People in BIFoR 

2023 organogram of BIFoRv3

The image above is our best attempt to summarise the BIFoR team of professional service staff and academics. It is very  difficult to summarise as sometimes researchers fit more than one theme of research. The names in red are recent members of the Institute (2022/23). An accessible version of this organisation chart is available. If you have any questions please contact us

BIFoR Directors

Prof Rob Jackson
Prof Rob MacKenzie
Prof Jeremy Pritchard
Prof Nicola Spence 
Prof Sami Ullah 

BIFoR Advisory Group

Visit the BIFoR Advisory Group page  to see a list of members and further details

BIFoR Board 

  • Suzanne Bartington (Medical and Dentistry) 
  • Prof Richard Butler (College of Life and Environmental Sciences)
  • Clare Cooper (College of Life and Environmental Sciences - Bio)
  • Dr Emma Ferranti  (College of Engineering and Physical Sciences)
  • Lesley Ann Ford (College of Life and Environmental Sciences) 
  • Professor Christine Foyer (College of Life and Environmental Sciences) 
  • Dr Eva Frickel (College of Life and Environmental Sciences)  
  • Professor Vincent Gauci (College of Life and Environmental Sciences - GEES)  
  • Professor David Hannah (College of Life and Environmental Sciences)
  • Dr Kris Hart (College of Life and Environmental Sciences)
  • Dr John Holmes (College of Arts and Law)  / Toria Johnson (College of Arts and Law)
  • Professor Rob Jackson (College of Life and Environmental Sciences - Biosciences)  
  • Dr Estrella Luna-Diez (College of Life and Environmental Sciences - Biosciences)
  • Amy Kendrick (Director of Operations - College of Life and Environmental Sciences) 
  • Professor Rob MacKenzie (College of Life and Environmental Sciences - GEES  
  • Professor David Maddison (College of Social Sciences)
  • Dr Jon Oldfield (College of Life and Environmental Sciences - Head of School GEES)
  • Professor Jeremy Pritchard (College of Life and Environmental Sciences - Biosciences)
  • Professor Sami Ullah (College of Life and Environmental Sciences - GEES) 
  • Peter Tierney (Finance) 
  • Deanne Brettle Secretary to the Board (College of Life and Environmental Sciences) 

BIFoR Science Committee

Honorary Institute members 

We are delighted to have the following people as honorary members of the Institute. 

People Jon Drori v2Professor Jon Drori
 Read more ... 
People Debbie HemmingDr Debbie Hemming 
Read more ... 
People Rich Norby
Professor Richard Norby
Read more ... 

BIFoR Professional Service Staff

Deanne Brettle -  Project Officer 
Imogen Carter - Research Technician
Gael Denny - Field Technician BIFoR FACE facility
Dr Sam Dobbie - Education and Outreach Officer 
Thomas Downes - Apprentice Engineer
George Fereday - Research Technician, FACE Underground 
James Gore - Research Technician, QUINTUS project
Robert Grzesik - Senior Research Technician, QUINTUS 
Nicholas Harper - Senior Engineer FACE facility
Dr Kris Hart - Operations Manager -  K.M.Hart@bham.ac.uk 
Peter Miles - Field Technician BIFoR FACE facility 
Max Williams - Research Technician 
Xizhe He - Research Technician 

Academic and Postdoctoral Staff and Postgraduate Students 

The number of academic members of staff affiliated to BIFoR has grown quickly.  BIFoR is a virtual institute of over 100 academics, primarily from the schools of Biosciences and Geography Earth and Environmental Sciences but also including members from Mathematics, Engineering, the Business School, International Development, Psychology, English, and elsewhere. University of Birmingham staff and students whose research interest is related to forested landscapes should consider themselves as part of the wider Institute of Forest Research. A list of people actively involved in research at the BIFoR FACE Facility is also available on our  BIFoR FACE People page. To follow is a list of academic staff and students already affiliated with BIFoR.

