2010 – PGCHE, University of Glasgow
2003 – PhD, University of Durham
1999 – MSc in Quaternary Science, RHUL and UCL (University of London)

James has generated more than £617,000 in external research income from UK and international funding councils, agencies and charities, published numerous articles, designed and taught new undergraduate lecture classes. He has participated on four oceanographic research cruises and six palaeoclimatological field campaigns in Scotland, Japan and China (leading three). In 2010 he was the lead Organic Geochemist on IODP Expedition 318 to Wilkes Land, Antarctica and is coordinator of the post-cruise organic geochemical analyses.

Documentary on IODP Expedition 318, Wilkes Land Glacial History, 2010. 

• 2012 - Joined Birmingham, School of GEES, as a Reader in October 2012.
• 2011 (June - December) - JSPS Invitation Fellowship (Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science) with Dr O. Seki, and Prof. K. Kawamura at ILTS, Hokkaido University, Japan. , and Prof. K. Kawamura at ILTS, Hokkaido University, Japan. 
• 2007 – 2012: SAGES lecturer and Group Leader of G-MOL, Department of Geographical and Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow. 

The RRS James Clark Ross north of Svalbard in the Arctic. James was a participant on the 2008  'ICE CHASER' Arctic research expedition. 

• 2005 – 2007: PDRA Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol (PIs: Dr Richard Pancost, Dr Mark Maslin).
• 2003 – 2005: Royal Society Fellowship Tenable in a Foreign Country – in partnership with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). Hosted by the laboratory of Professor Kimitaka, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.
• 1999-2003: PhD, Durham University, supervised by Dr Antoni Rosell-Mele (now at ICTA, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona). 

East Greenland Current, ARCICE cruise, RRS James Clark Ross, 2000

• 1999: MSc in Quaternary Science, from Royal Holloway University of London (RHUL) and University College London (UCL). Dissertation supervised my Professor Mark Maslin (UCL).

James is building a new research group at the University of Birmingham. He encourages excellent (and eligible) PhD candidates (e.g. holding relevant masters and first class honours degrees) to monitor the GEES web pages for project opportunities and to seek individually awarded funds.

Since 2008 he has been primary supervisor for 3 PhD students at Glasgow (Heiko Moossen, Paula Sankelo, Jill McColl), and primary UK supervisor for 1 Chinese CSC PhD student (Huiling Sun), who spent 2 years in the UK. He has also hosted 2 post-docs, a technician and supervised 14 final year projects undergraduate and 7 externally funded undergraduate bursaries.

Priority research themes are: 

• Greenhouse worlds, future analogues, Cenozoic and Holocene climate evolution
• High-resolution palaeoclimatology
• Biomarker proxy development

James uses molecular biomarkers (in red) to study modern and past environmental processes and conditions:

Organic carbon compounds are ubiquitous, abundant and sometimes overlooked components of oceans, lakes, sedimentary rocks and even atmospheric aerosols. Directly, or indirectly, they fuel all biogeochemical processes. As a paleoclimatologist, trained in molecular biogeochemistry, James is interested in the source, structure, and distribution of such naturally occurring compounds (biomarkers). His research is focused on the development of biomarker proxies of environmental parameters (e.g. terrestrial and sea-surface temperatures, relative humidity, C3/C4 plant distribution, wetland extent) and their application to answer questions about past climatic and environmental changes. Below is a table giving some examples of high utility biomarker applications, as applied to palaeoclimatology:

Membership of the American Geophysical Union, Geochemical Society, International Glaciological Society, Quaternary Research Association, Challenger Society for Marine Science.

Reviewer for various journals and funding agencies, including: NERC (the UK Natural Environmental Research Council), the NSF, the Research Grant Council (RGC) of Hong Kong and the NWO (the Dutch research council), Nature, PNAS, Geology, Paleoceanography, Geochimica Cosmochimica Acta, Geophysical Research Letters, Paleogeography Paleoclimatology and Paleoecology, Quaternary Science Reviews, Special Publications of The Geological Society of London.

