Chris Stokes

Professor Chris Stokes joined the Department of Geography in 2007, following a Ph.D. at the University of Sheffield, UK, and a Lectureship position at the University of Reading, UK.

His research is focussed on glaciers and their interaction with the ocean-climate system across a broad range of spatial and temporal scales, but with a particular focus on their response to climate warming. This includes monitoring small mountain glaciers over the last few decades to large-scale reconstructions of ice sheets over tens of thousands of years. His primary research tool is satellite remote sensing, but he has undertaken fieldwork in a range of modern and former glacial environments. Chris is also keen to link observations of glaciers with numerical modelling of glacial processes and projections of their future change.

His early work focussed on reconstructing the location of fast-flowing ice streams and outlet glaciers in former ice sheets, leading to analyses of their role during the last major deglaciation, when sea level rose rapidly. This work also extended to studies of the processes beneath the ice which either enhance or inhibit rapid ice flow, and studies of the landforms that are produced, such as drumlins and mega-scale glacial lineations.

More recent work has focussed on the impacts of climate warming on mountain glaciers and the much larger polar ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, particularly East Antarctica, including surface meltwater and ice sheet-ocean interactions. The East Antarctic Ice Sheet has generally been viewed much more stable than Greenland and Antarctica but recent work has shown that it is far more sensitive to climate change and may be vulnerable to just a few degrees of warming.

Most recently, Chris’ work has examined the sensitivity of the ice sheets to specific temperature targets, such as those in the Paris Climate Agreement. This has led to opportunities to present his work to policymakers at the Conference of the Parties (COPs) and meetings of the Subsidiary Bodies of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, as well as extensive media engagement and outreach activities.

Chris’ research has been funded from a range of sources (e.g. NERC, Leverhulme Trust) totalling over £5 million and supported by a large network of international collaborations that has seen him publish on all of the world’s major glaciated regions (and even those on Mars). He has also benefitted from, and been inspired by, supervising/hosting several postdoctoral researchers, over 20 Ph.D. students, and numerous Masters by Research students.

He has published over 150 papers in international peer-reviewed journals, in addition to numerous invited book chapters and Encyclopedia entries. These research contributions have been recognised through a Philip Leverhulme Prize (2009) and the British Society for Geomorphology’s Gordon Warwick Medal (2013). Chris has also won a University award for Excellence in Doctoral Supervision (2016) and a Green Gown Award for innovation in Education (2021).

Major service roles in academia include Vice-President (2013-2015) and President (2015-2017) of the International Glaciological Society’s British Branch and Steering Committee membership of the Palaeo-Arc research network (2019-2025). He has also served on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Maps (2012-2016), Geology (2018-2021) and The Cryosphere (2012-2024), and sits on the Editorial Advisory Board of Earth Surface Processes and Landforms. In addition, Chris has served on a number of funding panels and contributes to institutional research evaluation activities, both in the UK and overseas.

Chris currently teaches modules on climate change, glaciers and glaciation and the Arctic, and particularly enjoys fieldtrips. He also acts as a cryosphere consultant for the Guinness World Records.