Congratulations Dr Bryony Freer! – SENSE – Centre for Satellite Data in Environmental Science

Bryony joined NERC SENSE CDT on 1st October 2020 and completed her PhD at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) as a University of Leeds registered student. Her research focused on the use of satellite altimetry to improve understanding of the dynamics of Antarctic grounding zones, supervised by Dr Oliver Marsh, Prof. Anna Hogg and Prof. Helen A. Fricker.

The Sir David Attenborough ship floating on an iceberg filled ocean. Photo credit: Drone picture taken by Joe Laurance

Bryony was awarded her PhD in July 2024 and—just three days after her viva—joined the RRS Sir David Attenborough on her maiden voyage to the Arctic. During the 6-week KANG-GLAC cruise to the fjords of south-east Greenland, Bryony was part of the physical oceanography team. Her responsibilities included running CTD casts to measure ocean properties in and around the fjords, and processing the continuous weather, oceanographic and seafloor data collected by the ship’s instruments. The primary goal of the cruise was to gather data to better understand the interactions between the flows of warm water into the fjords and rates of glacier melt, and the resulting impact on marine productivity, sedimentation and nutrient cycling.

Bryony and colleague stood on the ship with CTD being lowered into the ocean in the background. Photo credit: Bryony Freer.

Polar bear walking on sea ice floating in the ocean. Photo credit: Bryony Freer.

A highlight of the cruise (alongside seeing polar bears and orcas for the first time!) was Bryony’s coordination of a live ‘Meet the Scientist’ workshop. This interactive session, organized in collaboration with SatSchool and Dynamic Earth, reached over 4,000 pupils across Scotland, offering them a first hand glimpse into life as a polar scientist. The event also featured a video Bryony created to showcase the team’s activities during the research cruise, which you can watch here:

Video about Greenland at Bryony’s meet the scientist workshop.

In October 2024, Bryony took the next step in her career by moving to San Diego to start a Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellowship at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. This two-year fellowship allows her to continue her pioneering research on Antarctic grounding zones, benefiiting from advanced training and application of artificial intelligence methods.

Bryony stood by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography sign.

To learn more about Bryony’s work, check out her two PhD publications in The Cryosphere and Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface.