BRISK people
BRISK members
- Professor Stephen Sparks (FRS)
- David Abbott
- Dr Jitendra Agarwal
- Professor Malcolm Anderson
- Professor Willy Aspinall
- Dr Andy Bailey
- Professor Jonathan Bamber
- Professor Paul Bates
- Professor Jon Blundy
- Dr Jon Bridle
- Professor Alan Champneys
- Dr Li Chen
- Dr Sian Crosweller
- Professor Mark Duffield
- Dr Tamsin Edwards
- Dr Alan Feest
- Dr Tim Fewtrell
- Dr Jim Freer
- Professor Iain Gilchrist
- Professor Patrick Godfrey
- Dr Jo Gottsman
- Professor Peter Green
- Dr Dawei Han
- Professor Alistair Hetherington
- Dr Thea Hincks
- Dr Liz Holcombe
- Dr Mark Jackson
- Dr Helen Lambert
- Dr Jonathan Lawry
- Dr Heidy Mader
- Dr John May
- Dr Eric Morgan
- Professor Jan Noyes
- Dr Richard Pancost
- Dr Andrew Pickering
- Dr David Richards
- Dr Alison Rust
- Dr Tom Scott
- Professor Dudley Shallcross
- Dr Mark Siddall
- Professor Colin Taylor
- Dr Theo Tryfonas
- Professor Paul Valdes
- Professor Richard Wall
- Dr Matthew Watson
- Dr Becky Whay
- Dr Jacqui Wilmshurst
- Dr Jocelyn Wishart
- Chris Willmore
Director: Dr Jonty Rougier, Lecturer in Statistics
Department of Mathematics
Interests: Probabilistic representation of uncertainty in science, particularly how we use scientific models to make quantitative predictions for complex physical systems. For example, how do we account for the discrepancy between the model and the system? Applications include climate prediction, palaeoclimate reconstruction, glacial cycles, and avalanches.
Telephone +44 (0) 117 928 7782
Internal 87782
j.c.rougier@bristol.ac.uk
Professor Stephen Sparks (FRS)
School of Earth Sciences
Interests: Steve is Director of the Bristol Environmental Risk Research Centre (BRISK) and a European Research Council Advanced Researcher. His research interests include geophysical hazards, such as volcanic eruptions and avalanches, issues related to the long-term storage of radioactive waste, and development of novel approaches to hazard and risk assessment. He is past President of the Geological Society of London, of the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior, and is the current President-elect of the Volcanology, Petrology and Geochemistry Section of the American Geophysical Union. He is a member of the steering committee of the new ICSU programme on Integrated Research into Disasters Reduction (IRDR) and leads the VOGRIPA project to assess global volcanic risk under the auspices of the World Bank and UN.
Telephone +44 (0) 117 954 5419
Internal 45419
Steve.Sparks@bristol.ac.uk
David Abbott, Senior Research Fellow
Norah Fry Research Centre
Interests: Social scientific exploration of risk in everyday life, particularly in relation to money and work. David is interested in how people and families frame, perceive and respond to (or don't) risks to their economic security. He was part of an ESRC network - 'Social Contexts and Responses to Risk' (http://www.kent.ac.uk/scarr/index.htm) and continues to work with colleagues from this network on risk research.
Telephone +44 (0) 117 331 0972
Internal 10972
d.abbott@bristol.ac.uk
Dr Jitendra Agarwal, Senior Lecturer in Structural Engineering
Department of Civil Engineering
Interests: Structural safety, nonlinear dynamics and civil engineering systems. In recent work, Jitendra has developed new approaches to examine the vulnerability of structures. These are useful in managing risks due to ‘low probability - high consequence’ events. Currently these concepts are being applied to other civil engineering systems to reduce the risk due to unforeseen hazards.
Telephone +44(0)117 928 7717
Internal 87717
J.Agarwal@bristol.ac.uk
Professor Malcolm Anderson
School of Geographical Sciences
Interests: Modelling slope hydrology and geotechnics; risk mitigation in developing countries; science drivers for policy change. Malcolm has held a number of overseas appointments, including two, twelve-month appointments as environmental research consultant to the US Corps of Engineers at Vicksburg, Mississippi USA and as senior consultant research geotechnical engineer to the Hong Kong Government. He is founder and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Hydrological Processes. He has worked with many government road-research departments worldwide, most notably in the Far East (Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia) and the Caribbean. He is an elected Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers and is currently a consultant to the World Bank. He was a Council member of the Natural Environmental Research Council 2001-2007, a member of the NERC Council Audit Committee and a member of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council [EPSRC] Technical Opportunities Panel 2009.
Telephone +44 (0) 117 928 8275
Internal 88275
M.G.Anderson@bristol.ac.uk
Professor Willy Aspinall, Cabot Professor in Natural Hazards and Risk Science, Visiting Industrial Professor
Interests: Earth Sciences, the probabilistic assessment of hazards and risks, and the formalised use of expert judgement in decision-making for low probability / high consequence events in circumstances of scientific or engineering uncertainty. He is a Scientific Adviser to the British Government in connection with the on-going volcanic eruption on Montserrat in the West Indies, playing a leading role in work on the probabilistic assessment of hazards for risk mitigation and crisis management purposes, and latterly in the preparation of a draft IAEA Safety Guide on volcanic hazards for nuclear facilities. In earthquake engineering, Willy is a member of the UK nuclear industry Seismic Hazard Working Party, and has extensive experience of undertaking probabilistic seismic hazard assessments for safety-critical facilities in many parts of the world. Willy has sat on a number of advisory panels such as the Royal Society working group on the detection and decontamination of chemical and biological weapons in terrorist attacks, on research into the effects of biological agents on humans, the control of SARS and avian flu in healthcare workers, and on emerging infectious diseases, such as CJD.
Email: Willy.Aspinall@bristol.ac.uk
Dr Andy Bailey, Senior Lecturer
School of Biological Sciences
Interests: Plant-pathogenic fungi – environmental change can directly impact on the likelihood of crops getting disease in two very different ways: 1) altered climatic conditions will directly impact on crop physiology and hence the ability to fight off infection, or 2) in the choice of varieties to be grown, which also impacts on the types of genetic resistance present within the crop. Climate also impacts directly on pathogens, with altered climate changing the likelihood of inoculums levels being reduced (changes in frequency of cold winters), changes in rainfall will impact on splash-dispersed pathogens or those with requirements for specific periods of high humidity, and altered wind patterns will change the distribution and movement of airborne spores.
Telephone +44 (0) 117 928 9910
Internal 89910
Andy.Bailey@bristol.ac.uk
Professor Jonathan Bamber, Director of the Bristol Glaciology Centre
School of Geographical Sciences
Jonathan Bamber is a glaciologist and Director of the Bristol Glaciology Centre who works primarily on studying the behaviour of the ice sheets covering Antarctica and Greenland and their interaction with the rest of the climate system. He has a particular interest in how they, and glaciers and ice caps, have contributed to sea level rise in the past and how they may contribute in the future in a changing climate. He is also interested in the broader topic of the role of the cryosphere in abrupt climate change. He has dabbled in the use of expert elicitation to tackle these kinds of issues as well as using more physically-based approaches to model, observe and predict climate-cryosphere processes.
Telephone +44 (0)117 331 4129
Internal 14129
j.bamber@bristol.ac.uk
Professor Paul Bates, Professor of Hydrology
School of Geographical Sciences
Interests: Fluvial and coastal flood modelling, risk and uncertainty, particularly the use of new remotely sensed data sources and novel sensor technologies to help contain hazard and risk estimates. Paul is Co-Investigator on the EPSRC/EA/DEFRA funded Flood Risk Management Research Consortium (www.floodrisk.org.uk) and the EU FP6 project FloodSite (www.floodsite.net). He is also a member of the Willis Research Network (www.willisresearchnetwork.co) which provides independent scientific advice to help the global reinsurer Willis Re. to evaluate the frequency, severity and impact of natural hazards.
Telephone +44 (0) 117 928 9108
Internal 89108
paul.bates@bristol.ac.uk
Professor Jon Blundy FRS, Professorial Research Fellow in Petrology
School of Earth Sciences
Interests: Igneous and experimental petrology and geochemistry with particular emphasis on magmatic systems beneath volcanoes. He currently has research projects at active volcanoes in Mexico, Ethiopia and the Caribbean.
Telephone +44 (0) 117 331 5158
Internal 15158
jon.blundy@bristol.ac.uk
Dr Jon Bridle, Lecturer
School of Biological Sciences
Interests: Defining dangerous rates of environmental change by relating them to maximum rates of adaptation. To do this Jon measures evolutionary responses to ecological change in space and time, and use these data to test models of theoretical population genetics. In particular, his research explores range shifts in response to climate change in European butterflies, and evolution along ecological gradients in Australian fruitflies.
Telephone +44 (0)117 928 7482
Internal 87482
Jon.Bridle@bristol.ac.uk
Professor Alan Champneys, Professor of Applied Nonlinear Mathematics
Department of Engineering Mathematics
Interests: Homoclinic orbit theory, Numerical bifurcation analysis, Nonlinear waves and localised modes in optics and solid mechanics, Dynamics of piecewise smooth systems, Engineering applications of nonlinear dynamics and bifurcation, Parametric resonance.
Telephone +44 (0)117 928 7510
Internal 87510
a.r.champneysbristol.ac.uk
Dr Li Chen, Lecturer in Statistics
Department of Mathematics
Interests: Spatial statistics with applications in environmental sciences, spatial-temporal modelling, statistical methods for numerical model evaluation and data assimilation.
Telephone +44 (0) 117 928 7991
Internal 87991
Li.Chen@bris.ac.uk
Dr Sian Crosweller, Database Administrator on VOGRIPA
School of Earth Sciences
Interests: Sian completed her ESRC-NERC funded PhD at UEA (Norwich) in 2009, which looked at the effects of experience on people's views and potential responses to future volcanic activity and communications about the associated hazards. The research involved a two-island comparison in the Lesser Antilles between St Vincent and Dominica. During her PhD she was heavily involved in the SPIDER Network (http://www.spidernetwork.org/) exploring the interface between physical and social science appraoches to managing disaster risk and uncertainty. Sian's work on the VOGRIPA project started in May 2009 and aims to develop a global database on all aspects of volcanic risk, and will incorporate vulnerability data in an attempt to map the global risk from volcanic eruptions. The data will also be used to investigate frequency-magnitude relationships, with the long-term aim of this information being publically accessible.
Telephone +44 (0) 117 954 5243
Internal 45243
sian.crosweller@bristol.ac.uk
Professor Mark Duffield, Director of Global Insecurities Centre
School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies
Interests: humanitarian crisis and the growth and functioning of the international aid industry; the interconnection between development and security; human security. In relation to risk his interests include understanding the international aid industry as a complex adaptive system; considering the development-security nexus as a risk-based framework able to mobilise wide networks of social and political action, for example in relation to refugee flows, conflict, terrorism and now climate change.
Telephone +44 (0) 117 928 8590
Internal 88590
M.Duffield@bristol.ac.uk
Dr Tamsin Edwards, Research Assistant
School of Geographical Sciences
Interests: Modelling the earth system (climate, vegetation, extreme weather, ice sheets) in the past, present and future; quantifying uncertainty and risk in earth system science; Bayesian inference; communicating climate change science and uncertainty to the public. Tamsin was a researcher on the NERC scoping study 'SAPPUR', reviewing risk and uncertainty with respect to hydrometeorological hazards. Current research includes modelling palaeoclimates with the aim of assessing uncertainty in predictions of future climate change (for the NERC project 'PalaeoQUMP'), and comparing predictions of different ice sheet models with the aim of assessing uncertainty in predictions of future sea level rise (for the EU project 'ice2sea').
