A student sitting on top of a mountain looking out over clouds

Characterising Earth’s ever-changing environment in terms of its chemistry, physics, biology and more

We characterise important components of the ever-changing climate on Earth, a planetary body that has been around for roughly 4.6 billion years. Across its lifetime, Earth has sometimes been warmer and sometimes colder than it is today, providing us with the opportunity to study its natural response to environmental change.

Overall, our diverse and interdisciplinary climate and environment research seeks to develop a comprehensive understanding of Earth’s ever-changing environment in terms of its chemistry, physics, biology and more – from past dynamics to present day to likely future evolution.

If you are interested in one of the projects listed below, we encourage you to contact the primary project supervisor or the alternative contact person for further information.

Current projects


Optimisation of sensor locations for observation of air flows/pollutions [Info Sheet - Fang Sensor]

Supervisors: Dr Fangxin Fang, Professor Christopher Pain


Rapid Response Modelling for Assessment of Pollution and Toxic Releases in Complex Urban Environments [‌‌‌‌Info Sheet - Fang ROM]

Supervisors: Dr Fangxin Fang, Professor Christopher Pain


Large Scale AI Modelling for Environmental Flows [Info Sheet - Heaney Environmental Flows]

Supervisors: Dr Claire Heaney, Professor Christopher Pain


Storage and transport of microplastics in groundwater [Info Sheet - Jackson Microplastics]

Supervisors: Professor Matthew Jackson, Professor Gary Hampson, Professor Alexandra Porter (Department of Materials), Dr Geoff Fowler (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering)


Global CO2 storage capacity: Modeling limitations of geography and injectivity [Info Sheet - Krevor CO2 Storage Capacity]

Supervisor: Dr Sam Krevor and other TBA


Reservoir characterisation and modelling of CO2 storage underground [Info Sheet - Krevor CO2 Storage Modelling]‌‌

Supervisor: Dr Sam Krevor and others TBA


Assessing the sustainability of lithium brine extraction in high Andean salars [Info Sheet - Hughes BGS Lithium Brine Extraction]

Supervisors: Dr Andrew Hughes (British Geological Survey), Professor Anna Korre, Dr Evi Petavratzi (British Geological Survey)


Developing time-series InSAR for understanding changes to the ground surface, subsurface, biosphere and environment [Info Sheet - Mason Time-Series InSAR]

Supervisors: Dr Philippa Mason, Dr James Lawrence (Civil Engineering, Imperial College London), Professor Richard Ghail (Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway UK), Dr Cédric M. John


Submarine channels, deformation, and routing of sediment and plastics to the deep ocean [Info Sheet - Mayall Sediment Routing]

Supervisors: Professor Mike Mayall, Dr Alex Whittaker, Professor Gary Hampson, Dr Lidia Lonergan


 

Magnetically Quantifying urban dynamic exposure to Nanoparticulate [Info Sheet - Muxworthy Dynamic Exposure to Nanoparticulate]

Supervisors: Prof. Adrian Muxworthy (Imperial College),  Prof. David Green (Public Health, Imperial College) and Prof. Dominik Weiss (Imperial College)


Cadmium enrichment in cocoa beans – a stable isotope investigation of Cd sources and mitigation strategies [Info Sheet - Rehkämper Cd in Cocoa]

Supervisors: Dr Rebekah Moore, Professor Mark Rehkämper


Biomagnetic Monitoring as an Urban Air Quality Assessment [Info Sheet - Muxworthy Green Dust]

Supervisors: Professor Adrian Muxworthy, Dr David Green (School of Public Health, Imperial)


Accelerating Scientific Discovery of Complex Scientific Applications with Process-Guided Deep Learning: Aquatic Eco-Dynamics in Lakes [Info Sheet - Piggott Lakes]

Supervisors: Professor Matthew Piggott, Dr R. Iestyn Woolway (University of Reading), Professor Stephen Maberly (UK CEH)


Understanding and minimising the potential environmental impacts of tidal range (lagoon) based renewable energy generation via advanced numerical modelling [Info Sheet - Piggott Tidal Lagoons]

Supervisor: Professor Matthew Piggott


Exploiting the GEOTRACES toolbox to characterize ocean biogeochemical processes: trace elements, isotopes and new quasi-conservative tracers [Info Sheet - Plancherel GEOTRACES]

