Professor Andy Cundy BSc, PhD, FGS, FRGS

Professor of Environmental Radioactivity

My main research interests lie in the areas of applied and environmental geochemistry and environmental radioactivity, and cover a range of areas including sediment geochemistry, contaminated land and water management, and environmental applications of nanotechnologies. The key questions that drive my research are:

What are the controls on radionuclide, heavy metal and organic contaminant dispersion and accumulation in the surface and near-surface environment?

How can we use radio- and geo-chemical studies of the recent sedimentary record to assess topics such as earthquake and tsunami hazard, coastal and shelf-sea processes, sea-level change and its sedimentary impacts, and environmental pollution and degradation?

How can we use naturally-occurring geo- and radio-chemical reactions to develop cost-effective and novel ways of dealing with our legacy of environmental pollution (including nuclear industry and military legacy pollution), and with currently emerging contaminants?

Academic history

Professor of Environmental Radioactivity, University of Southampton, 2016 – present.

Professor of Geosciences (Applied Geochemistry), University of Brighton, 2006 – 2016, Head of School (interim), 2015-2016.

Senior Lecturer, then Reader, in Environmental Science (Geochemistry), University of Sussex, 2004 – 2006.

Lecturer in Environmental Science (Geochemistry), University of Sussex, 2000 – 2004.

Senior Research Fellow, Southampton Oceanography Centre, 1999 - 2000.

Lecturer in Physical Geography and Earth Sciences, Brunel University, 1995 – 1999.

Research Fellow, Brunel University College. Project: Tectonics and Late Quaternary sea level change in Eastern Sicily, 1994 – 1995.

Research

Responsibilities

Publications

Contact

Research interests

My former and active projects have been or are funded from a range of RCUK, EU, Charity, DTI and industry and environmental body sources, and involve collaboration with a range of UK and international academic and industry partners. I work with PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, and academic and industry partners in the following major areas:

Applied and Environmental Geochemistry and Radiochemistry

• Interaction of radioactive, heavy metal and organic contaminants with soils, sediments and biota
• Radiometric dating (²¹⁰Pb and ¹³⁷Cs)
• Development of novel geochemical techniques for contaminated land and water remediation, leachate/groundwater containment and treatment, effluent and waste treatment and soil engineering and strengthening
• Contaminated land management strategies (including radioactively contaminated land)
• Nanogeoscience, and environmental nanotechnologies (environmental behaviour of engineered nanoparticles, nanoparticles and nanocomposite devices for environmental and effluent clean-up)
• Use of Pb, Pu and other isotopes as tracers of contaminant sources and environmental processes
• Sediments as recorders of historical pollutant input and recent environmental change in peat, lake, coastal/estuarine and shelf sea environments

Sedimentology and geomorphology

• Use of radionuclides and trace elements as tracers of sediment transport and accumulation
• Modern sedimentary environments (estuaries and low energy coasts)
• Sedimentary and geomorphic response to geohazards, sea-level rise, and anthropogenic disturbance
• Neotectonics

Research group

Geochemistry

Research project(s)

GAU-Radioanalytical Laboratories

TRANSPLAS – Developing a Transnational Plastics Network

TRANSCEND – Transformative Science and Engineering for Nuclear Decommissioning

Director of Internationalisation (Ocean and Earth Science)

Research Director, GAU-Radioanalytical

Vice-chair, NNUF-EXACT facility

Member of the Geohazards committee of the International Geoscience Programme, focused on geoscience capacity building in less economically developed countries (LEDCs)

Voting member of the Anthropocene Working Group, under the auspices of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS, Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy)

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Articles

Book

Kershaw, S., & Cundy, A. (2000). Oceanography: an Earth Science perspective. Stanley Thornes.

Book Chapters

Hopkinson, L., Cundy, A. B., Faulkner, D. W. S., Hansen, A., & Pollock, R. (2009). Electrokinetic stabilization of Cr(VI)-contaminated soils. In K. R. Reddy, & C. Cameselle (Eds.), Electrochemical remediation technologies for polluted soils, sediments and groundwater (pp. 179-194). John Wiley and Sons.
Dominey-Howes, D. T. M., & Cundy, A. B. (2001). Tsunami risk in the Aegean Sea and the role of systematic field, laboratory and documentary studies: the case of the 1956 tsunami. In G. T. Hebenstreit (Ed.), Tsunami research at the end of a critical decade (pp. 103-117). Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Cundy, A. B., Colllins, P. E. F., Turner, S. D., Croudace, I. W., & Horne, D. (1998). 100 years of environmental change in a coastal wetland, Augusta Bay, southeast Sicily: evidence from geochemical and palaeoecological studies. In K. S. Black, D. M. Paterson, & A. Cramp (Eds.), Sedimentary processes in the intertidal zone (pp. 243-254). (Geological Society of London Special Publication; No. 139). Geological Society of London.

Conferences

Reviews

Zalasiewicz, J., Waters, C. N., Ellis, E. C., Head, M. J., Vidas, D., Steffen, W., Thomas, J. A., Horn, E., Summerhayes, C. P., Leinfelder, R., Galuszka, A., Barnosky, A. D., Richter, D. D. B., Gibbard, P. L., Syvitski, J., Jeandel, C., Cearreta, A., Cundy, A. B., Fairchild, I. J., ... Zinke, J. (2021). The anthropocene: Comparing its meaning in geology (chronostratigraphy) with conceptual approaches arising in other disciplines. Earth's Future, 9, [e2020EF001896]. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020EF001896
Purkis, J. M., Warwick, P., Graham, J., Hemming, S. D., & Cundy, A. (2021). Towards the application of electrokinetic remediation for nuclear site decommissioning. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 413, [125274]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.125274

Thesis

Cundy, A. B. (1994). Radionuclide and geochemical studies of recent sediments from the Solent estuarine system.

Professor Andy Cundy
Ocean and Earth Science
National Oceanography Centre Southampton
University of Southampton Waterfront Campus
European Way
Southampton SO14 3ZH
UK

Room Number: NOCS/184/14

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