College of Life and Environmental Sciences

School of Biosciences 

Academic Staff 


Dr Florian Busch
Dr Marine Cambon 
Dr Marco Catoni 
Dr Lindsey Compton 
Prof Christine Foyer 
Dr Anna Gardner 
Dr Scott Hayward 
Prof Rob Jackson 
Dr Graeme Kettles 
Dr Lisa Lamberte
Dr Estrella Luna-Diez 
Prof James McDonald 
Dr Megan McDonald 
Prof Nigel Maxted 
Prof Robin May
Dr Bethany Pettifor 
Dr Andrew Plackett 
Prof Jeremy Pritchard 
Dr Juliano Sarmento Cabral 


Honorary Staff 
Prof Jon Drori 
Prof Nicola Spence 

Postdoctoral Research 

Dr Sabrine Dhaouadi 
Dr Anna Gardner 
Dr Joe He 
Dr Maria-Laura Ciusa 
Dr Diego Marquez 
Dr Carolina Mayoral
Dr Bethany Pettifor 
Dr Rosa Sanchez-Luna
Dr Diana Vinchira-Villarraga 

Postgraduate Research 

Please visit our Doctoral Research webpage for more information.

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences 

Academic Staff

Dr Rebecca Bartlett
Dr Lesley Batty
Dr James Bendle
Prof William Bloss
Dr Chris Bradley
Dr Liling Chang 
Dr Lee Chapman
Dr Julian Clark
Dr Sophie Comer Warner 
Dr Simon Dixon
Dr Adriane Esquivel Muelbert 
Prof Vincent Gauci

Dr Alice Gauthey 
Dr Charles Goode 
Dr Laura Graham 
Dr Sophie Hadfield-Hill 
Dr Sasha Han
Dr Shan Huang
Dr Liz Hamilton 
Prof David Hannah 
Dr Jason Hilton
Dr Peter Hopcroft
Dr Nicholas Kettridge
Prof Peter Kraftl
Prof Stefan Krause
Dr Joshua Larsen
Dr Gregor Leckebush
Prof Rob MacKenzie
Dr Thomas Matthews
Dr Christian Pfrang
Prof Francis Pope
Dr Tom Pugh
Prof Jon Sadler 
Dr Zongbo Shi
Prof Sami Ullah
Dr Sebastian Watt

Postdoctoral Research

Dr Rodrigo Bergamin 

Dr Bruno Cintra
Dr Yafei Gao

Postgraduate researchers 

Please visit our Doctoral Research webpage

School of Psychology

Dr Ali Mazaheri 
Postgraduate Researchers 

Please visit our Doctoral Research webpage

College of Engineering and Physical Sciences

Prof Phillip Davies 
Dr Rosemary Dyson 
Dr Emma Ferranti
Dr Bruno Fraga 
Dr Pola Goldberg Oppenheimer 
Dr Mike Jesson 
Dr Natalia Petrovskaya 
Dr Andrew Quinn

Postgraduate Researchers 
Please visit our Doctoral Research webpage

College of Arts and Law 

Dr Annie Mahtani
Dr Angus Brown
Prof Alexandra Harris
Prof John Holmes 
Dr Toria Johnson 
Dr Will Tattershill 

Postgraduate Researchers 

Please visit our Doctoral Research webpage

College of Social Sciences 

Dr Allan Bertran 
Dr Brock Bersaglio 
Prof Robert Elliott 
Prof David Maddison 
Prof Fiona Nunan (International Development Department) 

Postgraduate Researchers 
Please visit our Doctoral Research webpage

Previous staff of University of Birmingham who have moved on

Dr Shoaib Amjad
Dr Will Allwood 
Dr Phil Blaen
Prof Xiaoming Cai 
Selvakumar Dhandapani
Dr Nick Grayson 
Francesca Jarvis-Rouse
Prof Iain Johnston
Dr Angeliki Kourmouli 
Gary McClean
Dr Olivia Mosley 
Dr Johanna Pihlblad
Dr Alex Poynter
Dr Mojgan Rabiey 
Dr Michaela Reay 
Dr Susanne Suvanto 
Dr Jade Taylor-Phillips 
Prof Michael Tausz 
Dr Sabine Tausz-Posch
Dr Rick Thomas 
Dr Frank Uekotter 

Previous Distinguished Visiting Fellows

BIFoR works closely with the University’s Institute of Advanced Studies to host Distinguished Visiting Fellows.

Dr Teresa Blume
Dr Kristine Crous - University of Western Sydney 
Prof David Ellsworth - University of Western Sydney 
Prof Tait Keller
Dr Debbie Hemming - Met Office
Prof Rich Norby
Dr Mantha S. Phanikumar
Prof Sharon Robinson

Woodland Diversifcation study 2