# David Beerling

David John Beerling (born 21 June 1965) is the Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Climate change mitigation and Sorby Professor of Natural Sciences in the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences (APS) at the University of Sheffield, UK. == Education == Beerling was educated at University of Wales, College of Cardiff where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in Botany in 1987 followed by a PhD in 1990 for research into the biogeography, ecology and control of two important and highly invasive alien plant species Japanese knotweeed Reynoutria japonica and Himalayan balsam Impatiens glandulifera. His PhD was supervised by Ron Walter Edwards CBE and he authored two ecological monographs on the species and scientific papers reporting simulated projections of their potential future distributions in Europe with global climate change. == Research and career == Beerling's research group investigate fundamental questions concerning the conquest of the land by plants and the role of terrestrial ecosystems in shaping Earth's global ecology, climate and atmospheric composition.