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STEM Faculty

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Neil Edwards

Neil Edwards

Professor Of Earth System Science

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environment-earth-and-ecosystem-sciences

Professional biography

Climate and environmental change breaks the statistical predictability that underlies insurance against natural disasters, questions the regulation of borrowing and investment between generations, disturbs the ecological systems that support the global population and threatens the stability of nations.

The impacts and feedbacks are dynamic, complex and multi-scale in space and time, they cannot be properly managed without an evolving dialogue that thoroughly explores the interface between environmental and socio-economic change. 

My research exploits dynamically simplified Earth system models and complementary approaches to bring the understanding of processes and feedbacks between natural and human systems and sub-systems to the fore.

Through a series of major interdisciplinary consortium projects, including GENIE and ERMITAGE, I have played a leading role in the integration of modelling and observational paleoclimate research and in the integration of detailed Earth system models with complex macroeconomic and energy technology forecasting models for the purposes of environmental policy assessments. 

To date (February 2025) I have been instrumental in raising over £20m of funding for Earth-system and integrated assessment modelling research and published over 100 refereed articles in a range of related fields, including 15 in Science, Nature and Cell Press journals (H=47 Google Scholar).

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring 
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time. (TS Eliot)

Research interests

Climate Dynamics, Integrated Assessment Modelling, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics.

Teaching interests

I have worked on a number of environment-related modules and recently chaired two interdisciplinary third-level modules in presentation, U316 The environmental web and S396 Ecosystems. I also chaired the production of the third-level Terrestrial Ecosystems module S397. 

Current roles

Co-Director (Sustainability), Open Societal Challenges programme

Open University Co-lead (Environment), Interdisciplinary Life and Environmental Sciences Landscape Award (ILESLA), PhD training programme

 

Latest publications

Displaying 10 of 99 publications

  • Cutler, T. D., Holden, P. B., Edwards, N. R. and Anand, P., 2026, ‘Dynamic Earth System Response to Interacting Climate Forcing Factors Through the Penultimate Deglaciation and Last Interglacial’, Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, 41(4), https://oro.open.ac.uk/108951/.
  • Semieniuk, G., Weber, I. M., Weaver, I. S., Wasner, E., Braun, B., Holden, P. B., Salas, P., Mercure, J. and Edwards, N., 2025, ‘Best of times, worst of times: record fossil-fuel profits, inflation and inequality’, Energy Research & Social Science, 127, https://oro.open.ac.uk/105694/.
  • Leonard, J., Zahirovic, S., Holden, P. B., Salles, T., Edwards, N. R. and Mallard, C. A., 2025, ‘Polar wander leads to large differences in past climate reconstructions’, Communications Earth & Environment, 6, https://oro.open.ac.uk/105016/.
  • Beerling, D. J., Kantzas, E. P., Lomas, M. R., Taylor, L. L., Zhang, S., Kanzaki, Y., Eufrasio, R. M., Mercure, J., Pollitt, H., Holden, P. B., Edwards, N. R., Koh, L., Epihov, D. Z., Wolf, A., Hansen, J. E., Banwart, S. A., Pidgeon, N. F., Reinhard, C. T., Planavsky, N. J. and Val Martin, M., 2025, ‘Transforming US agriculture for carbon removal with enhanced weathering’, Nature, 638 pp. 425–434., https://oro.open.ac.uk/102670/.
  • Willeit, M., Ganopolski, A., Edwards, N. R. and Rahmstorf, S., 2024, ‘Surface buoyancy control of millennial-scale variations of the Atlantic meridional ocean circulation’, Climate of the Past, 20(12), pp. 2719–2739., https://oro.open.ac.uk/100895/.
  • Semieniuk, G., Chancel, L., Saïsset, E., Holden, P. B., Mercure, J. and Edwards, N. R., 2023, ‘Potential pension fund losses should not deter high-income countries from bold climate action’, Joule, 7(7), pp. 1383–1387., https://oro.open.ac.uk/90357/.
  • Barreto, E., Holden, P. B., Edwards, N. R. and Rangel, T. F., 2023, ‘PALEO-PGEM-Series: A spatial time series of the global climate over the last 5 million years (Plio-Pleistocene)’, Global Ecology and Biogeography, 32(7), pp. 1034–1045., https://oro.open.ac.uk/88205/.
  • Wang, Y., Prohaska, A., Dong, H., Alberti, A., Alsos, I. G., Beilman, D. W., Bjørk, A. A., Cao, J., Cherezova, A. A., Coissac, E., De Sanctis, B., Denoeud, F., Dockter, C., Durbin, R., Edwards, M. E., Edwards, N. R., Esdale, J., Fedorov, G. B., Fernandez-Guerra, A., Froese, D. G., Gusarova, G., Haile, J., Holden, P. B., Kjeldsen, K. K., Kjær, K. H., Korneliussen, T. S., Lammers, Y., Larsen, N. K., Macleod, R., Mangerud, J., McColl, H., Merkel, M. K. F., Money, D., Möller, P., Nogués-Bravo, D., Orlando, L., Owens, H. L., Pedersen, M. W., Racimo, F., Rahbek, C., Rasic, J. T., Rouillard, A., Ruter, A. H., Skadhauge, B., Svendsen, J. I., Tikhonov, A., Vinner, L., Wincker, P., Xing, Y., Zhang, Y., Meltzer, D. J. and Willerslev, E., 2022, ‘Reply to: When did mammoths go extinct? Nature, 612 E4-E6’, https://oro.open.ac.uk/86243/.
  • Vakilifard, N., Williams, R. G., Holden, P., Turner, K., Edwards, N. R. and Beerling, D. J., 2022, ‘Impact of negative and positive CO2 emissions on global warming metrics using an ensemble of Earth system model simulations’, Biogeosciences, 19 pp. 4249–4265., https://oro.open.ac.uk/85016/.
  • Semieniuk, G., Holden, P. B., Mercure, J., Salas, P., Pollitt, H., Jobson, K., Vercoulen, P., Chewpreecha, U., Edwards, N. R. and Viñuales, J. E., 2022, ‘Stranded fossil-fuel assets translate to major losses for investors in advanced economies’, Nature Climate Change, 12(6), pp. 532–538., https://oro.open.ac.uk/83407/.
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