Rob Dunbar in the Southern Ocean

Rob Dunbar, whose research interests span climate change science and policy, marine ecology, glaciology, and biogeochemistry is the Keck Professor of Earth Sciences, a Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education and a senior fellow of the Woods Institute at Stanford University. In September 2022, Rob joined the Doerr School of Sustainability, where he led the creation of a Stanford Oceans Department.

He has traveled to the Antarctic more than 35 times and spent more than seven years working there—much of it at sea in the Southern Ocean, including to many of the areas we will visit on our expedition. He heads a Stanford research group that studies past, present and future climate change as well as its impacts on oceanic and coastal environments. One current focus is on developing new and more accurate ways to quantify the rates of melting of ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland.

Rob works regularly with the U.S. government as well as the United Nations to help develop and implement solutions to environmental and resource problems. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences Board on Atmospheric Science and Climate and recently served on an NAS committee tasked with developing strategic visions for U.S. investment in Antarctic research. He has led 22 previous Travel/Study program, including eight to Antarctica.

• At Stanford: William Keck Professor of Earth Science; Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education; Senior Fellow of the Woods Institute for the Environment

• Recipient of the Richard W. Lyman Award for exceptional volunteer service to the University

• Adjunct Professor, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

• BS, geology, University of Texas at Austin

• PhD, oceanography, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD