Robert Nicholls is an expert on understanding climate risks and adaptation. He is currently the Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and a professor of climate adaptation at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, United Kingdom.

Career

edit

Nicholls is currently the Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research[1] and a professor of climate adaptation at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, United Kingdom.[2] Prior to this, he was professor of coastal engineering at the University of Southampton from 2004-2019.[3] He was professor at the Flood Hazard Research Centre at Middlesex University from 2000-2003[4] and held positions as a reader and senior lecturer at the same university from 1996-2000. He was a research fellow at the Laboratory for Coastal Research, University of Maryland in the United States from 1990-1994 and was a research fellow at the Institute of Marine Studies, University of Plymouth from 1987-1990.

Research work

edit

Much of his work has focused on responding to sea-level rise and climate change, necessitating an interdisciplinary approach. A distinctive dimension has been consideration of the coastal zone in system terms, facilitating policy analysis. He has led a series of large multi-million pound projects including the Tyndall Coastal Simulator, the NERC-funded iCOASST (Evolving coastal geomorphic sediment systems), the ESPA Deltas[5][6] and DECCMA projects on deltas, mainly in Bangladesh.[7][8]

He currently leads the OpenCLIM (Open CLimate IMpacts modelling framework Project)[9][10] and contributes to the European PROTECT and CoCliCo on coastal risks and climate services, as well as the REST-COAST project focused on coastal restoration. He has extensive international experience, especially in coastal cities, deltas and small islands, advising national governments (e.g., UK, Netherlands, Bangladesh, Singapore, the Maldives) and intergovernmental organisations (e.g., OECD) on climate change and coastal issues. He was a lead author to five reports of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) assessment process, a review editor to the fifth IPCC assessment and a contributing author to recent the IPCC Special Report on the Oceans and Cryosphere (2019).

He currently co-leads the World Climate Research Programme Sea-Level Rise Grand Challenge[11] to deliver sea-level science to support better coastal impact[12] and adaptation assessment and is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers/COPRI Coastal Engineering Research Council.[13]

Awards and honours

edit

In 2007, Robert Nicholls was the convening lead author for the coastal chapter for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change[14] (IPCC) fourth assessment report [15]. That year, the IPCC was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.[16]

Nicholls was also awarded the Roger Revelle Medal in 2008 for outstanding contributions to ocean sciences awarded by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Executive Council. Robert has made it to the list of Web of Science's Highly Cited Researchers every year since 2019,[17] ranking in the top 1% by citations of scientists and social scientists. In 2021, Robert was part of the ‘Hot list’ of the world’s 1,000 most influential climate scientists by Reuters.[18]

Selected publications

edit
  • Nicholls, R.J., Lincke, D., Hinkel, J. et al (2021) A global analysis of subsidence, relative sea-level change and coastal flood exposure. Nature Climate Change, 11, 338-342.
  • Townend, I.H., French, J.R., Nicholls, R.J. et al (2021) Operationalising Coastal Resilience to Flood and Erosion Hazard: A Demonstration for England. Science of the Total Environment, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146880
  • Nicholls, R.J., Hanson, S.E., Lowe, J.A., Slangen, A,B.A., Wahl, T., Hinkel, J., Long, A.J. (2021), Integrating new sea-level scenarios into coastal risk and adaptation assessments: an on-going process. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, DOI: 10.1002/wcc.706
  • Marcinko, C., Nicholls, R.J. et al (2021) The Development of a Framework for the Integrated Assessment of SDG Trade-Offs in the Sundarban Biosphere Reserve, Water, 13 (4) pp. 528. DOI:10.3390/w1304052
  • Nicholls, R.J., Adger, W.N., Hutton, C.W. and Hanson, S.E. (Eds) (2019) Deltas in the Anthropocene, Palgrave, ISBN 978-3-030-23516-1, 282pp.
  • Nicholls, R.J., Hutton, C.W., Adger, W.N., Rahman, M., Salehin, M. and Hanson, S.E. (Eds) (2018) Ecosystem services in deltas - Integrated assessment for policy analysis, Palgrave, ISBN 978-3-319-71093-8, 539pp.
  • Nicholls, R.J., French J.R. and van Maanen, B. (Eds.) (2016) Simulating Decadal Coastal Morphodynamics, Geomorphology, 256, 1-90.
  • Hall, J.W., Tran, M., Hickford, A. and Nicholls, R.J. (Eds.) (2016) The Future of Infrastructure Systems, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 1107066026, 338pp.
  • Nicholls, R.J., Whitehead, P., Wolf, J., Rahman, M. and Salehin, M. (Eds.) (2015) Themed Collection: ESPA Deltas (The Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta system: biophysical models to support analysis of ecosystem services and poverty alleviation), Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts, 17, 12 papers.
  • Nicholls, R.J., Dawson, R. and Day, S. (Eds.) (2015) Broad scale coastal simulation: new techniques to understand and manage shorelines in the third millennium, Springer, ISBN-13: 978-9400752573.
  • Zanuttigh, B., Nicholls, R., Vanderlinden, J-P., Thompson, R. and Burcharth, H. (eds.) (2014) Coastal Risk Management in a Changing Climate, Elsevier, ISBN: 9780123973108, 670pp.
  • Kremer, H., Nicholls, R.J., Ratter, B.M.W., Weisse, R. (Eds.) (2013) Risk and Management of Current and Future Storm Surges, Springer, ISBN 978-94-007-6712-6

References

edit
  1. ^ "Robert Nicholls". Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. 2021-11-06. Retrieved 2023-03-21.
  2. ^ "Robert Nicholls". University of East Anglia. Retrieved 2023-03-21.
  3. ^ Wu, Yue (10 September 2019). "Farewell to Prof Robert Nicholls". University of Southampton Blogs.
  4. ^ "Memorandum submitted by Professor Robert Nicholls, Flood Hazard Research Centre, Middlesex University". UK Parliament.
  5. ^ "Assessing how people adapt to climate change in deltas: case studies in Asia and Africa". Worldwide Universities Network. 2 April 2014.
  6. ^ "ESPA Deltas". University of Southampton.
  7. ^ "Delving into Deltas | The India Centre for Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development". University of Southampton.
  8. ^ "New project to help millions of people living in deltas adapt to climate change". Phys.org.
  9. ^ "OpenCLIM Major new research project will help strengthen UK climate resilience - Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research". Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. 29 July 2021.
  10. ^ Niven, Rosie (15 December 2021). "Climate change modelling and DAFNI's role in the OpenCLIM project". Science and Engineering South.
  11. ^ "Tyndall Director Robert Nicholls joins Sea Level 2022 Conference in Singapore - Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research". Tyndall Centre. 30 July 2022.
  12. ^ "BBC World News - Horizons, Rising Sea Levels". BBC.
  13. ^ "Coastal Engineering Research Council". ASCE. Retrieved 2023-03-16.
  14. ^ IPCC. "Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change".
  15. ^ IPCC (2007). "IPCC AR4".
  16. ^ "The Nobel Peace Prize 2007". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 2023-03-21.
  17. ^ "Highly Cited Researchers". Publons.com. Retrieved 2023-03-21.
  18. ^ "Explore the @Reuters Hot List of 1,000 top climate scientists". Reuters. Retrieved 2023-03-21.
edit

Category:Academics of the University of East Anglia Category:Academics of the University of Southampton