Profile

Hi! I’m Isaac and I’m originally from Sheffield but now live in Leeds. Before Leeds I lived in Norway for two years which gave me a love for icy places! I’m a big fan of being outdoors, climbing, cycling and playing badminton. When I can’t be outdoors I’ll usually do some cooking or read a book.

On a bike ride!

Hiking!

I’m currently working as a PhD researcher at the University of Leeds. I look into how glaciers in Norway are being affected by climate change, as well as how this will impact society in Scandinavia. The main glacier I focus on is Jostedalsbreen, which is the largest glacier in mainland Europe!

These glaciers are unfortunately melting fast due to our climate warming and this causes sea level globally to rise, which is a big problem as millions of us around the world live near the sea! Locally, melting glaciers can cause flooding, changes to water availability and less tourism to Norway.

I use pictures of the glaciers taken by satellites and field trips to Norway to monitor these glaciers and measure how fast they might be melting and why they are doing this.

I’ll try and get to my office for 9am. The first thing I’ll do is check my emails and have a chat with the other researchers in my office. After this I’ll boot up some scientific software so I can analyse data I’ve collected, for example some pictures of glaciers taken from satellites or glacier temperature readings I have from my fieldwork. Sometimes I’ll also have a meeting with my supervisors to discuss my research project. I’ll typically leave work at about 5pm, and I’ll go home and cook some tea or play some sport with friends.

In summer I’ll go on fieldwork (usually to Norway!), where I’ll spend most of time walking around in the mountains using equipment such as temperature sensors and drones to collect data from the glaciers. Being able to explore these landscapes is the best part about my job!