John was appointed Vice-Principal (Research, Knowledge Exchange and Wider Impact) in 2018.  He is responsible for the overall research strategy of the University and promoting engagement and enterprise activities with businesses, government and the wider public. Partnership building enables the University's research excellence to achieve its greatest impact, consistent with the core mission of transforming lives, locally and globally.

John is a Professor of Physical Geography, with particular expertise in the study of environmental change. His systems-based work on the impacts of climate and land use change - manifested by issues like soil erosion, flooding and biodiversity impacts - has a strong policy focus. Current collaborations extend across multiple countries, e.g., Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Zimbabwe and Turkey. He also has a strong national profile and serves in an advisory capacity to the Scottish Government’s Centres of Expertise in Climate Change (CXC) and Centre for Research on Water (CREW).

John has been at the University of Dundee since 1998. He was Founding Director of the Centre for Environmental Change and Human Resilience (CECHR), a strategic and highly successful partnership with the James Hutton Institute, established to tackle interdisciplinary challenges around food, water, energy and health security. He was the inaugural Dean of the School of Social Sciences created through restructuring in 2015.

Research expertise on water resources and different aspects of river basin management including erosion and sedimentation issues, environmental change, governance and ecohydrology.

Global resources, ecosystem services and water resources management