Joe Winzar Physical Geography (BSc - 2017/20), Environmental Change (MSc - 2020/21)

Joe's PhD will apply advanced spatially-resolved luminescence dating methods to glacially deposited cobbles through development of EM-CCD image processing techniques and improved characterisation of cobble luminescence and dosimetry. This research aims to improve retreat and advance chronologies for major British-Irish Ice Sheet ice streams where other luminescence dating methods struggled. Accurate and precise dating of these events is important for calibration and validation of numerical ice sheet deglaciation models, and thus vital for improving our ability to predict and model future rates of ice loss in Greenland and Antarctica under a warming climate.

Joe studied at Aberystwyth University for his Physical Geography BSc and Environmental Change MSc, during which he became interested in Quaternary Science, specifically luminescence dating. For his MSc dissertation, Joe developed luminescence ages for coastal sand layers in Shetland and northern Scotland, previously interpreted as palaeo-tsunami deposits. His research provided chronological constraint and an analysis of local luminescence characteristics to inform future studies in each region.  

Joe is funded by an AberDoc scholarship and works within Aberystwyth Luminescence Research Laboratory under the supervision of Professor Geoff Duller and Professor Helen Roberts.

 

 

2021/22 demonstrator for:

GS22010 - Physical Analysis of Natural Materials 

GS33420 - Glaciers and Ice Sheets

 

 

• Quaternary Environmental Change Group