• 2023-ongoing Deputy Science Leader for Ice Dynamics and Palaeoclimate (IDP).
• 2010- present Ice sheet modeller, British Antarctic Survey
• 2005-09 PhD University of Glasgow, Department of Mathematics. Title: “Pattern formation and hydrogen production in suspensions of swimming green algae”. Date awarded: December, 2009.
• BSc (First Class) in Mathematics, University College London, 2002-2005.

Research interests

I am an ice sheet modeller specialising in combining physics-based models with remote and field observations and machine learning. I am motivated by improving projections of future ice loss by bringing together data assimilation and a deeper understanding of the important physical processes within the ice sheets and their interactions with the ocean and atmosphere. I find I am happiest doing this as a team sport, where everyone brings something different to the table. Currently this includes both theoretical and field-going glaciologists and oceanographers, machine learners, statisticians, remote sensing experts, climate modellers and research software engineers.

I work on projects across both the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. I have worked for many years on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, specifically the Amundsen Sea sector, which contains Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers. I am particularly interested in assessing whether Thwaites glacier has already passed a tipping point and what has led to the current state of this enormous glacier. I am the co-lead of work package on Early Warning Systems for the Greenland glaciers as part of the ARIA-funded GIANT project (GIANT Greenland – Investigating how the melting of Greenland’s ice sheet leads to Atlantic climate tipping points). As part of this, I was delighted to have the chance to join the GIANT cruise in south east Greenland in summer 2026, where I was temporarily a ship-based oceanographer. You can read about my personal experiences of swapping idealised rectangular blocks of ice for real-life calving glaciers here: https://bit.ly/RosiesGIANTadventure

I was previously part of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration MELT project and the NERC-funded ENSO-WAIS project, which aims to quantify the retreat of  the West Antarctic Ice Sheet in the context of both anthropogenic change and natural variability. I have also worked on NERC-funded projects to investigate the propagation of ocean-driven ice-shelf thinning and consequences for the interior of Antarctica and global sea level, and on model initialisation as part of  the EU funded ice2sea programme.

I am a mathematician by training and during my PhD I constructed, modifying and evaluated mathematical models of biological systems. Projects I have worked on include modelling the collective swimming behaviour of microorganisms and constructing a dynamical model of hydrogen production from green algae.

Current and recent grants:

(new) Co-Investigator(PI Robert Arthern), IceCrash: exploiting automotive models of viscoelastic friction on self-affine rough surfaces in ice sheet models. NERC Pushing the Frontiers

2025-2030: Co-Investigator and Work Package Lead (PI: Dr Kelly Hogan), Greenland Ice sheet to AtlaNtic Tipping points from ice loss (GIANT),  ARIA Forecasting Tipping Points programme.

2025-2028: Co-Investigator (PI: Dr Robert Arthern), IceDice: Predicting the stochastic behaviour of West Antarctica’s Marine Ice Sheet, NERC Pushing the Frontiers

2024-2028: Co-Investigator and Work Package lead (PI: Professor Tony Payne), Interacting ice Sheet and Ocean Tipping – Indicators, Processes, Impacts and Challenges (ISOTIPIC),  NERC Highlight Topic.

2022-2027: Co-Investigator and Work Package Lead (PI: Dr Louise Sime), SURface FluxEs In AnTarctica (SURFEIT), NC-International.

2021-2022: Co-Investigator (PI: Dr Scott Hosking), Towards an Antarctic Digital Twin for instantaneous decision-making . NERC feasibility study (5 months),

2019-2024: Co-Investigator (PI: Dr Robert Arthern), West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat in the context of ENSO variability (ENSO-WAIS), NERC Standard Grant.

2018-2025: (PIs: Dr Keith Nicholls and Professor David Holland) Melting at Thwaites grounding zone and its control on sea level, International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (ITGC-MELT). NSF/NERC.

Publications from NERC Open Research Archive

2026

Williams, C. Rosie ORCID record for Williams, C. Rosie. Trevers, Matt. Sun, Sainan. Holland, Paul R. ORCID record for Holland, Paul R.. Bett, David T. ORCID record for Bett, David T.. Arthern, Robert J. ORCID record for Arthern, Robert J.. Bradley, Alexander T. (2026) Mass Loss From Thwaites Glacier Continues Even Without Ocean Melting.

