Dr Amber Leeson
Reader in GlaciologyResearch Overview
Amber’s main research interest is in ice-climate interactions; specifically how climate change affects the Greenland and Antarctic Ice sheets. Her work includes developing improved numerical models of the Cryosphere in order to advance their capability for robust estimates of cryospheric change. This is supported by extensive work with Remote Sensing data, GIS and Data Science techniques.
Current Research
Current projects include:
- Meltwater-Ice sheet Interactions and the changing climate of Greenland (MII-Greenland)
- Data Science for the Natural Environment (DSNE)
- Extreme temperature events on Greenland and their impact on ice melting
- Supraglacial lakes and their impacts on grounded and floating ice
- Firn modelling for the interpretation of observations of ice sheet height change
Research Interests
Amber was awarded her PhD in 2013 and has since published over 20 refereed journal papers, in leading journals such as Nature Climate Change and Nature Communications. Her work focusses mainly on ice sheets and climate change but she is also involved in the application of data science to environmental problems. Her most recent paper (in Geophysical Research Letters) uses historical satellite data to investigate the evolution of supraglacial lakes on the Larsen B ice shelf in Antarctica before it collapsed in 2002.
External Roles
Amber has previously been the treasurer for the UK Polar Network, a member of the American Geosciences Union (AGU) Cryosphere Committee, early career representative to the UK National Committee for Antarctic Research (UKNCAR) and Associate Editor for the Journal of Geophysical Research (Earth Surface). She is currently:
- Treasurer of the International Glaciological Society
- Secretary of the International Glaciological Society British Branch
Current Teaching
I teach on LEC321 Glacial Systems and LEC103 Environmental Processes and Systems and I convene LEC497 Professional Experience Placement and LEC498 Professional Experience Dissertation.
Professional Role
Amber currently holds the following roles at Lancaster University:
Senior Admissions Tutor for our Environmental and Earth Sciences degrees
Theme Lead for Environment in the Data Science Institute (DSI)
Co-theme Lead for Ice and Water in the Centre for Excellence in Environmental Data Science (CEEDS)
DSI: AI Forecasting for Ice Shelf Collapse (AI4IS)
06/02/2024 → 05/02/2026
Research
DSI: PICANTE – Processes, Impacts, and Changes of ANTarctic Extreme weather
01/02/2024 → 31/10/2027
Research
Seeing in the dark: evolution of supraglacial lakes on the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets during polar night.
01/01/2024 → 30/06/2027
Research
DSI: 4D Greenland CCN1
23/11/2022 → 22/05/2024
Research
DSI: Envision: Assessing the Contribution of Antarctic Peninsula Glaciers to Global Sea Level Rise
01/10/2022 → 31/03/2026
Research
DSI: Antarctica4d. (additional funding)
31/03/2022 → 30/03/2023
Research
DSI: 4DGreenland
19/11/2020 → 18/11/2022
Research
Future Places: A Digital Economy Centre on Understanding Place Through Pervasive Computing
01/10/2020 → 30/09/2025
Research
DSI: Antarctica4d - supplement
15/09/2020 → 14/09/2021
Research
DSI: Earth Observation 4 Surface Mass Balance
01/09/2020 → 31/12/2024
Research
DSI: Antarctica4d
15/11/2019 → 15/10/2022
Research
Meltwater Ice-sheet Interactions and the changing climate of Greenland (MII-Greenland)
16/09/2019 → 15/05/2023
Research
DSI: Data Science of the Natural Environment
16/04/2018 → 15/04/2024
Research
ReCoVER : Advanced Data Clustering for Climate Science Applications
02/06/2017 → 12/03/2018
Research
Statistical Artificial Intelligence
- Centre of Excellence in Environmental Data Science
- DSI - Environment
- Geospatial Data Science