Climate

  • Corey Port

    I’ve always been interested in understanding how the world works. Initially, this sparked an interest in physics, and for most of high school, and the first couple years of my undergraduate degree (which I completed at the University of Melbourne), physics is what I focused on. That is until I happened to take an Earth…

  • Johanna Beckmann

    I am a climate physicist, especially interested in the effects of climate change on the cryosphere. During my PhD, which I finished in 2018, I investigated the effect of ice‑ocean interactions on Greenland’s glacier dynamics. To this end, I developed a numerical glacier‑plume model which was subsequently applied to estimate the outlet glacier’s contribution to…

  • Xiaotian Zheng

    Xiaotian completed his Ph.D. at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he worked on developing statistical models for complex and dependent data. At SAEF, he focuses on (i) data fusion and statistical downscaling for regional climate variables with uncertainty quantification; (ii) propagating the downscaled climate variables and the downscaling uncertainties to biodiversity models; (iii)…

  • Lawrence Bird

    Lawrence’s research aims to understand the primary controls on the stability of the Vanderford Glacier in East Antarctica, and the potential vulnerability of this region to future climate change. He uses ice sheet models to better understand key physical processes and conduct idealised experiments to assess how the Vanderford Glacier may change in the future….

  • Benjamin Henley

    Dr Benjamin Henley is a Lecturer at the University of Melbourne. His research focuses on understanding climate variability and climate change and their impacts in the Southern Hemisphere, using multi-proxy palaeoclimate records, observations and climate model simulations. He is an Honorary Fellow at the University of Wollongong, Domain Editor at WIREs Climate Change, Associate Investigator…

  • Juan Sandino

    Juan is a research fellow at the QUT Centre for Robotics (QCR), Australia, and member of Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), an Australian Research Council Special Research Initiative. He holds a BEng (Mechatronics) and a PhD in robotics and autonomous systems at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia. Juan has a passion for developing…

  • Ariaan Purich

    Ariaan is a climate scientist whose research is focussed on coupled ocean-atmosphere-sea ice interactions across the Southern Hemisphere. Her recent work includes investigating tropical drivers of the drastic 2016/17 sea ice decline around Antarctica and examining the sensitivity of surface climate responses to different Antarctic meltwater projections. Ariaan submitted her PhD in 2018, undertaken at…

  • Liza McDonough

    Liza is an environmental researcher specialising in inorganic and organic water chemistry. Liza’s expertise lies in nutrient cycling in aquatic environments with a background in radiocarbon, stable isotope and carbon characterisation techniques. Liza also has experience in the reconstruction of past climates (paleo-environmental studies), as well as statistical and coding skills. She is currently investigating…

  • Ross Whitmore

    Ross is a geoscientist with expertise in geologic mapping, landscape evolution, exposure dating, ice sheet reconstruction, and structural geology. His time on the ice forever altered his perspective of our literal and figurative footprint on the planet and its resources. Ross is glad to be surrounded by a community who’s primary purpose is to learn…

  • Jessica Macha

    Jessica is undertaking a PhD project at Monash University, after completing her Bachelors of Science and Masters of Environmental Science at Cardiff University. Jessica’s PhD aims to better understand the key drivers of climate variability on the Antarctic Ice Sheet over the past 2000 years. Jessica’s research focuses on the complexity of climate drivers and…

  • Sally Lau

    Sally is a postdoctoral researcher at James Cook University. Her current project investigates the ecology and evolution of Southern Ocean marine invertebrates using genetic techniques. She is passionate in supporting other early career researchers within SAEF by ensuring their views and interests are represented.