Dr. David Martin Cooper

My main area of interest is in the transport of material in rivers, including nutrients, sediment, bacteria and viruses.  I use models to simulate the fate of this material as it travels from its source to the sea; how quickly it travels, according to hydrological conditions, and how much of it is lost or transformed along the way. I use hydrological and process-based models to simulate this fate, supported by designed river monitoring programmes, and in collaboration with process specialist colleagues. I link the river models with land surface models which generate inputs to rivers, and coastal marine models which follow the fate of material once it reaches tidal water. Aside from this main research interest, as a statistician by trade, I support the statistical needs of fellow-scientists.

After a degree in mathematics from the University of Lancaster, I took an MSc in biometry at Reading University before working at ARCUS, a predecessor of BIOSS, at Edinburgh for two years, advising on the design and analysis of agricultural experiments. I then took a PhD at the University of Wales, receiving a CASE award with ICI Runcorn studying the real-time detection of changes in time series of industrial process variables. I then joined the Institute of Hydrology at Wallingford, where, apart from brief spells at Princeton and Australian National Universities, I spent my career until 2007 when I moved to CEH Bangor. Initially I worked on flood forecast modelling, later moving into water quality modelling. Because of my statistical background I have also worked on a wide variety of projects requiring statistical skills. My career has been largely as a scientist rather than a manager, but includes project management up to European level.