John Rowan

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT JOHN ROWAN

Director of the UNESCO Centre for Water Law, Policy & Science since 2022 mandated to advance sustainable and equitable development, with particular focus on SDG6:\'Ensuring access to water and sanitation for all\'. For the five years prior, he was Vice Principal (Research, Knowledge Exchange & Wider Impact) with overall institutional responsibility for research strategy and excellence in academic performance across the University of Dundee. In 2024 he also became the inaugural Director of the Leverhulme Doctoral Programme for Regenerative Innovation (Regnr8-i) with funding for 24 new full-time PhDs is a Professor of Physical Geography, with expertise in the study of environmental change. His systems-based work on climate change and its impacts on water, food, energy and biodiversity has a strong policy focus. Current collaborations extend across multiple countries, e.g, Bangladesh, India, and Kenya. His strong national profile is reflected in various recent and current advisory roles, including serving on the Board of Scottish Government’s Centres of Expertise in Climate Change (CXC) and Centre for Research on Water (CREW) and Steering Group for the Hydro Nation Scholars Programme.John has been at the University of Dundee since 1998. In 2009 he became Founding Director of the Centre for Environmental Change and Human Resilience (CECHR), a strategic partnership with the James Hutton Institute, tackling interdisciplinary challenges around food, water, energy and health security. Success in this role led to his appointment as inaugural Dean of the multidisciplinary School of Social Sciences created in 2015 by amalgamating the Schools of Environment, Business, Natural Resources, Psychology and Law.