Interdisciplinary Fellow
- About
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- Email Address
- william.harcourt@abdn.ac.uk
- Office Address
- School/Department
- School of Geosciences
Biography
Will Harcourt is an Interdisciplinary Fellow at the University of Aberdeen leading the development of digital twin technology applied to the Arctic cryosphere. He graduated from the University of Exeter with a 1st Class Honours degree in Geography before moving to the University of Edinburgh to study for a MSc in Geographical Information Science (GIS). Between 2017 and 2018, he was a Research Assistant at Edinburgh Napier University, leading the first ever national scale analysis of seagrass change in the world. In 2022, he completed a PhD at the University of St Andrews where he developed millimetre-wave radar as a tool for mapping and monitoring glaciers. He then joined the University of Aberdeen in 2022 as a Lecturer before starting the interdisciplinary research fellowship in 2023.
Will's research interests span across multiple disciplines, including glaciology, remote sensing & Earth Observation, data science, artificial intelligence, Arctic science and many more. He works across several international organisations such as the Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS) and the Scottish Alliance for Geoscience, Environment and Society (SAGES), amongst others before. Through these roles, he builds new community tools, organises webinars & workshops and develops future science strategies/priorities. Will also leaves the office to work in the field and has led and participated in several expeditions to locations such as Svalbard, Iceland, the European Alps, the Scottish Highlands and locally within the UK.
Qualifications
- BSc Geography2016 - University of Exeter
- MSc Geographical Information Science (GIS)2017 - University of Edinburgh
- PhD Physics2022 - University of St Andrews
External Memberships
- European Geosciences Union (EGU)
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Royal Geographical Society (RGS)
- Remote Sensing & Photogrammetry Society (RSPSoc)
- Research
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Research Overview
My research is highly interdisciplinary and covers subject areas in geographical sciences, computer sciences, physics and more! My research can be grouped into three main area:
Glaciology
- Glacier Dynamics: Processes influencing ice flow and its changes in a warming climate.
- Ice-Ocean Interactions: The process of iceberg calving and its contribution to mass loss across the Arctic.
- Arctic: I environments across the Arctic, particularly in Greenland and Svalbard, with a focus on glaciers and their interactions with the surrounding environment (terrestrial, marine, atmosphere)
Data Science/AI
- Digital Twins: Developing digital twins for chaotic environment systems such as glaciers (e.g. Svalbard, the Greenland Ice Sheet)
- Machine learning: Application of Artificial Intelligence (e.g. Machine Learning and Deep Learning) to study environmental systems (e.g. glaciers), often using remote sensing data.
- Observing Systems: Construction of inter-connected systems to observe environmental processes and document their changes over time.
- Data Science and Statistics: Development of data processing/analysis techniques for understanding environmental systems, error/uncertainty in environmental data.
Remote Sensing/Earth Observation (EO)
- Remote Sensing: Development of different sensors and techniques for mapping/monitoring environmental systems, particularly glaciers.
- Earth Observation: Harnessing large-scale satellite data for regional/global analysis of the Earth system.
- Database: Cataloguing available data for environmental research, particularly across the cryosphere.
Research Areas
Accepting PhDs
I am currently accepting PhDs in Geography and Environment, Computing Science.
Please get in touch if you would like to discuss your research ideas further.
Geography and Environment
Accepting PhDsComputing Science
Accepting PhDsResearch Specialisms
- Glaciology and Cryospheric Systems
- Machine Learning
- Remote Sensing
Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is HESA open data, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
Funding and Grants
Selected grants awarded as PI or Co-I from 2019 are listed below.
[2024] (PI) £500 – SAGES Small Grant Scheme (SSGS): Understanding the drivers of surge activation at Borebreen in Svalbard.
[2024] (Co-I) £15,000 – SIOS SESS Report: Surging glaciers in Svalbard: Current knowledge and perspectives for monitoring (SvalSurge).
[2023] (Co-I) £1,700 (EUR2,000) – IASC: APECS Social Event at ASSW 2024, Edinburgh.
[2023] (Co-I) £2,000 – SAGES Fora: Earth System Modelling & Artificial Intelligence (Earth-MAI).
[2023] (Co-I) £12,102.02 – Research Council of Norway: Diversity & Data – Shaping the Future of Polar Research.
[2023] (PI) £3,500 – Aberdeen Internal Pump-Priming: Comprehensive mapping of glacier discharge using 4D spatio-temporal generative AI modelling.
