Professor Bernd Kulessa

• How soil amendments used in carbon capture effect the soil physical properties and hydrology (current)

  PhD

  Other supervisor: Dr Emilia Urbanek

• Typo: this should be 'The Hydrogeophysical Changes Associated with Forest-to-Bog Restoration of Peatlands in the Upland Regions of South Wales'. (current)

  PhD

  Other supervisor: Prof Tavi Murray

• Development of a viscoelastic model of ice shelf dynamics (awarded 2023)

  PhD

  Other supervisor: Prof Adrian Luckman

• Integrated Geophysical Investigations of a Methane Releasing Pingo in a Changing Permafrost Environment, Svalbard (awarded 2023)

  PhD

  Other supervisor: Dr John Hiemstra

• Impact of Tides and Calving on Glacier Flow (awarded 2024)

  MSc

  Other supervisor: Miss Rebecca Schlegel

  Other supervisor: Prof Tavi Murray

• Characterising the Downstream Shoulder of an Earth Embankment Dam Using Geophysical Methods and Developing a Bespoke Self-Potential Monitoring Array (awarded 2023)

  MSc

  Other supervisor: Prof Tavi Murray

• GEG133 Natural Hazards and Society

  This module investigates hazardous aspects of Earth¿s natural environment and how society relates to them. Introductory principles include the definition of natural hazard, disaster, risk and loss, and approaches to reducing risk and managing disasters. Major types of natural hazard are studied in order to understand how they operate, where, and how frequently they are likely to occur. Hazardous consequences are explored, as well as how society can respond to hazardous events. Key aspects include discussion of primary and secondary hazards, prediction, forecasting and monitoring of hazards, and understanding how their harmful effects can be minimised. Natural hazards considered during this module include volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, wildfires, landslides, extreme weather events, flooding, avalanches and Mega Hazards. Lecture material considers general principles as well as case studies. The module is compulsory for students taking BSc Environmental Geoscience.

• GEG278 Dissertation Preparation Skills

  This module builds upon student knowledge of social research methods and environmental methods (delivered in GEG277) through to the formulation of a dissertation proposal. The module focuses on key dissertation planning and preparation skills.

• GEG331 Dissertation Report: Geography

  The dissertation is an original, substantive and independent research project in an aspect of Geography. The dissertation research project is based on 20 - 25 days of primary research (e.g fieldwork, lab work, archive work) and several months of analysis and write-up. The end result must be less than 10,000 words of text. The dissertation offers you the chance to follow your personal interests and to demonstrate your capabilities as a Geographer. During the course of your dissertation, you will be supported by a peer-led discussion group and a staff supervisor. Lectures and guidance are delivered via this module and peer and staff led Dissertation Support Groups are delivered via GEG332. Participating in Dissertation Support Groups is vital, and is assessed and, in these groups, students will provide constructive criticism to fellow students undertaking related research projects, learning from their research problems and subsequent solutions. This support and supervision is delivered through GEG332, which is a co- requisite.

• GEG332 Dissertation Support: Geography

  This module provides structured, student-led peer-group support and academic staff group supervision for students undertaking the 30-credit 'Dissertation Report: Geography' module. This support and supervision is assessed through the submission of the Dissertation Outline and the Dissertation Support Group Reflection and Attendance Log. Working within a supervised Student Peer Group, students have the opportunity to provide constructive criticism to fellow students undertaking related research projects, learning from their research problems and subsequent solutions. Group sessions are the main support provision as student¿s work through their Dissertation. This module complements the 'Dissertation Report: Geography' module, which is a co-requisite.

• GEG344 The Cryosphere in a Changing Climate

  This module will provide you with the scientific basis to understand the physical behaviour of glacier ice in our changing climate. We will look at spatial scales ranging from individual ice crystals to continental-scale glaciation. The module core topics will include glacier mass balance, transformation of snow to ice, glacier hydrology, glacier dynamics, ice crystal structure and deformation, glacier sliding, deformation of glacial sediments, glacier flow instabilities and glacier surging. We will introduce example topics of current research interest. The module is assessed through examination, as well as group presentation on a seminar and a short individual report.

• GEG348 Plate Tectonics and Global Geophysics

  Over the past century our view of the dynamic earth system has shifted from continental drift to sea floor spreading and, in the 1960s and 70s, to plate tectonics. However, given greatly improved observational data and mathematical models a new revolution has been initiated in the last decade: it turns out that many familiar concepts of plate tectonics may in fact be incorrect and outdated! This includes, for instance, what we thought were established concepts of mantle plumes, hot spots, evolving subduction zones and the plates¿ driving mechanisms. Consequently, a fully revamped plate dynamics framework is currently being drawn up and integrated into a whole-earth geodynamic model. This model views the earth¿s lithosphere, deeper mantle and core-mantle boundary as coupled entities that are considerably more complex than previously thought. This has fundamentally surprising and challenging, but at the time exciting and intellectually rewarding, consequences for the dynamics of the earth¿s lithospheric plates on which we live. This module thus aims to attract open-minded students excited at the prospect of turning their view of the workings of our planet upside down, as challenged with the latest scientific hypotheses of the internal anatomy and dynamics of the earth; and indeed those of many planets in the solar system! The majority of up-to-date hypotheses and concepts will be new to the student, and are not covered by existing undergraduate textbooks. Successful completion of the module will thus require the ability and willingness to engage critically with the latest scientific literature, along with conscientious lecture attendance and continuous review of lecture materials.

• GEGM04 Environmental Modelling

  An understanding of the environment is increasingly important in many areas, e.g. industry, agriculture, conservation, health, science, and planning. This module introduces computational modelling in a geographical context. It aims to develop thinking about environmental issues within a modelling framework, and to develop practical skills in developing and using computational models, and in computer data analysis and visualisation. Examples are focused on solving practical scientific problems in environmental dynamics and climate change, focussing on modelling the terrestrial carbon and hydrological cycles.

Larsen C Ice Shelf (LCIS): Swansea Glaciology Group has attracted five NERC grants for research into the stability of the Larsen C Ice Shelf (LCIS), Antarctic Peninsula, since 2008, and is currently expanding this research to pan-Antarctic ice shelves. Ice shelves matter because they are first-order controls on the sea level contribution and climate feedbacks from the Antarctic Ice Sheet, providing major physical restraint to the ice streams and glaciers that feed them from the continental interior. When an ice shelf collapses or retreats significantly then that buttressing restraint will decrease and feeder glacier flow speed and thus ice discharge into the ocean and sea level rise increase, and potentially so in the long term. Most notably, following four seasons of fieldwork on the LCIS combined with satellite remote sensing and ice shelf modelling, projects SOLIS (2008-11) and MIDAS (2014-17) asserted that LCIS’s internal structure is highly heterogeneous, and that this complex structure plays a fundamental role in controlling its response to atmospheric and ocean warming in a changing climate. Commencing with project AntShelf2000 (AXA-funded, 2017-18), the Glaciology Group is now striving to identify the pan-Antarctic significance of the many lessons learned at the LCIS since 2008.

‘Outlet glacier and ice shelf dynamics in East Antarctica’ The world’s ice sheet margins are highly dynamic and rapid changes on seasonal or annual time scales are common, although little is currently known about the dynamics of outlet glaciers in East Antarctica, which holds far more sea level potential than West Antarctica and Greenland combined. In collaboration with our Australian and North American colleagues we have initially been elucidating the ice dynamics of the Sørsdal Glacier, a marine-terminating outlet glacier in East Antarctica, and are currently expanding this research to other, much larger, glaciers such as the Denman, Totten and Vanderford Glaciers as well as large ice shelves such as the Amery, West and Shackleton ice shelves. Our in-situ geophysical investigations have so far been focusing on the role of hydrology in forcing the glacier’s flow and meltwater runoff into the Southern Ocean, by delineating the subsurface pathways of water discharge from draining surface lakes, and by identifying whether drainage affects basal lubrication of ice flow. Our current in-situ surveys combine helicopter-borne ground-penetrating radar surveys with passive seismic and electrical geophysical observations. We are now seeking to expand on our work by combining it with satellite observations and numerical modelling to identify the future sensitivity of East Antarctic outlet glaciers to future change. 

CRUCIAL: (Discovering the CRUstal structure beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet and its Control of Ice mass loss And sea Level rise): Basal slip is the dominant mechanism by which glaciers and ice-sheets flow, and is a major source of uncertainty in model simulations of mass loss and sea level rise from the Greenland Ice Sheet. Bedrock geology plays a significant role in the speed of ice flow; particularly basins of sedimentary rocks which are a prerequisite for fast ice streaming on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Thus far the subglacial geology of Greenland has received relatively little attention and as such we do not yet know whether large sedimentary basins are present.

