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Greg Leonard profileBS (1995), MS (1998), PhD (2001) (Clarkson University), MEngNZ

Email greg.leonard@otago.ac.nz
Tel  +64 3 479 5075
Room 119, 1st floor, Surveying Building, 310 Castle Street

Profile

I am a civil engineer who studies how Antarctic sea ice affects and is affected by its environment.  I also use remote sensing and geospatial tools to investigate both the icy world of Antarctica and and the civil engineering infrastructure of our urban communities.  I am fortunate to be involved in ongoing field studies in Antarctica, which has seen me routinely travel to Antarctica since 2010 with my colleagues from the Department of Physics, the University of Canterbury and NIWA.  I also have the great pleasure of working with a number of postgraduate students from both the School of Surveying and the Department of Physics. My primary roles in the School of Surveying are leading the delivery of the civil engineering portion of the curriculum, establishing and maintaining links with the civil engineering industry and maintaining an active research profile in Antarctic sea ice and urban engineering infrastructure.  I joined the School of Surveying in 2008 and I am currently the chair of the undergraduate teaching committee, lead the course advising team and serve on the marketing committee.

Teaching

Research Interests

  • Antarctic sea ice
  • Antarctic ice-ocean interactions
  • Remote sensing of the cryosphere
  • Polar geophysics
  • Urban engineering infrastructure

Projects

Some Current Projects

Some Completed Projects

  • Marsden Fund: Supercooling measurements under ice shelves
  • Deep South National Science Challenge: Targeted observations and process-informed modelling on Antarctic sea ice
  • New Zealand Antarctic Research Institute: Vulnerability of the Ross Ice Shelf in a warming world
  • Marsden Fund: The freezing of land-fast sea ice during the Antarctic winter

Supervision

Current Research Students

  • Nina Caldarella
  • Antonia Radlwimmer
  • Phyo Thu
  • Ifeoma Ukonze

Recent Research Students

  • Maren Richter
  • Taren McLeod
  • Eamon Frazer

Publications

Brett, G. M., Leonard, G. H., Rack, W., Haas, C., Langhorne, P. J., Robinson, N. J., & Irvin, A. (2024). Seasonal and diurnal variability of sub-ice platelet layer thickness in McMurdo Sound from electromagnetic induction sounding. Cryosphere, 18, 3049-3066. doi: 10.5194/tc-18-3049-2024 Journal - Research Article

Wille, J. D., Alexander, S. P., Amory, C., Baiman, R., Barthélemy, L., Bergstrom, D. M., … Leonard, G. H., … Zou, X. (2024). The extraordinary March 2022 East Antarctica “heat” wave: Part I: Observations and meteorological drivers. Journal of Climate, 37(3), 757-778. doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-23-0176.1 Journal - Research Article

Wille, J. D., Alexander, S. P., Amory, C., Baiman, R., Barthélemy, L., Bergstrom, D. M., … Leonard, G. H., … Zou, X. (2024). The extraordinary March 2022 East Antarctica “heat” wave: Part II: Impacts on the Antarctic ice sheet. Journal of Climate, 37(3), 779-799. doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-23-0176.1 Journal - Research Article

Fraser, A. D., Wongpan, P., Langhorne, P. J., Klekociuk, A. R., Kusahara, K., Lannuzel, D., … Leonard, G. H., Mahoney, A. R., … Wienecke, B. (2023). Antarctic landfast sea ice: A review of its physics, biogeochemistry and ecology. Reviews of Geophysics, 61, e2022RG000770. doi: 10.1029/2022RG000770 Journal - Research Article

Langhorne, P. J., Haas, C., Price, D., Rack, W., Leonard, G. H., Brett, G. M., & Urbini, S. (2023). Fast ice thickness distribution in the Western Ross Sea in late spring. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1029/2022JC019459 Journal - Research Article

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