OpenLearn Profile

Neil Edwards

Neil Edwards

School of Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences

Professional biography
Neil Edwards is Professor of Earth System Science and Director of Research in the School of Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences. He has been actively involved in research on climate and Earth system dynamics and climate change for over 30 years. He has authored around 90 refereed publications, including five recent articles in Nature and Science journals, in collaboration with a large network of colleagues around the world, and his work has been cited over 4500 times (Google, March 2021). Neil’s primary expertise is in climate and Earth system modelling, including the impacts of climate change in the geological past, as well as the present and the future, the quantification of uncertainty in projections of climate change, and integrated modelling of climate and socio-economic change. He is currently involved in collaborative research projects on enhanced rock weathering, a technique to accelerate the natural drawdown of excess atmospheric CO2 by agricultural crops, and on the ‘stranding’ of unused fossil-fuel assets and the resulting implications for the stability of economic and financial systems, in the transition to a low-carbon economy. He has led several collaborative projects on climate-change policy involving close engagement with policy-makers, contributed to assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and has written public outreach articles for The Conversation and been interviewed on local radio. Neil’s teaching activity at the OU since 2005 has covered a broad range of environmental topics, and he recently chaired the production of a third-level undergraduate course in terrestrial ecosystems. Neil Edwards is Professor of Earth System Science and Director of Research in the School of Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences. He has been actively involved in research on climate and Earth system dynamics and climate change for over 30 years. He has authored around 90 refereed publications, including five recent articles in Nature and Science journals, in collaboration with a large network of colleagues around the world, and his work has been cited over 4300 times. Neil’s primary expertise is in climate and Earth system modelling, including the impacts of climate change in the geological past, as well as the present and the future, the quantification of uncertainty in projections of climate change, and integrated modelling of climate and socio-economic change. He is currently involved in collaborative research projects on enhanced rock weathering, a technique to accelerate the natural drawdown of excess atmospheric CO2 by agricultural crops, and on the ‘stranding’ of unused fossil-fuel assets and the resulting implications for the stability of economic and financial systems, in the transition to a low-carbon economy. He has led several collaborative projects on climate-change policy involving close engagement with policy-makers, contributed to assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and has written public outreach articles for The Conversation and been interviewed on local radio. Neil’s teaching activity at the OU since 2005 has covered a broad range of environmental topics, and he recently chaired the production of a third-level undergraduate course in terrestrial ecosystems.