astronomy

Tim O'Riordan

Tim O'Riordan is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Tim O'Riordan rather than just read about it. In short: Tim O'Riordan OBE DL FBA (born (1942-02-21)21 February 1942) is a British geographer who is Emeritus Professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and a prominent British environmental writer and thinker. Background O'Riordan grew up in the north of England, and was educated at the University of Edinburgh (MA, Geography), Cornell University (MS, Water Resources Engineering), and King's C…

Key takeaways

Tim O'Riordan belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Tim O'Riordan to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Tim O'Riordan from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Tim O'Riordan OBE DL FBA (born (1942-02-21)21 February 1942) is a British geographer who is Emeritus Professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and a prominent British environmental writer and thinker.

Background O'Riordan grew up in the north of England, and was educated at the University of Edinburgh (MA, Geography), Cornell University (MS, Water Resources Engineering), and King's College, Cambridge (PhD in Geography). He taught at Simon Fraser University in Canada in the late 1960s, before talking up a lectureship at UEA. He retired as Professor in 2005. He was a founder and deputy director (1991-) of the Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE) at UEA. He was widowed and has two daughters and lives in Norwich.

Contributions O'Riordan's contributions are to environmental policy analysis; environmental appraisal and evaluation; and environmental governance and decision-making. In 1981 he published Environmentalism, one of the first critical summaries of the field. Latterly he has worked on interdisciplinary approaches pursuing the transition to sustainability, becoming active in the development of sustainability science partnerships. In 2014 he called for a "science for sustainable development which is geared to compassion, fairness, empathy, and social justice." For him, "Sustainability is not a word but a way of becoming." His work has been cited over 16,500 times. His engaged and more practical work relates to designing future coastlines in East Anglia in England so that they are ready for sea level rise and the creation of sound economies and societies for a sustainable future, using participatory democratic decisionmaking; he has worked in Broadland since the late 1960s. O'Riordan has edited a number of books on the institutional aspects of global environmental change, and policy and practice, including two editions of the textbook, Environmental Science for Environmental Management. His work on European environmental policy and risk management is summarised in several volumes. He is editor of the prominent magazine/journal Environment. He has worked on the greening of business, participating in the Prince of Wales' seminar on Business and the Environment, and has sat on several advisory boards including the Corporate Responsibility Body for Asda plc, and the Growth and Climate Change Panel for Anglian Water Group. He was a member of the UK Sustainable Development Commission until it was closed down by the government in 2011.

Awards Order of the British Empire (2010) Fellow of the British Academy (1999) Distinguished Friend of Oxford (2013) Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Norfolk Sheriff of Norwich (2009–10)

Publications O'Riordan, T. and T. Lenton (eds.). 2013. Addressing Tipping Points for a Precarious Future. Oxford University Press/British Academy. Horlick-Jones, T., Walls, J., Rowe, G., Pidgeon, N., Poortinga, W., Murdock, G., O'Riordan, T., (2007) The GM Debate: Risks, Politics and Public Engagement. Routledge. O’Riordan, T. and S. Stoll-Kleemann (eds.). 2002. Biodiversity, Sustainability and Human Communities: Protecting Beyond the Protected. Cambridge University Press. O’Riordan, T. (ed.) 2002. Globalism, Localism and Identity: New Perspectives on the Transition of Sustainability. Earthscan. O’Riordan, T., James Cameron, and Jordan, A.J. (eds.) 2001. Reinterpreting the Precautionary Principle. Cameron May, London. O’Riordan, T. (ed.) 1999). Environmental Science for Environmental Management, Revised Second Edition. Prentice Hall, Harlow Essex. O'Riordan, T. (ed.). 1997. Ecotaxation. Earthscan. O'Riordan, T. and H. Voisey (ed.). 1998. The Transition to Sustainability: the Politics of Agenda 21 in Europe. Earthscan. O'Riordan, T. and H. Voisey (ed.). 1997. Sustainable Development in Western Europe: Coming to Terms with Agenda 21. Frank Cass. Jager J. and T. O'Riordan (eds.). 1996. The Politics of Climate Change: A European Perspective. Routledge. O’Riordan, T. and J. Cameron (eds.). (1994). Interpreting the Precautionary Principle. Routledge. Pearce, D., Turner, R., O'Riordan, T.(1993) Blueprint III. Earthscan. Weale A., T O'Riordan, L. Kramme. 1992. Controlling Pollution in the round: Change and Choice in Environmental Regulation in Britain and Germany. London: Anglo-German Foundation. O'Riordan T., R. Kemp, M. Purdue 1988. Sizewell B: An Anatomy of Inquiry. Pergamon. Lowe, P., Cox, G., MacEwen, M., O'Riordan, T., Winter, M. 1986. Countryside conflicts. The politics of farming, forestry and conservation. Gower Publishing. O'Riordan, T., Turner, R. (eds.) 1983. Progress in Resource Management and Environmental Planning. O'Riordan, T., Turner, R. (eds.). 1983. Annotated Reader in Environmental Planning and Management. Pergamon Press. O'Riordan, T. 1981. Environmentalism. Pion. O'Riordan, T. and D. Sewell (eds.). 1981. Project Appraisal and Policy Review. Wiley. O'Riordan, T. and G. Padgett. 1978. Sharing rivers and canals: a study of the views of coarse anglers and boat users on selected waterways. Sports Council. O'Riordan, T. 1971. Perspectives on resource management. Pion.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Tim O'Riordan

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Tim O'Riordan claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Tim O'Riordan before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Tim O'Riordan ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Tim O'Riordan

In research: Tim O'Riordan appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Tim O'Riordan in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Tim O'Riordan is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1942 births, Academics of the University of East Anglia, Alumni of King's College, Cambridge, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Tim O'Riordan outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Tim O'Riordan in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Tim O'Riordan means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Tim O'Riordan out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Tim O'Riordan in simple terms?

Why does Tim O'Riordan matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Tim O'Riordan?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Tim O'Riordan.