Katie's work takes a systems approach to climate change, drawing on the political, economic and social dimensions of climate mitigation and adaptation.

She undertook her PhD at the University of Oxford, looking at the role of human adaptation to past climatic change in northern Africa. On completion of her PhD, Katie developed a range of analytical approaches to reconstructing palaeodemographic and dietary trends in the context of Holocene climatic and cultural change.

Recently, Katie's research focus has shifted to the challenge of contemporary and future climate change. In 2020, Katie joined the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, where she was leading on the systems analysis of land use for the upcoming government Land Use Framework.

Today, her work focuses on the food and land use systems, and the need for science, policy and business to work collectively to develop the systemic transformations that are required to build a sustainable future.

Research

• Land Use Change: Forestry, bioenergy, and regenerative farming
• Climate change adaptation and mitigation
• Science, policy, business interface
• Systems analysis for transformative and equitable change
• Palaeoclimatic and palaeodemographic change

Katie is a systems scientist who's research spans past, contemporary, and future climatic change. Her work addresses the complex inter-dependencies between the socio-economic, environmental and political dimensions of climate change, focusing on the need for collaboration across science, business and policy.

Teaching

• 7QQMM900 - The Challenges of Climate Change
• 7SSGN176 - Fundamentals of Climate Change
• 6SSG3083 - Pathways to Impact: Geographical Research and Public Policy
• 5SSG2062 - Geography Research Tutorials

Further details

See Katie's research profile