Professor Robert Hilton

Professor of Physical Geography

Group Lead, Earth Surface Geochemistry
Associate Editor, Earth Surface Dynamics
Professorial Fellow, Hertford College

Academic Profile

Bob Hilton holds the Professorship of Geography and leads the Earth Surface Geochemistry group at Oxford.

Professor Hilton is an environmental geochemist who studies the exchange of carbon between the atmosphere and minerals in soil, sediment and rock. He focuses on the large transfers of carbon through river systems and the cycling of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane) which control Earth's climate across timescales. His research combines the study of geomorphic, geochemical and biological processes, alongside the development of isotope geochemistry methods (including radiocarbon) to track greenhouse gas transfers to and from the atmosphere across river catchments, seeking to learn how these respond to and drive climate change. Professor Hilton’s current research has a focus on climate change impacts on carbon cycling in the Arctic and high latitudes, with fieldwork in the Mackenzie River Basin, Isle of Lewis and Svalbard.

Ongoing ERC-funded research seeks to understand the leak of carbon dioxide and methane from soils and landscapes to rivers and to the atmosphere. Having established the important role of rock weathering as a carbon dioxide source in the global carbon cycle on the ROC-CO2 ERC-funded project, NERC-funded research is now tackling how Arctic warming, deglaciation and permafrost thaw changes patterns and rates of weathering, leading to greenhouse gas release via the “mineral permafrost feedback”. His research also tackles the wider impacts of changing weathering reactions on rivers, including trace metals that lead to “rusting rivers”, and how enhanced rock weathering impacts river chemistry. Alongside these research themes, he consults on topics of environmental science for a variety of end users. He has held an ERC Starting Grant and Consolidator Grant, and his research has been recognised with the 2019 Leverhulme Prize in Geography, as a Finalist in Chemistry of the 2018 Blavatnik Awards, the 2016 Chinese Academy Sciences International Partnership Award for Young Scientists, and the 2014 Outstanding Young Scientist Award from the European Geosciences Union.

Bob Hilton joined the School of Geography and the Environment in 2026, elected to the Professorship of Geography at Oxford and Professorial Fellow at Hertford College. He holds the original statutory chair most recently occupied by David Thomas. Before joining the school, Bob was Professor of Sedimentary Geology and Associate Head of Department for Research at the Department of Earth Sciences and a Tutorial Fellow at St Peter’s College, Oxford. He holds a PhD in Earth Sciences, specialising in geochemistry and geomorphology, from the University of Cambridge. Following a year as a postdoctoral research and teaching fellow at L’Institut de Physique du Globe, Paris, he spent 12 years at Durham University as a Lecturer, Reader and Professor in Geography and Director of Research, before joining the University of Oxford in 2021.

