Professor Mal McMillan

Research Overview

Summary

Mal is Co-Director of the joint Lancaster University-UKCEH Centre of Excellence in Environmental Data Science (CEEDS), and co-lead for the UK Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM) land ice altimetry activities.

His research interests lie in the development and use of novel satellite measurements to study Earth's polar ice sheets, to better understand their contribution to global sea level rise. He has co-authored over 35 publications, including articles in Science and Nature. He has received research funding from a range of sources, including the European Space Agency, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, and the UK Natural Environment Research Council, and advises the European Space Agency on a number of current, and future, polar satellite missions.

Active Projects

• Cryo-TEMPO (further details).
• Earth Observation for Surface Mass Balance (further details).
• 4D Greenland (further details).
• Digital Twin Antarctica (further details).
• 4D Antarctica (further details).
• Fundamental Data Records for Altimetry (further details).

Completed Projects

• The Sentinel-3 Mission Performance Centre.
• The Copernicus Climate Change Service (further details).
• Sentinel-3 Performance Improvement for Ice Sheets (further details).
• Sentinel-3 Tandem for Climate (further details).
• Polar Monitoring Mission, Assessment & Consolidation of Requirements.
• CryoSat Follow-on SAR Trade-off Study

I am also a member of several expert advisory groups for the European Space Agency:

• The Sentinel-3 Mission Performance Centre.
• The Sentinel-3 Validation Team.
• The CryoSat-2 Quality Working Group.

Media

You can read about a selection of my research via the following links:

• Antarctica's increasing contribution to sea level over the past 25 years (World Economic Forum).
• First view of Antarctic change from Sentinel-3 (BBC).
• Increased ice loss from Antarctica (BBC).
• Dynamic activation of an Arctic Ice Cap (Washington Post).
• Subglacial lake drainage beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet (BBC).
• Measuring Greenland’s Ice Loss (Washington Post, The Guardian, BBC).

Career Details

2018 – present | Reader in Environmental Sensing | Lancaster University.

2018 | Associate Professor | University of Leeds.

2014 – 2018 | Academic Research Fellow | University of Leeds.

2012 – 2014 | Postdoctoral Researcher | University of Leeds.

Qualifications

2012 | PhD in Satellite Geodesy | University of Edinburgh

2006 | MSc in Remote Sensing & Image Processing | University of Edinburgh

2003 | MA in Mathematics & Philosophy | University of Edinburgh

PhD Opportunities

I am always keen to hear from motivated students who are interested in pursuing a PhD in satellite geodesy, Earth Observation, and Polar Science. I welcome enquiries from students with a background in subjects such as Mathematics, Physics, Engineering and Computer Science, who are interested in applying numerical techniques to some of the most challenging environmental problems. If this is you then please get in touch to discuss current opportunities.