Shawn Marshall

Biography

Shawn Marshall is a glaciologist and climatologist at the University of Calgary, where he is Professor in the Department of Geography. He has been on a progressively geographical path since completing an undergraduate degree in Engineering Physics at the University of Toronto (1991), with a PhD in Geophysics at UBC (1996) and postdoctoral research in the UBC Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences (1997-1999). Dr. Marshall was a Fellow in the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) Earth System Evolution Program from 2000-2015 and he held the Canada Research Chair in Climate Change from 2007-2017. His research combines field studies and numerical modelling to examine glacier-climate processes and glacier and ice sheet response to climate change. This research has provided Dr. Marshall with the opportunity and privilege to conduct research and spend time in many of Canada’s mountain regions, including the Coast, Selkirk, St. Elias, Mackenzie, and Rocky Mountains, the Torngats, and the Prince of Wales Icefield within Canada’s Arctic Cordillera. 

Dr. Marshall is the author of the book The Cryosphere, as part of Princeton University Press series Primers in Climate Science, and has served as an Editor for several international journals, including Geophysical Research Letters, The Cryosphere, and Journal of Climate. He is currently serving as the Canadian representative to the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) Cryosphere Working Group (2017-2023), as co-chair of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Global Cryosphere Watch programme (2021-), and as a member of the Science Leadership Council of the international Mountain Research Initiative (2020-2023). Dr. Marshall has been seconded to the Government of Canada since 2019, where he is serving as the Departmental Science Advisor at Environment and Climate Change Canada.