Professor Gavin Foster

Gavin is a Professor of Isotope Geochemistry in the School of Ocean and Earth Science at the University of Southampton. Gavin joined the university in 2009 and made a Professor in 2015. He was awarded a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award for his research into past climates in 2016.

Gavin is a geologist and his research is primarily concerned with using novel laboratory techniques to gain insights into how and why the Earth’s climate has changed over geological time. In particular he is interested in determining the mechanisms responsible for natural CO2 change and investigating what impact natural changes in CO2 have had on the Earth System. It is well accepted that the emission of greenhouse gases by the actions of humanity since the industrial revolution have radically changed the planet. His work on the Earth’s past aims to place this recent anthropogenic climate change in its natural context. By doing this Gavin also uses how the Earth has responded to past natural climate change to test and improve the understanding of the climate system that is encapsulated in the complex numerical models used to predict our ever warming future.