Dr Will Howard

Contacts

Honorary Associate Professor
ANU Institute for Climate, Energy & Disaster Solutions

Dr Will Howard is Lead Scientist at the Commonwealth Government Climate Change Authority, working across climate science and adaptation, climate policy, negative emissions and other issues.

He got a Ph.D in Geological Sciences from Brown University in the USA, was a U.S. Department of Energy Global Change Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow at Columbia University, a lecturer in oceanography at the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole USA, a researcher at the Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre.

He worked at the Office of the Chief Scientist in Canberra from 2010 to 2017, serving as Head of Science there in 2016-17.

In 2013-14, he initiated the Sedimentary Basin Management Initiative at University of Melbourne School of Earth Sciences, an integrated approach to understanding and managing sedimentary basins.

He is a member of the National Committee for Earth System Science.

He continues to research marine climate change, with particular emphasis on ocean acidification and its impacts on the past, current, and future ocean, through affiliation at Australian National University.

Research interests

  • Oceanography
  • Other Earth Sciences
  • Climate Change Processes
  • Palaeoclimatology

Groups

  • Moy, A, Palmer, M, Howard, W et al. 2019, 'Varied contribution of the Southern Ocean to deglacial atmospheric CO2 rise', Nature Geoscience, vol. 12, no. 12, pp. 1006-1011.
  • Ferry, A, Crosta, X, Quilty, P et al. 2015, 'First records of winter sea ice concentration in the southwest Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean', Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, vol. 30, no. 11, pp. 1525-1539.
  • Roberts, D, Howard, W, Roberts, J et al. 2014, 'Diverse trends in shell weight of three Southern Ocean pteropod taxa collected with Polar Frontal Zone sediment traps from 1997 to 2007', Polar Biology, vol. 37, no. 10, pp. 1445-1458.
  • Teniswood, C, Bradby, J, Roberts, D et al. 2013, 'A quantitative assessment of the mechanical strength of the polar pteropod Limacina helicina antarctica shell', ICES Journal of Marine Science, vol. 70, no. 7, pp. 1499-1505.
  • Cortese, G, Dunbar, G, Carter, L et al. 2013, 'Southwest Pacific Ocean response to a warmer world: Insights from marine isotope stage 5e', Paleoceanography, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 585-598.
  • Bostock, H.C., Barrows, T.T., Carter, L., Chase, Z., Cortese, G., Dunbar, G.B., Ellwood, M., Hayward, B., Howard, W., Neil, H.L., Noble, T.L., Mackintosh, A., Moss, P.T., Moy, A.D., White, D., Williams, M.J.M., Armand, L.K., 2013, 'A review of the Australian-New Zealand sector of the Southern Ocean over the last 30ka (Aus-INTIMATE project)', Quaternary Science Reviews, vol. 74, pp. 35-57.
  • Howard, W, Nash, M, Anthony, K et al. 2012, 2012 Marine Climate Change Report Card: Ocean Acidification.
  • Teniswood, C, Roberts, D, Howard, W et al. 2012, 'Structural Properties of Southern Ocean Pteropods', Australian Institute of Physics Congress (AIP 2012), RMIT Publishing, Melbourne Australia, p. 1.
  • CUBILLOS, J. C., HENDERIKS, J., BEAUFORT, L., HOWARD, W. R. & HALLEGRAEFF, G. M. 2012. Reconstructing calcification in ancient coccolithophores: Individual coccolith weight and morphology of Coccolithus pelagicus (sensu lato). Marine Micropaleontology, 92-93, 29-39.
  • GOODWIN, I. D. & HOWARD, W. R. 2012. Evidence of environmental change from the marine realm. In: MATTHEWS, J., BARTEIN, P. J., BRIFFA, K. R., DAWSON, A. G., DE VERNAL, A., DENHAM, T., FRITZ, S. C. & OLDFIELD, F. (eds.) The SAGE Handbook of Environmental Change. London: SAGE.
  • HOWARD, W. R., ROBERTS, D., MOY, A. D., LINDSAY, M. C. M., HOPCROFT, R. R., TRULL, T. W. & BRAY, S. G. 2011. Distribution, abundance and seasonal flux of pteropods in the Sub-Antarctic Zone. Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography, 58, 2293-2300.
  • ROBERTS, D., HOWARD, W. R., MOY, A. D., ROBERTS, J. L., TRULL, T. W., BRAY, S. G. & HOPCROFT, R. R. 2011. Interannual pteropod variability in sediment traps deployed above and below the aragonite saturation horizon in the Sub-Antarctic Southern Ocean. Polar Biology, 34, 1739-1750.
  • MOY, AD, HOWARD, WR, BRAY, SG & TRULL, TW, 2009, 'Reduced calcification in modern Southern Ocean planktonic foraminifera', Nature Geoscience, 2, 276-280.