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Mark Maslin

I am a Professor of Earth System Science at the University College London. I am also a Royal Society Industrial Fellowship, Executive Director of Rezatec Ltd and Director of The London NERC Doctoral Training Partnership.

More about Professor Maslin

I am a member of the Cheltenham Science Festival Advisory Committee and sit on the Corporate Social Responsibility Board of the Sopria-Steria Group and Sheep Included Ltd. I am also a leading scientist with particular expertise in past global and regional climatic change and have published over 175 papers in journals such as Science, Nature, and The Lancet. I have been PI or Co-I on grants, projects and consultancy worth over £65 million. My areas of scientific expertise include causes of past and future global climate change and its effects on the global carbon cycle, biodiversity, rainforests and human evolution. I also work on monitoring land carbon sinks using remote sensing and ecological models and international and national climate change policies.

I have presented over 50 public talks over the last five years including Google UK, Twitter EU, New Scientist Live, UK Space conference, Oxford, Cambridge, RGS, Tate Modern, Royal Society of Medicine, Fink Club, Frontline Club, British Museum, Natural History Museum, Goldman Sachs, the Norwegian Government, UNFCCC COP and the WTO. He has supervised 15 Research fellows, 20 PhD students and over 40 MSc students. I have also written eight popular books, over 60 popular articles (e.g., for New Scientist, The Times, Independent and Guardian), appeared on radio and television (including Timeteam, Newsnight, Dispatches, Horizon, The Today Programme, Material World, BBC News, Channel 5 News, and Sky News. His popular book “Climate Change: A Very Short Introduction” by Oxford University Press is now in its fourth edition and has sold over 50,000 copies. He has subsequently published another title “Climate: A Very Short Introduction” in the same series. I was also a co-author of the seminal Lancet report ‘Managing the health effects of climate change’ and the Lancet review paper on the health links between Population, Development and Climate Change. I was included in Who’s Who for the first time in 2009 and was granted a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award for the study of early human evolution in East Africa in 2011.


Academic Qualifications


Work Experience

  • 2014 -2019: Director of The London NERC Doctoral Training Partnership
  • May 2007 - Sept 2011: Head of the Department of Geography
  • Sept 2006 - Sept 2011: Director of the UCL Environment Institute (Co-Director 2010-11)
  • Oct 2006: Professor of Physical Geography, University College London
  • Oct 2002: Reader in Palaeoclimatology, University College London
  • Jan 1995 onwards: Lecturer in Palaeoceanography and Palaeoclimatology at University College London
  • Aug 1993 to Oct 1995: Research Scientist at the Geologisch Paleontologisches Institut, University of Kiel, Germany
Teaching

Undergraduate

I teach the following topics: 

First Year

  • Environmental Change - introductory course which covers Earth History (Big Bang - Plate Tectonics - Evolution - Glaciation - Human impact- Acid rain - pollution - Global warming).
  • Dynamic Earth - introductory course which covers the fundamental processes controlling the Earth's environment (climate - oceanography - hydrology - ecology - geomorphology - tectonics)

Third Year

  • Lesbos fieldclass - reading the landscape (see films and pictures on next tab)

Postgraduate

I teach the following course: 

I also teach the following modules: 

  • Past Climates (GEOG0120)
  • Supervision of the six-month research project
Publications

To view Professor Maslin's publications, please visit UCL Profiles:

Publications

Research Interests

Overview

My research has been underpinned by my participation in internationally funded research expeditions (e.g., IMAGES, Ocean Drilling Program), fieldwork in Africa (2003; 2007; 2010) and invited study visits (e.g., Yale, Potsdam, Berne, Penn State, Stony Brook, Rio de Janeiro, Smithsonian Institute and Turkana Basin Institute).

I have published over 175 papers in journals such as Nature (9), Science (4), Geology (8), Nature Geosciences (2), Nature Climate Change (2), The Lancet (6), PTRS (7) and Paleoceanography (10). My citation count is currently over 19,900*, H=68* and i10 index=168* (Google) with 30 papers that have been cited over 100 times. I have also published 11 books, 16 book chapters, 6 edited volumes and over 60 popular articles/blogs of which my Conversation articles have been read over 2.9 million times.

I have been an Associate Editor of Quaternary Science Review, Geographical Journal and Nature Scientific Reports. I currently hold a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit award for my work on early Human Evolution in East Africa. My major research areas are as follows:

* includes both ODP Leg 155 (Amazon) and 175 (Benguela) Initial Results volumes as listed on WoS

  1. Early human evolution in Africa
  2. Defining the Anthropocene
  3. Past and future of the Amazon rainforest
  4. Continental slope stability and gas hydrates
  5. Quaternary climate transitions, cycles and thresholds
  6. Global green and low carbon economy
  7. Climate change, population, development and global health
Impact

Books

  • Mark Maslin (2021) How to Save Our Planet: The Facts, Penguin Life.
  • Mark Maslin (2021) Climate Change, A Very Short Introduction, 4th Edition, Oxford University Press
  • Simon Lewis and Mark Maslin (2018) The Human Planet, Pelican Press
  • Mark Maslin (2017) The Cradle of Humanity, Oxford University Press
  • Mark Maslin (2014) Climate Change, A Very Short Introduction, 3rd Edition, Oxford University Press
  • Mark Maslin (2013) Climate, A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press
  • Mark Maslin (2008) Global Warming, A Very Short Introduction: 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press, p193
  • Mark Maslin (2004) Global Warming, A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, p162
  • Mark Maslin (2003) Etat d'urgence: Le ciel en colère (Paperback) p146.
  • Mark Maslin (2002) Stormy Weather, Apple, ISBN 1-84092-378-4, p144.
  • Mark Maslin (2002) The Coming Storm, Barron’s, ISBN 0-7641-2219-3, p139.
  • Mark Maslin (2002) Global Warming, Colin Baxter, UK, ISBN 1-84107-120-X, pp72
  • Mark Maslin (2002) Global Warming: Causes, Effects and the Future', Voyageur Press, USA
  • Mark Maslin, Earthquakes (a volume for 8-12 year olds), p49, Weyland, Hove, UK., Hardback (ISBN 0 7502 2472 X) 1999, Paperback (ISBN 0 7502 2738 9) 2000.
  • Mark Maslin, Storms (a volume for 8-12 year olds), p49, Weyland, Hove, UK. Hardback (ISBN 0 7502 2474 6) 1999, Paperback (ISBN 0 7502 2740 0) 2000.
  • Emma Durham and Mark Maslin, Floods, p49, Weyland, Hove, UK., Hardback (ISBN 0 7502 2473 8) 1999, Paperback (ISBN 0 7502 2739 7) 2000.

Media

YouTube Widget Placeholderhttps://youtu.be/uSvccoXbP0k

 

Radio and Television (last 10 years only)

Series/Programme consultant

  • 2018-19 BBC One ‘Climate Change: the facts’
  • 2018 Panache Digital Games (new company by the designer of Assassin’s Creed)
  • ‘Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey’
  • 2017-18 BBC/ Two Halves Pictures ‘The story of Homo Sapiens’
  • 2016 National Geographic Channel ‘Earth History’ A 12 part series developed by NutopiaTV
  • 2014: BBC Human Universe
  • 2013: BBC Ice Age Giants series
  • 2007: Channel 4: T4 Global Warming
  • 2006: BBC Superstorm
  • 2005: BBC Supervolcano

2021

  • February: Interview for BBC Radio 4 Farming Today (20/2/21) on ‘carbon offsets and farming’
  • January: Interview by EuroNews on ‘the climate change negotiations and COP26’

2020 

  • November: Interview for UN Climate Dialogs on ‘climate change’
  • October: Interview for National Geographic three-part series on the ‘Global Water Crisis’
  • February: Sky News interview on the role of offsetting in achieving net zero carbon emissions
  • February: BBC One 6pm and 10pm News interview on the Government mistaken support for aviation with respect to climate change concerns.
  • February: Sky News interview on the role of offsetting in achieving net zero carbon emissions.
  • January: BBC London Radio interview on the effects of climate change for Londoners.

