Personal profile

Biography

Professor Trevor Davies is Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, Enterprise and Engagement. He was appointed to this position in 2004, following a six-year term as Dean of the School of Environmental Sciences. Prior to this, he was Director of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) for a five-year period which started in 1993. CRU was founded in 1972, as the first research centre, anywhere, specifically to study climate change. The Headquarters of the Tyndall Centre, the UK’s research centre for the identification of sustainable options for climate change, was set up in the School of Environmental Sciences during his Deanship, in 2000. He was first appointed lecturer in the School of Environmental Sciences in 1970, eventually becoming Reader in Atmospheric Sciences in 1998.

Professor Davies’s research has included the wet and dry deposition of atmospheric pollutants, and the links between the atmospheric transport of air pollution and meteorology and climate systems. His boundary-layer meteorology research has included the vertical structure of the atmosphere, downslope flows, and wind energy. He has planned a number of major field campaigns to examine the deposition of pollutants in, and on, snow and their incorporation into glaciers. This led to research on snow melt and the chemical composition of meltwaters, and streamwater chemistry. This research was of significance in elucidating important issues in the ‘acid rain’ controversies in the 1980s and 1990s. He went on to study the significance of climate change for pollutant transport and deposition, and contributed to research on the reconstruction and nature of climate change, and its associated impacts. He has produced over 270 publications, and has been responsible for the management and direction of a number of large research programmes.

Professor Davies has been a Member of the Council of the Royal Meteorological Society, and was a Member of the Natural Environment Research Council from 2002 to 2008. He is currently an international Board Member of the UK-China Sustainable Agriculture Innovation Network.

He founded CRed, the carbon reduction programme, is a Director of Carbon Connections, and is a Board Member of the Low Carbon Innovation Centre, which is based at UEA.

Key Research Interests

Climate variability; links between climate variability and atmospheric composition and deposition; chemical hydrology; carbon reduction. Significant Publications Trigo I. F., Bigg G. R., Davies T. D. (2002). A climatology of cyclogenesis mechanisms in the Mediterranean. Monthly Weather Review 130, 549-569. DOI: 10.1175/1520-0493(2002)1302.0.CO;2 Thorne P. W., Jones P. D., Tett S. F. B., Parker D. E., Osborn P. J., Davies T. D. (2002). Ascribing potential causes of recent trends in free atmosphere temperature. Atmospheric Science Letters 2, 132-142. doi:10.1006/asle.2001.0046 Pub3: Thorne P. W., Jones P. D., Tett S. F. B., Allen M. R., Parker D. E., Stott P. A., Jones G. F., Osborn T. J., Davies T. D. (2003). Probable causes of late twentieth century tropospheric temperature trends. Climate Dynamics 22, 757-769. DOI: 10.1007/s00382-003-0353-1 Hanson C. E., Palutikof J. P., Davies T. D. (2004). Objective cyclone climatologies of the North Atlantic - a comparison between the ECMWF and NCEP reanalyses. Climate Dynamics 22, 757-769. doi: 10.1007/s00382-004-0415-z Click here for full list of publications since 2000

Areas of Expertise

Climatology; climate variability; air pollution; composition of precipitation; snow and snowmelt; meteorology; climate change.

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 13 - Climate Action

Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

Recent external collaboration on country/territory level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots or