PEOPLE
Postdoctoral Research Associates
Current ACEAS Activities:
My research at ACEAS is designed to understand Volcanism and Geothermal Heat Flow in the West Ice Shelf to Denman sector of East Antarctica. Geothermal heat flow is important because it influences ice sheet dynamics and basal ice sheet melting. The contribution of volcanism to geothermal heat flow in Antarctica is not well quantified but critical to understand in the face of a changing climate and the subsequent impact on the Antarctic ice sheet. Gaussberg (active during the last glacial period) is the only known volcano in East Antarctica. However, volcanic seamounts were recently identified offshore from Denman Glacier during the 2024 East Antarctic Ice Sheet Instability 3 (EASI3) voyage. Together with ACEAS collaborators and others I will use new observations and samples taken at Gaussberg volcano, East Antarctica during EASI3 and data from geological samples and observations collected during the 2025 ACEAS Denman Marine Voyage to understand the age and type of volcanism that has occurred in the West Ice Shelf-Denman sector and assess past and potential future contributions of volcanism to geothermal heat flow.
Katharina Hochmuth
Research Associate Tectonics and Ice Sheets
E: Katharina.Hochmuth@utas.edu.au
Social Links
Current ACEAS Activities:
The sedimentation offshore the Australian East Antarctic margin has been strongly influenced by the dynamics of the East Antarctic ice sheet as well as the tectonic remnants of the opening of the Southern Ocean and the separation between Australia and Antarctica.
As part of ACEAS, Katharina will focus on the reconstruction of sedimentation behaviour from various ice streams through time, revealing regional changes in the ice sheet and erosional dynamics and closely collaborates with other geologists, and geophysicists as well as the modelling community within ACEAS and beyond.
As part of the Denman glacier voyage, we hope to collect new datasets in this so far completely unsurveyed part of the continental shelf to work towards a better understanding of this vulnerable part of the East Antarctic ice sheet.
Current ACEAS Activities:
At ACEAS, I am focused on ecological processes and doing my best to bring together data and knowledge from other disciplines to improve ecological models. With ecological models, I am hoping to address key questions facing Southern Ocean ecosystems, primarily relating to the implications of climate change and fishing. I am developing size- and trait-based ecosystem modelling approaches for the Southern Ocean. I am attempting to integrate models with observational datasets collected across different spatial scales and spanning a vast range of taxonomic groups and trophic levels. These approaches will help us to understand how Southern Ocean ecosystems are responding to the rapid changes that are occurring.
I am very excited to be a part of the ACEAS research community. The truly multidisciplinary nature of ACEAS is an exciting proposition and contributing to the diverse research team is a privilege. Moreover, from my experience, multidisciplinary planning and transfer of knowledge leads to outcomes that are greater than the sum of the parts.
I aim to work closely with researchers collecting field-based data for important functional groups and distinct organisms in the Southern Ocean, to maximise the inclusion of data to improve model realism. This will hopefully include collaboration with researchers involved in data collection and production from satellites and Earth System Models, ARGO floats, all up to biological data collected from large marine mammals.
I am the co-coordinator of the ACEAS Working Group ‘Physics to Food Webs’. 'Physics to food webs' is an ACEAS (Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science) Working Group aiming to link researchers across disciplines to improve ecological modelling efforts for the Southern Ocean
Rebecca McGirr
Research Associate Mass Balance (remote sensing, modelling)
Social Links
Current ACEAS Activities:
My role at ACEAS involves using space gravity data to measure the impacts of modern climate change on the mass of water stored as continental ice within the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. As part of ACEAS I will assess what spatial and temporal resolution of mass balance estimates can be achieved from current remote sensing data and how to best mitigate the impacts of glacial isostatic adjustment on mass balance estimates in polar regions. From these results, I will accurately estimate high spatio-temporal resolution changes in mass balance in East Antarctica and the associated contributions to global sea level over the past two decades
Current ACEAS Activities:
My role at ACEAS focuses on improving understanding and representation of the linkages between Southern Ocean biophysics, mid-trophic level prey, and predators. In tackling this, my role has two separate but complementary themes.
