People

Expedition near Impfondo. Credit: Simon Lewis

ACADEMIC STAFF

Professor Simon Lewis FRS
(Principal Investigator)

Chair of Global Change Science, University of Leeds, UK; holds equivalent position at UCL. Leads CongoPeat, and provides expertise on the peatlands' role in the global carbon cycle.

Professor Susan Page
(Co-Investigator)

Chair in Physical Geography, University of Leicester, UK. Peatland expert with over 20 years’ experience of studying South East Asia’s tropical peatlands. Co-leads CongoPeat.

Professor Andy Baird
(Co-Investigator)

Chair of Wetland Science at the University of Leeds. Peatland expert and creator of the DigiBog model of peatland development used in the CongoPeat project.

Professor Richard Betts MBE
(Co-Investigator)

Chair of Climate Impacts, University of Exeter, and Head of Climate Impacts Research, Met Office Hadley Centre, UK. Earth System modeller, who leads on implementing tropical peatlands within JULES (Joint UK Land Environment Simulator) as part of CongoPeat.

Dr Arnoud Boom
(Co-Investigator)

Associate Professor of Biogeochemistry, University of Leicester, UK. An organic geochemist, who uses stable isotopes to reconstruct the past climate of central Congo.

Dr Corneille Ewango
(Co-Investigator)

Associate Professor of Botany, Dept of Ecology & Forest Management, University of Kisangani, DRC. One of central Africa’s leading botanists, co-leading CongoPeat’s expeditions in DRC.

Dr Suspense Averti Ifo
(Co-Investigator)

Lecturer in Forest Ecology, Marien Ngouabi University, Republic of Congo. Forest ecologist & co-discoverer of the Congo peatlands, co-leading CongoPeat’s expeditions in Republic of Congo.

Dr Ian Lawson
(Co-Investigator)

Senior Lecturer in Palaeoecology, University of St. Andrews, UK. Palaeoecologist; co-discoverer of Congo peatlands, leads palaeoenvironmental analyses of peat cores to understand history of central Congo’s peatlands.

Dr Lera Miles
(Co-Investigator)

Principal Specialist - Area-based Planning, UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre, UK. Science-policy interface expert specialising in tropical forests, leading on translating scientific findings into policy advice.

Professor Edward Mitchard
(Co-Investigator)

Chair of Global Change Mapping, University of Edinburgh, UK. Remote sensing expert, leading on mapping the peatlands and scaling field measurements to the CongoPeat region.

Dr Paul Morris
(Co-Investigator)

Associate Professor of Biogeoscience, University of Leeds, UK. An expert in wetlands modelling, co-leading the parameterisation and implementation of the peatland development model DigiBog within CongoPeat.

Dr Sofie Sjögersten
(Co-Investigator)

Associate Professor in Environmental Science, University of Nottingham, UK. Greenhouse gas flux measurement expert, leads in situ carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide estimates at CongoPeat fieldsites.

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOWS

Dr Peter Cook
(University of Exeter, UK)

Helping to develop and use JULES to investigate potential changes to the central Congo peatlands due to drainage or climate change.

Dr Greta Dargie
(University of Leeds, UK)

Co-discoverer of the central Congo peatlands, leads CongoPeat field campaigns to derive new carbon stock estimates for the peatlands and synthetic cross-disciplinary analyses.

Dr Ian Davenport
(University of Edinburgh, UK)

Remotely sensed data analyst, collecting and analysing airborne LiDAR data to assess peatlands' topography and using satellite data for regional scaling.

Dr Donna Hawthorne
(University of St Andrews, UK)

Palaeoecology expert, assessing pollen, macrofossil & charcoal in peat cores from CongoPeat expeditions in order to understand peatland development across the region.

Dr Jonay Jovani Sancho
(University of Nottingham, UK)

Expert in greenhouse gas fluxes, leading lab work and GHG flux analysis and modelling.

Dr Dylan Young
(University of Leeds, UK)

Ecosystem modeller, developing and using DigiBog to simulate past peat accumulation and the future impact of land use and climate on carbon stocks.

PHD STUDENTS

George Biddulph
(University of St Andrews, UK)

Project: Past and present spatial patterns in the peat swamp forests of the central Congo Basin.

Selena Georgiou
(University of Edinburgh, UK)

Project: CH4 and CO2 fluxes from the Congo and Amazon peatlands.

Shona Jenkins
(University of Edinburgh, UK)

Project: Assessing human uses of the central Congo Basin peatlands.

Joseph Kanyama
(University of Kisangani, DRC)

Project: Mapping and understanding the vegetation of central Congo’s peatlands.

Emmanuel Mampouya
(Marien Ngouabi University, RoC)

Project: Determining carbon inputs into soils in terra firme and peatland tropical forests in central Congo.

Mackline Mbemba
(Marien Ngouabi University, RoC)

Project: Aboveground net primary productivity of terra firme and peatland tropical forests in central Congo.

PROJECT STAFF

Georgia Pickavance
(University of Leeds, UK)

Provides quality assurance of inventory data, serves data between workstreams and assists in secure archiving of datasets.

Helen Plante
(University of Leeds, UK)

Bilingual (French/English) CongoPeat project administration and impact assistant, providing support to Professor Lewis and the whole CongoPeat team.

project associates

Dr Yannick Bocko
(Marien Ngouabi University, RoC)

Co-discoverer of the Congo peatlands, provides expertise and new allometry of Raphia laurentii for CongoPeat.

Pierre Bola Engeimi
(Mbandaka Higher Pedagogical Institute, DRC)

Teaching Fellow in Botany; provides assistance in collection of vegetation data on the peatlands of the Congo Basin.

Dr Eleanor Burke
(Met Office Hadley Centre, UK)

JULES modeller, improving the representation of soils, including peat, in JULES.

Dr Sarah Chadburn
(University of Exeter, UK)

Providing assistance with modelling in JULES.

Bart Crezee
(University of Leeds, UK)

PhD student supervised by Prof Simon Lewis. Project: Spatial distribution, carbon stocks and diversity of lowland tropical peatlands in central Africa.