Tom Mitcham

My research interests are in the role that ice shelves play in the dynamics of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, studied through the use of remote sensing data and ice flow modelling.

I am a glaciologist, currently working on the NSF-NERC joint funded project "A new mechanistic framework for modeling rift processes in Antarctic ice shelves". I am using observational data from ground-based and satellite missions to monitor and understand fracture growth in ice shelves, with the aim to improve the representation of rifts and fractures in large-scale ice flow models. These processes are crucial to understanding and predicting the future behaviour of the Antarctic Ice Sheet in a changing climate.

My background is in physics, which I studied at the University of Manchester. I then undertook a PhD at the University of Bristol, supervised by Professor Jonathan Bamber and Professor Hilmar Gudmundsson. My research examined the role that ice shelves play in controlling the dynamics of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, with a particular focus on the Larsen C Ice Shelf.