Nancy Bertler is an

Antarctic The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...

researcher, who has led major initiatives to investigate

climate history Paleoclimatology (British spelling, palaeoclimatology) is the study of climates for which direct measurements were not taken. As instrumental records only span a tiny part of Earth's history, the reconstruction of ancient climate is important to ...

using Antarctic

ice core An ice core is a core sample that is typically removed from an ice sheet or a high mountain glacier. Since the ice forms from the incremental buildup of annual layers of snow, lower layers are older than upper ones, and an ice core contains ic ...

s, and best known for her leadership of the

Roosevelt Island Roosevelt Island is an island in New York City's East River, within the borough of Manhattan. It lies between Manhattan Island to the west, and the borough of Queens, on Long Island, to the east. Running from the equivalent of East 46th to 85 ...

Climate Evolution Programme (RICE). She is a full professor at the

Antarctic Research Centre The Antarctic Research Centre (ARC) is part of the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences at Victoria University of Wellington. Its mission is to research "Antarctic climate history and processes, and their influence on the global clima ...

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. The university is well know ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Early life and education

Bertler was born in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, Germany. She completed her undergraduate degree in geology and geography in 1996 at the

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

. In 1999 she graduated with a MSc in

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ...

science from Royal Holloway at the University of London, UK. Bertler then moved to New Zealand to commence her PhD in geology at the Victoria University of Wellington under the supervision of Peter Barrett, then director of the Antarctic Research Centre. She completed her PhD in 2004.

Career and impact

Bertler researches climate history using

s. During her PhD Nancy established collaborations with international partners in Germany and the US and initiated New Zealand's ice core research capability in the Ross Sea. As postdoctoral fellow with guidance and help by her mentors, Profs. Peter Barrett,

Tim Naish Timothy Raymond Naish is a New Zealand glaciologist and climate scientist who has been a researcher and lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington and the Director of the Antarctic Research Centre, and in 2020 became a programme leader at th ...

, Alex Malahoff, Bertler went on to establish major infrastructure in support of ice core research in New Zealand. This included the development of a national ice core research facility with GNS Science, the building of a New Zealand intermediate ice core drilling system with Victoria University of Wellington. Since her joint appointment with Victoria University of Wellington and GNS Science in 2004, Bertler has led and managed the National Ice Core Research Programme. This culminated in the successful development of international science projects – in particular the NZ contribution to the International TransAntarctic Scientific Expedition (

ITASE {{short description, Scientific research platform The International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expedition (ITASE) was created in 1990 with the purpose of studying climate change through research conducted in Antarctica. Antarctica was chosen as th ...

) project and the NZ-led 9-nation Roosevelt Island Climate Evolution (RICE) project, the latter of which she is the Chief Scientist. Bertler was one of the early pioneers to target and interpret ice core records from the Antarctic coastal regions. These records have proven to provide highly complementary information to the deep ice core records from the Antarctic interior. Bertler is a leading or co-author on 39 internationally peer-reviewed publications and three peer-reviewed book chapters. She also co-authored two book chapters for public outreach and has worked with a large range of media. Bertler has led 13 scientific expeditions to Antarctica with over 30 months (cumulative) of field work including leading the 9 nation Roosevelt Island Climate Evolution (RICE) ice coring project in Antarctica.

Awards and honours

Bertler was awarded a

Rutherford Discovery Fellowship The Rutherford Discovery Fellowships are an annual science fellowship in New Zealand. The fellowships, established in 2010, are administered by the Royal Society Te Apārangi through a competitive process. Ten fellowships are awarded nationally. T ...

in 2011 and is Chief Scientist and Field Leader of Roosevelt Island Climate Evolution Programme (RICE), 9 nation ice core drilling project (NZ, USA, Denmark, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, China, Sweden). She has featured in numerous science communication features In 2016, Bertler received a Blake Leader Award from the Sir Peter Blake Trust.

References

External links

Nancy Bertler's webpage
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bertler, Nancy German women scientists Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Scientists from Munich New Zealand Antarctic scientists Women earth scientists Victoria University of Wellington alumni Academic staff of Victoria University of Wellington Women Antarctic scientists New Zealand women scientists New Zealand climatologists Women climatologists