David joined the Geography and Environment technical team in May 2025 and is principally responsible for the support of field and laboratory research activities. His background is in fluvial and glacial geomorphology, with a particular focus on the development and application of innovative data collection and analysis methods. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
- 2021-2025: Visting Fellow in Physical Geography
- 2018-2021: Senior lecturer in Physical Geography, Loughborough University
- 2005-2018: Lecturer in Physical Geography, Loughborough University
- 2004-2005: Gatsby Innovation Fellow, Loughborough University
- 2001-2004: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Loughborough University
Dr Graham’s research has two primary themes:
- Glacial Geology and Geomorphologyexplores the nature and significance of glacial sediment-landform associations, focusing especially on their relation to debris-bearing structures within glaciers. This work has included examination of the sediments associated with basal ice at Icelandic glaciers with terminal overdeepenings, the structure of ice-marginal moraines at polythermal Svalbard glaciers, and the nature of deformation beneath polythermal glaciers in Sweden. This research makes extensive use of traditional geomorphological and sedimentological techniques, combined with geophysical methods (ground-penetrating radar and passive seismology) and remote sensing. The knowledge gained from work on contemporary glaciers has been applied to the British Quaternary landform record, especially those landforms associated with the Younger Dryas stadial.
- The Innovative Data Collection and Analysis Methods in the Geosciencestheme has seen the development of automated methods for the in situ measurement of river-bed sediment texture based on digital-image analysis and new statistical methods for the analysis of sediment particle shape. Dr Graham has also pioneered the use of uncrewed aircraft systems (‘drones’) and structure-from-motion technology in geomorphological applications.