Personal profile
Research interests
I am a Senior Lecturer in Earth System Modelling at the University of Bristol, within the School of Geographical Sciences. I am a Senior Research Fellow at University College London within the Department of Geography, and a Departmental Tutor at the University of Oxford's Department for Continuing Education.
My teaching is primarily for our MSc Units, and I am the Convener of the mandatory (for the "Climate Change Science and Policy" MSc programme) Unit "Earth System Modelling". I am also the Undergraduate Dissertation Coordinator across Geographical Sciences.
As a Climate Scientist (and essentially a climate modeller), my research focuses on Deep time, looking at how climate has behaved in the warmer worlds experienced during the early Eocene and mid-Pliocene (approximately 50 million and 3 million years ago, respectively). My background lies in climate variability and change (and in particular rainfall extremes) over the tropics, with a focus on Africa, and associated atmospheric, oceanic and land surface interactions. In addition, my research interests include regional climate change and the resulting climate impacts, vulnerability to climate change and adaptation measures, and perceptions/beliefs of climate change. Outside my universities, I am a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and used to be Chair of their Climate Change Research Group
As is perhaps hinted at in the photo, I also happen to be physically disabled, using a specialised electric wheelchair, non-invasive ventilation and requiring 24/7 care (that I manage myself). With no exaggeration, I can only (just) lift a finger. Think Prof Stephen Hawking*, just much less intelligent.
* I myself would never make such a presumptive comparison, but others have!
External positions
Senior Visiting Research Fellow, University of Reading
Research Groups and Themes
- Cabot Institute Environmental Change Research
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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Simulated Changes and Future Analogy Extent of Ocean Heat Content During the Mid‐Pliocene Warm Period
Grosvenor, H. J., Ford, H. L., Brierley, C. M. & Williams, C. J. R., 16 Feb 2026, In: Geophysical Research Letters. 53, 3, 15 p., e2025GL118840.Research output: Contribution to journal › Letter (Academic Journal) › peer-review
Open Access -
Assessing future ice-sheet variability for long-term safety of deep geological repositories
Liakka, J., Lord, N. S., Kennedy-Asser, A., Lunt, D. J., Williams, C. J. R. & Näslund, J.-O., 4 Dec 2024, In: Advances in Geosciences. 65, p. 71-81 11 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review
Open Access1 Citation (Scopus) -
Decomposition of physical processes controlling EASM precipitation changes during the mid-Piacenzian: new insights into data–model integration
Sun, Y., Wu, H., Ding, L., Chen, L., Stepanek, C., Zhao, Y., Tan, N., Su, B., Yuan, X., Zhang, W., Liu, B., Hunter, S., Haywood, A., Abe-Ouchi, A., Otto-Bliesner, B., Contoux, C., Lunt, D. J., Dolan, A., Chandan, D. & Lohmann, G. & 11 others, , 5 Jun 2024, In: npj Climate and Atmospheric Science. 7, 1, 10 p., 120.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review
Open Access7 Citations (Scopus)
Datasets
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IPCC DDC: NERC HadGEM3-GC31-LL model output prepared for CMIP6 PMIP
Williams, C. (Creator), Lunt, D. (Creator), Singarayer, J. (Creator), Guarino, M. V. (Contributor) & Sime, L. (Contributor), World Data Center for Climate (WDCC) at DKRZ, 2023
DOI: 10.26050/wdcc/ar6.c6pmnehgl, http://cera-www.dkrz.de/WDCC/ui/Compact.jsp?acronym=C6PMNEHGL
Dataset
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Paleobotanical precipitation estimates used in Williams et al.: African hydroclimate monsoon during the early Eocene from the DeepMIP simulations, Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, 2022
Williams, C. (Creator), Zenodo, 20 Apr 2022
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6472914, https://zenodo.org/record/6472914
Dataset
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Data for Past terrestrial hydroclimate sensitivity controlled by Earth System Feedbacks
Feng, R. (Creator), Bhattacharya, T. (Creator), Otto-Bliesner, B. (Creator), Brady, E. (Creator), Haywood, A. (Creator), Tindall, J. (Creator), Hunter, S. (Creator), Ouchi, A.A. (Creator), Chan, W.-L. (Creator), Kageyama, M. (Creator), Contoux, C. (Creator), Guo, C. (Creator), Li, X. (Creator), Lohmann, G. (Creator), Stepanek, C. (Creator), Tan, N. (Creator), Zhang, Q. (Creator), Zhang, Z. (Creator), Han, Z. (Creator), Williams, C. (Creator), Lunt, D. (Creator), Dowsett, H. (Creator), Chandan, D. (Creator) & Peltier, W. (Creator), Zenodo, 2022
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5706370, https://zenodo.org/record/5706370
Dataset