David S. G. Thomas

I am Professor of Geography at the University of Oxford. I specialise in the study of desert environments, their evolution, landscapes and people. My work focusses on both the contemporary, and the past, including investigations of long-term environmental change and geo-archaeology, dune landscape development, and the potential changes ot deserts in the future under climatic and human pressures. Over the last 40 years or so I have carried out many months of work in various desert and dryland regions, especially in the Kalahari and Namib of southern Africa, but also in India, Arabia, Mongolia, China and other regions. My work has received international awards from the Geological Society of America and the Royal Geographical Society. As well as over 200 scientific papers, I have written 10 books, including text books, specialst monographs, and books aimed at spreading the understanding of deserts and their complexity to the wider public. As a desert fanatic, I want the world to know that these are complex and diverse places, at the same time resillient to change but vulnerable to new pressures. People have always been, right back to the Stone Age, part of deserts, but many sustainable, symbiotic, practices are pressurised by growing human demands, the introduction of practices alien to deserts and imported from other regions,and the impacts of global challenges including the quest for resources and the effects of rapid climate change. Above all, desert are beautiful, complex places, that with other drylands cover almost 40% of the earth's land surface.They deserve being written and read about!