PROF COLIN BROWN

B.SC., Ph.D.,

 
researcher
 

Biography


Colin Brown is a Personal Professor (Emeritus) in Earth and Ocean Sciences at NUI, Galway. Since acquiring his PhD in Geophysics at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1980, he has had > 40 years of experience in teaching and research in Earth and Ocean Sciences. He has successfully mentored 8 post-doctoral researchers, 35 PhD students, 8 research Masters, and 84 Masters by coursework, with research completion rates of 90%. He is a member of the American Geophysical Union, has presented research at > 50 international conferences, and has more than 45 international peer-reviewed papers, 34 as Senior Author, with > 2475/3500 citations (World of Science/Google Scholar). He has a long record of professional service including in the last 7 years, Royal Irish Academy, Gold Medal Award Committee member (2016-2017), International Advisory Board, Northern Research Partnership, Scotland (2012-2014), Scientific Adviser to the Royal Court of Justice, UK (2010).   

From 2009 – 2017, he was Director of the Ryan Institute for Environmental, Marine and Energy Research in NUI Galway, an inter-disciplinary institute with over 300 researchers from science, engineering, social science and business. He was Chair of the Community and University Sustainability Programme (CUSP) in NUI Galway from 2015 – 2018, the first Director of the MSc Programme in ‘Environmental Leadership’ from 2017-2018 in NUI Galway, and is currently Chair of the Board of Trustees of Brigit’s Garden, a not-for-profit charity in Galway focused on environmental and sustainability education.

Research Interests

Prof Colin Brown is a geophysicist who has contributed to the theory of electromagnetic induction in the Earth, seismic reflection interpretation using poro-viscoelastic theory to infer seafloor sediment engineering properties, theoretical and computational methods for quantifying and classifying seafloor surface properties from remotely-sensed multibeam acoustic data, marine habitat suitability modelling using seabed acoustic and Remotely-Operated Vehicle (ROV) video observations, magnetotelluric methods to study Earth's crust, electrical methods to study coastal hydrogeology and archaeology, and potential field methods to complement geological interpretations of the Earth's sub-surface. He has > 30 years of experience in acquiring his own research funding competitively and has been successful in acquiring > €7m of personal research projects since 2002, mainly related to climate-driven changes in marine and terrestrial environments. He managed a €3m research programme from 2006-2014 funded by the Geological Survey of Ireland to tackle two of its research priority areas - seabed geological and biological processes, and coastal groundwater-seawater interactions.   He has > 25 years mentoring and directing young academic researchers, and in evaluating research proposals in Earth and Environmental Sciences. He retired from full-time work in 2018 but is engaged in research for the public good and is an independent consultant.   His recent research funding (2019-2021) is for numerical modelling of anthropogenic noise in 3-D marine environments and their effects on key aquatic species. His current research interests are focused on the prediction of soil types from airborne radiometric data, and the related estimation and forecasting of soil water content from the Copernicus Programme Sentinel satellites.