Telephone +44 (0) 117 928 8808
Internal 88808
tamsin.edwards@bristol.ac.uk
Dr Alan Feest, Senior Lecturer in Continuing Education
Department of Civil Engineering
Interests: Soil ecology and the ecological role of myxogastrids; measuring biodiversity and change in biodiversity against baseline values.
Telephone +44 (0) 117 331 8340
Internal 18340
a.feest@bristol.ac.uk
Dr Tim Fewtrell, Willis Research Fellow
School of Geographical Sciences
Interests: Fluvial and coastal flood risk modelling, risk and uncertainty analysis with a particular focus on developing computational and physically-based techniques for representing urban areas within hydraulic flood models. Tim is funded by the Willis Research Network (www.willisresearchnetwork.com) which provides independent scientific advice to help the global reinsurer Willis Re. to evaluate the frequency, severity and impact of natural hazards.
Telephone +44 (0) 117 928 8290
Internal 88290
t.fewtrell@bristol.ac.uk
Dr Jim Freer, Reader
School of Geographical Sciences
Interests: uncertainty analysis in environmental modelling, field experiments and computer model simulations to understand process mechanisms for hydrology and water quality, phosphorus modelling in agricultural systems, flood forecasting and flood inundation under climate change, hillslope processes, and catchment hydrology. Jim is editor of Hydrology and Earth System Science (HESS).
Telephone +44 (0) 117 331 8388
Internal 18388
jim.freer@bristol.ac.uk
Professor Iain Gilchrist, Professor of Neuropsychology
School of Experimental Psychology
Interests: Experimental studies of human decision making. To do this Iain carries out carefully controlled laboratory based experiments as well as work in a more applied context. He currently has active research projects on decision making by CCTV operators and target identification in complex cluttered scenes.
Telephone +44 (0) 117 928 9004
Internal 89004
i.d.gilchrist@bristol.ac.uk
Professor Patrick Godfrey, Professor Systems Engineering, Director Industrial Doctorate Centre in Systems at the Universities of Bristol and Bath
Department of Civil Engineering
Interests: A systems thinking approach that integrates people, purpose and process and recognizes that in practice not all risk can be expressed statistically - We need the wisdom to know what we do not know. Co-author of Engineering Council Guidelines on Risk Issues (1993), author of CIRIA SP125: Control of Risk (1996), co-Author of Doing it Differently, Systems for Rethinking Construction (2000), Member of Joint Institution of Civil Engineers and Institute of Actuaries Working Groups for the RAMP guide and the STRATrisk guide.
Telephone +44 (0) 117 331 7061
Internal 17061
patrick.godfrey@bristol.ac.uk
Dr Joachim Gottsman, Research Fellow
School of Earth Sciences
Interests: Jo's research aims at understanding the geodetic and gravimetric signals of volcanic systems from dormancy through unrest to eruption and the physico-chemical processes behind them. A particular focus of his research is the interplay of magmatic and hydrothermal systems to assess uncertainties surrounding causes of volcanic unrest. He is also interested in volcanic threat analysis and how scientific knowledge is perceived during volcanic crises on both policy making and public levels. Current work areas include Greece, Spain, Bolivia and Japan.
Telephone +44 (0) 117 954 5422
Internal 45422
j.gottsmann@bristol.ac.uk
Professor Peter Green, Henry Overton Wills Chair in Mathematics
Department of Mathematics
Interests: Peter is a statistical scientist, principally interested in modelling complex stochastic systems - working both with specific application areas (such as gene expression, protein structure, and other areas of science and technology) and with general issues. The focus is usually to deliver practical statistical methodology, not only qualitative insight. Peter’s models are often Bayesian, and he is interested in the necessary computational methods, including Markov chain Monte Carlo. He has also recently started working on more fundamental issues in the connections between probabilistic graphical models and relational models.
