Cryosphere, Glaciology

Prof. Sebastian Skatulla, Professor at the University of Cape Town (UCT)

Prof. Sebastian Skatulla was appointed as Senior Lecturer for Structural Engineering and Mechanics in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Cape Town in 2009. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2018 and to Professor in 2022. He graduated with a Masters degree in Civil Engineering from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in 2003. He was awarded his PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Adelaide in 2007.

He is the Director and founder of the Polar Engineering Research Group (PERG) at the University of Cape Town. His research activities are centred in multiscale and multiphysics continuum methods and modelling. Current activities comprise Antarctic sea-ice and shelf-ice dynamics.

He has been the leader of the Sea-Ice Team during the SCALE Winter Cruise 2019 aboard the S.A. Agulhas II to the Antarctic marginal ice zone studying the physical and mechanical properties of pancake ice along the Good Hope Line. He is currently the lead investigator of an international project funded by National Research Foundation (NRF) South African National Antarctic Programme (SANAP) investigating the dynamics and fracture mechanics of the Fimbulisen.

He has been the President of the South African Association for Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (SAAM) 2016-2021. He is a Member of the Board of Directors of the International Society for Computing in Civil and Building Engineering (ISCCBE) and Member of the Scientific Council of the International Centre for Mechanical Sciences (CISM).

More about Prof. Skatulla’s research focus

My research expertise generally lies in continuum mechanics spanning over the formulation of fundamental theory frameworks as well as their application in terms of development of corresponding computer codes and numerical modelling. This has enabled me to develop novel theories and methods as tailored to a large range of engineering problems in collaboration with a very diverse cohort of scientists from material science, electro-engineering, geomatics, cardiology, geophysics, glaciology and oceanography.

I have founded and lead the Polar Engineering Research Group of the University of Cape Town since 2016. The group has been studying the impact of global warming on the Antarctic cryosphere, with a particular focus on sea ice and shelf ice dynamics. The group aims at advancing the modelling of the mechanical behaviour of sea ice and shelf ice by developing improved ice rheologies and obtaining data for model parametrization from satellite observations and field campaigns to the Antarctic marginal ice zone and the Fimbul ice shelf.