Contributions by role
Contributions by subject area
Murray Roberts
Summary
Murray Roberts is Professor of Applied Marine Biology and Ecology at the University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences. He leads the Changing Oceans research group and co-ordinates the European ATLAS project, a 4-year, €9.3M European project to create a Trans-Atlantic assessment and deep-water ecosystem-based spatial management plan for Europe.
His previous roles include Reader and then Professor of Marine Biology and Director of the Centre for Marine Biodiversity & Biotechnology at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh (2009-16) where he co-ordinated the development of the Lyell Centre (2012-15). Before working in Edinburgh Murray was based at the Scottish Association for Marine Science (1997-2009) with a period as Marie Curie Fellow at the Center for Marine Science, University North Carolina Wilmington in the USA (2007-09).
Murray studied Biology at the University of York before completing a PhD at the University of Glasgow examining nitrogen cycling in the Anemonia viridis symbiosis. Since 1997 his work on cold-water corals and deep-sea biology has taken him to sites off the UK, Norway, Ireland and the SE United States. Murray is senior author of ‘Cold-water Corals’, a contributing author to the IPCC 5th Assessment Report and co-lead editor of a UN-CBD report on ocean acidification. He is Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and holds an honorary position at University of North Carolina Wilmington, USA. He has led or participated in 23 offshore research cruises.