James Bendle, Peter Bijl, Jorg Pross, Lineth Contreras, Stefan Schouten, Ursula Roehl, Lisa Tauxe, Matthew Huber, Jaime L Toney, Steven Bohaty, Henk Brinkhuis and the Expedition 318 Scientists (2013). A tropical Early Eocene marine environment on the Antarctic margin. in prep

Peter K. Bijl, James A. Bendle, Steven M. Bohaty, Jörg Pross, Stefan Schouten, Lisa Tauxe6, Catherine E. Stickley, Ursula Röhl, Appy Sluijs Matthew Olney, Henk Brinkhuis, Carlota Escutia and Expedition 318 Scientists (2013). Onset of Eocene Antarctic cooling linked to early opening of the Tasmanian Gateway. Accepted pending suitable revisions in PNAS.

Sankelo, P., Kawamura, K., Seki, O., Shibata, H., Bendle, J., (2013), Compound specific d¹³C and dD compositions of n-alkanes in fresh snow: implications for ice core studies. Antartic, Arctic and Alpine Research, Volume 45 Issue 1, pp 119-131.

Jörg Pross, Lineth Contreras, Peter K. Bijl, David R. Greenwood, Steven M. Bohaty, James A. Bendle, Ursula Röhl, Lisa Tauxe, J. Ian Raine, Claire E. Huck, Tina van de Flierdt, Stewart S.R. Jamieson, Catherine E. Stickley, Bas van de Schootbrugge, Stefan Schouten, Carlota Escutia, Henk Brinkhuis and IODP Expedition 318 Scientists., 2012, Persistent near-tropical warmth on the Antarctic continent during the early Eocene epoch. Nature 488, 73–77 doi:10.1038/nature11300.

Das, S.K., Bendle, J.A., Routh, J., (2012), Evaluating branched tetraether lipid-based paleotemperature proxies in an urban, hyper-eutrophic and polluted lake in South Africa. Organic Geochemistry, 53, pp 45-51.

L. Tauxe, C. E. Stickley, S. Sugisaki, P. K. Bijl, S. M. Bohaty, H. Brinkhuis, C. Escutia, J. A. Flores, A. J. P. Houben, M. Iwai, F. Jiménez-Espejo, R. McKay, S. Passchier, J. Pross, C. R. Riesselman, U. Röhl, F. Sangiorgi, K. Welsh, A. Klaus, A. Fehr, J.A.P. Bendle, R. Dunbar, J. Gonzàlez, T. Hayden, K. Katsuki, M. P. Olney, S. F. Pekar, P. K. Shrivastava, T. van de Flierdt, T. Williams, and M. Yamane, (2012), Integrated biomagnetostratigraphy of the Wilkes Land Margin for reconstruction of 53 Ma of Antarctic Margin paleoceanography: New results from IODP Expedition 318. Paleoceanography.Vol. 27, PA2214, 19 PP., 2012, doi:10.1029/2012PA002308.

Susanne Fietz, Carme Hugueta, James Bendle, Marina Escala, Robert Jamieson, Christopher Gallacher, Lydie Herfort, Alfredo Martínez-Garcia, Erin L. McClymont, Vicky L. Peck, Fredrick G. Prahl, Sergio Rossi, Gemma Rueda, Anna Sanson-Barrera, Antoni Rosell-Melé., (2012), Co-variation of crenarchaeol and branched GDGTs in globally distributed marine and freshwater sedimentary archives. Global Planetary Changes, Volumes 92–93, July 2012, Pages 275–285.

Maslin, M., Ettwein, V.J., Boot, C.S., Bendle, J., Pancost, R.D., (2012), Amazon Fan Biomarker evidence against the Pleistocene Rainforest Refuge Hypothesis? Volume 27, Issue 5, pages 451–460, July 2012. DOI: 10.1002/jqs.1567

Harada, N., Satoa, M., Seki, O., Timmermann, A., Moossen, H., Bendle, J., Nakamura, Y., Kimoto, K., Okazakia, Y., Nagashima, K., Gorbarenko, S.A., Ijiri, A., Nakatsuka, T., Menviel, L., Chikamotoa, M.O., Abe-Ouchi, A., Schouten, S. (2012), Sea surface and subsurface temperature changes in the Okhotsk Sea and adjacent North Pacific during the Last Glacial Maximum and deglaciation, Deep Sea Research II: Tropical Studies in Oceanography, 61-64 . In Press, pp. 93-105. ISSN 0967-0645 (doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2011.12.007.

