Dr Dave Reay

Reader in Carbon Management

Director of Postgraduate Teaching

New Books

Your Planet Needs You! A Kid's Guide to Going Green Macmillan Children's Books. Out now.

MSc programme

MSc in Carbon Management

: Winner, 'Best Feedback in Business School', EUSA teaching awards 2013.

: Runner-up, 'TeachFirst Innovative Teaching Award', EUSA teaching awards 2011.

: Winner, 'PwC Teaching Employable Skills Award', EUSA teaching awards 2010.

Out Now In Paperback and E-book

Climate Change Begins at Home - Life on the Two-way Street of Global Warming. Published by Macmillan.

Translated into Japanese and Korean. Shortlisted for Times Higher Young Academic Author of the Year.

Other books now out

Greenhouse Gas Sinks Reay, Hewitt, Smith and Grace (Eds). CABI Publishing.

E-mail: David.Reay@ed.ac.uk

Dave Reay studied Marine Biology at Liverpool University and graduated in 1994. He went on to gain a PhD with the British Antarctic Survey and Essex University studying the response of Southern Ocean algae and bacteria to global warming. After gaining his doctorate he continued working as a post-doc at Essex, investigating the impact of land-use on the soil methane sink. In 2001 he moved to Edinburgh University to investigate emissions of the greenhouse gas 'nitrous oxide' from agriculture, then carbon fluxes in forests, and went on to become a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Fellow examining greenhouse gas emissions from wetlands and agriculture. In 2008 Dave became the university's first lecturer in carbon management and became a senior lecturer in 2009. He is designer and editor of the climate change science website Greenhouse Gas Online and of the Southern Ocean: Antarctic Seas and Wildlife website. He enjoys running (on an annual basis), Test Match Special, and writing stories for his daughters.

Research Interests

• Greenhouse gas sinks and interactions
• Nitrous oxide emissions from agriculture (IPCC input: Fourth Assessment Report WGIII and Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories)
• Methane oxidation and production in soils
• Communicating science to the public
• Microbial ecology, incl. that of methanotrophs, methanogens, nitrifiers and denitrifiers
• Diffuse water pollution
• Land use impacts on greenhouse gas fluxes
• Climate change impacts on land use and adaptation strategies
• Carbon dioxide emission from soils and biomass
• Global methane budgets
• Temperature dependence of microbial activity and nutrient uptake
• Climate change impacts and mitigation through individual action

Research Groups

Geography and the Lived Environment

Global Change

Responsibilities

• Head of Postgraduate Teaching
• Programme director of the MSc in Carbon Management at University of Edinburgh
• Deputy director, Global Environment and Society Academy
• British Council Scotland Advisory Committee
• Lecturer on climate change for undergraduate and MSc courses at University of Edinburgh
• Reviewer for the journals Nature, Nature Geoscience, Nature Climate Change, Nature Reports Climate Change, Soil Biology and Biochemistry, Atmospheric Environment, Global Change Biology, FEMS Microbiology Letters, Environmental Research Letters, Plant and Soil, Environmental Science and Technology, PLoS, Climate Research, Global Environmental Change, Journal of Environmental Quality, Water, Air and Soil Pollution
• EPIS academic mentor
• External reviewer for DEFRA, the Natural Environment Research Council, the Royal Society, the National Science Foundation, the British Council, the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Economic and Social Research Council
• Expert witness, House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee
• Reviewer and columnist for the Times Higher Education Supplement
• Expert witness, Scottish Parliament Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change Committee
• Expert reviewer, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
• External examiner (MSc), University of Aberdeen
• Climate change consultant for Learning and Teaching Scotland
• Climate change consultant for the Life Centre, Newcastle, UK
• Author for the Encyclopedia of Earth, National Council for Science and the Environment
• Reviewer for CABI Publishing
• Reviewer for Earthscan Publishing
• External reviewer, Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology
• Advisor, 'Reducing Scottish greenhouse gas emissions'. Audit Scotland.
• Member of the British Council
• Member of the Forum on Science and Technology for Sustainability
• Member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science
• Lead author, European Nitrogen Assessment
• Editorial board, Greenhouse Gas Measurement & Management