Post Doctoral Associate, Climate Change Institute

Research interests

My research focus lies primarily in the use of glacial geology as a tool for reconstructing past climate variability. Of particular interest to me is the climatic behaviour of the tropics, which form the heart of Earth’s central heating system. The tropics play a key role in ice ages and the global transmission of abrupt climate signals. Deciphering both the timing and true nature of past events at low latitudes therefore is fundamental to our understanding of the role of the tropics in climate. In conjunction with colleagues at the University of Maine, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and Pacific Lutheran University, I am employing geomorphic mapping, surface-exposure and radiocarbon dating to resolve the timing of glacial events during the late Quaternary, such as the last glacial maximum and late-glacial reversal. This project also involves snowline reconstructions as a measure of the magnitude of past climate events.

As a natural extension of these palaeoclimate investigations, and bridging the gap between past and future climate change, I am developing research aimed at determining the glacial contribution to regional hydrology in arid tropical regions. This multi-institutional project, which will involve Peruvian collaborators, is combining a glaciologic study of glaciers in southern Peru - where the prevailing climate is arid -, chronologic constraint of past meltwater variability, and direct measurement of modern meltwater discharge in the Peruvian Andes. At the other end of the latitudinal range, I am involved in reconstructing the deglacial history of the Ross Sea Embayment, Antarctica. As part of projects in the southern Transantarctic Mountains, I have been using glacial geology to help determine the former configuration of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and the potential contribution of Antarctica to postglacial sea level rise. My involvement with this work continues in collaboration with Brenda Hall.

Throughout my work, cosmogenic surface-exposure dating constitutes a vital tool for constructing precise and accurate geologic chronologies. After completing my doctorate at Maine in 2010, I held a postdoctoral fellowship at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, New York, where I focused on the use of cosmogenic helium in surface-exposure dating. I continue to apply this tool in my tropical work, as well as for palaeoclimate applications in Scotland and Antarctica.

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