Bradley, Alexander T. ORCID record for Bradley, Alexander T.. Bett, David T. ORCID record for Bett, David T.. Williams, C. Rosie ORCID record for Williams, C. Rosie. Arthern, Robert J. ORCID record for Arthern, Robert J.. Holland, Paul R. ORCID record for Holland, Paul R.. Byrne, James ORCID record for Byrne, James. Edwards, Tamsin L. ORCID record for Edwards, Tamsin L.. Adhikari, Mira. (2026) Detection and attribution of the role of anthropogenic climate change in industrial-era retreat of Pine Island Glacier.

Hank, Kevin. Arthern, Robert J. ORCID record for Arthern, Robert J.. Williams, C. Rosie ORCID record for Williams, C. Rosie. Brisbourne, Alex M. ORCID record for Brisbourne, Alex M.. Smith, Andrew M. ORCID record for Smith, Andrew M.. Smith, James A. ORCID record for Smith, James A.. Wåhlin, Anna. Anandakrishnan, Sridhar. (2026) Inferring the ice sheet sliding law from seismic observations: A Pine Island Glacier case study.

2025

Williams, C. Rosie ORCID record for Williams, C. Rosie. Thodoroff, Pierre. Arthern, Robert J. ORCID record for Arthern, Robert J.. Byrne, James ORCID record for Byrne, James. Hosking, J. Scott ORCID record for Hosking, J. Scott. Kaiser, Markus. Lawrence, Neil D. Kazlauskaite, Ieva. (2025) Calculations of extreme sea level rise scenarios are strongly dependent on ice sheet model resolution.

2024

Bradley, Alexander T. ORCID record for Bradley, Alexander T.. Arthern, Robert J. ORCID record for Arthern, Robert J.. Bett, David T. ORCID record for Bett, David T.. Williams, C. Rosie ORCID record for Williams, C. Rosie. Byrne, James ORCID record for Byrne, James. (2024) WAVI.jl: Ice Sheet Modelling in Julia.

Bradley, Alexander T. ORCID record for Bradley, Alexander T.. Bett, David T. ORCID record for Bett, David T.. Holland, Paul R. ORCID record for Holland, Paul R.. Williams, C. Rosie ORCID record for Williams, C. Rosie. Arthern, Robert J. ORCID record for Arthern, Robert J.. De Rydt, Jan. (2024) A framework for estimating the anthropogenic part of Antarctica’s sea level contribution in a synthetic setting.

2023

Bett, David T. ORCID record for Bett, David T.. Bradley, Alexander T. ORCID record for Bradley, Alexander T.. Williams, C. Rosie ORCID record for Williams, C. Rosie. Holland, Paul R. ORCID record for Holland, Paul R.. Arthern, Robert J. ORCID record for Arthern, Robert J.. Goldberg, Daniel N. (2023) Coupled ice–ocean interactions during future retreat of West Antarctic ice streams in the Amundsen Sea sector.

2022

Bradley, Alexander T. ORCID record for Bradley, Alexander T.. Williams, C. Rosie ORCID record for Williams, C. Rosie. Jenkins, Adrian. Arthern, Robert ORCID record for Arthern, Robert. (2022) Asymptotic analysis of subglacial plumes in stratified environments.

2020

Cornford, Stephen L. Seroussi, Helene. Asay-Davis, Xylar S. Gudmundsson, G. Hilmar. Arthern, Robert ORCID record for Arthern, Robert. Borstad, Chris. Christmann, Julia. Dias dos Santos, Thiago. Feldmann, Johannes. Goldberg, Daniel. Hoffman, Matthew J. Humbert, Angelika. Kleiner, Thomas. Leguy, Gunter. Lipscomb, William H. Merino, Nacho. Durand, Gaël. Morlighem, Mathieu. Pollard, David. Rückamp, Martin. Williams, C. Rosie ORCID record for Williams, C. Rosie. Yu, Hongju. (2020) Results of the third Marine Ice Sheet Model Intercomparison Project (MISMIP+).

2017

Arthern, Robert J. ORCID record for Arthern, Robert J.. Williams, C. Rosie ORCID record for Williams, C. Rosie. (2017) The sensitivity of West Antarctica to the submarine melting feedback.

2015

Arthern, Robert J. ORCID record for Arthern, Robert J.. Hindmarsh, Richard C.A. ORCID record for Hindmarsh, Richard C.A.. Williams, C. Rosie ORCID record for Williams, C. Rosie. (2015) Flow speed within the Antarctic ice sheet and its controls inferred from satellite observations.

2014

McEwan, W. A. Hauler, F. Williams, C. R. ORCID record for Williams, C. R.. Bidgood, S. R. Mallery, D. L. Crowther, R. A. James, L. C. (2014) Regulation of Virus Neutralization and the Persistent Fraction by TRIM21.

