Dr Slater's key interests are in river science, floods, hydro-climatology, climate, data science, big data, fluvial geomorphology, statistics. Her research focuses on understanding and predicting changes in floods and fluvial systems in the context of contemporary shifts in climate, agricultural practices and urbanisation. Their approach is statistical and computational; using a combination of climatic and land cover information to disentangle the different drivers of flooding and fluvial change across a variety of climates and land use types. Using Earth Observation and ensemble Global Climate Model outputs she also develops probabilistic streamflow forecasts over a range of timescales to assess how floods and fluvial systems may change over time. IShe has a keen interest in data science and in developing new, interdisciplinary methods for understanding and projecting fluvial and hydro-climatic change.
Prior to working at Loughborough University, Louise specialised in fluvial geomorphology at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in France and received her PhD in Earth and Environmental Sciences from the University of St Andrews in 2014. She lectured in Physical Geography at Queen Mary University of London for one year before conducting an 18-month postdoctoral scholarship in the field of hydro-climatology and data science at the IIHR-Hydroscience and Engineering, University of Iowa.
Academic Career
- 2017-: Lecturer in Physical Geography, Loughborough University
- 2015-2016: Postdoctoral Scholar, IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering, University of Iowa
- 2014-2015: Lecturer in Physical Geography, Queen Mary University of London
Professor Responsibilities
- 2017-20: Editor, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences
- 2017-20: Outreach Secretary, British Society for Geomorphology (Executive Committee)
- 2014-16: Appointed member of the Environment Agency’s Data Advisory Group (EADAG), UK
Grants
- 2017: NERC/ESRC/DFID Grant (CI). ‘Financial planning for natural disasters: flood risk in Central Java’
- 2017: SSPGS Seedcorn, Loughborough University, ‘On the predictability of hydrological extremes using satellite data’
- 2017: Institute for Advanced Studies, Loughborough University, Open Programme
- 2017: British Hydrological Society Small Grant
- 2015: Early Career Researcher Grant, British Society for Geomorphology, ‘To what extent have changes in river channel capacity contributed to flood hazard trends in England and Wales?’
- 2015: The Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA) Small Grant
- 2011: National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM), National Science Foundation, USA, ’Where do floodplains begin in fluvial networks?’