Telephone +44 (0) 117 928 7967
Internal 87967
P.J.Green@bristol.ac.uk
Dr Dawei Han, Reader in Civil and Environmental Engineering
Department of Civil Engineering
Interests: Assessment of flood risk and drought risk (with the related research topics in ungauged catchment, weather radar rainfall, real time flood forecasting, water resources management, numerical weather modelling, hydroinformatics).
Telephone +44 (0) 117 928 9738
Internal 89738
d.han@bristol.ac.uk
Professor Alistair Hetherington, Melville Wills Chair in Botany
School of Biological Sciences
Interests: Responses of plants, including crops to environment change, especially how plants adapt to changes in the environment and exploring ways in which crops might be used to mitigate the negative effects of environment change.
Telephone +44 (0) 117 954 5968
Internal 45968
Alistair.Hetherington@bristol.ac.uk
Dr Thea Hincks, Research Associate
School of Earth Sciences
Interests: Probabilistic volcanic hazard and risk assessment; numerical and statistical modelling of hazards, vulnerability and impact; decision making under uncertainty and the use of expert systems for hazard evaluation and forecasting.
Telephone: +44 (0)117 954 5243
Internal: 45243
t.hincks@bristol.ac.uk
Dr Liz Holcombe, Research Associate
School of Geographical Sciences
Interests: The assessment and management of landslide risk in tropical developing countries - in communities and along highways. In terms of software development Liz integrates numerical modelling of slope stability (hydrology and geotechnics) with econometric methods in order to develop management frameworks for risk reduction along highways. Field work and application of this model are carried out in conjunction with engineers in the Caribbean. Landslides are also a significant risk for those living in 'informal' settlements in the tropics. Liz’s research in this area includes landslide hazard mapping, slope stability modelling, drainage design, and raising awareness about risk reduction. These research interests relate to the ‘science into policy’ research agenda in the UK. They have implications for the policies of Governments in the developing world and international development agencies concerned with landslide risk reduction.
Telephone +44 (0)117 928 8290
Internal 88290
liz.holcombe@bristol.ac.uk
Dr Mark Jackson, Lecturer in Postcolonial Geographies
Mark Jackson is a member of the School of Geographical Sciences where he researches and teaches under the political economy and cultural geography research clusters. His work focuses on urban ecologies, social theory and postcolonialism. He has a special interest in how scientific knowledge production shapes social and political imaginaries with recent work looking at ontologies of energy and consumption, uncertainty, and risk governance.
Telephone +44(0)117 928 9109
Internal 89109
m.jackson@bristol.ac.uk
Dr Helen Lambert, Reader in Medical Anthropology
School of Social and Community Medicine
Interests: Medical anthropology in and of public health; lay perceptions of risk in relation to health; public understandings of biomedicine and heredity; differing concepts of evidence in public health, medicine and anthropology; sexual health and HIV prevention; medical pluralism and health-seeking behaviour. Geographical areas of interest: South Asia (esp. India), South Africa, UK.
Telephone +44 (0)117 928 7238
Internal 87238
h.lambert@bristol.ac.uk
Professor Jonathan Lawry
Department of Engineering Mathematics
Interests: Random set approaches to modelling vagueness and linguistic uncertainty in complex systems, and in particular the label semantic framework. Jonathan has published over 90 refereed articles in the area of approximate reasoning as well as four edited volumes and one book. He has received research funding from a number of bodies including EPSRC, the Tyndall centre, the Nuffield foundation and the Royal Academy of Engineering. He is currently leading a project investigating AI techniques for real-time flood forecasting, funded as part of the EPSRC Flood Risk Management Consortium. He also has funding from the Defence Technology Centre on Data and Information Fusion to investigate goal seeking sensors. Professor Lawry has served on many conference programme organising committees and is a member of the editorial board of the journal Fuzzy Sets and Systems. He has also co-organised a number of workshops and conferences including, the 2001 IEEE workshop `Modelling with Words' in Melbourne, the 2003 UK workshop on Computational Intelligence and the Soft Methods in Probability and Statistics 2006 workshop.
