Biography

Sharon Robinson is internationally renowned for her ecophysiological studies on Antarctic plants and climate change. She pioneered the use of the radiocarbon bomb spike to date Antarctic mosses, providing long-term growth records that show that individual plants are hundreds of years old. She has demonstrated that stable isotopic signatures and other chemical markers in these mosses provide a record of Antarctic coastal climate change and ozone depletion. She developed a long-term monitoring system for Antarctic vegetation that has provided the first evidence that climate drying is affecting East Antarctic moss beds and is developing near-remote sensing technologies to assess ecosystem health in Antarctica. As a member of the United Nations Environment Programme Environmental Effects Assessment (UNEP EEAP) Panel she has highlighted how ozone depletion is impacting ecosystems across the Southern Hemisphere. 

Sharon was educated in the UK. After completing her PhD at University College London in 1990, she held postdoctoral positions in the USA and Australia. She first visited East Antarctica in 1996 and has been on 12 expeditions to continental Antarctic and sub- and maritime Antarctic islands with the Australian and Chilean Antarctic programs. She is passionate about conserving Antarctica’s unique biodiversity. She was formerly UOWs Associate Dean Graduate Research and is currently Challenge Leader for the Sustaining Coastal and Marine Zones within the University of Wollongong’s Global Challenges Program. She is a Homeward Bound Science Faculty member and a strong role model for diversity in Polar Science with 70% female participation in her field teams.

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