I am currently interim Director of Science at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) responsible for c. 100 Open Ended and 49 Fixed Term scientists, 12 Research Support staff, and a rolling cohort of >40 PhD Students spread across 4 DTPs and 2 CDTs.

Employment (last 10 years)

2024                  BAS Director of Science (interim from May 2024)

2023                  BAS Director of Science (job share from April 2023)

2019                  Research Councils’ UK Individual Merit Promotion 3. UKRI Band G

2014                  BAS Science Leader: Ice Sheets and Climate Change team

2014                  Durham University, Visiting Professor, Department of Geography.

Higher Education

1995                  PhD Commonwealth Scholar, University of Tasmania, Australia

1989                  BSc 1^st Class Honours, University College London

Research interests

I have had a broad interdisciplinary research career, publishing papers on high latitude glacial, climate and environmental history, glacial geomorphology, sea ice history, geochronology, sea level, limnology, palaeolimnology, biological responses to climate change, biodiversity and evolution, aquatic and terrestrial biology, and direct access and sampling of subglacial environments. Collectively these research papers have achieved >17,000 citations.

Some notable achievements include: (1) Highlighting how changes in the intensity and position of the Southern Hemisphere westerly winds can be linked to changes to the Southern Ocean CO₂ sink, through alterations in ocean circulation (Nature Geoscience 2010). This resulted in the development of novel proxies for reconstructing past changes in wind strength (Nature Geoscience, 2018) testing the hypothesis that periods of persistently higher wind strength are associated with periods of globally elevated atmospheric CO₂. (2) Providing nine of the fourteen relative sea level records that underpin regional glacio isostatic (GIA) corrections for Antarctica. These are fundamental to constrain GRACE satellite measurements of mass loss from the Antarctic Ice Sheet. (3)  Designing a standard protocol for sampling Antarctic lakes over 25 years ago which, with my international colleagues, has now been applied at 384 polar lakes providing the foundation of analyses of the biology and biogeography of Antarctic microorganisms, and a baseline for measurements of climate-driven change.

My current focus is leading the analysis of sediment samples collected from under the Rutford Ice Stream. The main goal of this research is to determine if the West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapsed, or persisted, during recent interglacial periods. This was the deepest hot water drilling and direct sampling of the bed of West Antarctic Ice Sheet to date reaching 2154 m beneath the ice stream surface at three sites. My first paper is focusing on the ice stream dynamic response to the transition from glacial to interglacial states.

I have led many field seasons (2-5 months) in remote locations in Antarctica, the sub-Antarctic and the Southern Ocean (c. 20 as Project Leader, Voyage Leader or co-PI). All have involved assembling teams, securing funding, managing complex logistics and fieldwork across different national programmes, and ultimately writing papers with impact.

Measures of scientific peer esteem include the Polar Medal for outstanding achievement and service to the UK in the field of Polar Research (2013), a visiting Professorship at the University of Durham (2014) and a UK Research Councils’ Individual Merit Promotion (2019). Contributing Authorships IPCC AR5, Invited Expert Reviewer, IPCC AR6 WG1. Two first author citations in IPCC SROCC 2019 (3.50, 3.69).

Collaborations

Much of my research has only been possible through international collaboration. I have worked in the field with the Australian (1991, 1992, 1997, 2013), Chinese (2006) Belgian and Japanese (2007), South African (2013), Chilean (2015), Swiss (2017) and French (2024) National Antarctic Programmes.

I have also contributed to various Scientific Committee and Steering Committees for the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) initiatives (e.g. SCAR Antarctic Climate Evolution (ACE) and Past Antarctic Ice Sheet Dynamics (PAIS) programmes). I was a lead author on the ACE Community Ice Sheet Reconstruction (2013) and co leader of the IGBP PAGES Antarctica 2k Working Group (2014)

For a full list of my publications please visit my author profile on Google Scholar: 

http://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=nq00-E4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

>200 ISI publications, books, and book chapters, 11 papers in Nature Group journals

Sum of the Times Cited: 17091 (6414 since 2019)

H-index: 70 (39 since 2019), i10-index: 181 (141 since 2019)

Most cited papers:

Vaughan, D.G., et al., 2003. Recent rapid regional climate warming on the Antarctic Peninsula. Climatic Change 60, 243-274. 1538 citations

Turner, J., et al., 2009. Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment. Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, ISBN 978-0-948277-22-1, Cambridge, p. 526. 654 citations

Selected first author papers last 5 years:

Hodgson, D. A., et al. 2023. Southern limit of the Patagonian Ice Sheet, Quaternary Science Reviews, 321, 108346, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108346, 2023.

