Meet the Experts Behind the Hub
Tom Backhouse
Geologist & Entrepreneur
Tom is an award-winning geologist and founder of Terrafirma who places his personal values of hard-work, education, and subject passion at the forefront of his business vision. As Director of Dye & Durham UK, Insight & Data, Tom pursues an ambition of changing the way in which we perceive, identify and act upon ground risks to better manage and resolve the problems that are increasing in occurrence across the UK.
Dr Timothy Farewell
Geospatial Environmental Data Scientist
Tim is one of the UK’s leading academics on ground hazards specialising in the dynamic interactions between geohazards and critical infrastructure.
He works closely with research data including climate change models to map changes in ground conditions and is convinced of the need to better the understanding of the often complex environmental-infrastructure interactions.
Nina Sundown
Software Developer
Nina graduated with a first-class degree in Mathematics from Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge in 2017. After graduating, building on experience from internships during their degree, they developed skills in data and software engineering.
Nina is redesigning the reports generation system and once this has been completed, they will be maintaining this system and using technology to improve operations across the company.
Maura Partridge
Geologist
Maura graduated with a degree in Geology from the University of Bristol in 2016 and soon after joined the team. As Head of Searches, Maura is responsible for ensuring that the technical content within the searches is correct and communicated in an intelligible way.
Working towards her Chartership, she is keen to further her geological knowledge and learn new skills related to her field.
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Tim Longden
Geologist
Tim joined Dye & Durham while completing his Master’s degree in Geology at the University of Bristol. As Product Owner, Tim is responsible for the content, delivery and development of search reports.
Tim has also had experience working as an Account Manager, forming strong client relationships while also continuing to raise awareness surrounding both natural and man-made ground hazards to help change the way we perceive and act upon environmental and ground risks.
Tim pursues an ambition to further develop his geological and industry knowledge while working towards Chartership.
Connor Bowman
Environmental Consultant
Connor joined the team in 2016 with a BSc Geography degree, specialising in the relationship humans have with the environment. This passion has driven Connor to develop his experience in dealing with the environmental risks associated with property transactions and the technical aspects of environmental reports. As Risk Team Leader, Connor is responsible for the day to day coordination of report production and delivery, including the provision of consultancy follow on services and dealing with customer queries.
Connor is currently an Associate member of IEMA and is working towards Practitioner status, ensuring that the skills learnt within this can be transferred into the working environment. Once completed Connor will be working towards Chartership.
Jodie Hill
Junior Geoscientist
Jodie graduated with a BSc Geography degree from the University of Bristol in 2021. Her final year dissertation was centred around modelling Glacial Algal Blooms and Autochthonous Organic Carbon production on the Greenland Ice Sheet with particular focus on the effect of increased ice melt from global warming.
Jodie completed two internships with Dye & Durham whilst at university and now works in the operations team in the position of a Geoscientist. She is responsible for carrying out daily property ground risk reports.
Sam Grant
Spatial Data Analyst
Sam graduated with a master’s in Geology from Cardiff University in 2021, before joining the team. His master’s project focused on using remote sensing data to study the physical drivers of fire in African savannahs.
Sam has previous experience as a GIS Python Developer and now works in the Science Team as a Spatial Data Analyst, helping to produce ground hazard models.
The Climate Change Hub exists to ensure individual understandable information on climate change and physical hazards, so they can make informed decisions about their property investment without needing to be specialists themselves.
Across the UK homes, infrastructure and land are at risk from climate related physical hazards. Everyday, decisions worth millions of pounds are being made without considering the future consequences of these hazards, putting the investments of individuals, families and businesses at risk.
The Hub is a resource for homeowners and conveyancers to use to answer any concerns and questions they may have on climate related hazards. The team behind the hub are passionate about improving the understanding of climate change and physical hazards. We strongly believe you should not have to be a climate specialist to understand the changing hazard exposure to a property. The Hub aims to distil easy to understand, relevant climate information and hazard explanations.
The team behind The Hub are a collaborative group of Dye & Durham employees and external volunteers, all with a passion to share their expertise. Specialities include climate change, geology, geospatial data and environmental science.
