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Lord Robert May (pictured), who was President of the Royal Society from 2000 until 2005, will tell his audience that the struggle to preserve the planet's environment is reshaping international diplomacy.

His talk, “Relations Among Nations On A Finite Planet”, will be the 12th Roskill Memorial Lecture, a biennial series of talks organised by Churchill College and hosted by the Churchill Archives Centre.

Lord May will be the first ever scientist to give one of the Roskill Lectures, which cover the subjects of international security, foreign policy, the two World Wars, public policy and science.

He will argue that while humanity's history can be discussed without much reference to the physical environment or our impact upon it, now the relationship between the two is becoming inextricable. In a prelude to the talk he writes: “Human numbers combined with their increasing per capita impacts have now grown to the point where their scale rivals the planet's natural biogeochemical process, which created the biosphere and which struggle to maintain it.”

His talk will focus not only on this issue, but its implications for what he describes as the “post-Metternich age of relations among nations” – a reference to the 19th century Austrian diplomat Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, whose management of foreign policy influenced succeeding generations of politicians.

As well as being a former President of the Royal Society, Lord May was also Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK Government and Head of its Office of Science and Technology for a five-year period ending in September 2000. He has written widely on ecosystems, infectious diseases, the exploitation of marine communities, extinction rates and virus dynamics.

Professor Sir David Wallace, Master of Churchill College, said: “It is clear that the challenges facing us today cannot be solved by politicians and nations alone, and that science must now play a leading role in tackling international crises.

“With global warming and avian flu very much in the headlines, it has to be the time for us to talk about these issues. I have no doubt that Robert May will give us plenty to think about.”

̽��ֱ��Roskill Memorial Lecture was instituted by Churchill College as the most appropriate means of commemorating the life and work of the distinguished naval historian Stephen Roskill, a much-loved and respected Fellow of the College for many years before his death in 1982. ̽��ֱ��Churchill Archives Centre is home to some of the finest political, military and scientific collections of the 20th century, including those of Sir Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher.

̽��ֱ��lecture will be from 5pm to 6.30pm in the Wolfson Lecture Theatre at Churchill College. All are welcome but seats must be reserved by contacting Julie Sanderson on 01223 336166 or at julie.sanderson@chu.cam.ac.uk before 16 February. Admission is free.