People
Norman Dandy joined Bangor University as Director of the SWRC in July 2018, having previously worked for the Forestry Commission (Forest Research) and Plunkett Foundation. His interests are in land-centred governance and management practice, primarily with regard to forest and woodland landscapes. His work focuses on a number of core sustainable land use questions, including responses to biosecurity threats, achieving species conservation, the agency of land and other species through natural regeneration or ‘rewilding’, and collaborative approaches to management in ‘patchwork’ landscapes with diverse ownership and management. Using mainly qualitative methods he explores the everyday social, political, ethical, and cultural relationships with land and other species that construct our practices and approaches to management.
Ashley Hardaker is a Lecturer in Forestry, having joined the SWRC as a postdoctoral research officer in land use sustainability metrics following completion of his doctoral research at Bangor University. Ashley joined the SWRC as a postdoctoral research officer in land use sustainability metrics following completion of his doctoral research at Bangor University.He is an interdisciplinary researcher broadly interested in decision analysis in relation to land use, forestry, agroforestry and agricultural systems. His previous work focused on identifying pathways for expanding tree cover in the Welsh uplands using ecosystem services and economic evaluation tools. Ashley is particularly interested in research that informs decision making surrounding the adoption of agroforestry and woodland creation in upland agricultural systems, and how these can be designed to deliver public and private economic benefits. He engages with a range of research disciplines including ecosystem services, GIS, economics and operations research. His current work as part of the SWRC is to build the centre’s capacity for collaborative work relating to the use and development of metrics for understanding and tackling some of the sustainability challenges of productive land use systems such as farming and forestry.
Sophie Wynne-Jones is a Lecturer in Human Geography and ‘Net Zero Agriculture Behavioural Insight’ Fellow for Welsh Government (ESRC funded). She is an environmental social scientist, specialising in rural land use change and farmers’ behaviour. Particular interests include changing approaches to agri-environmental governance – including the outline proposals for the Welsh Sustainable Farming Scheme – and wider shifts in payments for public goods. More broadly, her research looks to understand what the future holds for farming, the role of emerging approaches for enhanced circularity, regenerative agriculture, and the place of tree planting and rewilding within the wider landscape. As a social scientist I am keen to understand the full range of influences on farming life and behaviour, and how these can be engaged with more effectively within policy.
Seumas Bates is an environmental anthropologist who has been working in conjunction with the SWRC since October 2020. He is currently employed as a research officer for the School of Natural Sciences working on the Future Oak project. His primary research interests include the social engagement with landscapes, especially in instances of acute environmental crisis, and interdisciplinary research projects with applied objectives. His main role in Future Oak is working with forest managers to explore their understanding of and response to Acute Oak Decline. Prior to his move to Bangor he completed post-doctoral research at Maynooth University on the similarly interdisciplinary and applied WaterSPOUTT project, and received his PhD from the University of Glasgow where he studied the social impact and recovery from large scale disasters and catastrophes in southern Louisiana.
Alex Ioannou joined Bangor University and the SWRC to undertake a PhD which aims to place current discussions about landscape change within their historical context and provide a survey of alternative frames through which Wales can cultivate its relationship with landscape. From the outset the project was developed as a multidisciplinary exploration and therefore Alex is also a member of the Institute for the Study of Welsh Estates this allows his project to bridge the School of Natural Sciences and the School of History, Law and Social Sciences here at Bangor. Before starting his PhD Alex trained as a landscape architect and worked in the environmental and heritage sectors managing and reporting on ongoing change. He is spurred on by Barbara Bender's 'plea for more open-ended theorizing that questions disciplinary boundaries and recognizes the untidiness and contradictoriness of human encounters with time and landscape'.
Theresa Bodner joined Bangor University and the SWRC to pursue a PhD in Forestry on emerging spaces for native woodland expansion Britain's future. She is especially interested in environmental cross-discipline research,such asmixed method approaches to understanding the environmental and social complexity of European landscapes. One focus of her current work is pathways of native woodland expansion in Britain and their interaction with other land covers and land uses. This interest in bridging knowledge cultures also explains her passion for science communication (for which she has completed acommunication degree), as well as her engagement with environmental entrepreneurship and business sustainability, in order to understand sustainable land use from a business perspective.
Hollie Riddell joined Bangor University and the SWRC as a PhD student, working on a project focused on assessing the environmental footprint of lamb production. The aim is to produce an updated environmental footprint that takes the altitudinal and temporal aspects of lamb production into account. The fieldwork is focused on generating improved emission factors across lowland and upland pastures for two major greenhouse gases that arise due to production: methane and nitrous oxide. Gathered data will be used within an LCA (life cycle assessment) model to determine an overall environmental footprint and look at potential mitigation options in the context of net zero carbon targets. Hollie has also previously completed work on a carbon footprint for venison production in Scotland. She is particularly interested in the bridge between academic research and resulting environmental policy.
Prysor Williams is a Senior Lecturer in Environmental Management at Bangor University. He has a broad range of research interests that usually sit at the interface between agriculture and the environment. These include organic resources (slurries, manures, etc.), pathogens, antibiotic resistance, and soils. Having worked on several large interdisciplinary projects, he also has a considerable interest in the ongoing discussions around land use (sustainable intensification, delivery of public goods, etc.), especially so in an upland context. He sits on the R & D Committee for Hybu Cig Cymru / Meat Promotion Wales, is a Board member of the multi-million pound Farming Connect programme and the Welsh Government’s Sustainable Brand Values initiative. He is also the Chair of the Agriculture Industry Climate Change Forum and the Carneddau Landscape Partnership. Prysor was raised on a livestock farm typical of many in North Wales and beyond, and still spends much of his time farming. He feels that first-hand experience of farming feeds into his research, but also helps ensure that this research has real applied value and relevance.
Dave Chadwick is Professor of Sustainable Land Use Systems at Bangor University, and has an honorary position at the Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Agriculture Green Development in the Yangtze River Basin (Southwest University, Chonqing, China). His interests are in the management of nutrients in livestock manures, other organic resources and fertilisers to optimise nutrient utilisation whilst minimising impacts on water and air quality. This includes; quantifying and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, reducing the risk of transfers of pollutants to watercourses, and understanding the secondary impacts of mitigating diffuse agricultural pollution. As well as publishing scientific papers, he contributes to policy and practice, e.g. via his membership of Defra’s Nutrient Management Expert Group and Wales’ Agriculture Industry Climate Change Forum.