Dr John MacDonald he/him
Senior Lecturer in Anthropogenic Geomaterials
Mission Priority Areas
Environmental Science is a very white discipline, as well as often populated by people from advantaged backgrounds. I want to do my bit to make the field more diverse and I believe DiveIn CDT will be a good vehicle to work towards this.
My research passion is for sustainable solutions to big environmental challenges. My main focus is on helping to mitigate the climate crisis through carbon dioxide removal (CDR) approaches but I also work on environmental pollution from industry.
My research passion is for sustainable solutions to big environmental challenges. My main focus is on helping to mitigate the climate crisis through carbon dioxide removal (CDR) approaches but I also work on environmental pollution from industry.
I refuse to call it “my group”, or indeed “my PhD students” – I do not own them, they are my colleagues and collaborators; I work with them. Our group works largely on CDR with industrial wastes – steelmaking slags, quarry fines – but we also look at how these wastes relate to the environment, e.g. benefits to biodiversity.
I’m increasingly interested in interdisciplinary projects. I already supervise interdisciplinary PhDs spanning environmental science, geology, materials science, archaeology, ecology and human geography. I am keen to develop further new interdisciplinary collaborations in these fields. One area I have not collaborated with yet is computing/data science/AI, which I think will offer new insights into the kind of CDR research I do.
My default mode of supervision is relatively hands-off, giving PhD the space to take ownership of their projects and develop them. This has worked well with some of the PhD students I currently supervise, who have sought out and built collaborations with external industrial and third sector organisations which now support their projects. However, I recognise this supervision approach does not work for all – overall I strive to be an adaptable supervisor, tailoring my supervision approaches to the needs of the students.
None of the PhD students I have supervised have yet graduated (3 are in their 4th year and will submit in 2024). One MSc by Research student I supervised has gone on to do a PhD at another institution.
In terms of EDI, I was a member of the GES Athena Swan committee for several years, leading the data collection and analysis part of our submission, for which we received a Silver award. I am a mentor to 3 early career academic colleagues and 1 technical colleague. My goal is to embed EDI in everything I do, as well as encouraging colleagues at all levels to be the same.
To add a personal touch to my profile, I like healthy outdoor pursuits/sport, and play tennis and badminton regularly. You may also find me on occasion playing the bagpipes!
