Dave Favis-Mortlock

Dave Favis-Mortlock

Dr David T. Favis-Mortlock is an English geomorphologist and musician.

Born David Mortlock on 27 August 1953, he grew up in Barking, Essex, later moving to Basildon New Town. He studied environmental sciences at Lancaster University, graduating in 1975. After several years as a musician, he commenced a PhD study on soil erosion modeling at Brighton Polytechnic (now the University of Brighton), under the supervision of geomorphologist John Boardman. Subsequently, he worked with Boardman at the University of Oxford's Environmental Change Unit (now the Environmental Change Institute).

Publications include the first quantitative study of the impact of climate change on soil erosion by water, and a novel modelling study of soil erosion in prehistory together with archaeologist Martin Bell. In 1996 he began work on a self-organising systems model for rill initiation and development, RillGrow. He is also responsible for the Soil Erosion website. Favis-Mortlock was elected a Council Member for the British Society of Soil Science, 2001–2003, and a member of the Executive Committee of the British Geomorphological Research Group, 2003-2006. Until 2010 he was a lecturer at Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland. He has now returned to the Environmental Change Institute.

He is married to fellow musician and painter Joanna Davies; they live near Hook Norton, Oxfordshire. His stepson Reuben Beau Davies is an actor.