James Millington is an environmental geographer and landscape ecologist who studies landscape and environmental change, primarily focusing on land management and fire. He is a data scientist and computational modeller with a focus on human-environment systems and expertise in developing and applying modelling tools to investigate spatial, ecological and socio-economic processes and their interactions. James has more than two decades of teaching experience in the UK and US across all levels of higher education, including international field classes.

James is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Higher Education Academy, a long-standing member of the International Association of Landscape Ecology (including as a committee member of the UK chapter), and a leading member of the Leverhulme Centre for Wildfires, Environment and Society. He is currently Associate Editor for Landscape Ecology and Discover Conservation journals and a regular reviewer for the Journal of Open Source Software.

Previously, James held a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship and spent several years as Visiting Postdoctoral Associate in the Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability at Michigan State University. He received his PhD in Geography, MSc in Environmental Monitoring, Modelling and Management (with Distinction), and BSc (Hons) in Geography (First class), all from King's.

Research

• Landscape change: farming, forestry and fire
• Wildfire-Environment-Society interactions
• Agent-based modelling of geographical systems
• Spatial modelling of ecological succession-disturbance dynamics

James’ research investigates how people manage and interact with the physical environment, addressing challenges in our ongoing biodiversity and climate crises. His work focuses on landscape fire, land use and sustainability, and computational simulation of human-environment systems, integrating knowledge and insights from multiple sub-disciplines.

James’s research often uses and develops statistical and computational models with large spatial datasets but recognises that understanding human behaviour and enabling possible solutions cannot rely solely on quantitative outputs.

Find out more about James' research, including latest blog posts, code, presentations and posters at: https://landscapemodelling.net

Teaching

Undergraduate

James leads the Spatial Data Science Pathway and teaches on the following modules:

• 5SSG2046 Field Research in Physical Geography
• 5SSG2059 Foundations of Spatial Data Science
• 5SSG2060 Principles of Spatial Data Science
• 6SSG3077 Applications of Spatial Data Science

PhD supervision

James welcomes inquiries from excellent candidates wishing to pursue research that investigates:

• Ecological processes and human-environment interactions in forest and agricultural landscapes;
• Innovative uses of agent-based modelling to understand physical and/or social geographical systems.

Further details

See James' research profile