Professor Hilmar Gudmundsson

I’m interested in the processes controlling the flow of glaciers and ice sheets. I’m fascinated by how complex the behaviour of large ice masses can be, how glaciers respond to external changes in the environment, and how they in turn affect the environment around them.

I’m a physicist by background and my research takes a combined observational, numerical and theoretical approach to understand the processes governing the behaviour of glaciers.

I lead the Peak of Research Excellence The Future of Ice on Earth which is the UK’s largest group focusing on physical modelling of large ice sheets such as the Greenland and the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Of particular research interest is the possibility of abrupt changes in the cryosphere and the onset of unstable glacier retreat processes such as the Marine Ice Sheet Instability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and the Surface Elevation Mass balance Instability primarily associated with the Greenland Ice Sheet.

I'm currently involved with several large NSF, NERC and EU research projects: 

• TPACCs: Tipping Point in the Antarctic Climate Components, funded by the European Union.
• Protect: Projecting Sea-Level Rise: From Ice Sheets to Local Implications, funded by the European Union.
•  PROPHET: PROcesses, drivers, Prediction: modeling the History and Evolution of Thwaites, as a part of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration project, funded by NSF/NERC.
• OCEAN:ICE  Ocean-Cryospheric Exchanges in ANarctica: Impacts on Climate and the Earth System. Funded by the European Union
• PRECISE: PREdicting Changes in Ice Sheets on Earth, funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation

• Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
• Modelling the sensitivity of ice loss to calving front retreat rates in the Amundsen Sea Embayment, West Antarctica, Barnes, J., Gudmundsson, G., Goldberg, D., Sun, S. 29 Jan 2026, In: The Cryosphere
• On the theoretical limitations of joint inversion for basal slipperiness and effective viscosity in ice-flow models, Schelpe, C., Gudmundsson, G. 11 Sep 2026, In: The Cryosphere
• The potential of Marine Ice Cliff Instability for Amundsen Sea glaciers revisited, Sun, S., Gudmundsson, G. 2026, In: Annals of Glaciology
• Calibrated sea level contribution from the Amundsen Sea sector, West Antarctica, under RCP8.5 and Paris 2C scenarios, Rosier, S., Gudmundsson, G., Jenkins, A., Naughten, K. 14 Jul 2025, In: The Cryosphere
• Calving rate linearly dependent on sub-aerial terminus cliff height at tidewater glaciers around the Antarctic Peninsula, Parsons, R., Sun, S., Gudmundsson, G. 23 Jun 2025, In: Annals of Glaciology
• Coupling framework (1.0) for the Úa (2023b) ice sheet model and the FESOM-1.4 z-coordinate ocean model in an Antarctic domain, Richter, O., Timmermann, R., Gudmundsson, H., De Rydt, J. 19 May 2025, In: Geoscientific Model Development
• Nonlinear regime of radially spreading extensional flows. Part 1. Newtonian fluids, Stern, L., Gudmundsson, H., Sayag, R. 25 Nov 2025, In: Journal of Fluid Mechanics
• Evolution of the Antarctic Ice Sheet Over the Next Three Centuries From an ISMIP6 Model Ensemble, Seroussi, H., Pelle, T., Lipscomb, W., Abe‐Ouchi, A., Albrecht, T., Alvarez‐Solas, J., Asay‐Davis, X., Barre, J., Berends, C., Bernales, J., Blasco, J., Caillet, J., Chandler, D., Coulon, V., Cullather, R., Dumas, C., Galton‐Fenzi, B., Garbe, J., Gillet‐Chaulet, F., Gladstone, R., Goelzer, H., Golledge, N., Greve, R., Gudmundsson, G., Han, H., Hillebrand, T., Hoffman, M., Huybrechts, P., Jourdain, N., Klose, A., Langebroek, P., Leguy, G., Lowry, D., Mathiot, P., Montoya, M., Morlighem, M., Nowicki, S., Pattyn, F., Payne, A., Quiquet, A., Reese, R., Robinson, A., Saraste, L., Simon, E., Sun, S., Twarog, J., Trusel, L., Urruty, B., Van Breedam, J., van de Wal, R., Wang, Y., Zhao, C., Zwinger, T. 4 Sep 2024, In: Earth's Future
• Melt sensitivity of irreversible retreat of Pine Island Glacier, Reed, B., Green, J., Jenkins, A., Gudmundsson, G. 7 Oct 2024, In: The Cryosphere
• Numerical stabilization methods for level-set-based ice front migration, Cheng, G., Morlighem, M., Gudmundsson, G. 22 Aug 2024, In: Geoscientific Model Development

• Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
• NSFGEO-NERC: Collaborative Research: A new mechanistic framework for modeling rift processes in Antarctic ice shelves validated through improved strain-rate and seismic observations, Gudmundsson, H. (Principal Investigator), Natural Environment Research Council, 11/01/21 - 10/01/24, 0.00
• Ocean Forcing of Ice Sheet Evolution Beyond West Antarctica, Jenkins, A. (Principal Investigator), Gudmundsson, H. (Co Investigator), Natural Environment Research Council, 01/10/20 - 30/09/24, £657,760.00
• PROTECT, Gudmundsson, H. (Principal Investigator), European Commission, 01/09/20 - 31/08/24, 0.00
• Tipping Points in Antarctic Climate Components (TiPACCs), Gudmundsson, H. (Principal Investigator), European Commission, 01/08/19 - 31/05/23, £742,029.00
• Newton Fund: PhD Placement programme between the United Kingdom and China - Teng Li, Gudmundsson, H. (Principal Investigator), British Council, 01/04/19 - 31/03/20, 0.00
• NSFPLR-NERC: Processes, drivers, predictions: Modeling the response of Thwaites Glacier over the next century using, Gudmundsson, H. (Principal Investigator), Natural Environment Research Council, 01/12/18 - 30/11/23, £774,574.00
• Assessing the sensitivity of major East Antarctic outlet glaciers to recent and future changes in the ocean-climate system, Gudmundsson, H. (Principal Investigator), Natural Environment Research Council, 01/03/18 - 28/02/21, £380,061.00
• Ice shelves in a warming world: Filchner Ice Shelf system, Antarctica, Gudmundsson, H. (Principal Investigator), Natural Environment Research Council, 05/02/18 - 31/03/20, £330,637.00

• Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
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