Telephone +44 (0) 117 928 8184
Internal 88184
j.lawry@bristol.ac.uk
Dr Heidy Mader, Reader
School of Earth Sciences
Interests: Multiphase flow processes in the environment, specifically rheology of multiphase fluids and volcanic eruption processes and flows. Current topics include: investigating passive degassing at Stromboli volcano (Italy), hazard and risk assessment at Galeras volcano (Colombia) and gas emissions at Ruapehu volcano, rheology of particle-bearing liquids.
Telephone +44 (0) 117 954 5445
Internal 45445
h.m.mader@bristol.ac.uk
Dr John May, Reader in Safety Systems
Department of Civil Engineering
Interests: John is Director of the Safety Systems Research Centre, member of the Systems Performance Centre, and part of the National Doctorate programme in Systems. Use of programmable technologies to build increasingly complex critical systems introduces new challenges in the control of risk.
Telephone +44 (0) 117 331 7586
Internal 17586
j.may@bristol.ac.uk
Dr Eric Morgan, Senior Lecturer
School of Biological Sciences
Interests: The epidemiology of parasitic disease in domestic and wild animals, especially effects of climate change on the control of disease in livestock, and parasite transmission at the wildlife-livestock interface.
Telephone +44(0)117 928 7485
Internal 87485
Eric.Morgan@bristol.ac.uk
Professor Jan Noyes, Professor of Human Factors Psychology
School of Experimental Psychology
Jan is a Fellow of the Ergonomics Society, Associate Fellow of the of the British Psychological Society, and a member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology. Her research interests are in human-computer interaction (HCI), and the application of psychology to design. In terms of risk, she is particularly interested in how humans make decisions especially in naturalistic environments, and in 2007, co-edited the book, Decision making in complex environments.
Telephone +44(0)117 928 8560
Internal 88560
J.Noyes@bristol.ac.uk
Dr Andrew Pickering, Lecturer in Economics
Department of Economics
Interests: Andrew Pickering's general research interests are in Macroeconomics, Political Economics and Environmental and Natural Resource Economics. Specific projects include analysis of monetary policy and its appropriate response to time-varying risk in assets markets, and methods of incorporating risk into economic cost-benefit analysis.
Telephone +44 (0)117 928 8422
Internal 88422
A.C.Pickering@bristol.ac.uk
Dr Richard Pancost, Reader in Biogeochemistry
School of Chemistry
Interests: The application of organic geochemical techniques to diverse biogeochemical questions in modern and ancient environments. In general, the applications fall into the two main themes of Biogeochemistry/Geomicrobiology and Paleoclimate Reconstruction. The former theme focuses on the exploration of feedbacks and interactions in the Earth System; although we know anthropogenic activity is influencing our environment, extrapolating the consequences through a complex system is challenging and requires process-orientated investigations of biogeochemical cycles. The latter theme is based around the premise that understanding the past allows us to test our hypotheses of how the earth system works. I am particularly interested in the thresholds in the system, such as methane emissions from permafrost and gas hydrate stability. Studying past responses of these environments will ultimately provide stronger predictive power in anticipating future risks.
Telephone +44 (0)117 928 9178
Internal 89178
R.D.Pancost@bristol.ac.uk
Dr David Richards, Senior Lecturer
School of Geographical Sciences
Interests: Interests: Quantifying the amplitude, frequency and extent of past environmental change (including sea levels, hurricanes) using sedimentary deposits from cave and coastal settings. Particularly interested in the use of radionuclides to obtain chronological constraints and also investigate the fate of pollutants.
