SCHOOL OF NATURAL SCIENCES AND MEDICINE
ILIA STATE UNIVERSITY

Direction:Glaciology
Position:Associate Professor





Levan is a Ph.D. in Geography (glaciology-geomorphology). Since 2019 he is working in the Antarctic Research Centre at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. In 2018-2020 Levan held the position of Senior Research Fellow at Institute of Geography, Tbilisi State University. In 2006-2018 he worked as a Research Fellow at the same institution. In 2014-2015 Levan passed an internship at Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, USA, while in 2015-2017 – at the University of Northern British Columbia, Canada. In 2018 he was a visiting scientist at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, while in 2019 at Monash University in Australia. He is the National Correspondent of the World Glacier Monitoring Service for Georgia, as well as the national representative of the International Association of Cryospheric Sciences for Georgia. Levan is also a representative of GLIMS (Global Land Ice Measurements from Space) for the Caucasus region. He is a member of the Council of Young Scientists of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences, as well as a member and co-founder of the International Society of Georgian Scientists. In 2014 Levan was awarded a Medal of Tbilisi State University. In 2016 he became a laureate of the Tsinandali Award in Natural Sciences. In 2017, Levan became the best young scientist of Georgia. In 2017 he became a winner of a five-year scholarship from the Georgian National Academy of Sciences (Department of Earth Sciences). In 2022 Levan was awarded the Pascal Prize of Ilia State University. He is the author and co-author of dozens of scientific papers published in Georgian, English, and Russian. Levan has participated in field campaigns on both slopes of the Greater Caucasus, the Canadian Rockies, and the Southern Alps of New Zealand.

Scientific interests / research interests

Glacial-geomorphological study of mountain glaciers on the background of modern climate change;
Glacier mapping using geoinformation systems and remote sensing;
Reconstruction of the Late Quaternary and Little Ice Age glaciation using cosmogenic surface exposure dating technique

