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Contact Information

Director
Bill McGuire
Contact Information / Biography / Publications
Aon Benfield UCL Hazard Research Centre, UCL, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK
Telephone:020 3108 6000
Fax:020 3108 6020
Email:w.mcguire@ucl.ac.uk
Specialisation:
Volcanology, volcanic hazards, global geophysical events, geological consequences of climate change
Research Interests:
Geodetic monitoring of active volcanoes; volcano instability and collapse; volcanoes and environmental change; volcanic hazards and their mitigation; volcanic emergency protocols and procedures; low frequency-high magnitude geophysical hazards; climate forcing of geological hazards and identification and characterisation of megatsunami deposits
Bill has held the positions of UK National Correspondent of the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior, and Secretary of the UK Panel of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics. He has been a council member of the Geological Society and in 1996 was Senior Scientist at the Montserrat Volcano Observatory. He is a Fellow of the Royal Institution (RI) and a member of the RI’s Science Media Panel. He is currently on the editorial boards of two journals: Disasters and Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Bill was also a member of the Natural Hazard Working Group established by the UK Government in January 2005, in the wake of the Indian Ocean tsunami, to examine the feasibility of global natural hazard early warning systems. In November 2005, he gave the prestigious Natural History Museum Annual Science Lecture. He is currently a member of the Lancet-UCL Commission on the Health Effects of Climate Change and an advisor on natural threats and climate change to HSBC Group. At UCL, Bill is director of the unique postgraduate certificate course, Natural Hazards for Insurers and instigator and deputy course director of the Masters programme in Geophysical Hazards.

Bill is a member of the Association of British Science Writers and a regular contributor to The Guardian newspaper. He has also written – amongst many others - for the Sunday Times, the Mail on Sunday, Geographical, Prospect, Society Today, New Scientist, and BBC Focus magazine. He is a member of the advisory board of the latter, and also of the BBC Magazines Editorial Board. His popular science books include Apocalypse: a natural history of global disasters, Raging Planet: earthquakes, volcanoes and the tectonic threat to life on Earth, and A Guide to the End of the World: everything you never wanted to know (re-issued as Global Catastrophes: a very short introduction), and Surviving Armageddon: solutions for a threatened planet.  Bill’s academic books include: Natural Hazards and Environmental Change and the World Atlas of Natural Hazards. His newest book – Seven Years to Save the Planet: the Questions and Answers - was published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in July 2008.

Bill is a much called-upon TV and radio pundit whenever a natural catastrophe strikes. He was heavily involved and appeared in two of the most popular programmes in the BBC2 Horizon series: Supervolcanoes and Megatsunami, and was the focus of the Carlton First Edition programme: Disasterman. He has also presented two series on BBC Radio 4, Disasters in Waiting and Scientists under Pressure. He was Chief Consultant for the major BBC science drama, Supervolcano, and was one of the key subjects of the highly rated Channel 4 ‘docudrama’, Krakatoa, and award-winning The Wave that Shook the World, about the Asian tsunami. In 2006 he presented the End of the World Reports on Channel 5 and the Sky News Channel, which looked at global geophysical catastrophes. Bill lives in Brassington in the Peak District, with his wife Anna, 5-year old son Fraser, and cats – Jetsam, Driftwood and Dave.
  • Costello, A., Abbas, M., Allen, A., Ball, S., Bell, S., Bellamy, R., Friel, S., Groce, N., Johnson, A., Kett, M., Lee, M., Levy, C., Maslin, M., McCoy, D., McGuire, W. J., Montgomery, H., Napier, D., Pagel, C., Patel, J., Puppim de Oliveira, A. J., Redclift, N., Rees, H., Rogger, D., Scott, J., Stephenson, J., Twigg, J., Wolff, J., Patterson, C. 2009 Managing the health effects of climate change. The Lancet. 373, 1693 - 1733.
  • McGuire, W. J., Solana, M. C., Kilburn, C. R. J. and Sanderson, D. 2009 Improving communication during volcanic crises on small, vulnerable, islands. Journal of Volcanology & Geothermal Research 183, 63 - 75
  • Lowe, C. J., Haklay, M., Longley, P. and McGuire, W. J. 2007. Understanding disaster risk on volcanic islands: a research agenda. GISRUK 2007 Proceedings of the Geographical Information Science Research Conference, 121 – 126.
  • McGuire, W. J. 2006 Global risk from extreme geophysical events: threat identification and assessment. In: Huppert, H. E. & Sparks, R. S. J. (eds) Extreme Natural Hazards. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A., 364, 1889 – 1909.
  • McGuire, W. J. 2006 Lateral collapse and tsunamigenic potential of marine volcanoes. In: Troise, C., De Natale, G. and Kilburn, C. R. J. (eds) Mechanisms of Activity and Unrest at Large Calderas. Special Publication of the Geological Society 269, 121 - 140
  • Keating, B. H. & McGuire, W. J. 2004 Instability and Structural Failure at Volcanic Ocean Islands and the Climate Change Dimension. Advances in Geophysics 47, 95 - 147.
  • UK Government Natural Hazard Working Group. 2005 The Role of Science in Physical Natural Hazard Assessment. Department of Trade and Industry. 42pp.
  • McGuire, W. J., Burton, P., Kilburn, C. R. J. and Willetts, O. 2004 World Atlas of Natural Hazards. Hodder Arnold. London. 128 pp.
  • McGuire, W. J. 2003 Volcano instability and lateral collapse. Revista 1, 33-45.
  • McGuire, W. J., Day, S. J. & Kilburn, C. R. J. 2002 Volcanogenic landslides. In: Landslide risk mitigation and protection of cultural and natural heritage. UNESCO/Tokyo University, p691-750.
  • McGuire, W. J., Mason, I. M. and Kilburn, C. R. J. 2002 Natural Hazards and Environmental Change. Hodder Arnold. London. 193 pp.
  • Keating, B. H. & McGuire, W. J. 2000 Island edifice failure and associated tsunami hazards. Pure and Applied Geophysics 157, 899-955.

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