GREAT MINDS It’s also a thrill to lead and inspire a team of researchers towards our scientific goals. “ HEAD OF DEPARTMENT: WORLD-LEADING RESEARCHER ON RAPID CL IMATE CHANGE Professor Siwan Davies My work on microscopic ash particles is exciting but also challenging and I love it.
Professor Siwan Davies is a Professor in Geography and uses volcanic ash to help improve our understanding of when our climate changed abruptly in the past. She is an inspiring scientist and recipient of the Philip Leverhulme Prize (2011) and Lyell Fund (2013). She is a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales. Originally from Newport, Pembrokeshire, after graduating from the University of Oxford in Geography, Siwan completed a master's and PhD at Royal Holloway, University of London in 2002. Following post-doctoral appointments at Stockholm University and the University of Copenhagen, she joined Swansea University as a Lecturer in 2004 and quickly climbed the academic career ladder to be awarded a Personal Chair in 2012. Siwan's research has secured funding from NERC, The Leverhulme Trust and the European Research Council (ERC) and she now leads a team of post-doctoral researchers and PhD students. The ERC-funded research project, TRACE, aims to use volcanic ash layers present in the Greenland ice-cores and North Atlantic marine records to assess whether the atmosphere or the oceans drove Northern hemisphere climate change in the past. Professor Davies said: “This is a big question in climate science and my work on microscopic ash particles can provide the answers. The work is exciting but also challenging and I love it. It’s also a thrill to lead and inspire a team of researchers towards our scientific goals.” Siwan also takes her work to the public and is the presenter of a hugely successful TV documentary series on climate change “Her yr Hinsawdd” for S4C. Siwan has travelled all over the world to see the impact of climate change on people today and continues her journey in the second series.
Siwan contributes to Welsh-medium teaching at Swansea and across Wales and is actively engaged with the work of the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol.
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