The Bristol Glaciology Centre comprises seven full-time faculty from the School of Geographical Sciences: Dr Alexandre Anesio, Professor Jonathan Bamber (Director), Professor Jo Laybourn-Parry, Dr. Dan Lunt, Professor Tony Payne, Professor Martyn Tranter and Dr Jemma Wadham. Working with these staff are a number of Research Assistants and Associates, mainly funded by grants from the UK Research Councils and the European Union, together with Research Students supported by Research Council and University of Bristol grants. These staff are housed in a self-contained building, which has a full suite of computer and networking facilities. A cluster of Workstations is available, together with associated plotting, printing and digitising facilities, and is supported by three Computer Officers from the School of Geographical Sciences. In addition, collaborative projects are undertaken with affiliated academic staff and research students from other Bristol departments within the structure of the University Research Centre.
The approach of Centre staff is broad in terms of both the scientific methods of investigation used and the geographical areas studies. Glaciological problems usually require multi-disciplinary solutions, and approaches using a combination of field investigation, remote sensing (from ships, aircraft and satellites) and numerical modelling are typical. The wide range of skills available within both the School of Geographical Sciences and in other university departments is critical to the successful formulation, investigation and solution of glaciological problems. Current studies are taking place on glaciers and larger ice masses in Antarctica, Greenland, Svalbard, and the European Alps.
The research work of the Bristol Glaciology Centre is funded by a series of grants from national and international agencies, including the UK Natural Environment Research Council, the Leverhulme Trust, and also from UK government departments. The external funding from these sources amounts currently to about £3 million. International collaboration takes place with many university and government-funded institutions world-wide. Examples include NASA, The Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology, Penn State University, The University of Texas at Austin, Stanford University, University of Utrecht, Montana State University and the national polar research institutes of Norway and Germany.