Physical Oceanography

Our people

Meet our researchers and learn more about their expertise.

Professor Alberto Naveira Garabato

Professor in Physical Oceanography

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Dr Alessandro Silvano

NERC Independent Research Fellow

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Mr Alexander Forryan

Research Fellow
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Dr Bieito Fernandez Castro

Lecturer in Physical Oceanography

Research interests

  • Turbulent mixing
  • Ocean dynamics and circulation
  • Ocean biogeochemical (carbon) cycles

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Mr Christopher Auckland

Research interests

  • Physical Oceanography
  • Southern Ocean
  • Antarctic Bottom Water
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Dr Duo Chan

Lecturer in Climate Sciences

Research interests

  • Climate data and statistical climatology
  • Machine learning in climate and environmental studies
  • Climate variability and climate dynamics

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Professor Ivan Haigh

Professor

Research interests

  • I currently have 8 active research grants (4 as principle investigator (PI)) worth £4.8M. 
  • I am the PI on two international grants that started in 2019, both looking at compound flooding. Compound flooding (when the combination, or successive occurrence of, two or more hazard events leads to an extreme impact e.g., coastal and fluvial flooding), can greatly exacerbate the adverse consequences associated with flooding in coastal regions and yet it remains under-appreciated and poorly understood. In the £788k NERC- and NSF- (US National Science Foundation) funded CHANCE project, I am leading a team (working alongside researchers from the University of Central Florida), to deliver a new integrated approach to make a step-change in our understanding, and prediction of, the source mechanisms driving compound flood events in coastal areas around the North Atlantic basin. In the £575k NERC- and NAFOSTED- (Vietnam’s National Foundation for Science and Technology Development) funded project, I am leading a team that is working with colleagues in Vietnam to map and characterise present, and predict future, flood risk from coastal, fluvial, and surface sources and, uniquely, to assess the risk of compound flooding across the Mekong delta; one of the three most vulnerable deltas in the world. I am also the PI on a grant, which started in 2021. In this 41k project, funded by the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (Rijkswaterstaat), we are assessing past and future closures of the six storm surge barriers in the Netherlands.
  • In 2021, I was awarded a 3-year (50% of my time) prestigious Knowledge Exchange Fellowship funded by NERC (UK’s Natural Environmental Research Council) and worth £154k. This fellowship builds strongly on my prior research and the overall goal is to provide guidance and tools that will help storm surge barrier operators better prepare for the impacts of climate change across every area of their operation now and into the future. Within the fellowship I am working primary with the UK Environment Agency (EA) and the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (Rijkswaterstaat). However, to ensure the work undertaken can benefit all the existing (and planned) surge barriers around the world, I am also working closely with I-STORM. I-STORM is an international knowledge sharing network for professionals relating to the management, operation and maintenance of storm surge barriers, and has representation from all the surge barriers worldwide.

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Mr Jeffrey Blundell

Research Fellow
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Dr Kathryn Gunn PhD

Lecturer in Climate Sciences

Research interests

  • Southern Ocean Circulation (where and how much water flows)
  • Temperature and Salinity Changes (to what extent does ocean structure vary and why)
  • Seismic Oceanography (developing an innovative, high-resolution technique for ocean mapping)

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Dr Kevin Oliver

Lecturer: Physical Oceanography

Accepting applications from PhD students

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