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Professor James Ford

Professor James Ford

  • Position: Priestley Chair in Climate Adaptation
  • Areas of expertise: Climate change vulnerability & adaptation; Arctic; Indigenous peoples; community based research; adaptation tracking
  • Email: J.Ford2@leeds.ac.uk
  • Location: 10.23 Priestley Building
  • Website: | Twitter | ORCID

Profile

I am a Priestley Chair in Climate Change Adaptation at the Priestley International Centre for Climate at the University of Leeds. My research takes place at the interface between climate and society, and I am particularly interested in climate change vulnerability and adaptation. I lead a diversity of initiatives in this area, including projects focusing on Indigenous peoples and climate change (with a major focus on the Arctic), and examining ways to create ‘usable’ science. Resource management, natural hazards, and health, are overarching topics within these themes. I am also developing novel approaches to tracking climate change adaptation at global and regional levels (including using big data), developing systematic review approaches in an environmental change context, and I am involved in adaptation monitoring and evaluation debates. I am editor-in-chief at the journal Regional Environmental Change, have been a lead author on national and international climate assessments including the IPCCs Special Report on 1.5C of warming and the Arctic Council’s Adaptation Actions for a Changing Arctic assessment, and have published >200 peer reviewed articles including in Nature Climate Change, PNAS, Global Environmental Change, and the Canadian Medical Association Journal. I currently co-lead the Climate Change Adaptation, Vulnerability & Climate Services Group at Leeds. Go to www.jamesford.ca for more information.

<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Any research projects I'm currently working on will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>

Qualifications

  • PhD, Geography
  • MSc, Environmnental Change
  • BA, Geography

Student education

I am module leader for SOEE5281: Introduction to Sustainability

I teach on SOEE5550M: Climate Change Impacts & Adaptation

I teach on GEOG1055: Environmental Change: Past and Future

Research groups and institutes

  • Climate Change Adaptation, Vulnerability and Services
  • Sustainability Research Institute

Current postgraduate researchers

<h4>Postgraduate research opportunities</h4> <p>We welcome enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study. Our <a href="https://phd.leeds.ac.uk">research opportunities</a> allow you to search for projects and scholarships.</p>