Professor Martin Price

Founding Director of the Centre for Mountain Studies content

Founding Director of the Centre for Mountain Studies

  • Established the Centre for Mountain Studies in 2000
  • Started the UHI's MSc Sustainable Mountain Development in 2004 and delivered the core module on mountain issues (for which the UHI Students' Association recognised him as 'most innovative lecturer' in 2010).
  • In 2005, the UHI Millennium Institute (now the University of the Highlands and Islands, UHI) appointed him Professor of Mountain Studies.
  • In 2009, UNESCO established the UNESCO Chair in Sustainable Mountain Development at UHI, and he became its Chairholder.
  • In 2012, the King Albert I Memorial Foundation awarded him the King Albert Mountain Award: the citation states that “Martin Price, with his exceptional knowledge and his editorial competence, has played a vital role for the mountains of the world”.
  • Retired in 2021 and is now an Emeritus Professor with UHI.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Geography, University of Colorado at Boulder, USA
  • MSc in Environmental Science, University of Calgary, Canada
  • BSc (Sp.Hons) in Natural Environmental Science, University of Sheffield, UK

Contact

Prof Martin Price

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Research Activities

  • View Martin's PURE Profile
  • Since the late 1970s, Martin has conducted research in the mountains of North America, Western and Eastern Europe, and Siberia, focusing on the interactions of resident and visiting people with environmental processes, with particular emphasis on forestry, tourism, conservation, and the implementation of policies and interdisciplinary research. He has coordinated three major assessments of Europe’s mountains. He has also worked extensively on biosphere reserves, designated under UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme, and has played many national and global roles in this Programme.
  • Working at the University of Oxford's Environmental Change Unit (now Institute) from 1992, he established the Unit's Mountain Regions and Conservation Programme in 1995, where he supervised a number of MSc and DPhil students, in addition to lecturing.
  • Previously, he was Scientific Associate of the Institute of Geography of the University of Bern, Switzerland; Scientific Director of the International Centre for Alpine Environments, Bourget-du-Lac, France; and Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA.

Current Responsibilities

Professional Membership

In 2007, Professor Price was recognised for his work as a Principal Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) when he, and other members of the IPCC, shared the Nobel Peace Prize with former US Vice-President Al Gore.

From 1996-2000, he was Coordinator of the Task Force on Forests in Sustainable Mountain Development of the International Union of Forest Research Organisations (IUFRO), for which he received an IUFRO Distinguished Service Award.

He was also the founding chairman of the Royal Geographical Society's Mountain Research Group (1998-2003)

From 1995 to 2000, Professor Price acted as the Focal Point for Mountain Activities of IUCN's European Programme. In this capacity, he was a primary organiser of the European Inter-governmental Consultation on Sustainable Mountain Development (1996), involving 33 European countries and the European Commission; and was responsible for the implementation of Action Theme 10 (mountain ecosystems) of the Pan-European Biological and Landscape Diversity Strategy.

Professor Price has acted as a consultant on mountain issues to a number of international organisations, and has undertaken many activities relating to the human dimensions of global environmental change (HDGEC), including acting as Secretary of the International Social Science Council's (ISSC) Standing Committee on HDGEC, and preparing research strategies for the US National Science Foundation, the US Forest Service, the European Commission, and the ISSC.

He was Associate Editor-in-Chief of the 'Journal of Mountain Science', MountainMedia Editor of the quarterly journal 'Mountain Research and Development', and the founding Editor-In-Chief of the International Journal of Biodiversity Science and Management, now 'Ecosystems and People'