Member-at-large, 2016 – 2017

PhD Candidate, Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge

Although my interests lie in polar climate change and its alterations to landscapes and seascapes, I hail from the tropical islands of Taiwan and Hong Kong, where I spent the majority of my childhood.

Background

My academic background was originally in marine mammal science, where I was part of the Marine Conservation Ecology group at Duke University and the Duke Marine Lab in Beaufort, North Carolina, USA. There, I focused my studies on foraging ecology and spatial modelling of endangered seals and whales.  I became more involved with the physical aspects of climate change when our lab was invited to collaborate in a research venture with the NOAA Pacific Marine Ecological Laboratory in Seattle, Washington, to re-evaluate temperature data and the associated metadata recorded aboard old British navy ships stationed across the American and Canadian Arctic during the mid-1800s. I completed my master’s degree at the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, where I examine the effects of warming permafrost and thermokarst on the surrounding landscape in the Mackenzie Delta region in northern Canada using novel remote sensing techniques.

Current Research

I’m currently a PhD student at the Scott Polar Research Institute, where my thesis focuses on using phase-sensitive radar to detect flow and deformation of the Greenland Ice Sheet and to provide a more complete model of the contributions of ice sheets towards sea level rise. My research is part of the NERC-funded SAFIRE project, that aims to identify the key controls that regulate fast flow of outlet glaciers in Greenland. More details of the SAFIRE project can be found on the SPRI website.

Contacts

Email (@polarnetwork.org): tj.young

Web: http://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/people/young/

Twitter: @tjy511

Instagram: @t.j.young