My research examines the human dimensions of environmental change and ranges from basic and exploratory to highly applied. Most of my work – and my most highly cited research papers, including articles in Nature and Science – focuses on environmental, including climate, changes and the ways in which people and ecosystems respond to and interact with these at low latitudes in Africa and Asia. According to the Web of Science and Scopus, my work has been cited over 5000 times and I have an h-index of, respectively, 38 and 42 (August 2023).
My researcher IDs are:
ORCID = 0000-0002-6098-5636
Web of Science = ISS-5752-2023
Scopus = 57224616009
GoogleScholar = VjL_EuIAAAAJ&hl=en
I view environmental pollution as one of, if not the, grand challenges facing humanity - anthropogenic climate change being just one effect of environmental pollution - both now and into the future. Research in this area has many dimensions, including how we prevent pollution in the first place, how we mitigate and adapt to pollution impacts, how we repair human and natural systems damaged by the effects of pollution (including climate change), and who should pay? These are all fertile areas of future research - and tropical latitudes, as a major source and sink for pollution, are a great place to base such studies. I consider myself very fortunate to be able to teach a module on environmental pollution here at in the Department of Geography NUS – a great example of research and teaching/learning informing one another.
Pollution of the air, land and water was an element of the "Transboundary Environmental Commons in Southeast Asia" research project. TECSEA was a major, five year-long research project funded by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) under its Thematic Grant (TG) call of 2016 (MOE 2016-SSRTG-068), based in the Asia Research Institute (ARI), NUS, which has recently ended. I was the PI of the project. I am also the PI of a major new multi-institutional, collaborative research project, also funded by the SSRC, this time under its TG call of 2021 ~ "Carbon Governance of Nature-based Carbon Sinks in Southeast Asia". The new project commenced in October 2022, will run for five years and provides funding for one Senior Research Fellow, three Research Fellows, three PhD students and one Research Associate.
I am also a Co-PI of the Integrated Tropical Peatlands Research Programme, or INTPREP, a multi-million $ NUS-based programme that commenced in late 2019. INTPREP focuses on the science of tropical peatland functioning and recovery from drainage and burning. The programme currently provides opportunities for two postdocs, a PhD student and a RA working linked to the Department of Geography alone ~ with several other researchers employed on other parts of the research based in NUS's Environmental Research Institute (NERI) and in Indonesia.
In addition, I hold a Cornell – NUS Global Strategic Collaboration Award along with Dr. Jenny Goldstein at Cornell University. The grant is funding an examination of seaweed farming in Indonesia and the Philippines as a potential climate change mitigation strategy.
I spent the AY 2018-19 on sabbatical in what was then the School of Geography, University of Melbourne, Australia. I still retain close links with geographers at the University of Melbourne, where I had a Honoray (Principal Fellow) Professorship position to July 2023. Since my return to Singapore following my sabbatical I have taken on the position of Head of Department, Department of Geography, National University Singapore, and am now in my second term of three years.
Before commencing my sabbatical in July 2018, I was Chair of the Graduate Studies Committee and Graduate Studies Coordinator (January 2013-July 2018), on Research Committee and was a member of the Department's executive decision-making body (the Geography Management Team, or GMT). I was also Chair of the Tropical Environmental Change research group (the largest of three research groups in the Department) for three years (2012-2015). At Faculty level I was a member of the Faculty's Graduate Studies Committee to July 2018. In June 2016 I ended my stint as a member of the Faculty Promotion and Tenure Committee in order to join the University Promotion and Tenure Committee (UPTC). I ceased to be a member of the UPTC, which advises the Provost on matters relating to senior academic appointment, promotion and tenure decisions, on commencing my sabbatical. Outside of the Department and Faculty structure at NUS, I am a Research Associate of the Asia Research Institute (ARI) at NUS, where I am linked to the Inter-Asia Engagements cluster. Outside of NUS I am a member of the editorial boards of two journals (Journal of Environmental Science and Management and the Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography) and Director (equivalent of Editor-in-Chief) of the Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography. I am also a member of the European Science Foundation College of Expert Reviewers (2010-present), a member of the Expert Panel for the Social Sciences Research Committee, Singapore (2020-), and an Expert Reviewer for the Technical Support Unit of Working Group III of the Intergovenmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). I was one of the reviewers of the recently released (August 2019) IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land.
