Julia Wellner is Assistant Professor at the University of Houston. Her research interests include Antarctic Ice Sheet history since the Eocene, including geomorphic signatures of ice sheet retreat across the continental shelf, sedimentation patterns in fjords and their relation to oceanographic controls. She also studies Plio-Pleistocne sequence stratigraphy from three-dimensional seismic data, and Holocene climate of the Antarctic.

Wellner is a lead principal investigator on the THOR project. She and her team will investigate sediments deposited in the seas near the Thwaites Glacier, and reconstruct past changes in environmental conditions and the glacier's response, adding context to projections of future change.