Hodgson, D. A., et al. 2022. Drainage and refill of an Antarctic Peninsula subglacial lake reveal an active subglacial hydrological network, The Cryosphere, 16, 4797-4809, 10.5194/tc-16-4797-2022, 2022.

Hodgson, D. A., et al. 2019. Past and future dynamics of the Brunt Ice Shelf from seabed bathymetry and ice shelf geometry, The Cryosphere, 13, 545-556.  https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-545-2019

Publications from NERC Open Research Archive

• Roberts, S., De Vleeschouwer, F., Le Roux, G., Bishop, T., Davies, S., Gallego-Sala, A., Green, C., Perren, B., Saunders, K., Whittle, A., & Hodgson, D. (2025). Geochemical data from peat records collected from sub-Antarctic Marion Island, Site PB1 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/931c6618-2755-4243-a0d6-f0d18f8ca9c6

• Roberts, S., De Vleeschouwer, F., Le Roux, G., Bishop, T., Davies, S., Gallego-Sala, A., Green, C., Perren, B., Saunders, K., Whittle, A., & Hodgson, D. (2025). Geochemical data from peat records collected from sub-Antarctic Kerguelen Island, Site KER3 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/dc11db5d-7a00-4239-8d8e-858b833698ef

• Roberts, S., De Vleeschouwer, F., Le Roux, G., Bishop, T., Davies, S., Gallego-Sala, A., Green, C., Perren, B., Saunders, K., Whittle, A., & Hodgson, D. (2025). Geochemical data from peat records collected from sub-Antarctic Kerguelen Island, Site KER1 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/d712633e-a534-4605-aa34-cc4a8fe16107

• Roberts, S., De Vleeschouwer, F., Le Roux, G., Bishop, T., Davies, S., Gallego-Sala, A., Green, C., Perren, B., Saunders, K., Whittle, A., & Hodgson, D. (2025). Geochemical data from peat records collected from sub-Antarctic Isla Hermite, Site HER42PB (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/a0d0df71-f361-4967-a1dd-8dffdbf287b3

• Roberts, S., De Vleeschouwer, F., Le Roux, G., Bishop, T., Davies, S., Gallego-Sala, A., Green, C., Perren, B., Saunders, K., Whittle, A., & Hodgson, D. (2025). Geochemical data from peat records collected from sub-Antarctic Bird Island, South Georgia, Site BI10 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/85ee0438-731e-4e51-8d77-53d0ec30a26f

• Perren, B., Kaiser, J., Arz, H., Dellwig, O., Hodgson, D., & Lamy, F. (2025). Fossil diatom and geochemistry data from an 11,000 year lake sediment core from Isla Hornos, Cape Horn Archipelago (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/ebb9d50f-94fb-446b-8e90-de91b3201650

• Francis, J., Wakefield, E., Jamieson, S., McClymont, E., Southwell, C., Emmerson, L., Hodgson, D., Phillips, R., & Fretwell, P. (2024). Global breeding distribution of the snow petrel (1843-2020) (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/3155805f-6d8b-4a27-8dbf-91f2c10a4ba7

• Perren, B., Hodgson, D., Roberts, S., Sime, L., Van Nieuwenhuyze, W., Verleyen, E., & Vyverman, W. (2020). Fossil diatom and geochemistry data from a 700-year core from La Grange Cop, subantarctic Marion Island. (Version 1.0) [Data set]. UK Polar Data Centre, Natural Environment Research Council, UK Research & Innovation. https://doi.org/10.5285/49a1ec0e-ae5f-4df5-a59b-fa6dff614678

• Hodgson, D., Jordan, T., de Rydt, J., Fretwell, P., Seddon, S., Becker, D., Hogan, K., Smith, A., & Vaughan, D. (2019). Gravity enhanced bathymetric model beneath the Brunt Ice Shelf and Stancomb-Wills Glacier Tongue (Version 1) [Data set]. UK Polar Data Centre, Natural Environment Research Council, UK Research & Innovation. https://doi.org/10.5285/40bcedbe-fea0-4b41-b2f7-bf2d8494b5ad

• Roberts, S., Pearson, E., Foster, L., & Juggins, S. (2019). Chronological and biomarker reconstructed mean summer air temperatures (MSAT) for the past 6,000 years from lake sediments on Annenkov Island (near South Georgia) and the South Shetland Islands (Version 1.0) [Data set]. UK Polar Data Centre, Natural Environment Research Council, UK Research & Innovation. https://doi.org/10.5285/df50e30a-0672-461a-928e-aafafb45fd55