Before rejoining NUS in 2012 - and for more than eleven years - I held the Professorship (College Chair) in Geography at Trinity College, University of Dublin (January 2001-August 2012). I was also a Professorial Fellow at Trinity College (2004-2012), Head of the Department of Geography (2001-2005), the first Head of the School of Natural Sciences (a combination of the disciplines of Botany, Environmental Sciences, Geography, Geology and Zoology) (2005-2008), Pro (acting)-Senior Dean (2005-2006) and Chair of the Trinity International Development Initative (TIDI, 2011-2012). As Pro Senior Dean at Trinity College, University of Dublin, I was specifically responsible for handling academic staff disciplinary cases. I have also recently stood down from my membership of the Council of the British Academy-funded British Institute in Eastern Africa, after more than a decade as a member, and the Board of the Governors of the Dublin, Ireland-based Mary Robinson Foundation for Climate Justice. Mary Robinson, formerly President of Ireland - and the first woman to hold that position - and the UN High Commisioner for Human Rights, has recenly become the UN Special Envoy for Climate Change.
Over my career I have taught a wide range of modules, from first year undergraduate to postgraduate (taught masters and structured PhD programme) level. In addition to basic and advanced knowledge-based content, the modules I teach often include problem-oriented exercises. Many also include fieldwork and laboratory work. I have been fortunate to lead undergraduates and postgraduates on fieldwork in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and North America. I have also been lucky to have been heavily involved throughout my professional career in the enthusing of furture generations of active researchers who share my fascination with our highly dynamic (though increasingly modified) world. In the sections below I briefly describe some of the research carried out by graduate research students under my supervision, and mention some of the interesting places around the world where they have studied.
In the academic year just ended (AY 22-23) I contributed a lecture on "Football and the Environment" to the general education course GEH1076 Worlds of Football, allowing me to draw upon two of my greatest interests - the environment and football. I also taught 50% of another general education course "Biophysical Environments of Singapore" and most of two final year (Hons) courses, GE4237 Environmental Pollution and GE4220 Field Investigations in Physical Geography. The latter course is built around a 12-day long visit to Kenya, all but one day/night of which is spent camping at three different locations in the Great Rift Valley. Students on the Environmental Pollution course produce pollution blogs as one of the assignments. The Pollution blogs can be viewed here.
To date I have advised to successful completion of their PhDs a total of 27 graduate research students, and have been very fortunate to work with and learn lots from some excellent early career researchers along the way, many of whom have gone on to have a major influence on Geography and related disciplines. Four of the PhD students I advised are now full-professors: Professor Robert Marchant, University of York, UK; Professor Jason Kirby, Liverpool John Moores University, UK; Professor Julius Lejju, Mbarara University, Uganda; and Professor Robert Legg, Northern Michigan University, US. Prof Kirby and Prof Lejju are also, respectively, Head of School of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Dean of Science at their respective universities. Other former PhD students also hold senior faculty positions at reputable universities. For example, Dr. Ed Schofield is Senior Lecturer at Aberdeen University, UK; Dr. Francis Ludlow, who has held Research Fellow positions at BOTH Harvard and Yale universities in the US, is now an Associate Professor in History at Trinity College University of Dublin; Dr. Tengwen Long has also recently been promoted to Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham, Ningbo Campus, China; and Dr. Lucy Crockford is Senior Lecturer in Soil and Water Management at Harper Adams University, UK. Several of my former PhD advisees hold senior research fellowship positions, such as Dr. Bin Wu, University of Nottingham Business School, UK; Dr. Barry O'Dwyer, University College Cork, Ireland; Dr. Sheila Greene, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford, UK. Andrew Jackson, whose PhD was on European international environmental law, is now an Assistant Professor in the School of Law at University College Dublin, while Dr. Julian Bloomer, whose PhD was a political ecology oriented study of cannabis production in Lesotho, southern Africa, is now a Lecturer at the University of Limerick, Ireland. Following the successful completion of his PhD, Julian completed a round-the-world journey on his bicycle. His trip is documented in the blog, The Slow Way Home. Julian started out on his round-the-world cycle trip in the summer of 2008. At the time his ambitions were relatively limited - to cycle from his home in County Wicklow, Ireland, to attend the wedding of a friend in Ghana, West Africa. Having arrived in Ghana Julian simply carried on cycling ... and several years later completed his round-the-world trip.
