Andrew Mackintosh
Glaciologist
Who is Andrew Mackintosh?
Andrew Mackintosh is a contemporary Australian glaciologist and Head of the School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment at Monash University, recognised internationally for research on the interactions between glaciers, ice sheets, and the climate system. He holds a PhD from the University of Edinburgh and earlier degrees from the University of Newcastle and the University of Melbourne, and before joining Monash in 2019 he directed the Antarctic Research Centre at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. His research spans the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets as well as glaciers in New Zealand, Iceland, and South America. In 2025 Mackintosh led a Monash-based research team, alongside Dr Levan Tielidze and Dr Weilin Yang, that produced new satellite-based mapping of the glaciers on Heard Island, finding that the island had lost about 64 square kilometres, or roughly 23 percent, of its glacial ice since 1947. Commenting on the findings, Mackintosh described the retreat as clear evidence that even one of the most remote and pristine places on the planet was being reshaped by global climate change. The research was intended to help guide future protection and monitoring of the island's rapidly changing icy landscape.
Sources: Monash University, 'Climate change melts quarter of glaciers on pristine sub-Antarctic island' (2025) · Monash Lens, 'Global warming reaches Earth's edge: Heard Island glaciers retreat by 23%' (4 August 2025) · Discover Wildlife, '"Even here, at the edge of the world, the fingerprints of global warming are unmistakable"' (2025)