively without risk to humans. However, they can require time-consuming returns to port for reconfiguration. Mark Bruce has been working to develop electric ROVs that can be deployed from uncrewed surface vessels and pack more sensors in a way that allows them to operate without interruption or…
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Looking back at the kings of France or the Pharaohs of Egypt, we marvel at their wealth. But not one of them could place a call across a planet, or drive hundreds of miles in a day down a superhighway. The story of humanity has been to take things that were challenging and make them…
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The commercial space sector doubled in size over the last decade and is expected to triple in size over the next 20 years. Exactly 50 years since man last walked on the moon, the recent launch of NASA’s Artemis 1 heralds a new era of lunar space travel. A lot has changed in the space…
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You cannot just aim to be an astronaut. To be considered, you have to be good at something first. You need to excel in a career on Earth before pursuing a second in space. One candidate’s journey began as a child looking up at the stars in a small town in rural Australia. A love…
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The UK’s Ground Engineering Awards have recognised Fugro as the Ground Investigation Specialist of the Year 2022. We explore the importance of articulating progress on projects with the award winning team, who faced the almost impossible task of demonstrating Fugro’s full capability and achievements in just 20 minutes! It required dedication, connection, passion and purpose,…
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The best preparation is often to make ourselves as adaptable as possible, to be resilient to changes in circumstance. That is a mantra to Mark Sinclair, better known as Captain Coconut, who we last spoke to in Episode 4: Learning from Adventure. The intrepid Coconut thought he had failed to traverse the globe in his…
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It began with a five-month expedition in a small rowboat crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Twin realisations struck the younger Julie Angus: the vastness and lack of information available on our oceans as well as the vulnerability of the marine environment. The worst hurricane season in recorded history also hit home the challenges of navigating such…
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As the world transitions to a low carbon economy, the way we use the seas will also change. Vessels are in a state of flux as new communications technology and advances in automation mean that the requirements for a crew are rapidly disappearing for many operations. This brings amazing benefits for sustainability, as well as…
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In May we told the story of Charles Czajkowski, one of the few pancreatic cancer patients to have survived beyond six months of diagnosis. Fewer than 7% of patients survive beyond five years of diagnosis. Challenges face healthcare providers, including a lack of alarm symptoms, but outcomes for this terrible disease have barely improved in…
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Good intentions alone will not secure the future of our seas. More than 90% of trade moves across the ocean, and the global population eyes the marine environment as an increasing source of food. Added to this, a range of new activities are forecast to increase the ocean economy from $1.5 trillion in 2010 to…
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In some ways more is known about the surface of Mars than our own planet. With over 70% of the Earth’s surface covered in ocean, more than 75% of this watery space has never been mapped. This daunting data hole prevents search and rescue teams from performing vital work, such as like searching for…
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For much of history the seas have loomed impossibly large and untouchable. This perception is at odds with the vulnerability of ocean environments. Now, following decades of abuse by a growing human society, a realisation has been reached. The degradation of the world’s oceans has led to several looming crises: plastic pollution, warmer waters and…
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This is an episode about filling in the gaps. Gaps in our knowledge of the largest environment on the planet, the ocean. Although it is not quite true that we know less about the ocean floor than outer space, it is still the closest thing we have to an alien environment on Earth. And that…
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Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer in the world. In the UK 50% of those diagnosed with pancreatic cancer will die within three months of their diagnosis. Only 7% will survive for five years, the lowest of any common cancer type. We hear from Charles Czajkowski about his battle with pancreatic…
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Live from Oceanology International in London we discuss how to attract, develop and train the skills needed to handle the tsunami of new technology coming into the sector. Development of uncrewed vessels and improved digital communications are creating new opportunities for people at all levels of career progression. Guests Gordon Meadows, CEO, SeaBot XR Dan…
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One fifth the size of the continental US, Alaska stands as America’s only Arctic state. And when it was founded, Alaska was given a special deal. Too remote for full Federal infrastructure funding, Alaska would have to pay for its own needs from the wealth locked away below its frozen soil. For many years this…
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Belen Valdovinos and Rada Khadjinova are world leading sports people who push themselves to do better every single day. Their dedication and determination drives them in sport and in their work at Fugro. Listen now and be inspired! Host Jon Baston-Pitt Guests Belen Valdovinos, Business Development Manager America, Fugro Rada Khadjinova, Alaska Country Manager, Fugro
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What does it mean to serve? For most, a career in a military and what it is to be a soldier are complete unknowns. Deployment conjures up images of courage, of danger, and of endurance. Yet the resourcefulness and problem-solving skills that the military imparts to its personnel also makes them a resource to civilian…
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Mark Heine has been with Fugro since 2000 and CEO since 2018 and although gathering data about our planet has been his passion since studying geodetic engineering at Delft University, mountaineering is his first love. At just 10 years old Mark conquered his first summit and after that he was hooked. His hobby has taken him to the top…
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We’re in a race against time when it comes to decarbonising energy. Hydrogen could play an important role in the transition but only if we can move to producing it from water instead of natural gas. In this episode we hear from a company that is already working on this with the world’s first pilot…
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By 2050 it is forecast that 75% of global electricity will come from renewable generation making wind energy critical in fighting the climate crisis. In this episode we hear that by sitting out in deep waters floating wind could not only become a viable solution to the energy transition, it can also be a hub…
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From the US and Korea to Scotland and Portugal exciting things are happening in the world of wind energy. Instead of building offshore wind farms close to shore, the successful deployment of floating platforms for turbines is opening the vast ocean to renewable energy development. The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) predicts commercial deployment of…
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An adventurous spirit in people has made many successful organisations what they are today. To be truly great, we often find these people are guided by a moral compass, possessing core values that provide that relentless pointer to the right way, even when all plans have turned on their head. Fugro’s hydrographic director Mark Sinclair…
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We have one planet and one ocean system but its health is in rapid decline. We bring together leading experts to discuss how science could save our oceans. The timing could not be more critical as 2021 saw the launch of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science. The initiative aims to improve our understanding…
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In this episode, a panel of experts representing established, leading companies as well as new technology disruptors tackle one of the most difficult issues of our time: climate change. Specifically, how industry can innovate and transform to better overcome the emerging challenges. We discuss how to create a beehive of collaboration, not only within a…
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Introducing Fugro’s Planet Beyond podcast. In this inaugural episode we look at the islands of the South Pacific, whose inhabitants are among the first to experience the hardships of climate change. Sea level rises, coupled with more frequent and more extreme weather events, are impacting the lives of these low-lying coastal communities. We are joined…
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Welcome to the Planet Beyond podcast. Brought to you by Fugro, the leading partner in uncovering geo-data from the greatest subsea depths right to outer space and hosted by Jon Baston-Pitt. Planet Beyond is about doing business better in our fast changing, and acutely delicate, yet exquisite, world. Together we will explore issues beyond the…
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