It with great sadness that we announce the death of Joanna Elizabeth Bullard, Professor of Physical Geography at Loughborough University, during the early hours of 27 October 2025. Jo passed away peacefully in Leicester Royal Infirmary after a short illness at the age of 56.
Jo studied for her undergraduate degree in Geography at the University of Edinburgh between 1987 and 1991. She then moved to the University of Sheffield in 1991 to undertake her PhD on the morphological variation of linear sand dunes in the southwest Kalahari and their relationship with environmental parameters, which was awarded in 1994.
Her first academic post was as a Lecturer in Geography at Keele University (1994-1998), after which she moved to the Department of Geography at Loughborough University in 1998, gaining a personal Chair in 2011. Jo also held the honorary position of Adjunct Professor in Atmospheric Research, Griffith University, Australia from 2004-2016.
Over the course of her career, Jo made ground-breaking contributions to geomorphology and to the wider teaching of geography, supported by significant funding from bodies including the NERC, the Leverhulme Trust and the Royal Society.
Jo proudly referred to herself as an aeolian geomorphologist and it would not be an understatement to say that her research has re-shaped the way we think about wind as a geomorphic agent. Jo worked in an astonishing array of environments ranging from hot and cold deserts to temperate coastal zones.
Although fieldwork was her passion, she also employed laboratory, modelling and remote-sensing methods to answer fundamental geomorphological questions.
Few people will be aware that Jo’s first publication was a co-authored paper on iceberg toolmarks in the Journal of Glaciology. However, after this aberration, her work became decidedly windy.
Jo’s early focus was on understanding the influence of wind regimes in shaping desert dune patterns, through studies in the Kalahari, Namib and Simpson deserts. Her analyses of variations in dune activity in the Kalahari, in particular, provided key insights into the response of dunes to climate change and variability.
Jo published her first paper on dust in 2005, an experimental study of the release of iron oxides from natural dune sands by abrasion, starting a passion for dust that continued until her passing.
Her research in this area focused on the dynamics of high-latitude, cold-climate dust sources – including field-based studies in Greenland and Iceland – revolutionising the way we think about high-latitude dust within the global dust cycle.
Jo’s 2016 study of ‘High-latitude dust in the Earth system’ in Reviews of Geophysics remains her most highly cited paper. She was instrumental in forming the High Latitude Dust in the Earth System research network in 2013 initiating collaborations to identify key research gaps that continue to this day.
Most recently, Jo’s research focus shifted towards the transport and abrasion of microplastics by the wind. Jo was one of the first researchers to consider the impact of wind transport upon microplastic fluxes from soils and sediments; her 2021 paper in Atmospheric Environment had already received nearly 250 citations at the time of her death.
Jo’s research was world-leading and recognised by her peers through a stellar array of awards and prizes. Her early promise was recognised in 2004 by the receipt of both the Gordon Warwick Award (presented by the British Society for Geomorphology) and the Philip Leverhulme Prize (Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences) for 'significant advances in desert and near-desert environments'.
Her research leadership and standing was recognised by the award of Fellow of the British Society for Geomorphology in 2018. In 2021, Jo was presented with the internationally prestigious Ralph Alger Bagnold Medal by the European Geosciences Union 'for sustained innovative, perceptive, and productive studies of arid-land geomorphology, aeolian processes, and dust in the Earth system, alongside outstanding community leadership'.
In addition to her research talents, Jo was an outstanding academic citizen, taking on a number of significant leadership roles, including serving as President-Elect (2010-2014) and then President of the International Society of Aeolian Research (2014-2016) and as Vice-Chair (2013-2014) and Chair (2016-2020) of the British Society for Geomorphology.
She was a passionate advocate for her discipline, serving as the first Chair of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Geography Programmes Accreditation Panel (2016-2020), and as a member of the Society's Council (Expeditions and Fieldwork; 2017-2020) and the Society's Professional Advisory Group (2019-2022).
Jo also served on the editorial board of the journal Geomorphology (2004 onwards) and was Associate Editor for Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (2008-2013). She was the physical geography editor of the RGS-IBG Book Series (2006-2012) and most recently she had joined the editorial board of The Geographical Journal (2025).
At Loughborough University, Jo drove forward pedagogy as Associate Dean for Teaching (2014-2022), demonstrating significant leadership in coordinating the shift to online delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic.
During this period, she was awarded Loughborough University Research-Informed Teaching Prize (2014) and then Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2016), the highest teaching-related accolade for a UK academic.
Jo was awarded the Loughborough University Medal in 2025 ‘in recognition of her world leading research, her exemplary academic service with learned societies, her significant leadership and her passion for excellence in learning and teaching’.
Over the course of her career, Jo influenced the lives and careers of multiple generations of students and academics. She was an outstanding mentor, advocate and friend to her PhD students and postdocs, as well as to her many colleagues. This was evidenced by the shock and outpouring of love from around the world when her illness was discovered.
If you worked with Jo, you knew that the science you were producing together would be of the highest calibre, but also that you had a supportive friend. Her passion for research, and particularly field research, was contagious.
Literally weeks before her death she was supervising research students in Iceland and Scotland and working with collaborators in experimental wind tunnels in Canada. She was taken away whilst at the peak of her academic career and with so many scientific questions to answer.
She will be sorely missed by many friends, colleagues and loved ones around the world and would also be delighted to know that we will honour her memory and contributions by doing what she did best; in Jo’s words: “Let’s do some science.”
Written by Dr Annie Ockleford and Professor David Nash.
