Rate My Professor Sarah Davies

Professor Sarah Davies is Professor of Sedimentology in the School of Geography, Geology and the Environment at the University of Leicester. She is a geoscientist whose research examines the response of palaeoenvironments and ecosystems to perturbations in the Earth system. As a clastic sedimentologist, she analyses the temporal and spatial evolution of non-marine and shallow-marine environments and their role in the production, concentration and distribution of organic matter, including links to carbon cycling. She integrates sedimentology with petrophysics to advance understanding of complex solid-fluid chemical systems, with applications in subsurface characterisation, stratigraphic analysis and hydrocarbon systems.

Professor Davies leads a group delivering petrophysical and downhole logging expertise for the International Ocean Drilling Programme (IODP 3) as part of the ECORD Science Operator. She previously served as Head of School for Geography, Geology and the Environment from 2017 to 2020 and as Pro Vice-Chancellor and Head of the College of Science and Engineering from 2020 to 2025. Her awards include the British Sedimentological Research Group Perce Allen Award in 2020 and the Coke Medal of the Geological Society of London in 2015. She has supervised numerous PhD students and taught modules in sedimentology, stratigraphy and field skills. Key publications include works on Mississippian black shales, early Carboniferous environments and petrophysical heterogeneity, appearing in journals such as Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology and Sedimentology.