Biography 

I have a BSc in Environmental and Resource Geology (2007) and a PhD in Earth Science (2012) from the University of Manchester. After my PhD, I was a Research Fellow at Aberystwyth University then Senior Research Fellow at the University of Sheffield where I held a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellowship. My children were born in 2016 and 2019 and I had career breaks around those years. In 2022, I was the Fondation Herbette visiting professor at the University of Lausanne (UNIL) in Switzerland. In 2025, I will be a Visiting Erskine Fellow at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. 

I am Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface. 

I supervise five PhD candidates: Charlotte Curry (Sheffield) is investigating the impacts of mining for metals on late Holocene glacier change in the semi-arid Andes. Alex Scoffield (Leeds) is examining glacier-lake interactions in the Central Himalaya. Daniel Thomas is observing the evolution of rock glaciers over large spatial scales using Deep Learning techniques applied to remote datasets. Karlijn Ploeg is researching how palaeoclimate signals are recorded in ice-marginal moraines in the Southern Alps of New Zealand. George Young is exploring differences in glaciation between the westerly and monsoon-influenced Himalaya.

My ORCID is 0000-0002-3715-5554

I am responsible for the courses:

GEOV225 Field Course in Quarternary Geology and Palaeoclimate

GEOV181 Introduction to Earth Science and Informatics

I contribute to the course:

GEOV230 Glacial Geology and Geomorphology

See a complete overview of publications in Cristin.

Publications from my group are accessible through either gold or green open access routes; a complete list of publications is available from Google Scholar

Highlights include (*indicates that the lead author was a graduate student under my supervision):

*Hornsey, J., Rowan, A.V., Kirkbride, M.P., Livingstone, S.J., Fabel, D., Rodés, Á., Quincey, D.J., Hubbard, B., Jomelli, V. (2022) Be-10 dating of ice-marginal moraines in the Khumbu Valley, Nepal, Central Himalaya, reveals the response of monsoon-influenced glaciers to Holocene climate change. Journal of Geophysical Research–Earth Surface https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JF006645

Rowan, A.V., Egholm, D.E., Clark, C.D. (2022) Forward modelling of the completeness and preservation of palaeoclimate signals recorded by ice-marginal moraines. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 47: 2198–2208 https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.5371

*Bartlett, O., Ng, F.S.L., Rowan, A.V. (2021) Morphology and evolution of supraglacial hummocks on debris-covered Himalayan glaciers. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 46: 525-539 https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.5043

*Miles, K., Hubbard, B., Quincey, D.J., Miles, E., Sherpa, T., Rowan, A.V., Doyle, S. (2018) Polythermal structure of a Himalayan debris-covered glacier revealed by borehole thermometry. Scientific Reports 8:16825 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2019.02.020

*Gibson, M.J., Glasser, N.F., Quincey, D.J., Mayer, C., Rowan, A.V., Irvine-Fynn, T.D.L. (2017) Temporal variations in supraglacial debris distribution on Baltoro Glacier, Karakoram between 2001 and 2012. Geomorphology 295: 572–585 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2017.08.012

Rowan, A.V., Egholm, D.L., Quincey, D.J., Glasser, N.F. (2015) Modelling the feedbacks between mass balance, ice flow and debris transport to predict the response to climate change of debris-covered glaciers in the Himalaya. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 430: 427–438 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2015.09.004

Rowan, A.V., Plummer, M.A, Brocklehurst, S.H., Jones, M.A., Schultz, D.M. (2013) Drainage capture and discharge variations driven by glaciation in the Southern Alps, New Zealand. Geology 41: 199–20 http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G33829.1

2024–2027 UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Pushing the Frontiers: Losing their Cool: are high-elevation heat exchanges warming Himalayan glaciers? Project Co-Lead

2024–2025 Quaternary Research Association and Mount Everest Foundation An Erosion Rate for Everest PI