Rosemary Willatt

Rosemary Willatt is a Lecturer in Experimental Ice and Rock Physics for the Environment at the University College London (UCL) Department of Earth Sciences. Her research focuses on sea ice dynamics in polar regions, combining laboratory experiments with fieldwork and remote sensing techniques. She leads projects involving satellite radar altimetry for monitoring snow and ice thickness, with a particular emphasis on advancing Earth Observation missions through the Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar Altimeter (PoSARA) concept. She has been awarded the inaugural Konrad Steffen Award by ESA for her innovative work on snow depth estimation techniques.

Willatt’s work integrates field campaigns (e.g., in the Arctic and Antarctic) with analysis of airborne, satellite, and ground-based radar data. She collaborates with space agencies to optimize satellite mission design and has pioneered novel methods for quantifying snow properties and their impacts on cryosphere processes. Her contributions include advancements in understanding brine migration in snow, L-band microwave scattering, and wind-driven snow redistribution effects on radar signatures.

As Principal Investigator for the ESA-funded PoSARA project and Sea Ice Earth Observation at the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM), she bridges experimental physics with large-scale climate monitoring. Her research also emphasizes education, diversity, and sustainability initiatives within the scientific community.