Career

BIOGRAPHY

My background is in Earth and environmental sciences, with particular focus on the interaction between ice, climate and the landscape.

Ant

My research currently encompasses three main areas:

1) determining the past size of ice sheets and associated contribution to sea-level change;

2) investigating the drivers and mechanisms of ice sheet behaviour; and

3) developing the applications of cosmogenic nuclides and surface-exposure dating.

IN THE MEDIA

Breaking ice, and helicopter drops, Nature (April 2024).

Could you survive an Antarctic blizzard to look for mud? These scientists had no choice, The Age / Sydney Morning Herald (February 2024).

Scientists work to unlock secrets of Antarctica’s Denman Glacier, ABC (January 2024).

We studied how the Antarctic ice sheet advanced and retreated over 10,000 years. It holds warnings for the future, The Conversation (July 2022).

Cold warning from Antarctica’s past, NZ Herald (November 2015).

Antarctic glacier’s past rapid retreat, Radio NZ (November 2015).

Dating of moraines around Lake Ohau, GNS Science outreach blog (September 2013).

SELECTED AWARDS

  • 2023, Award for Research Excellence by an Early Career Researcher (Faculty of Science, Monash University).
  • 2021, Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (Australian Research Council).
  • 2016, President’s Award for Best Doctoral Thesis (New Zealand Geographical Society).

SELECTED GRANTS

  • 2022, Australian Membership of the International Ocean Discovery Program 2023-24 (Chief Investigator), Australian Research Council, AU$6.1M.
  • 2021, Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (Chief Investigator), Australian Research Council, AU$46.2M.
  • 2021, ‘Characteristics and controls of ice sheet loss on centennial timescales’ (Lead Chief Investigator), Australian Research Council, AU$665,900.
  • 2017, ‘Potential for non-linear, threshold-driven response of Antarctic outlet glaciers; insights from David Glacier, Antarctica’ (Associate Investigator), New Zealand Antarctic Research Institute, NZ$115,000.
  • 2016, International Junior Research Fellowship (Lead Chief Investigator), Marie Sklodowska-Curie cofunded by Durham University.

RECENT EMPLOYMENT

Research Fellow (ARC DECRA), Monash University (March 2020–Present)

Junior Research Fellow, Durham University (November 2016–October 2019).

Cosmogenic Nuclide Laboratory Manager, Victoria University of Wellington (June–October 2016).

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Victoria University of Wellington (June 2015–June 2016).

QUALIFICATIONS

  • 2015, Ph.D., Physical Geography, Victoria University of Wellington (NZ).
  • 2009, M.Sc. (Distinction), Quaternary Science, University of London (UK).
  • 2008, B.Sc. (1st Class Hons.), Physical Geography with Environmental Science, University of Gloucestershire (UK).