Swansea University - Geography

Swansea University - Geography

 

Prof. John Matthews
Brief CV
Research
Teaching
Publications
Other Links 		Prof. John A Matthews
Professor of Physical Geography

Department of Geography
University of Wales Swansea
Singleton Park
Swansea, SA2 8PP

Tel. 01792 295230
Fax. 01792 295955
Email: J.A.Matthews@swansea.ac.uk

Brief CV

 

Education

1969 B.Sc., King's College London
1976 Ph.D., King's College London

Career

1994 - present Chair in Physical Geography, Department of Geography, University of Wales Swansea
1990 - 1994 Senior Lecturer, Department of Geology, University of Wales Cardiff
1977 - 1990 Lecturer, Geography Section, University College Cardiff
1972 - 1977 Demonstrator, Department of Geography, University of Edinburgh

Honours and Achievements  

  • Leader of 38 Jotunheimen Research Expeditions to southern Norway since 1970. 
  • Ness Award of the Royal Geographical Society (1988) for leadership of glaciological expeditions.
  • Founding editor of The Holocene, an interdisciplinary journal focusing on recent environmental change (1991 - ).
  • Working Group Leader in the European Science Foundation (ESF) Programme: European PalaeoClimate and man since the last glaciation (EPC) (1991-96).
  • Founder and Director of Swansea Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory (1994-2007). 
  • Visiting Lansdowne Scholar, University of Victoria, B.C., Canada (1995). 
  • Bronze Medal of the University of Helsinki (1996) for contributions to science.  
  • Member of the RGS/IBG Benchmarking Committee for Geography Degrees (1999).
  • Member of the International Scientific Advisory Board of the Bjerknes Center of Excellence for Climatic Research, Bergen University (2001 - 05).
  • Invitee at the State Banquet in honour of the King and Queen of Norway at Buckingham Place (2005).
  • Author or editor of seven books and more than 130 research papers.
  • Successful supervision of 22 Ph.D. research students.
  • Appointed Emeritus Professor (2007).

Research Interests

  • Holocene environmental change; glacier and climatic variations on decadal to millennial timescales; Neoglaciation and the Little Ice Age; colluvial history and landscape instability during the Holocene
  • Physical geography of alpine landscapes; glacial, periglacial and paraglacial geomorphology; debris-flows and snow-avalanche activity
  • Geoecology of glacier forelands; primary succession; interactions between vegetation and environment; soil development; disturbance in ecosystems
  • Dating techniques; radiocarbon, lichenometric. Schmidt hammer and cosmogenic-isotope dating techniques
    The methodology and philosophy of Geography and the future of Geography as a university discipline

Teaching

  • At retirement, taught on the following modules:
    GEG 102: Natural environmental change
  • GEG 108: Geographical Methods 2: field-based projects
  • GEG 205/242: Vegetation patterns and change
  • GEG 252: Geographical Field Research projects: Austria and Mallorca
  • GEG 256: The Science or Geography

Selected Publications

1. Matthews, J.A. and Herbert, D.T. (2008) Geography: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 181 pp.

2. Matthews, J.A., Shakesby, R.A., Schnabel, C. and Freeman, S. (2008) Cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al ages of Holocene moraines in southern Norway I: testing the method and confirmation of the date of the Erdalen Event (c. 10 ka) at its type site. The Holocene 18 (in press).

3. Matthews, J.A. and Owen, G. (2008) Endolithic lichens, rapid biological weathering and Schmidt hammer R-values on recently exposed rock surfaces: Storbreen glacier foreland, Jotunheimen, Norway. Geografiska Annaler, Series A (Physical Geography) 90(A): (in press)

4. Matthews, J.A. and Dresser, P.Q. (2008) Holocene glacier variation chronology of the Smørstabbtindan massif, Jotunheimen, Norway, and the recognition of European Neoglacial Events. The Holocene 18: 181-201. [Special Issue in honour of Professor Frank Oldfield]

5. Matthews, J.A. (2007) Neoglaciation in Europe. In Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science (S.Elias, editor), 1122-1133. Elsevier: Amsterdam.

6. Matthews, J.A., Seppälä, M. and Dresser, P.Q. (2005) Holocene solifluction, climate variation and fire in a subarctic landscape at Pippokangas, Finnish Lapland, based on radiocarbon-dated buried charcoal. Journal of Quaternary Science 20: 533-548.

7. Matthews, J.A. and Briffa, K.R. (2005) The ‘Little Ice Age’: re-evaluation of an evolving concept. Geografiska Annaler, Series A (Physical Geography) 87A: 17-36. [Special Issue in honour of Professor Wibjörn Karlén]

8. Matthews, J.A., Berrisford, M.S., Dresser, P.Q.,Nesje, A., Dahl, S.O., Bjune, A.E., Bakke, J., Birks, H.J.B., Lie, Ø., Dumayne-Peaty, L. and Barnett, C. (2005) Holocene glacier history of Bjørnbreen and climatic reconstruction in central Jotunheimen, Norway, based on proximal glaciofluvial stream-bank mires. Quaternary Science Reviews 24: 67-90.

9. Matthews, J.A. (2005) ‘Little Ice Age’ glacier variations in Jotunheimen, southern Norway: a study in regionally-controlled lichenometric dating of recessional moraines with implications for climate and lichen growth rates. The Holocene 15: 1-19.

10. Matthews, J.A. and Herbert, D.T. (editors) (2004) Unifying Geography: Common Heritage, Shared Future. Routledge: London.

11. Matthews, J.A., Bridges, E.M., Caseldine, C.J., Luckman, A., Owen, G., Perry, A.H., Shakesby, R.A., Walsh, R.P.D., Whittaker, R.J. and Willis, K.J. (editors) (2001). The Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Environmental Change. Arnold: London, 690 pp.

12. Matthews, J.A., Dahl, S.O., Nesje, A., Berrisford, M.S. and Andersson, C. (2000) Holocene glacier variations in central Jotunheimen, southern Norway based on distal glaciolacustrine sediment cores. Quaternary Science Reviews 19: 1625-1647.

13. Matthews, J.A. (1998) Disturbance regimes and ecosystem response on recently-deglaciated terrain, In Ecosystems of Disturbed Ground (edited by L.R. Walker), 17-37. Elsevier, Amsterdam. [Ecosystems of the World, Volume 16.] .

14. Matthews, J.A., R.A. Shakesby, Berrisford, M.S. and McEwen, L.J. (1998) Periglacial patterned ground on the Styggedalsbreen glacier foreland, Jotunheimen, southern Norway: micro-topographic, paraglacial and geoecological controls. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes 9: 147-166.

15. Matthews, J.A., Brunsden, D., Frenzel, B., Gläser, B. and Weiss, M.M. (editors) (1997) Rapid Mass Movement as a Source of Climatic Evidence for the Holocene. Gustav Fisher Verlag: Stuttgart, 446pp.

16. Matthews, J.A., Dahl, S.O., Berrisford, M.S. and Nesje, A. (1997) Cyclic development and thermokarstic degradation of palsas in the mid-alpine zone at Leirpullan, Dovrefjell, southern Norway. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes 8: 107-122.

17. Matthews, J.A., Dahl, S.O., Berrisford, M.S., Nesje, A., Dresser, P.Q. and Dumayne-Peaty, L. (1997) A preliminary history of Holocene colluvial (debris-flow) activity, Leirdalen, Jotunheimen, Norway. Journal of Quaternary Science 12: 117-129.

18. Matthews, J.A. (1996) Classics in Physical Geography Revisited: The individualistic concept of the plant association. Progress in Physical Geography 20:193-203.

19. Matthews, J.A. and D. McCarroll (1994) Snow-avalanche impact landforms in Breheimen, southern Norway: origin, age and paleoclimatic implications. Arctic and Alpine Research 26: 103-15.

20. Matthews, J.A. (1994) Lichenometric dating: a review with particular reference to `Little Ice Age' moraines. In Dating in Exposed and Surface Contexts (edited by C. Beck). University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

21. Matthews, J.A. (1993) Radiocarbon dating of arctic-alpine palaeosols and the reconstruction of Holocene palaeoenvironmental change. In Climate Change and Human Impact on the Landscape (edited by F.M. Chambers), 83-96, Chapman & Hall, London. [Publication in honour of Professor Alan Smith]

22. Matthews, J.A. (1992) The Ecology of Recently-deglaciated Terrain. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 386 pp.

23. Matthews, J.A. and W. Karlén (1992) Asynchronous Neoglaciation and Holocene climatic change reconstructed from Norwegian glacio-lacustrine sedimentary sequences. Geology 20: 991-4.

