Dr Mark Cresswell

My profile

Biography

Academic and professional qualifications

I completed by first degree (B.Sc, Hons) at St Mary’s University in Twickenham (Biology and Geography)

My MSc was undertaken at the University of Liverpool, within the Dept. of Geography and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

My PhD was undertaken at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. The title of the thesis was “Developing an integrated approach to epidemic forecasting, through the monitoring and prediction of meteorological variables associated with disease”

I also have a PgD in Programming and Software Engineering from the University of Liverpool

External examiner roles

I have been both internal and external PhD and MPhil examiner for numerous institutions.

Website

www.ukscience.org

Teaching

Subjects

Meteorology, remote sensing and GIS, climate change and tropical medicine.

Undergraduate courses

Undergraduate Personal Tutor role

Geosystems Science: Meteorology

Earth Observation: principles of remote sensing and derivation of environmental proxies

Applied Climatology: How climate models work, are objectively tested and generate predictions

Malta Field Trip: Supporting tutor

Project Tutor: for students taking their project research work in the final year of their degree

Postgraduate teaching

Methods and Techniques for research

Supervision

Director of Studies for PhD studentship (Predictive modelling to assess changes in ecosystem components associated with disease in Tanzania) with Rachael Reynolds. This project was completed in 2018 and Dr Reynolds is now working as an academic at the University of Chester

Research outputs

Research expertise

Relationships between climate, environment and vector-borne diseases

Recent paper: https://doi.org/10.3112/erdkunde.2024.03.02

Zou Y, Cheng J, Cresswell M and Lageard J (2024). Disease, climate, environment and the fortunes of Buddhism during the Tibetan Empire 618–842 CE

  • Books (authored/edited/special issues)

    Scholten, H.J., Velde, R.J.V.D., Manen, N.V. (2009) Geospatial Technology and the Role of Location in Science. Springer Science & Business Media.

  • Reports

    Folegani, M., Cresswell, M.P., Ceccato, P., Michelozzi, P. (2014) Earth Observation for Climate-related Health risk in Africa - EOCHA. MEEO.

  • Journal articles

    Zou, Y., Cheng, J., Cresswell, M., Lageard, J. (2024) 'Disease, climate, environment and the fortunes of Buddhism during the Tibetan Empire 618-842 CE.' Erdkunde: Journal of Human and Physical Geographies, 78(3) pp. 175-194.

    Reynolds, R., Cavan, G., Cresswell, M. (2017) 'The local response of El Niño events and changing disease distribution in Tanzania.' Weather, 72(7) pp. 206-215.

    Molesworth, A.M., Thomson, M.C., Connor, S.J., Cresswell, M.P., Morse, A.P., Shears, P., Hart, C.A., Cuevas, L.E. (2002) 'Where is the meningitis belt? Defining an area at risk of epidemic meningitis in Africa..' Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg, 96(3) pp. 242-249.

    Thomson, M.C., Palmer, T., Morse, A.P., Cresswell, M.P., Connor, S.J. (2000) 'Forecasting disease risk with seasonal climate predictions.' The Lancet, 355(9214) pp. 1559-1560.

    Kovats, S., Cresswell, M.P. (1999) 'El Niño and health: the potential benefits of seasonal forecasting for epidemic disease..' Tiempo, 33pp. 11-14.

    Cresswell, M.P., Thomson, M.C., Morse, A.P., Connor, S.J., Graham, R. (1999) 'New advances in climate forecasting tools and satellite imagery for disease modelling.' Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 93(2) pp. 118-119.

    Cresswell, M.P., Morse, A.P., Thomson, M.C., Connor, S.J. (1999) 'Estimating surface air temperatures, from meteosat land surface temperatures, using an empirical solar zenith angle model.' International Journal of Remote Sensing, 20(6) pp. 1125-1132.

    Cresswell, M.P., Connor, S.J., Morse, A.P. (1997) 'Improved estimates of ambient air temperature, for large area studies of vector bionomics.' Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 91(5) pp. 502-503.

  • Conference papers

    Cresswell, M.P., Morse, A.P., Thomson, M.C., Graham, R. (1999) 'Evaluation of HADAM3 model simulations to predict the onset of the West African Monsoon.' In 24th Annual Climate Diagnostics Conference. Arizona, 5/11/1999 - 9/11/1999. pp. 276-279.

    Cresswell, M.P., Thomson, M.C., Connor, S.J., Morse, A.P. (1997) 'The estimation of proxy ambient air temperatures, by transformation of meteosat land surface temperatures, using a solar zenith angle radiation model.' In Eumetsat Satellite Data User's Conference. Brussels, 29/9/1997 - 3/10/1997. pp. 491-495.

Press and media

Due to the media-friendly nature of my work, I have attracted a number of media interviews:

  • BBC World Service Radio (Science Now)
  • BBC Radio 1 (NewsBeat)
  • BBC Radio 4 (Science in Action)
  • BBC Radio Merseyside (News item)
  • Times Higher Education (Research Feature Article)
  • Liverpool Echo (News Item)
  • Channel 1 Television (News Item)
  • Channel 1 Television (News item relating to Mozambique flooding crisis in Feb 2000)