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Professor in the Department of Geography+44 (0) 191 33 41955

Biography

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.

Professor Chris Stokes at the Bonn Climate Conference in June 2025

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 supports Oldham Athletic football club.

The third year Arctic fieldtrip to northern Norway (Sept 2023)
Former PhD Students
  • Emma Carr (2025): The response of marine-terminating outlet glaciers in northwestern Greenland to recent climate change
  • Oliver Hall (2025): Investigating the seasonal behaviour of tidewater glaciers in southeast Greenland
  • Greta Ferloni (2024): Cryomobilities: Vessel mobilities amidst the ice-prone waters of the Bering Strait
  • Jennifer Arthur (2022): Satellite remote sensing of supraglacial lakes in East Antarctica
  • Laura Seddon (2022): Measurement, knowledge, and representation: a sociological study of Arctic sea-ice science
  • Mihaela Newton (2022): The origin of bedrock mega-grooves in glaciated terrain
  • Joshua Leigh (2022): Fluctuations of mountain glaciers in northern Norway throughout the Holocene
  • Arminel Lovell (2021): Explaining recent heterogeneous glacier change in the Annapurna Conservation Area, central Himalayas
  • Emily Hill (2020): The past and future impact of ice tongue loss on outlet glaciers in northern Greenland
  • Bertie Miles (2017): The patterns and drivers of recent outlet glacier change in East Antarctica
  • Hannah Bickerdike (2017): The glacial geomorphology of the Loch Lomond (Younger Dryas) Stadial in Britain
  • Christopher Darvill (2015): The nature and timing of glaciation in southermost South America.
  • Rachel Carr (2014): Ice-ocean-atmosphere interactions in the Arctic Seas.
  • Robert Storrar (2014): Reconstructing subglacial meltwater dynamics from the spatial and temporal variation in the form and pattern of eskers.
  • Andrew Turner (2013): Deglaciation of the Great Glen, Scotland: reconstructed from geophysical surveys and landform mapping.
  • Philip Prescott (2013): Quantifying subglacial roughness and its link to glacial geomorphology and ice speed.
  • Heather Channon (2012): Multi-scale analysis of the landforms and sediments of palaeo-ice streams.
  • Victoria Brown (2012): Ice stream dynamics at the north-western margin of the Laurentide Ice Sheet.
  • Katie Grant (2010): Changes in glacier extent since the Little Ice Age and links to 20th/21st Century climatic variability on Novaya Zemlya, Russian Arctic.

Esteem Indicators

  • 2021: Green Gown Award (UK & Ireland): “Green Gown Awards provide the sector with inspiration and benchmarks for climate and wider sustainability excellence”. This was awarded for a Virtual Fieldtrip project that won the Enterprise category, which "recognises social, social media and sustainable enterprise as key ingredients of contemporary education to ensure a supply of education leavers who can rise to the 21st Century’s economic, environmental and social challenges”.
  • 2016: Durham University ‘Excellence in Doctoral Supervision Award’: “The purpose of these awards is to promote, recognise and reward excellence in doctoral supervision. The award will be made to members of the University's staff who can demonstrate excellence in the supervision of doctoral students, including those studying for the PhD, professional doctorates, and the PhD with integrated studies”
  • 2013: British Society for Geomorphology Gordon Warwick Award: “Awarded for excellence in geomorphological research by someone within 15 years of being awarded their doctorate
  • 2009: British Society for Geomorphology Wiley Award: Awarded for the best paper published in the international journal 'Earth Surface Processes and Landforms'
  • 2009: Philip Leverhulme Prize: Awarded to outstanding scholars or practitioners (normally under the age of 36) who have made a substantial and recognised contribution to their particular field of study, recognised at an international level, and whose future contributions are held to be of correspondingly high promise

Publications

Chapter in book

Journal Article

Other (Print)

  • Ice cores.
    Stokes, C. (2008). Ice cores (pp. 8-11). Physics Review.
  • Glaciers.
    Stokes, C. (2007). Glaciers (pp. 2-5). Physics Review.

Supervision students