Nick was educated at the Universities of Newcastle (BSc), Leeds (MSc), and Leeds-Swansea, UK (PhD). His published MSc research concerned spaceborne observation of controls on glacier surging in the Karakoram Himalaya. His PhD research, supervised by Tavi Murray in collaboration with the Norsk Polarinstitutt, continued to employ earth observation and geodetic techniques (digital photogrammetry and airborne laser altimetry), this time in combination with extensive field validation, to investigate mass balance and climate linkages of glaciers in the Norwegian High Arctic (Svalbard).
In 2008 he took up the position of Government of Canada IPY Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Canada, working with Martin Sharp on the sea-level contribution of glaciers in the Yukon, and satellite remote sensing and field validation of glacier change in the Canadian sub Arctic (Nunatsiavut) and high Arctic (Nunavut).
In 2010 he joined the NERC British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK, to work with Richard Hindmarsh and David Vaughan on Antarctic Peninsula ice flow modelling, observation and modelling of Antarctic surface melt dynamics, and mass balance and dynamics of high-latitude glaciers and ice caps.
He joined the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham as a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in 2013, and was promoted to Associate Professor of Glaciology in 2021.
Nick leads a research group in Birmingham focusing on the two key glaciology issues of our time: mass balance, dynamics, and sea-level rise from Earth's glaciers and ice sheets; and the role and future evolution of glaciers as water resources. The group uses a wide range of methodological, theory-based and applied approaches to address these two key issues, including field observations and measurements, numerical modelling of ice flow and melt, optical and microwave remote sensing, and interdisciplinary approaches incorporating elements of hydrological earth system science, environmental economics, and even socio-cultural studies. We also have particular interest in innovations in glacio-hydrological modelling, glacio-hydro-groundwater interactions, the climate-glacier-hydrology modelling chain, iceberg calving and fracture, and understanding the changing role of snow and ice in mountain water security.