Prof Ann Webb

Biography

Ann graduated from Reading University with a BSc in Physics and Meteorology, then gained a PhD in Environmental Physics from Nottingham University and, later, a DSc from UMIST. She spent 3 years as a researcher in a medical environment in USA, applying her knowledge of sunlight to understanding its effects on human health. She returned to the UK, Reading University and work with a more atmospheric focus before joining UMIST as a lecturer in Physics, and then moving into the School of Earth Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences  (now Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences) at University of Manchester where she is a Professor in the Centre for Atmospheric Sciences. From 2011-2018 she served as Associate Dean for Graduate Education in the Faculty of Science and Engineering.

Ann continues to teach atmospheric physics to students in a number of Schools. Her research work remains at the interface between disciplines, with radiation and (sun)light as a central theme. She has strong collaborations with the Medical School and photobiologists as well as modelling and experimental work in the atmospheric sciences. A topical interest in which she specialises is vitamin D synthesis by the skin after exposure to (solar) UV radiation, while other work explores, for example, the scattering of radiation by ice crystals. The multidisciplinarity of Ann’s work is also apparent in the external positions she held. In addition to several roles at the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), she was President of CIE (Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage, or International Commission for Illumination), 2011-15. She is currently UV Working Group lead for the International Radiation Commission and member of the Editorial Board for the WMO Commission for Instruments and Methods of Observation (CIMO) Guide.

Qualifications

BSc Physics and Meteorology (Reading); PhD Solar ultraviolet radiation and vitamin D synthesis in man (Nottingham); DSc (UMIST)