Dan is actively recruiting for a postdoc and graduate students to join this new research group!
Dr. Dan Lowry (CV) (Google Scholar)
Dan recently joined the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science as an Assistant Professor in Geological Oceanography, with expertise in ice sheet and paleoclimate modeling. His research is aimed at understanding how ice sheets interact with the ocean, atmosphere, and Earth’s crust, and how these system interactions impact the global sea level and climate system.
Before joining USF in 2025, Dan was a Senior Scientist at GNS Science (now Earth Sciences New Zealand). At GNS, Dan co-led the Antarctic Science Platform’s Antarctic Ice Dynamics (AID) programme, a NZ government-funded research programme to investigate how Antarctic Ice Sheet dynamics will change in a Paris Target world of 2°C above preindustrial. AID accomplished a number of scientific achievements, including obtaining new observations of past and present ice-ocean interactions at the Kamb Ice Stream grounding zone, and the development of fully coupled ice sheet-sea level, ice sheet-ocean, and atmosphere-ocean models. The team’s work directly contributed to a national guidance for sea level rise in New Zealand.
Prior to GNS, Dan completed his PhD at Victoria University of Wellington’s Antarctic Research Centre, working with Nick Golledge and Nancy Bertler. For his PhD, he used data from ice cores, marine sediments, and cosmogenic geochronology records to develop and refine models of deglaciation in the Ross Embayment of Antarctica. Before moving to New Zealand, Dan grew up in the Philadelphia area and completed his BSc in Geology at Brown University and MSc in Earth & Environmental Science at the University of Michigan. He is a former elite track and field runner and competed in the US Olympic Trials in the 5000m in 2012, and placed in the top 10 at two USA championships.
External affiliated students
Vincent Charnay
Vincent is a PhD candidate at Victoria University of Wellington. He completed his BSc in Physics at Sorbonne University and MSc in Climate Science at Lyon University in France. Before moving to New Zealand, Vincent joined the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science at the University of Leeds in the UK as a research assistant in climate dynamics for one year. In 2023, Vincent joined the Antarctic Research Centre at Victoria University of Wellington as a PhD student. His research mainly focuses on using an ice sheet model to investigate the effect of future extreme events on the surface mass balance of the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS), aiming to demonstrate the potential influence of extreme events on the 21st-century AIS contribution to sea level.
Jack Williams
Jack is a Masters student at Victoria University of Wellington. He completed his undergraduate study in 2023 with a BCom in public policy and BSc majoring in environmental science and physical geography. Jack has begun working at Land Information New Zealand as a geospatial specialist where he works with regional scale LiDAR and Aerial Imagery as an early career scientist. His Masters research focuses on using ice sheet models to understand the influence of subglacial bed topography on ice sheet dynamics in the Ross embayment, to better understand the relationship between ice, ocean and solid earth processes on the Antarctic ice sheet.
Past students
Natalie Trayling – Victoria University of Wellington, MSc (2022) – Current: Science Advisor at Climate Change Commission (New Zealand)
Katie O’Leary – Brown University undergraduate SPRINT Fellowship (2020) – Current: Data Scientist at RPM