Jenni Barclay is a professor of volcanology at the University of East Anglia. She works on ways to mitigate volcanic risks, the interactions between rainfall and volcanic activity and the communication of volcanic hazards in the Caribbean. Barclay leads the NERC-ESRC funded Strengthening Resilience to Volcanic Hazards research project as well as a Leverhulme Trust programme looking at the volcanic history of the Ascension Islands.
In 1999 Barclay was appointed to the University of East Anglia. Her research combines geological investigations into the dynamic processes of volcanoes with analysis of the social and cultural landscapes in which they erupt in. She served as Principal Investigator on Strengthening Resilience to Volcanic Hazards, looking to develop a practical volcanic risk assessment framework, which was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council and Economic and Social Research Council. During STREVA Barclay worked with people from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to document the historical and culture record of the 1902 and 1979 La Soufrière eruptions. As part of the programme, the researchers worked with the University of the West Indies to create a portable exhibit that toured the Caribbean. She combined historical archives, field measurements and meteorological modelling to reconstruct the La Soufrière eruptions. This allowed her to understand how the wind flow around volcanoes controls the movement of ash plumes through the atmosphere, depositing ash both close to the volcano and far away. In her work with communities in Ecuador Barclay showed that volcanic risk can be improved with collaborative monitoring. This work has inspired her latest project, Tomorrow’s Cities, which looks at urban disaster risk in cities including Quito. Barclay has argued that the deaths that occur due to pulses of gas and solids after a volcano are avoidable.
Public engagement
Alongside her research, Barclay is committed to outreach and public engagement. She focuses on communicating the relationships between the hazards and surface topographies; for example, when the difficult situations when land that is important to communities becomes too dangerous a place to live. STREVA resulted in a series of films that gave a voice to affected communities. In 2011 Barclay worked with Top Trumps to create a volcano themed version of the game. To create the game, Barclay consulted her colleagues to rank the thirty volcanoes for their explosiveness and deadliness. Barclay used the funds raised from Volcano Top Trumps to fund annual competitions to help people affected by volcanoes. They helped children in Ecuador make a book about volcano legends, the sales of which raised more money for the local community. She has created websites to communicate the relationship between hazards and landscape. She has appeared on the BBC, as well as speaking at Pint of Science, the Norwich Science Festival and the Natural History Museum.
