Home page | Programme and events Keynote speakers Tommy Dickey, University of California, Santa Barbara Brian Hoskins, University of Reading Tim Lenton, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Edinburgh Gill Malin, University of East Anglia David Marshall, University of Reading John Roberts, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Jonathan Sharples, Proudman Ocecanographic Laboratory Graham Shimmield, Scottish Association for Marine Science Tommy Dickey Tommy Dickey received his Ph.D. in Geophysical Fluid Dynamics from Princeton University in 1977. He was a professor at the University of Southern California for 18 years before joining the faculty of the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1995. Professor Dickey's research has focused on development of new technologies, observationally based research, and modelling. He has published over 100 reviewed papers, and much of his work concerns interactions among physical, bio-optical, and biogeochemical processes. He has in recent years led four major programs: Ocean-Systems for Chemical, Optical, and Physical Experiments (O-SCOPE), the Bermuda Testbed Mooring (BTM) program, the Multi-disciplinary Ocean Sensors for Ecosystem Analyses and Networks (MOSEAN) program, and the Hyperspectral Coastal Ocean Dynamics Experiment (HyCODE) research program. His research is leading to new technological advances and better understanding of episodic and extreme events such as hurricanes, mesoscale eddies, and internal solitary waves. He has served in editorial capacities for Reviews of Geophysics, Journal of Geophysical Research, Journal of Marine Systems, and Limnology and Oceanography, and as a member of numerous international ocean advisory committees. Abstract (pdf): Episodic and extreme events in the ocean: recent results and a view toward future studies Back to top of page Brian Hoskins Brian Hoskins gained his maths degree at Cambridge and then did postdocs at the National Centre for Atmospheric Research, Colorado, and Princeton University. He has been at the Meteorology Department in the University of Reading since 1973, as a postdoc, reader, professor (including six years as head of department) and, since 2001, Royal Society Research Professor. His research area is the understanding of atmospheric motion from frontal to planetary scales. His current roles include vice-chair of the Joint Scientific Committee of the World Climate Research Programme, member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, Chair of the Royal Society Global Environmental Research Committee, and Chair of the Met Office Scientific Advisory Committee. Among the awards he has received are the Carl-Gustav Rossby Research Medal of the American Met. Society, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Met Society and Vilhelm Bjerknes Medal of the European Geophysical Society. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, Foreign Associate of the USA National Academy of Sciences and Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Abstract (pdf): Aspects of ocean-atmosphere interaction in the storm-track regions Back to top of page Tim Lenton Tim Lenton gained a Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences from the University of East Anglia in 1998, where he worked with Andrew Watson on what regulates the nutrient balance of the ocean and the oxygen content of the atmosphere. His unifying research interest is in understanding the behaviour of the Earth as a whole system. Early on, he began collaborating with James Lovelock on the development of the Gaia Theory of the Earth as a self-regulating system and the Daisyworld Model. He also had the honour of working with the late Bill Hamilton on evolutionary biology and Gaia. For the past five years Tim has worked as an Earth system modeller at the NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology near Edinburgh. There he built a simple coupled carbon cycle-climate model and is now leading a project developing a Grid-ENabled Integrated Earth system model (GENIE). This summer he returns to the University of East Anglia and a new post as Reader in Earth System Analysis. Abstract (pdf): Regulation of phosphate, nitrate and oxygen in the ocean over geologic time Back to top of page Gill Malin Gill Malin conmpleted her B.Sc. and Ph.D. on nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria at the University of Liverpool. She then spent two years on a NERC Postdoctoral Fellowship at Bristol University working on chemotaxis in cyanobacteria with Prof. Tony Walsby, and eight months at the University of East Anglia researching the biogenic production of dimethyl sulphide (DMS) with Prof. Peter Liss. This was followed by 14 months in the Medical School at Case Western Reserve University in the USA studying high-affinity arabinose uptake in E. coli. In 1986 she returned to the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia and has been there ever since. Gill was awarded a NERC Advanced Research Fellowship in 1998, and she now works in the Trace Gas Biogeochemistry group of the Laboratory for Global Marine and Atmospheric Chemistry (LGMAC http://lgmacweb.env.uea.ac.uk/lgmac/). Her research focuses on the biogenic production