Visiting Fellow and Associate Tutor

• Self-employed soil scientist
• Independent researcher
• Pedology teacher for Biodiversity & Environmental Education Society (BEES)

• Soil science
• Soil survey and land evaluation
• Soil carbon, biochar and carbon sequestration
• Soil ecosystem services and natural capital
• Sustainable agriculture, carbon farming and agroforestry
• Soil and land legislation, policy and governance

Dr Lewis Peake

Soil Scientist, specialising in Agricultural Land Classification (ALC); Visiting Fellow and Associate Tutor in the School of Environmental Sciences and in the School of International Development, University of East Anglia (UEA), Norwich; Full member of the British Society of Soil Science (BSSS); Research interests: pedology, soil carbon, biochar, sustainable agriculture, ecosystem services of soils.

Shortly after graduating from my MSc at UEA, I had some short stints as a secondary school geography teacher in Norfolk. My baptism of fire, was in a “special unit” for excluded teenagers, discovering this only on my arrival. Not so much geography as self-defence. After that most of my pedagogy has been plain sailing!

In the current millennium (i.e. since embarking on my PhD in 2010), I have completed approximately 30 Associate Tutor contracts, mainly in ENV and DEV. My core offering has always been soil science (pedology) but has broadened out to include environmental science in its widest sense and, in DEV especially, many aspects of land resource management, such as agronomy, forestry, sustainable agriculture, nutrient cycling, ecosystem services, environmental pollution, and climate change adaptation and mitigation. This teaching role has developed considerably over the years to include the creation and delivery of new lectures, seminars and field activities and in some cases primary responsibility for modules. Some key responsibilities are listed below.

Autumn 2019, ENV BSc Y2 module: Soil Processes and Environmental Issues

Principal lecturer in place of Professor Brian Reid on this module in 2019-20. Added new material, including lectures on the history of soil use and soil science.

Spring 2018 – present, ENV & DEV BA/BSc/MA: Introduced “Iron Age farming” field exercise to teach soil survey and land evaluation. I was asked to redesign DEV’s Natural Resources soil field trip, nearer campus and catering for some students who lacked a science background and were mainly interested in small farms in the tropics. I suggested using UEA campus which has a range of soil types. Seeking also a local analogy for subsistence farming I researched Iron Age agriculture and designed a hypothetical family farm based on the allocation of ancient British crops and livestock to specific soil landscape zones on the campus. Students base their decisions on a soil and topographic survey. This exercise has also been used successfully with DEV MA students and on the ENV Soil Processes module.

January 2018, UNDP short course (delegates from the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture & Forestry): “Sustainable management of soils for agricultural development.”

Spring 2014, ENV First Year field course, Slapton: Led Soils session.

2021: Pedology lecturer for Biodiversity & Environmental Education Society (BEES).