Peer Reviewed Journals

  Year Publication
(2020) 'Quantitative assessment of groundwater resources using airborne electromagnetic remote sensing'
O'Connell, Y., Brown, C., Henry, T., Morrison, L., Daly, E. (2020) 'Quantitative assessment of groundwater resources using airborne electromagnetic remote sensing'. Journal Of Applied Geophysics, 175 [DOI] [Details]
(2019) 'Magnetotelluric Apparent Resistivity Tensors for Improved Interpretations and 3-D Inversions'
Hering, P;Brown, C;Junge, A (2019) 'Magnetotelluric Apparent Resistivity Tensors for Improved Interpretations and 3-D Inversions'. Journal Of Geophysical Research-Solid Earth, 124 :7652-7679 [DOI] [ARAN Link] [Details]
(2018) 'Terrestrial and marine electrical resistivity to identify groundwater pathways in coastal karst aquifers'
O'Connell, Y;Daly, E;Henry, T;Brown, C (2018) 'Terrestrial and marine electrical resistivity to identify groundwater pathways in coastal karst aquifers'. Near Surface Geophysics, 16 :164-175 [DOI] [Details]
(2017) 'Mobility of maerl-siliciclastic mixtures: Impact of waves, currents and storm events'
Joshi, S,Duffy, GP,Brown, C (2017) 'Mobility of maerl-siliciclastic mixtures: Impact of waves, currents and storm events'. Estuarine Coastal And Shelf Science, 189 :173-188 [DOI] [Details]
(2017) 'Arsenic contamination of drinking water in Ireland: A spatial analysis of occurrence and potential risk'
McGrory, ER,Brown, C,Bargary, N,Williams, NH,Mannix, A,Zhang, CS,Henry, T,Daly, E,Nicholas, S,Petrunic, BM,Lee, M,Morrison, L (2017) 'Arsenic contamination of drinking water in Ireland: A spatial analysis of occurrence and potential risk'. Science Of The Total Environment, 579 :1863-1875 [DOI] [Details]
(2017) 'A comparison of acoustic and observed sediment classifications as predictor variables for modelling biotope distributions in Galway Bay, Ireland'
O'Carroll, JPJ,Kennedy, R,Ren, L,Nash, S,Hartnett, M,Brown, C (2017) 'A comparison of acoustic and observed sediment classifications as predictor variables for modelling biotope distributions in Galway Bay, Ireland'. Estuarine Coastal And Shelf Science, 197 :258-270 [DOI] [Details]
(2017) 'Critical bed shear stress and threshold of motion of maerl biogenic gravel'
Joshi, S,Duffy, GP,Brown, C (2017) 'Critical bed shear stress and threshold of motion of maerl biogenic gravel'. Estuarine Coastal And Shelf Science, 194 :128-142 [DOI] [Details]
(2016) 'Magnetotelluric tensors, electromagnetic field scattering and distortion in three-dimensional environments'
Colin Brown (2016) 'Magnetotelluric tensors, electromagnetic field scattering and distortion in three-dimensional environments'. Journal Of Geophysical Research-Solid Earth, 121 [DOI] [ARAN Link] [Details]
(2015) 'A combined boundary integral and Lambert's Law method for modelling multibeam backscatter data from the sea floor'
Jiashun Yu, Stuart A.Henrys, Colin Brown, Ivor Marsh, GarretDuffy (2015) 'A combined boundary integral and Lambert's Law method for modelling multibeam backscatter data from the sea floor'. Continental Shelf Research, 103 :60-69 [DOI] [Details]
(2014) 'SETTLING VELOCITY AND GRAIN SHAPE OF MAERL BIOGENIC GRAVEL'
Joshi, S,Duffy, GP,Brown, C (2014) 'SETTLING VELOCITY AND GRAIN SHAPE OF MAERL BIOGENIC GRAVEL'. Journal Of Sedimentary Research, 84 :718-727 [DOI] [Details]
(2014) 'Predicting the distribution of deep-sea vulnerable marine ecosystems using high-resolution data: Considerations and novel approaches'
Rengstorf, A.M, Mohn, C., Brown, C., Wisz, M. and Grehan, A.J (2014) 'Predicting the distribution of deep-sea vulnerable marine ecosystems using high-resolution data: Considerations and novel approaches'. Deep Sea Research, [DOI] [Details]
(2013) 'High-resolution habitat suitability modelling can improve conservation of vulnerable marine ecosystems in the deep sea'
Rengstorf, AM,Yesson, C,Brown, C,Grehan, AJ (2013) 'High-resolution habitat suitability modelling can improve conservation of vulnerable marine ecosystems in the deep sea'. Journal Of Biogeography, 40 :1702-1714 [DOI] [Details]
(2012) 'Towards High-Resolution Habitat Suitability Modeling of Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems in the Deep-Sea: Resolving Terrain Attribute Dependencies'
