About the Department of Earth Sciences

Regine Hock, a professor of geophysics and glaciologist, has contributed models to calculate how much the world's glaciers are melting, and projections of how fast they will melt in the future. With her unique experience in mass balance modelling, she led the IPCC's work to describe the status of snow and ice masses in the world's high mountain areas. Dr Hock has a long-standing affiliation with the Department of Earth Sciences, as a researcher and visiting lecturer and as a visiting professor.

David Harper is Professor of Palaeontology at Durham University, UK. His research focuses on the origin and early evolution of animal-based ecosystems, their impact and relationship to climate and environment, and characteristics such as biodiversity and biogeography. He is known for his research on the important evolutionary phase of development known as the 'Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event'. Harper has collaborated extensively with the palaeontologists at the Department of Earth Sciences and has also participated in the evaluation of the faculty's master's programme.

Pär Holmgren is a meteorologist and has been involved in the climate change debate since the late 1990s. He has been head of SVT's weather editorial team, and was a member of the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation's national board in 2010-2012. He was awarded an honorary doctorate of philosophy at the Faculty of Science and Technology at Uppsala University in 2012, where he is a regular guest lecturer.

Dianne Edwards, professor at Cardiff University, Wales, and former president of the Linnean Society of London, is a world-leading paleobotanist and expert on the earliest development of land plants. Through her detailed studies of uniquely well-preserved plant fossils from the Silurian and Devonian periods, she has provided us with important insights into how the earliest spore-bearing plants functioned, thereby shedding new light on the evolutionary processes that took place during the critical period when life first colonized land. Her studies have shown that biological diversity was significantly greater during the Silurian and early Devonian periods than previously thought. Edwards continuously works on Swedish paleobotanical projects and has visited Uppsala University several times, including as a Celsius-Linnaeus lecturer.

Karen Hanghøj, FDhc, dr., British Geological Survey (BGS), Great Britain. Karen Hanghøj is a Danish geologist with expertise in the sustainable management of natural mineral resources. In 2019 she was appointed director of the British Geological Survey. She was the first woman to take on this role since the survey was founded in 1835. Hanghøj has published research papers on the geology of East Greenland, the Skaergaard intrusion and the geochemistry of the Earth's crust. In 2023, Hanghøj co-edited a special publication of the Geological Society, The Green Stone Age: Exploration and Exploitation of Minerals for Green Technologies.

Read more about Honorary Doctors of the Faculty of Science and Technology