Benjamin P. Horton

Biography

Dr Ben Horton is a Professor at the Institute of Marine and Coastal Science of Rutgers University and a Visiting Professor at the Earth Observatory of Singapore and Division of Earth Sciences of Nanyang Technological University. His research concerns sea-level change. He aims to understand and integrate the external and internal mechanisms that have determined sea-level changes in the past, and which will shape such changes in the future. Dr Ben Horton has published over 120 articles in peer reviewed journals, including Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature Geosience and Geology. Dr Ben Horton is an author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 5th Assessment Report (5AR) and a Fellow of the Geological Society of America. He is a committee member of the National Research Council, USA and PALSEA (PALeo-constraints on SEA-level rise). He is project leader of International Geoscience Programme (IGCP) 588.

Research Interest

My research concerns sea-level and environmental change. I aim to understand and integrate the external and internal mechanisms that have determined sea-level changes in the past, and which will shape such changes in the future. Fundamental to this aim is bridging the gap between short-term instrumental records and long-term geological reconstructions and geophysical predictions. To this end, I have developed, tested and validated a new methodological approach that uses microfossils to quantitatively reconstruct former sea levels. By applying this approach and simultaneously developing cross-disciplinary collaborations, my work has led to new knowledge, in particular predictive models of relative sea-level, and has impacted upon important societal and economic coastal problems.