Royal Society Grant Success in the School of Geography

Within a week, Jo Nield, a Lecturer in Physical Geography has been awarded two Royal Society grants. Both exploit innovative geomorphic applications of the School’s terrestrial laser scanner (TLS). A travel grant will enable collaboration with US based aeolian geomorphologists Jack Gillies and Nick Lancaster, to quantify vegetated dune patterns. While a research grant will support the purchase of anemometers to undertake field measurements of aerodynamic roughness over glacier surfaces. These measurements will be used to verify the physical significance of roughness statistics derived from remotely sensed TLS data of these same surfaces. The results will be used to improve the parameterisation of surface energy balance models, which is important in studies of glacier mass balance and ablation.

Success in the School continues with an International Joint Projects grant awarded to Paul Carling (on which Jo is a co-investigator), which aims to use GPR techniques to investigate the sedimentology of mega-dunes deposited by the Pleistocene outburst floods of Siberia. Jadu Dash has also been awarded a travel grant to live in California over the summer where he will collaborate on a project to compare vegetation products derived from NASSA & ESA Satellite Sensors to improve carbon modelling.

The Royal Society has a long and prestigious history and promotes science excellence through a number of funding programmes. Further details can be found at http://royalsociety.org/