Rengstorf, AM;Grehan, A;Yesson, C;Brown, C (2012) 'Towards High-Resolution Habitat Suitability Modeling of Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems in the Deep-Sea: Resolving Terrain Attribute Dependencies'. Marine Geodesy, 35 :343-361 [DOI] [Details]
(2010) 'Geoacoustic model for unconsolidated marine sediment'
Leurer, K. C., & Brown, C., (2010) 'Geoacoustic model for unconsolidated marine sediment'. Proceedings of the European Conference on Underwater Acoustics, [Details]
(2010) 'Geoacoustic model for the inversion of seismic profiling data, EAGE Near Surface 2010'
Leurer, K. C., & Brown, C., (2010) 'Geoacoustic model for the inversion of seismic profiling data, EAGE Near Surface 2010'. 16th European Meeting of Environmental and Engineering Geophysics, [Details]
(2009) 'Neural network classification of multibeam backscatter and bathymetry data from Stanton Bank (Area IV)'
Marsh, I;Brown, C (2009) 'Neural network classification of multibeam backscatter and bathymetry data from Stanton Bank (Area IV)'. Applied Acoustics, 70 :1269-1276 [DOI] [Details]
(2009) 'Ecological niche modelling of the distribution of cold-water coral habitat using underwater remote sensing data'
Guinan, J,Brown, C,Dolan, MFJ,Grehan, AJ (2009) 'Ecological niche modelling of the distribution of cold-water coral habitat using underwater remote sensing data'. Ecological Informatics, 4 :83-92 [DOI] [Details]
(2009) 'Quantifying relationships between video observations of cold-water coral cover and seafloor features in Rockall Trough, west of Ireland'
Guinan, J;Grehan, AJ;Dolan, MFJ;Brown, C (2009) 'Quantifying relationships between video observations of cold-water coral cover and seafloor features in Rockall Trough, west of Ireland'. Marine Ecology-Progress Series, 375 :125-138 [DOI] [Details]
(2008) 'Modelling the local distribution of cold-water corals in relation to bathymetric variables: Adding spatial context to deep-sea video data'
Dolan, MFJ,Grehan, AJ,Guinan, JC,Brown, C (2008) 'Modelling the local distribution of cold-water corals in relation to bathymetric variables: Adding spatial context to deep-sea video data'. Deep-Sea Research Part I-Oceanographic Research Papers, 55 :1564-1579 [DOI] [Details]
(2008) 'Acoustics of marine sediment under compaction: Binary grain-size model and viscoelastic extension of Biot's theory'
Leurer, KC,Brown, C (2008) 'Acoustics of marine sediment under compaction: Binary grain-size model and viscoelastic extension of Biot's theory'. Journal Of The Acoustical Society Of America, 123 :1941-1951 [DOI] [Details]
(2008) 'Coincident swath acoustic backscatter and bathymetry for the interpretation of shallow-water sediment composition and processes'
Glynn, B;Brown, C;Rooney, S (2008) 'Coincident swath acoustic backscatter and bathymetry for the interpretation of shallow-water sediment composition and processes'. Journal Of The Geological Society, 165 :597-607 [Details]
(2007) 'Multiscale terrain analysis of multibeam bathymetry data for habitat mapping on the continental slope'
Wilson, MFJ,O'Connell, B,Brown, C,Guinan, JC,Grehan, AJ (2007) 'Multiscale terrain analysis of multibeam bathymetry data for habitat mapping on the continental slope'. Marine Geodesy, 30 :3-35 [DOI] [Details]
(2006) 'Anisotropy and phase splits in magnetotellurics'
Heise, W,Caldwell, TG,Bibby, HM,Brown, C (2006) 'Anisotropy and phase splits in magnetotellurics'. Physics Of The Earth And Planetary Interiors, 158 :107-121 [DOI] [Details]
(2005) 'Determinable and non-determinable parameters of galvanic distortion in magnetotellurics'
Bibby, HM,Caldwell, TG,Brown, C (2005) 'Determinable and non-determinable parameters of galvanic distortion in magnetotellurics'. Geophysical Journal International, 163 :915-930 [DOI] [Details]
(2004) 'Ground-penetrating radar facies analysis as an aid to sequence stratigraphic analysis: application to the archaeology of Clonmacnoise Castle, Ireland'
Ruffell, A., Geraghty, L., Brown, C. & Barton, K. (2004) 'Ground-penetrating radar facies analysis as an aid to sequence stratigraphic analysis: application to the archaeology of Clonmacnoise Castle, Ireland'. Archaeological Prospection, 11 :247-262 [DOI] [Details]