Supervisors: Dr Yves Plancherel, Professor Mark Rehkamper, Professor Tina van de Flierdt


Modeling the global Pb cycle: from industrial emissions to the bottom of the ocean [Info Sheet - Plancherel Pb Cycle]

Supervisor: Dr Yves Plancherel


Tracking Illegal Gold Mining Safely with Earth Observations and Machine Learning [Info Sheet - Plancherel Illegal Gold Mining]

Supervisors: Dr Yves Plancherel, Dr Pablo Brito-Parada, Dr Philippa Mason


Sources and climate impacts of Indian Ocean aerosols – constraints from trace metal concentrations and isotope compositions [Info Sheet - Rehkämper Indian Ocean Aerosols]

Supervisors: Professor Mark Rehkämper, Professor Tina van de Flierdt, Dr Rebekah Moore, Dr Priyanka Banerjee (Divecha Centre for Climate Change, Indian Institute of Science)


Hard Rock to Heavy Metal: Data and tools for geochemical baselines and chemical fluxes through landscapes [Info Sheet - Roberts Hard Rock to Heavy Metal]

Supervisors: Dr Gareth Roberts, Dr Yves Plancherel, Dr Alex Whittaker, Charles Gowing (British Geological Survey), Dr Alex Lipp (University of Oxford, Earth Sciences)


Mapping pollutants and biodiversity throughout drainage basins [Info Sheet - Roberts Mapping Pollutants]

Supervisors: Dr Gareth Roberts, Dr Leon Barron (School of Public Health), Professor Guy Woodward (Life Sciences), Dr Alex Lipp (Earth Sciences, University of Oxford)


Modeling landscape evolution through space and time [Info Sheet - Roberts Landscape Evolution]

Supervisors: Dr Gareth Roberts, Professor Matthew Piggott, Professor Gareth Collins and Dr Alex Whittaker


Exploring terrestrial geological evidence for past glaciation and volcanism in the Thwaites Glacier catchment, Antarctica [Info Sheet - Johnson Thwaites Glacier]

Supervisors: Joanne Johnson (British Antarctic Survey), Dr Dylan Rood, Associate Professor Brent Goehring (Tulane University), and Stephen Roberts (British Antarctic Survey)


Using Cosmogenic Surface Exposure Dating to Reconstruct Late-Holocene Glacier and Climate Stability to Determine Precedence for Recent Declines in Snowpack and Water Resources in the American Pacific Northwest [Info Sheet - Rood Cosmogenic Surface Exposure]

Supervisor: Dr Dylan Rood


Will climate change make coastal erosion rates faster?: Comparing historic and Holocene cliff retreat rates using cosmogenic isotopes with numerical models [Info Sheet - Rood Coastal Erosion]

Supervisor: Dr Dylan Rood


Capture Carbon Dioxide on Shales [Info Sheet - Sephton Shales]

Supervisors: Professor Mark A. Sephton, Professor Craig Smalley, Professor Al Fraser


Forensic Detection of Microplastics [Info Sheet - Sephton Microplastics]

Supervisors: Professor Mark A. Sephton, Dr Simon Davis, David Bell (Protium)


Leveraging emerging numerical models from engineering to support coral reef conservation [Info Sheet - Sutton Coral Reef Conservation

Supervisors: Dr Mark Sutton, Dr Yves Plancherel, Dr Catherine Head (ZSL)


Understanding Modern Biogeochemical Cycles in the context of the international GEOTRACES project – Lead, cadmium, neodymium [Info Sheet - Rehkämper GEOTRACES]

Supervisors: Professor Tina van de Flierdt, Professor Mark Rehkämper


Geochemistry of Non-Traditional Stable Isotopes [Info Sheet - Weiss NTSI]

Supervisor: Professor Dominik Weiss


Human and Natural Control on Global Atmospheric Trace Element Cycles [Info Sheet - Weiss Atmosphere]

Supervisor: Professor Dominik Weiss


Micronutrient cycling in submerged soils and uptake into rice [Info Sheet - Weiss Micronutrient Cycling]

Supervisor: Professor Dominik Weiss


Nuclear Waste – How to deal with it safely [Info Sheet - Weiss Nuclear Waste]

Supervisor: Professor Dominik Weiss


The Aqueous Chemistry of Actinides and Metalloids [Info Sheet - Weiss Actinides and Metalloids]

Supervisor: Professor Dominik Weiss