Brice Rea

Professor Brice Rea is a Personal Chair in Geography and Environment at the University of Aberdeen's School of Geosciences. He has held academic positions there since 2004, progressing from Lecturer to Reader before becoming a Professor in 2018. His research focuses on glacial and periglacial geomorphology, glacier-climate interactions, and ocean-atmosphere-cryosphere dynamics, particularly in Arctic and alpine regions. He leads projects funded by NERC, Leverhulme Trust, and others, including studies on Greenland ice dynamics, cirque glacier reconstructions, and volcanic-glacier interactions.

Education: PhD (1994-1998) and B.Sc. (1987-1990) in Geography from Queen’s University Belfast. External roles include NERC Panel membership, editorial board positions (e.g., Geografia Fisica e Dinamica Quaternaria), and leadership in SAGES (Scottish Alliance for Geoscience, Environment & Society).

Research interests span glacial tectonics, ice-sheet dynamics, and climate modeling. Notable projects include crevassing mechanics using centrifuge models, Younger Dryas atmospheric circulation studies, and Greenland Ice Sheet retreat chronologies. His work integrates field data, remote sensing (e.g., 94 GHz radar), and numerical modeling to understand past and future climate impacts.

Grants include NERC Small Grants for glacier crevassing and a Leverhulme Trust International Network Grant for Younger Dryas climate studies. Supervises PhDs in glaciology and climate science. Active in interdisciplinary collaborations, e.g., linking glacial proxies to volcanic eruption forecasting.

Labs/Teams: Involved with the University of Aberdeen’s glaciology research group, collaborating with institutions like Cardiff University, Queen’s University Belfast, and the University of Dundee’s geotechnical centrifuge facility.