About me:

• Head of the Climate Change Expert Committee of the UK Government's Office for Nuclear Regulation (2011-2017)
• Climate Change Lead for the UN GEO-7 report (2023-)
• Head of the Natural Hazards Risk Committee for UK Government's Office for Nuclear Regulation (2017- 2021)
• Listed in Reuters list of the world's top climate scientists
• An invited member of the Environmental Research Group and the Climate Research Group of the Institute of Actuaries (2005-2009).
• An invited member of the Carbon Counting Group, an international group of economists, scientists, architects, politicians and environmental activists working in the field of mitigation and adaption for climate change (2005).
• An invited member of the Climate Justice Programme (2004)
• An expert witness for the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide looking at the impact of mining on mountain glaciers in the Chilean Andes, and specifically the Pascua Lama mine (2006).
• An invited member of the Science Media Centre
• An invited member of the Environmental Research Group of the Emergency Planning Society (2002-2006).
• Since 2005 he has given 33 invited papers and 12 keynote speeches at international and national conferences and workshops.
• He has given invited keynote talks at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC; the 2005 Lloyd’s Risk Lecture and invited talks in Norway, India, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Romania, Nepal, Germany and Austria..
• He has reviewed manuscripts for 44 different journals and grant applications for NERC, EU and NSF.

Broad research specialisms:

I am a climate scientist with over 30 years research experience in geomorphological and earth surface system responses to climate change. My research focuses on the impacts of climate change on high mountain glacial systems over a range of timescales.

I am perhaps best known for developing the first broad assessments of Holocene glacier behaviour in Patagonia and in developing the first three-dimensional reconstruction of the Patagonian Ice Sheet (around 40 papers published since 1992). I have also helped pioneer the global investigation of rock glaciers as sources of water supplies in arid mountains, and produced the first global assessment of glacial lake outburst floods (see papers by my PhD students Rangecroft and Jones since 2008, and Harrison et al 2018; Wood et al 2021, Emmer et al 2021). I have championed the significance of paraglaciation as a driver of climate impacts in high mountains and have led much of the recent research on geomorphological sensitivity to climate change (papers with Jasper Knight since 2005 and Harrison 2009). My work in the broad field of climate impacts and adaptation has meant that I am at the forefront of the UK’s climate impacts policy. Between 2011 and 2017 I lead the Climate Change Expert Committee and am now a member of the Expert Panel on Natural Hazards, which advises the UK Government on the impacts of climate change on all UK nuclear power sites. I am regularly asked to advise government organisations, industry and NGOs on climate impacts (e.g. with Lloyd’s of London; Dfid; CRIDF; UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office; Oxfam). I am currently leading a climate modelling and risk project funded by UNEP for 15 African and 8 Asian countries.

I have worked in many of the world’s high mountain regions (South American Andes and Patagonia for 17 field seasons; High Mountain Asia for 12 field seasons; Scandinavia and European Alps for 6 field seasons) and with my research on the links between geomorphology and climate change I am one of relatively few earth scientists to routinely publish in both geomorphological and climate science journals.

Qualifications:

BSc (Leicester),
PhD (CNAA)