Project members

Amanda is a law student at Purdue Global Law School pursuing her juris doctor (JD). Her professional background is rooted in communications, where she has spent much of her career translating complex ideas and technical information into clear, engaging stories for diverse audiences. Her work has included communications strategy, content development, and public engagement, with a particular interest in helping people understand the people and purpose behind important research and initiatives.

Amanda is especially interested in the intersection of law, science, and public communication. She is drawn to work that connects complex systems with the real-world experiences of the people affected by them, and she brings a strong curiosity, thoughtful perspective, and passion for storytelling to her work. Outside of school and work, she enjoys spending time with her daughter, exploring the outdoors, and finding opportunities to experience and learn from the world around them.

Amanda is both excited and grateful to be part of the iQ2300 Communications Team through the work-study program at Purdue Global. In this role, she helps bring the work of the iQ2300 scientists to a broader audience through blog posts, web content, interviews, and other communications. She particularly enjoys helping humanize the science by sharing the stories, experiences, and discoveries behind the research—and giving audiences a glimpse into what it takes to conduct science in one of the most remarkable environments on Earth.

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Anna Wåhlin is a Professor of Physical Oceanography at the Department of Marine Sciences, University of Gothenburg. Her research focus is in Polar Oceanography.

Anna’s research investigates several aspects of the dynamics of polar seas, including ocean circulation, topographic effects, ice shelf melt processes, and ice-ocean interaction. When Wåhlin was appointed professor in 2015, she became Sweden’s first female full Professor of Oceanography. She is project leader for Sweden’s national AUV infrastructure funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. This AUV became the world’s first to venture under Thwaites glacier, Antarctica, in 2019. Between 2015 and 2017, Wåhlin was co-chair of the joint Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) and SCOR initiative Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS).

She is an Editor of the journal Journal of Geophysical Research - Oceans. Her awards include receiving a Distinguished Professor grant from the Swedish Research Council (2021 - 2031), and receiving the Albert Wallin science prize from the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences (KKVS) in Gothenburg 2018.

Anna co-leads WP4 Boundary conditions for the ice shelf system, and WP12 Observational era analogues of future change, and is member of WP2, WP3 and WP5.

Arjen is a Professor of Physical Geography at the Department of Physical Geography at Stockholm University. His focus is on the long-term landscape evolution of glaciated and formerly glaciated regions as well as former regional and global climate change. He specializes in cosmogenic nuclide dating (rare atoms in rocks related to cosmic radiation effects) applied to geomorphology (changes to the earth’s surface) and ice sheet modeling. Arjen was born in the Netherlands where he studied Physical Geography at Utrecht University. He later studied at the Institute for Quaternary Studies at both the University of Maine and Stockholm University.

An interest in polar landscapes, although seemingly out of reach at the time, came to Arjen through explorer’s literature and from “Beyond Sleep”, a fictional story by iconic Dutch novelist Willem Frederik Hermans. Arjen pursued undergraduate field studies in glaciology in both Sweden and Antarctica and practiced glacier modeling, which exposed him to a fantastic array of peers. Now Arjen guides enthusiastic students and colleagues through the jungle of choices that constitute a career in science, which he enjoys tremendously. Bringing together this fantastic group of scientists within iQ2300 to engage in a 5-10 year project focusing on Antarctica and sea-level rise reflects Arjen’s positiveness as an individual and his skill. It is an accomplishment that he is proud of. Since his days of Dry Valleys fieldwork in Antarctica for his Master’s, Arjen enjoyed having peanut-something sandwiches to keep himself going; over the seasons this “something” has evolved from jelly to sambal oelek.

Ashley is a graduate student at Purdue Global Law School studying for her juris doctor (JD). She operates a compliance firm that implements human performance interventions in the agriculture industry. Most of Ashley’s projects focus on sustainable agricultural practices as well as diverse employee health and safety education initiatives. She also volunteers her time as a pro bono legal representative through Alaska Legal Services Corporation where she helps rural Alaskans resolve administrative court matters. Ashley previously studied physical geography, specifically focusing on the use of remote sensing and field-gathered GPS data to generate GIS maps of invasive animal and plant species impacts. Her most treasured field experiences were on the Kaibab and Aquarius plateaus, which she still visits whenever she is able. Ashley loves spending her free time hiking with her daughter and experiencing our amazing planet through her eyes.

Ashley is both excited and grateful to be part of the iQ2300 Communications Team through the work-study program at Purdue Global. In this role she helps communicate the hard work and impactful research of the iQ2300 scientists with the world through blog posts, our web page, and interviews.

Benedict currently works as a lecturer at Kungliga Tekniska högskolan (KTH) Royal Institute of Technology, specialising in glacial geology (how glaciers shape and impact the land). Benedict’s work focuses on offshore glacial sedimentology (the study of sediments deposited by glaciers as they erode the earth) and geophysics (earth physics) to enable environmental reconstruction. He was inspired to pursue a career in science after participating in fieldwork as an undergraduate in the Scottish Highlands close to the area where he grew up. One of his proudest accomplishments is being part of several Antarctic research cruises with scientists from an array of academic backgrounds and nationalities.

