Prof Ric Williams BSc, MSc, PhD

I am interested in the role of the atmosphere and ocean in the climate system:

How climate is changing?
How the ocean responds to changes in atmospheric forcing?
How is the ocean taking up heat and carbon given ongoing climate change?
How the ecosystem is affected by physical processes in the open ocean and coastal ocean?

• 10 years of Observations of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulations (Keynote Speech, UK NERC RAPID programme 2014)
• Invited talk: 'Climate effects of ocean overturning on heat content & CO2', AMOC, Baltimore, USA (Invitation to Speak, US AMOC/UK Rapid International Science Meeting on AMOC variability: dynamics and impacts 2013)
• Invited talk: 'How ocean heat content anomalies evolve in the N. Atlantic', CLIVAR, Lijiang, China (Invitation to Speak, WCRP/CLIVAR Second International Symposium on Boundary Current Dynamics 2013)
• Challenger lecture (Keynote Speech, Challenger Society for UK Marine Science 2013)
• Invited talk: 'How heat transport varies in the N. Atlantic', Ocean Sciences, Salt Lake City, USA (Invitation to Speak, Ocean Sciences Meeting 2012)
• Invited talk: 'Role of the Oceans in Climate Change', Royal Irish Academy, Belfast, Ireland (Invitation to Speak, Royal Irish Academy, Northern Ireland 2009)
• Visiting Professor at Duke University, USA (Duke University, USA 2008)
• Summer school lecturer: `Biological cycling of carbon and climate change', Trieste, Italy (Keynote Speech, ICTP Advanced School on Oceanography, Trieste, Italy 2007)
• Invited talk: 'Maintenance of export production in ocean deserts', Galway, Ireland (Keynote Speech, Challenger Society 2007)
• Summer school lecturer: 'Ocean Dynamics and Biological Productivity', GEFDL, Cambridge (Invitation to Speak, Centre for Mathematical Science, Cambridge 2006)
• Invited talk: 'Role of physical processes in sustaining biological productivity', AMT, Royal Society (Invitation to Speak, Royal Society meeting 2006)
• Summer school lecturer: 'Open Ocean Physics and Coastal Ocean Physics', SOLAS, Corsica (Invitation to Speak, Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS) international programme 2005)
• Invited talk:`How is high-latitude and mid-latitude biological productivity sustained?'', Challenger (Keynote Speech, Advances in Marine Biogeochemistry 2005)
• Summer school lecturer: 'Ocean Physics', SOLAS, Corscia, France (Invitation to Speak, Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS) international programme 2003)
• Summer school lecturer: 'Nutrient transport and Ocean biogeochemistry', UNESCO, Trieste, Italy (Invitation to Speak, Interantional UNESCO Summer school 2003)

• Research lead for the Faculty of Science and Engineering.
• Member of the University Research Strategy Group.
• Research Champion for the University research theme 'Living with Environmental Change'