The Ice & Ocean Group is a research group in the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia focused on glacier and ice sheet behavior, subglacial environments, and ice-ocean interactions. The distinct sediments and landforms preserved in deglaciated terrains allow us to track past and current glacial system change, as well as glacial and marine processes. 

Funding for our research comes from the NSF Office of Polar Programs, International Union for Quaternary Research, UVA H.G. Goodell Endowment, and UVA Committee on Sustainability. We propose the research questions and activities, and funders decide to, well, fund us or not. 

Assistant Professor in the
Department of Environmental Sciences
University of Virginia | Principal Investigator (PI) of the Ice & Ocean Group

For thousands of years, the people of the Monacan Nation, have lived on, protected and cultivated the lands on which the University of Virginia, built on colonized land by enslaved laborers, stands. As ancient peoples who thrive today, we acknowledge and respect their stewardship of the land past, present, and future. 

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Latest publications

Exceptions to bed-controlled ice sheet flow and retreat
from glaciated continental margins worldwide, published by Science Advances in 2021. 

Revealing the former bed of Thwaites Glacier using sea-floor bathymetry, published by The Cryosphere in 2020.

Foraminiferal patterns in deglacial sediment in the western Ross Sea, Antarctica: life near grounding lines, published Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology in 2020.

Timing and pathways of East Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat, published in Quaternary Science Reviews in 2020. 

What we are reading

Quick reads:

• Hidden Curriculum, on the unwritten rules of academic culture by the the Great Schools Partnership.
• “Safe fieldwork strategies for at-risk individuals, their supervisors and institutions” by Demery and Pipkin (2002) in Nature Ecology and Evolution.

Longer reads:

• Last Glacial Maximum to Holocene paleoceanography of Ross Sea, an article by Melis et al. (2021) in the Journal of Micropalaeontology. 

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Archived readings.

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Let's talk! We are happy to talk with you about research, technical skills, datasets, and more. Email lsimkins at virginia.edu to contact Dr. Simkins or to ask for the email address of the group member you wish to contact.

The Ice & Ocean Group does not plan to recruit new graduate students during the 2022-2023 academic year. Regardless, we are happy to steer you toward graduate opportunities elsewhere. Check out this great resource to help you in the graduate school application process.

If you are looking for postdoctoral research opportunities, are eligible to apply for the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs (NSF OPP) Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, and are interested in our research, please contact Dr. Simkins to determine if we are research-compatible. Dr. Simkins would determine if your proposal idea is novel and feasible, review the proposal documents, and write a letter of collaboration as the supervising researcher.