Research

We undertake interdisciplinary, world-leading research across the full spectrum of Earth Science and Engineering.
We're one of the only departments in the world to combine Earth science and engineering.
Our research – both pure and applied – covers a broad range of subjects, from studying past climate in Antarctica to developing innovative means of capturing and storing carbon from our atmosphere, modelling environmental pollution and hazards, characterising the myriad flows of our oceans, and revealing the history of life on both our own planet and others. Our work is split across three sections, Earth and Planets, Natural Resources Geoscience and Engineering and Computational Geoscience and Engineering, and covers nine main Research Themes – as shown below.
We collaborate with industry partners from the mineral and energy sectors, and participate in cross-disciplinary and cross-departmental Research Centres such as the Grantham Institute, the Energy Futures Lab, and the Sustainable Gas Institute.
In the most recent assessment of our research, 46% of the Department’s research was rated ‘World Leading’ and 89% was rated ‘Internationally Significant’ (based on research jointly submitted with the Departments of Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics under the 2014 Research Excellence Framework).