Principal Investigators

  • Don Blankenship

    Don works on airborne and satellite-based geophysics of ice with a focus on Antarctica and the icy moons of Jupiter.


  • Ginny Catania

    Ginny works on understanding the processes that drive ice sheet dynamics with a focus on ice-bed and ice-ocean interactions. She uses space and in-situ observations to complement models.

  • Ann Chen

    Ann focuses on the development of Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) techniques for studying changes in the Earth’s surface and subsurface including permafrost hydrology and the carbon cycle.

  • Cyril Grima

    Cyril studies the properties of surfaces and ice-ocean interfaces on Earth to bridge them with planetary radar observations in order to better understand the cryospheres of other worlds.

  • Ruthie Halberstadt

    Ruthie is joining the JSG in Fall 2024! Ruthie integrates geologic data and numerical models to reconstruct Antarctic climate and ice sheet dynamics during past warm periods.

  • Patrick Heimbach

    The Computational Research in Ice and Ocean group (CRIOS) applies advanced computational methods to improve understanding of the role of the ocean, sea ice and ice sheets in the climate system.

  • Blair Johnson

    Blair’s research focuses on turbulence examined through laboratory experiments. She investigates ice-ocean melting processes in a novel lab setting to test the idea that turbulence drives terminus melt.

  • Benjamin Keisling

    Benjamin is interested in past archives of the Earth system and what they can teach us about the future. He investigates this with numerical ice-sheet and climate models integrated with geologic archives.

  • Lori Magruder

    Lori runs the 3D Geospatial Lab where she uses remote sensing observations to image the Earth in 3D. These data underpin Earth exploration that permit us to quantify our changing environment.

  • An Nguyen

    An’s research focuses on understanding the coupled ocean sea-ice system through observations and numerical simulations.

  • Helen Pillar

    Helen works on model-data synthesis for the Arctic and subpolar North Atlantic. She is interested in detecting climate signals within existing ocean datasets to support monitoring of the current and future ocean state.

  • Kiki Schulz

    Kiki is interested in ice-ocean interactions and small scale mixing and transport processes in the ocean, with a focus on the Arctic ocean.

  • Liang Yang

    Liang’s cryosphere research is focused on the representation of snow, frozen soil, permafrost, and solid precipitation in hydrology, weather and climate models. He leads the Land Environment and Atmospheric Dynamics group.

  • Duncan Young

    Duncan’s work focuses on the search for ancient ice in Antarctica, the geologic controls on the evolution of the ice sheets, and determining the subglacial interface in Antarctica.

  • Omar Ghattas

    Omar works on advanced mathematical, computational, and statistical theory and algorithms for complex high-dimensional inverse and optimization problems including ice sheet dynamics and ice-ocean interactions.

Postdocs and students

  • Enze Zhang

    Postdoc (JSG)

    Machine learning and glaciology

  • Kristian Chan

    PhD student (JSG)

    Ice-penetrating radar, near-surface characterization of icy worlds, firn heterogeneity, brine infiltration

  • Shreyas Gaikwad

    PhD Student (Oden)

    Inverse problems, adjoint methods, ice sheet dynamics

  • Megan Kerr

    PhD Student (JSG)

    Radioglaciology, airborne geophysics, subglacial geology, ice sheet dynamics

  • Jonathan Markel

    PhD Student (ASE)

    Arctic Coastal Erosion; satellite altimetry

  • Aubrey McCutchan

    PhD Student (Eng)

    Turbulence, ice-ocean interactions, lab experiments

  • Mikayla Pascual

    PhD Student (JSG)

    Glaciology, glacier variability, modeling

  • Mandala Pham

    Undergrad Researcher (JSG)

    Glaciology, paleoclimate, subglacial hydrology, glacier dynamics, ice cores

  • Kevin Shionalyn

    PhD Student (JSG)

    Machine learning, marine-terminating glaciers, polar science policy

  • Shivangini Singh

    PhD Student (JSG)

    Airborne geophysics, radioglaciology, ice sheet dynamics

  • Alex Stephens

    PhD Student (JSG)

    Glaciology, numerical modeling, ice-ocean interactions

  • Sophie Wu

    PhD Student (Eng)

    Radar interferometry, permafrost, hydrology

  • Shuai Yan

    PhD Student (JSG)

    Subglacial hydrology and geology, airborne geophysics survey, ice sheet dynamics