Current Research

2025 - 2028: Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) – UK Pushing the Frontiers Grant - ‘Rock organic carbon oxidation – a universal carbon cycle feedback during transient warming events’ - PL Gordon Inglis (Southampton); Co-PL Robert Hilton (Oxford); Co-PL Julie Cosmidis (Oxford) - £0.8M
2024 - 2027: Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) – UK Pushing the Frontiers (NE/Y000838/1) ‘Accelerated carbon dioxide release from sedimentary rocks in a warming world’ - PI Robert Hilton (Oxford), Co-Is Laura Stevens, Julie Cosmidis, Samar Khatiwala (Oxford), Jemma Wadham (Bristol), Edward Tipper (Cambridge), Chris Stokes (Durham) - £1.0M
2022 - 2027: European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant 2020 (101002563) ‘RIV-ESCAPE: RIVEr emissions of greenhouse gases from warming landSCAPEs’, PI Robert Hilton (Oxford) - EUR2.2M - https://riv-escape.weebly.com/news.html
2022-2025: John Fell Fund ‘Ionomic insight on carbon release from rocks at Earth’s surface’ - PI Robert Hilton (Oxford) - £90k
2021-2025: Philip Leverhulme Prize 2019 in Geography, ‘Shifting weathering fluxes in Arctic Rivers’ - PI Robert Hilton (Oxford) - £100k
2023-2024: Leverhulme Visiting Professorship for Dr Jamie Howarth on the theme of ‘Anthropocene impacts on carbon dioxide release from rock weathering, Co-PIs Robert Hilton (Oxford) and Jamie Howarth (University of Victoria-Wellington, New Zealand) - £53k
2019-2024: Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) – UK Standard Grant (NE/T001119/1) - ‘Rhenium isotopes to track carbon dioxide emissions by oxidative weathering’ - PI Robert Hilton (Durham/Oxford), Co-I Alex Dickson (Royal Holloway), Co-I Julie Prytulak, RCo-I Mathieu Dellinger (Durham) – £0.8M
2016-2022: European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant 2015 (678779) - ‘Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by rock-derived organic carbon oxidation: ROC-CO2’ - PI Robert Hilton (Durham/Oxford) – EUR1.5M
2019-2021: National Science Foundation USA (GEO) - NERC Standard Grant (NE/R001952/1) (as Co-PI): ‘Wood based carbon discharge to the Arctic Ocean’ - PI Ellen Wohl (Colorado State, US), Co-PI Robert Hilton – £70k
2017-2021: NERC Standard Grant (NE/P013538/1) (as PI):‘Carbon export by erosion of the biosphere: The role of earthquake-triggered landslides’ - PI Robert Hilton, Co-Is Erin McClymont, Alex Densmore, Jamie Howarth (GNS) – £0.5M
2016-2021 NERC Large Grant on Changing Arctic Ocean Directed Call (NE/P006493/1) (as Co-I): ‘The Changing Arctic Ocean Seafloor (ChAOS) – how changing sea ice conditions impact biological communities, biogeochemical processes and ecosystems’ - PI Christian Maerz (Leeds), Co-Is including Robert Hilton - £2.1M

Postdoctoral Researchers and Research Fellows in Oxford:

Dr Fatemeh Ajallooeian (2025-2027)
Dr Victoria Dutch (2025-2027)
Dr Alasdair Knight (2024-2027)
Dr Leonardo Mena Rivera (2023-2026)
Dr Sanjeev Dasari (2023-2026)
Dr Alex Lipp (2022-2025)
Dr Madeleine Stow (2022-2024)
Dr Ella Walsh (2022-2024)
Dr Jesse Zondervan (2021-2022)
Dr Eleanor Georgidis (2021-2022)

Teaching and Supervision

Undergraduate

Professor Hilton contributes to courses across the undergraduate degree in Geography, teaching across themes in Earth surface processes and biogeochemical cycles in the Preliminary Examinations and the Final Honour School of Geography.

Postgraduate

Professor Hilton is a panel assessor for the BBSRC-NERC Doctoral Training Programme and has taught on modules in the Dynamic Earth DTP, alongside supervising DPhil students.

Bob welcomes enquiries from individuals wishing to undertake doctoral or post-doctoral research in the following, or related, areas: river geochemistry, catchment-scale greenhouse gas and carbon budgets, chemical weathering, Arctic change in permafrost and cryosphere settings, mountain geomorphology, erosion and geohazard cascades, and isotopic tracers in carbon cycle research geochemistry.

Current Graduate Research Students:

Vicky Alcock	Tracing rock organic carbon oxidation with the rhenium isotope system
Sabina Sulikova	Carbon dioxide release from Arctic mountain rivers
Catherine Baldwin	Drivers and impacts of methane and carbon dioxide release from peatland rivers
Lucy Wright	Microbial mediation of the temperature dependence of sedimentary rock weathering

Past Graduate Research Students:

Kirsty Harrington	Carbon dioxide removal from natural and potential enhanced silicate weathering in the UK
Tobias Roylands	Carbon dioxide emissions from the oxidative weathering of sedimentary rocks: insights from in situ field experiments
Mateja Ogric	Erosion and oxidative weathering: A multi-catchment perspective
Kate Horan	The oxidative weathering of organic matter and its carbon dioxide emissions: Insights from the trace elements rhenium and molybdenum
Jin Wang	Impact of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake on the fluvial transport of organic carbon carbon