2019

  • January: BBC London Radio interview on the effects of climate change and win-win solutions for London.
  • October: Press coverage of US economics paper published in Palgrave Communication including: New Scientist, Bloomberg news, Bloomberg Environment and Energy Report, Aljazeera, CNBC, Science Business, The Science Times and The Conversation.
  • April: Interviewed for BBC One ‘Climate Change: the facts’
  • February: BBC online, World service radio and TV – discussion of the European colonisation of the Americas from our paper published in QSR
  • February: Interviews with Guardian, Observer, CNN, on the European colonisation of the Americas from our published in QSR.

2018

  • December: BBC Radio 4 Briefing Room – introduction to climate change international politics
  • January: talkRadio (London) discussed the future of plastics and government incentives to ban micro-plastics Feb      Press coverage of paper in Nature Scientific Reports in Daily Mail, Independent, Google News and BBC online (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-43113900) March   talkRadio (London) discussed the banning of 4x4 cars from the Lake District June     ‘The Human Planet’ book reviewed in Nature, Observer and Daily Mail June    “Anthropocene and what does it mean” The Moncrieff Show, Newstalk National Radio in Ireland.
  • June: BBC London News interview on urban heat island and the effects of climate change.
  • October: BBC 5 Live, BBC Herefordshire, BBC Birmingham discussed plastic recycling
  • December: Weather from Hell episode of Caught on Camera (ITV) 18th Dec - expert commentator

2017

  • July - Interview Al Gore on his latest film "An inconvenient sequel" for the Conversation
  • March - Contributor to BBC Radio 4 In Out Time “Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum” programme
  • January commented on World Meteorological Organization, announcement that 2016 was the hottest year on record included in BBC web site, The Times, FT, Mail Online with Reuters and El País.

2016

  • April - Commented on Government gagging order on scientists
  • March - Press Coverage of Nature Climate Change paper ‘Adaptation responses to climate change differ between global megacities’ including Wall Street Journal, LA Times, Mashable, The Atlantic’s City Lab, El País, Grist, Mother Jones, Carbon Brief, Reuters, Climate Home, Take Part, Quartz, Phys.org, EcoWatch, EFE News Wire (featured on El Comercio, El Periodico de Mexico and 12 others), El Periodico de Mexico, La Vanguardia, Estonian Public Broadcasting, Swiss Public Radio (interviewed for radio feature), Business Green, GreenBiz, EcoBusiness, Climate Change News, Sci Tech Today, Yahoo! News, EconoTimes, SciBlogs.co.nz, Xinhua Net, Il Sole 24 Ore, O Eco, Observátorio do Clima, Internazionale, Philanthropy News Digest, EurActiv.fr, EurActiv.com, AllNews24.eu, El Mundo (Costa Rica), Apple Daily (Taiwan), ZME Science and Front Page of Reddit.
  • March - Interviewed for BBC Newsnight on the possible start date of the Anthropocene Epoch

2015

2014

  • December - Quoted in The Guardian regarding Lima UNFCCC COP meeting
  • October - Human Universe episode 1 'Apeman to Spaceman' shown
  • February - Filming in Ethiopia for BBC Brian Cox series ‘Human Universe’
  • January Filming for BBC Worldwide on Climate Change and extreme events
  • Consultant for BBC programme ‘Superquake’
  • Consultant for BBC Brian Cox series ‘Human Universe’

2013

  • December - Panel member for The Willis Resilience Expedition
  • October - Shultz and Maslin PLoS ONE paper comment on in New Scientist, The Independent, Scientific America, Huffingtonpost.com and on the BBC World Service News
  • October - Commented on Wet Sahara paper in PLoS One for Nature
  • September - Interviewed and quoted on the release of the IPCC 5th Assessment Science Report through the Science Media Centre, London.
  • September - Consulted by BBC for new series on the Brazil
  • June - Maslin interviewed in Britain's Stone Age Tsunami: A Time Team special

2012

  • October - quoted in Nature regarding a paper on Gas Hydrates 
  • June - Maslin Nature paper reported and discussed in The Times.
  • April - Quoted in Guardian on new Nature paper carbon dioxide levels during the last deglaciation
  • April - Quoted in Nature regarding Mexico’s new climate change laws (doi:10.1038/nature.2012.10496)
  • Feb to August - Consultant for the BBC Ice Age series.