He is also proud of his current service through his teaching role as Director of the Masters programme in environmental engineering at KTH. This role is particularly meaningful because it enables Benedict to bring his expertise in glacial geology and polar science to a new audience of future engineers and environmental consultants. Benedict applies novel techniques to the analyses of sediment cores collected from the seabed through his work with iQ2300. These techniques help provide parameters for models used in iQ2300 that predict future ice sheet behaviour and sea-level rise. Closer to home, Benedict is currently involved in several research projects. In northern Sweden, a place he loves to be, Benedict fulfills his passion for skiing throughout the year, sometimes even at Midsummer and during the polar night when the snow is particularly good!
You can find out more about Benedict at: https://www.kth.se/profile/reinardy

Ilana Wainer is a Professor of Physical Oceanography at the Oceanographic Institute of the University of São Paulo. She is a climate modeller specializing in the role of the ocean in climate variability and change in the South Atlantic and Southern Oceans. Her research integrates model simulations and observational data to investigate large-scale ocean circulation (movement), sea-ice variability (changes), and long-term climate dynamics (changes and interactions).

She was drawn to climate science after an early research cruise in the South Atlantic sparked a lasting interest in understanding how high-latitude ocean processes influence the global climate system.One of Ilana’s key accomplishments is advancing South American contributions to Southern Hemisphere climate research through the analysis of coupled model simulations and international collaboration. Ilana brings to iQ2300 a deep understanding of climate processes with a long-term perspective on ocean-driven variability. Outside of science, she is an avid runner and former triathlete who has completed several half and full marathons.

Jane Lund Andersen works as an assistant professor at VIA University College in Denmark.

Her research focuses on climate adaptation, shallow geothermal energy, and the reconstruction of ancient ice sheets. Her interest in science was sparked during a study abroad experience in New Zealand, where she became fascinated by natural hazards and their societal impacts.

One of Jane’s proudest accomplishments is leading the scientific field operations during an Antarctic field season in 2023/24. Jane particularly loves working at the interface between field observations and modelling, an integrated approach she brings to her role in the iQ2300 project. Recently, she expanded her research toward applied climate adaptation.

She hopes that she can contribute to connecting the results of iQ2300 with society and coastal communities.

You can find out more about Jane at: https://www.ucviden.dk/en/persons/jane-lund-andersen

Martim is a paleo (ancient Earth) ice sheet modeller at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), in the United Kingdom. His research focuses on combining ice sheet modelling with paleo data archives from ice and sediment cores to surface exposure dating. Martim reconstructs climate forcings (changes in the Earth’s climate system such as sunlight and heat) to drive ice sheet models; he then validates these models against the geological record.

Martim’s main goal is to use data-informed model results to help interpret on-site data, offering a wider geographical and dynamical context for the results. Martim was born in Brazil, and his passion for nature and the oceans drove him to study Physical Oceanography at the University of São Paulo before realising ice was cooler than water, prompting him to make a move towards (paleo)glaciology. He still pursues his oceanographic interests by studying ice-ocean interactions across different time scales. Martim’s passion for the outdoors means he enjoys fieldwork despite being a modeller, and he supports scientific fieldwork through planning, both on the ice and in the ocean. Within iQ2300, Martim co-leads the ice sheet modelling initiatives, bringing the needs of field scientists and numerical modellers together while steering and prioritising model development goals towards the interests of different areas within the project. Outside of science, Martim is a keen dancer, climber, hillwalker, and Munro bagger, the latter a result of his postdoctoral time in Scotland.

Learn more about Martim by visiting his BAS webpage at: https://www.bas.ac.uk/profile/mabrag

Ninis is a professor of physical geography at Stockholm University, with a focus on the effects of climate change in alpine and polar environments especially snow, glaciers, and water.

Ninis focuses her interdisciplinary research projects on how rapid changes in climate and land use affect the mountains and create changed conditions for, among other things, reindeer herding. Together with researchers with expertise in climate modeling and environmental and indigenous law, reindeer herders from several Sami communities and the Swedish Sami National Association (SSR), Ninis and her teams are now focusing on developing proposals for how the consequences of climate change can best be assessed before decisions about changed land use are made.

Ninis was the director of the Tarfala research station in the Swedish arctic between 2005 and 2020 when the station's operations developed and became a national and international research infrastructure with support from the Swedish Research Council and the EU through SITES and INTERACT.

Ninis’ ongoing projects include co-leading iQ2300 WP8 which focuses on snow measurements to reconstruct surface mass balance over time and space, and she took part in the 2025-26 iQ2300 field season in Antarctica. Ninis is one of the authors selected to contribute to the next IPCC report, both in the chapter on terrestrial, freshwater, and cryospheric biodiversity and ecosystems and in cross chapter papers on High altitude and mountain environments and Polar environments.

Ninis' profile page at Stockholm University

Ola is a Professor in Engineering Geology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway. He specializes in Quaternary geology (geologic history of earth from 2.6 million years ago to the present) and engineering geology with a focus on the intersection between fundamental Earth system science and applications in engineering geology. Ola is originally from Sweden, where he earned his MSc and PhD in Earth Sciences at Stockholm University.

