Experience
Dr. Walsh is an interdisciplinary environmental scientist, having joined the university in 2017. He does not consider himself a subject specialist in the strictest sense, having worked in areas as diverse as sports science and naval architecture. Ostensibly he works within the areas of resource (and carbon) accounting and lifecycle assessment (LCA) and techno-economics. Prior to joining the university, he served as a research associate/fellow in the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, based in the University of Manchester. During this period, he worked on diverse projects on issues relating to low grade heat in industry, the emissions of the UK and Global shipping sector, and comparing marine fuel cycles.
He took part in a consortium project involving several universities such as UCL and University of Strathclyde, and was involved in diverse activities including economic modelling, shipping system modelling and lifecycle assessment. During this period he sat on the special emissions working group of the IMarEST (Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology). He led the development of detailed trade scenario for climate changes futures which integrated econometric, material flow analyses and the outputs of integrated assessment models. This work demonstrating the trade-offs of decarbonisation of the global economy and shipping amid increased bio-energy trade. During this time, he was also involved in numerous teaching and outreach activities, mostly at MSc level, teaching on the operationalisation of the sustainability concept.
Shortly after arriving at the university He has led the MSc ‘Global Environmental Change’ which is framed around the land water energy and food nexus, as well as leading modules at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, on subjects such as use of indicator species and carbon accounting. Since arriving at the University, His research work has shift to agricultural systems, which is fitting as he undertook PhD research, in on the Ecological Footprint, a well-established, land-based indicator of sustainability. (This was done as part of a research agenda setting processing involving practitioners around world, including the concepts founder).
As a member of the Natural Resources Institute (NRI) He been involved in diverse research activities with an agronomic focus, including the EU funded value chain analysis for analysis (VCA4D) programme as well other projects examining the impact of coffee cultivation (collaborating with colleagues in Costa Rica and Guatemala) and the development of climate smart agriculture (CSA) decision tool in collaboration with Syngenta foundation. Specifically, he has led a Defa funded LCA project involving Rothamsted research, University of Surrey and London Southbank University. This project involves undertaking a lifecycle assessment of a ‘foodbasket’ of a range of different commodities. This world demonstrates important trade-offs in terms of competing interests such as reducing the environmental burden and increasing the animal welfare of specific livestock systems. In a mentoring capacity, he routinely advises colleagues as thy work towards obtaining teaching qualifications. He is frequently involved in media appearing having spoken on BBC radio on issues relating to climate change and has been quoted in The Times on issues relating to climate change education. He is supervising PhD projects across such varied topics as value chain shocks, building design and evolving climate activism
