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Steve Boreham, BSc PhD

Senior Technical Officer [Geographical Services Officer] and Bye-Fellow of Girton College

Ecologist and Geologist with a special interest in Quaternary, Biogeography, Coastal, Geochemical and Forensic studies

  • Overall management and supervision of the Geography Science Laboratories & Field Equipment Service
  • Budgetary control for equipment and consumables
  • Implementation of health & safety, and security policy
  • Considerable expertise in fieldwork logistics, and in data analysis and interpretation
  • Teaching of field and laboratory content in graduate and undergraduate courses
  • Secretary of the Laboratories & Fieldwork Resources Committee

Biography

Steve is a Senior Technical Officer and the Geographical Services Officer for the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge. The role oversees the Geography Science Laboratories and the Field Equipment Service. Steve also runs the Quaternary Palaeoenvironments Group (QPG), which is part of Cambridge Quaternary. Steve has carried out research and managed laboratories in various departments within the University of Cambridge for more than 22 years.

Before this, Steve managed laboratories and organised field excursions at Queen's College, London, was a geology and ecology tutor at the Epping Forest Conservation Centre (now the Epping Forest Centre), and carried out freshwater pollution research at North East London Polytechnic (now University of East London).

Steve was educated at St. John's School, Epping, Essex, where he gained four 'A' levels in science subjects. He then came to Cambridge to study a modular science degree at Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology (now Anglia Ruskin University). After specialising in geology and ecology he gained a BSc Science (Hons) degree 2:1.

Throughout 1998 and 1999 Steve studied and obtained qualifications on NEBS certificated basic and advanced staff management skills course.

Between 1995 and 2002, Steve studied part-time for an Open University PhD entitled: "The Pleistocene Stratigraphy and Palaeoenvironments of the Cambridge District".

Research

  • The Quaternary geology of Britain
  • The Pleistocene Stratigraphy and Palaeoenvironments of the Cambridge District
  • Geochemistry as a preservation indicator in Archaeological deposits
  • The changing flora, fauna and sedimentation of the East Anglian coast
  • Drainage development, thermokarst activity and periglacial landscape change
  • Three-dimensional landscape modelling and data manipulation
  • Woodland ecology, methodology and urban wildlife
  • Lichens as air pollution indicators
  • Freshwater macro-invertebrates as pollution indicators and freshwater ecology
  • Geology, ecology, hydrology & management of Chalk springs

Other activities

  • Application to The Junction multimedia studio for a project entitled 'Time Machine Cambridge'.
  • Application to COPUS (British Association) for funds to produce a museum display entitled; 'Unseen Cambridge: Geology beneath your feet'
  • Cambridge Geology: TV appearance on Anglia TV's 'A Brush with the Past'
  • TV appearance on 'Ray Mears Wild Food'
  • TV appearance on 'CountryFile'
  • The ecology of Coldwater Chalk springs in Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire
  • Forensic palynology and soil analysis
  • The changing flora, fauna and sedimentation of the West Norfolk coast

Publications

Listed by area of research.

Quaternary geology of Britain

  • Leszczynska, K., Boreham, J. & Boreham, S. 2012. A novel methodological approach for thin-section description and its application to periglacially disturbed Pleistocene deposits from Danbury, Essex, UK. Netherlands Journal of Geosciences — Geologie en Mijnbouw, 90-4, 271 - 291.
  • Gao, C. and Boreham, S., 2010. Ipswichian (Eemian) floodplain deposits and terrace stratigraphy in the lower Great Ouse and Cam valleys, southern England, UK. Boreas, 40, 303-319.
  • Gibbard, P. L., Boreham, S., Andrews, J. E. and Maher, B. A. 2010. Sedimentation, geochemistry and palaeomagnetism
    of the West Runton Freshwater Bed, Norfolk, England. Quaternary International, 228, 8-20.
  • Boreham, S., White, T. S., Bridgland, D. R., Howard, A. J. and White, M. J., 2010. The Quaternary history of the Wash fluvial network, UK. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 121, 393-409.
  • Boreham, S. & Rolfe, C. J. 2009. Holocene, Weichselian Late-glacial and earlier Pleistocene deposits of the upper Cam valley at the Hinxton Genome Campus, Cambridgeshire, UK. Netherlands Journal of Geosciences — Geologie en Mijnbouw, 88-2, 117 - 125.