(2004) 'The magnetotelluric phase tensor'
Caldwell, TG,Bibby, HM,Brown, C (2004) 'The magnetotelluric phase tensor'. Geophysical Journal International, 158 :457-469 [DOI] [Details]
(2004) 'Wavelet and multitaper coherence methods for assessing the elastic thickness of the Irish Atlantic margin'
Daly, E;Brown, C;Stark, CP;Ebinger, CJ (2004) 'Wavelet and multitaper coherence methods for assessing the elastic thickness of the Irish Atlantic margin'. Geophysical Journal International, 159 :445-459 [DOI] [Details]
(2003) 'VARNET-MT: Interpretation of magnetotelluric data over the Killarney-Mallow Fault Zone in SW Ireland'
Brown, C., Denny, P., Haak, V. & Bruton, P. and the VARNET Group. (2003) 'VARNET-MT: Interpretation of magnetotelluric data over the Killarney-Mallow Fault Zone in SW Ireland'. Irish Journal of Earth Sciences, 21 :1-17 [Details]
(2002) 'Controlled source apparent resistivity tensors and their relationship to the magnetotelluric impedance tensor'
Caldwell, TG,Bibby, HM,Brown, C (2002) 'Controlled source apparent resistivity tensors and their relationship to the magnetotelluric impedance tensor'. Geophysical Journal International, 151 :755-770 [Details]
(2001) 'Bending, shaking and electrifying the Celtic crust'
Brown, C. (2001) 'Bending, shaking and electrifying the Celtic crust'. Special Publication of the Open University Geological Society Journal, 22 :35-42 [Details]
(1998) 'Temperature and heat flow in the Celtic Sea basins'
Corry, D;Brown, C (1998) 'Temperature and heat flow in the Celtic Sea basins'. Petroleum Geoscience, 4 :317-326 [Details]
(1998) 'A magnetotelluric study of the Alpine Fault, New Zealand'
Ingham, M;Brown, C (1998) 'A magnetotelluric study of the Alpine Fault, New Zealand'. Geophysical Journal International, 135 :542-552 [Details]
(1995) 'TERRANE BOUNDARIES IN IRELAND INFERRED FROM THE IRISH MAGNETOTELLURIC PROFILE AND OTHER GEOPHYSICAL-DATA'
BROWN, C;WHELAN, JP (1995) 'TERRANE BOUNDARIES IN IRELAND INFERRED FROM THE IRISH MAGNETOTELLURIC PROFILE AND OTHER GEOPHYSICAL-DATA'. Journal Of The Geological Society, 152 :523-534 [Details]
(1994) 'Tectonic interpretation of regional conductivity anomalies'
Brown, C. (1994) 'Tectonic interpretation of regional conductivity anomalies'. Surveys in Geophysics, 15 :123-157 [Details]
(1991) 'ANALYSIS AND TECTONIC INTERPRETATION OF GRAVITY-DATA OVER THE VARISCIDES OF SOUTHWEST IRELAND'
FORD, M;BROWN, C;READMAN, P (1991) 'ANALYSIS AND TECTONIC INTERPRETATION OF GRAVITY-DATA OVER THE VARISCIDES OF SOUTHWEST IRELAND'. Journal Of The Geological Society, 148 :137-148 [Details]
(1990) 'A GEOELECTRIC SECTION ACROSS IRELAND FROM MAGNETOTELLURIC SOUNDINGS'
WHELAN, JP;BROWN, C;HUTTON, VRS;DAWES, GJK (1990) 'A GEOELECTRIC SECTION ACROSS IRELAND FROM MAGNETOTELLURIC SOUNDINGS'. Physics Of The Earth And Planetary Interiors, 60 :138-146 [Details]
(1985) 'A GRAVITY AND MAGNETIC INTERPRETATION OF THE STRUCTURE OF THE IRISH MIDLANDS AND ITS RELATION TO ORE GENESIS'
BROWN, C;WILLIAMS, B (1985) 'A GRAVITY AND MAGNETIC INTERPRETATION OF THE STRUCTURE OF THE IRISH MIDLANDS AND ITS RELATION TO ORE GENESIS'. Journal Of The Geological Society, 142 :1059-1075 [Details]
(1982) 'Structure of the Red Sea at 20 degrees N from gravity data and its implication for continental margins'
Brown, C. & Girdler, R.W. (1982) 'Structure of the Red Sea at 20 degrees N from gravity data and its implication for continental margins'. Nature, [Details]
(1980) 'A geophysical survey of the westernmost Gulf of Aden'
Girdler, R.W., Brown, C., Noy, D.J.M & Styles, P. (1980) 'A geophysical survey of the westernmost Gulf of Aden'. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 298 :1-43 [Details]
(1980) 'A gravity traverse across Northern Africa'
Brown, C., Girdler, R.W. & Renner, R.G.B. (1980) 'A gravity traverse across Northern Africa'. Journal of Geophysical Research, 85 :6436-6442 [Details]
(1980) 'Interpretation of African gravity and its implication for the break-up of the continents'
Brown, C. & Girdler, R.W. (1980) 'Interpretation of African gravity and its implication for the break-up of the continents'. Journal of Geophysical Research, 85 :6443-6445 [Details]

