Academic Staff 

Dr Rebecca Bartlett

Dr Rebecca Bartlett

Associate Professor in Biogeochemistry

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Rebecca is a biogeochemist, specialising in nutrient cycling and environmental change in modern and past environments. Her research focuses on the biogeochemistry of peats, soils and sediments during environmental disturbance; the subsurface microbial response to natural and anthropogenic changes in atmospheric sulphur deposition, temperature, storms and floods, mineral reactivity and chemical ...

Dr James Bendle

Dr James Bendle

Reader (Associate Professor) in Organic Geochemistry

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

James is an organic geochemist specialising in paleoclimatology. His research develops and uses molecular tools to reconstruct past environmental conditions and addresses two key themes: (1) Developing new quantitative paleoclimate proxies; (2) Holocene and Cenozoic climate evolution.

For more information visit my personal website:

https://jamesbendle.wordpress.com/

Orcid ID: ...

Dr Ian Boomer

Dr Ian Boomer

Associate Professor in Micropalaeontology

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Ian is a micropalaeontologist who studies calcareous microfossils, particularly ostracods (microscopic Crustacea), but also benthic foraminifera, to reconstruct past environments.

Professor Richard Butler

Professor Richard Butler

Professor of Palaeobiology
Director of Research, College of Life and Environmental Sciences

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Richard is a vertebrate palaeontologist with expertise in the systematics, evolution and biogeography of late Palaeozoic to Mesozoic reptiles. His research addresses major patterns and drivers of biodiversity change through deep time, particularly as exemplified by four-limbed vertebrates (tetrapods), over the last 375 million years. He is also interested in the origin and dramatic ...

Dr Jon Carey

Dr Jon Carey

Associate Professor in Applied Geoscience

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Jon studies landslide failure mechanisms and fault behaviour in response to elevated pore fluid pressures and earthquake shaking. His research combines specialist laboratory testing with field monitoring and remote sensing to better understand slope failure and fault movement processes in both terrestrial and marine environments.

Dr Mike Cassidy

Dr Mike Cassidy

Associate Professor

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Mike is a volcanologist and petrologist, his research focuses on the physio-chemical controls of volcanic explosivity, how to improve eruptive style forecasting and how we can best understand and minimise the impacts from large magnitude explosive eruptions.

https://sites.google.com/site/drmikecassidyvolcanoscientist/home

Dr Tom Dunkley Jones

Dr Tom Dunkley Jones

Birmingham Fellow

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Tom is a micropalaeontologist and paleoceanograher specializing in the study of fossil coccolithophore algae. His research interests are focused on the warm-climate states of the Paleogene period and include the use of coccolithophore assemblages and geochemical signatures as palaeoceanographic proxies. Tom is also interested in improving reconstructions of warm climate temperature ...

Professor Kirsty Edgar

Professor Kirsty Edgar

Professor in Micropalaeontology
Head of Research in the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Kirsty is a micropalaeontologist and palaeoceanographer, specialising in planktic foraminifer and foraminifer-based geochemical records. She is interested in understanding the timing and nature of the interaction between global climate, geochemical cycling, and biota during the Cenozoic. A major research focus is elucidating the dynamics and consequences of transient climate events in the ...

Professor Sam Giles

Professor Sam Giles

Professor of Palaeobiology
Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellow

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Sam Giles is a Professor of Palaeobiology with an interest in the anatomy, relationships, and macroevolution of Palaeozoic and Mesozoic fossil fishes. Her research uses x-ray imaging (CT scanning) to unlock the external and internal anatomy of living and fossil vertebrates. She is interested in the origins and evolutionary success of different bony vertebrate groups and the evolution of ...

Dr Sarah Greene

Dr Sarah Greene

Associate Professor

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Sarah is a palaeoclimatologist, geobiologist, and Earth system modeller studying the biogeochemical cycling of carbon between the atmosphere, the ocean, and marine sediments. Particular research interests include rapid carbon cycle perturbations (Mesozoic mass extinctions, Palaeogene hyperthermals), protracted multi-mullion year carbon cycle trends (co-evolution of life and the carbon cycle), and ...

Professor Jason Hilton

Professor Jason Hilton

Professor of Palaeobotany and Palaeoenvironments
School Health and Safety Coordinator (fieldwork)

Life and Environmental Sciences

Professor Hilton is a research focused palaeobotanist and evolutionary plant biologist with wide-ranging interests in palaeoenvironments and palaeoclimates through Earth history. He has a broad background in Geobiology and Earth Systems Science, and is an active researcher across a number of fields closely allied to his specialisation including investigations on mass extinctions, hyperthermal ...

