The Romanowski lecture features a discussion of some of the greatest challenges facing the environment, and research that is contributing to addressing these challenges.

Marie-Josée Fortin, the 2025 recipient of the RSC’s Miroslaw Romanowski Medal for scientific work relating to environmental problems will deliver this year’s luncheon lecture titled, “Ecological Networks in Dynamic Landscapes”.

Network ecology allows ecologists to conceptualize and model complex and dynamic ecological systems. Here, I present how parallel developments in spatial ecology and ecological network theory and their applications in a spatial context have converged, enabling better selection of protected areas forming interconnected networks, the conservation of ecological corridors, and the management of ecosystem services. In doing so, I address the trade-offs related to network topology and the ecological responses of species when landscapes are dynamic, at the levels of nodes (plots, communities), links (distances and dispersal rates of species, corridors), and the network itself (species abundance, species traits, species generation times, redundancy of trophic interactions). A series of case studies will be presented, ranging from the modification of interactions between species to the monitoring of ecosystem services.

The RSC Eric Jackman Prize in the Human Behavioural and Social Sciences was established in 2025 with the support of a generous endowment from the Jackman Foundation to recognize path-breaking and sustained scientific contributions to preventing harm, strengthening resilience, or otherwise benefiting humankind through research in one or more behavioural and social science fields.

Professor Geoffrey Fong, the recipient of the 2026 RSC Eric Jackman Prize will deliver this year’s luncheon lecture titled, "Advancing Population Health and Global Health Policy Through Social and Behavioural Science".

This lecture describes how social and behavioural science theories, measures, and research designs shaped the creation of the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation (ITC) Project—the most extensive source of evidence on policy impact under the global tobacco control treaty, the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Since 2002, ITC has conducted landmark longitudinal cohort surveys in 31 countries covering over half the world’s population. Guided by the ITC Conceptual Model, the surveys incorporate extensive measures derived from social and behavioural science theories, enabling detailed evaluation of policy impact and the psychological and behavioural processes through which policies work. Through publications and engagement with governments, WHO, the FCTC Convention Secretariat, and key national, regional, and global civil society organizations, ITC evidence has strengthened and accelerated policies worldwide, including warning labels, comprehensive smoke-free laws, plain packaging, and menthol cigarette bans. A new CIHR Project Grant is supporting the first phase of the Global Prevention of Disease (GPrev) Project, combining evidence synthesis, ITC’s mediational model, and simulation modelling to project long-term policy health benefits in five low- and middle-income countries, including China. GPrev advances a broader vision of “translational preventive medicine”: synthesizing evidence on policies to reduce tobacco use, alcohol use, and unhealthy diets and projecting their health and economic benefits globally, with particular attention to their potential to reduce health inequities.