About
About
I’m a British Academy Global Professor at the University of Oxford’s Oxford Martin School. I work on the climate, food, energy and economic systems that shape our future — and on how they can change fast enough to matter.
I’m a physicist by training who now works across food, energy and the environment. My research asks how human consumption drives climate change and the decline of nature, and how our food and energy systems can be transformed quickly enough to keep a liveable planet within reach. I’ve published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers — in journals including Nature Food, Nature Sustainability, Nature Energy and PNAS — and my work is regularly covered by the BBC, The Guardian, the Financial Times and The New York Times.
My route here wasn’t a straight line. I began in astrophysics, moved into wind energy, and spent a decade at Leiden University working on food and environmental systems before coming to Oxford. That path — from the physics of distant stars to what’s on our plates — still shapes how I work: quantitative, systems-minded, and focused on the choices that actually move the needle.
My mission is to inspire and educate about the urgent issues of climate change, fostering understanding and action through research, writing and engagement with diverse audiences — for a future where knowledge drives sustainable practice, with realism and with hope.
Recognition
My research has been recognised internationally, including as a 2023 Frontiers Planet Prize International Champion and a Falling Walls Science Breakthrough winner the same year. In 2024 I was awarded a British Academy Global Professorship, which supports my current work at Oxford.
- 2024British Academy Global ProfessorshipSupporting my current research at the Oxford Martin School
- 2023Frontiers Planet Prize — International Champion
- 2023Falling Walls Science Breakthrough of the Year
- 2021Stan’s Award for Best Outreach — Leiden University
- 2018Discoverer of the Year — Leiden University
Writing, teaching and public engagement
I write and teach for audiences well beyond the university. My popular-science book, The Best of Times, The Worst of Times, alternates chapters of pessimism and hope to map the predicament we’re in and how we might steer towards a liveable future. I co-wrote the Oxford University Press textbook Food and Sustainability, and built a free online course on sustainability that has reached thousands of learners.
I give evidence and advice at national and international levels — to the OECD, the UN and the EU, and to UK parliamentary committees. In 2025 I delivered the food-security briefing at the UK’s first National Emergency Briefing. You can find my talks and lectures and recent media coverage across the site.
Get in touch
Whether you’re a journalist, an event organiser, a funder or a fellow researcher, I’d be glad to hear from you.