Biography
Nick Roxburgh joined the James Hutton Institute as a Social Systems Simulation Modeller in 2021. He specialises in developing agent-based models of social and socio-environmental systems, with a particular focus at present on agriculture, food value chains, global food trade, and rural economies.
Prior to his current post, he worked as an International Research Scientist at UFZ in Leipzig and as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Namur in Belgium. Preceding this, he earnt his PhD for a project that involved modelling the combinatory impact of stressors on remote mountain communities in Nepal. During his time as a PhD researcher, he was additionally involved in international collaborations examining the potential implications of urban water supply improvements in Kenya and exploring public responses to extreme weather events in Japan and the USA.
While much of his work now centres around the use of computational methods, he initially trained as a geographer with a more qualitative focus, obtaining an MA (Hons) from the University of St Andrews in 2010. Stemming from this, he takes a keen interest in how participatory research, quantitative ethnographic methods, and grounded theory can be utilised in the modelling process to unlock rich insights into individual human behaviour and societal processes.
In 2023 he received the Open Science Award from the International Land Use Study Centre for his work on using wikis as collaborative knowledge management tools in socio-environmental modelling studies.
Publications
Journals
- Berger, U.; Bell, A.; Barton, M.; Chappin, E.; Dressler, G.; Filatova, T.; Fronville, T.; Lee, A.; van Loon, E.; Lorscheid, I.; Meyer, M.; Müller, B.; Piou, C.; Radchuk, V.; Roxburgh, N.; Shüler, L.; Troost, C.; Wijermans, N.; Williams, T. G.; Wimmler, M.; Grimm, V. (2024) Towards reusable building blocks for agent-based modelling and theory development, Environmental Modelling & Software, 175, Art. 106003
- Roxburgh, N.; Stringer, L.C.; Evans, A.J.; Williams, T.G.; Müller, B. (2022) Wikis as collaborative knowledge management tools in socio-environmental modelling studies, Environmental Modelling & Software, 158, Art. 105538
Prior to appointment
- N. Roxburgh; L. Stringer; A. Evans; R. GC; N. Malleson; A. Heppenstall (2021) Nepal Stressor Interaction Model (Nepal SIM), University of Leeds. [Dataset]
- N. Roxburgh; L. C. Stringer; A. Evans; R. K. Gc; N. Malleson; A. J. Heppenstall (2021) Impacts of multiple stressors on mountain communities: Insights from an agent-based model of a Nepalese village, Global Environmental Change-Human and Policy Dimensions, 66, Art. 102203
- N. Roxburgh; A. Evans; R. K. Gc; N. Malleson; A. Heppenstall; L. Stringer (2021) An empirically informed agent-based model of a Nepalese smallholder village, MethodsX, 8, Art. 101276
- N. Roxburgh; U. Pariyar; H. Roxburgh; L. C. Stringer (2020) Reflections and recommendations on transitioning from pre‐ to post‐disaster research, Area, 53(1), 134-142
- H. Purshouse; N. Roxburgh (2019) Meaning of Menses,
- N. Roxburgh; D. Guan; K. J. Shin; W. Rand; S. Managi; R. Lovelace; J. Meng (2019) Characterising climate change discourse on social media during extreme weather events, Global Environmental Change-Human and Policy Dimensions, 54, 50-60
- H. Purshouse; N. Roxburgh; M. Javorszky; A. Sleigh; D. Kimani; B. Evans (2017) Effects of water source accessibility and reliability improvements on water consumption in eastern Nairobi, Waterlines, 36(3), 204-215
- N. Roxburgh (2015) The Nepal Earthquake,
- N. Roxburgh (2015) Atmosphere,
Books / chapters
- Roxburgh, N. (2023) Stressors, In: Haddad, B. & Solomon, B.D. (eds.). Dictionary of Ecological Economics. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp 512
Technical / contract reports
- Gjefsen, M. D.; Burton, R.; Rønning, S.; Klöckner, C. A.; Helliwell, R.; Mittenzwei, K.; Campbell, H.; Polhill, G.; Roxburgh, N.; Vilhelmsen, K. (2023) Towards a cellular food future: Final recommendations from the Protein 2.0 project to Norwegian policy makers and food system actors, Technical Report N-1/23, Ruralis, Trondheim, Norway.
- Gjefsen, M. D.; Burton, R.; Rønning, S.; Klöckner, C. A.; Helliwell, R.; Mittenzwei, K.; Campbell, H.; Polhill, G.; Roxburgh, N.; Vilhelmsen, K. (2023) Towards a cellular food future: Final recommendations from the Protein 2.0 project to Norwegian policy makers and food system actors, Technical Report N-1/23, Ruralis, Trondheim, Norway.
Conference papers
- Chen, J.; Colley, K.; Craig, T.; Somervail, P.; Polhill, G.; Hague, A.; Wooldridge, T.; Martinez Sanchez, G.; Lorenzo-Arribas, A.; Roxburgh, N. (2024) Social Representation of Everyday Circularity: For a better understanding of ideas and practices of circular economy through second-hand purchasing, Presentation at the 28th International Conference Association of People-Environment Studies, 2-5 July 2024, Barcelona
- Polhill, G.; McCormick, B. J. J. ; Roxburgh, N.; Heban, S.; Matthews, K. (2023) A Theory of the Middle Range to support food security and circular economy value chain scenario analysis, Social Simulation Conference 2023, University of Glasgow, UK, 4-8 September.
- Hare, M.; Roxburgh, N.; Salt, D.; Polhill, G. (2023) Barriers and model curation issues associated with rapid adaptation of empirical legacy ABM in response to urgent policy maker queries , Proceedings of the Social Simulation Conference 2023, 4-8 September 2023, Glasgow.
Conference posters / abstracts
- McCormick, B.; Macdiarmid, J.; Roxburgh, N.; Polhill, G. (2023) Simulating agriculture a midrange theory of everything (ish), Interdisciplinary Open Sessions Day, 13 October 2023, University of Aberdeen
- Roxburgh, N.; Polhill, G.; Gimona, A.; Hare, M.; Baggaley, N.; McCormick, B.; Macleod, K.; Rivington, M. (2023) Integrated socio-environmental modelling of policy scenarios, Conference poster.
- McCormick, B.; Roxburgh, N.; Polhill, G. (2023) Aligning agricultural subsidies with the production of healthy and sustainable diets, Livestock, Environment and People (LEAP) Conference 2022, 25 January 2023, Oxford.
- Roxburgh, N.; Polhill, G.; Ge, J. (2022) Recalibrating an agentbased model of global food and nutrition trade, iEMSs Biennial Meeting, 4-8 July 2022, Brussels.
- Polhill, G.; Baggaley, N.; Castellazzi, M.; Gimona, A.; Hare, M.; Ibiyemi, A.; Lilly, A.; Loades, K.; Macdiarmid, J.; Macleod, K.; McCormick, B.; McKeen, M.; Rivington, M.; Roxburgh, N.; Salt, D.; Smith, B.; Udugbezi, E.; Wang, C.; Wilkins, B. (2022) Developing agile approaches to scientific modelling in policyrelevant contexts, iEMSs 2022, 3-8 July 2022, Brussels, Belgium.
