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Overview

Professor Fred Worrall

Professor of Environmental Chemistry, Director of Postgraduate Admissions

MA (Cantab)1992, PhD (Reading)1995


Affiliations
AffiliationRoom numberTelephone
Professor of Environmental Chemistry, Director of Postgraduate Admissions in the Department of Earth SciencesRm 326+44 (0) 191 33 42295
Fellow in the Durham Energy Institute  

Biography

2013 – present — Professor in Environmental Chemistry, Dept. of Earth Sciences, University of Durham.

2006 – 2012: — Professor Reader in Environmental Chemistry, Dept. of Earth Sciences, University of Durham.

2002 – 2006 — Professor Senior lecturer in Environmental Chemistry, Dept. of Earth Sciences, University of Durham.

1998  2002: — Lecturer in Environmental Chemistry, Dept. of Geological Sciences, University of Durham.

1996 – 1998 — Temporary lecturer in Environmental Chemistry, Dept. of Geological Sciences, University of Durham.

1995 – 1996 — Higher Scientific Officer, Fluid Processes Group, British Geological Survey

1995 — PhD (Reading)

1992 — MA (Cantab)


Career Research Highlights

Fred’s research career started with work on pesticide pollution which included use of molecular modelling that lead to an ab initio explanation of groundwater pollution and new methods of measuring groundwater vulnerability. While in Durham, Fred was the first to develop a complete carbon budget for a Peatlands which was extended to consider impact of management upon the greenhouse gas balance of Peatlands and modelling of these fluxes. More recent work has considered global processes and especially the impact of the oxidation state of the terrestrial biosphere.


Committee and Society Service

Member of the NERC peer review college


Conferences and Workshops

2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 — “Peatlands”. Session Convenor, EGU General Assembly

2007“Biogeochemical fluxes from northern watersheds”, Session Convenor, AGU Fall Meeting


Invited Speaker (selected, since 2008)

2012 — AGU Fall Meeting

2011 — AGU Fall Meeting

2010 — AGU Fall meeting

2008 — EGU General Assembly


Membership of Organisations and Societies

Member of the Higher Education Academy

Member of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences

Member of the European Geosciences Union

Member of the American Geophysical Union


Research interests

  • Carbon biogeochemistry especially of peats and rivers
  • Agricultural pollution, especially pesticide and nitrate pollution
  • Contaminant hydrology
  • Environmental chemistry

Research groups

  • Carbon, Waste and Water
  • Climate and Environmental Change
  • Geochemistry Research Group
  • Geoenergy, Resources and Waste

Awarded Grants

  • 2021: Project 535699: COA Extension #52 NE/R017840/1(£0.00 from Natural Environmental Research Council)
  • 2018: SHAPE-UK: Impact of hydraulic fracturing in the overburden of shale resource plays: Process-based evaluation(£126763.03 from Natural Environmental Research Council)
  • 2018: Would It Be Feasible To Migrate Nitrate Losses Under Climate Change And Land-use Change?(£0.00 from )

Publications

Chapter in book

  • Worrall, F. (2002). Direct assessment of groundwater vulnerability from borehole observations. In Sustainable Groundwater Development. Hiscock, K.M. Rivett, M.O. & Davison, R.M. London: Geological Society, London, Spec. 193: 245-254.
  • Worrall, F. & Burt, T.P. (1999). Modelling the impact of land-use change on water quality in lowland catchments: the role of dynamic nitrogen reservoirs. In Impact of land-use change on nutrient loss from diffuse sources: Proceedings of an International Symposium Held During IUGG 99, the XXII General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, at Birmingham, UK 18-30 July 1999. Heathwaite, L. Wallingford, UK: IAHS Press. 257: 151-157.
  • Wooff,D.A.,, A.H.Seheult, F.Coolen & F.Worrall (1999). A Bayesian reappraisal of environmental fate and behaviour data used in pesticide registration. In Statistics for the Environment. Barnett, V. & Turkman, K.F. John Wiley. 4.
  • Worrall F., Wooff, D.A., Seheult, A.H. & Coolen, F.P.A. (1998). A Bayesian approach to the analysis of environmental fate and behaviour data for pesticide registration. In Statistics for the Environment: 4. Barnett, Vic Turkman, K. Feridun & Stein, Alfred John Wiley & Sons. 54: 99-112.

Journal Article

Supervision students