Jane K Hart is a Professor of Physical Geography in the School of Geography and Environmental Science at the University of Southampton UK. She has a BSc in Physical Geography from the University of Reading and a PhD in Glaciology from the University of East Anglia. She was Lecturer in Physical Geography at the University of Manchester(1988–89). Currently, she is EGU General Secretary, President of the Quaternary Research Association (QRA) and Chair of the "Funds for Women Graduates".
Jane Hart's research is in glacial sedimentology and Environmental Sensor Networks and informatics. In glacial sedimentology and glaciology, the research is concerned with the formation of till (glacial sediments), glaciotectonics and links between subglacial processes and climate change. Her research has been carried out at numerous modern day glaciers including Iceland, Greenland, Svalbard, Norway and Alaska; as well as Quaternary (Ice Age) sediments from Norfolk, Wales, Ireland, Germany, USA and New Zealand. She is particularly concerned with the quantification of subglacial processes, highlighted from her research on in situ subglacial experiments, ground penetrating radar (GPR), time –lapse cameras and UAV surveying.
She has pioneered the development of Environmental Sensor Networks (wireless sensor networks) for studying/monitoring the environment, particularly in relation to glaciers and climate change. She co-leads the Glacsweb project ()which was the first project to develop a wireless sensor network to study glacier processes. A key part of this project was the design and deployment of in situ probes within the ice and the till which measured glacier processes and relayed the data 'live' via the internet (Briksdalsbreen, Norway, 2003-2006); Skalafellsjokull, Iceland 2008-2015). This was followed by the Mountain Sensing project ()to use Internet of Things ((IoT)) technology to monitor climate change on the Cairngorm Plateau, Scotland (2013–15). She is currently co-leading a project which uses low cost IoT-enabled Real Time Kinematic Global Navigation Satellite System systems to measure glacier velocity, and so investigate the use of drones to install sensors in remote locations.
Jane was elected to be EGU General Secretary 2022-24. She is an active member of the Earth and Space Science Informatics (ESSI) section at the American Geophysical Union and EGU European Geosciences Union. She is the co-founder of the series of conferences on Environmental Sensor Networks since 2004, she was on the AGU ESSI Programme Committee (2017-2020), and on the AGU ESSI Executive committee, as Chair of the Programme Committee (2018–19), was the EGU representative (2020–21) and Chair of the Lepkoukh Award Committee (2020-21) and currently on the Edward A. Flinn award committee. She was also the Deputy President of EGU ESSI (2020-21).
She is the President of the Quaternary Research Association (2023-26). Prior to that she was Vice-President of the QRA (2019-22) and Chair of the inaugural Quaternary Research Association EDI committee.
In 2022 she was appointed onto the NERC Advisory Network, and has been on the “NERC Constructing a Digital Environment Expert Network’ as a Senior Panel Member (2019-2022, 2022-2024). She is currently Deputy Head of School (Education), formally Head of Research Group in the School of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Southampton. She is also on the national Geography Accreditation Review Panel, which is run by the Royal Geographical Society – Institute of British Geographers (2019-22).
She is also an advocate for women’s rights and education. She has been actively involved with “Funds for Women Graduates”, a UK Charity which supports women postgraduates, and she is the current Chair of the Governors. She was one of the founding members of the University of Southampton 'Women in Science Engineering & Technology (WiSET)' group, jointly began the annual Campbell Lecture (celebration of Women in Science) and has been the chair of WiSET twice.
Prizes
Wiley Prize (1991) - for best paper published in the journal Earth Surface Processes and Landforms European Academic Software Award prize winner (1998) - for the CD-ROM Glacial Analysis published by Routledge.