Joe Winzar

Physical Geography (BSc - 2017/20), Environmental Change (MSc - 2020/21)

Joe's PhD will apply advanced spatially-resolved luminescence dating methods to glacially deposited cobbles through development of EMCCD image processing techniques and improved characterisation of cobble luminescence and dosimetry. This research aims to improve retreat and advance chronologies for major British-Irish Ice Sheet ice streams where other luminescence dating methods struggled. Accurate and precise dating of these events is important for calibration and validation of numerical ice sheet deglaciation models, and thus vital for improving our ability to predict and model future rates of ice loss in Greenland and Antarctica under a warming climate.

Joe studied at Aberystwyth University for his Physical Geography BSc and Environmental Change MSc, during which he became interested in Quaternary Science, specifically luminescence dating. For his MSc dissertation, Joe developed luminescence ages for coastal sand layers in Shetland and northern Scotland, previously interpreted as palaeo-tsunami deposits. His research provided chronological constraint and an analysis of local luminescence characteristics to inform future studies in each region.  

Joe is funded by an AberDoc scholarship and works within Aberystwyth Luminescence Research Laboratory under the supervision of Professor Geoff Duller and Professor Helen Roberts.

Joe was awarded the Martin Aitken prize for best student oral presentation at the Luminescence and Electron Spin Resonance Dating (LED) conference held in Copenhagen in 2023.