Bendle, J.A., 2011, News & Views, Palaeoclimatology: Core data from the Antarctic margin. Nature, 470, pp 181-182. doi:10.1038/470181a

Dickson, A.J., Leng, M.J., Maslin, M.A., Sloane, H.J., Green, J., Bendle, J.A, McClymont, E.L., Pancost, R.D., 2010; Atlantic overturning circulation and Agulhas leakage influences on southeast Atlantic upper ocean hydrography during marine isotope stage 11, Palaeoceanography, 25, PA3208 doi:10.1029/2009PA001830 >>

Expedition 318 Scientists, 2010; Wilkes Land Glacial History: Cenozoic East Antarctic Ice Sheet evolution from Wilkes Land margin sediments. IODP Preliminary Reports, 318. doi:10.2204/iodp.pr.318.2010 >>

Bendle, J.A.; Pancost, R.D.; Weijers, J.W.; Maslin, M.A.; Sinninghe Damsté, J.S.; Schouten, S.; Hopmans, E.C.; Boot, C.; 2010, Major changes in Last Glacial and Holocene Terrestrial temperatures and sources of organic carbon recorded in the Amazon fan by the MBT/CBT continental palaeothermometer. Geochemistry, Geophysics and Geosystems (G-cubed). 11, Q12007. doi:10.1029/2010GC003308.

Bendle, J.A., Rosell-Melé, A., Cox, N.J., 2009, Shennan, I., Alkenones, alkenoates and organic matter in coastal environments of N.W. Scotland: assessment of potential application for sea-level reconstruction., Geochemistry, Geophysics and Geosystems (G-cubed), 10, Q12003, doi:10.1029/2009GC002603.

Dickson, A.J., Beer, C.J., Dempsey, C., Maslin, M.A., Bendle, J.A., McClymont, E.L., Pancost, R.D., (2009) Oceanic Forcing of the Marine Isotope Stage 11 interglacial, Nature Geoscience, 2, 428-433 (24 May 2009) doi:10.1038/ngeo527

Bendle, J.A.; Kawamura, K.; Yamazaki, K.; Niwai, T., 2007, Latitudinal distribution of terrestrial lipid biomarkers and n-alkane compound specific stable carbon isotope ratios in the atmosphere over the western Pacific and Southern Ocean, Geochimica Cosmochimica Acta, 71, pp5934-5955, doi:10.1016/j.gca.2007.09.029

Bendle, J.A. & Rosell-Melé, A., 2007, High resolution alkenone sea surface temperature variability on the North Icelandic Shelf: implications for Nordic Seas palaeoclimatic development during the Holocene, The Holocene, 17 (1), pp 19-24.

Okuzawa, K. Mochida, M., Bendle, J., Wang, H. and Kawamura, K. 2007. Diurnal variation of semi-volatile dicarbonyls and hydroxycarbonyls in the urban atmosphere. Geochemistry, 41, 125-134.

Bendle, J.A. & Rosell-Melé, A., 2007, High resolution alkenone sea surface temperature variability on the North Icelandic Shelf: implications for Nordic Seas palaeoclimatic development during the Holocene , The Holocene, 17 (1), pp 19-24.

Bendle, J.A.; Kawamura, K. & Yamazaki, K., 2006, Seasonal changes in stable carbon isotopic composition of n-alkanes in the marine aerosols from the western North Pacific: implications for the source and atmospheric transport, Geochimica Cosmochimica Acta, 70 (1), pp 13-26.

Bendle, J.A.; Rosell-Melé, A. & Ziveri, P., 2005, Variability of unusual distributions of alkenones in surface waters of the Nordic Seas, Palaeoceanography, Vol. 20, No. 2, PA2001, doi:10.1029/2004PA001025.

Bendle, J.A., & Rosell-Melé, A., 2004, Distributions of U^K₃₇ and U^K₃₇' in the surface waters and sediments of the Nordic Seas: implications for palaeoceanography, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 5 (11), doi:10.1029/2004GC000741.