Dr Matthew Adeleye, Lab Head
Dr Matthew Adeleye, Lab Head
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Dr Adeleye is an Assistant Professor of Physical Geography, Fellow of Girton College, and a UKRI Future Leader Fellow, specialized in palaeoecology, with a background in botany, biology, and natural history. He completed his Bachelor Hons at the University of Lagos, Nigeria, Master's at the University of Victoria, Canada, and PhD at the Australian National University, Australia. He is interested in the use of palaeoecological records to assist in addressing contemporary ecological issues, especially those related to biodiversity. Dr Adeleye is a member of the Cambridge Quaternary and Cambridge Conservation Research Institute.
Cambridge Profile Page l Google Scholar l X (@matt_adeleye) l Research Gate
Current lab members
Post-doc and Technical staff
Dr Helen Essell
Dr Helen Essell
Dr Helen Essell is a Research Associate in Palaeoecology with a background in Palaeoecology, Palaeoclimatology and Geography. She completed her BA in Geography and MPhil in Holocene Climates at the University of Cambridge, and her PhD in Archaeology and Palaeoecology at Queen’s University Belfast. Helen is interested in using palaeoecological records to explore the nature, causes and timing of past environmental change, with a view to using understanding gleaned from these analyses to inform conservation and heritage management.
Dr Josie Handley
Dr Josie Handley
Dr Josie Handley is a Senior Field and Research Technician (Palaeoecology) with a background in Palaeoecology, Environmental Archaeology and Environmental Science. She completed her BSc in Environmental Science, MSc in Environmental Archaeology, an PhD in Archaeology (Paleoecology) at the University of Reading. She is a Honorary Research Fellow of the University of Exeter in relation to work on the Increased Carbon Accumulation in Arctic Peatlands project. Josie is interested in the dynamics of past human-environmental interactions, especially in relation to changes in land-use practices related to agriculture, and how this information may inform future land-use management. Josie also has an interest in the role wetlands and peatlands play in providing ecosystem services to local communities, with an aim to ensure the conservation of these ecosystems under future environmental change.
Students
Rosie Egelie, Honors student
Thesis: Long-term flora, land use and carbon dynamics in the Great Fen
Past lab members
Sanusi Camara, MPhil student-completed in 2025
Thesis: The role of Holocene climate on vegetation transitions between savanna and rainforest in West Africa.
Juan Pala Gutierrez, MPhil student-completed in 2024
Thesis: Evaluating the impact of the 8.2 ka event in the Eastern Mediterranean: the early Holocene palynology of Lake Pamvotis, Greece.
Phoebe Koonce, MPhil student-completed in 2024
Thesis: Investigating the Impact of Biomass Burning on Tropical Cyclones
Molly Hill, MPhil student-completed in 2024
Thesis: A 600-year investigation of vegetation shifts, land use, wildfire patterns, and volcanism in South-Central Alaska.
Sophie McSherry, MPhil completed in 2023
Thesis: An ecological assessment of two distinct landscapes of southern Alaska through observations of floristic change, fire regime and volcanism over the last millennium.
Tom Wright, MPhil completed in 2023
Thesis: Reconstructing Holocene temperatures and palaeoecology using Coleoptera remains from archaeological and environmental sites across Yorkshire.
Sara Uddin Nusrat, Honors student-completed 2025
Thesis: Human-landscape interraction in East Anglia during the last millennium.
Navneet Basran, Honors student-completed 2025
Thesis: Global changes in vegetation diversity during and after the Younger Dryas.
Taybah Khan-Lodi, Honors completed in 2024
Thesis: Vegetation and climate dynamics in east Anglia during the lateglacial transition.
Jennifer Weston, Honors completed in 2024
Thesis: Human-environmental interactions in Holme Fen, East Anglia during the Holocene.
Destinie Lambert, SPS STEM Intern -2025
Anni Myllymaki, Research Assistant- 2025
Jennifer Weston, Research Assistant-2024
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