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Professor John Lowe

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Professor of Geography and Quaternary Science (since 1992) Director, Centre for Quaternary Research

After graduating from St. Andrews University in 1970, John completed a PhD at Edinburgh University between 1970 and 1973 under the supervision of Brian Sissons.  He then took up a position as Lecturer in Geography at the Sir John Cass School of Science and Technology, which was subsumed within the newly-formed City of London Polytechnic.  He remained with that institution until 1989, rising through the ranks to become a Professor  and, for a brief period, Head of the Department of Geography.  He took up a position of Senior Lecturer in Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL) in September 1989, and was promoted to a readership in 1990 and subsequently to Professor of Geography and Quaternary Science in 1992.  He served as Dean of the Faculty of Science at RHUL from 1997 to 2000.  He was a co-founder of the Centre for Quaternary Research and its Director from its inception in 1990 until 1997;  he has resumed this position for a second term, from early 2006.  He was a co-founder of the NERC-supported MSc degree programme in Quaternary Science and MSc Programme Director from 1990 to 1997 and from 2001-2005. 

John is currently a Vice-President of INQUA, President of the UK Quaternary Research Association, a member of the Awards Committee of the Geological Society of London, and a member of the NERC’s Steering Committee for the RAPID climate change programme.  His previous external commitments have included President of the INQUA Palaeoclimate Commission, Vice-President of the Quaternary Research Association, Co-ordinator of the INQUA’s ‘INTIMATE’ core project, Chairman of the NERC’s Earth Sciences peer review committee and membership of a number of other national and international peer review committees.  He was founding editor of the Journal of Quaternary Science and is presently a member of the editorial boards of, inter alia, JQS and QSR. In 2003 he was awarded The Geological Society’s Coke Medal for his contributions to Quaternary geology.

RESEARCH INTERESTS
Quaternary geology and environmental change; high-precision dating methods; abrupt climate change; palynology; tephrochronology.

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