of a range of trace gases of atmospheric importance in marine waters (trace gas biogeochemistry http://www.uea.ac.uk/env/marinegas/research/tracegas.shtml). Abstract (pdf): Biogenic production of trace gases in the marine environment Back to top of page David Marshall David Marshall gained his Ph.D. in Physical Oceanography at Imperial College, University of London in 1992. After spending some time as a Research Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he joined Reading University as a Lecturer. He is now a Professor of Oceanography at Reading and also a Visiting Scientist at Imperial College, London. David serves on the editorial board of Deep Sea Research, the NERC Peer Review Committee, the CLIVAR Atlantic Implementation Panel, and has served as Secretary for Oceanography and on the Nansen Medal Committee of the European Geophysical Society. Amongst the awards that he has received is the Philip Leverhulme Prize of the Leverhulme Foundation. He is also a Fellow of the Challenger Society and the Royal Meteorological Society. Over the last ten years he has published roughly 30 papers and has been involved in multiple research contracts. Abstract (pdf): Abrupt change of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation: theory and monitoring Back to top of page John Roberts John Roberts graduated in Chemistry from Keble College, Oxford, and after three years of research at Oxford on Quantum Chemistry, joined the Department of the Environment. He has worked in a number of policy areas, including environmental protection, local government finance, housing policy, and urban regeneration. He spent two years in the Cabinet Secretariat, and one year on secondment to the Local Government Association. In March 2001 he became head of the Marine and Waterways Division in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The Division is responsible for policies on the protection of the marine environment, including the domestic regulation of construction works and deposits in the sea, and representation of the United Kingdom in the OSPAR Convention, the North Sea Conference, the London Convention, and various UN discussions on oceans. The Division is also taking forward work on integrated coastal zone management, and the response to the recently agreed EU recommendation on this issue. The Division is responsible for policy on inland navigation and sponsorship of British Waterways. Abstract (pdf): Managing human impacts on the marine environment - a challenge for Government and for science Back to top of page Jonathan Sharples Jonathan Sharples gained his Ph.D. in Physical Oceanography at the University of Wales, Bangor in 1992, and currently works at the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory. Jonathan's background is in observational oceanography, working in shelf seas, coastal waters, estuaries, and with a useful grounding in numerical modelling. He has a particular interest in oceanographic problems that are truly cross-disciplinary, and is presently working on an observational project investigating the shelf-wide structure of the summer thermocline and the role of turbulent mixing in controlling the environment of the subsurface phytoplankton within the thermocline. On the broader scale, Jonathan has a developing interest in closer links between observations and models. Models are the only viable way of addressing some whole-shelf issues, but are lacking in their parameterisations of some fundamental processes; well-designed, focused observational programmes are the best way of developing better descriptions of many of these processes. Abstract (pdf): The shelf sea seasonal thermocline - physical variability and the biological response Back to top of page Graham Shimmield Graham Shimmield graduated from the University of Durham in Geology, followed by a Ph.D. in Marine Geochemistry from the University of Edinburgh in 1985 where he remained until 1996 as part of the academic staff. He then became the combined director of Scottish Association of Marine Science (SAMS) and the NERC-funded Institute, within the Dunstaffnage Marine Laboratory (DML). Since 2001, the DML has been wholly owned and managed by SAMS (as a charity and CLG). Graham's particular interest is in marine geochemistry, which includes the fundamental studies of geochemical processes operating in oceans through identifying indicators of ocean and climate change, and examining human impacts and contamination in coastal and deep seas. In 2000, Graham was awarded the title of Honorary Professor at the University of St Andrews, and is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the Institute of Biology. He has been president and is currently vice-president of the new European Federation of Marine Science and Technology Societies (EFMS). He continues his university work as a Chair of Research of the new UHI Millennium Institute (UHI) in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Graham serves on several national and international committees, including the NERC science strategy board. He has published over 65 scientific peer-reviewed articles. Abstract (pdf): The role of benthic observatories in an integrated Ocean Observing System Back to top of page