Honorary Appointments

Christian Berndt (2020 to 2023, extended to 2026)

Christian Berndt is a Professor of Economic Geography at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. He obtained his PhD from Cambridge University and his Habilitation from the University of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt and worked as a Professor of Economic Geography at the University of Frankfurt before coming to Zurich. His early research concerned regional restructuring and labor relations in Germany. He has since focused empirically on the industrialization of the northern Mexican border and the way “southern labor” is transformed, and the agrifood commodity chains.

Currently he is involved in a collaborative international network of scholar focusing on the global production, distribution and use of synthetic pesticides. With his perspective of geographies of marketization, he contributes theoretically to the dialogue between critical commodity studies and social studies of economization.

Mick Dunn (2025 to 2028)

Mick has decades of experience in geospatial leadership, is an Honorary Professor of Geography, and a recognised leader in the geospatial industry. He currently serves as a Business Development Specialist (GIS | 3D | Digital Twins) at Nottingham City Council and chairs the Association for Geographic Information (AGI) 3D Network.

A strong advocate for 2D and 3D geospatial adoption and development, he actively promotes strategic collaboration, knowledge exchange, and capacity building within partnership settings. A key area of interest is how urban digital twin collaborations can improve efficiency, sustainability, and the quality of urban life - ultimately leading to a more holistic understanding of the environments in which we live and work.

As a Geospatial Collaboration Advisor within City as Lab, Mick provides advisory support, acting as a key link between the City Council, City as Lab, and wider university projects and opportunities involving geospatial collaboration.

Contributions to the School of Geography

• Collaborate on the PropTech 4 Continuation Fund Project (RIS 44687490), August – December 2025
• Collaborate on future grant applications
• Help facilitate an East Midlands Geographical Information Systems (GIS) Teaching Hub, working with Geography and ESRI Schools
• Support undergraduate and postgraduate students with data and contacts when developing project and dissertation ideas
• Advise the university, where required, on smart campus and smart city initiatives
• Contribute at least two guest lecture sessions (2–3 hours each, Levels 2–3) per year
• Work with the City as Lab initiative to explore effective civic engagement, including the continued use of the space as Nottingham City’s Urban Room
• Support one of Geography’s potential REF Impact Case Studies, focusing on projection-enhanced 3D models by exploring the ‘return on investment’ as part of the technique’s adoption at Nottingham City Council

Gary Kass (2025 to 2028)

Professor Gary Kass FRGS FIEnvSci CSci MSc BSc (Hons) is Visiting Professor in Sustainability Science, Policy and Practice within the Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College. With nearly forty years’ experience, Gary is an environmental and sustainability researcher, educator and knowledge broker, with a particular interest in strengthening competencies and capacities for sustainability transformations.

Gary started his career as an air quality scientist but quickly broadened his focus to work on wider aspects of environment and sustainability in the public, private and civil society sectors. Gary led the Environment and Energy programme at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology and was Head of Public Engagement with Science and Technology within the (then) Department of Trade and Industry. Gary served as Natural England Deputy Chief Scientist and Deputy Director for Foresight and Innovation, and deputy Chief Scientific Adviser at Defra.

He has worked widely at the interface between academia, policy and practice, serving on Research Council Boards and Committees, including the Research Excellence Framework Geography and Environmental Studies sub-panel (in 2014 and 2021), and he held a Fellowship at the Cambridge Centre for Science and Policy.  Currently, Gary is a strategic advisor to the UN Institute for Teaching and Research at the CIFAL Surrey Centre. He is a member of the Office for Environmental Protection College of Experts, a Vice-President of the Institution of Environmental Sciences, Chair of the Institution’s Policy Committee, and a consultant at Socially Adept Ltd.

Gary is also a member of the UKRI ACCESS Task Force on Nature Recovery, a member of the editorial board of Sustainability Science, an Independent Assessor for the Level 7 Sustainability Business Specialist and Systems Thinking Practitioner Apprenticeships, and a certified member of Systems and Complexity in Organisations (SCiO), the professional body for systems thinking practitioners.

Martyn Kelly (2018 to 2021, extended to 2027)

Martyn is a freshwater biologist with over 25 years' experience at the interface between ecology and legislation. He has developed methods for evaluating the ecological condition of rivers using algae that are in routine use in the UK and elsewhere in the EU and has worked with the European Commission to ensure consistent interpretation of ecological Directives by Member States.

He is also the editor of the standard identification guide to freshwater diatoms in Europe and writes a regular blog about the less fashionable end of biodiversity.

Stephen Martin (2021 to 2024, extended to 2027)

Steve is a passionate advocate for learning for sustainability and has spent over 40 years facilitating and supporting organisations and governments in ways they can contribute towards a more sustainable future. For nearly a decade he was a member of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Further and Higher Education( specialising in agricultural and science education in the East and West Midlands), with national responsibility for Environmental Education.

