me

With my dog Scapa at the confluence of Rhone and Saone, 2014

The consequences of our actions have reached the remotest parts of the planet and there is nothing left we truly could call ‘natural world’. For me, an environmental scientist, the destructive onslaught on ecosystems in our avaricious quest for more ‘stuff’ is as depressing as the recognition of humankind’s collective inability to learn from history. 

Yet I was born an optimist and years of meeting, working with and mentoring some great people keep the hope for positive change alive.

I’d like to think that maintaining a happy and healthy mind and body helps with working towards a more sustainable future – and for that, I could do worse than learning from the playfulness of my dog T’isker (he was a puppy when I took that video in 2017, and he’s not changed!). 

I am an engineer and environmental scientist and work as Associate Professor (SL) at the University of Plymouth, mentoring and training young people to become professionals with a deep understanding of global environmental issues, as well as how the world in which we live works at different scales, from the small pores in a soil to river catchments, oceans and the atmosphere, from the role of the individual’s behaviour to the collective impact of humanity on natural systems. My research links the hydrosphere with the lithosphere and biosphere.  

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Biogeochemistry Research Centre
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