NERC Executive Board biographies
NERC is committed to being open and transparent, and so here we give some background to members of the NERC Executive Board (NEB).
Professor Duncan Wingham
Chief Executive
Duncan received a B.Sc. from the University of Leeds in 1979, and a Ph.D from the University of Bath in 1984, both in physics. He joined University College London in 1986, where he held lecturing posts at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory and the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering.
He was appointed as a Chair in the Department of Space and Climate Physics in 1996, and was Head of the Department of Earth Sciences at UCL from 2005 to 2010.
He was founder and Director of the NERC Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM) from 2000 to 2005 which, among other things, discovered the widespread mass loss from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and its origin in accelerated ocean melting.
He was Chairman of the Science and Innovation Board of NERC and, since 2000, the Lead Investigator of the ESA CryoSat and CryoSat-2 satellite missions.
Duncan became Chief Executive of the natural Environment Research Council on 1 January 2012.
Professor Mark Bailey
Director, Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH)
Professor Mark Bailey is acting Director of the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) for a two-year period with effect from March 2011, and Director of CEH's Biodiversity Programme.
After graduating with a degree in microbiology and a PhD in insect virology, Mark spent four years as a postdoctoral fellow studying bacterial pathogenicity before moving to Oxford to establish the Molecular Microbial Ecology Group. In 2002, he was appointed Director of CEH's Oxford site, the former NERC Institute of Virology & Environmental Microbiology, before becoming Science Director for the CEH Biodiversity Programme in 2003.
Mark is an Inaugural Fellow of the Society of Biology and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. He is Visiting Professor, School of Plant & Animal Sciences, at the University of Sheffield; Honorary Professor, School of Biosciences, Cardiff University; and Visiting Professor, Department of Agricultural & Engineering Sciences, Newcastle.
He is a member of the Board of Trustees for the National Biodiversity Network and Rothamsted Research, and Chair of the Steering Committee for the Environmental Change Network.
Mr Paul Fox
NERC Director, Finance & Operations
Paul became the NERC Director, Finance & Operations in 2010. He has held several senior public sector finance roles, being previously Divisional Director - Finance at Bath & NE Somerset Council, Director of Finance at Lewisham College, and Assistant Director of Education (Resources) at Hertfordshire County Council.
Paul has also worked as a consultant and interim manager in the local government and further education sectors and was Senior Director Subnational Ratings at Fitch, managing credit ratings for subnational government entities outside the UK. Paul has an MA in Modern History & Economics from Balliol College, Oxford and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy.
Professor Ed Hill
Director, National Oceanography Centre (NOC)
Ed took up his appointment as Director of the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton on 1 May 2005. Ed is a Physical Oceanographer and a graduate of the University of Sheffield (BSc Applied Mathematics, 1981) and University of Wales, Bangor (MSc, 1983 PhD, 1987). He held academic positions at the University of Wales, Bangor and was Director of the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory from 1999-2005. He has been Director of the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton and Professor of Oceanography at the University of Southampton since 2005.
Ed's research interests are in circulation and mixing processes in shallow coastal seas with particular interests in density-driven circulations including cascading and frontal jets. Professor Hill has served on numerous committees including as the first chair of the Governing Board of the National Centre for Ocean Forecasting, Vice Chair of the European Science Foundation's Marine Board, and a member of NERC's Science & Innovation Strategy Board.
Professor John Ludden
Executive Director British Geological Survey
John is the Executive Director of the British Geological Survey, which is the principal supplier of national geological capability for NERC and geoscience information for decision making for government, commerce and the public. He oversees all of the activities in the UK and internationally of approximately 750 people at three principal BGS sites in Keyworth near Nottingham, in Edinburgh, and Wallingford.
Before taking the post at the BGS, he was Director of the Earth Sciences Division at the CNRS, the French National Centre for Scientific Research. He served as Director of Research for the CNRS in Nancy, France, where he also taught at the French National School of Geology (ENSG-Nancy). Prior to this, Professor Ludden worked at the University of Montreal and with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the USA.
John holds a doctorate in igneous petrology from the University of Manchester, UK. Among his responsibilities, Professor Ludden serves on the Board of IODP Management International and the advisory council of the EC Zero Emissions Panel (ZEP). He is appointed as a Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford and University of Leicester, UK and is a Research Director with the CNRS, France.
Professor Stephen Mobbs
Director, National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS)
Stephen is director of National Centre for Atmospheric Science, one of the NERC's collaborative centres. He is based at the University of Leeds. Stephen is a physicist by training and obtained his PhD from the University of Leeds, working in collaboration with the Met Office. After a period as a lecturer in Applied Mathematics at Leeds, Professor Mobbs worked in industry as a research scientist at Schlumberger, developing flow measurement techniques for oil well logging.
On returning to the University of Leeds in 1995 he developed the new Environment Centre to become by 2004 the School of Earth & Environment, one of the UK's largest earth and environmental science academic departments. During this time he also founded the Institute for Climate & Atmospheric Science in Leeds. Professor Mobbs remains active in research in the fields of mesoscale and boundary layer meteorology.
Dr Philip Newton
NERC Director, Science Delivery
Phil joined NERC in 1999 as marine sciences manager, then moving to Deputy Director of Science & Innovation, through to his current role as NERC's Director for Science Delivery. Phil has a degree in chemistry (Bristol) and a PhD in environmental chemistry and oceanography(UEA).
Formerly he was a NERC funded & Royal Society funded marine biogeochemist, and subsequently headed a marine research group within the French Atomic Energy Agency, focused on biogeochemical cycling in the sub-tropical Atlantic Ocean, Southern Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Prior to joining NERC, he spent five years in the private sector as an editor at Nature, with responsibility for the journal's environmental science content.
Professor Patricia Nuttall, OBE
Director, National Capability Integration
Pat was Director of the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology until 1 March 2011 when she became the NERC Director of National Capability Integration. Her office is at NERC headquarters in Swindon.
After graduating in microbiology at Bristol University, Pat undertook a PhD in virology at the Institute of Animal Health, Compton. Her first post-doc position was in the Zoology Department of Oxford University, after which she joined NERC working at CEH Oxford. Pat's current research interests are in viruses transmitted by ticks, and how tick saliva promotes virus transmission.
She is Professor of Virology of the University of Oxford and a Supernumerary Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford and was awarded the Ivanovsky Medal for Virology in 1996 by the Russian Academy of Sciences and the OBE in 2000 for services to environmental sciences. Her research resulted in the first NERC spin out company, Evolutec Ltd, which is now listed on the Alternative Investment Market (ATM).
Alan O'Neill
Director, National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO)
Alan O'Neill is the Director of the Natural Environment Research Council's new National Centre for Earth Observation.
He began his research career at The Met Office, and subsequently joined the University of Reading as Director of the UK University Global Atmospheric Modelling Programme, a post he held concurrently with a Professorship in the Department of Meteorology.
He was the founding director of the Data Assimilation Research Centre, an institution which synthesises a wide variety of satellite data to obtain an accurate global picture of the climate system.
He has served as a Vice-President of The Royal Meteorological Society, and is currently a member of the European Space Agency's Scientific Advisory Committee.