He served as a special advisor to the Secretary of State in the Department of the Environment in drafting the education and training sections of HM Government’s first white paper on the Environment-Our Common Inheritance. He was the founding chair of the Higher Education  Academy’s Sustainability Advisory Group. For five years he served as an education for sustainability policy advisor to the UK’s National Commission for UNESCO.

He has held visiting professorships at the Open University, University of Hertfordshire, University of Gloucestershire and currently, at the University of the West of England. He is an Honorary Professor in learning for sustainability at the Universities of Worcester and Nottingham. He was formerly Director of Learning at Forum for the Future, the leading Sustainability Charity in the UK. He is a former Trustee of the Worldwide Fund for Nature and an Honorary Fellow of the Society for the Environment and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology. He is Co-Founder and President of the charity Change Agents UK.

From 2016 until 2019 he was a member of the UKSSD ‘s Steering Group in the development of a UK wide progress report (called Measuring Up) on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). From 2021 he began to support Nottingham University with its sustainability strategy. He is a keen cyclist and walks as often as possible with Derbyshire Dales Ramblers.

Professor Suzanne McGowan (October 2021 to 2024, extended to 2027)

Suzanne is interested in how, why and when lake ecosystems have changed through time. Her research is particularly focused on understanding change across recent centuries when human impacts such as nutrient pollution and hydrological modifications have intensified. Suzanne was trained as a palaeolimnologist, but commonly incorporates other approaches into her work including aquatic monitoring programmes, comparative large-scale surveys, and experiments spanning whole ecosystems, mesocosms and bioassays.

She specialises in the application of chlorophyll and carotenoid pigments as biomarkers of algae and cyanobacteria in sediments and waters, and has worked on many collaborative projects across the world applying these techniques and training students in their use.

She works with stakeholders such as Cemex (UK) Ltd and Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust at Attenborough Nature Reserve to address water management issues. She also works internationally including ongoing research in West Greenland which investigates how Arctic lake-scapes are responding to recent environmental changes. She has worked in some of the most iconic lake systems in the world including Lake Baikal and Lake Victoria.

Recently her interests have focused on addressing development challenges in sub/tropical regions, including work on lakes of the Yangtze floodplain, crater lakes in The Philippines, flood-pulse wetlands in Malaysia, the Red River Delta of Vietnam, and the Ganges-Brahamaputra-Meghna Delta in India and Bangladesh.

Suzanne received postdoctoral training from the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (as a Marie Curie Fellow) and the University of Regina in Canada. She spent 17 years in the School of Geography at the University of Nottingham with three of those years seconded to the Malaysia Campus as Head of School of Geography. She is currently Head of Aquatic Ecology at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology and a Visiting Research Associate at the British Geological Survey.

Jamie Peck (2010 to 2019, extended to 2028)

Jamie Peck is Canada Research Chair in Urban and Regional Political Economy and Professor of Geography at the University of British Columbia, Canada, where he is a Distinguished University Scholar. With long-term research interests in urban restructuring, geographical political economy, labor studies, the politics of policy formation and mobility, and economic geography, his current research is focused on the political economy of neoliberalization and capitalist transformations in South China.

Jamie Peck's recent books include Doreen Massey: critical dialogues (2018, Agenda, coedited with Marion Werner, Rebecca Lave and Brett Christophers); Offshore: Exploring the worlds of global outsourcing (2017, Oxford University Press); and Fast Policy: Experimental statecraft at the thresholds of neoliberalism (2015, University of Minnesota Press, with Nik Theodore).

George Peterken (2009 to 2015, extended to 2027)

George Peterken has been a woodlands specialist with the Nature Conservancy and successor bodies and then nature conservation adviser to the Forestry Commission. He initiated the ancient woodland inventory and negotiated the nature conservation aspects of the Government's 1985 Broadleaves Policy, which has since provided a basis for the conservation of ancient woodlands.

In retirement, while continuing with long-term woodland development studies in the Lower Wye Valley, he has developed an interest in meadows and their conservation, initiating the Parish Grassland Project, which has led to the creation of several other community-based grassland projects in other counties. His books include Natural Woodland (CUP, 1996), Wye Valley (New Naturalist 105, 2008) and Meadows (British Wildlife Collection 2, 2013).

Jack Rieley (2007 to 2019, extended to 2028)

Jack was a long-serving member of the University of Nottingham in the departments of Botany, Biology and Geography where he taught peatland ecology and management. His research focussed on both peatland and urban ecosystems but in 1987 he turned his attention to tropical peatland in Southeast Asia on which he formed partnerships with over 100 scientists and research students and assistants over the ensuing 25 years, publishing many scientific papers and reports. He focussed on building capacity at the University of Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan by supervising 10 members of staff to obtain masters and PhD degrees of the University of Nottingham.

