School of Geography and the Environment

Profile

Chris West trained as a zoologist at Oxford University (BA, 1975), and has undertaken research on a variety of animals around the world, including gorillas in Rwanda (1972), foxes in Britain (1974-76) and microscopic soil animals on South Georgia (1976-79, PhD London University 1984). He worked at Jersey (1983-86) and Bristol (1987-90) Zoos on the management and genetics of captive populations. He joined the Natural Environment Research Council in 1991, working on marine science and on international research co-operation. Since March 2002, he has been Director of the UK Climate Impacts Programme.

The UK Climate Impacts Programme is a small team that helps organisations assess how they might be affected by climate change, so they can prepare for its impacts. It was set up by the Government in 1997; it is funded by Defra and based at the Environmental Change Institute. It works by promoting stakeholder-led impact research and developing a range of common tools and datasets to help organisations adapt to the impacts of unavoidable climate change.

Recent Publications

• West, C. C. and Gawith, M, J. (Eds) (2005) Measuring Progress: preparing for climate change through the UK Climate Impacts Programme. UKCIP Technical Report. UKCIP, Oxford
• Kovats, R. S. and West, C. C. (2005) Heat waves: health impacts and acute responses. HPA Chemical Hazards and Poisons Report v4:pp 20 -22
• West, C. C. (1996) First Report by The Scientific Group on Decommissioning (Editor). Natural Environment Research Council
• West, C. C. (1987) Reproduction in Pteropus Rodricensis in Captivity. In: Recent advances in the study of bats, Fenton, M.B., Racey, P.A., and Rayner, J. M. V. (Eds) Cambridge University Press.
• West, C.C. and Redshaw, M.E. (1987) Maternal behaviour in the Rodrigues fruit bat, Pteropus rodricensis. Dodo – Journal of the JWPT v. 24, p. 68-81.
• West, C. C. (1984) Ecology of soil micro-arthropod fauna of South Georgia. PhD, London University.
• West, C. C. (1984) Micro-arthropod and plant species associations in two sub-antarctic terrestrial communities. Oecologia.
• West, C. C., Struhsaker, T. T., and Rodgers, W. A. (1982) A population of Colobus tephrosceles in Mbizi Forest, SW Tanzania. African Journal of Ecology.
• West, C. C. (1982) Life histories of three species of sub-antarctic soil mite. Pedobiologia.