Dr Tim Foster, Reader and Group Lead

Tim Foster is a Reader (Associate Professor) in Water-Food Security in the Department of Civil Engineering and Management at the University of Manchester. He is also the Director of the Manchester Environmental Research Institute. His research develops and integrates crop and hydrologic models, earth observation techniques, and economic analysis to evaluate farmers' decision-making about land, water and energy use, and design policies solutions to support agricultural water management and climate adaptation. His work is highly interdisciplinary, and involves collaborations with hydrologists, economists, and agronomists from academia, government, and policy organisations worldwide.​

Dr Ben Parkes, Senior Lecturer in Climate Resilience

Ben is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Climate Impacts in the Department of Civil Engineering and Management​ at the University of Manchester. His research is focused on assessing impacts of climate variability and change on rural and urban communities globally. His current research within the group is developing new models of crop-climate interactions in India to support design of agricultural insurance contracts. His broader research is evaluating the impacts of climate change on people's lives, including the health implications of increasing extreme heat events.

Matt Lees, Postdoctoral researcher

Matt is a Postdoc Researcher in the Department of Civil Engineering and Management at the University of Manchester. His research focuses on the use of remote sensing technologies for monitoring fluxes and stores of water in an agricultural setting, primarily at the basin and subbasin-scales, as part of the TRANSCEND project. Previously, Matt was a PhD researcher in Geophysics at Stanford University, where his focus was on the use of InSAR data to further groundwater science and management in California's Central Valley. 

Chris Bowden, Postdoctoral researcher

Chris is a Postdoc Researcher in the Department of Civil Engineering and Management at the University of Manchester. His research is centred on developing open-source crop-water modelling tools to support assessment of water risks to agriculture at basin to regional scales as part of the TRANSCEND project. Previously, Chris was a PhD researcher in the group where his work developed machine learning approaches to assess and improve resilience of rice production in India to monsoon variability and climate change. 

Shoobhangi Tyagi, Postdoctoral researcher

Shoobhangi is a Postdoc Researcher in the Department of Civil Engineering and Management​ at the University of Manchester. As part of the TRANSCEND project, her work focuses on developing digital tools that combine agro-hydrological models with advanced programming to inform climate adaptation strategies at regional and global scales. Previously, she completed her PhD in Atmospheric Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, where she investigated the impacts of climate change and modelling uncertainties on water and food security in Central India.

Pauline Kimani, PhD researcher

Pauline is a PhD researcher in the Department of Civil Engineering and Management​ at the University of Manchester, pursuing a joint programme with the University of Melbourne under the Cookson Scholars program. Her research aims at applying earth observation techniques, machine learning and integrated crop modelling in developing sustainable intensification pathways for cereal production systems. Pauline is supervised by Dr Tim Foster and Dr Ben Parkes at Manchester, along with Dr Shu Kee Lam, Dr Alexis Pang and Prof Pablo Zarco Tejada at Melbourne.

Brian Kiberenge, PhD researcher

Brian is a PhD researcher in the Department of Civil Engineering and Management at the University of Manchester under the MACE doctoral award. Brian’s research explores water stewardship commitments and practices of global agribusinesses with a focus on improving supply chain sustainability and resilience. He previously obtained an MSc in Sustainable Agricultural Technologies from the University of Sheffield, UK. Brian is supervised by Dr. Tim Foster and Dr. Ben Parkes

Dhanapal Govindarajulu, PhD researcher

Dhanapal is a PhD researcher based in the Global Development Institute (GDI) at the University of Manchester. Dhanapal's research seeks to understand the social and ecological impacts of forest landscape restoration in India. His research is funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF). He has a master's degree in Environment Management from Forest Research Institute, India. Dhanapal is supervised by Dr. Johan Oldekop (GDI), Dr. Tim Foster, Dr Rose Pritchard (GDI), and Prof. Ashwini Chhatre, Indian School of Business.

Amali Amali, PhD researcher

Amali is a PhD researcher in the Dept. of Geography at the University of Manchester. Amali's research is evaluating the utility of satellite remote sensing for quantifying irrigation water use, and assessing how satellite-based monitoring can be used to strengthen compliance and enforcement of agricultural water management policies. Previously, Amali obtained his MSc degree in Integrated Water Resource Management from TH Köln in Germany. Amali is supervised by Dr Tim Foster and Dr Angela Harris (Geography)

Group Alumni

Postdocs
  1. Dr Ben Parkes (Postdoctoral Researcher, 2018-2019), Now Lecturer @ the University of Manchester, UK
  2. Dr Mehdi Afshar (Postdoctoral Researcher, 2019-2020), Now Assistant Professor @ Middle East Technical University, Turkey
  3. Dr Tom Higginbottom (Postdoctoral Researcher, 2018-2021), Now Earth Observation Scientist @ Airbus, UK
  4. Dr Roshan Adhikari (Postdoctoral Researcher, 2018-2022), Now Research Fellow @ Nottingham Trent University, UK

PhD/Masters Students
  1. Dr Oluseun Adeluyi (PhD student, Graduated 2021), Now Remote Sensing Expert @ OmegaCrop, UK
  2. Dr Tom Kelly (PhD student, Graduated 2022), Now Data Analyst @ AutoTrader, UK
  3. Dr Sarah Redicker (PhD student, Graduated 2022), Now Postdoctoral Researcher @ University of Exeter, UK
  4. Dr Chris Bowden (PhD student, Graduated 2023), Now Postdoctoral Researcher @ University of Manchester, UK