Kate Baker

Kate Baker

 

College: College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences
Research Centre/Unit: Centre for Water Systems

Kate Baker is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Water Systems. She is currently working on the Safe & SuRe project, which aims to develop a new paradigm for urban water management in response to emerging challenges and uncertainties. Kate is responsible for the industrial dissemination strategy and assisting to bring the project to a successful conclusion.

Kate joined Exeter in January 2017 from the Department of Geography at King’s College London, where she worked on her Natural Environment Research Council-funded PhD. Her research focused on investigating patterns of habitat use by benthic macroinvertebrates (such as dragonflies, stoneflies, and mayflies) in the tropical streams of Ulu Temburong National Park in northern Borneo. Understanding how the spatial structure of habitats within rivers can increase ecological diversity and ecosystem functioning is important in terms of successful rehabilitation and can inform future management decisions.

Prior to starting her PhD, Kate was awarded a European Commission’s Leonardo Mobility Award to fund a post with the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research undertaking applied ecological research in the remote mountains of Børgefjell National Park. Prior to this Kate lived in Siberia for six months funded by the European Voluntary Service to work with The Great Baikal Trail, a youth-led environmental organisation helping to conserve the deepest lake in the world, Lake Baikal. 

In addition to her research, Kate is a co-founder of the Intrepid Explorers initiative, which won an Economic Social Research Council impact award. Intrepid Explorers is an innovative platform that enables researchers to disseminate their work to both academic and non-academic audiences. Kate has experience in lecturing and teaching to undergraduate and master students at King’s College London and The London School of Economics.

Qualifications

  • BSc Geography, University College London 
  • MSc Aquatic Resource Management, King’s College London 
  • PhD Physical Geography, King’s College London