In retirement, Jack still maintains contact with Indonesian Universities, which he visits occasionally. He focusses now on international peatland matters related to climate change through the International Peatland Society and the Scientific and Technical Review Panel of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.

Yongguan Shu - Joint with UNNC (2023 to 2026)

Andrew Simon (2011 to 2014, extended to 2023)

Andrew is an Honorary Professor at the University of Nottingham as well as a Senior Principal and Senior Geomorphologist at Cardno in Oxford, Mississippi. He has 38 years of research experience, 16 years with the U.S. Geological Survey and 16 years at the USDA-ARS, National Sedimentation Laboratory. His process-based research has been in in mechanistic analysis of unstable-channel systems, streambank erosion, cohesive-sediment entrainment, the role of riparian vegetation, “reference” sediment-transport rates for water quality, and river restoration.

He is the author of more than 100 technical publications, has edited several books and journals and is the senior developer of the Bank-Stability and Toe-Erosion Model (BSTEM). He has supported undergraduate dissertations for numerous School of Geography undergraduate students and mentored their development into professional and academic pursuits.

Simon Spooner (2012 to 2020, extended to 2026)

Simon Spooner has 25 years' experience in technical and regulatory planning in the UK and China in the urban environment development sector. He has worked on EU, DFID and World Bank development and cooperation projects including secondments into Chinese Water and Environmental Ministries. He was technical director for Atkins in Beijing. His role now is bridging the UK and China Businesses of Atkins for projects in China and for China outbound investments.

A masters graduate of Cambridge University, he is now an Honorary Professor of Nottingham University in UK and China. He has had published a number of books on EU water management, regulation and adaption to East Asia for OECD, FWR and China water ministry publishers. He has led technical research projects and conducted water and energy sector market studies in China for the EU Delegation and for the UK Foreign office and led Due diligence projects for major international investors in the China water private sector.

Chris Stoate (2013 to 2019, extended to 2028)

Chris Stoate is Head of Research at the Allerton Project research and demonstration farm at Loddington in Leicestershire where he coordinates research projects on a wide range of agri-environmental issues and scales, from replicated experimental plots to landscape scale. His interests include farmland ecology, ecosystem services, soil and catchment management, and participatory research on the interface between natural and social sciences.

He has worked in West Africa and southern Europe, as well as in the UK. He delivers occasional lectures to Geography students, hosts student visits to the Allerton Project, supports MSc and PhD students, and collaborates with School of Geography researchers on projects and publications.

Harvey Wood (2019 to 2022, extended to 2028)

Harvey Wood is the Director of the Clean Rivers Trust and has worked with the Trust since its foundation in 1990. Previously he had collaborated with Friends of the Earth and other environmental organisations. Initially, the plan was that he would work with what was then called the “Clean Rivers Campaign” for two years, but this has extended to thirty-two years so far.

Harvey and the Clean Rivers Trust have worked with many industrial and academic partners, community groups, and concerned individuals. The Clean Rivers Trust is a unique environment NGOs that is able to react to events swiftly and give dispassionate advice or conduct research with little lead in time.

In the last thirty years, Harvey Wood has pioneered several novel methodologies for tackling water pollution that are now well-established and widely used today. These include wetland treatment of minewater, sewage and other discharges from wastewater and industrial discharges, both from active sources and historic sites including abandoned mine drainage and spoil heap seepage. It also includes the use of low-grade heat from abandoned mine waters.

Harvey has pioneered the use of phytoremediation of acidic tars and other hydrocarbons. Recent work conducted in Derbyshire won a Brownfield Award in 2020 for growing trees on acid tars and breaking down associated pollutants. 

Odette Paramor – Joint with UNNC (2022 to 2025)

Odette Paramor led the establishment of the School of Geographical Sciences at the University of Nottingham’s China campus in Ningbo (UNNC) where she was Head of School for nine years and where she had the privilege of teaching hundreds of sparky undergraduate environmental sciences students. She was also Director of the provincial-level research institute International Academy for Marine Economy & Technology (IAMET) and Academic Lead for the UNNC Doctoral Training Partnership with the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resource Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences. 

Whilst her research interests are in marine biology (with a particular fondness for saltmarshes and muddy coastal areas in general), her extensive experience of coordinating EU projects led to her involvement in a range of projects supporting EU-China cooperation in research and innovation, particularly in the areas of sustainable urbanisation, food, agriculture & biotechnology, water resource management and the marine economy (DragonSTAR (FP7), DragonSTAR Plus (Horizon 2020), URBAN-EU-CHINA (Horizon 2020), ENRICH in China (Horizon 2020), Cultural City Construction (Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology) & Developing a knowledge-based marine economy (UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office)). She also wrote the first practical guide for European researchers coming to China.   

