Our Team

The Monash Ice Sheet Initiative (MISI) is an interdisciplinary group of glaciologists and geologists with a common interested in the cryosphere in a changing climate.
Find out more about our team members below.

Prof. Andrew Mackintosh

Head of the School of Earth Atmosphere and Environment

Andrew is interested in the large-scale interactions between glaciers, ice sheets and the climate system. He has worked extensively on the Antarctic Ice Sheet and New Zealand glaciers, as well as the Greenland Ice Sheet and glaciers in Iceland and South America.

Dr Felicity McCormack

Senior Lecturer and DECRA Research Fellow

Felicity is ice sheet modeller with a focus on processes that lead to ice mass loss from Antarctica. Her research has investigated the impacts of climate variability and change on Antarctica, and the role of ice deformation in the large-scale flow of Antarctic glaciers.

Dr Richard Selwyn Jones

Senior Research Fellow and DECRA Fellow

Richard's research primarily focuses on the behaviour of ice sheets and glaciers in the geological past, using a combination of geochronological and numerical modelling approaches. He has worked in Antarctica, Greenland, Europe and New Zealand.

Dr Johanna Beckmann

Research Fellow

Johanna has previously worked on the impacts of Arctic climate change on sea level and atmospheric circulation in the Northern mid-latitudes, including extreme melt events on Greenland. She is now researching current and future drivers of East Antarctic Ice Sheet change.

Dr Levan Tielidze

Research Fellow

Levan uses remote sensing and in situ methods to study modern glaciers in linkage to ongoing climate change. His research interests also include reconstructing the dynamics of past glaciers through the tools of glacial geomorphology and cosmogenic nuclide dating. In particular, he is interested in the deglaciation dynamics of the Antarctic ice sheets, the Southern Alps of New Zealand, and the Caucasus Mountains during the Late Quaternary.

Dr Weilin Yang

Research Fellow

Weilin's research primarily focuses on modelling and analyzing the long-term evolution of paleoglaciers and their climatic driving mechanisms. She is now working on projections of glacier mass changes, glacial lake evolution, and sea level changes.

Dr Emma Cooper

Research Fellow

Emma has primarily been trained as a (palaeo)glaciologist and has previously worked on glaciers in southern South America. Emma’s research interests span the broad-scale interactions between ice sheets, glaciers, and climate across a range of timescales.

Dominic Saunderson

PhD Candidate

Dominic's interests lie in better understanding the relationship between the cryosphere and the climate, specifically regarding glacial hydrology, albedo and mass balance. His PhD project is investigating the occurrence and behaviour of supraglacial meltwater in Antarctica.

Jessica Macha

PhD Candidate

Jess is interested in better understanding the drivers of changes in Antarctic climate, specifically the way large-scale atmospheric circulation influences the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Her PhD project involves using climate proxies to investigate paleo atmospheric circulation in Southern Hemisphere high latitude regions.

Cari Rand

PhD Candidate

Cari Rand is interested in using cosmogenic radionuclides to examine processes of ice-sheet retreat and subglacial erosion. His PhD project focuses on recreating the past geometry of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet.

Lawrence Bird

PhD Candidate

Lawrence is interested in better understanding the complex controls on ice shelf stability in East Antarctica. His research focuses on sub-glacial hydrology, ice-ocean interactions, and understanding ice sheet dynamics through ice sheet modelling.

Corey Port

PhD Candidate

Corey is interested in better understanding how past millennial-scale climate change has influenced glacier and ice sheet behaviour. His PhD project investigates the past ice thickness change of Denman-Scott Glacier in East Antarctica using cosmogenic nuclides.

Jacinda O'Connor

PhD Candidate

Jacinda is interested in developing paleo records of relative sea level and ice mass change during the Holocene, and understanding associated climatic processes. Her PhD project explores Late Holocene relative sea level variability in Victoria and at Denman Glacier in East Antarctica using cosmogenic isotopes.

Chao Jiang

MPhil Candidate

Chao is interested in the dynamic evolution of Antarctic ice shelves and their sensitivity to change using ice sheet modelling. Her project focuses on investigating the impact of stress configuration and rheology on the ice flow of Antarctic ice shelves, and the future of ice shelves under warming climate.

Past Members

Isabel Wright

Honours project on 'Evaluating the role of bed topography in controlling past ice sheet retreat in Antarctica'

Dr Ross Whitmore

Antarctic geologist, now at Geoscience Australia.

Join Our Team

Please contact us if you are interested in joining the Monash Ice Sheet Initiative (MISI).

Earth's systems impact everyone, irrespective of ethnicity, gender, age, religion, neurodiversity, identity and experience. We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace culture, and value the many benefits offered by a diverse group of researchers.

PhD

We have various PhD projects on the past, present and future behaviour of glaciers and ice sheets. These are focused on geochronology, remote sensing, numerical modelling and/or data assimilation.

We are currently seeking someone to do projects on (details here):

Investigating past and future surface mass balance forcing in East Antarctica and its impact on ice sheet dynamics.
How has the ice sheet bed controlled the retreat of Antarctica’s rapidly changing glaciers?

Please send us your CV, academic transcripts, and a cover letter outlining your background and research interests.

How to apply | Living in Melbourne

Postdoc

We do not currently have any postdoctoral positions available.

We are happy to discuss project ideas if you are interested in applying for a fellowship.