  • Featured publications
  1. Tielidze, L. , Jomelli, V., and Nosenko, G. A. (2022). Analysis of Regional Changes in Geodetic Mass Balance for All Caucasus Glaciers over the Past Two Decades. Atmosphere, 13, 256. doi.org/10.3390/atmos13020256.
  2. Tielidze, L. G., Nosenko, G. A., Khromova, T. E., and Paul, F. (2022). Strong acceleration of glacier area loss in the Greater Caucasus between 2000 and 2020, The Cryosphere, org/10.5194/tc-16-489-2022.
  3. Tielidze, L., Eaves, S., Norton, K., and Mackintosh, A. (2021). Glacial geomorphology of the Ahuriri River valley, central Southern Alps, New Zealand. Journal of Maps. org/10.1080/17445647.2021.1876777.
  4. Khedim, N., Cécillon, L., Poulenard, J., Barré, P., Baudin, F., Marta, S., Rabatel, A., Dentant, C., Cauvy‐Fraunié, S., Anthelme, F., Gielly, L., Ambrosini, R., Franzetti, A., Azzoni, R. S., Caccianiga, M. S., Compostella, C., Clague, J., Tielidze, L., Messager, E., Choler, P., and Ficetola, G. F. (2021). Topsoil organic matter build‐up in glacier forelands around the world. Global Change Biology. org/10.1111/gcb.15496.
  5. Holobâcă, I., Tielidze, L., Ivan, K., Elizbarashvili, M., Alexe, M., Germain, D., Petrescu, S., Pop, O., and Gaprindashvili, G. (2021). Multi-sensor remote sensing to map glacier debris cover in the Greater Caucasus, Georgia. Journal of Glaciology. org/10.1017/jog.2021.47.
  6. Marta, S.; Azzoni, R. S., Fugazza, D., Tielidze, L., Chand, P., Sieron, K., Almond, P., Ambrosini, R., Anthelme, F., Alviz Gazitúa, P., Bhambri, R., Bonin, A., Caccianiga, M., Cauvy-Fraunié, S., Ceballos Lievano, J. L., Clague, J., Cochachín Rapre, J. A., Dangles, O., Deline, P., Eger, A., Cruz Encarnación, R., Erokhin, S., Franzetti, A., Gielly, L., Gili, F., Gobbi, M., Guerrieri, A., Hågvar, S., Khedim, N., Kinyanjui, R., Messager, E., Morales-Martínez, M. A., Peyre, G., Pittino, F., Poulenard, J., Seppi, R., Chand Sharma, M., Urseitova, N., Weissling, B., Yang, Y., Zaginaev, V., Zimmer, A., Diolaiuti, G. A., Rabatel, A., and Ficetola, G. F. (2021). The Retreat of Mountain Glaciers since the Little Ice Age: A Spatially Explicit Database. Data. 6, 107. org/10.3390/data6100107.
  7. Tielidze, L., Bolch, T., Wheate, R., Kutuzov, S., Lavrentiev, I., and Zemp, M. (2020). Supra-glacial debris cover changes in the Greater Caucasus from 1986 to 2014. The Cryosphere. org/10.5194/tc-14-585-2020, 2020.
  8. Tielidze, L., Svanadze, D., Gadrani, L., Asanidze, L., Wheate, R., and Hamilton, G. (2020). A 54-year record of changes at Chalaati and Zopkhito glaciers, Georgian Caucasus, observed from archival maps, satellite imagery, drone survey and ground-based investigation. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin. org/10.15201/hungeobull.69.2.6.
  9. Tielidze, L., Solomina, O., Jomelli, V., Dolgova, E., Bushueva, I., Mikhalenko, V., Braucher, R., and ASTER Team (2020). Change of Chalaati Glacier (Georgian Caucasus) since the Little Ice Age based on dendrochronological and Beryllium-10 data. Ice and Snow. org/10.31857/S2076673420030052.
  10. Tielidze, L., Kumladze R., Wheate, R., and Gamkrelidze, M. (2019). The Devdoraki Glacier Catastrophes, Georgian Caucasus. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin. org/10.15201/hungeobull.68.1.2.
  11. Zemp, M., Sajood, A. , Pitte, P., van Ommen, T., Fischer, A., Soruco, A., Thomson, L., Schaefer, M., Li, Z., Ceballos Lievano, J. L., Cáceres Correa, B. E., Vincent, C., Tielidze, L., Braun, L.N., Ahlstrøm, A. P., Hannesdóttir, H., Dobhal, D. P., Karimi, N., Baroni, C., Fujita, K., Severskiy, I., Prinz, R., Usubaliev, R., Delgado-Granados, H., Demberel, O., Joshi, S. P., Anderson, B., Ove Hagen, J., Dávila Roller, L. R., Gadek, B., Popovnin, V. V., Cobos, G., Holmlund, P., Huss, M., Kayumov, A., Lea, J. M., Pelto, M., and Yakovlev, A. (2019). Glacier monitoring tracks progress in limiting climate change. Nature 576: 39. doi:10.1038/d41586-019-03700-3.
  12. Tielidze, L., and Wheate, R. (2018). The Greater Caucasus Glacier Inventory (Russia, Georgia and Azerbaijan). The Cryosphere. org/10.5194/tc-12-81-2018, 2018.
  13. Tielidze, L. (2016). Glacier change over the last century, Caucasus Mountains, Georgia, observed from old topographical maps, Landsat and ASTER satellite imagery. The Cryosphere. doi:10.5194 / tc-10-713-2016, 2016.
  14. Kutuzov, S., Mikhalenko, V., Grachev, A., Ginot, P., Lavrentiev, I. Kozachek, A., Krupskaya, V., Ekaykin, A., Tielidze, L., and Toropov, P. (2016). First geophysical and shallow ice core investigation of the Kazbek plateau glacier, Caucasus Mountains. Environ Earth Sciences. doi:10.5194 / tc-10-713-2016, 2016.
  15. Popovnin, V., Rezepkin, A., and Tielidze, L. (2015). Superficial moraine expansion on the Djankuat Glacier snout over the direct glaciological monitoring period. Earth Cryosphere. XIX, No. 1, p. 89-98.
  16. Gobejishvili, R., Lomidze, N., and Tielidze, L. (2011).Late Pleistocene (Wurm) Glaciations of the Caucasus. Quaternary glaciations-extend and chronology. Developments in Quaternary Science. org/10.1016/B978-0-444-53447-7.00012-X.
  • Books
  1. Geographical Atlas of Georgia. (2018). Hause “Palitra L”. Tbilisi, Georgia. ISBN 978-9941-24-984-6. 183 pp. (editor). (in Georgian).
  2. National Atlas of Georgia. (2018). Franz Steiner Verlag. Stuttgart, Germany. ISBN 978-3-515-12057-9. 138 pp. (co-author).
  3. Glaciers of Georgia. (2017). Geography of the Physical Environment. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-50571-8. 167 pp. (Author).
  4. Modern and old glaciers of Georgia. (2016). Publ. House “Samshoblo”, Tbilisi, Georgia. ISBN 978-9941-0-8531-4. 216 pp. (author) (in Georgian).
  5. Glaciers catalog of Georgia. (2016). Publ. House “Samshoblo”, Tbilisi, Georgia. ISBN 978-9941-08532-1. 116 pp. (author) (bilingual – Georgian/English).
  6. Glaciers of Georgia. (2014). publishing house “Color”, Tbilisi, Georgia. ISBN 978-9941-0-6809-6. 254 p. (author) (in Georgian).
  7. Monitoring of glaciers on the background of climate change. (2012). publishing house “Universali”, ISBN: 978-9941-17-533-6. Tbilisi, Georgia. 176 pp. (co-author) (in Georgian).
  8. National Atlas of Georgia. (2012). publishing house “Cartography”, Tbilisi, Georgia. 140 pp. (co-author) (in Georgian).

 

Current Courses

Course Catalog

Lecture course in glaciology. Spring Semester For Bachelor’s / Master’s level.

Lecture course in glaciology. Fall Semester 2018-2019. For Master’s level.