[2023] (PI) £8,500 – Arctic Field Grant: Linking past and present surge dynamics at Borebreen from drone surveys.
[2023] (PI) £9,600 (In-Kind) – Access to ICEYE Imagery through European Space Agency (ESA):): Assessing tidewater glacier stability using high-resolution ICEYE data.
[2023] (PI) £260,000 (In-Kind) – Access to Planet Imagery through Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS): Drivers of Surge Activation at Borebreen using Planet Imagery.
[2023] (Co-I) £260,000 (In-Kind) – Access to Planet Imagery through Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS): Comprehensive Inventory of Glacier Facies in Svalbard using Planet Satellite Constellations.
[2023] (Co-I) £260,000 (In-Kind) – Access to Planet Imagery through Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS): Hansbreen’s Seismicity.
[2023] (PI) £10,000 – RGS Walters Kundert Fellowship: Uncovering the drivers of glacier surges using geophysics & physics-informed AI.
[2023] (PI) £750 – SAGES Small Grant Scheme (SSGS): Understanding the Drivers of Surge Activation at Borebreen in Svalbard.
[2023] (PI) £15,000 – Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS): Drivers of Surge Activation at Borebreen.
[2022] (PI) £700 – VALIDATE Funding: EGU Conference Attendance.
[2021] (PI) $1,000 – AGU Flash Freeze Competition: Story from the fieldwork on Svalbard facilitated by SIOS infrastructure.
[2021] (PI) EUR3,000 – ENVRI User Story Competition Winner: Story from the fieldwork on Svalbard facilitated by SIOS infrastructure.
[2021] (PI) £1,750 – SAGES International Collaboration Scheme (SICS): Developing high-resolution radar satellites for glaciology studies.
[2021] (PI) £2000 – Royal Geographical Society (RGS) Postgraduate Research Awards (Supported by the Geographical Club Award and Dudley Stamp Memorial Award): Measuring and monitoring glacier calving in Svalbard using a multi-sensor approach.
[2020] (PI) £500 – British Geophysical Association (BGA) Gray-Milne Travel Bursary: Mapping snow cover in the Scottish Highlands.
[2020] (PI) £2,500 – SAGES Small Grant Scheme (SSGS): Radar monitoring of Calving at Hansbreen.
[2020] (PI) £700 – University of St Andrews St Leonards Mobility Grant: Radar Monitoring of Calving at Hansbreen.
[2019] (PI) £7,184.60 – Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS): Radar monitoring of Calving at Hansbreen.
[2019] (PI) £2,500 – SAGES Small Grant Scheme (SSGS): Developing the use of mm-wave radar for 3D mapping of glaciers.
- Publications
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Page 1 of 2 Results 1 to 10 of 18
Exploring Segment Anything Foundation Models for Out of Domain Crevasse Drone Image Segmentation
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Conference ProceedingsStructural weaknesses in ice mélange revealed by high resolution ICEYE SAR imagery
Working Papers: Preprint Papers- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.31223/X5X138
Automated Crevasse Mapping Using Deep Learning Foundation Models to Analyse Climate Change and Glaciology
Contributions to Conferences: Oral Presentations- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-12922
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/23353/1/EGU24-12922-print.pdf
Surge initiation at the terminus of Borebreen (Svalbard): Drivers and impact on calving
Contributions to Conferences: Oral Presentations- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-1505
3D terrain mapping and filtering from coarse resolution data cubes extracted from real-aperture 94 GHz radar
IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 62, 5102218Contributions to Journals: Articles94 GHz Radar Backscatter Characteristics of Alpine Glacier Ice
Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 50, no. 21, e2023GL104721Contributions to Journals: ArticlesHansbreen’s calving-driven ice loss derived from seismic data supported by millimetre-wave radar scans and neural networks
EGU General Assembly 2022, pp. EGU22-4179Contributions to Conferences: AbstractsWhere to fish in the forest?: Tree characteristics and contiguous seagrass features predict mangrove forest quality for fishes and crustaceans
Journal of Applied Ecology, vol. 60, no. 7, pp. 1340-1351Contributions to Journals: ArticlesGlacier monitoring using real-aperture 94 GHz radar
Annals of Glaciology, vol. 63, no. 87-89, pp. 116-120Contributions to Journals: ArticlesAssessment of ice mélange impacts on tidewater glacier dynamics using high resolution ICEYE imagery
Contributions to Conferences: Oral Presentations