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School of Geosciences

Dr William Harcourt

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Dr William Harcourt
Dr William Harcourt
Dr William Harcourt

Interdisciplinary Fellow

Accepting PhDs

About
Email Address
william.harcourt@abdn.ac.uk
Office Address
Room 111 St. Mary's Building
Old Aberdeen Campus
Elphinstone Road
AB24 3UF

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School/Department
School of Geosciences
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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 Geography 
    2016 - University of Exeter 
  • MSc Geographical Information Science (GIS) 
    2017 - University of Edinburgh 
  • PhD Physics 
    2022 - University of St Andrews 

External Memberships

  • European Geosciences Union (EGU)
  • Royal Geographical Society (RGS)
  • Scottish Alliance for Geoscience, Society and Society (SAGES)
  • Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS)
Research

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.

Email Me

Geography and Environment

Accepting PhDs
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Computing Science

Accepting PhDs
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Research 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.

Supervision

Supervisees

  • MR STEVEN WALLACE
  • MR JACOB SESTON

Funding and Grants

A full list of successful grants as PI or Co-I from 2019 can be found here: https://williamharcourt.co.uk/grants/

 

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