Tony Cooke (2019 to 2022 extended to 2028)

Tony Cooke has been appointed Honorary Associate Professor of Sustainability Leadership in order to support the ongoing development and delivery of a new MSc Environmental Leadership and Management.

Tony is an experienced sustainability leader, and is currently CEO of One Planet Education Networks, a global education non-profit which he co-founded with WWF. He brings over 25 years' leadership experience across business, government, non-profits and complex multi-stakeholder partnerships alongside a high-level international network of sustainability leaders and practical expertise in sustainability leadership, innovation, entrepreneurship and social impact.

Much of his current work focusses on place-based transformations and the education of change agents for sustainability. He is also a steward of the SDG Transformations Forum and a Fellow of both the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Society of Arts.

Christina Ergler (2020 to 2023, extended to 2026)

Dr Christina Ergler is a health geographer whose research traces social, health, and environmental injustices as they relate to young people's wellbeing in the minority and majority worlds. She applies social theoretical frames and insights from public health to a range of significant societal issues, including the politics of accessing (health) care and children's declining rights to cities.

She is interested in creative, value-based, ethically and culturally appropriate methodologies that acknowledge the expertise of everyone and which foster a meaningful participation in research activities (eg child-led participatory methods, SoftGIS, mixed-methods).

Jeremy Morley (2015 to 2018, extended to 2027)

Jeremy Morley has worked as Chief Geospatial Scientist at Ordnance Survey since 2015 where he leads the Research team who carry out research and standards development in conjunction with universities and other research organisations. OS's research requirements include enabling the business' medium-term business plans, plus horizon scanning to identify new avenues of research which might affect the organisation's future services or role, nationally or internationally.

He has worked in geospatial research since the mid-90s, and worked at the University of Nottingham from 2009-2015, latterly as Geospatial Science Theme Leader in the Nottingham Geospatial Institute. His academic career spanned a range of geospatial information topics from radar mapping of ice and terrain, through crowd-sourcing and citizen science to applications of geospatial science in fields from the digital economy to planetary mapping.

Currently he is supervisor or industrial supervisor on three PhDs with Professor Andrew Leyshon and Dr Gary Priestnall in the School of Geography at the University of Nottingham, and guest lectures to masters and undergraduate students. More widely at the university through his role at Ordnance Survey he was a part of securing a new Centre for Doctoral Training in Geospatial Systems, a collaboration with Newcastle University.

Roger Brackin (2023 to 2026)

Dan Exton (2025 to 2028)

Dan originally trained as a tropical marine ecologist, leading research expeditions across the globe and advising PhD students from across the UK, including at University of Nottingham. His research interests have focused on tropical coral reefs and their associated ecosystems, ranging from community ecology and invasive species, to conservation science and the management of small-scale artisanal fisheries.

During his time as Head of Research at international biodiversity research NGO Operation Wallacea, Dan oversaw the organisation's global research strategy which generated hundreds of peer-review publications in international journals alongside mentoring the next generation of ecologists and conservationists.

More recently, Dan has pivoted to focus on unlocking the financial power of the private sector to stimulate nature restoration and protection at scale. This has spanned the role of carbon and biodiversity credits as unique funding mechanisms for landscape scale change, through his role as Director of Strategy at renowned project developer rePLANET. Through this work Dan became a leading expert on emerging biodiversity credit markets, co-chairing work groups at the UN and working closely with academics from University of Nottingham on major research projects on the topic.

He is currently helping to lead a new start-up, reNEW Earth, focused on providing scalable solutions for businesses looking to effectively engage with nature across their supply chains. He also leads non-profit the Biodiversity Futures Initiative alongside several Nottingham academics, which aims to bring academic peer-review to the design and measurement of nature improvement efforts.

Joanne Norcup (2019 to 2022, extended to 2028)

Dr Joanne Norcup is an interdisciplinary historical and cultural geographer whose research centres on the intersectional geographies of education, learning, knowledge-making and archives spanning visual and print cultures, popular culture, archives, public libraries, and learned societies. In particular, Jo's work concerns the histories of radical and anti-racist geographical knowledge within and beyond the academy.

Jo's current research (Honorary Research Fellow, Yesu Persuad Centre for Caribbean Studies, University of Warwick) attends to the Caribbean photographs of Sir Harry Johnston (1858 – 1927), focusing on an anticipatory 'decolonizing’ knowledge exhibition organised between the British Council and the Royal Geographical Society (Photos and Phantasms, 1998).

Jo is the conference officer of the Historical Geography Research Group at the Royal Geographical Society. Jo is also the founding director of the independent radio and education resource production company Geography Workshop, bringing key geographical ideas and debates to wider audiences. Recent broadcasts have been aired on Resonance FM ('Er Outdoors – 2016/17) and BBC Radio 4/BBC Sounds (The Art of Now: Women Who Walk 2018/2019).