Roland Warner gained his PhD in theoretical physics at the University of Melbourne in 1980. After working at the Universities of Glasgow, Durham, Melbourne, and Tasmania he joined the first Antarctic CRC in 1993. Transferring to the Australian Antarctic Division in 1999 he was contributed to successive CRCs, latterly as a Senior Research Scientist. Roland continues to be active in research with ACE following his retirement from AAD in 2014. His work focuses on the role of the Antarctic ice sheet in the global Earth System, and its impact on sea level in a changing climate. His research ranges from improved understanding of the deformation flow of ice, across various aspects of ice shelf-ocean interactions, to observations and computer simulations of the mass budget and dynamics of flow of the Antarctic ice sheet. He spent three seasons in Antarctica with the ICECAP project, participating in aerogeophysical exploration of the bedrock and physical conditions beneath the ice sheet.
• Ice rheology investigating the deformation flow properties of ice and connections with crystal microstructure, with a focus on flow-induced crystal orientation anisotropy and enhanced flow rates.
• Ice sheet dynamics, including incorporating new descriptions of ice deformation flow into ice sheet models.
• Ice shelf – ocean interactions, including analysis and interpretation of data from instrumentation under the Amery Ice shelf and developments in coupled ice sheet-ice shelf-ocean modelling.
• Aerogeophysics with Project ICECAP, including analysis and interpretation of field data, such as internal layer structures in the ice sheet.
Interview with Ecoshock (USA) on forces driving the rapid thinning of the Totten Glacier in East Antarctica.
Antarctic ice shelves thinning more rapidly than scientists thought, research published in Science shows, ABC PM, 27 March 2015
East Antarctic ice sheet melting faster than expected, ABC PM, 23 November 2009
Young, D.A., Wright, A.P., Roberts, J.L., Warner, R.C., Young, N.W., Greenbaum, J.S., Schroeder, D.M., Holt, J.W., Sugden, D.E., Blankenship, D.D., van Ommen, T.D., Siegert, M.J. (2011). A dynamic early East Antarctic Ice Sheet suggested by ice covered fjord landscapes. Nature, 474 (7349): 72-75.
Budd W.F., Warner R.C., Jacka, T.H, Li, J., Treverrow, A. (2013) Ice flow relations for stress and strain rate components from combined shear and compression laboratory experiments. Journal of Glaciology, 59 (214), 374-392.
Williams, M. J. M., Warner R. C., and Budd W. F. (2002) .Sensitivity of the Amery Ice Shelf, Antarctica, to changes in the climate of the Southern Ocean, Journal of Climate, 15, 2740-2757.
Warner R.C. and Roberts J.L. (2013) Pine Island Glacier velocities from Landsat7 images between 2001 and 2011: FFT-based image correlation for images with data gaps. Journal of Glaciology, 59 (215), 571-582.
Warner, R. C. and Budd W. F. (1998) Modelling the long term response of the Antarctic Ice Sheet to global warming, Annals of Glaciology, 27, 161-168.