The London NERC DTPCarl Sayer - The London NERC DTP

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Profile

Full Name:	Dr Carl Sayer
Profile Display Name:	Carl Sayer
E-mail Address:	c.sayer@ucl.ac.uk
Institution:	UCL
Department:	Geography
Job Title:
Bio:	I am currently a Reader (Associate Professor) in the Department of Geography at UCL where I also lead the Pond Restoration Research Group (PRRG). The PRRG is a fun and supportive group, that leads practical pond restoration events, organises “Bioblitzes” events and citizen science monitoring to engage farmers and the public with ponds, leads pond tours and pond conservation workshops and pushes aquatic conservation with the conservation community and with policy-makers. I am a passionate environmentalist with a research interest in aquatic habitats, including ponds, lakes, rivers and wetlands – “aquatic landscapes” no less. I was born in a small village surrounded by ponds and developed a very early passion for natural history, especially in freshwaters. I now undertake research into the current-day ecology and ecological history of aquatic habitats and make major efforts to transfer scientific findings into practical conservation and restoration action. I am especially keen on landscape-scale ideas in conservation and in rewilding approaches that put into place natural recovery processes. In 2015 I won the UCL Public Engagement Award and over 2013-2018 I was nominated for 5 UCL Student Choice Awards for Outstanding Teaching, Outstanding Student Support and Personal Tutoring. In 1999 I founded the River Glaven Conservation Group which has won several awards for its river conservation and restoration work and in 2014 I founded the Norfolk Ponds Project (NPP) which aims to deliver landscape-scale pond conservation for networks of farmland ponds. The NPP was the Winner of the Campaign for Protection of Rural England (CPRE) “Best Campaign” award in 2018. I am also the founder of the UCL Conservation Society which aims to engage students with nature conservation issues and which is spear-heading a #plasticfreeUCL campaign. I have supervised 16 PhD students all of whom have passed their PhDs and who are great friends!
Research Interests:	Pond landscape conservation and restoration, Lowland river and lake restoration ecology, especially rewilding approaches, Palaeoecology of lakes and ponds with a special focus on conservation, Acoustic ecology of freshwaters and application to citizen science, Ecology of the European Eel, Ecology and conservation of the Crucian Carp, Engaging the public with aquatic conservation, Ecology and management of aquatic invasive species, Aquatic-terrestrial linkages, especially for ponds.