Williams, C. Rosie ORCID record for Williams, C. Rosie. Hindmarsh, Richard C.A. ORCID record for Hindmarsh, Richard C.A.. Arthern, Robert J. ORCID record for Arthern, Robert J.. (2014) Calculating balance velocities with a membrane stress correction.

2013

Williams, C. R. ORCID record for Williams, C. R.. Bees, M. A. (2013) Mechanistic modeling of sulfur-deprived photosynthesis and hydrogen production in suspensions of Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii.

Barrand, Nicholas E. Hindmarsh, Richard C.A. ORCID record for Hindmarsh, Richard C.A.. Arthern, Robert J. ORCID record for Arthern, Robert J.. Williams, C. Rosie ORCID record for Williams, C. Rosie. Mouginot, Jérémie. Scheuchl, Bernd. Rignot, Eric. Ligtenberg, Stefan R.M. Van Den Broeke, Michiel R. Edwards, Tamsin L. Cook, Alison J. Simonsen, Sebastian B. (2013) Computing the volume response of the Antarctic Peninsula ice sheet to warming scenarios to 2200.

2012

Williams, C. Rosie ORCID record for Williams, C. Rosie. Hindmarsh, Richard C.A. ORCID record for Hindmarsh, Richard C.A.. Arthern, Robert J. ORCID record for Arthern, Robert J.. (2012) Frequency response of ice streams.

• Williams, C. R. and Bees, M. A. 2011 Photo-gyrotactic bioconvection, Fluid Mech., 678, 41-86 (doi:10.1017/jfm.2011.100)
• Williams, C. R. and Bees, M. A. 2011 A tale of three taxes: photo-gyro-gravitactic bioconvection, Exp. Biol., 214, 2398-2408 (doi:10.1242/jeb.051094)

• • Featured in ‘Inside JEB’, 214, 2011 and ‘Nature research highlights’, 474, page 544, June 2011.
• Williams, C. R. 2009 Pattern formation and hydrogen production in suspensions of swimming green algae, PhD thesis, University of Glasgow, December 2009. Available online at http://theses.gla.ac.uk/1370/

• Hank, K., Arthern, R., & Williams, C. (2025). Acoustic impedance misfits and basal sliding law probabilities for Pine Island Glacier (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/c560ce43-7aa0-4474-90ed-d4ee5f5768ea

• Bett, D., Bradley, A., Williams, R., Holland, P., Arthern, R., & Goldberg, D. (2024). Amundsen Sea sector MITgcm/WAVI coupled model output forced with idealised ocean boundary conditions over 180 years (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/baa5097e-5139-4d8b-8986-3cc84c3319b7

• Arthern, R., Williams, R., Hindmarsh, R., & Pritchard, H. (2022). Fields and parameters related to the flow of ice in the Antarctic Ice Sheet recovered using inverse methods and satellite data (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/5f0ac285-cca3-4a0e-bcbc-d921734395ab

4. Understanding Greenland’s changing ice

   GIANT is a pioneering science project that will test the potential for early warning of a critical climate tipping point.

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9. Antarctic surface mass and energy exchanges

   SURFEIT unites UK and international scientists to study Antarctic ice and atmosphere interactions, improve sea-level projections, and support climate action.

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10. Digital Twins of the Polar Regions

    This project is developing digital twins of Antarctic and Arctic environments and resources. A digital twin makes it possible to test “what if” questions far more quickly than traditional computer models.

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13. International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration

    The International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration unites global scientists to study Antarctica’s most vulnerable glacier, predict sea-level rise, and inform climate action worldwide.

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Ocean-driven ice-shelf thinning in Antarctica

Melting at Thwaites Grounding Zone and its Control on Sea Level – British Antarctic Survey (bas.ac.uk)

1. Thwaites Glacier will keep losing ice even if oceans cool

   In a bold experiment to understand the behaviour of fast-changing glaciers in West Antarctica, scientists completely switched off the melting effects of the ocean in computer models.

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2. Robot fleet reveals secrets of Greenland’s melting glaciers in ambitious Arctic expedition

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3. New ‘live lessons’ offer interactive learning for kids

   Antarctica Live Lessons – a new and exciting learning resource, launches today (13 November). Aimed at engaging and inspiring the imaginations of young learners, the platform introduces an array of live, interactive lessons about Antarctica, offering a unique opportunity for students to hear from leading ice experts.

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