Research Fellow in Modelling Climate-Ice Sheet Interactions

This role will be based on the university campus, with scope for it to be undertaken in a hybrid manner.   We are also open to discussing flexible working arrangements.

Are you an ambitious climate scientist looking for your next challenge? Do you want to work with world leaders in climate-ice sheet science to model past Antarctic ice sheet collapse? Do you want to further your career in one of the UK’s leading research-intensive Universities?

In this role, you will join a large international team of scientists from the SWAIS-2C project “Sensitivity of the West Antarctic Ice sheet to 2 °C of Warming” and work with Dr Lauren Gregoire to understand the drivers of past Antarctic ice sheet collapse. The SWAIS-2C international team are drilling the sediments below the Ross Ice Shelf to reveal how much of the West Antarctic ice sheet melted when the climate was warmer than present, thus revealing how sensitive the Iice sheet is to the 1.5-2°C Paris Agreement warming target. Your role in the project will be to run and analyse the first coupled climate-ice sheet simulations of the Last Interglacial period (127,000  years ago) from the UK flagship Earth System Model UKESM on national High-Performance Computing facilities. You will be supported by technical and scientific experts from the Centre for Environmental Modelling And Computation (CEMAC) and National Centre for Atmospheric Science. The aim is to evaluate the climate and ice sheet mechanisms driving Antarctic ice sheet retreat or collapse during past warm interglacials, including ocean circulation changes, marine ice sheet instabilities and tipping points. The work will further our understanding of the key mechanisms in future ice sheet evolution, test the complex models used to make projections and contribute to the next IPCC reports.

You will work closely with the UK SWAIS-2C team of 8 UK academics and 6 postdoctoral researchers led by Prof. Tina Van de Flierdt and Dr Ed Gasson, working across Imperial Colledge London, the University of Exeter, UCL, the British Antarctic Survey and Durham University. This UK team will apply a range of techniques to reconstruct and model the past evolution of the West Antarctic ice sheet. You will also have opportunities to visit and collaborate with international SWAIS-2C scientists from New Zealand, the United States, Germany, Australia, Italy, Japan, Spain, Republic of Korea and the Netherlands being part of a vibrant community of researchers.

You will have, or be close to obtaining, a PhD in Climate Science, Meteorology or Glaciology and extensive experience using complex models and observations to study climate and/or ice sheet processes. You may have experience working on closely related topics such as the evolution of quaternary climate and ice sheet or interactions between the Antarctic ice sheet and the Southern Ocean.

Applications for part-time work or other flexible working arrangements are encouraged. There is a possibility of extending the duration of the post depending on the start date, salary and funding availability.

To explore the post further or for any queries you may have, please contact: 

Name: Associate Professor, Dr Lauren Gregoire

Email: L.J.Gregoire@leeds.ac.uk   

Advert information