Dr Peter Hopcroft

Dr Peter Hopcroft

Birmingham Fellow

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Peter is interested in understanding and predicting climate change in both the past and future. Peter specialises in using Earth System models, particularly as applied to the periods prior to industrialisation.

Peter's personal website

Dr Shan Huang

Dr Shan Huang

Assistant Professor in Paleobiology

Dr Huang is a macroecologist interested in understanding broad-scale biodiversity dynamics in space and time, particularly about the role of history in shaping the biota. Her primary research approach is to synthesize large data sets of both extinct and extant organismal systems and their environmental templates to investigate processes that give rise to the dramatic temporal and spatial ...

Dr Stephen Jones

Dr Stephen Jones

Senior Lecturer in Earth Systems

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Steve Jones is a numerate geologist who studies the influence of the deep earth on climate. His published work spans mantle and crustal processes, oceanography and atmospheric science.

Dr Stephan Lautenschlager

Dr Stephan Lautenschlager

Associate Professor in Palaeobiology

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Stephan is a vertebrate palaeontologist, specialising in functional morphology and biomechanical analysis. His research focuses on the relationship between form and function in extinct vertebrates and how biomechanical function evolved through time in various vertebrate groups, such as dinosaurs, birds, crocodiles and mammals. Stephan applies a variety of computational techniques to restore the ...

Dr Marco Maffione

Dr Marco Maffione

Associate Professor in Earth Sciences

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Dr Marco Maffione is a field geologist interested in global tectonics and large-scale tectonics processes operating at plate boundaries, including subduction initiation, ocean spreading, and deformation of orogenic systems. Since 2010 his research has focused on ophiolites, which he investigated in various locations, including Turkey, Cyprus, Albania, Greece, Oman, Canada and Tibet. He ...

Professor Tim Reston

Professor Tim Reston

Professor of Geology
Head of Geosystem Research Group

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Tim Reston is a geologist and a geophysicist with interests in the use of geophysics to study geological problems, especially tectonics. He specialises in the seismic imaging and tectonics of rifted continental margins and of slow-spreading mid-ocean ridges, with particular emphasis on detachment tectonics and the effects of mantle serpentinization.

Dr Ivan Sansom

Dr Ivan Sansom

Senior Lecturer in Palaeobiology

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Ivan is a vertebrate palaeobiologist who specialises on the evolution and diversification of Palaeozoic non-tetrapod vertebrates, including conodonts, with a particular focus on the earliest skeletonising fish and the origin of the sharks. Current research primarily focuses on patterns of dispersal within early vertebrates and the influence of their palaeoecology on diversity and extinction.

Dr Carl Stevenson

Dr Carl Stevenson

Lecturer in Geology

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Dr Carl Stevenson is a structural geologist with a focus on the emplacement and subsurface distribution of igneous and volcanic rocks. His research uses rock magnetism, geophysics and petrology to determine the large-scale geometry and internal architecture of intrusions and has led to breakthroughs in understanding magma transport and accommodation in the Earth’s crust. This work has ...

Dr Simiao Sun

Dr Simiao Sun

Associate Professor in Hydrogeology (Groundwater Science)

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Simiao is a quantitative hydrogeologist who studies the mechanism of LNAPLs (Light Non-Aqueous Phase Liquids) migration and (re)distribution. 

Professor John Tellam

Professor John Tellam

Professor of Hydrogeology

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

John Tellam’s main research interests are in inorganic, surface-interacting, solute and particle transport in groundwaters, with a particular emphasis on sandstone aquifers.

Dr Sebastian Watt

Dr Sebastian Watt

Associate Professor of Earth Sciences
Head of Education (GEES)

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Dr Watt’s research investigates the physical and chemical processes that control the behavior and long-term development of volcanoes. Most of this work focuses on volcanism in subduction zones. Current projects include tephrochronological reconstructions of past explosive eruptions, studies of large-scale volcanic landslides and their associated hazards, and the chemistry and evolution of ...

Dr James Wheeley

Dr James Wheeley

Senior Lecturer in Sedimentary Geology
School Deputy Head of Education

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

James Wheeley is a teaching-focused lecturer in sedimentary geology and sedimentary basin analysis. His research interests lie in carbonate sedimentology and applied micropalaeontology (especially conodont isotopes) which he is using to address deep time (Palaeozoic) palaeoclimatic and palaeoecological problems.