• Associate Professor in Ocean Exploration
• Programme lead for MSc Hydrography
• Coastal Marine Applied Research (CMAR) consultancy

I am an Associate Professor in Ocean Exploration and have been actively contributing to internationally recognised research in fields of beach and submarine geomorphology, rip current dynamics and coastal hazards. My recent research has focused on storm impacts, rip current circulation and coastal hazards in Europe, and has been published in high-quality international journals. I have more than 20 years experience in the collection and analysis of coastal morphological, hydrodynamic and hydrographic data. I have been actively involved in national and international collaborations with external partners (e.g., RNLI, UK Met Office, Environment Agency, Natural England, Royal Navy local and regional councils and external universities). My academic research has resulted >80 peer-reviewed international journal articles and numerous conference papers, technical reports, invited lectures, workshops and media outputs. In addition to academic research I have conducted a number of consultancy projects, including working closely with the RNLI for over a decade, improving understanding of physical coastal hazards and developing operational risk assessment tools. I have several years of commercial offshore experience working in seismic and hydrographic industry and I have also acted as expert witness in rip current drowning cases.

I have been principal investigator or co-investigator on a number of successful field-based research and consultancy projects (see research). This work has involved intertidal, nearshore and inner shelf oceanographic instrument deployment (Eulerian and Lagrangian), surf zone circulation tracking (GPS surf-zone drifters), RTK-GNSS, total station, laser scanner and UAV SFM topographic/bathymetric surveying, nearshore single- and multi-beam bathymetric surveying, video remote sensing (surf zone and seabed ROV), as well as collection and processing of shallow water sidescan sonar, sub-bottom profile data. I have also been involved in various sediment analysis from particle size to geochemistry and mineralogy. More recently I have been involved in research utilising autonomous survey platforms for unique coastal data collection, including development of hydroacoustic techniques for autonomous SAV detection and rapid storm response sub-tidal morphological survey. My work in the commercial offshore surveying industry involved the acquisition of shelf- and deep sea seismic data, and ROV-based video, multibeam and sidescan sonar data processing. I now also act as programme lead for MSc Hydrography at the University, building on our successful track record of training the next generation of Hydrographers and developing industry links with the University. 

Hydrographic Society UK and Ireland

Working groups   

2023 - Member of Executive Board for National Centre for Coastal Autonomy

2012 – Present: International Lifesaving Federation(ILS) – Rescue Commission: Rip Current Safety Alliance (RipSafe) Committee.

2012: Scientific committee: 2nd International Rip Current Symposium, Sydney,Australia, 2012.

2009: Steering committee for Plymouth Marine Science Partnership Conference.

2006 – 2009: PRE (Public RescueEquipment) working group (UoP, RNLI, ROSPA, UWI Cardiff, RLSS UK, SLSA GB,ENCAMS, SLSGB, MCA, NWSF).

2006 – Present: Beach Risk Assessment working group (RNLI, UoP, SLSGB, RLSS UK, SLSGB, ROSPA, SLSA).

2007: Coordinator for the Young Coastal Scientists & Engineers Conference ’07 (April 2007;Plymouth).

2022-current  Liane Brodie – Making Space for Sand: Coastal Dune Dynamics Across Cornwall and Future Predictions

2020-current   Aikaterina Konstantinou – Coastal dynamics from space (DoS)

2020-current   Emily Hunt - Predicting coastal resilience to climate change

2019–current   Josie Alice-Kirby – Application of Coastal Change Management Areas (CCMAs) for coastal adaptation to climate change impacts in SW England 

2017–2022    Anna Persson – Physical drivers of nursery function in juvenile flatfishes

2016–2020    Mark Wiggins – Coastal cell response to a changing wave climate using autonomous aerial surveying (DoS)

2015–2019    Nieves Garcia Valiente – Sediment exchange between beach and inner shelf

2014–2018    Olivier Burvingt – Beach response to extreme storms along the SW coast of England 

Coastal hydrography, submarine geomorphology and coastal morphodynamics/evolution/hazards. I am particularly particularly passionate about field-based learning.