William Austin

Professor William (Bill) Austin is Professor in the School of Geography and Sustainable Development at the University of St Andrews (Scotland, UK); he also holds a visiting chair appointment at the Scottish Association for Marine Sciences, where he is Professor of Marine Geosciences. He has held research fellowships from the Royal Society of London, the Royal Society of Edinburgh and is a founding member and continues to serve (now as Chair) on the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Peer Review College. Bill also chairs the BOSCORF Advisory Group at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton on behalf of NERC and the wider international user community. Bill is Chair of the Scottish Blue Carbon Forum (Scottish Government), sits on the steering group of the Scottish Forum on Natural Capital and leads the United Nations Decade Programme for Blue Carbon in the Global Ocean (GO-BC) (UNESCO), with support for the GO-BC secretariat at St Andrews from the UK Government through Defra. At St Andrews, Bill is Director of the University’s Blue Carbon Research Centre and leads the Blue Carbon Academy which delivers in-country capacity building and sustainable partnerships through the training of early career researchers across the globe, most recently through a funding partnership with WWF.