• Fretwell, P., Hodgson, D., Hogan, K., Smith, J., Hillenbrand, C., Allen, C., Peck, V., Arndt, J., Dorschel, B., Hubscher, C., Smith, A., Larter, R., & Graham, A. (2019). A bathymetric compilation of the Brunt Sub-Iceshelf, Antarctica (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://data.bas.ac.uk/full-record.php?id=GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/01134

• Amesbury, M., Charman, D., Convey, P., Griffiths, H., Hodgson, D., Roland, T., & Royles, J. (2017). 150 year, multi-proxy moss bank data of biological response to climate change from the Antarctic Peninsula (Version 1.0) [Data set]. Polar Data Centre; British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council; Cambridge, CB3 0ET, UK.. https://doi.org/10.5285/b5689abb-4eba-49b3-b6b9-a9e29a8af579

• Bentley, M., Hodgson, D., Roberts, S., Smith, J., & Sugden, D. (2012). Soil, rock and biological samples from the Moutonnee, Ablation and Citadel Bastion Lakes, Antarctic Peninsula, 2001-2002 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://data.bas.ac.uk/full-record.php?id=GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/00548

• Bentley, M., Hodgson, D., Roberts, S., Smith, J., & Sugden, D. (2012). Sediment trap and delta data from the Moutonnee Lake, Antarctic Peninsula, 2001-2002 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://data.bas.ac.uk/full-record.php?id=GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/00547

• Bentley, M., Hodgson, D., Roberts, S., Smith, J., & Sugden, D. (2012). Samples and analyses of sediment cores from Moutonnee, Ablation and Citadel Bastion Lakes, Antarctic Peninsula, 2001-2002 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://data.bas.ac.uk/full-record.php?id=GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/00544

• Bentley, M., Hodgson, D., Roberts, S., Smith, J., & Sugden, D. (2012). Isotopic analyses of lakewater samples from the Moutonnee, Ablation and Citadel Bastion Lakes, Antarctic Peninsula, 2001-2002 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://data.bas.ac.uk/full-record.php?id=GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/00546

• Bentley, M., Hodgson, D., Roberts, S., Smith, J., & Sugden, D. (2012). Analyses of snow and ice samples from the Moutonnee, Ablation and Citadel Bastion Lakes, Antarctic Peninsula, 2001-2002 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://data.bas.ac.uk/full-record.php?id=GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/00545

1. PRESCIENT

   PRESCIENT supports long-term, strategically important measurements and capabilities for the wider science community.

   Read more of: PRESCIENT

   

2. Brunt Ice Shelf movement

   British Antarctic Survey is monitoring glaciological changes on the Brunt Ice Shelf, home to Halley Research Station.

   Read more of: Brunt Ice Shelf movement

   

3. Past Westerly Winds

   Past Westerly Winds research project used climate model simulations to investigate how Southern Ocean westerly winds behaved during the last glacial maximum.

   Read more of: Past Westerly Winds

   

4. Impact of Southern Westerly Winds and Circumpolar Deep Water on climate and marine ecology

   Research project investigating how shifting southern westerly winds drive warm Circumpolar Deep Water onto the West Antarctic Peninsula shelf, accelerating glacier melt, reducing sea ice, and transforming marine ecosystems.

   Read more of: Impact of Southern Westerly Winds and Circumpolar Deep Water on climate and marine ecology

   

5. Improving estimates of Antarctica’s contribution to sea level

   This research aims to improve estimates of Antarctica’s contribution to sea level. Sea level is currently rising at approximately 3mm/yr.

   Read more of: Improving estimates of Antarctica’s contribution to sea level

   

6. Late Quaternary changes in the Westerly Winds over the Southern Ocean

   In this NERC-funded project, we are generating Southern Hemisphere Westerlies (SHW) proxy records from each of the three major sectors of the Southern Ocean, focusing on subantarctic islands situated in the core belt of the SHW.

   Read more of: Late Quaternary changes in the Westerly Winds over the Southern Ocean

   

7. BEAMISH: Basal Conditions on Rutford Ice Stream

   BEAMISH drilled through over 2 km of ice on Rutford Ice Stream to discover when the West Antarctic Ice Sheet last collapsed and how water and soft sediments beneath it help the ice flow towards the sea.

