Welcoming Professor Robert Hilton to Hertford

18 December 2025

We’re delighted to announce the appointment of Professor Robert (Bob) Hilton as Professor of Geography and fellow of Hertford College with effect from 1 January 2026.

Prior to joining the School of Geography and the Environment, Bob was Professor of Sedimentary Geology and Associate Head of Research at the Department of Earth Sciences and Fellow and Tutor in Earth Sciences at St Peter’s College, Oxford. He holds a PhD in Earth Sciences, specialising in geochemistry and geomorphology, from the University of Cambridge. Following a year as a postdoctoral research and teaching fellow at L’Institut de Physique du Globe, Paris, he spent 12 years at Durham University as a Lecturer, Reader and Professor in Geography before joining the University of Oxford in 2021.

Bob’s research focuses on the carbon cycle and how the exchange of carbon between the atmosphere and rocks responds to, and drives, climate change. He currently leads the RIV-ESCAPE project, which aims to better constrain greenhouse gas release from river surfaces across Arctic landscapes. His research has been recognised with the 2019 Leverhulme Prize, as a Finalist in Chemistry of the 2018 Blavatnik Awards, the 2016 Chinese Academy Sciences International Partnership Award for Young Scientists, and the 2014 Outstanding Young Scientist Award from the European Geosciences Union.

Bob succeeds Professor David Thomas, who was Professor of Geography from 2004 until 2025. We look forward to welcoming him to Hertford!