Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences (Research)

You will join the University of Edinburgh’s Global Change Research Institute, a grouping of approximately 200 researchers engaging with diverse challenges of international significance.

Research topics

Much of our research revolves around understanding, predicting, and mitigating for the many changes that our world is experiencing. We host longstanding programmes in understanding how the atmosphere, biosphere, cryosphere, land surface and oceans have interacted in the past, in monitoring their current behaviour, and in developing predictions of their future dynamics. Building on these scientific foundations, we further engage in interdisciplinary research focused on mitigating the many challenges posed by the global climate emergency, and environmental hazards, inequalities and sustainability.

Research programmes

Research programmes in Global Change typically involve fieldwork, remote sensing, laboratory experimentation and analysis, theory, modelling and stakeholder engagement. Our research extends throughout the world, over all seven continents, from poles to equator, from the deep Earth to the upper atmosphere.

Research community

Within the institute, we exchange knowledge regularly in weekly seminar programmes and smaller research group discussions, and the institute also comes together in twice-yearly Global Change Symposia where students, staff and stakeholders discuss our latest developments and outline new grand challenges.