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Poul Christoffersen MSc PhD

Poul Christoffersen MSc PhD

Professor of Glaciology

Glaciologist, researching glacier & ice sheet interactions with atmosphere and ocean, and climate change; using geophysical techniques, sensing & instrumentation and numerical models.

Biography

Career

  • 2007 to present, Scott Polar Research Institute & Department of Geography, University of Cambridge
  • 2004-2006, Centre for Glaciology & Department of Geography and Earth Science, University of Wales, Aberystwyth
  • 2003-2004, University of California, Santa Cruz
  • 2000-2003, Technical University of Denmark
  • 1998-1999, Coffey Geosciences, Melbourne, Australia

Research

The most pressing societal challenges today are tied to climate change and how to address it through effective mitigation and adaptation practises. My research focuses on glacier dynamics and ice sheet interactions with atmosphere and ocean, with the aim of understanding how glaciers are changing and why ice sheets make sustained and growing contributions to global sea level rise. My Lab in Cambridge is at the forefront of its field and our research is novel and wide-ranging. One strand of the Lab is developing observational understanding of Earth's glaciated environment using autonomous radar systems, drones, GNSS, seismology and records from boreholes drilled through 1-km-thick ice to the base of fast-flowing glaciers. Another strand integrates those observations as constraints for 3D numerical models, thereby making predictions of glacial changes in the future more accurate.

My research in Greenland (RESPONDER) is currently funded by the European Research Council and the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. My Antarctic research falls under the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration in which I am a UK Lead PI in project TIME, co-funded by NERC and the National Science Foundation in USA.

Graduate student opportunities

PhD projects

I enjoy creating workspaces that empower students and early-career researchers, in the office as well as in the field. I also firmly believe that outstanding science is delivered most effectively when students are integrated in my own research. I am always happy to correspond with prospective students by e-mail, informal meeting or video call.

Currently I am advertising two projects on the Cambridge NERC Doctoral Training Partnership:

CE310: IceFibre: Glacier monitoring with fibre-optic sensors

This project builds on ongoing work with fibre-optic sensors in my ERC grant. You can read more about the research we do in Greenland.

CE311: Crack & bang: Shear margin evolution on Thwaites Glacier, Antarctica

This project falls under my Antarctic research, funded as a part of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. See ITGC website for more information.

Evidence of creativity and effective mentoring can be seen in the high quality of work by my students, who publish their research in top journals as first-authors.

Robert Law is using fibre-optic sensing in boreholes to investigate heat flow and thermodynamics of fast-moving glacier in Greenland. His first PhD chapter was published this year in the journal Science Advances. Tom Chudley designed, built & used unmanned aerial systems, i.e. drones to investigate hydrological networks, calving and rapid lake drainage on the Greenland Ice Sheet. He published his PhD research in The Cryosphere, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science and Journal of Geophysical Research and is now a postdoctoral researcher in the Byrd Polar Research Institute in the USA. Samuel Cook used the Elmer/ICE finite element model to investigate basal hydrological systems and how hydrology influences ice flow and iceberg calving at Store Glacier. This research was published in The Cryosphere, Journal of Geophysical Research and Journal of Glaciology (in press). Samuel continued his career as a postdoctoral researcher in the Elmer/Ice core group of developers in University Grenoble Alpes (France). Previous students also include Dr TJ Young and Dr Joe Todd, both of whom continued their careers as postdoctoral researchers.

MPhil projects

I am also open to discuss projects in our MPhil programme in Polar Studies. Last year, Alice Hoyle investigated recent changes on ice shelves in North Greenland using satellite remote sensing. Holly O'Neil examined the cause and consequences of rainfall on the Greenland Ice Sheet using climate data and hydrological modelling.Isabel Hagen investigated glacier hydrology by mapping proglacial meltwater plumes in time-lapse images from Store Glacier. Holly continued her career as a climate scientist in the Irish Met Office and Isabel is a PhD student in Zurich.

Research grants

Thwaites Interdisciplinary Margin Evolution (TIME) - $3.4m

UK Lead PI: Poul Christoffersen (University of Cambridge)

US Lead PI: Slawek Tulaczyk (University of California Santa Cruz)

Other PI's:

Adam Booth (University of Leeds, UK), Marion Bougamont (University of Cambridge, UK), Steve Harder (University of Texas, El Paso, USA), Galen Kaip (University of Texas, El Paso,USA), Marianne Karplus (University of Texas, El Paso, USA), Norimitsu Nakata (University of Oklahoma, USA), Dustin Schroeder (Stanford University, USA), Jenny Suckale (Stanford University, USA), Jacob I. Walter (University of Oklahoma, USA)

Funding: The National Science Foundation (US) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)

Resolving subglacial properties, hydrological networks and dynamic evolution of ice flow on the Greenland Ice Sheet (RESPONDER) - €2.4m

PI: Poul Christoffersen
Funding: European Research Council, £2,443,800 (2016-2021)

Subglacial Access and Fast Ice Research Experiment (SAFIRE) - £598k

PI and Co-I: Poul Christoffersen and Marion Bougamont
Funding: Natural Environment Research Council, £257,028 to Cambridge (2013-2016)

PI on Joint Project: Bryn Hubbard (Aberystwyth)

Dynamical Response of Pine Island Glacier, West Antarctica (iSTAR-C) - £1.3m

PI and Co-I: Poul Christoffersen and Marion Bougamont
Funding: Natural Environment Research Council, £91,800 (2013-2017) and Isaac Newton Trust, £42,609 (2012-2014)

PI's on Joint Projects: David Vaughan (BAS), Tony Payne (Bristol), Andrew Shepherd (Leeds), Matt King (Newcastle), Robert Bingham (Edinburgh)

Airborne geophysical investigations of conditions at the bed of fast-flowing outlet glaciers of large Canadian Arctic ice caps

PI and Co-I: Julian Dowdeswell and Poul Christoffersen
Funding: Natural Environment Research Council, w/ £540,000 to Cambridge (2013-2016)

Airborne geophysical investigations of basal conditions at flow transitions of outlet glaciers on the Greenland Ice Sheet

PI and Co-I: Julian Dowdeswell and Poul Christoffersen
Funding: Natural Environment Research Council, w/ £809,856 to Cambridge (2010-2013)

PI's on Joint Projects: Martin Siegert (Edinburgh) and Jonathan Bamber (Bristol)

Determining the Dynamical Response of the Greenland Ice Sheet to Climate Forcing using a Geophysical, Remote-Sensing and Numerical Modelling Framework

PI and Co-I: Poul Christoffersen and Marion Bougamont
Funding: Natural Environment Research Council, w/ £88,193 to Cambridge (2009-2012)

PI's on Joint Projects: Alun Hubbard (Aberystwyth) and Bernd Kulessa (Swansea)

Investigating basal conditions and flow dynamics on Vestfonna Ice Cap

PI and Co-I: Poul Christoffersen and Julian Dowdeswell
Funding: Natural Environment Research Council, £53,258 (2008-2009)

Understanding contemporary changes in the Antarctic Ice Sheet

PI and Co-I: Poul Christoffersen and and Marion Bougamont
Funding: Natural Environment Research Council, w/ £165,878 to Cambridge (2007-2010)

PIs on Joint Projects: Tony Payne (Bristol) and Andreas Vieli (Durham)

Publications

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