Book Chapters

  Year Publication
(2006) 'ROV Investigations of Cold Water Coral Habitats in the Porcupine/Rockall off the west coast of Ireland'
Grehan, A., Toal, D. & Brown, C. (2006) 'ROV Investigations of Cold Water Coral Habitats in the Porcupine/Rockall off the west coast of Ireland' In: The Irish Scientist, 2006 Year Book. Dublin: Oldbury Publishing. [Details]
(1992) 'Gravity and magnetic data processing methods - a review with Irish examples'
Brock, A., Brown, C. & Garland, M. (1992) 'Gravity and magnetic data processing methods - a review with Irish examples' In: The Irish Minerals Industry 1980 - 1990. Dublin: Irish Association Economic Geology. [Details]
(1989) 'Recent Developments in Microcomputer Applications in Geophysics'
Barton, K.J. and Brown, C., (1989) 'Recent Developments in Microcomputer Applications in Geophysics' In: Annual Review, Irish Association for Economic Geology. Dublin: Irish Association for Economic Geology. [Details]
(1986) 'A model for the genesis of Zn/Pb deposits in Ireland'
Williams, B.L.., Brown, C. (1986) 'A model for the genesis of Zn/Pb deposits in Ireland' In: Geology and Genesis of Mineral Deposits in Ireland. :579-590 Dublin: Irish Association for Economic Geology. [Details]

Conference Publications

  Year Publication
(2020) Bologna Process Beyond 2020: Fundamental values of the EHEA
O'Dowd Lohan, M; Goggins, J; Fahy, F; Brown, C; O’Donovan, D; Ó Broin, G; Hynes, R; Seoige, S; Hannon, J; Keane, M; Forde, A.M; Carlin, C; Pearce, D; Curran, M; Hannon, L; Clifford, E; Duffy, C; Hallahan, B;Reilly, M; Ó Dochartaigh, P. (2020) NUI Galway sustainability strategy 2017-2020 Learn – Live – Lead . In: Sijbolt Noorda, Peter Scott and Martina Vukasovic eds. Bologna Process Beyond 2020: Fundamental values of the EHEA , pp.219-223 [Details]
(2020) AGU Fall Meeting
O’Leary, D., Healy, M.G., Callery, O., Brown, C., Daly, E. (2020) Defining potential peatland management zones using unsupervised self-organising map clustering on airborne radiometric data AGU Fall Meeting Online, [Details]
(1998) Society of Exploration Geophysics Annual Conference
Gareth Armstrong, Colin Brown, Jerome Mars (1998) The Irish Continental Crust revealed by Potential Field Methods Society of Exploration Geophysics Annual Conference [Details]
(2017) 4th International Conference on the Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life
Crawford, S., Brown, C., e McKeown, E., Stapleton, F., Duncan, A., McCauley, R. and White, M (2017) Development of a sound propagation model to monitor seismic survey noise in Irish waters . In: Acoustical Society of America eds. 4th International Conference on the Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life Dublin, Ireland, , 10-JUL-16 - 15-JUL-16 [Details]
(2014) Underwater Acoustics 2014 (Rhodes) Habitat Mapping: Procedures and Results
Duffy, G., Rzhanov, Y., Horvei, B., Rinde, E. and Brown, C. (2014) Development of Acoustic Colour technique using multi-frequency swath acoustic backscatter Underwater Acoustics 2014 (Rhodes) Habitat Mapping: Procedures and Results [Details]
(2011) 54th Annual Irish Geological Researchers Meeting
O'Connell, Yvonne; Duffy, G. P; Daly, Eve; Brown, C. (2011) Inversion of Marine Resistivity in a Karstic estuary using simultaneously acquired chirp pinger data. 54th Annual Irish Geological Researchers Meeting 54th Annual Irish Geological Researchers Meeting [Details]

