Angela Gurnell is Professor of Physical Geography at Queen Mary University of London. During her 40 year research career she has published over 160 journal papers, and 70 book chapters and full conference papers, mainly focussing on interactions among vegetation, hydrological and fluvial processes and their implications for sustainable river management. In particular, her interests focus on how some plant species trap, retain and reinforce sediment to change local physical conditions and facilitate colonization and growth of other plant species. In this way, some plant species can act as river ecosystem engineers and play a crucial role in river morphodynamics.