Professor Martin Siegert FRSE
Vice President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Cornwall
Professor Martin Siegert is responsible for the strategic development of our operations in Cornwall. He oversees a diverse academic community including mining and renewable energy, climate, ecology and sustainability, and human health and culture. Activity in Cornwall is focused upon supporting the region’s impact and aspirations – from exploring the potential of space, to finding solutions to climate change and biodiversity loss.
Penryn Campus is home to the renowned Environment and Sustainability Institute (ESI) and our European Centre for Environment and Human Health. Together, these two institutes bring in more than £16m of research income into Cornwall every year, which has been evaluated to create three additional jobs for every academic member of staff. Our Truro campus, at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust, is where we train some of our Medical School students for one or two years of their BMBS programme.
Professor Siegert is a Polar scientist who uses airborne and ground-based geophysics to explore the subglacial environment of Antarctica, and to understand how the ice sheet has changed in the past and how it may change in future. He has published over 250 scientific papers and recently edited the second edition of Antarctic Climate Evolution, which details the history of the continent over the past 60 million years.
He joined us in November 2022 from Imperial College London, where he was Co-Director of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change. Prior to that he was Head of the School of Geosciences and Assistant Principal for Climate Change and Energy at the University of Edinburgh.