I'm fascinated by the way we as humans are shaping the natural environment; how small actions combine and result in large scale changes.
My research career has taken me from studying processes of coastal erosion and landscape evolution on the Isle of Wight for my PhD, to investigating sediment transport in some of the world's biggest rivers (e.g. the Mekong and the Irrawaddy).
Underpinning all of this research is a desire to understand how we have altered and are shaping the natural environment through our actions as a society. In my current fellowship hosted in the School of Geography at Newcastle University I am researching how sand mining and aggregate extraction is changing fluvial and deltaic systems. As our demand for sand grows (currently every person uses ~18 kg of sand every day) the pressures on the natural enviroment become greater and greater, so delivering robust knowledge and understanding as to how human actions are changing natural dynamics is key to mitigating these impacts.
I have recieved funding for my research from the UKRI (EPSRC, GCRF) as well as from the Royal Society and National Geographic.
Education:
2009 : BSc Physical Geography (hons) - University of Southampton
2013 : PhD Modelling the impacts of climate change and sea-level rise on the evolution of incised coastal gullies - University of Southampton
Employment:
2012 - 2015 : Post-doctoral Research Asssociate Sediment Transport and Erosion in Large Alluvial Rivers - Source to Sink (NERC) - University of Southampton
2015 - 2016 : Lecturer in Physical Geography - University of Southampton (fixed term)
2016 - 2020 : Fellow in Earth Surface Processes and Sedimentology - University of Hull
2020 - Present : NUAcT Fellow, School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcaslte University