Research/Areas of Interest:
Coastal Processes and Climate Change
Education
- PhD, University of Pennsylvania, United States, 2009
- BSc, University of Durham, United Kingdom, 2002
Biography
Dr. Kemp's research aims to produce detailed reconstructions of sea level over the last 2000 years and in particular to determine the response of local, regional and global sea level to known climate deviations such as the Medieval Climate Anomaly, Little Ice Age, and 20th century warming. Dr. Kemp takes an interdisciplinary approach to this work using coastal stratigraphy, biological, and geochemical proxies, varied dating methods and quantitative paleoenvironmental techniques to reconstruct sea level. These records provide a constraint for future projections of sea-level rise. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (AR5) is consulting these reconstructions to place current and projected sea-level changes in an appropriate geological context. It is hoped these new geological data will aid coastal management under scenarios of future sea-level change.