Three Rutherford Fellows now at the ARC
Congratulations to Dr Nick Golledge, who is among a small group of leading New Zealand scientists to receive a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship.
Dr Nick Golledge, a senior research fellow in the Antarctic Research Centre has been awarded funding of $800,000 over five years to continue his leading-edge research in aspects of global climate stability. Congratulations also to our research associate Dr Kevin Norton, a senior lecturer in Physical Geography in Victoria’s School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, who has also been awarded a fellowship.
Together they receive two of twelve fellowships announced by Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce, which are designed to support and foster the development of future leaders in the New Zealand science and innovation system by encouraging their career development and enabling them to establish a solid track record for future research.
"Receiving these fellowships is a mark of great distinction for both Dr Golledge and Dr Norton,” says Professor Kate McGrath, Vice-Provost (Research) at Victoria University.
“It is also confirmation of the strength of research capability at Victoria and the outstanding contribution our scientists are making to understanding the potential impact of a changing climate.”
Nick plans to use his fellowship to further understanding of how the Antarctic ice-sheet, the largest ice-sheet on Earth, will respond to a warming world and the contribution it is likely to make to future sea-level rise.
“With around 10 percent of the world’s population currently living less than 10 metres above sea level,” says Nick, “the societal impact of the potential collapse of the Antarctic ice-sheet would be significant.”
Nick says he is delighted to be awarded a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship and excited about the new research possibilities that it will facilitate.
“Particular benefits of receiving the Fellowship are the international collaborations that I hope to develop and the two new PhD students that the funding will support."
Victoria’s Dean of Science, Professor David Harper, says the University is extremely proud of Dr Golledge and Dr Norton.
Winning these fellowships is well-deserved recognition of the impact of their work so early in their careers, and a reflection of the quality of Antarctic research and earth sciences at Victoria University,” says Professor Harper.
Nick started his career as a geologist with the British Geological Survey (BGS), based in Edinburgh, Scotland. During his 12 years with the BGS he mapped and interpreted the geological deposits of past ice sheets, but it was during his PhD research (undertaken part-time while at the BGS) that he began to appreciate the strength of computer modelling as an additional tool in the reconstruction of past ice sheets and the climates that gave rise to them. Since moving to New Zealand in 2009, Nick has focussed on the Antarctic ice sheet, using computer models to simulate ice growth and decay during periods of the past that otherwise can only be inferred from sparse geological records. This research is now looking to the future, attempting to predict the ice-sheet changes that might occur as the climate warms.
Nick joins the ranks with fellow ARC colleagues, Assoc. Prof Nancy Bertler and Dr Rob McKay who were awarded their Rutherford Discovery Fellowships in 2011 and 2013, respectively.