Archaeology, woodland ecology, methodology and urban wildlife

  • Boreham, S., Boreham, J. and Rolfe, C. J. 2012 Physical and Chemical Analyses of sediments from around Star Carr as Indicators of Preservation. Journal of Wetland Archaeology, 11, 20-35.
  • Boreham, S., Conneller, C., Milner, N., Taylor, B., Needham, A., Boreham, J. and Rolfe, C. J. 2011 Geochemical Indicators of Preservation Status and Site Deterioration at Star Carr. Journal of Archaeological Science, 38, 2833-2857.
  • Beresford-Jones, D., Lewis, H. & Boreham, S. 2009 Linking cultural and environmental change in Peruvian prehistory: Geomorphological survey of the Samaca Basin, Lower Ica Valley, Peru. Catena Volume 78, Issue 3, 234-249
  • Evans, C., Edmonds, M. & Boreham, S. 2006 'Total Archaeology' and Model Landscapes: Excavation of the Great Wilbraham Causewayed Enclosure, Cambridgeshire, 1975-76. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 72: 113-162.
  • William D. Gosling, Francis E. Mayle, Timothy J. Killeen, Marcelo Siles, Lupita Sanchez and Steve Boreham (2003) A simple and effective methodology for sampling modern pollen rain in tropical environments. The Holocene 13,4, 613-618
  • Boreham, S. and Moxey, P.A. (1997) A century of vegetation change in Epping Forest determined from pollen analysis of pond sediments. The London Naturalist 76, 21-25.
  • Boreham S. and F. Applin (1995) Lower Wood. Nature in Cambridgeshire. 37, 24-34.
  • Boreham, S., and Albrecht, J. S. (1992) Observations on the wildlife potential of cities with particular reference to Cambridge. Nature in Cambridgeshire 34, 52-57.

Coastal environments

  • Brooks, S. M., Spencer, T. & Boreham, S. 2012. Deriving mechanisms and thresholds for cliff retreat in soft-rock cliffs under changing climates: Rapidly retreating cliffs of the Suffolk coast, UK. Geomorphology. Published online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2012.02.007

Forensic Science

Thermokarst activity and periglacial landscape change

Three-dimensional landscape modelling and data manipulation

Lichens as air pollution indicators

Freshwater macro-invertebrates as pollution indicators and freshwater ecology:

Archaeology & preservation status geochemistry

  • Boreham, S., Conneller, C., Milner, N., Taylor, B., Needham, A., Boreham, J. and Rolfe, C. J. 2011 Geochemical Indicators of Preservation Status and Site Deterioration at Star Carr. Journal of Archaeological Science, 38, 2833-2857.
  • Beresford-Jones, D., Lewis, H. & Boreham, S. 2009 Linking cultural and environmental change in Peruvian prehistory: Geomorphological survey of the Samaca Basin, Lower Ica Valley, Peru. Catena Volume 78, Issue 3, 234-249
  • Evans, C., Edmonds, M. & Boreham, S. 2006 'Total Archaeology' and Model Landscapes: Excavation of the Great Wilbraham Causewayed Enclosure, Cambridgeshire, 1975-76. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 72: 113-162.

Woodland ecology, methodology and urban wildlife

Lichens as air pollution indicators

Freshwater macro-invertebrates as pollution indicators and freshwater ecology:

Lichens as air pollution indicators

Freshwater macro-invertebrates as pollution indicators and freshwater ecology:

External activities

  • Member of the Quaternary Research Association
  • Forensic Consultant
  • Environmental Consultant
  • Geological Consultant
  • Trustee of the Hobson's Conduit Trust
  • Member of the Cambridge Philosophical Society
  • Member of the Wicken Vision Committee