Scientific Advisory Committee

Prof. Dave Sanderson

Ocean and Earth Science, University of Southampton

Prof. Sanderson is Emeritus Professor within Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre Southampton at the University of Southampton. His research focuses on the fundamentals of deformation in the upper crust, based largely on field measurements combined with analytical and numerical modelling. He seeks to apply this research to practical problems in sub-surface engineering, hydrocarbon and water reservoirs, and mineral deposits. Prof. Sanderson is a former Professor of Geophysics at the University of Southampton and HH Read Professor of Geology at Imperial College. He previously served as Chair of the Education Committee of the Geological Society of London. Large parts of his career have been spent working closely with industry.

Koen Verbruggen

GSI

Mr Verbruggen is the Director of Geological Survey Ireland (GSI). He has been with GSI since 2000, working in Minerals and then Information Management where he developed GSI’s free digital data online policy. From 2006 to 2013 he managed INFOMAR (Integrated Mapping for Sustainable Development of Irelands Marine Resource), the Irish national marine mapping programme run in conjunction with the Marine Institute, which is acknowledged as a global exemplar programme. In 2013, he became Director of the GSI and was elected President of EuroGeoSurveys, the organisation which represents all European Geological Surveys, from 2015-2016. Prior to the GSI, Mr Verbruggen worked for 15 years in the international exploration industry, principally in the minerals sector in Ireland, Canada, Australia, Mexico and Africa. He holds a BSc in Geology and MSc in Petroleum Geology from University College Dublin.

Prof. Eoin Brodie

EESA, Berkeley

Prof. Brodie serves as the Deputy Director of the Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division in the Ecology Department of Berkeley Lab’s Earth and Environmental Sciences Area (EESA). He is also Program Domain Lead for Environmental and Biological Systems Sciences and leads the Earth’s Microbial Engines grand challenge. At the University of California, Berkeley, Prof. Brodie is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management and he co-directs the Joint Berkeley Initiative in Microbiomes Sciences. He obtained his PhD from University College Dublin in Ireland and joined LBNL following postdoctoral research at UC Berkeley. Prof. Brodie currently serves as the Deputy for Integration for the Watershed Function Scientific Focus Area (SFA) and leads the Microbial Mechanisms component of the Belowground Biogeochemistry (Terrestrial Ecosystem Science Program) SFA. He has published over 160 peer-reviewed manuscripts and has several patents and awards.

Prof.Heiko Pälike

MARUM

Prof. Pälike is Professor of Paleoceanography at the Centre for Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM). His research combines a fundamental mathematical understanding of orbital mechanics and its application to forcing of climate. Since early in his career, he has combined this approach with the active design of drilling expeditions to gather and interpret marine geological data in a paleoclimatic context. Previously, he was a Professor in the School of Ocean and Earth Sciences at the University of Southampton. Prof. Pälike has also taken up high-level responsibilities in the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) scientific strategy by co-chairing the Science Evaluation Panel, contributing to the JOIDES Resolution Facility Board, promoting the high-level scientific aims of ocean drilling through his deep involvement in the IODP New Ventures in Exploring Scientific Targets (INVEST) Renewal Meeting, and co-designing the current science plan for IODP for 2013– 2023.

Prof. Kamini Singha

Colorado School of Mines

Prof. Singha is a Professor of Hydrogeology in the Department of Geology and Geological Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines, where she is also Associate Dean of Earth and Society Programs. Previously she worked at the United States Geological Survey branch of Geophysics and as Assistant and then Associate Professor in the Department of Geosciences at Pennsylvania State University. She served as Chair of the American Geophysical Union’s Hydrogeophysics Technical Committee from 2009 to 2012 and as Associate Director of the Hydrologic Science and Engineering Program from 2014 to 2016. She holds a PhD in hydrogeology from Stanford University. Her research interests include fluid flow and contaminant transport in porous media, integration of hydrologic and geophysical techniques, mathematical simulation, and imagine moisture dynamics in desert ecosystems.

Prof. Thomas Dietz

Michigan State University

Prof. Dietz is a human ecologist and environmental sociologist. His research focuses on the drivers of environmental change and human well-being, on the social psychology of environmental decision making and on the interplay between science and values in decision making. He was Founding Director of the Environmental Science and Policy Programme at Michigan State University (MSU), where he remains active in the Animal Studies Program and at the Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability. Prof. Dietz has served as Chair of the U.S. National Research Council Committee on Human Dimensions of Global Change and as Vice-chair of the Committee on Advancing the Science of Climate Change. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has been awarded the Sustainability Science Award from the Ecological Society of America. He delivered the Mitchell Lecture on Sustainability at the University of Maine and was named University Distinguished Professor in 2017.

Prof. Robert Gawthorpe

University of Leeds

Prof. Gawthorpe holds a PhD from the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Leeds and joined the department of Earth Science at the University of Bergen in 2010 as Professor of Petroleum Geoscience. Previously a Professor of Sedimentology and Tectonics at the University of Manchester, Prof. Gawthorpe led the Basin Studies and Petroleum Geoscience Group. Prof. Gawthorpe’s research is wide-ranging, integrating geomorphology, sedimentology, stratigraphy and tectonics to study tectonically-active landscapes and sedimentary basin evolution. One of his major research areas is sedimentation and tectonics in rift basins, including the role of fault growth and linkage in controlling rift topography and syn-rift stratigraphy. His research also tackles sequence stratigraphic concepts. These research areas utilize both outcrop and subsurface data and are important for reservoir characterization and the development of exploration concepts.

Dr Roisin Buckley

Senior Lecturer, James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow

Dr Róisín Buckley is a Senior Lecturer in the James Watt School of Engineering at the University of Glasgow and in 2024 was named Chartered Engineer of the Year by Engineers Ireland. She is currently the Principal Investigator of a major UK government and industry-funded project that aims to optimise offshore wind-turbine foundation design. Her recent contributions, as part of joint industry projects, have led to practical new design approaches that are being applied at several multibillion-euro developments. She is an Associate Editor of Géotechnique, a leading geotechnical engineering journal, and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford, where she was a lecturer until 2021. Dr Buckley graduated with a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Galway, before completing a master’s degree and a PhD at Imperial College, London.

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