People
Doug Benn
Doug Benn is Chair of Environmental Change, and recently returned to St Andrews after 10 years as Professor of Glaciology at the University Centre in Svalbard. His research interests include calving processes and the dynamics of calving glaciers, glacier surges, the response of Himalayan debris-covered glaciers to climate change, glacio-speleology, and ‘Snowball Earth’ glaciations.
Tom Cowton
Tom Cowton is a Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography. He joined the University of St Andrews in 2016 following a spell as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Edinburgh. His research interests include glacier-ocean interaction, ice sheet hydrology and fjord dynamics.
TJ Young
TJ Young is a Lecturer in Physical Geography. He joined the University of St. Andrews in 2023, moving from the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge. He is a glaciologist specialising in studying the englacial and subglacial processes that modulate glacier flow using a combination of geophysical techniques.
Martim Mas e Braga
Martim Mas e Braga is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in glacier/ocean interaction. He joined the University of St. Andrews in 2023 as part of the project Fjord dynamics and modulation of ice-sheet/ocean exchange (FjordMIX), moving from the University of Stockholm.
Iain Wheel
Iain Wheel is a PhD student who joined the University of St Andrews in 2019 as part of the Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. He is interested in modelling calving dynamics and marine ice cliff instability processes.
Oliver Hall
01334 462929
Oliver Hall is a PhD student who joined the University of St Andrews in 2019 through the NERC Iapetus2 Doctoral Training Partnership. He uses remote sensing techniques to study seasonal changes in tidewater glaciers in Greenland, and what this may tell us about their response to longer term climate change.
Ella Wood
Ella Wood is a PhD student co-taught between St Andrews and the University of Bonn, she joined the department in 2022. Ella’s research uses remote sensing and field techniques to investigate the hydrological significance of rock glaciers with a focus on the Tien Shan region.
Past members
Tobias Bolch
Anna Crawford
Anna Crawford was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with St Andrews Glaciology Group from 2019 to 2022. Before moving to Scotland Anna received her PhD from Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada). She is interested in the deterioration of marine-terminating glaciers, including modelling the calving and retreat of Thwaites Glacier, Antarctica.
Owen King
Owen King was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of St Andrews from 2019 to 2022. Before this he worked as a Postdoctoral Research associate at the University of Zurich after obtaining his PhD from the University of Leeds. His main research focuses include the evolution of debris covered glaciers in response to climatic change, surge-type glacier behaviour and the impact of glacial lake growth on high mountain glacier mass loss rates.
Heidi Sevestre
Heidi Sevestre was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of St Andrews from 2016 to 2017. Her research focuses on the mechanisms controlling the behaviour of surge-type glaciers.
Donald Slater
Donald Slater was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of St Andrews from 2020-2021, as part of the project Calving Laws for Ice Sheet Models (CALISMO). His work focuses on processes governing the interaction between the Greenland Ice Sheet and the surrounding ocean.
Joe Todd
Joe Todd was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow working in the glaciology group from 2016 to 2020. Before this, he undertook his PhD at the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge. He is primarily interested in modelling iceberg calving and its links to environmental and dynamic processes using the full-Stokes model Elmer/Ice.
William Harcourt
William D. Harcourt joined the University of St Andrews in 2019 as a PhD student in the School of Physics and Astronomy, jointly funded by SAGES and EPSRC. He research focussed on developing the use of ground-based radar to study glacier change, specifically looking at ice-ocean and glacier-volcano interactions.
Ben Davison
Ben Davison was a PhD candidate at the University of St Andrews from 2017 to 2021. His PhD focused on the dynamics of glacier-fjord systems in Greenland, seasonal tidewater glacier dynamics and iceberg-ocean interactions.