Professor Icarus Allen

Icarus Allen is Chief Executive of Plymouth Marine Laboratory. He is also an honorary visiting professor at the College of Life and Environmental Sciences of the University of Exeter. 

Icarus has been working as a research scientist at PML for over 25 years, during which he has acquired a broad range of experience both as a marine ecosystem modelling scientist, senior manager and most recently as Director of Science. His scientific background is multidisciplinary, specialising in the numerical modelling of marine systems from individual cells to shelf wide ecosystems. In general terms the focus of this work has been the coupled physical biogeochemical modelling of shelf seas, with a focus on the NW European Shelf. More specifically this involves; operational ecosystem forecasting to develop operational plankton/ water quality forecasts, data assimilation and merging model/EO data products to predict HABs, model skill assessment, shelf seas ecosystem response to multiple drivers, both climate and anthropogenic, development of global shelf seas ecosystem models based on NEMO_ERSEM and the process modelling of climatically active marine biogases.

Icarus has been or currently is involved in over 25 national and international scientific programmes which have led to collaborative work with scientists in 20 countries. During this time, he has published over 100 peer reviewed papers and written over 40 non-peer reviewed papers and contract reports. He regularly reviews papers for a range of journals and is a core member of the NERC peer review college. In addition he has led the Advances in Marine Ecosystem Modelling Research (AMEMR  www.amemr.info ) symposiums and workshop series for PML since its inception in 2005.