Hi, I am Scott

About me

I am a Co-Director for the Turing Research and Innovation Cluster in Digital Twins (TRIC-DT), leading a team of scientists and engineers across both the Alan Turing Institute and the British Antarctic Survey. Our aim is in the development of AI and digital twin technologies for monitoring, understanding, predicting and designing solutions for environmental change.

Our projects include the intelligent fusion of data from satellite and in-situ surface sensors to help understand our changing planet; probabilistic machine learning for localised climate impacts; AI for seasonal sea ice forecasting and improving climate models; and computer vision toolkits for tracking environmental change and wildlife monitoring.

I am also a Co-Director for the Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in the Application of AI to the study of Environmental Risks (AI4ER), a £6m UKRI funded programme to train over 50 top students to become future global leaders in environmental science.

Career History

• The Alan Turing Institute, UK
  • Co-Director, Turing Research and Innovation Cluster in Digital Twins (TRIC-DT), 2023-
  • Senior Research Fellow, Group Leader for Environmental Science, Data Science for Science programme, 2020-2023
• British Antarctic Survey (BAS), UK
  • Founder and Leader of the BAS AI Lab, 2018-present
  • Environmental Data Scientist, 2016-
  • Global Climate Modeller, 2009-2016
• University of Cambridge, UK
  • Co-Director, Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in AI for Environmental Risks (AI4ER), co-led by BAS, 2019-2027
  • PhD Student, Climate Science, University of Cambridge, 2005-2009
    • Supervisors: Prof. John Pyle FRS, Prof. Peter Haynes
    • Funded under NERC e-Science (Computationally Intensive Science) scheme
• Bangor Univeristy, Wales, UK
  • Degree in Chemistry, integrated Masters MChem (Hons)
  • Dissertation in computational modelling and quantum physics

Other Roles

• Athena Swan Committee, BAS, 2022-
• Member, Digital Research and Infrastructure Group (DRIG), NERC, 2022-
• Senior Expert, Constructing a Digital Environment Strategic Priorities Fund programme, Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), 2021-
• Committee Member, Environment and Sustainability Interest Group, The Alan Turing Institute, 2020-
• Committee Member, The Alan Turing Institute-UK Met Office Operational Alliance, 2020-
• Chair, AI4ER Research Committee, University of Cambridge, 2019-2020
• Board member, Cambridge Centre for Climate Science, University of Cambridge, 2011-
• Committee Member, Net Zero Oceanographic Capability (NZOC), a £250k scoping project funded by NERC to inform planning for the future low carbon oceanographic research capability in line with UKRI’s objectives of becoming a net zero organisation, 2020
• Member, Centre for Science and Policy, University of Cambridge, 2015-
• Committee Member, International Commission on Polar Meteorology, 2015-2023
• Committee Member, NERC-STFC JASMIN committee to develop capacity for AI computing, 2020-
• Co-Chair, BAS Technical Design Authority, 2017-
• Deputy Chair, Cambridge Earth System Science DTP, University of Cambridge, 2017-18
• Secretary, Global Environmental Research Committee, The Royal Society, 2016-2017
• Innovation Champion, BAS, 2014-2016

Recognition

• Our research featured as the primary AI example in the NERC Digital Strategy (2021 to 2030)
• The journal Nature Communications highlighted our research in the 25 most downloaded Nature Communications articles across Earth, environmental, and planetary sciences published in 2021
• Awarded The Laws Prize by the British Antarctic Survey Club in 2017. The prize is awarded to outstanding young scientists of the British Antarctic Survey in recognition of their achievements, whilst fulfilling the primary purpose of the British Antarctic Survey

Teaching

• Waves and geosciences spring school: Infrasound and beyond, l’Ecole Centrale de Lyon and Sorbonne University, 2022
• Machine Learning and the Physical World, University of Cambridge, 2020-2021
• AI for Earth and Environmental Sciences, ClimBEco Graduate Research School, Lund University and University of Gothenburg, 2021
• Environmental Data Analysis, University of Cambridge, 2019
• Earth System Science Spring School, National Centre for Atmospheric Science, UK, 2010-2014

Funding

I have secured over £15m in grant funding from public and private sectors as both Principal-Investigator (PI) and Co-Investigator (Co-I). These include:

