Julian Dowdeswell is director of the Scott Polar Research Institute and professor of physical geography in the University of Cambridge. He is also Brian Buckley Fellow in polar science at Jesus College.

Dowdeswell is a glaciologist, working 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. He has undertaken polar fieldwork in Antarctica and many parts of the Arctic, including Greenland, Svalbard, Iceland and the Russian and Canadian Arctic archipelagos.

In a career of over 30 years, Dowdeswell has taught in the Universities of Aberystwyth, Bristol and Cambridge. Since 2002, he has been director of the Scott Polar Research Institute, including its Polar Museum. He has represented the UK on the councils of both the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) and is a past chair of the UK National Committee on Antarctic Research.