Introducing Professor Jaime Toney
Tell us about yourself
I have been studying environmental and climate science since my undergraduate years in the late 1990s and was fortunate to attend a small liberal arts university in upstate New York. Science students were required to engage with courses across disciplines, including policy, philosophy, and the humanities. I read foundational texts and took part in discussions on environmental policy, particularly exploring why it takes so long to implement meaningful change. I also engaged with seminal works that first highlighted planetary health challenges, such as Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. In my civil engineering course, we read Red Tide by W. Dale Justice – a mystery-infused non-fiction novel exploring how excess nutrients in coastal waters were triggering harmful algal blooms.
This interdisciplinary foundation shaped my approach to research. Over the course of my career, I have transitioned from using microfossils (such as pollen grains and charcoal) in lake sediments as an archive of climate and ecosystem change to analysing organic molecules in natural archives to gain more quantitative insights into past climate shifts, including changes in temperature and rainfall. In recent years, I have made an intentional shift from researching and teaching about climate change causes and consequences to actively working in the solutions space. Key milestones in this journey include co-founding, with Prof. Mia Perry, and directing the Centre for Sustainable Solutions in 2020, as well as forming strategic partnerships with civic organisations.
These foundations have led to successful collaborations across disciplines at the University of Glasgow and exciting research ventures, such as the NERC-funded GALLANT programme.
How would you describe your research interests and current work to someone new to the subject area?
My research focuses on bringing together diverse change-makers – researchers, practitioners, and policymakers – in solution-focused dialogues. By fostering collaborative discussions, we aim to better understand the complex challenges of climate and environmental change and use these insights to design a future that avoids the unintended consequences of past innovations.
What would you most like people to know about you?
I am deeply passionate about the vision and mission that our interdisciplinary leadership team has developed within the Centre for Sustainable Solutions. I see the University’s role as an enabler of a broader civic mission – one that empowers individuals, communities, and organisations to find their agency in working towards a sustainable future. Achieving sustainability requires us to critically examine our values and align them with the way our social systems operate. I am always up for an inspiring conversation about how we can steer this transformation.
What do you like most about working in the ARC?
The ARC provides serendipitous opportunities to engage with people from across campus and beyond. These spontaneous interactions – with professional services staff, fellow academics, and wider societal actors – often spark new creative ideas and help me better understand not just what’s happening within the University, but also in the broader world.
