As an associate professor at Louisiana State University in the Department of Geology and Geophysics and one of the curators at the Museum of Natural Science, Warny studies past climate change patterns by examining fossilized pollen and spores.
Working with the Antarctic Offshore Stratigraphy (ANTOSTRAT) team, she provided evidence for Antarctica having experienced significant warming during the mid-Miocene, when land temperatures reached 10 °C, and that liquid precipitation was notably higher at that time.
[2] Later, working with SHALDRIL[3] cores she established compelling evidence that the Antarctic Peninsula lagged the rest of the continent by several million years in its transition into polar conditions.
[4] In recent years her research has reached further back in geological time to include the warm Eocene and Oligocene, providing new insights into how Antarctica transitioned from Greenhouse to Icehouse conditions.
[5] Throughout her career, Warny has remained heavily engaged in public education through her involvement with the LSU Museum of Natural Science.