Jed is passionate about rewilding and regenerative agriculture, particularly in exploring and understanding how to encourage nature recovery in soils and their responses to different interventions. Focusing mainly on the UK, Jed has previously worked on understanding mycorrhizal responses to rewilding at the Knepp Wildland, and is now also partnered with the Centre for High Carbon Capture Cropping (CHCx3) to investigate soils under regenerative agriculture regimes. It is hoped that this knowledge can help contribute to and inform successful landscape scale conservation and nature recovery in the UK.
Jed holds an MA in Geography from the University of Cambridge, and an MPhil in Biodiversity, Conservation, and Management from the University of Oxford, with previous experience prior to beginning his postgraduate studies working in circular economy consulting. In his spare time, Jed is also a keen gardener and forager who loves to share his passions with anyone who’s keen to listen!
Huanyuan has special interest in applying mathematical modelling and remote sensing technique in studying the terrestrial carbon cycle. Before coming to Oxford, Huanyuan completed a dual-Bachelor Degree in Environmental science, University of Birmingham and Sun Yat-sen University. an MRes on Ecosystem and Environmental change, Imperial College London. Before coming to Oxford, Huanyuan previously worked on the CO2 fertilization effect on terrestrial ecosystem and land carbon sink modelling. Huanyuan is also a qualified PADI dive master.
Dr Emilie Vrain is a Senior Research Associate at the Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, Oxford. As a social scientist, her research uses both quantitative and qualitative methods, analysing factors which influence the adoption and use of digital low carbon innovations. Emilie currently works on the iDODDLE project funded by the European Research Council and is investigating the underlying mechanisms of digital daily life and the impacts on climate change.
I am an ecosystem scientist studying the interactions between biotic and abiotic components of the Earth System. I have in recent years become increasingly interested in the role large mammals play in shaping their own physical, chemical and biological environments, i.e. as ecosystem engineers. As I also want to make a difference outside academia, I have started collaborations with groups in Oxford (UK), Aarhus and Copenhagen (DK) to reveal the potential of megafauna rewilding for conserving and restoring biodiversity without compromising climate change mitigation goals.
Annie is a DPhil candidate at the School of Geography and the Environment, conducting critical social science research on the emerging trend of Nature-based Solutions to climate change and biodiversity loss. She is a more-than-human geographer, investigating the interconnections and politics between human, animal, environment, and infrastructure within Nature-based Solutions projects and policies. She currently grounds her theory in the cases of beaver reintroductions and regenerative agriculture, developing a more-than-human go-along methodology and elaborating concepts such as multispecies collaboration. Ultimately, she hopes the balance of her research outputs between theory and practice contributes to the development of better and more equitable Nature-based Solutions.
Stephen joined in 2023 as the centre manager for the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery. He is responsible for day-to-day operations of the centre; managing the communication and program management processes across the multiple workstreams and assisting the directors in delivering against the strategic plan to meet the centre’s core aims.
Polly’s role is to manage the administrative office of the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery, and support its day-to-day administration and processes including recruitment, finance and liaison with the Leverhulme Trust. As Administrator for the ECI Energy programme she supports the research and engagement activities of the energy team and is responsible for internal and external processes related to programme activities.
Theo is an environmental geographer whose research examines the relationship between science, technology and environmental justice.
Theo’s PhD research investigates nature restoration in the Scottish Highlands. Drawing upon a mixture of ethnographic and interview techniques, the project examines how forests are measured using a range of metrics and technologies. He traces how environmental, ecological and economic value are generated through measurement practices. This uncovers how certain forest futures are made financially and socially valuable – for the benefit of some at the expense of others. In doing so, his work highlights how ecology and political economy shape each other. His work draws principally on science and technology studies, environmental anthropology, and political ecology.
Jenny’s current DPhil research focuses on the digital, cultural, and environmental geographies of rural landscapes. Her thesis examines the extent to which dominant representations and mediations of the Lake District National Park as a romanticised rural landscape have been continued through contemporary digital mechanisms of communication such as social media. The overarching aim of her thesis is to develop a digital ecology of the ‘#LakeDistrict’, by exploring how these powerful imaginaries may be contested by local rural communities whose perspectives are absent in digital media, namely the fell farming families whose Herdwick sheep are often the subject of intense debate regarding the Lake District’s management. Jenny’s current research utilises a diverse range of experimental research methods, from large-scale digital analyses of existing online #LakeDistricts, to collaborative digital image elicitation with rural communities. Her studies address how social media inherits and transforms power relations between media and rural space, and how we might rematerialise a local, more-than-human account of the rural in the contemporary English context.
His research has focussed on an STS critique of the power of global warming potential metrics in food sustainability discourse; the role of legumes in farm management practices; the rise of the Regenerative Agricultural movement; an agricultural ethics of care; and attempts to naturalise the presence of livestock animals in the food system.