Here in NUS seven graduate research students under my guidance have completed their PhDs since 2000. Christina (Qinqin) Chen completed her PhD in early 2020. Christina, who obtained her first and masters degrees from Nanjing University, studied transboundary air pollution in Singapore and now holds a highly prestigious postdoctoral fellowship position in the School of Environment, Tsinghau University, Beijing ~ widely regarded as China's top university. Later in 2020, Wayne Bannister successfully completed his PhD investigating recent environmental changes in freshwater lakes in the Philippines and now works for an environmental consultancy here in Singapore. Other recent PhD successes comprise: Lau Yingshan (Enhancing Traditional Knowledge: insights from participatory research in the Lao PDR); Alex Finnigan (Freshwater and atmospheric plastic pollution in Southeast Asia with a particular focus on Singapore and Cambodia;, Zu Dienle Tan (An examination of the social-ecological drivers and impacts of tropical peatland degradation and restoration interventions in Indonesia); Sumiya Bilegsaikhan (The death and life of the Nam Ou: a place-oriented geography of water in northern Laos) and Radhika Bhargava (Ecosystem scale impacts of and (mal)adaptations to mangrove shoreline erosion in the Sundarbans). The research plans, and particularly the plans for overseas fieldwork, of Yingshan, Alex, Zu, Sumiya and Radhika were all heavily impacted by COVID-based restrictions. It is to their immense credit that all five completed their PhDs successfully and have gone on to secure postdoctoral research positions.
Graduate research students under my supervision have studied a broad range of topics, from early agriculture in eastern England, UK, to recent environmental changes recorded in high altitude volcanic crater sites in the Albertine Rift in central Africa; from the use of remote sensing in environmental management in the Caribbean to the use of predictive modelling in archaeology on the island of Ireland; from conservation policy in the EU to the political ecology of cannabis cultivation in southern Africa; from disruption to farming by wild animals in northern Rwanda to disruption to ecosystem services by plantation developments in southwest China, from fire impacts on people and livelihoods linked to tropical peatlands to dam impacts on people and livelihoods along the Upper Mekong, and from hazards such as sea level change on megadeltas to the pollution of rivers and lakes. Currently graduate research students in NUS working under my supervision are researching environmental issues in South and Southeast Asia, including environmental change, traditional knowledge, tropical peatland science and political ecology.
In addition to graduate research students, I currently advise/mentor eight members of full-time research staff (two Senior Research Fellows, four Research Fellows and two Research Associates) here in NUS. In total I have advised more than 20, full-time research staff during my career to date.
I am always keen to discuss potential masters, PhD and postdoctoral research topics in the broad field of the human dimensions of environmental change (including human-environment and human-wildlife interactions). As should be evident from my research experiences and interests and from the locations where graduate research students under my guidance have carried out their research, I do not feel geographically limited to any particular location in the world, and recognise that many of the major problems faced by humanity have little respect for political or disciplinary boundaries. I do however feel that tropical latitudes are a great base for research and teaching and learning – as a relatively understudied powerhouse of global change, and a major recipient of environmental change effects. At present I am personally involved in research in eastern Africa, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, China and the Philippines.
Please feel free to contact me about Graduate and Postdoctoral research opportunities here in Geography at NUS and with a view to joining one of the best Geography departments in the world in one of the most dynamic cities in Asia!
My research centres upon the human dimensions of environmental change, and is guided by the question: how do we as humans relate to the non-human world, and how does that world influence us?
Four main themes are at the core of my research: recent environmental changes at low latitudes; environment and health in the developing world; environmental governance; and pollution. Humans, dynamic environmental conditions and natural resources are common threads throughout these themes. I also rely upon a broad range of methodologies and techniques from across the environmental, biological, physical and social sciences in carrying out my research, from analyses of remotely sensed data and historical and sedimentary archives, to dynamic modelling and on to qualitative and participatory approaches.
My involvement as PI of theMinistry of Education (MoE)/Social Science Research Council (SSRC) Singapore-funded research project. "Transboundary Environmental Commons in Southeast Asia" (TECSEA) ended last year (June 2022) upon successful completion of the award. The TECSEA project was highly successful, despite disruptions caused by COVID, and resulted in more than 30 publications in top journals, several international conference panels and talks and underpinned the successful completion of two PhD projects, one on the use and restoration of peatlands in Indonesia and the other on the impact of dams in the on the everyday lives and livelihoods of those living along the banks of the Upper Mekong.