24. Matthews, J.A. (1991) The late Neoglacial (`Little Ice Age’) glacier maximum in southern Norway: new 14dating evidence and climatic implications. The Holocene 1: 219-233.

25. Matthews, J.A. (1987) Regional variartion in the composition of Neoglacial end moraines, Jotunheimen, Norway: an altitudinal gradient in clast roundness and its possible palaeoclimatic significance. Boreas 16: 173-188.

26. Matthews, J.A. and Caseldine, C.J. (1987) Arctic-alpine Brown Soils as a source of palaeoenvironmental information: further 14C dating and palynological evidence from Vestre Memurubreen, Jotunheimen, Norway. Journal of Quaternary Research 2: 59-71.

27. Matthews, J.A. and Whittaker, R.J. (1987) Vegetation succession on the Storbreen glacier foreland, Jotunheimen, Norway: a review. Arctic and Alpine Research 19: 385-395.

28. Matthews, J.A., A.G. Dawson and R.A. Shakesby (1986) Lake shoreline development, frost weathering and rock platform erosion in an alpine periglacial environment. Boreas, 15: 33-50.

29. Matthews, J.A., Harris, C. and Ballantyne, C.J. (1986) Studies on a gelifluction lobe, Jotunheimen, Norway: 14C chronology, stratigraphy, sedimentology and palaeoenvironment. Geografiska Annaler, Series A (Physical Geography) 68(A): 345-360.

30. Matthews, J.A., Innes, C. and Caseldine, C.J. (1986) 14C dating and palaeoenvironment of the historic `Little Ice Age’ glacier advance of Nigardsbreen, southwest Norway. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 11: 369-375.

31. Matthews, J.A. and Shakesby, R.A. (1984) The status of the `Little Ice Age’ in southern Norway: relative-age dating of Neoglacial moraines with Schmidt hammer and lichenometry. Boreas 13: 333-346.

32. Matthews, J.A. and Dresser, P.Q. (1983) Intensive 14C dating of a buried palaeosol horizon. Geologiska Föreningens I Stockholm Förhandlingar 105: 59-63.

33. Matthews, J.A. and Petch, J.R. (1982) Within-valley asymmetry and related problems of Neoglacial lateral moraine development at certain Jotunheimen glaciers, southern Norway. Boreas 11: 225-247.

34. Matthews, J.A. (1981) Quantitative and Statistical Approaches to Geography: A Practical Manual. Pergamon Press: Oxford, 204 pp.

35. Matthews, J.A. (1980) Some problems and implications of 14C dates from a podzol buried beneath an end moraine at Haugabreen, southern Norway. Geografiska Annaler, Series A (Physical Geography) 62A: 185-208.

36. Matthews, J.A. (1979) A study of the variability of some successional and climax plant assemblage types using multiple discriminant analysis, Journal of Ecology 67: 255-71.

37. Matthews, J.A. (1979a & 1979b) The vegetation of the Storbreen gletschervorfeld, Jotunheimen, Norway, I & II. Journal of Biogeography 6: 17-47 & 133-167.

38. Matthews, J.A. (1979c) Refutation of convergence in a vegetation succession. Naturwissenschaften 66: 47-49.

39. Mathews, J.A. (1978a) Plant colonization patterns on a gletschervorfeld, southern Norway: a meso-scale geographical approach to vegetation change and phytometric dating. Boreas 7: 155-178.

40. Matthews, J.A. (1978b) An application of non-metric multidimensional scaling to the construction of an imoproved species plexus. Journal of Ecology 66: 157-173.

41. Mathews, J.A. (1977) Glacier and climatic fluctuations inferred from tree-growth variations over the last 250 years, central southern Norway. Boreas 6: 1-24.

42. Matthews, J.A. (1976) `Little Ice Age' palaeotemperatures from high-altitude tree growth in south Norway. Nature 264: 243-5.

43. Matthews, J.A. (1975) Experiments on the reproducibility and reliability of lichenometric dates, Storbreen gletschervorfeld, Jotunheimen, Norway. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift 29: 97-109.

44. Matthews, J.A. (1974) Families of lichenometric dating curves from the Storbreen gletschervorfeld, Jotunheimen, Norway. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift 28: 215-235

45. Matthews, J.A. (1973) Lichen growth on an active medial moraine, Jotunheimen, Norway. Journal of Glaciology 12: 305-313.

Other Links

  1. Department of Geography
  2. University of Wales, Swansea