CV

Employment History

CURRENT POSITION

2012 – Present: Reader in Organic Geochemistry, School of Geography, Environmental and Earth Sciences, University of Birmingham.

PREVIOUS POSITIONS

2007 – 2012:  SAGES Lectureship (Assist. Prof.) (SAGES: Scottish Alliance for Geoscience, the Environment and Society), School of Geographical and Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow.   

2005 – 2007: Post Doctoral Research Associate, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, UK

2003 – 2005: Research Fellow Geochemistry Group, Institute of Low Temperature Science, Japan.

FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS

2023 – 2028: Visiting Professorship of the Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems, Lanzhou University.

2017: BRIDGE short-term Research Fellowship, Japanese Society for the Promotion of  Science (JSPS), Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University, Japan.

2016: NSF-China short-term Invited Scholar (Plan 111), China University of Geosciences, China.

2014-Ongoing: Adjunct Professorship at the Antarctic Research Center, Victoria U. of Wellington, NZ.

2011: JSPS Invitation Fellowship (6 months), Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University, Japan.

2005-2007: NERC-IODP Post Doctoral Research Associate, OGU, Sch. of Chem., U.of Bristol, UK.

2003-2005:  Royal Society Research Fellow, in partnership with JSPS. Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University, Japan.

Education

2008 – 2010: Post-graduate certificate in Higher Education, University of Glasgow,   portfolio, lecture observations, educational theory seminars etc. 

1999 – 2003: Ph.D. Student, University of Durham. “Palaeoceanography of the Holocene N.E. Atlantic: Development and Application of Biomarker Proxies of Environmental Change.” NERC studentship. Supervisors: Dr Antoni Rosell-Melé and Prof Ian Shennan. No Corrections. Results published as 1st-author in international journals.

1998-1999 – UCL & RHUL (University of London), M.Sc. Quaternary Science (taught).

Successful Grant Applications

Competitive Grants Received (Grants of >£10,000 in value)

>£2,4M in external research income from UK and international funding councils, agencies and charities. 

2021, £25,410, Constraining the Isotopic Response of Leaf Material Grown Under Elevated CO₂, NEIF 2321.0920 (PI, with PhD student Bridget Warren).

2020, £35,882, NERC-NEIF Proposal “New Terrestrial Biomarker Tools” NEIF 2289.0420 (PI, with PhD student Alice Hardman).

2019, £37,200, “The Neogene Evolution of the NE Atlantic Basin (2nd Award)” BRIS/138/1019 (PI, with PhD student Jonathan Hall).

2018-2021, £283,946, Leverhulme Trust Grant, “Unlocking the Toolbox of Soil Bacterial Biomarkers” PRG-2018-110 (PI).

2018, £31,260, NERC-LSMSF, “The Neogene Evolution of the NE Atlantic Basin (1st Award)” BRIS/115/0418 (PI, with PhD student Jonathan Hall).

2017, £51,815, NERC-NIGL,  Global reconstructions of Miocene pCO₂ BRIS/118/0718, (PI, with PhD student Kate Ashley).

2016-2020, £628,079, ‘Reducing Greenhouse Climate Proxy Uncertainty’, NERC Standard Grant : NE/P013112/1 (Co-I).

2016, £25,025, NERC-LSMSF, ‘Late Oligocene to Pliocene Antarctic climate and ecosystem evolution, BRIS/85/1015  (PI).

2016, £36,592,  NERC-LSMSF ‘Northeast Atlantic sea surface temperature in the early Eocene Climatic Optimum’, Proposal no. BRIS/89/0416 (Co-I).

2015, £39,685  IODP Expedition 355 “Arabian Sea Monsoon” and post-cruise moratorium award: NERC (n.b. value in kind of scientific berth is ca. $400k) NE/N005414/1 (PI).

2011, £17,417 (￥2,354,000) Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science Research, Salary Expenses and Grant-in-Aid for Invitation Fellowship (June – December 2011) (PI).

2010, £513,000, NE/I00646X/1, A Biomarker Goldmine in Wilkes Land, Antarctica: nuggets from the Eocene Greenhouse (BIGWIG). NERC UK-IODP (PI).

2009, £10,956, NE/H014616/1, Staff time for participation on Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 318, Wilkes Land, Antarctica. NERC (n.b. value in kind of scientific berth is ca. $400k) (PI).

2009, £12,000, Multi-proxy, high resolution palaeoclimate records from Hokkaido lake sediments. A Royal Society International Joint Project Grant (PI).

2009, £35,000, “BIOSUN: Biomarker Reconstructions of Marine and Terrestrial Climate Signals in a High-Resolution Sediment Core from Loch Sunart, N.W. Scotland.” Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland (PI).

2009, £53,900, Mapping inputs of plant biomarkers to glacial ice archives: A novel tool for palaeoclimatology, (Kone Foundation, Helsinki, Finland) (PI).

2003, £63000, NERC-LSMSF – GC-CI-MS analysis of alkenone samples (PI)

NERC CENTA Doctoral Training Partnership Grants Received

Additional grants during the lifetime of the DTP, all as PI.

2018, £85,248, NERC National Productivity Investment Fund for additional Studentships , NE/L002493/1

2017, £251,240, NERC National Productivity Investment Fund for additional Studentships, NE/L002493/1

2016, £149,755, NERC DTP and CDT ‘added value activities in innovation’. Added to: NE/L002493/1.

2014, £135,000, NERC DTP and CDT ‘added value activities in innovation’. Added to: NE/L002493/1.

Plus >27 Small Research Grants

Each <£10,000 (<$13,000) totalling >£80,000 (>£102,000) including from the Birmingham-Illinois Partnership Fund, GEES Pump Priming, NSF-China (incl. the 111 Programme), Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science, The Royal Society, Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, SAGES Enabling Fund, The Geological Society, The Nuffield Foundation, EPSRC Geographical Research Grant, The Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, The NERC Radiocarbon Laboratory, The NERC Life Sciences Mass Spectrometry Facility.