The first theme uses in-situ observations, obtained through animal biotelemetry (satellite loggers with onboard CTD sensors), to concurrently measure biophysical ocean properties, relative prey abundances, and changes in predator foraging behaviour. With these combined datasets, I aim to derive empirical links spanning environment – prey – predators and use these to generate understanding around how Southern Ocean biota might respond to fine-scale changes in their environment.
The second theme focuses on formalising trophic linkages through mechanistic modelling. Here I consider approaches for representing key Southern Ocean energy pathways through extending current general circulation and biogeochemical models to represent mid-trophic levels. In doing this, I have been implementing a modified ecosystem model (SEAPODYM) framework to represent a key Southern Ocean prey species – Antarctic krill. Through this work, I hope to extend my research to applied questions addressing sustainable species management under a changing climate.
Sandeep Mohapatra
Research Associate - Modes of Ocean Variability
E: Sandeep.mohapatra@utas.edu.au
Social Links
Current ACEAS Activities:
I am working on the ocean modes of variability of the global ocean with a major focus on the Southern Ocean and its footprint on the atmospheres and over land including Antarctica by using reanalysis products and coupled ocean-atmosphere simulations.
Current ACEAS Activities:
My current activities within ACEAS are to investigate Southern Ocean ventilation and water-mass formation, as well as the heat uptake and redistribution by Subantarctic Mode Water (SAMW) and Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW) in driving Southern Ocean warming. I have been looking at the formation and variability of SAMW and AAIW in the Southern Ocean, by reconciling their volume changes with formation mechanisms of subduction and water-mass transformation. I am currently working at investigating the ocean heat uptake and redistribution by SAMW and AAIW formation for understanding Southern Ocean warming, and more broadly, global warming.
Current ACEAS Activities:
At ACEAS, my goal is to understand how meltwater discharge events from the Greenland Ice Sheet affect the high latitude Southern Hemisphere Climate, in particular the Eastern Antarctic Ice Sheet. Freshwater discharge into the North Atlantic Ocean have the potential to greatly weaken, or even shut down, the main pathway by which the ocean transports heat poleward: the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). Such change would have an impact in the global climate, cooling the Northern Hemisphere and affecting tropical rainfall patterns. Nonetheless, little is known about how AMOC weakening would affect the high latitude regions in the Southern Hemisphere. To accomplish this, I combine numerical experiments using climate models to evidence from past events in the Earth’s history as inferred from proxy data.
Pauline Latour
Reserach Associate - Ocean-ice Biogeochemistry
Social Links
Current ACEAS Activities:
As an ACEAS postdoc, I will investigate the role of trace metals originating from the cryosphere in stimulating surrounding primary productivity. Using a combination of field- and lab-based experiments, I will look at the cycle of sea ice trace metals in East Antarctica and study the impact of their speciation and limitation on phytoplankton physiology.
Tamara Schlosser
Research Associate - Marine Ecosystems Remote Sensing
E: tamara.schlosser@utas.edu.au
Social Links
Current ACEAS Activities:
As part of ACEAS, I am investigating the environmental drivers that control the onset of the Southern Ocean spring bloom. I work with biogeochemical Argo (BGC-Argo) float data from the Southern Ocean, in combination with other data streams (satellite, model outputs, reanalysis products), and one-dimensional turbulence modelling. By understanding how the Southern Ocean primary productivity is dependent on the physical environment, we can better predict future ecosystem changes and the resulting biogeochemical fluxes.
Current ACEAS Activities:
I will quantify the fine-scale structure of velocity and water mass properties across the Southern Ocean from existing observations to examine the processes that regulate heat, freshwater and other tracers across Southern Ocean fronts, with a particular emphasis on the East Antarctic margin. This work will include analysis of high-resolution model simulations (e.g. MITgcm and ACCESS-OM2-01) to test their ability to represent these processes. I will also participate in marine science voyage to the Denman Glacier.
