Michael Meadows - Biography#

Professor Mike Meadows is in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Science at the University of Cape Town and was Head of Department from 2001-2017. He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Sussex and a PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK. Meadows, with an h-index of 33, has authored or co-authored more than 170 peer-reviewed research articles and edited several special editions of international journals. Major works include the co-edited Southern African Geomorphology (Sun, 2012) and Geomorphology and Society (Springer, 2016). His research interests lie in the area of physical geography, more specifically concerning Quaternary environmental change and the geomorphological and biogeographical impacts of natural and human-induced climate change. In his reconstructions of past southern African environments, Meadows has engaged with a range of proxies, including pollen, diatoms, biomarkers, stable isotope geochemistry and sedimentology, using evidence from lakes, wetlands and, more unusually, accumulations of faecal and urine material deposited by Hyrax capensis. As Head of Department, Meadows led his department to be ranked in the top 50 Geography Departments globally (THES). He was elected Secretary-General and Treasurer of the International Geographical Union from 2010-18 and is a Fellow of the Society of South African Geographers (2000), Royal Geographical Society (2016), Royal Society of South Africa (2016) and of the African Academy of Sciences (2018). In December 2018 he was elected to the College of Fellows of the University of Cape Town. Meadows was appointed as Distinguished Professor at East China Normal University, Shanghai, in 2018 and is Visiting Professor at the Institute of Geographical Research and Natural Resources Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.