Ward van Pelt
Associate professor
Recent work
A new global glacier thickness and future lake dataset by Frank et al. is now published! Link to study. 
Our inversion method has generated new glacier thickness and bed maps for Svalbard. See here for more details! 
Welcome
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Welcome to my website! I am a senior lecturer in physical geography at Uppsala University in Sweden. My research focuses on the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, as well as mountain glaciers in the Arctic and High Mountain Asia. My work has two main focus areas: (1) inferring glacier basal conditions and ice thickness to spin up ice-flow models, and (2) simulating mass balance and firn processes to better understand how glaciers and ice sheets respond to changing climate conditions. | |
News
02-May-2026 :: Publication in Nature Communications
"Global glacier-free topography reveals large potential for future lakes in presently ice-covered terrain" by Frank et al. is now published in Nature Communications. Link
17-Apr-2026 :: Publication in Science Advances
"Seasonal bromate formation in the Arctic snowpack: implications for the bromine biogeochemical cycle" by Frassati et al. is now published in Science Advances. Link
25-Sep-2025 :: Publication in OIKOS
"Arctic-breeding black-legged kittiwakes show individual variation in foraging responses to glacial conditions without consequences for reproductive output" by McKendrick et al. is now published in OIKOS. Link
04-Apr-2025 :: Publication in The Cryosphere
"Long-term development of a perennial firn aquifer on the Lomonosovfonna ice cap, Svalbard" by Van den Akker et al. is now published in The Cryosphere. Link
07-Jan-2025 :: Publication in The Cryosphere
"New glacier thickness and bed topography maps for Svalbard" by Van Pelt and Frank is now published in The Cryosphere. Link