2011

  • July - Press conference for UCL-JLT International Airport tsunami risk research report – articles online for New Scientist, Nature, Timeout Tokyo
  • April - Contributor to the ‘The Light Switch Project’ on BBC Radio 4
  • March - Interviewee/Narration for BBC2/BBC3 “Around the world in 60 minutes”
  • Feb - Channel 4 News and BBC Radio 4 Material World – interviewed concerning two recent Nature papers that show new results regarding attribution of climate change to recent mega floods
  • Feb - Quoted in Daily Mail on climate change and mega floods
  • Feb - Sky News – Interview on the Amazon 2010 mega drought

2010

  • Dec - Interview on BBC World and Good morning America regarding negotiations in Cancun.
  • Dec -The Times, science blog on the cold weather and global warming denial
  • Dec - Quoted in Daily Telegraph, FT, BBC online regarding negotiations in Cancun, Mexico
  • Dec - Quoted in The Sun and ‘reportingclimatescience.com’ on UK extreme weather
  • March -Quoted in Daily Telegraph regarding Government Climate Change Advert campaign (18/3/10)
  • March - Interviews with Houston Chronicle and ClimateWire regarding the challenges of communicating climate change in the USA
  • March - FT in New York – interview on carbon capture and storage

2009

  • Dec -Sky News live discussion on the failure of Copenhagen
  • Dec - The Times – live online debate with the climate sceptic Richard Lindzen (MIT) on ‘is climate change man made”
  • Dec - BBC World Service – debate with Lord Lawson on climate-gate and Copenhagen
  • Nov -The Times – quoted in response to the data released by the Met Office and WMO on the hottest decade ever recorded.
  • Nov - Sky News – debate with Lord Lawson on climate-gate and Copenhagen
  • Dec - Sky News – debate with Marc Morano on climate-gate and Copenhagen
  • Nov - BBC World Service – discussed how REDD and carbon credits for forests might work
  • Oct - National Geographic (Wall-to-Wall productions) Stone Age Atlantis
  • June -BBC News 24, BBC News and BBC Newsround – commented on the launch of the latest UKCIP web site and report on future of UK climate.
  • May - Launch of the UCL-Lancet Report on Managing the Health effects of climate change covered by Sky News, Channel 4 News, Press Association, BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service, Guardian, -Daily Mail, The Mirror, The Scotsman, The Daily Telegraph, BBC News Online, New Scientist, -Guardian, Times, City Talk.
  • April - BBC Radio Gloucestershire – commented on Corporate social responsibility and climate change.

2008

  • Oct - Sky News – commented on Climate Change Committee 80% reduction target by 2050.
  • July - BBC World Service, News Hour – comments on Al Gore’s vision of US getting all its electricity from renewable or clean sources in 10 years time.
  • June - BBC Radio 4, The Today Programme – comments on the new idea by Prof. Wally Broecker of artificial trees to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
  • Feb - BBC News at 10 o’clock – comments on the effects of future heat waves on Britain.

2007

  •  
  • December - Channel 4: T4 Global Warming program which featured the Cape Farewell Youth Expedition and Prof. Mark Maslin.
  • October - Sky News – commentary on the UK Government’s comprehensive spending review
  • June - Channel 4 News – Antarctic winds and melting ice
  • May - BBC Wales – reviewed and commented on the environmental policies of the four main political parties in the Welsh Assembly election.
  • April -Timeteam Special, Britain’s Drowned World, Channel 4. 24th April 2007. Commented on past and future climate change in the British isles.
  • March - Newsnight Commented on the Government latest pledge to cut carbon emissions by 60% by 2020.
  • March - World Tonight BBC Radio 4, provide comments on Government vision of carbon neutrality
  • March - Dispatches ‘Greenwash’ Channel 4, provided the detailed audit of Government policies to cut carbon emissions by 2020 and was interviewed to present the findings.
  • January - Sky News Green Britain week, 8/1/07 presented an introduction to global warming
  • January - Radio interviews regarding Sky News Green Britain week including SGR Colchester, Rutland Radio, Fosseway Radio, Q103 FM, Kismat Radio, BBC Radio Jersey (Channel Islands), Orchard FM, BBC Orkney, Downtown Radio Belfast, Manx Radio, River FM, 107.4 The Quay, and Heart 106 East Midlands
  • January - Sky News Green Britain week, 12/1/07 summed up achievements of the week.
  • January - Channel 5 News, 12/1/07 discussed global warming and the achievements of Green Britain week.

