Konrad Gajewski

Konrad Gajewski is a Professor in the Department of Geography, Environment and Geomatics at the University of Ottawa, with cross-appointments in the Ottawa-Carleton Geoscience Centre and the Ottawa-Carleton Institute of Biology. His research spans climatology, paleoclimatology, paleoecology, and biogeography, focusing on Arctic and boreal regions.

His educational background includes a Ph.D. in Meteorology from the University of Wisconsin (1983), an M.S. in Quaternary Studies from the University of Maine (1979), and a B.S. in Biology from Union College (1973).

His research interests include Holocene climate change, paleolimnology, statistical analysis of environmental data, and human impacts on ecosystems. He conducts extensive fieldwork in northern Canada, including Kuujjuarapik, Resolute, Eureka, and Sachs Harbour, studying postglacial environments and treeline dynamics.

The recent publications highlight a strong focus on reconstructing past climates using pollen, lake sediments, and ostracodes, with an emphasis on millennial-scale variability and recent anthropogenic warming trends in the Arctic. His work bridges data analysis, modeling, and field-based paleoenvironmental studies.

• Recent warming reverses long-term cooling (Science, 2009)
• Pollen-based reconstructions of late Holocene climate
• Reconstructing millennial-scale paleoclimates in boreal Canada

He supervises graduate students including Michelle Briere and Camille Tamo, and teaches courses such as The North, Climatology, Biogeography, and Global Climate Change. His research contributes significantly to understanding climate dynamics in sensitive high-latitude ecosystems.