Professor Duncan Quincey

Profile

I am Professor of Glaciology, with specific interests in mountain glaciology and remote sensing. I mostly focus on contemporary glaciology and in particular debris-covered glaciers, and the changes in behaviour and form they exhibit in response to changes in climate. I am interested in the impact these changes have, and will continue to have, on people living in mountain regions, in the context of glacial hazards and changing water resources. I have led recent projects on glacial lake evolution in the Peruvian Andes (PEGASUS) and on characterising the englacial thermal and flow properties of the Khumbu Glacier, Nepal (EverDrill). I also led the HARVEST project, which integrated isotopic methods for quantifying the contribution of glacier meltwater to flow with household survey data on water use and material on historical water management from archives in Nepal. I currently contribute to the IMAGINE project, focussing on water resource supply and management in the Canadian Arctic.

Responsibilities

• Director of Student Education (p/t)

Research interests

My research focuses mainly on the dynamics of mountain glaciers, the evolution of glacial and alpine environments, with particular emphasis on glacier flow and the processes controlling glacier mass loss. I use remote sensing to quantify changes in glacier velocity and surface elevation, and am particularly interested in the development of glacier hazards and their impact on local people. I work mostly in the Himalaya and the Andes, but also currently supervise projects in Patagonia and Antarctica.

• Antheia: Multi-decadal monitoring of open water cover on northern peatlands
• EverDrill
• EverDrill: Accessing the interior and bed of a Himalayan debris-covered glacier to forecast future mass loss
• Greenland ice marginal lake evolution as a driver of ice sheet change - how important are rising lake temperatures?
• HARVEST: High-mountain Asia - building Resilience to water Variability using Experiments, Surveys and accounts of Tradition
• Impacts of cryosphere-hydrosphere change on ecosystems and livelihoods in northern Nunatsiavut, Canada (IMAGINE)
• PEGASUS: Producing EnerGy and preventing hAzards from SUrface water Storage in Peru
• Peruvian Glacier Retreat and its Impact on Water Security (Peru GROWS)
• Peruvian Glacier Retreat and its Impact on Water Security (Peru GROWS)

Qualifications

• PhD, Aberystwyth University
• MSc, Environmental Remote Sensing, University of Aberdeen
• BSc, Geography, University of Durham

Student education

I teach on the geomorphology strand of modules in the School, which focus on Dynamic Landscapes at L1, Earth Surface Processes at L2, and The Cryosphere at L3. I also teach remote sensing modules at L2 and at post-graduate level.

Research groups and institutes

• River Basin Processes and Management

Current postgraduate researchers

• Christopher D. Stringer
• Jamie Izzard
• Nicky Kerr
• Alex Scoffield (she/her)
• Connie Harpur