Professional summary

Bridget is UKCEH's Science Area Head for Soils and Land Use (SLU) which involves leadership and management of more than 100 research staff and 40 postgraduate students across three UKCEH sites.  Research in the SLU team tackle urgent challenges such as the need for cleaner air, more sustainable land management practices, restoring soil health, climate mitigation as well as developing new opportunities for policy and business such as green finance and net zero across many habitats from agricultural land to upland, coastal and urban systems.  

Bridget’s current research is often as the lead for projects requiring the coordination of a large number of partners to improve integration across different disciplines and sectors from catchment/landscape to national scale to improve the evidence base and support national policy development and outcome reporting in the areas of e.g. soil health, ecosystem services, agri-environment schemes and natural capital.

Bridget was awarded Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her Services to Soil and Ecosystem Sciences in 2023; the Marsh Award for her Climate Change Research by the British Ecological Society in 2016 and was one of the team awarded the AGI Award for Geospatial Excellence in 2014. She has an H index of 57 and has a publication record with 10,945 citations. She served as the Specialist Adviser for the UK Parliamentary Inquiry into Soil Health in 2016 and was a Member of the EU Mission Board on Soil Health and Food and member 2019-2022.

Web tools and apps

Bridget's outreach activities include being a founding member and Chair of the community initiative ‘uksoils’ which aims to create a community hub to inspire us all to learn more about soil and help build communities to take action to improve soil health https://uksoils.org/. She was a member of the award winning team who developed the online community soil digital platform - the UK Soil Observatory http://www.ukso.org/ to improve community access to soil data and maps and was the co-author and narrator of BBC Ideas/Royal Society animation film on “The wonders of Soil” https://www.bbc.co.uk/ideas/videos/why-soil-is-one-of-the-most-amazing-things-on-eart/p090cf64. She often contributes to media articles and interviews regarding the importance of soil health.