Euan Nisbet

Professor

  • TW20 0EX

Personal profile

Personal profile

Euan Nisbet’s research is broadly in two areas of Earth Science.

Early Earth work is based on fieldwork in the Archaean (2.5 to 4 billion year old) rocks of Canada, Zimbabwe/South Africa and Australia. Work on the Early Earth is summarised by a Treatise on Geochemistry chapter with CMR Fowler (2nd ed 2013), and by NT Arndt and EG Nisbet in Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences (2012).

Research into Modern and Glacial Atmospheres has mainly focussed on Methane in the modern air, including the role of methane in Arctic climate change, methane hydrates and their role in global warming, and the task of assessing present day atmospheric methane burden. The atmospheric laboratory at Royal Holloway is a key centre for measurement of carbon isotopes in methane.  Current work includes major projects on Arctic and Tropical Atmospheric Methane budgets.

Nisbet leads MOYA: the global methane budget. This is a UK NERC 'Highlight' consortium with 14 partner institutions that studies methane across the planet, with aircraft and ground field campaigns in African and South America, as well as monitoring greenhouse gases at a number of stations from the Arctic to the Antarctic and on a ship travelling from north to south in the Atlantic.

Euan Nisbet has written three single author books and edited several multi—author volumes. The Young Earth was a core text on Archaean geology.  Leaving Eden (CUP) is translated into German. There have also been Chinese translations of Leaving Eden and Arndt and Nisbet (eds) Komatiites. Much of Project MOYA's work is scheduled to be published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, in mid-2021. He is a an honorary fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge.

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
  • SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy
  • SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth
  • SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities
  • SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production
  • SDG 13 - Climate Action
  • SDG 14 - Life Below Water
  • SDG 15 - Life on Land

Education/Academic qualification

Earth Sciences, Ph.D, Geology of the Neriada area, Othris Mountains, Greece

External positions

Honorary Fellow, Darwin College

26 Feb 2021 → …

Visiting Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road, Cambridge, CB2 1EW, and National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS), United Kingdom.

7 Nov 2017 → …

Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

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