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Director of the Centre for Climate Change Impact Management

My focus is on understanding the spatial and temporal dynamics of drivers of hydrology and erosion. This includes landforms, soils, vegetation, soil moisture, and fire. Founding work on the coupling of remote sensed soil moisture data to unsaturated zone groundwater models, and their use in hydrology and climate forecast models by data assimilation. This work has been incorporated into NASA's climate forecasting systems.

I am developer of the internationally renowned SIBERIA landscape evolution model. This model has been incorporated into our EAMS environmental assessment package for use in assessment of long-term stability of mine rehabilitation, tailing facilities, and hazardous and low-level nuclear waste containment structures. It is used worldwide.

Experience

  • 2011–present
    Professor of Environmental Engineering, The University of Newcastle (Australia)
  • 2006–2010
    ARC Australian Professorial Fellow (studying Interactions between Climate and Hydrology), The University of Newcastle (Australia)
  • 2002–2005
    Professor of Physical Geography, Deputy Director of the Earth and Biosphere Research Institute, The University of Leeds

Education

  • 1989 
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology, PhD (Hydrology)
  • 1987 
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Master of Science (Hydrology)
  • 1981 
    The University of Newcastle (Australia), Bachelor of Engineering (Civil)
  • 1981 
    The University of Newcastle (Australia), Bachelor of Science (Applied Mathematics)

Research Areas

  • Surfacewater Hydrology (040608)
  • Agricultural Hydrology (Drainage, Flooding, Irrigation, Quality, Etc.) (079901)
  • Environmental Rehabilitation (Excl. Bioremediation) (050207)
  • Hydrogeology (040603)
  • Nuclear Engineering (Incl. Fuel Enrichment And Waste Processing And Storage) (091506)
  • Photogrammetry And Remote Sensing (090905)

Honours

Lorenz Straub Award for best PhD worldwide in Water Resources or Hydraulics (1989)