Office location: Room 115, Marine Centre Wales, Menai Bridge

(Tel: 01248 383961)

Email:  p.robins@bangor.ac.uk

Author profiles: Google Scholar | Researchgate

I'm a Senior Lecturer in Physical Oceanography at the School of Ocean Sciences. My Degree in Mathematics and Physical Oceanography (2003) and Ph.D on internal tides (2008) were also from Bangor University. Since then, I've been interested in a wide range of human and biological impacts of coastal dynamics and change, with applications to coastal hazards (flooding, water quality degradation, pollution and public health risk), coastal morphology, marine population dynamics and connectivity, and marine renewable energy resource and impact studies.

My research generally involves developing computer models that simulate coastal processes, whether this is realistic representations of the past, future climate predictions, or hypothetical scenarios such as simulating flood mitigation options or the impact of tidal-stream turbines on sediment transport. I'm especiallly intersted in estuaries because of the so many complex processes occuring here that affect communities and wildlife, and as there is still much to discover such as how extreme river flows and sea levels interact to exacerbate flooding, or how sewage disperses towards coastal beaches and shellfish beds. I enjoy working with a wide range of scientists across different diciplines, with climate modellers to ensure their projections are relevant for coastal impact, and with coastal policy makers so that our research has real world outcomes. 

I currently supervise the following PhD students as primary supervisor:

Mirko Barada - Coastal flooding: using historical records to mitigate future risk. [Cemlyn Jones, 2020-24]

Thomas Clough - Predicting future compound hazards of coastal flooding [KESS-Dwr Cymru Welsh Water, 2020-24]

Aaron Furnish - Pathways to Realistic Impact Modelling in Estuarine Areas [NERC ENVISION, 2021-25]

Megan O'Hara - What drives cold pulses at remote tropical reefs? [NERC ENVISION, 2022-25]

Ankita Bhattacharya - The influence of groundwater to future flood risk [NERC ENVISION, 2022-25]

Dani Crowley - [NERC SuMMeR, 2024-28]

Adam Winrow - [NERC RED-ALERT, 2024-28]

.... and as co-supervisor:

Deanna Groom - Historical Shipwrecks and the impacts of climate change [Private, 2021-24]

Guy Walker-Springett - Sediment transport processes along the North Wales coast [KESS-SeftonCouncil, 2020-24]

Claire Carrington - Understanding responses of coastal seabirds to local and daily-scale meteorological variations [NERC ENVISION, 2022-26]

Jake Jackman - There and back again: monitoring the returning fish to the Mersey estuary [Salford/Bangor/MerseyGateway, 2022-26]

Nina Baskerville - Using an interdisciplinary approach to elucidate pollution impacts and antimicrobial resistant pathogen dynamics across terrestrial, estuarine and marine environments [NERC - SuMMeR, 2023-27]

Kaila Kormblum - Factors limiting marine connectivity at a species range edge – the case of the pink sea fan, Eunicella verrucosa [NERC - SuMMeR, 2023-27]

Lauren Evans - Using prey availability metrics to explain the foraging distribution of deep-diving seabirds.  [NERC ENVISION, 2023-27]

Farisayi Dakwa - [NERC ENVISION, 2024-28]

Past supervision:

Nic Chopin (MPhil) – variability in the Irish Mussel shellfishery [BIM, 2020-24]

Nia Jones - Dispersal of Microplastics in the Marine Environment. [NERC ENVISION, 2020-23]

Michael Ridgil - [KESS, 2019-22]

Jonathan Demmer - [KESS, 2017-20]

I welcome potential Phd projects on a range of coastal oceanography topics: e.g. estuarine processes, flood risk, water quality, coastal dispersal, marine renewable energy, sediment transport and climate change. Please get in touch with your ideas...

Please visit findaphd.com for up-to-date funded phd opportunities...