Published Reports

  Year Publication
(2005) Methane Hydrate Resource Assessment Offshore Western Ireland.
Mac Aodha, P., Brown, C. & Johnson, A. (2005) Methane Hydrate Resource Assessment Offshore Western Ireland. Technical Report to Irish Petroleum Infrastructure Programme (PIP Project IS05/02), Dublin. [Details]
(2004) Feasibility study on the establishment of a large-scale inshore resource mapping project.
Parsons, A., Barton, K., Brown, C (2004) Feasibility study on the establishment of a large-scale inshore resource mapping project. NDP Marine RTDI Desk Study Series, ISSN 1649 5063, Dublin. [Details]
(2003) A marine geophysical survey for the archaeology of Borgpollen Lake, Lofoten Islands, Norway.
Rooney, S., Barton, K. & Brown, C., (2003) A marine geophysical survey for the archaeology of Borgpollen Lake, Lofoten Islands, Norway. Tromsoe Museum, Tromsoe, Norway. [Details]
(1983) A computer based study of the regional gravity and magnetic fields in Ireland and their relationship to areas of possible geothermal interest.
Brown, C. and Brock, A. (1983) A computer based study of the regional gravity and magnetic fields in Ireland and their relationship to areas of possible geothermal interest. Geological Survey Ireland, Dublin. [Details]

Conference Contributions

  Year Publication
(2020) 63rd Irish Geological Research Meeting 2020,
O’Connell, Y., Brown, C., Henry, T., Morrison, L. & Daly, E. (2020) Assessing groundwater resources using Tellus airborne electromagnetics. [Oral Presentation], 63rd Irish Geological Research Meeting 2020, Athlone, Ireland , 28-FEB-20 - 01-MAR-20. [Details]

Editorial

  Year Publication
(2007) Comment on 'The magnetotelluric phase tensor' by T.Grant Caldwell, Hugh M. Bibby and Colin Brown - Reply.
Caldwell, TG;Bibby, HM;Brown, C (2007) Comment on 'The magnetotelluric phase tensor' by T.Grant Caldwell, Hugh M. Bibby and Colin Brown - Reply. OXFORD: BLACKWELL PUBLISHING Editorial [DOI] [Details]
(2005) New Horizons.
Daly, E., Brown, C. & Maguire P. (2005) New Horizons. Royal Astronomical Society, London: News and Reviews in Astronomy & Geophysics, Editorial [Details]

Educational Article

  Year Publication
(2006) Diving with neural nets.
Brown, C. & O’Connell, B. (2006) Diving with neural nets. ES2k: Earth Science 2000 Educational Article [Details]

Reviews

  Year Publication
(1994) TECTONIC INTERPRETATION OF REGIONAL CONDUCTIVITY ANOMALIES.
BROWN, C (1994) TECTONIC INTERPRETATION OF REGIONAL CONDUCTIVITY ANOMALIES. DORDRECHT: KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBL Reviews [Details]

Correction, Addition

  Year Publication
(2007) Comment on 'The magnetotelluric phase tensor' by T.Grant Caldwell, Hugh M. Bibby and Colin Brown - Reply.
Caldwell, TG,Bibby, HM,Brown, C (2007) Comment on 'The magnetotelluric phase tensor' by T.Grant Caldwell, Hugh M. Bibby and Colin Brown - Reply. London: Royal Astronomical Society Correction, Addition [DOI] [Details]