Seismic methods are the tools of choice in probing the internal structure of the Earth with modern passive methodologies capable of generating 3D images of the subsurface. Additionally, rapid advancements in advanced processing techniques of the background noise of the Earth are allowing unprecedented high-resolution images of the upper crust to be generated. Using passive seismic methodologies, the aim of this project is to quantify the relationship between the Greenland Ice Sheet ice flow velocities and the nature of the subglacial geology 

• Impact of deep subglacial groundwater on ice stream flow in West Antarctica (IGIS) 2022 - 2025

  NERC, Standard Grant , with M. J. Siegert, P. Christoffersen, A. M. Smith, A. Brisbourne, A. Luckman and M. Bougamont, (£920K/AUD$1.8M)

• Rift propagation for ice sheet models. NERC 2021 - 2024

  Standard Grant , with Luckman, A., B. Kulessa, S. L. Cornford, E. de Souza Neto, B. Hubbard and S. L. Bevan, £797K/AUD$1.5M

• Rapid Deployment Seismic Recorders for Interdisciplinary Antarctic Research. Australian Research Council (ARC) 2020

  LIEF Grant, with Reading, A., M. A. King, H. Tkalcic, AUD $420K

• Towards an early warning of Antarctic ice sheet collapse from seismology. Australian Research Council (ARC) 2019 - 2021

  Discovery Project, with Reading A., A. Bassom, M. Ritzwoller , AUD $460K

• Sediments and saturation at the ice sheet-bedrock interface from passive seismology. Australian Department of Environment and Energy, Antarctic Science Grant 2019 - 2020

  , with Reading, A. , AUD $114K

• The Future of Thwaites Glacier and its Contribution to Sea-level Rise’ 2018 - 2024

  Ground geophysics survey of Thwaites Glacier. NSF(PLR)-NERC Program, with Anandakrishnan, S. (US-PI), A. M. Smith (UK-PI) and Co-PIs from UK , £342K/AUD$665K

• Discovering the CRUstal structure beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet and its Control of Ice mass loss And sea Level rise (CRUCIAL) 2018 - 2021

  Welsh Government Sêr Cymru II Fellowship , with Jones, G. A. (Fellow) and B. Kulessa (PI), £204K/AUD$397K

• Ice shelf stress response to large iceberg calving. NERC 2017 - 2018

  Urgency Grant , with Booth, A. D., A. Luckman, S. Cornford, B. Kulessa and J. White, £65K/AUD$126K

• Realising the natural capital of Welsh Peatlands 2017 - 2020

  Welsh Government Sustainable Management Scheme , with Froyd, C., S. Doerr, N. Kljun, B. Kulessa, N. J. Loader, P. J. Neyland, L. J. Roberts and E. U, £108K/AUD$210K

• Realising the natural capital of Welsh Peatlands. 2017 - 2019

  AXA Postdoctoral Fellowship, with Thompson, S. S. (Fellow), B. Kulessa (PI) and A. Luckman. , £104K/AUD$202K

• Professor of Geophysics and Glaciology, Swansea University

  2016 - Present

• Reader in Geophysics and Glaciology, Swansea University

  2011 - 2016

• Senior Lecture, School of the Environment and Society, Swansea University

  2005 - 2011

• Lecturer, Environmental Engineering Research Centre, School of Civil Engineering, Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland

  2002 - 2005

• Assistant Professor, Geoscience Department, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, USA

  2000 - 2002

• Postdoctoral Scientist in Hydrogeophysics, ICG-IV, Research Centre Jülich, Germany

  1999 - 2000

• Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education Teaching, School of Education, Queen’s University Belfast, UK.

  2002 - 2003

• Ph.D. in Glacier Geophysics, Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, University of Wales Aberystwyth, UK

  1995 - 1999

• Research Assistant in Hydrogeophysics, Department of Environmental Science, Lancaster University, UK

  1994 - 1995

• German Diplom in Geophysics, University of Kiel, Germany (Main dissertation at The National University of Ireland, Galway)

  1990 - 1994

• Adjunct Professor, University of Tasmania, Australia

  2019 - Present

• Deputy Head (Research), Swansea University

  2019 - Present

• Director of Research , Swansea University

  2015 - 2019