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Senior Principal Research Scientist, Australian Antarctic Division

I lead the Antarctic Climate Program within the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) in Hobart and am based at the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership in Hobart.

I lead a team of earth system and climate-related researchers across the fields of glaciology, atmospheric and ice core palaeoclimate sciences. I have personal research interests in palaeoclimate from Antarctic ice cores and the role of Antarctic ice sheets in sea level. I am also more widely interested in earth system science, and affiliated with the Australian Academy of Science's National Committee for Earth System Science.

The AAD ice core group has particular experience in extracting very high detail climate records and connecting these with Southern Hemisphere and Australian regional climate records from instrumental data. Some of this work has highlighted connections between rainfall and drought in Australia and large scale climate connections in the Southern Ocean, as well as El Nino changes. Other research interests include airborne radar surveys to map the bedrock under the Antarctic ice. This has proven useful in our ongoing search to find the oldest ice for future ice coring, and it also allows for better modelling of ice sheet flow and resulting improved prediction of changes in a warming climate. We are currently preparing to undertake major ice core fieldwork to recover an ice core extending beyond a million years age. This is a major international challenge which will allow us to study major climate changes through the mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT) around 800 thousand to a million years ago.

Experience

  • 2012–2015
    Program Leader, Australian Antarctic Division