Professor Nick Drake
Email: nick.drake@kcl.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)20 7848 2798
Department of Geography
King's College London
K4U.06 Strand Campus
London WC2R 2LS
'Geography is a great way of linking cutting-edge technology with encounters of people and place, both past and present.'
Research interests
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remote sensing, geomorphological analysis and geochemical analysis of landforms and processes of landform change in semi-arid and arid environments
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soil erosion models and mixture models applied to remotely-sensed imagery
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North Africa
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Namibia
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Biography
Nick Drake obtained his BSc (Honours) in Environmental Science at Plymouth Polytechnic in 1983 and his Master of Applied Science in Geochemical Exploration from the University of New South Wales in 1986.
From 1986 to 1992 Nick worked as a research fellow conducting remote sensing research at the Department of Geography, Reading University. He worked on the development of improved algorithms for image classification and the characterisation of desert surfaces for geomorphological mapping using remote sensing. During this time he completed a part-time PhD entitled ‘Mapping and monitoring of surface cover types and processes in southern Tunisia using remote sensing’.
Nick joined King's Department of Geography in 1992 and was made Reader in 2000. He has continued to develop his interests in theoretical and practical aspects of remote sensing while broadening his interests into geographical information systems and spatial modelling.
During the last few years Nick's interests have focussed on applying his expertise to arid lands and, in particular, the Sahara Desert. He is the leader of the Sahara Megalakes Project, an international project that involves nine universities and coordinates research on giant ancient lakes in Chad, Libya and Tunisia. He has recently been asked to join the editorial board of the Journal of Arid Environments.
Nick has published 37 papers in journals, 18 book chapters, and was co-editor of Spatial Modelling of the Terrestrial Environment published by Wiley in 2004. He is a member of:
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the Remote Sensing and Photogrammetric Society
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the Royal Geographical Society
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the British Society for Geomorphology.
Nick has been most active in the Remote Sensing and Photogrammetric Society where he has organised a number of sessions for annual conferences, was invited to become a member of the organisation committee of their Special Interest Group in Modelling and Advanced Techniques in 1997, and was the group convenor from 1999 to 2004.
Nick has played an active role in departmental, King's and University of London administration. He joined the University of London Subject Area Board (SAB) for Mathematical and Physical Sciences in 1998. He was invited to be deputy-chair in 2004. In 2005 he was appointed to the University of London Senate and became the chairman of the SAB in 2006.
Please see Nick's Research Staff Profile for further details.