Geography and Physics research wins over £7million funding

Our Geography and Physics research is among the best in the world and we've just received another prestigious award. The European Research Council (ERC) has announced it's giving Durham over £7million to fund separate research into ice sheet collapse, the ethics of life in the ages of machine learning and how fluids flow. West Antarctic Led by Professor Mike Bentley, from the Department of Geography, researchers will be drilling below the ice to look at past collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. The project will use innovative technology to drill through the Antarctic Ice Sheet to retrieve samples of bedrock. With some advanced analytical techniques it can be determined when the rocks were last exposed from under retreating ice, the conditions that lead to ice sheet retreat, and how much sea level rise could be expected in a warmer world. Machine Learning Professor Louise Amoore, also from the Department of Geography, will lead research into so-called algorithmic societies and the ethics of life in the age of machine learning. The project will develop a new approach to responding to the consequences of machine learning for contemporary societies.