Julian A. Dowdeswell ScD FLSW (born 18 November 1957)^[1] is a British glaciologist and a Professor of Physical Geography in the Department of Geography at the University of Cambridge, and from 2002 to 2021 was the Director of the Scott Polar Research Institute.^[2]

Dowdeswell graduated with a BA in geography from the University of Cambridge in 1980, and studied for a master's degree at INSTAAR in the University of Colorado and for a Ph.D. in the Scott Polar Research Institute.^[3]

He started his career as a lecturer in Physical Geography at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. He subsequently went on to work as a Professor of Physical Geography and Director of the Bristol Glaciology Centre, University of Bristol and then to the University of Cambridge in 2001. He became the director of the Scott Polar Research Institute in 2002. He is also a professorial fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge.^[3]

His research focuses on the form and flow of glaciers and ice caps and their response to climate change, and the links between former ice sheets and the marine geological record, using a variety of satellite, airborne and shipborne geophysical tools.^[2]

In 2018, Dowdeswell was elected a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales.^[4]

In 2019 Professor Dowdeswell was Chief Scientist on the Weddell Sea Expedition 2019, which aimed to:

• investigate the ice shelves around the Weddell Sea and, in particular, the Larsen C Ice Shelf from which a giant iceberg broke off in July 2017
• document the rich and little-studied marine life of the western Weddell Sea ecosystem
• attempt to locate and survey the wreck of Sir Ernest Shackleton's ship 'Endurance', which was trapped and crushed by the ice and sank in the Weddell Sea in 1915.^[5][6]