Current ACEAS Activities:
I study how Antarctica's response to the changing climate depends on solid Earth properties and processes. In my role at ACEAS, I investigate new ways to gain insight into how geology interacts with ice sheets and glaciers. Such insights are derived from geophysical and geological data using novel computational and statistical tools. Integrating data from satellites, airborne instruments, and seismology with qualitative observations in glaciology and geology provide technical as well as semantic challenges. Those challenges can be addressed with the broad expertise in ACEAS; multivariate questions call for interdisciplinary efforts.
I am based at the University of Tasmania School of Natural Sciences, Physics. In this environment, I have the opportunity to get inspired by colleagues using relevant and advanced analytical and computational tools to address similar problems in different settings.
Currently, I am working on instrumentation and field preparations to study the ice-bedrock interface as well as deeper structures. I am also developing new methods to study the large-scale tectonic configuration of the Antarctic interior and derive implications for subglacial heat and glacial isostatic adjustment.
Current ACEAS Activities:
I am a postdoctoral research associate at UTAS working on Southern Ocean modelling with Dr. Paul Spence. A major part of my activities is to conceal ocean modelling and satellite altimetry observation to uncover physical processes in the subpolar Southern Ocean, such as Dense Water overflows or ocean-sea ice interactions.
I will also be involved in the development of regional Pan-Antarctic models and in-situ observations studies in the Southern Ocean.
Current ACEAS Activities:
I am currently investigating the carbon cycle in the Southern Ocean during the Miocene, the last time the atmospheric CO2 level is comparable to the present. I will use stable isotopes and trace elements of microfossils to reconstruct Southern Ocean seawater chemistry in the past. Based on these reconstructions, I will try to understand the feedback between CO2 and the Southern Ocean phytoplankton productivity in a warm climate. I hope this work can provide insights into responses of the Earth’s climate to future atmospheric CO2. I will also investigate modern Polar Southern Ocean biogeochemistry using samples from upcoming Antarctic research voyages.
Mareen Lösing
Research Associate - Antarctic Crustal Geophysics and Bed Evolution
Social Links
Current ACEAS Activities:
The sub-glacial geology of the Antarctic continent is of fundamental importance to understanding ice sheet dynamics. Topography, composition, and properties of the bedrock control how fast the ice sheet slides and interacts with the underlying terrain. Additionally, areas with high heat producing rocks can contribute to increased geothermal heat flow, leading to basal melt and affecting the overall stability and flow dynamics of the ice sheet.
Mareen’s research will focus on advancing our understanding of subglacial geology in the Wilkes Land area. Her aim is to provide new interpretations to characterise the ice sheet bed and constrain conditions that influence glacial processes.
To achieve this, she will analyze geophysical data including gravity, magnetic and radar data. This will potentially generate information on bed-characteristics, which in collaboration with ACEAS, can be linked to ice sheet and ocean science outcomes.
Taimoor Sohail
Research Associate - Thermodynamic Constraints on Changes in the Antarctic
Social Links
Current ACEAS Activities:
I am currently working on understanding how and where ocean heat reaches the Antarctic margins, and the flow-on effects on basal ice melting there. I apply data science tools, including unsupervised learning, to state-of-the-art ocean models to glean new insights into the processes driving heat transport in the Southern Ocean.
Current ACEAS Activities:
I am currently working as a researcher at ANU, as part of a team developing and validating a finite element model for simulating Antarctic Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA) using Firedrake. GIA is the ongoing response of Earth's surface to changes in ice and water loading as Earth moves into and out of periods of glaciation. Antarctica is today still experiencing uplift in response to the reduction of the Antarctic Ice Sheet thousands of years ago. The present-day uplift rate and associated changes to Earth's gravity field mean that the satellite-based observational techniques used to quantify mass balance change are affected by GIA. Consequently, ice surface changes measured by satellite altimetry need to be corrected for uplift of the Antarctic bedrock, while mass changes derived from space gravity missions need to have the GIA gravity change signal removed. The latter is almost of the same magnitude as the present-day mass loss signal, so the GIA corrections are of immense significance.
