New MSCA Doctoral Network on Dust! Candidates have now been recruited and we look forward to welcoming them throughout 2025. Read more...
Blog post by Natalie Ratcliffe about life on a field campaign

AMCCA (Airborne Measurments of Charged Cloud and Aerosol) project Co-I, FAAM Research Runway project
DAZSAL (Diurnal vAriation of the vertically resolved siZe distribution in the Saharan Air Layer) project Co-I, ATMO-ACCESS TNA funding, working with the ASKOS project
Co-Convenor of EGU 2025 Aeolian Dust Session
Member of the FAAM research aircraft Scientific Advisory Group for the Mid Life Upgrade
NERC Independent Research Fellow: The Role of Coarse Mineral Dust in the Climate System, 2015-2022
Vice-Chair of inDust Cost Action Network WG1 (Observations)
Committee Member Lead for Royal Meteorological Society Atmospheric Science Conference 2021 Adaption and Resilience

Fellow of the Higher Education Authority (HEA)
Director of MMet (Meteorology and Climate with a Year in Oklahoma) programme and Meteorology Department Study Abroad Coordinator
Teaching MT2AP: Atmospheric Physics, Radiative Transfer; MT2ACP/MTMACP Air Pollution: Chemistry, Transport and Dispersion; Professional Skills as part of MTMRES.

Atmospheric mineral dust and aerosols
Airborne observations of aerosols
Optical properties, microphysical properties (e.g. size distributions) and radiative effects of aerosols
Representation of mineral dust in NWP and climate models
Application and improvement of mineral dust properties in satellite and remote sensing retrievals
Dust impacts on cloud, climate, weather, solar energy, aircraft, health, ecosystems

Dust-DN: a Marie Curie Interdisciplinary, International European-led Dust Doctoral Network, with 3 PhD students based at Reading Meteorology
AMCCA (Airborne Measurments of Charged Cloud and Aerosol) FAAM Research Runway project
DAZSAL: Diurnal vAriation of the vertically resolved siZe distribution in the Saharan Air Layer (EU ATMO-ACCESS TNA)

Sakina Alblooshi, PhD Student: Effects of charged dust on meteorological processes<, co-supervised with Dr Keri Nicoll and Prof Giles Harrison
Sai Amritha Kuttippurath, PhD Student: Aircraft Engine Dust Ingestion in the Middle East, co-supervised with Prof Helen Dacre and Dr Rory Clarkson and Rolls-Rocye, funded by the Dust-DN Project

Natalie Ratcliffe, PhD Student, 'Using Aircraft Observations and Modelling to Improve Understanding of Mineral Dust Transport and Deposition Processes,' SCENARIO DTP funded, Met Office CASE award and UK Aerosol Society CN Davies award, co-supervised by Prof Nicolas Bellouin, and Met Office CASE Supervisors Dr Stephanie Woodward, Dr Ben Johnson & Dr Anthony Jones.
Jon Elsey, PDRA working on the MAPP project (Metrology for Aerosol OPtical Properties)
Alcide Zhao, PDRA on the DAHLIA project (dust-climate interactions in East Asia)
Dhirendra Kumar, PDRA on the DAHLIA project (dust-weather interactions in East Asia)
Liang Guo, PDRA on the DAHLIA project (dust-climate interactions in East Asia)
Clement Bezier, Student internship partnered with Rolls Royce and ECMWF examining dust ingestion by aircraft engines at worldwide airports

MAPP: Metrology for Aerosol Optical Properties (EU Horizon 2020)
NERC Independent Research Fellowship: The Role of Coarse Mineral Dust Particles in the Climate System
DAHLIA: Dust-AtmospHere-Land Interactions in East Asia (Newton Fund)
AER-D/ICE-D: Aerosol Properties - Dust / Ice in Clouds Experiment - Dust
EUFAR SAVEX-D: Sunphotometer Validation EXperiment - Dust in ICE-D
Fennec: The Saharan Climate System

2023 - Alex Henry, Low-level jets in the central-western Sahara: comparing aircraft observations to model simulations, awarded Best MSc Project Prize
2023 - James Kelsey, Settling dynamics of non-spherical mineral dust particles explored in the lab using 3D-printed analogues, co-supervised with Dr Chris Westbrook
2022 - Ann Liya, How good are the New Pyrgeometers on the FAAM Aircraft? co-supervised by Dr Jon Elsey and Dr Stuart Fox (Met Office)
2021 - Simran Chopra, Optical Properties of High Latitude Dust, co-supervised by Dr Alberto Sanchez-Marroquin (University of Leeds)
2020 - Jianing Li, The Australian 2019/2020 Wildfire Season
2020 - Marina Liaskoni, Radar observations of Giant Dust Particles during Ex-Hurricane Ophelia, co-supervised by Dr Chris Westbrook
2019 - Ian Wan, The radiative role of enhanced water vapor within aerosol layers
2015 - Mohammad Kashoob, The impact of dust size distributions on the Radiation Budget over the Sahara
2013 - Zoe Jacobs, Dust and Radiation in the Sahara
2011 - Laura Tyas, Dust and Atlantic Tropical Cyclones

2023 - George Hawkins, Ingestion of desert dust by aircraft engines in the Middle East, awarded best undergraduate project prize
2022 - Chen Chen, Evaluation of ECMWF CAMS dust forecasts during the ASKOS fieldwork in Cape Verde, co-supervised by Dr Angela Benedetti
2019 - Rebecca Smith, Giant aerosol particles during storm Ophelia
2017 - Kieran Pope, The impact of absorbing aerosols and cloud on the energy budget, awarded Best Undergrad Project Prize
2014 - Mohammad Hassan, The Impact of Saharan Dust on Longwave Radiation from Aircraft Measurements
2012 - Olivia Coleman, The Impact of megacities on air pollution
2011 - Murad Mohamed, The Saharan Dust Season of 2010 and 2011
2010 - Using a community weather station network to determine evidence for the London Urban Heat Island

2023 - Max McDonald, NERC SCENARIO, The effect of diurnal heating in the SAL on dust size distributions during DAZSAL, and AMCCA radiosonde releases
2019 - Adam Harland, NERC SCENARIO, The Impact of Cloud and Saharan Dust on Solar Energy Generation in the UK
2017 - Luke Orgill, NERC SCENARIO, Assessing Instrument Sandblasting on a Research Aircraft