The Royal Society of Tasmania invites you to attend a special lecture by Prof. Matt King
Continental loss:The quest to determine Antarctica’s contribution to sea-level change
Tuesday 3 March, 8.00 pm
Royal Society Room,
Customs House Building, TMAG,
19 Davey St. Hobart (entry from Dunn Place)
• All interested people welcome
• Admission is free
Prof. King is the 2015 recipient of the prestigious Kavli Medal awarded by The Royal Society of London for his work that contributed to the first reconciled estimate of Antarctica and Greenland’s contribution to sea-‐level change.
Summary:
For over 50 years scientists have been working to understand Antarctica’s contribution to sea level. For much of this time there has been disagreement about if this massive ice sheet is even growing or shrinking. In 2012, advances in data analysis and computer modelling resulted in the first reconciled estimate of change being achieved. This showed that Antarctica is increasingly contributing to sea-level rise. During this lecture I will explain some of the major advances that led to this reconciled estimate and highlight some of the fascinating things we can learn about Earth from the vantage-point of Antarctica; these take us from hundreds of miles above Earth’s surface to hundreds of miles below, and from present-day ice sheet changes to those that happened 20,000 years ago.
Bio:
Matt King grew up in Burnie before moving with his family to Hobart in 1988. During 1992-1996 he undertook a Bachelor of Surveying at the University of Tasmania, a time that included a year working in mines on Tasmania’s West Coast. He then shifted focus to Antarctica, undertaking a PhD quantifying changes in the motion of a large floating Antarctic ice shelf using surveying data. In 2001 he moved to the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK, where he researched GPS positioning and its application to understanding glacier dynamics, Earth deformation and Antarctica’s contribution to recent sea-level change. He has travelled to both Antarctica and Greenland and published over 80 peer-reviewed journal articles, including several in the leading journals Science and Nature. In late 2012 he returned to the University of Tasmania where he is based in the School of Land and Food as Professor of Polar Geodesy and ARC Future Fellow. In April he will travel to the Royal Society (London) to receive the 2015 Kavli Medal and Lecture which is awarded every two years for excellence in all fields of science and engineering relevant to the environment or energy, and particularly for his work that contributed to the first reconciled estimate of Antarctica and Greenland’s contribution to sea-level change.
