Photo of Dr Rachel Smedley

Dr Rachel Smedley

Senior Lecturer Geography and Planning

    About

    Personal Statement

    My research interests are in reconstructing past environmental change with a focus on understanding past ice-climate interactions. I am especially interested in ice at mid-latitudes with the potential for large shifts in precipitation patterns with changing temperatures. I am principally a geochronologist specialising in luminescence dating and now manage the Liverpool Luminescence Laboratory. I like to develop new and innovative luminescence dating techniques, in addition to applying the technique to answer interesting research questions. I am currently working on new research reconstructing former ice extents and environmental change in Patagonia, South America to improve our understanding of lake-terminating ice masses and the migration of the Southern Westerlies during the last Ice Age. I previously worked as part of the BRITICE-CHRONO consortium project, which has now produced the most extensive geochronological dataset in the world constraining the deglaciation of an entire ice sheet that is currently being used to test ice-sheet model simulations (see http://www.britice-chrono.group.shef.ac.uk/).

    2017 Lecturer in Physical Geography (Keele University)
    2014 - 2016 Postdoctoral Research Associate (Aberystwyth University)
    2010 - 2014 PhD (Aberystwyth University). Title: Testing the use of single grains of K-feldspar for luminescence dating of proglacial sediments in Patagonia.
    2009 - 2010 MSc in Quaternary Environmental Change (Aberystwyth University)
    2008 University centre in Svalbard
    2006 - 2009 BSc Geography (Aberystwyth University)