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Dr Francis Rowney

Postdoctoral research associate

  • F.Rowney@exeter.ac.uk

Francis is a Postdoctoral Research Associate investigating the links between exposure to natural environments and mental health.

He is currently working in collaboration with a number of institutions on an NIHR-funded project investigating links between access to green-blue spaces and individual-level health and wellbeing.

Francis previously worked on the NERC-funded PollerGEN project, exploring links between airborne grass pollen and population-scale respiratory health. This focussed on whether respiratory health responses vary according to grass species, and involved bringing together large public health and environmental datasets.

He completed a PhD in Physical Geography at the University of Plymouth in 2018, research which focused on ‘The ecology and climates of early Middle Pleistocene interglacials in Britain’.

This work studied Middle Pleistocene palaeoenvironments through the analysis of sub-fossil insects, pollen and coprophilous fungal spores, with particular focus on local-scale ecological dynamics and regional climates.

Dr Francis Rowney

Key Colleagues

  • Prof Ben Wheeler

    Prof Ben Wheeler

  • Dr Rebecca Lovell

    Dr Rebecca Lovell

  • Dr Mathew White

    Dr Mathew White

  • Dr Siân de Bell

    Dr Siân de Bell

Related content

Research project

PollerGEN

PollerGEN is an interdisciplinary NERC-funded project aiming to revolutionise aeropollen measurement and forecasting.

Research project

Green-blue space natural experiment

Green-blue space exposure changes and impact on individual-level wellbeing and mental health: a population-wide record-linked natural experiment.

Research project

Longitudinal effects of moving to greener urban areas

Green spaces in towns and cities could lead to sustained improvements in mental health, finds a new study.

Contact details

European Centre for Environment and Human Health

University of Exeter Medical School

Peter Lanyon Building 12

Penryn, Cornwall, TR10 8RD

  • T: +44 (0) 1326 371859
  • E: ECEHHAdmin@exeter.ac.uk

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