About
Us
"The present is the key to the past"
Uniformitarianism; James Hutton
..can the past also be the key to the future?
The Sellwood Group for Palaeo-Climatology (SGPC)
SGPC conducts fundamental and holistic research into the evolution of our planets climate and environment.
Through a combination of data acquisition, data synthesis and numerical environmental and climate modelling, we use an examination of Earth History as a natural laboratory to understand the complex interactions and variability of our planets climate, environment and life support systems.
Through an examination of Earth history we seek to use the past as a guide to the future and use palaeoclimatology to assess, and/or better constrain, the magnitude and impacts of future climate and environmental change.
SGPC is inherently multi/cross disciplinary, combining meteorology/climatology, ecology, palaeontology, sedimentology, geochemistry and glaciology and has members from both the School of Earth and Environments' Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science (ICAS) and Earth Surface Systems Science Institute (ESSI). It also has strong links with the Leeds School of Geography tropical ecology and palaeoecology research clusters.
Beyond the University of Leeds we have long-lived collaborations with a number of leading Global Change Institutes in the UK and abroad. These include the Bristol Research Initiative for the Dynamic Global Environment, The British Geological Survey, The British Antarctic Survey, the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research (Met Office) and the US Geological Survey.
The group formed in 2009 and is named after the late Professor Bruce William Sellwood (pictured). Bruce was Professor of Applied Sedimentology in the Department of Geology and subsequently Postgraduate Research Institute for Sedimentology, then Emeritus Professor at the University of Reading. He was one of the UK's most respected and well-known sedimentologists and palaeoclimatologists.
Bruce's research interests were eclectic, spanning from European Mesozoic and early Tertiary sedimentary systems and palaeoenvironments, to the Pleistocene sedimentary record of the Mediterranean and human evolution. Bruce played a pivotal role in establishing palaeoclimate modelling as a scientific area of strength within the UK. Through his vision and desire to strengthen the interaction between Meteorologists and Earth Scientists, he helped to establish the UK as a leading nation for palaeoclimate modelling and data/model comparison.
