Willis and his research group use remote sensing, geodetic and big data tools to examine how the surface of the earth is changing through time. The main focus of the group is on polar and icy regions, looking at how land ice is contributing to sea level change. The group is also examining how these sea level changes are linked to changing coastal regions and is rapidly building expertise in analyzing coastal topography and how it is changing through time. Willis is committed to increasing diversity and inclusivity in the geosciences. Willis is motivated to answer two particular questions - 'by what processes are ice sheets and glaciers contributing to sea level change?' And a simpler but more fundamental, and sometimes more difficult question of 'where is the surface of the earth, and how is it changing through time?' These questions require investigation and all scales and our group is delving into machine learning, computer vision and data fusion in order to tackle them.
