Appointed Chair of Marine and Climate Sciences

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Posted on 17 May 2013

Professor Andrew Willmott will be joining Keele in August, to take up the Chair of Marine & Climate Sciences.  Andrew started his academic career in mathematics, obtaining his first degree from Bristol and his PhD from UEA, but was already using his maths to help understand ocean currents . hence the climate change link. 

He moved to a post-doc position in Canada straight after his PhD (to UBC in Vancouver), and then on to Assistant Professor of Oceanography at Monterey in California, before returning to the UK under the 'New Blood' scheme, quickly rising to reader at Exeter University.  He came to Keele University in 1993 as Professor of Applied Mathematics, and was the inaugural Head of the School of Computing & Mathematics between 2003-2005. 

His reputation for using applied mathematics to tackle complex environmental issues led to his appointment in 2005 as Director of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory in Liverpool.  In 2010, the two NERC marine centres were merged to become the National Oceanographic Centre, and Andrew is the Director of Science & Technology, overseeing around 180 staff and a budget of ca £20m.

Despite his strategic roles as Director of oceanographic centres, Andrew has maintained his own research on ocean current simulation, having won over £1m of research funding, and publishing ca 70 papers.  His international reputation is exemplified by several honorary/visiting posts in Australia and the Americas, numerous invitations to organise and speak at international conferences, and his appointment to influential committees . including the NERC Executive Board, and the RAE and REF panels on Earth Systems & Environmental Sciences.  He will be joining Keele University in a part-time capacity, with his expertise especially important as we develop environmental research through the REF and beyond, whilst his knowledge of marine technologies and climate change will be a great asset to our teaching of environmental issues, particularly at postgraduate level.

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