Maurice Huguenin
Research Associate - Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere-Ice Feedbacks at the Antarctic Margin
E: m.huguenin-virchaux@unsw.edu.au
Social Links
Current ACEAS Activities:
As part of my Postdoctoral research associate position, I will investigate the interactions between the atmosphere, sea ice and the ocean circulation around the Antarctic margin using high-resolution climate models.
I will perform perturbation simulations in both ocean-sea ice and coupled climate models to investigate the impact of interannual to decadal climate variability on subsurface shelf temperatures, formation of Dense Shelf Water and export of Antarctic Bottom Water.
Current ACEAS Activities:
Fabio is a physical oceanographer and ocean modeller from Brazil with a PhD from the University of Tasmania. His main interests are in the ocean’s role in the climate system and the mechanisms influencing global sea level in a changing climate, with a particular interest in ocean heat transport processes associated with (1) ocean heat uptake and thermal expansion, and (2) ocean-ice shelf interactions and marine ice sheet instability around Antarctica. In his role at UNSW/ACEAS, he is looking into the mechanisms of cross-shelf heat transport and its impact on melting of the Antarctica ice shelves.
Maria Constanza Manassero
Research Associate Magnetotelluric Geophysics
E: maria.manassero@utas.edu.au
Social Links
Current ACEAS Activities:
One of the most pressing challenges of our time is understanding the rate of ice loss in Antarctica. Progress in this interdisciplinary knowledge helps accurate projections of sea-level rise and prepares the community for climate risk. Geophysicists can contribute to this knowledge by using surface observations to study the ice-solid Earth interaction. However, geophysical interpretations in Antarctica are limited due to the lack of data. In my postdoctoral role within the ACEAS initiative, I will be using field and computer-based methods applied to geophysical data in Eastern Antarctica. During the 2023/2024 Antarctic Expedition, we will first collect magnetotelluric (MT) and seismic data across (and around) Denman Glacier to expand the available data in the region.
MT measures electric and magnetic field variations and, through inversions, provides information on the electrical conductivity of the subsurface.
Matthew Jeromson
Research Associate Paleo-Ice Sheet History
E: matt.jeromson@canberra.edu.au
Social Links
Current ACEAS Activities:
The primary aim of my project with ACEAS is to understand the Holocene timing of circumpolar deep water incursions in the Denman region, both onto the continental shelf generally and into the Shackleton Ice Shelf cavity. I will apply established geochemical proxy methods to sediment cores from both the open water and sub ice shelf environments. In doing this, we can better assess the drivers of ice sheet change and historical shifts in ocean conditions within the Denman Region.
Additionally, I will be conducting further research into the development of 10Be as a geochemical palaeoceanographic proxy, utilising both water and sediment samples.
Current ACEAS Activities:
My research at ANU aims to understand two main processes: The ocean heat transport in the Southern Ocean towards the ice shelves and the ocean model constraints to form Antarctic Bottom Waters realistically. Answering these questions requires high-resolution ocean simulations, my primary research tool.
Matthias Scheiter
Research Associate Ice Sheet Modelling and Data Science
E: matthias.scheiter@utas.edu.au
Social Links
Current ACEAS Activities:
The goal of my project at ACEAS is to improve estimates of sea level contributions from the East Antarctic Ice Sheet through techniques from ice sheet modelling and data science. One particular focus is to work towards better calibration of the ice sheet model, i.e. its reconstruction of the present state as given by observations. Based on that, the model can be run into the future to predict mass loss under climate scenarios and subsequent sea level contribution. The incorporation of advanced statistical techniques such as deep learning and Bayesian inference into the ice sheet modelling workflow will help to better-quantify and reduce uncertainties associated with these projections.