Update – vigil cancelled following family request

Tomorrow evening, from 18:00–19:00 on Victoria Street, London SW1E, opposite the junction with Palace Street, there will be held a vigil in memory of Katharine Giles, a climate scientist and lecturer based at University College London.

Katharine’s scientific research, which has featured in presentations to parliamentarians and a number of broadcast media, as well as the usual peer-reviewed publications, focused on sea ice measurements using satellite-borne radar instruments. She is credited with some of the first ground-based measurements which show how satellite data can be used to accurately determine sea-ice thickness.

On Monday morning of this week, Dr Giles, 35, from Ipswich in Suffolk, was killed in a collision with a construction lorry whilst cycling to work. She was the second cyclist to die on London’s streets this year. In 2012 there were 14 killed in London, from a total of 122 throughout Britain.

Katharine’s death prompted Mayor of London Boris Johnson, himself a keen cyclist, to talk of bringing in new measures to make cycling safer in the capital.

RIP Katharine Giles BSc PhD