Nancy Bertler
PhD
Paleoclimatologist
Director 2018–2025
Nancy served as the Antarctic Science Platform Director from 2018 to 2025, as well as chairing the Policy Interface Working Group.
Her expertise is in the recovery, analysis, and interpretation of high-resolution ice core records from coastal Antarctica. Her research is focused on understanding and quantifying Antarctica’s response to, and its ability to force, future global climate change. She has led 13 field expeditions in Antarctica and major initiatives to investigate climate history using Antarctic ice cores, including leadership of the 9-nation Roosevelt Island Climate Evolution Programme (RICE). Nancy was one of the leaders in the Melting Ice and Rising Seas team, which won the 2019 Prime Minister's Science Prize. She has served as the inaugural chair of Antarctic Climate 21, an international initiative by the Scientific Committee of Antarctic Research (SCAR) to improve 21st century projections for Antarctica and the Southern Ocean.
Nancy is a professor of Earth Sciences at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University, a Principal Scientist with Earth Science New Zealand, and the Principal Investigator for the Antarctic sea-ice switch programme, which aims to improve models used to forecast climate and sea-level changes in light of recent and rapid sea ice retreat.