Kate Runciman

Kate Runciman is an invertebrate palaeontologist and PhD Candidate in the Department of Earth Sciences and Newnham College.  Her current research focuses on the Pliocene-Pleistocene transition, a time of dramatic global cooling.  She studies molluscan fossils from the southern North Sea (Coralline Crag and Red Crag Formations) to assess the impacts of this climate change on marine ecosystems.  This research integrates isotopic analyses, statistical techniques, sclerochronology, microscopy, and extensive museum collections data to draw together new and diverse evidence of ecological change in a dynamic world.

Beyond her research, Kate is an accomplished bagpiper.  She is the three-time winner of the James Campbell Medal, has placed at the North American championships, and has performed in concert with Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Rod Stewart.  After coming to Cambridge, she joined the Cambridge University Gliding Club, where she is now a solo pilot, Varsity competitor, and club treasurer.

Supervisor: Nicholas J Butterfield (University of Cambridge Department of Earth Sciences).

Secondary Supervisor: Liz Hide (Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences).

Funding: Cambridge International and Newnham College Scholarship.

B.A. (Hons) in Geology 2022.  The College of Wooster.  Wooster, Ohio, USA.

Publications

Runciman, K.M., Wilson, M.A., Buttler, C.J. and Judge, S.A. 2023. Colony repair strategies in large trepostome bryozoans from the Upper Ordovician (Katian) of the Cincinnati region, USA, pp. 105–112. In Key, M.M., Jr., Porter, J.S. and Wyse Jackson, P.N. (eds) Bryozoan Studies 2022. CRC Press/Balkema, Abingdon and Boca Raton.