Key details
Dr Peter Burt
Principal Scientist
Dr Burt is a Biometeorologist, with over 35 years' experience in areas of windborne dispersal of organisms and particulate material through the atmosphere, the influence of topography on airflow, organism responses to climate change, and palaeoclimates and palaeoenvironments. He joined the Natural Resources Institute as a Special Research Fellow in January 1989 and was appointed Principal Scientist in 1991. He was previously Deputy Head of the Environmental Sustainability Group (August 2001 to December 2002) and Acting Head of the Group (January – March 2003).
He is Course Leader for the BSc Environmental Science programmes, and for the MSc Natural Resources (By Research). He lectures on aspects of introductory meteorology to first-year undergraduates, as well as on applied meteorology/climatology, ecology and climate change in various undergraduate and postgraduate courses (see below). He is the former Course Leader of the MScs in Agriculture for Sustainable Development and Sustainable Environmental Management. His research in aspects of meteorology/climatology, airborne dispersal and palaeoenvironments are further supported through the supervision of MSc, PhD and postdoctoral students. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and obtained the Greenwich Certificate in Academic Programme Leadership (GCAPL), with associated Membership of the Institute of Leadership and Management, in 2018.
Dr Burt was the Editor of the Royal Meteorological Society journal Meteorological Applications from 2005 to 2019 and is a current member of the editorial board of the European Journal of Plant Pathology. He acted as an Expert Reviewer for Working Groups I and II for the IPCC 5th Assessment Report and is currently involved in a similar role for Working Group I for the 6th Assessment Report. He has been involved in investigations of the dispersal of airborne material within the Medway, Kent, area and has acted as an Expert Witness on airborne particulate dispersal at local planning enquiries. He was an expert reviewer for DFID's Climate Impact Research Capacity and Leadership Enhancement (CIRCLE) programme Visiting Fellowship Scheme (2015 – 2017) as well as supervising several research students working through that scheme.
He was a member of the organising and scientific committees of the 24th Annual Conference and Exhibition of the Remote Sensing Society, held at the University of Greenwich in September 1998, and co-editor of the conference proceedings. He was also involved in the organisation on the Third European Symposium on Aerobiology, held at University College Worcester in August 2003, as a member of the organising and scientific committees, co-editor of the symposium abstracts and invited Chair of the Climate Change session. He is the President of the British Aerobiology Federation.
A full staff profile can be seen on the Natural Resources Institute website.