Popular Articles


Rezatec 

Rezatec Limited was co-founded by Professor Mark Maslin in 2012 and is based in the Electron Building
in Harwell, Oxfordshire. Rezatec aims to solve global business problems concerning the environment through scientific analysis of satellite and ground data. Rezatec Earth Information Products and Analytics support complex business decision-making for organisations across many different markets from financial services to energy, from agribusiness to forest management and the REDD+ agenda.

Rezatec has three main principles which underlie all their solutions

  1. Cost-effective solutions: Rezatec brings down the cost of collecting, converting, assimilating, and analysing earth observation and ground data.
  2. Big Data analysis: Rezatec is tackling the challenges of collecting, converting, storing, cataloguing, sharing, analyzing and visualizing big data.
  3. Scientific validation: Rezatec uses cutting-edge science which has been independently verified as the bases of all its data products and services reducing error and uncertainty.

Rezatec’s unique strength lies in its ability to aggregate large amounts of diverse data from satellite, airborne and ground instruments as the basis for advanced predictive analysis. This analysis uses different ecosystem models and statistical techniques to create each data product.

A typical predictive analysis process involves the following steps:

  • acquisition of a range of remote sensing and ancillary and reference data as inputs, then;
  • assimilation and collation of the data, before;
  • passing the data through relevant ecosystems models (where appropriate), prior to;
  • performing the predictive statistical analysis.

Rezatec Ltd is currently funded by ISIC, European Space Agency, Technology Strategy Board, the Royal Society and Climate KIC and has a large diverse portfolio of clients.

Research Students

Current Students

  • 2020    Edward Christie (UCL funded) Mobilising Post-War (Anti-)Modern Art Against the Climate Crisis
  • 2018    Cecile Porchier (NERC funded) East Africa lake palaeoclimatology
  • 2018    Carole Roberts (NERC funded) Italian lake palaeoclimatology
  • 2018    Anni Zhoa (self-funded) Climate modelling of the Pliocene and Future climate
  • 2018    Jack Wharton (NERC funded) Pleistocene North Atlantic palaeoclimatology
  • 2016    Anna Cutmore (NERC Funded) Abrupt climate changes in the NE Atlantic over the last 45,000 years

Graduated PhD Students

  • 2019 Adam Byrne (ESRC/NERC funded) Origins and development of the UK Climate Change Act
  • 2018 Andrew Papworth (ESRC/NERC funded) Global Health and Climate Change
  • 2018 Lucien Georgeson (ESRC/NERC funded) Measuring the Global Green Economy
  • 2010 Will Gray (NERC funded) North Pacific Ocean during the last glacial-interglacial transition
  • 2007 Katy Wilson (NERC funded) African lake variations and early human evolution
  • 2005 Alex Dickson (NERC funded) Investigating Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 11
  • 2005 Matthew Owen (self funded) Gas hydrates, submarine slope failure and tsunami hazard.
  • 2004 Jan Corfee-Morlot (OECD) Understand climate change policy links between local and national level.
  • 2003 George Swan (NERC funded) Climate reconstruction using diatom silica and oxygen stable isotopes.
  • 2001 Chris Boot (NERC funded, second supervisor Dr R. Pancost, Bristol University) completed.
  • Biomarker investigation of the marine sediments of Benguela current and Amazon Fan
  • 2000 Virginia Ettwein (NERC funded) Reconstruction of the Amazon River outflow for the last 85,000 years
  • 1998 Dr Emma Durham (UCL, TA) Mid-Pleistocene Revolution: ODP Leg 175 Benguela Current

