Rick Battarbee is Emeritus Professor of Environmental Change at UCL and the former Director of the UCL Environmental Change Research Centre. He is a freshwater ecologist and palaeolimnologist specialising in diatom analysis and the use of lake sediments in understanding the impact of nutrient pollution, acid deposition and climate change on lake ecosystems. The work of his research group provided definitive evidence relating the acidification of surface waters in the United Kingdom to ‘acid rain’.

He is a Foreign Member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the recipient of the Ruth Patrick Award from the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, an Einstein Professor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Victoria Medal of the Royal Geographical Society, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Paleolimnology Association. He also holds honorary doctorates from the University of Ulster and Queens University, Kingston, Canada.

He represents the Royal Society on the Council of the Freshwater Biological Association and is Editor-in-Chief of the Royal Society Journal, Biology Letters.