Telephone +44 (0) 117 928 9828
Internal 89828
david.richards@bristol.ac.uk
Dr Alison Rust, Royal Society Research Fellow
School of Earth Sciences
Interests: Alison's research aims at understanding the physics of volcanic eruptions and the geophysical signals that precede and accompany them. She is also interested in the assessment and communication of risk at active volcanoes.
Telephone +44 (0) 117 954 5303
Internal 45303
Alison.Rust@bristol.ac.uk
Dr Tom B Scott, Director of the Interface Analysis Centre
Interface Analysis Centre
Interests: Transport, fate, impacts and risk of radionuclides and nanomaterials in the environment. Research interests also extend to environmental remediation of these materials.
Telephone +44(0)117 331 1176
Internal 11176
T.B.Scott@bristol.ac.uk
Professor Dudley Shallcross, Professorial Teaching Fellow
School of Chemistry
Interests: Atmospheric chemistry, including understanding how pollutants are transported from their source out of the urban environment. To do this his group has developed extremely sensitive inert tracer technologies. Data that have emerged from his studies are informing not only air quality management (exposure) but also emergency response protocols following the accidental or deliberate release of toxic species. His group have also developed a range of models describing the chemistry of the lower atmosphere. They are adapting these models to include a health index for the chemical concentrations produced to assess the health risk of a variety of proposed changes to emissions, e.g. the introduction of biofuels.
Telephone +44 (0) 117 928 7792
Internal 87796
Dr Mark Siddall, RCUK Research Fellow
School of Earth Sciences
Mark Siddall is interested in the use of past climate data to asses the risks associated with future climate change and particularly sea level rise. The past is a benchmark to the future in terms of assessing the significance of human-induced climate change against a background of natural variability and also as a source of natural analogues for human-induced change. The past indicates the extent of sea level change that we might expect in the future and the thresholds which might take us into new regimes of more rapid sea-level rise.
Telephone +44 (0) 117 331 5014
Internal 15014
Professor Colin Taylor, Professor of Earthquake Engineering
Department of Civil Engineering
Interests: My research interests centre on the performance of complex infrastructure systems (e.g. dams, nuclear facilities, utilities, highways, bridges, urban environments) with a particular emphasis on managing natural hazard impacts, such as earthquakes and climate change. My risk and systems-thinking based research spans across the following:
- Development of infrastructure performance requirements in terms of broad societal and stakeholder needs
- Mapping these needs onto relevant technical performance requirements
- Developing complex non-linear systems models (analytical and physical) of the artefacts and human systems that satisfy these performance requirements
- Developing enabling technologies that apply these models to specific infrastructure problems
Telephone +44 (0) 117 928 7716
Internal 87716
Dr Theo Tryfonas, Lecturer in Systems Engineering
Department of Civil Engineering
Theo joined Bristol in July 2008 as a Lecturer in Systems Engineering at the Department of Civil Engineering. He is a computer scientist by training with primary interests in security engineering and applications of computing in civil engineering systems, particularly wireless sensors. He is also interested in information risk analysis and management, security risk assessments, sustainable systems engineering and forensic analysis of engineering failures.
Telephone +44(0)117 928 8198
Internal 88198
t.tryfonas@bristol.ac.uk
Professor Paul Valdes, Professor of Physical Geography and Head of School
School of Geographical Sciences
Interests: developing a quantitative understanding of the processes that cause natural Earth system change. This enables us to better identify future, human-made change and helps us assess our confidence in predictions of its impacts and significance. Current work is focussed on the development and use of the Hadley Centre Climate/Earth System Model, and the development of a new generation of fast, intermediate complexity models which will allow us to better investigate the transient response of the Earth System. These tools open up a whole new range of issues that can now be quantitatively tested.
