Current Postgraduate Students

Dr Matthew Brain, BA (Oxon), PhD (Dunelm), FGS

Research Associate in the Department of Geography

Telephone: +44 (0) 191 33 43513

Fax: +44 (0) 191 33 41801

Room number: IHHR229

Contact Dr Matthew Brain (email at matthew.brain@durham.ac.uk)

Biography

2010 - present: Postdoctoral Research Associate. COastal Rates of Behaviour and Activity (COBRA) funded by Cleveland Potash Ltd. Durham University, UK.
2009 - 2010: Postdoctoral Research Associate. Boulby Geoscience Project funded by ONE NorthEast. Durham University, UK.
2006 - 2009. Environmental Consultant. Golder Associates (UK) Ltd., Maidenhead and Leeds, United Kingdom.
2002 - 2006: NERC-funded PhD: ‘Autocompaction of Mineralogenic Intertidal Sediments’. NERC Studentship Reference: NER/S/A/2002/10353. Department of Geography, Durham University, UK.
2001 - 2002: TEFL teacher. International House Language School, Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
1998 - 2001: BA (Hons) Geography. St. Anne’s College, University of Oxford, UK.

Research Interests

My research focuses on the geotechnical properties of soils and rocks and how understanding deformation processes in earth materials in a variety of environments and at a range of spatial scales can aid our understanding of landform and landscape evolution. In particular, I am interested in developing understanding of deformation mechanisms, styles and rates through detailed laboratory testing, informed by and calibrated with field measurements of stress and environmental conditions.

I work with a range of earth materials obtained from geomorphic settings that vary in lithology, from soft estuarine muds and peats to the strong regionally metamorphosed rocks of active orogens, and in terms of the magnitude of ambient stresses (1 x 10^-5 – 1 x 10² MPa). My research has applications in low and high energy coastal geomorphology, rock slope stability, landslide risk assessment and Quaternary/Sea Level science.

Supervises

Mr Benjamin Cullen

Selected Publications

Books: sections

Brain, M.J., Rosser, N., Petley, D., Lim, M., Barlow, J. & Norman, E. (2010). Dynamic rock strength in coastal rock cliffs. In Geologically Active. Williams, A.L., Pinches, G.M., Chin, C.Y., McMorran, T.J. & Massey, C.I. CRC Press/Taylor and Francis Group, London.

Journal papers: academic

Barlow, J., Lim, M., Rosser, N.J., Petley, D.N., Brain, M.J., Norman, E.C. & Geer, M. (2012). Modeling cliff erosion using negative power law scaling of rockfalls. Geomorphology 139-140: 416–424.
Brain, M.J., Long, A.J, Woodroffe, S.A., Petley, D.N., Milledge, D.G. & Parnell, A.C. (2012). Modelling the effects of sediment compaction on salt marsh reconstructions of recent sea-level rise. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 345-348: 180-193.
Brain, M.J., Long, A.J., Petley, D.N., Horton, B.P. & Allison, R.J. (2011). Compression behaviour of minerogenic low energy intertidal sediments. Sedimentary Geology 233(1 - 4): 28 - 41.

Theses: PhD

Brain, M.J. (2006). Autocompaction of Mineralogenic Intertidal Sediments. PhD.

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