Phil Ashworth

Phil Ashworth is a Professor of Physical Geography specialising in river morphodynamics and sedimentology. His research interests span a range of scales including the largest rivers and estuaries in the world. He focusses on the field quantification of alluvial morphodynamics, the diversity of large river pattern and the application of fluvial sedimentology in characterising reservoir heterogeneity. This work has been supported by 16 NERC grants and several contracts from the petroleum industry.

Phil Ashworth is an Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) and Professor of Physical Geography.

As an Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Phil reports directly to the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Enterprise, Professor Tara Dean. He is responsible for ensuring that the actions arising out of the new University Research and Enterprise Strategic Plan are supported and implemented effectively to maximise the scale, quality, impact and international reach of the University’s research and enterprise. Phil leads development of the new Centres of Research and Enterprise Excellence (COREs), provides strategic leadership on the investment of quality-related (QR) income (£5.7m) and manages the Research Services budget (£1.6m). He also Chairs the University's Commercialisation Panel that invests HEIF income in new innovation projects. Phil is a member of the Executive-led 'Securing our Future' Group that is making recommendations on the new size and shape of the university from 1 August 2021. As part of this work, he leads the workstream making efficiency gains and savings across the Research and Enterprise remit (budget of £9.4m). Phil leads the University planning on investing and opimising QR investment and is a member of the Academic Operations Implementation Group that is overseeing reconfiguration of the new cross-School roles and responsibilities. Phil Chairs the Board of the Joint Clinical Research Office based in the Brighton and Sussex Medical School, serves on the Strategy Board of the Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre and on the Research Design Service South East (RDS SE) Advisory Board. He works with STEM-based Schools to motivate staff to produce outstanding research and was a lead member of the REF2021 leadership team, including principal author of the Institutional-Level Environment Statement.

Phil is an international scholar in the earth, physical and environmental sciences with H-Index of 47 and over 6100 citations. He currently works on landscape evolution and sedimentation across a range of scales including the largest rivers and estuaries in the world. His research has been supported by over £5.5m of funding including 16 grants from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Phil has close links with the petroleum industry and recent projects include working on the Albertan Oil Sands in Canada.

Phil has a strong association with the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) where he was one of only 14 UK scientists invited to chair all the Responsive Mode grant panels (2010-2014). He has also chaired panels for Directed Programmes, Strategic Capital Equipment, International Opportunities and Global Partnerships. Phil is currently a NERC Core member of the Peer Review College and a member of the NERC Scientific Support and Facilities Review Group. He is a member of the UKRI Future Leaders Panel Pool and was Deputy Chair in interviews for Rounds 1 and 4 and a Sift Member for Round 5. He also recently served on the EPSRC AI CDT panel. Phil was a council member and trustee of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) (2014-2017) and is a co-author of a recently published Benchmark Review of UK Physical Geography produced in association with the RGS. He was made a Fellow of the British Society for Geomorphology in 2014. Phil was appointed to the REF2021 UoA14 Geography and Environmental Studies sub-panel and helped draft the Guidance on Submissions and Criteria and Working Methods, with asessment starting in May 2021.

Phil is a keen advocate of research dissemination through different media and has outputs on ResearchGate, YouTube, and Twitter and has published articles in the Times Higher Education.

I will be delighted to supervise students in river dynamics, sediment transport and morphological change in the world's largest rivers, flooding and river-floodplain connectivity and UAVs/drone applications in river mapping. I will be starting two new NERC-funded grants in December 2020