Robert Spicer

I am an Emeritus Professor of Earth Sciences in the School of Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences and a Visiting Professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Yunnan, China.

Trained initially as a botanist at Imperial College London I subsequently obtained a PhD in Geology, also at Imperial College. That was followed by a three year period working with the United States Geological Survey at Menlo Park California first as a Lindemann Fellow and then as a Research Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences. On my return to the UK my first lecturing position was in the Life Sciences department of Goldsmiths College, London, followed by a move to Oxford University where I was a lecturer in Earth Sciences and a Fellow of St Hugh's College.

I joined the Open University as Professor and Head of Earth Sciences in 1994 and subsequently became the founding director of CEPSAR (Centre for Earth, Planetary, Space and Astronomical Research), before university-wide restructuring led to the creation of the school structure including my current unit, the School of Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences.

I was recently awarded the T.M. Harris medal for my 'lifetime achievement' in palaeobotany.

Research:
I have ongoing interests in using plant fossils as indicators of past climates with particular emphasis on polar environments at times of global warmth (http://arcticfossils.nsii.org.cn), the uplift of the Himalaya, the formation of the Tibetan Plateau and the development of the Asian monsoon systems. I have an active research program in collaboration with staff at the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, for the development of the quantitative plant-based palaeoclimate proxy known as CLAMP (Climate Leaf Analysis Multivariate Program) http://clamp.ibcas.ac.cn, and for understanding the development of Asian palaeotopography, climate and biodiversity with colleagues at Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

I use plant fossil proxy climate data in relation to numerical global climate modelling for past and present climates including the assessment of uncertainties in both modelling and proxies.