• Dynamics of the Greenland Ice Sheet
• Ice sheet and glacier hydrology
• GNSS measurement of ice motion
• GNSS and UAV surveying
• Geophysics
• Borehole instrumentation

Sam is a field glaciologist specialising in ice sheet hydrology and dynamics. He received a BSc in Geography with Mountain Leadership (First Class Honours) from Staffordshire University in 2005 and a MSc in Glaciology (Distinction) from Aberystwyth University in 2008. In 2009, he worked as a Project Assistant on Greenland fieldwork over three field seasons and then in the austral summer of 2009-2010 he worked for the British Antarctic Survey as a Project Assistant to Dr Andy Smith and spent 3 months in a remote field camp undertaking seismic and radar surveys on drumlins beneath Rutford Ice Stream. From Antarctica, Sam went back to Greenland, again working on the acquisition of geophysical data until early August 2010 before leading a climbing expedition to NW Greenland and sailing home across the North Atlantic to start a PhD in Glaciology at Aberystwyth University in October 2010. Later that month, he joined geomorphological fieldwork in Nepal examining Glacial Lake Outburst Floods. Sam's thesis entitled 'GNSS observations of Greenland Ice Sheet dynamics' focused on the measurement of ice sheet surface velocity using Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers installed on the Greenland Ice Sheet. In 2013 he started as a Postdoctoral Researcher/Technician in Glaciology at Aberystwyth University on the NERC SAFIRE and ERC RESPONDER projects on marine-terminating Sermeq Kujalleq (Store Glacier) specialising in hot water drilling, sensor design and construction, as well as GNSS and meteorological instrumentation. 

Sam was involved with the filming of the BBC's series Frozen Planet in 2010 and worked as a Field Safety Adviser to the BBC2 production Operation Iceberg in 2012. In 2012 and 2014 he took part in glacier caving expeditions exploring moulins on Grenzgletscher in the Swiss Alps. 

From 2023-2025, Sam worked as a Research Associate for the University of Sheffield on the SLIDE project investigating active subglacial lake dynamics beneath Isunnguata Sermia in West Greenland. In 2025, together with collaborators at Asiaq Greenland Survey and the universities of Sheffield, Bristol, and Grenoble, he secured funding from the UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) to work as a Research Fellow on the GRuMPS project to measure glacier runoff from the Greenland Ice Sheet using passive seismometers placed next to proglacial rivers. 

From 2023 onwards, Sam has also worked as a lecturer in statistics at the Doctoral Academy at Aberystwyth University. He teaches an Introduction to Statistics course for the NERC OneZoo Centre for Doctoral Training and is an instructor in polar field electronics and field safety on the CryoSkills Course in Norway. Sam is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

In his spare time Sam is a mountain rescue volunteer with Aberdyfi Search and Rescue Team where he leads the technical rope rescue group. He holds qualifications in first aid including the Qualsafe First Responder Emergency Care Level 3 certificate (FREC3).

The ARIA Greenland Runoff Monitoring using Passive Seismology (GRuMPS) Project

The NERC Subglacial Lakes at Isunnguata Sermia - Dynamics and Evolution (SLIDE) Project

The ERC RESPONDER Project

Sam teaches statistics to postgraduate students at Aberystwyth University's Doctoral Academy and is module coordinator for PGM1010/PGM4310 Quantitative Data Collection and Analysis and an instructor on the Introduction to Statistics course for the NERC OneZoo Centre for Doctoral Training. He also teaches polar field electronics and field safety on the CryoSkills Course in Norway.