Following the success of TECSEA, I am now PI of a second, major new multi-institutional, collaborative research project, also funded by the SSRC, this time under its TG call of 2021. The new project, Carbon Governance of Nature-based Carbon Sinks in Southeast Asia, commenced in October 2022, will run for five years and provides funding for one Senior Research Fellow, three Research Fellows, three PhD students and one Research Associate.
I am also a PI of the Integrated Tropical Peatlands Research Programme, or INTPREP, a multi-million $ NUS-based programme that commenced in late 2019. INTPREP focuses on the science of tropical peatland functioning and recovery from drainage and is hosted by NUS's Environmental Research Institute (NERI). INTPREP activities are concentrated on two field sites, both on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, and both owned by major plantation companies. The programme currently provides opportunities for two postdocs, a PhD student and a RA working linked to the Department of Geography alone ~ with several other researchers employed on other parts of the research based in NUS's Environmental Research Institute (NERI) and in the field in Indonesia.
In addition, I co-hold a Cornell – NUS Global Strategic Collaboration Award along with Dr. Jenny Goldstein at Cornell University. The grant is funding an examination of seaweed farming in Indonesia and the Philippines as a potential climate change mitigation strategy.
I also recently completed the research project Economic growth and environmental quality in a tropical Asian megacity. The project, funded by MoE, ran for three years and sought to provide insight into the evolving relationship between economic growth and environmental quality. The project focused on Singapore, which has seen rapid economic growth over the past ca. 50 years and was the first country in the region to achieve developed nation status, and in particular the risk to local environmental quality posed by transboundary air pollution. The project help fund two graduate degrees (one PhD and one Masters - both successfully completed) and has to date underpinned six publications in Q1 journals.
I have also relatively recently completed my involvement in two, major externally-funded research projects in Africa. I was lead PI and scientific coordinator of the European Union’s Framework Programme 7-funded HEALTHY FUTURES research project, which ran for four years, commencing in January 2011 and ending at the end of 2014. The project investigated environmental change impacts on vector-borne diseases (such as malaria and Rift Valley fever) in eastern Africa. I was also lead advisor on a Work Package (WP 2) that formed part of an Irish overseas development aid-funded research project (NOURISH). The NOURISH project examined links between malnutrition and a low survival rate of people with HIV-AIDS who are receiving treatment based on antiretroviral (ARV) therapy. One characteristic of the study area for WP2 of the NOURISH project - Karamoja in northern Uganda - is high levels of food insecurity and malnutrition, largely as a result of periodic environmental stress, recent climate change and two decades of political instability. A second feature is that ARVs do not appear to work anywhere near as well as they do elsewhere, and this may be in part due to high levels of malnutrition. WP 2 of NOURISH also investigated the feasibility of developing and using a locally-produced Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) supplement as a means of fostering nutritional security.The NOURISH research project ended in 2016, after running for four years.
Please feel free to contact me about Graduate and Postdoctoral research opportunities here in Geography at NUS and with a view to joining one of the best Geography departments in the world in one of the most dynamic cities in Asia!
Although I have a broad range of research interests, including applied palaeolimnology (the use of lake sediments as sources of information on past environmental changes in lakes but also in their wider air- and water-sheds), I am particularly interested in human-environment interactions in the Global South, and in particular the ways in which environmental, including climate, changes can act as significant pressures on vulnerable societies in Africa and Asia. Basically I am interested in the human dimensions of environmental change - across a spectrum of time, from the relatively recent past through to the near future - and the ways in which those dimensions can be rendered understandable.
At its most basic, my research seeks to understand environmental pressures in the relatively recent past and at present, and to use this understanding as a basis for policy-relevant, improved anticipations of future changes and their implications. Influencing policy - and ensuring that policies once defined are then implemented effectively - are rarely easy, of course - but the process is two-way: scientists need to ensure that their research is relevant, while policy makers have to remain attentive to relevant scientific findings.
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Head of Department of Geography, NUS, Singaore (August 2019-)
Provost's Chair Professor, NUS, Singapore (2014-): awarded in recognition of the international impact of research and of contribution to the discipline
Professorial Fellow, Trinity College, University of Dublin, Ireland (2004-2012)
Outside of work my main interests remain my family and friends, sports (particularly football - I am a keen supporter of one of the world's most famous and loved football clubs: Burnley FC, founded in 1882 and still the best team in Lancashire, England) and reading.