• Surface Fluxes in Antarctica (SURFEIT), NERC 2022-2026 (Co-I)
• Using artificial intelligence to improve weather forecasts, 2022 Endeavour Smart Ideas, New Zealand, 2022-2024 (Co-I)
• DEFIANT: Drivers and Effects of Fluctuations in sea Ice in the ANTarctic, NERC (NE/W004747/1), 2021-2025 (Co-I)
• Scivision: A toolkit for scientific image analysis, Phase 3, 2022-2026 (PI)
• Towards an Antarctic Digital Twin for Instantaneous Decision-Making, NERC, 2021-22 (PI)
• Five projects funded by The Alan Turing Institute, under the Strategic Priorities Fund “AI for science and government (ASG)” (EP/T001569/1):
  • Environmental monitoring: blending satellite and surface data, 2021-2023 (PI)
  • Scivision: A toolkit for scientific image analysis, Phase 1 & 2, 2021-2022 (Co-I)
  • Understanding Arctic sea ice loss, 2019-2021 (PI)
  • Improving tracking of iceberg populations in the Southern Ocean, 2019-2021 (Co-I)
  • Detecting changes in Himalayan glaciers and impacts on water security, 2020-2021 (PI)
• Supporting Pangeo: the community-driven platform for Big Data geoscience, Microsoft AI for Earth, 2020-2021 (Co-I)
• AI for Earth Observation (AI4EO) Accelerator, European Space Agency (ESA), 2020-2022 (Co-I)
• Peruvian Glacier Retreat and its Impact on Water Security (Peru GROWS), NERC (NE/S013296/1) - Newton-Paulet Fund, 2019-2022 (Co-I)
• Emergence of Climate Hazards, NERC (NE/S004726/1), 2019-2022 (Co-I)
• Future Water Security for communities reliant on the Upper Indus, Himalayas, NERC (NE/R000107/1), 2017-2020 (Co-I)
• The North Atlantic Climate System Integrated Study (ACSIS), NERC (NE/N018028/1), 2016-2021 (Co-I)
• Ice shelves in a warming world: Filchner Ice Shelf system, Antarctica (FISS), NERC (NE/L013770/1), 2015-2020 (Co-I)

News

2023/06 - Secured the role of Co-Director, Turing Research and Innovation Cluster in Digital Twins (TRIC-DT), The Alan Turing Institute, UK

2023/04 - Invited to Co-Chair the 12th International Conference on Climate Informatics, University of Cambridge, UK

2022/03 - Invited to join the Digital Research and Infrastructure Group (DRIG) to deliver NERC’s 10-year Digital Strategy

2022/03 - Appointed as BAS Science Leader for AI, Joined the BAS Science Strategy Executive Board

2022/02 Joined the Advisory Group for the UK AI Research Infrastructure Review, a key component of the UK’s National AI strategy

2021/05 - Secured the role of Senior Expert to the NERC Constructing a Digital Environment (CDE) Programme

2021/02 - Principal Investigator (PI) to a multi-institution research programme, Environmental monitoring: blending satellite and surface data

2020/10 - Joined the Steering Committee for the Environment and Sustainability Interest Group, 500+ members, The Alan Turing Institute

2020/09 - Promotion, ~equivalent to Reader/Associate Professor

2020/06 - Invited to join the Steering Committee for The Alan Turing Institute-UK Met Office operational alliance

2020/04 - Started secondment to the Alan Turing Institute under the Data Science for Science programme

2019/09 - Stated role of Co-Director for the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in the Application of AI to the study of Environmental Risks (AI4ER), led by University of Cambridge and BAS

2018/06 - Established the BAS Artificial Intelligence (AI) Lab

2017/09 - Awarded The Laws Prize, British Antarctic Survey Club

2016/09 - Promotion, ~equivalent to Lecturer. Changed role to “Environmental Data Scientist”

2016/05 - Appointed as Secretary, Global Environmental Research Committee, The Royal Society

2014/09 - Appointed as Innovation Champion, BAS

2011/01 - Co-founded the Cambridge Centre for Climate Science (CCfCS)

2009/12 - Started at British Antarctic Survey (BAS) as a “Global Climate Modeller”, tenured/open-ended position

2009/09 - Completed PhD, “The impact of deep convection on the structure of, and transport through, the tropical tropopause layer”, University of Cambridge, UK

2005/10 - Started PhD, University of Cambridge, UK .

• Research