   Read more of: BEAMISH: Basal Conditions on Rutford Ice Stream

   

Grants (last 5 years)

2022-2026 DEFRA, Improving Falkland peatland GHG data: understanding carbon sequestration and offsetting feasibility. BAS PI £101k

2021-2025   NERC-NSF Environmental change and impacts on ancient human colonization of Peary Land, northernmost Greenland. UK PI £267k

2020-2025   NERC/Joint Strategic Response. iCECs – Antarctic Ice Sheet at subglacial Lake CECs. PI £717k (Cancelled by COVID/loss of partnership)

2020-2025   NERC DTP IAPETUS: Delivering excellence in PhD training across the spectrum of environmental science. BAS PI £7.693M (total)

2020-2025 ERC Consolidator, Erin MClymont PI, ANTarctic Sea Ice Evolution from a novel biological archive: Co-I £1.4M (total)

2020-2025 Leverhulme, Erin MClymont PI, Unlocking evidence for Antarctic sea-ice evolution from a novel biological archive: Co-I £998K (total)

2012-20 NERC Basal Conditions on Rutford Ice Stream: Bed Access, Monitoring and Ice Sheet History (PI Smith) Co-I £2.25M

1. New funding to underpin long-term polar research

   British Antarctic Survey (BAS) is a beneficiary of a major investment in the UK’s network of leading environmental science research centres announced today (8 October).

   Read more of: New funding to underpin long-term polar research

   

2. Satellite observations show accelerating greening of Antarctic Peninsula

   New research released today in Nature Geoscience reveals that vegetation cover on the Antarctic Peninsula has increased more than tenfold in the past four decades.

   Read more of: Satellite observations show accelerating greening of Antarctic Peninsula

   

3. DNA reveals unique microorganisms evolved at poles

   Communities of microorganisms at the bottom of polar lakes evolved independently from other regions, influenced by the particular geological, biological and climate history of their regions.

   Read more of: DNA reveals unique microorganisms evolved at poles

   

4. Brunt Ice Shelf speeds up after calving of giant iceberg

   Following the calving of the A-81 iceberg at the end of January 2023, the Brunt Ice Shelf is moving faster than before. It is currently moving approximately 4 metres a day towards the sea, whereas before the calving it moved at an average of between 1-2.5 metres a day.

   Read more of: Brunt Ice Shelf speeds up after calving of giant iceberg

   

5. Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica calves giant iceberg 

   ANTARCTICA – 23 January 2023. A huge iceberg (1550 km²), almost the size of Greater London, has broken off the 150m thick Brunt Ice Shelf. It calved after cracks that […]

   Read more of: Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica calves giant iceberg 

   

6. Southern Hemisphere westerly winds likely to intensify as climate warms

   Polar climate scientists have created the most high resolution past record of the Southern Hemisphere westerly winds.  The results, published this week (9 December) in the journal Communications Earth and […]

   Read more of: Southern Hemisphere westerly winds likely to intensify as climate warms

   

7. Increases in winds weaken Southern Ocean carbon sink

   A new study of lake sediments from the sub-Antarctic reveals for the first time that increases in westerly winds are likely to reduce the ability of the Southern Ocean to […]

   Read more of: Increases in winds weaken Southern Ocean carbon sink

   

8. Penguin colony repeatedly decimated by volcanic eruptions

   One of Antarctica’s biggest gentoo penguin colonies was repeatedly decimated by eruptions of the Deception Island volcano in recent millennia.

   Read more of: Penguin colony repeatedly decimated by volcanic eruptions

   

9. Ice cap once covered sub-antarctic island of South Georgia

   A new study reveals the sub-antarctic island of South Georgia – famous for its wildlife – was covered by a massive ice cap during the last ice age. The results […]

   Read more of: Ice cap once covered sub-antarctic island of South Georgia

   

10. NEWS STORY: Sea-level rise from Antarctic collapse

    Sea-level rise from Antarctic collapse may be slower than suggested A new study by scientists in the UK and France has found that Antarctic ice sheet collapse will have serious […]

    Read more of: NEWS STORY: Sea-level rise from Antarctic collapse

    

11. NEWS STORY: More moss growing in Antarctica

    Moss growth in Antarctica linked to climate change Increases in temperature on the Antarctic Peninsula during the latter part of the 20th century were accompanied by an acceleration in moss […]

    Read more of: NEWS STORY: More moss growing in Antarctica

    

12. PRESS RELEASE: British team to explore buried lake

    British team set to access and sample one of the last unexplored environments on Earth This week (12 December) a British team of scientists and engineers, including scientists from British […]

    Read more of: PRESS RELEASE: British team to explore buried lake

    

• Co-leader, PAGES Antarctica 2k coastal terrestrial records group
• Contributing author, Fifth Assessment Report, Working Group II 2013: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Chapter 28 – Polar Regions
• Steering Committee, SCAR, AntEco State of the Antarctic Ecosystem, Scientific Research Program
• Member, SCAR Advisory Group on Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment