Melanie Leng

Melanie Jane Leng MBE is a Professor of Isotope Geosciences at the University of Nottingham[1] working on isotopes, palaeoclimate and geochemistry.[2][3][4][5] She also serves as the Chief Scientist for Environmental Change Adaptation and Resilience at the British Geological Survey and Director of the Centre for Environmental Geochemistry, a collaboration between the University of Nottingham and the British Geological Survey. For many years (till 2019) she has been the UK convenor and representative of the UK geoscience community on the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program.

Melanie Leng

MBE
Melanie Leng
Born
Melanie Jane Leng

Scarborough, North Yorkshire
Alma materOxford Polytechnic (BSc) and Aberystwyth University (PhD)
Scientific career
FieldsIsotopes
Palaeoclimate
Geochemistry[1]
InstitutionsUniversity of Nottingham
British Geological Survey
ThesisLate Ordovician-early Silurian palaeo-environmental analysis in the Tywyn-Corris area of mid-Wales (1990)
Websitewww.nottingham.ac.uk/biosciences/people/melanie.leng and https://www.bgs.ac.uk/staff/profiles/0915.html

Early life and education

Leng grew up in Scarborough, North Yorkshire.[6] She spent her childhood on the cliffs and beaches of the Lower Jurassic. Leng studied geology for GCSE and A Level. At Sixth Form College she took a field trip to Ravenscar and described finding an ammonite which hooked her into geology. She studied for a BSc in Earth Science at Oxford Polytechnic, gained her PhD at Aberystwyth University in 1990,[7] then moved to the British Geological Survey to work in the isotope laboratory.[8]

Research and career
Mel in the Stable Isotope laboratory
Mel on ORCHESTRA cruise

Leng has several roles, her most current is Chief Scientist for Environmental Change Adaptation and Resilience at the British Geological Survey. She is also Director of the Centre for Environmental Geochemistry, a collaboration between the British Geological Survey and the University of Nottingham, Leng leads research around environmental change, human impact, food security, and resource management. Leng has been involved in deep drilling as part of the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program, and worked in Lake Ohrid in Macedonia and Lake Chala in East Africa.[7] She also heads the Stable Isotope Facility at the British Geological Survey, which is part of the National Environmental Isotope Facility. Stable isotopes can be used to better understand climate change and human-landscape interactions, with increasing importance on the Anthropocene and the modern calibration period; tracers of modern pollution; and understanding the hydrological cycle especially in areas suffering human impact. Leng takes part in expeditions, most recently the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) mission called ORCHESTRA (Ocean Regulation of Climate by Heat and Carbon Sequestration and Transports).[9] She actively blogs about her research.

Leng serves on the editorial board of the journals Quaternary Research', Quaternary Science Reviews', Scientific Reports and Journal of Paleolimnology.

She has recently written how to successfully undertake a PhD in geoscience, with Professor Anson Mackay.[10]

Awards and honours

Leng was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2019 Birthday Honours.[11]

References
  1. Melanie Leng publications indexed by Google Scholar
  2. Lamb, Angela L.; Wilson, Graham P.; Leng, Melanie J. (2006). "A review of coastal palaeoclimate and relative sea-level reconstructions using δ13C and C/N ratios in organic material". Earth-Science Reviews. 75 (1–4): 29–57. doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2005.10.003. ISSN 0012-8252.
  3. Haug, Gerald H.; Ganopolski, Andrey; Sigman, Daniel M.; Rosell-Mele, Antoni; Swann, George E. A.; Tiedemann, Ralf; Jaccard, Samuel L.; Bollmann, Jörg; Maslin, Mark A.; Leng, Melanie J.; Eglinton, Geoffrey (2005). "North Pacific seasonality and the glaciation of North America 2.7 million years ago". Nature. 433 (7028): 821–825. doi:10.1038/nature03332. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 15729332.
  4. Leng, Melanie J; Marshall, Jim D (2004). "Palaeoclimate interpretation of stable isotope data from lake sediment archives" (PDF). Quaternary Science Reviews. 23 (7–8): 811–831. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2003.06.012. ISSN 0277-3791.
  5. "Customer Spotlight: British Geological Survey". Website of Elementar. Elementar. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  6. girlsintogeoscience (2016-06-08). "Profile: Prof Melanie Leng (Director, Stable Isotope Facility (British Geological Survey); Professor of Isotope Geoscience, University of Nottingham)". Girls Into Geoscience. Retrieved 2019-06-16.
  7. "Melanie Leng - The University of Nottingham". nottingham.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-06-16.
  8. "University of Nottingham-British Geological Survey Centre for Environmental Geochemistry". environmentalgeochemistry.org. Retrieved 2019-06-17.
  9. "GeoBlogy: On board the RRS James Clark Ross: ORCHESTRA part 3…by Melanie Leng". GeoBlogy. 2018-11-09. Retrieved 2019-06-16.
  10. "The Geological Society of London - Essential tips for a rock-solid geoscience PhD: Part I". geolsoc.org.uk. doi:10.1144/geosci2018-011. Retrieved 2019-06-16.
  11. Reid, Ben (2019-06-07). "Queen's Birthday Honours 2019: The full list of who has been honoured in Notts". nottinghampost.com. Retrieved 2019-06-17.
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