The SAGES Executive Committee (ExCom)is responsible for strategy and policy, financial control, liaison with management at member institutions and individual members. Membership comprises: Director; one representative per full member institution; Graduate School Director; chaired by institutional member on a rotating basis. ExCom meets on a 6-monthly basis in combined meetings with RICom.
Professor Spagnolo is a member of the Executive Committee in his role as SAGES Director.
Matteo is based at the School of Geosciences in the University of Aberdeen.
Matteo gained his BSc in Natural Sciences from Pisa, followed by an MSc in Remote Sensing and GIS from Firenze, and a PhD in tectonic geomorphology from Genova, in Italy. He moved to Sheffield in 2007 for a postdoc on drumlins,and, two years later, to Aberdeen where he has been ever since, except for a year spent at Berkeley in 2017 as a visiting professor.
Matteo has been a vibrant member of the Aberdeen Cryosphere and Climate Change Group and has held various roles including School PGR Director, Elected Senator, and Head of Geography and Environment.Dr Brice Rea is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Aberdeen in the Department of Geography and Environment.
His research interests include:
Glacial and periglacial geomorpholog/geology
Glacial tectonics
Glacier-climate interactions
Long-term landscape evolution in passive glaciated mid- and high-latitude margins.
I am Head of the new pan-University Graduate School (launched in September 2014) and was previously Head of the School of Science, Engineering & Technology at Abertay University. The Graduate School is an essential component of our new R-LINCS (Research-Led Innovation Nodes for Contemporary Society) Research and Knowledge Exchange Strategy, to grow our RKE capacity and research excellence. All Postgraduate students, both taught and research, as well as research and academic staff, have access to the Graduate School which provides a comprehensive training programme within a central physical location of flexible working spaces, open to the entire research community, to promote integration and inculcation of an inter-disciplinary ethos.
I graduated from University College Cardiff in 1987 (BSc Hons Microbiology) and the University of Wales College of Cardiff (PhD SERC/CASE ICI Biological Products) in 1992, with a thesis entitled the ‘Biotechnological implications of the ecology and developmental biology of selected higher fungi’. I have over 20 years of research experience in Microbiology and Mycology, particularly on Serpula lacrymans, aspects of the ecology and biology of other wood and soil fungi, and on modelling the growth and interactions of filamentous fungi. I am driven by curiosity and the joy of working collaboratively.
I am particularly passionate about multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research, and was involved in the development of SIMBIOS at Abertay – an environmental sciences research group with an interest in complex systems and the use of modelling methodologies, to gain a better understanding of these systems applied across a wide range of discipline areas (from epidemiology to soil microbiology and everything in between). Our new University Research and Knowledge Exchange Strategy R-LINCS is an extended, accelerated and enhanced expression of this approach.
I am Chair of the Self Assessment Team that led the Abertay University application for Athena SWAN bronze award.The Athena SWAN Charter recognises commitment to advancing women’s careers in employment in academia.
Tracy is a marine geochemist, who joined BGS in October 2016 as Co-Director of the Lyell Centre. International engagements have been a feature of Tracy’s career and she has spent time in Papua New Guinea and South America advising on mine waste management.
Dr Simon Cook is a Lecturer in Physical Geography at the University of Dundee. His research interests include glaciology, geohazards and the geomorphology of mountain environments. Much of Simon’s work focuses on understanding the mechanisms that shape landscapes (including glacial, fluvial and mass movement processes), as well as the response of glacial environments to cliamte change, including geohazards and risks posed by deglaciation (e.g. glacial outburst floods, landslides and water resource issues).
Bryne Ngwenya is a Personal Chair in Microbial Geochemistry and interim Head of School for the School of Geosciences.
Todd’s research interests are in the interactions between climate, tectonics, surface processes, and biota as applied to the evolution of active mountain ranges and sedimentary basins. His research group has a wide range of projects that involve an integration of field observations and geochemical data with physics-based models of landscape evolution, lithospheric deformation, and climate/paleoclimate. The goal of these projects is to quantify the rates of magnitudes of processes that influence the form and evolution of Earth’s surface. Emphasis is also placed on understanding any couplings and feedbacks between biotic, geologic, atmospheric, and geomorphic processes.
John Howe joined the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) in 1998 moving to Oban from a post-doctoral research post with the British Antarctic Survey. He has a PhD from the University of Southampton in marine geology and a degree in Geology from Derby University. In his current role of Senior Lecturer in Marine Geology he has been head of the Biogeochemistry and Earth Sciences department, is currently Degree Program Leader and is supervisor for a number of research students. Currently he sits on the steering group of the Marie Curie International Training Network (ITN) Glaciated North Atlantic Margins (GLANAM) project and the NERC National Capability Marine Environmental Mapping Program (MAREMAP). His research focus is on marine geomorphology and habitat mapping, Quaternary ice sheet history, glaciomarine environments and the use of autonomous underwater vehicles in marine mapping. He has worked in the Arctic and Antarctic examining marine sediments as archives of long-term environmental change. He has 91 published outputs from peer-reviewed science papers to magazine articles and book chapters. Current projects include the use of AUV’s in the Arctic and in the Patagonian fjord region of Chile. He is a keen sub-aqua diver, and is a scientific diver with the National Facility for Scientific Diving at SAMS as well as helping to run the student diving club.
Tom is a lecturer in physical geography, specialising in glaciology. He joined the University of St Andrews in September 2016 after three years as a NERC funded postdoctoral research associate at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Sheffield. He obtained a PhD in glaciology, also from the University of Edinburgh, in 2013 and a BA in Geography from the University of Cambridge in 2008.
Senior Lecturer
My overarching interest lies with the (bio)geochemical iron cycle and how it is linked to the cycling of other elements such as carbon, sulphur or phosphorus. My Research ranges from the interaction of minerals, microorganisms and contaminants in the groundwater to aqueous mineralogy and geochemistry on Mars. I strive to foster cross-fertilisation between the environmental sciences and planetary exploration.
Professor Neil Simco is Vice-Principal (research and Impact) holding leadership responsibility for the oversight of research and knowledge exchange activity across the university. This involves oversight of all aspects of the university’s strategy in research and knowledge exchange, preparations for the REF 2021, the university’s graduate school, quality assurance and enhancement and the development of research-teaching linkages.
I am an environmental geochemist, applying an “earth-systems” approach to research which covers the transport/behaviour of pollutants in the environment (air quality, land degradation and remediation, and aquatic biogeochemistry), evaluating their impact on ecosystems and for human health.
These have links to policy and knowledge transfer activities which have been focused on the role and evolution of environmental management tools, issues of regulation and sustainability, and in the development of innovative R&D supports mechanisms for SMEs and large industrial operations across industrial sectors.
I undertook PhD and postdoc research on actinide geochemistry associated with nuclear waste processing facilities, developing analytical tools and applying them to study environmental transport processes. Subsequently my research has applied these principles in studies of waste impacts and management systems, resource recovery and exposure assessment. Fundamentally focused on understanding behaviour of potentially harmful elements and compounds in urban and rural environments in both terrestrial and aquatic systems.
I hold a Visiting Academic Post (100 Talents-High End Expert) in the Key Lab for Shale Gas Exploitation, Hunan University of Science & Technology, PRC.
