HIT REPORT. Last night, climate activists threw black paint over the entrance sign for the Centre for Mathematical Sciences (also known as the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics or DAMTP) at the University of Cambridge, and spray-painted “STOP FOSSIL FUEL RESEARCH” next to it.
The department is unusual for maths departments in that it has a lab – even more confusingly, given the University’s “green credentials” and big talk about the climate emergency, that lab is sponsored by Shell, Schlumberger, BP, and the Atomic Weapons Establishment. The department houses a Schlumberger professorship, and has done a large number of projects on oil & gas recovery, including fracking. That’s not the end of their evil connections though: they work with arms companies like BAE Systems and Thales to perfect the weapons used on people around the world. DAMTP research murder and work hand-in-hand with some of the most corrupt companies in the world.
This is the first known direct action taken against the department for its fossil fuel connections. We predict it won’t be the last.