Understanding the strong connections between institutions, people and places will be the topic of a free public lecture on geography by USC Vice-Chancellor Professor Greg Hill on Tuesday 20 February.

The presentation will be at USC’s Lecture Theatre 2 from 7.15pm.

As Vice-Chancellor of USC since 2011, Professor Hill has moulded the University into a capacity-building institution for an extensive area from Brisbane to the Fraser Coast. He will use USC as an example of why geography is so important to regions like the Sunshine Coast.

USC Associate Professor of Geography Jennifer Carter said the lecture, presented jointly by the RGSQ and USC’s Geography discipline, was likely to have wide appeal.

“We want this first public lecture on the Sunshine Coast, by someone who’s done a lot of work to help build the region, to appeal to a broad cross-section of interests in private, public, and government organisations,” she said.

“Professor Hill’s talk will be about understanding the human geography as well as the physical geography of where we’re located with respect to Brisbane.

“It’s about understanding how geography gives us a distinctive place. We’ll talk about what’s unique about this place and how it compares to other places.”

There is no need to register for the lecture, just turn up to Lecture Theatre 2 on Tuesday 20 February at 7pm for a 7.15pm start.