Loughborough academic awarded the King Carl XVI Gustaf Professorship at Umeå University
John Anderson, Professor of Physical Geography at Loughborough University’s School of Social, Political and Geographical Sciences has been awarded the King Carl XVI Gustaf’s Professorship in Environmental Science for the 2017/18 academic year at Umeå University, Sweden.
Established in 1996 to celebrate the King’s 50th birthday, the highly prestigious award is made to one or two prominent international scientists each year, placing them in Swedish universities in order to further Swedish environmental science research. Recipients are selected by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, with the King himself involved in the final decision.
The professorship will be hosted by Umeå’s Department of Ecology and Environmental Science and Climate Impacts Research Centre (CIRC). The nomination for the award was made by Professor Jan Karlsson, Director of the Climate Impacts Research Centre.
Speaking about the appointment, he commented: “John Anderson's stay at Umeå University will contribute enormously to the understanding of how the Arctic is changing. His research on lakes reaction to environmental changes historically means a lot to how we today, for example, can predict the conditions under which the lakes will absorb or emit carbon dioxide, that is, act as carbon sinks or carbon sources.”
Professor John Anderson, a Royal Society Wolfson Merit Award holder, is an internationally-renowned researcher working in the fields of physical geography, limnology and paleolimnology. His research focuses on using lake sediment records to understand the effects of past environmental change on ecological processes in lakes, as well as how lakes might respond to future changes. He has worked in South West Greenland for more than 20 years, a period of time that has seen rapid ecological and climate change in this area.
Stephen Rice, Professor of River Science and Head of the Department of Geography at Loughborough, commented: “We're delighted that one of our researchers is being recognised in this way and are particularly pleased that John will be able to make use of the Professorship to benefit his wider research group at Loughborough. This is a great honour for John and fitting recognition of his consistent, high-quality contributions to understanding biogeochemical cycling at high latitudes.”