Upcoming IoP Colloquium Series: A Sneak Peek

We are thrilled to share a preview of our upcoming IoP Colloquium series! While full abstracts and specific details will be revealed month by month, we wanted to give you an early heads-up to save the dates.

We have prepared an inspiring programme featuring world-renowned researchers and groundbreaking physics. Get ready to explore cutting-edge ideas, engage in stimulating discussions — and, of course, reconnect with the community over a well-deserved drink afterwards!

Save the Dates:

• May 21, 2026: Detlef Lohse (University of Twente). Nikhef Colloquium room, 16:00+drinks

Ice melting: From the lab to the ocean

The quantitative understanding of glacial ice melting into the ocean is one of the most outstanding challenges in environmental fluid dynamics. The lack of understanding is on a fundamental level, due to the highly complex multi-scale, multi-physics nature of the problem. The process involves intricate multi-way coupling effects, including thermal convection, salinity, ocean current, and radiation, etc. As ice melts into the surrounding salty water, a decrease in local salt concentration leads to reduced water density, inducing upward buoyant forces and, consequently, upward flow. This flow dynamically interacts with the ice, resulting in a feedback loop of further melting (Stefan problem). Our investigation employs theory and direct numerical simulations. The versatility of our method is demonstrated through successful applications to diverse melting scenarios, including the formation of melt ponds, melting in Rayleigh-Bénard convection, vertical convection, melting of a cylinder in fresh and salty water, and melting of an Eulerian or Lagrangian ice ball in turbulent flow. In this presentation, we showcase results obtained across these various geometries. This work contributes to advancing our understanding of the complex dynamics involved in glacial ice melting within oceanic environments.

NEXT:

• June 12, 2026: Or Katz (Cornell University)

• June 25, 2026: Special Colloquium & Lecture for 1st-year students (Speaker TBA)

• September 17, 2026: Leticia Cugliandolo (Sorbonne Université)

• October 22, 2026: Jonathan Keeling (University of St Andrews)

• November 26, 2026: Marin Bukov (Max Planck Institute PKS, Dresden)

• December 10, 2026: Michael Fleischhauer (University of Kaiserslautern)

• January 28, 2027: Daniela Kraft (Leiden University)

• February 18, 2027: Jacob Covey (UIUC)

• March 18, 2027: Kaden Hazzard (Rice University)

Stay tuned to this page for full details, locations, and abstracts for each event. We look forward to seeing you there!