Dr Scott McGrane

Personal statement

I am a University of Strathclyde Chancellor's Fellow (Society and Policy) since May 2019, having originally joined the Department of Economics (Fraser of Allander Institute) at the University of Strathclyde in September 2017, working on a collaborative project alongside the Department of Physics and the Stanford Photonics Research Center. 

My backrgound is in environmental science, though I pride myself in being a truly interdisciplinary researcher. My qualifications include an MA(Hons) in Geography and Environmental Science, and a Master of Research (MRes) in Civil Engineering, both from the University of Dundee. I completed my PhD at the University of Aberdeen in 2013 in catchment hydrology, undertaking research that explored the impacts of environmental perturbations on natural river dynamics in Scottish uplands. 

My research interests have continued to address the impacts of environmental change on large river systems. Between 2013 and 2016 I worked as a research fellow in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Surrey, working on a NERC funded project that sought to assess and model the impacts of urbanisation and climate change on water quality in the Thames Basin. In 2016, I moved to the School of Mathematics & Statistics at the University of Glasgow, working on an EPSRC project that sought to determine the interlinkages and feedbacks that exist between water, energy and food systems in the UK. 

I am the Honorary Treasurer (and executive committee member) for the British Hydrological Society. I also serve as an expert reviewer for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for the upcoming Sixth Assessment Report, and I am part of the Position Statement authorship team for the American Geophysical Union, where I was recently involved in the determination of a climate change position statement for 2019. 

My research investigates the role natural resources play in economic systems, and identifying the impacts of environmental change on economic sectors at a regional, national and international scale. Through my involvement with the Global Environmental Measurement and Monitoring (GEMM) Network at Strathclyde, I seek to explore how advances in earth observational technologies can better inform us on the likely impacts of climate change at a sub-national level, helping to drive the development of relative climate and environmental policies. 

I am open to supporting PhD students that are interested in the role of the natural environment in economic systems, and undertaking transdisciplinary approaches to understanding the likely impacts of environmental change on human-environment systems (including economic impacts, health impacts, environmental system impacts and natural hazards).