Telephone +44 (0) 117 331 7222
Internal 17222
P.J.Valdes@bristol.ac.uk
Professor Richard Wall, Professor of Zoology
School of Biological Sciences
Interests: Analysis of the dynamics and transmission of parasitic diseases of livestock including simulation modelling, risk mapping and risk factor analysis; climate change, ectoparasites and the development of management strategies to mitigate increased risk; and the development of novel, environmentally sensitive arthropod pest and parasite management tools.
Telephone +44 (0) 117 928 9182
Internal 89182
Richard.Wall@bristol.ac.uk
Dr Matthew Watson, Lecturer in Geophysical Natural Hazards
School of Earth Sciences
Understanding volcanic emissions is important for several reasons over several spatial scales. These are (i) they can be hazardous to health; (ii) they can affect the local environment; (iii) they contain information pertaining to the volcanic system of origin; (iv) they can perturb local and, if the eruption is large enough, global climate systems, and; (v) they can be hazardous to aircraft. Typically, points (iii), (iv) and (v) drive my research, which involves inversion of remotely sensed data to retrieve physical parameters of volcanic plumes and clouds, from several regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, using both ground- and satellite-based remote sensing techniques. My research group's overall aim is risk reduction through mitigation of hazard from subaerial volcanic emissions.
Telephone +44(0)117 331 5009
Internal 15009
Matt.Watson@bristol.ac.uk
Dr Becky Whay, Senior Research Fellow, Farm Animal Science
Division of Farm Animal Science
Interests: As part of the Animal Welfare and Behaviour group Becky has a particular interest in the role of animals in environmental change, food security and sustainable development worldwide. In particular, how the future wellbeing of farmed animals is tied in with animal productivity, food security, changes in climate and environmental ecology. She carries out research relating to UK agricultural systems and also in developing countries looking at the balance and conflicts between the importance of livestock in very poor communities and the health, welfare and productivity of the animals themselves.
Telephone +44 (0) 117 928 9474
Internal 89474
Bec.Whay@bristol.ac.uk
Dr Jacqui Wilmshurst, Research Associate
School of Earth Sciences
Interests: Jacqui completed her ESRC funded PhD in the Department of Psychology at the University of Sheffield in 2010. Her research examined psychological factors in how at-risk communities respond to threats posed by extreme weather events in the UK and Belize. During her PhD she spent four months working at the National Weather Center in Oklahoma, USA, collaborating with federal scientists aiming to improve communication of weather related risks to the public. She also took part, as the only social scientist, in a large field project called VORTEX2 in which scientists from sixteen US universities spent six weeks on the road gathering data about the origins of tornadoes. Jacqui's work on the VOLDIES project started in January 2010 and aims to build on existing research into how people behave and why in relation to volcanic risk. Planned case study sites are in Colombia, Montserrat and Tenerife.
Telephone +44 (0) 117 954 5243
Internal 45243
j.wilmshurst@bristol.ac.uk
Dr Jocelyn Wishart, Senior Lecturer
Graduate School of Education
Interests: Jocelyn is director of the Physics Ethics Education Project www.peep.ac.uk – web based resources to support science teachers in covering ethical and social aspects of physical science such as mobile phone radiation, nuclear power and climate change with their pupils. She is interested in teaching about risk and uncertainty and the relationship between psychology and science in how people estimate, personalise and ignore risk.
Telephone +44 (0) 117 331 4497
Internal 14497
J.M.Wishart@bristol.ac.uk
Chris Willmore, Senior Lecturer
School of Law
Chris is an environmental lawyer, with a particular focus upon law/science communication and the role of the precautionary principle as an articulation of risk. She is currently working on issues associated with the communication and articulation of environmental risk within the land use planning context.
Telephone +44 (0)117 954 5345
Internal 45345
Chris.Willmore@bristol.ac.uk