Dave Petley

Professor Dave Petley joined Nottingham Trent University as Vice-Chancellor in October 2025.

A geographer and earth scientist with more than 30 years’ experience in higher education, Professor Petley began his academic career at the University of Sunderland and the University of Portsmouth before moving to the University of Durham in 2000. His research focuses on natural and environmental hazards, and he was appointed the inaugural Wilson Professor of Hazard and Risk at Durham in 2006. He is recognised widely as a world leader in the study and management of landslides and, alongside advising national and international organisations on the management of slopes, has for over a decade maintained a popular blog on landslides which receives over 500,000 individual visits per year.