Courtesy Professors
Alastair Graham
Courtesy Professor
Geological Oceanography
Ph.D., Imperial College London (University of London), 2007
Office Phone: 727.553.3415
Email: alastairg@usf.edu
CV: View CV
Southern Ocean Science
Research: Past changes in Earth鈥檚 cryosphere, Geomorphological Processes in Sub-Ice
and Open-Ocean Sea-Floor Environments, Antarctic Continental Margin Evolution, Sub-Antarctic
Climate History.
Specialties: Bathymetry, Marine Geomorphology, Polar Marine Geology, Marine Geophysics,
Glacial Processes, Remotely Operated and Autonomous Instruments for Sea-Floor Exploration
Dr. Graham is a marine scientist, studying the link between ice sheets and the geological
record. His research interests are focused on uncovering the histories, mechanisms,
and drivers of past glacial and environmental change as recorded by high-latitude
ocean floors and marine sedimentary records, as well as improving knowledge of the
physical processes that govern the evolution of glacial and marine environments. Working
from the glacier front to the deep sea, Dr Graham鈥檚 current research agenda is motivated
by a set of questions steered towards the grand challenges faced by environmental
and Antarctic science in the 21st century: how quickly, by how much, through what
processes, and in response to what triggers do ice sheets and glaciers change over
timescales not captured by observational records? An ongoing major objective of his
work is to produce records of past ice鈥恠heet change at the poles that are significantly
longer than satellite observations, providing the critical centennial to millennial
context for changes to our warming planet and rising seas. Another key aspect is to
study the processes of glacial environments using geophysical and geological tools
to provide insight into modern and future ice-sheet behaviour. Dr Graham works routinely
with glaciologists, oceanographers, and biologists to connect modern and palaeo processes
in ice-sheet settings and increasingly looks to bridge ancient and contemporary systems
in his research.
Dr. Graham received his PhD from Imperial College London in 2007. He was post-doctoral
researcher at the British Antarctic Survey from 2007 through 2013, where his research
emphasis shifted from seismic investigations of northwest Europe鈥檚 shallow seas, to
the geomorphology of the sea bed around Antarctica for which he is now widely renowned.
Dr. Graham received a NERC New Investigator Award in 2012 to study the glacial and
climatic history of sub-Antarctic South Georgia. He was the 2013 recipient of the
Laws Prize, awarded to young scientists for outstanding work worthy of recognition
in the field of polar research. From 2013 to 2017, Dr Graham worked at the University
of Exeter, in the UK, as Lecturer and, latterly, as Senior Lecturer. At UoE, he taught
specialisms in glacial geology and ocean-floor exploration, led large undergraduate
residential courses in research skills, and ran a week-long field class in glacial
geology in Iceland. He received numerous teaching award nominations and awards for
collaboration during his time at the university. Between 2015-2017, Dr Graham was
Co-Investigator on a NERC-IODP Phase 2 site survey project, studying the seismostratigraphic
expression of ice and ocean records contained within deep-sea sediment drifts along
the Antarctic Peninsula margin. He is currently member of the PI team on an NSFOPP-NERC
funded project, 鈥楾HOR: Thwaites Offshore Research鈥, working as part of a 5-year Joint
Research Program (the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration) studying the future
evolution of Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica. Dr Graham currently serves as an
Associate Editor for the Journal of Glaciology.
Dr. Graham became Associate Professor in Geological Oceanography at the College of
Marine Science at 国产短视频in August 2019. A new group 鈥 SESAME (Sea-floor Survey and
Exploration of Southern OceAn Marine Environments) 鈥 will form around his interests
in the coming years. SESAME will serve to retain and combine Dr Graham鈥檚 diverse
range of research interests and active projects into a single program, supported by
a new state-of-the-art geophysical lab space set to open at 国产短视频in 2020. Innovative
marine survey techniques underpin the research group鈥檚 forward-looking plans, which
seek to employ autonomous and underwater vehicles to explore hard-to-reach sub-ice
environments, and use high resolution sonar, seismic equipment, and sampled sediments
to study sea-floor glacial environments in unprecedented detail.
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