Personal profile

Overview

I'm Associate Dean (Education and Student Experience) in the School of Engineering. I joined LSBU in 2016, after working as a postdoctoral researcher at UCL and Bristol University, and as a teaching fellow at Portsmouth University. As a lecturer, I teach Engineering Design to mechanical engineers, and Mechanical Engineering to designers.

Research interests

My research interests focus on ice, mostly in the Arctic. For several decades, the volume of Arctic sea ice has decreased, and soon there may be only seasonal ice which freezes in the winter and then melts away in the summer. My research ask how we can understand this geophysical development by understanding the basic engineering and mechanics of sea ice.
I’m interested in ice friction because the way the ice floes slide past each other can help us to understand the energy balance of the Arctic ocean. This research also has relevance for Arctic engineering. For example, it helps to answer questions about how icebreakers should be designed.
I’ve recently investigated how sea ice rubble - fragments of broken sea ice - affects the way ice moves around the Arctic. Does the rubble act like ball bearings, and help make things move, or does it act like grit, and cause extra friction? In another project, I’ve looked at acoustic emissions from sea ice. When the ice starts to break, it emits sounds. I’m looking at how these sounds can help us understand the ways the ice breaks. One application of this research is on ice roads in Canada, where, by listening to these acoustic emissions, we can check that the roads are safe to navigate.
I work alongside climate modellers and geophysicists to take these engineering-scale insights and translate them into geophysical scale, so that we can predict the future of the whole Arctic. I also help to write the ISO Standard for Arctic Offshore Engineering, which means that anyone building infrastructure for icy water has a shared set of codes and practices.

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
  • SDG 6 - Clean Water and Sanitation
  • SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production
  • SDG 13 - Climate Action

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