Phillip Toms

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Staff

Phillip Toms
B.Sc., Ph.D. (London), FHEA

Positions
Course Leader: Geography & Environment
Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography

Contact
Email: ptoms@glos.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1242 714708

Phillip Toms joined the Department in January 2002. He is formerly of Royal Holloway University of London (RHUL), where following an undergraduate degree in Geography, he undertook a NERC-funded Ph.D. to develop Optical dating of single quartz grains and apply the findings to the archaeologically significant site of Arene Candide, North Italy. He was then attached as geochronologist to Leverhulme and Royal Society projects in central and northern Argentina, establishing tephrochonologies and examining the significance of loess-palaeosol sequences in reconstructing past climate change.

His Research and Consultancy since then has continued to focus on the development and application of Luminescence dating. Of late, he has worked on instances of hominin occupation in Britain, Kenya, China and Australia and past environments in Britain, Mallorca, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Presently, he lectures on Physical Geography, leads courses in Geography & Environment and is Director of the Department’s Geochronology laboratories.

Undergraduate Teaching
GEO101 Contemporary Issues in Natural Science
GEO103 Earth Systems and Processes
GEO107 Introductory Fieldwork (Snowdonia)
GEO112 Skills for Sustainability
EL201 Fieldweek (Swiss Alps)
EL202 Unit 2 Laboratory Methods (Environmental Science)
EL226 Ice Age Earth
EL374 Forests, Oceans & Atmospheres — Global Futures
EL398 Independent Study

Research Interests
The development and application of Luminescence dating
Quaternary Science and Geochronology

Recent Publications

Howard, A.J., Brown, A.G., Carey, C.J., Challis, K., Cooper, L.P., Kincey, M. and Toms, P.S. (2008) Archaeological resource modelling in temperate river valleys: a case study from the Trent Valley, UK. Antiquity, 92, 1040-1054.

Toms, P.S., Brown, A.G., Carey, C., Howard, A. and Challis, K. (2008) Trent —Soar River Confluence: Optically Stimulated Luminescence dating of single grains of quartz. English Heritage Research Department Report, No. 1-2008.

Toms, P.S., Brown, A.G., Basell, L., and Hosfield, R.T. (2008) Palaeolithic Rivers of southwest Britain: Optically Stimulated Luminescence dating of residual deposits of the proto-Axe, Exe, Otter and Doniford. English Heritage Research Department Report, No. 2-2008.

Sillasoo, Ü., Mauquoy, D., Blundell, A., Charman, D., Blaauw, M., Daniell, J.R.G, Toms, P., Newberry, J., Chambers, F.M. and Karofeld, E. (2007) Peat multi-proxy data from Männikjärve bog as indicators of late Holocene climate changes in Estonia. Boreas, 36, 20-37.

Kemp, R.A., Zárate, M., Toms, P.S., King, M. Sanabria, J., Arguello, G. (2006) Late Quaternary paleosols, stratigraphy and landscape evolution in the Northern Pampa, Argentina. Quaternary Research, 66, 119-132.

Toms, P.S., Hosfield, R.T., Chambers, J.C., Green, C.P. and Marshall, P. (2005) Optical dating of the Broom Palaeolithic sites, Devon and Dorset, English Heritage Research Department Report, No. 16-2005.

Chluchala, J., Kemp, R.A., Jessen, C.A., Palmer, A.P. and Toms, P.S. (2004) Landscape development in response to climatic change during Oxygen Isotope Stage 5 in the southern Siberian loess region. Boreas, 33, 164-180.

Kemp, R.A, King, M., Toms, P., Derbyshire, E., Sayago, J.M. and Collantes, M.M. (2004) Pedosedimentary development of a Late Quaternary loess-palaeosol sequence in Northwest Argentina. Journal of Quaternary Science, 19, 567-576.

Toms, P.S., King, M., Zárate, M.A., Kemp, R.A. and Foit, F.F.Jr. (2004) Geochemical characterisation, correlation and optical ating of tephra in alluvial sequences of central western Argentina. Quaternary Research, 62, 60-75.

Kemp, R.A., Toms, P.S., King, M. and Kröhling, D.M. (2003) The pedosedimentary evolution and chronology of Tortugas, a Late Quaternary type-site of the northern Pampa, Argentina. Quaternary International, 114, 101-112.

Kemp, R.A., Toms, P.S., Sayago, J.M., Derbyshire, E., King, M. and Wagoner, L. (2003) Micromorphology and OSL dating of the basal part of the loess-paleosol sequence at La Mesada in Tucumán province, Northwest Argentina. Quaternary International, 106-107, 111-117.

Smith, J.A., Vance, D., Kemp, R.A., Toms, P.S., King, M. and Zárate, M. (2003) Isotopic constraints on the source of Argentinian loess — with implications for atmospheric circulation and the provenance of Antarctic dust during recent glacial maxima. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 212, 181-196.

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