PROJECT LEAD

Karen Bell is Professor of Social and Environmental Justice at the University of Glasgow. She was PI (2021-22, British Academy) of an interdisciplinary international collaboration on ‘Decarbonising and Diversifying Defence’ (see Decarbonising Defence). This involved interviewing US and UK defence-sector workers, including military elites. As ESRC Future Research Leader (2016-19) she developed a novel participatory-environmental decision-making model. Prior to this she had decades of experience as a community development coordinator working alongside disadvantaged communities on socio-environmental issues.

For more see:  karenbell.org

PROJECT LEAD

A Senior Lecturer in Geopolitics and Security in the School of Social Sciences & Humanities, Loughborough University, United Kingdom. His current work tackles the implications of climate change and the global energy transition for the future character of military operations and war. Duncan's latest research is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. He has recently published papers on the concept of 'low-carbon warfare' in International Affairs (2023), and on the UK Ministry of Defence's latest thinking regarding the need for a military energy transition in the European Journal of International Security (2024). Duncan is also a Senior Research Associate of the Climate Change & In(security) Project, University of Oxford and an Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute. Prior to joining Loughborough University in 2019, Dr Depledge was the founding director of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Polar Regions (2015-2019). He holds a doctorate from Royal Holloway, University of London, MPhil in Geography (University of Cambridge), MA in Political Theory (University of Sheffield) and BA (Hons) in History (University of Sheffield).

PROJECT LEAD

Oliver Heidrich is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Newcastle University. I research climate change strategies to implement mitigation and adaptation technologies and determine the impact these strategies have on natural resources across the globe. My vision is to make this world an even better place. My mission is that Government, Industry and Society will appreciate the environmental and resource consequences of their actions (or indeed inaction). For this, my team develops and applies engineering and management methodologies to increase the profitability and understanding of industrial and urban processes. My projects have been assessed independently and received the highest possible ratings for the transfer of technical and management knowledge. I have designed and delivered training courses and consulted local and multinational companies from the construction to the banking sector. My research team quantifies the intended and indeed unintended consequences of climate change interventions. Ultimately, I develop new theories for urban areas (cities) and climate change adaptation and mitigation by considering resource models, life cycle assessment and costing, material flows, industrial ecology principles, and standardised management systems to make this world an even better place, everywhere for everyone!

For more see: NCL Staff Profile

PROJECT LEAD

Benjamin Neimark is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Business and Management at Queen Mary University of London. Benjamin is a human geographer and political ecologist (defined as the intersections of ecology and a broadly defined political economy) whose research focuses on politics on the geo-political ecology of high-value military commodity chains, precarious labour and development. His current research looks at the US military as a global climate actor and, more broadly, the environment footprints of the world’s militaries. He is co-creator of the military emissions gap, which seeks full and transparent reporting of military emissions to the UNFCCC.  He has recently put out an interactive policy brief,  Confronting Military Greenhouse Gas Emissions,  which includes content detailing the intersecting realities of carbon pollution, militaries, and what this signifies for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, ultimately affecting climate change and revealing deeper understandings of military and climate policy. Also just published is a recent study of US military wartime emissions in Iraq in the journal Antipode.

For more see: https://www.qmul.ac.uk/sbm/staff/academic/profiles/neimarkb.html

TECHNICIAN

Computational geomorphologist, specialising in the development and application of computational methods that integrate remote sensing, field data and numerical modelling to answer questions about the nature of planetary surface change. Stuart’s current research covers three main themes: Planetary surface processes, focusing on the evolution of landforms on Mars; vegetation-landscape interactions, with a focus on how trees and their roots modulate sediment transport and landsliding; and the intersection of humans, the climate crisis and landscapes with the aim of understanding the erosion of contaminated land and the fate of eroded contaminants such as microplastics. He approaches these themes from a computational perspective, integrating his software engineering background into the scientific process to develop robust and reproducible scientific workflows.

TECHNICIAN

My research focuses on the application of geospatial technologies and numerical approaches to understanding environmental processes, ecosystem service delivery and nature recovery. I am interested in how fluvial systems respond to changes in biota, climate and land management and how remote sensing approaches (LiDAR, photogrammetry and multispectral imaging) can support detection and measurement of environmental changes. I work with interdisciplinary academic teams and diverse non-academic partners to address environmental and societal challenges including increasing resilience to natural hazards, reversing biodiversity loss, and establishing rewilding as an investable nature-based climate solution. I currently hold a NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellowship on Embedding environmental and geospatial science in nature recovery and rewilding (2024-26).