Graduated Masters Students

  • 2020 Elizabeth Isaac (MSc Climate Change) Avian malaria vectors on the Galapagos Islands
  • 2020 Leon Kennedy (MSc Climate Change) Carbon footprint of cryptocurrencies
  • 2020 Livia Van Heerde (MSc Climate Change) Fossil fuel supply of sulphur for rare earth metals
  • 2020 Jiaying Sha (MSc Climate Change) Carbon footprint of clothing and fashion industry
  • 2020 Qintian Qian (MSc Climate Change) Life cycle carbon assessment of electric vehicles
  • 2020 Jiayao Lu (MSc Environmental Modelling) Life cycle carbon assessment of beef production
  • 2019 Carmen Nab (MSc Climate Change) Carbon Footprint of Coffee: A Life Cycle Assessment
  • 2019 Mira Adhikari (MSc Climate Change) Model the effects of climate change on Coffee.
  • 2019 James Brooke (MSc Climate Change) Climate change impact on UK infrastructure using UKCP18
  • 2018 Jonathan Chapman (MSc Climate Change) Geothermal electricity generation in Cornwall
  • 2016 Sam Nicholson (MSc Anthropology) Distinction African hominin evolution associated with environmental changes
  • 2016 Harriett Cooper (MSc) Anthropocene, glacial inception and climate hysteresis
  • 2016 Erin Owain (MSc) Distinction Conflict and climate change in East Africa over the last fifty years
  • 2015 Fiona Jones (MSc) Distinction Evolutionary patterns in the Turkana Basin fauna
  • 2014 Ruthie Musker (MSc) Distinction Human-Elephant conflict in sub-Saharan Africa
  • 2014 Naimi Arnold (MSc) Distinction Drivers of the distribution and colonisation of British dragonflies
  • 2013 Tanvi Deshpande (MSc) Distinction Indian Hazard Risk and Governance
  • 2013 Yu Xijia (MSc) Chinese flood and drought risks
  • 2012 Susmit Nayak (MBA at CASS Business School) Commercialization of Land Carbon
  • 2010 Matt Clarkson (MSc) Bengula current over the last 4 million years
  • 2010 Jon Hancock (MSc) South Ocean oceanic circulation
  • 2010 William Grey (MSc) Distinction North Pacific over the last 40,000 years
  • 2006 Katy Wilson (MSc) Distinction Time-slice analysis of the North Brazilian coastal current
  • 2006 Katherine Dixon (MSc) Distinction Holocene Bipolar climate seesaw
  • 2006 Chris Beer (MSc) Distinction LGM-Holocene variations in Benguela current upwelling
  • 2005 Jonathan Lewis (MSc) Distinction 8 Ma vegetation history of SW Africa
  • 2004 Anna Hughes (MSc) Millennial ice rafting events in the North Pacific Ocean
  • 2004 Alex Dickson (MSc) Distinction Detailed study of Heinrich event 4 from the Bara Fan sediments
  • 2003 Sasha Leigh (MSc) Distinction Modelling the Dansgaard-Oeschger and Heinrich events
  • 2003 Tim Starke (MSc): Dating tsunami deposits from the Canary islands
  • 2002 Simon Dension (MSc): Terrestrial biomarkers in deep-sea sediment ODP Leg 175, Site 1083.
  • 2000 Edward Hodges (MSc) Distinction Eemian climate variability using speleothems.
  • 2000 Alix Cage (MSc) Reconstruction of past Amazon River discharge using Nd stable isotopes
  • 2000 Matthew Owen (MRes): Mass balance of global slope failures over the last 45 ka
  • 1999 Megan Ellershaw (MRes): Effect of closure of the Panama Isthmus the Southern ocean
  • 1999 James Bendle (MSc) Distinction Holocene climate variability of the Nordic Seas
  • 1999 Ewan Laurie (MSc): SW African continental climate during N. Hemisphere glaciation
  • 1999 Virginia Ettwein (MSc) Distinction Benguela current productivity during the ONHG
  • 1998 Susan Grieg (MSc): Reconstruction of the outflow of the Amazon River over the last 40 ka.
  • 1997 Emma Durham (MRes) Distinction Amazon Fan Complex
  • 1996 Barry Lomax (MRes): Reconstruction of the climate history contained in the Amazon fan