Ola was fascinated by mountains and glaciers from a young age; hiking, climbing, and skiing in the Scandinavian ranges sparked a lifelong curiosity. That curiosity deepened during his compulsory military service in Sweden in the early 1990s, when one day it suddenly dawned on him how little he understood about the land beneath his feet. That moment set Ola on the path to studying the Earth and its processes. After completing his PhD, Ola moved to Norway for a postdoc and has since held positions at the University of Bergen, the Geological Survey of Norway (NGU), and now NTNU.

Ola’s scientific interests span both fundamental and applied. He studies how ice sheets, such as those in Antarctica, respond to climate change and contribute to sea-level rise. At the same time, Ola works on applied geoscience challenges, such as landslides and quick clay hazards in Norway. He has been involved in Antarctic research since first joining a US-led expedition to the McMurdo Dry Valleys in 1999/2000. Ola’s focus in recent years has been on Dronning Maud Land, including fieldwork during the 2016/17 season and a return planned for 2025/26 to the Riiser-Larsen Ice Shelf. He enjoys grand but challenging environments, and he looks forward to the weeks of field-based research ahead.

You can find out more about Ola at: https://www.ntnu.edu/employees/ola.fredin

Fun Facts:

• Favorite fieldwork food? Norwegian brown cheese (brunost) with butter on crispbread—it’s a love-it-or-hate-it food, and I am definitely on the love-it side.
  
• Favorite polar animal? Weddell seals—silent, mysterious, cute, and supremely adapted to the cold.
  
• Something most people don’t know about you? I grew up partly in northern Sweden and still eat Surströmming (fermented herring, aka rotten fish) now and then. It’s one of the world’s smelliest foods. It’s an acquired taste, but I enjoy it! Look it up on YouTube and then try it yourself if you dare!
  

Peter Davis, a physical oceanographer in the Polar Oceans group at the British Antarctic Survey, moved to British Antarctic Survey in 2015 after completing his PhD at the University of Oxford, focused on the changing dynamics of the Arctic Ocean. Peter’s research interests focus on high-latitude ice shelf-ocean interactions, particularly the turbulent ocean processes operating in the first few meters of the ocean beneath the ice base. He is also interested in the large-scale ocean circulation beneath Antarctic ice shelves, along with ice shelf front processes.

Peter’s work involves using hot water drills to gain access to the ocean cavity beneath floating ice shelves. He uses robotic vehicles and ocean moorings that can measure the temperature, salinity and ocean currents to collect unique observations from this incredibly hard to access environment. His research is exploring how ocean heat is transported through the turbulent ice shelf-ocean boundary layer and the impact this has on the rate of basal melting.

Peter is currently a co-PI on the BELLISIMO NERC large grant which aims to understand how ocean processes drive heat beneath the Venable Ice Shelf in the Bellingshausen Sea. He is also a co-PI on the ARIA-funded GIANT project and will lead a field expedition to Petermann Ice Shelf in summer 2027. He has worked extensively on Thwaites Ice Shelf through the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration MELT project, and the NERC funded SUNSET project that is investigating how the ocean and extreme ice topography interact to regulate ice shelf basal melting. Finally, he serves as co-PI on a major Horizon Europe project OCEAN ICE, which investigates interactions between the Antarctic ice sheet and the Southern Ocean and their influence on the global climate system.

In recognition of his work tackling one of the most important environmental questions of our time – global sea-level rise – and for spearheading a major Antarctic field campaign to the Florida-sized Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica which has the potential to raise global sea-level by up to 70 cm everywhere, Peter was honored by TIME Magazine as one of the world’s 100 most influential people in 2023.

Yusuke Yokoyama is a Professor at the Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, the University of Tokyo, and is also affiliated with the Department of Earth and Planetary Science and the Graduate Program on Environmental Sciences. He is also an Honorary Professor at the Research School of Physics at the Australian National University. Yusuke co-leads the iQ2300 work package “Cosmogenic nuclides in offshore sediments”.

Yusuke received his PhD from the Research School of Earth Sciences at the Australian National University (2000) and did postdoctoral work at the University of California, Berkeley. He then worked as a Research Scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, before returning to Japan in late 2002.

Yusuke’s research focuses on reconstructing past climates and environments to better understand the physical processes and interactions with Earth systems, including the cryosphere, ocean, atmosphere, and biosphere. He strongly advocates for an interdisciplinary approach to studying Earth Surface Systems. His team has also conducted ecological studies on marine and freshwater biology including salmon, squids, whales, sharks, bivalves, kelps, corals, and other water biological organisms using novel isotopes. Understanding geohazards is another main focus of Yusuke and his research team.

Website Links:

https://gpes.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/faculty-staff/materials-systems-and-dynamics/yokoyamayusuke.html

https://www.agu.org/user-profile?cstkey=ED49AAF4-722F-40D0-BB95-C38D1CCFB54A