Rate My Professor Matt Brain

Professor Matthew Brain is a Professor in the Department of Geography at Durham University, having progressed through successive academic positions since returning to the institution in 2009. He completed his BA (Hons) and MA in Geography at St Anne’s College, University of Oxford (1998–2001), followed by a NERC-funded PhD entitled ‘Autocompaction of Mineralogenic Intertidal Sediments’ in the Department of Geography at Durham University (2002–2006). After his doctorate, Brain worked as an Environmental Consultant at Golder Associates (UK) Ltd. in Maidenhead and Leeds (2006–2009). He rejoined Durham as a Postdoctoral Research Associate on the Boulby Geoscience Project, funded by ONE NorthEast (2009–2010), and subsequently on the COastal Rates of Behaviour and Activity (COBRA) project, funded by Cleveland Potash Ltd. (2010–2014). His career advanced to Independent Research Fellow and Proleptic Lecturer (2014–2018), Assistant Professor (2018–2020), Associate Professor (2020–2024), and Professor (2024–present).

Brain’s research investigates the geotechnical properties of soils and rocks to understand deformation mechanisms, styles, and rates, employing detailed laboratory testing informed by field measurements of stress and environmental conditions. His work encompasses Earth materials ranging from soft estuarine muds and peats to strong, regionally metamorphosed rocks in active orogens, with applications across low- and high-energy coastal geomorphology, rock-slope stability, landslide risk assessment, deep mining, and Quaternary science. Key publications include ‘Coastline retreat via progressive failure of rocky coastal cliffs’ (Rosser, Brain, Petley, Lim & Norman, Geology, 2013), ‘Modeling cliff erosion using negative power law scaling of rockfalls’ (Barlow, Lim, Rosser, Petley, Brain, Norman & Geer, Geomorphology, 2012), ‘Optimising 4-D surface change detection: an approach for capturing rockfall magnitude–frequency’ (Williams, Rosser, Hardy, Brain & Afana, Earth Surface Dynamics, 2018), ‘Modelling the effects of sediment compaction on salt marsh reconstructions of recent sea-level rise’ (Brain, Long, Woodroffe, Petley, Milledge & Parnell, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 2012), and ‘Mangrove sediments reveal drivers of Late Holocene sea-level change in the equatorial Pacific Ocean’ (Sefton, Kemp, Engelhart, Brain et al., Quaternary Science Reviews, 2026). His research has amassed over 1,800 citations.