Polar Postdoc Leadership Workshop

I'm a marine ecologist currently working for the Alaska Arctic Observatory and Knowledge Hub (AAOKH) that is a part of the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. My work with AAOKH focuses on community-based environmental monitoring, indigenous knowledge co-production and exploring ways of making information more accessible and usable for communities and stakeholders. As a marine scientist, I have a particular interest in understanding patterns of marine organisms’ distribution and the role that the environment plays in shaping marine communities. My recent work with AAOKH has given me the opportunity to explore ways we can gain a better understanding of the environment and climate change by bringing together different ways of knowing. Though my work takes place in the Arctic, I live and play on the lands of the Dena’ina and Sugpiaq people in Homer, Alaska. I love exploring the coast of the Kenai Peninsula on my sail boat and wander about the land on skis and hiking with my dog Dr Bandit.

Dr. Angela Szesciorka is an NSF Office of Polar Programs Postdoctoral Fellow in Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute working with Dr. Kate Stafford. She uses a variety of tools — including animal-mounted tags and seafloor hydrophones — to study baleen whale migration and behavioral ecology, and the threats they face in human- and climate-impacted ecosystems. Dr. Szesciorka has studied bowhead whales in the Arctic, humpback whales in the California Current Ecosystem, gray whales in Puget Sound, blue and fin whales in southern California, and Bryde’s whales in the Mariana Archipelago. At OSU, she is studying the impact of decreasing sea ice on bowhead whale migration. She is also investigating how changes to migration coupled with increased vessel traffic may increase ship strike risk to bowhead whales. Dr. Szesciorka earned her PhD in Oceanography from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, which was funded by the NOAA Dr. Nancy Foster Scholarship Program. She earned her MSc in Marine Science from Moss Landing Marine Laboratories and her bachelor's degree in journalism from Duquesne University. Outside of research, Dr. Szesciorka enjoys traveling, driving boats, watching horror movies with extremely salty popcorn, riding roller coasters at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, and going to baseball games.

I am a postdoc at the University of Colorado Boulder and NOAA's Physical Science Laboratory. My overarching research interests are focused on Arctic variability and change. Currently I am studying the Arctic surface energy budget using observations from the MOSAiC expedition and models with a recent focus on the impact of snow on sea ice for energy transport during winter. I received my PhD in atmospheric science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where I used satellite observations and global climate models to investigate the variability and trends of solar radiation reflection and absorption in light of recent sea ice decline in the Arctic.

I am an observational physical oceanographer. My research focuses on polar processes, including ice-ocean and air-sea interactions, boundary current dynamics, and water mass transformation. I am especially interested in how these processes impact the transport of heat and freshwater around the Arctic, the property fluxes between the Arctic and subpolar seas, and the impacts of these heat and freshwater fluxes on glacial dynamics and biophysical interactions. For this research, I use a combination of observations obtained through fieldwork and remote-sensing measurements from satellites, reanalysis products, and models. I am passionate about fieldwork and protecting these polar environments.

I'm a postdoc at the University of Oxford, working in planetary science. My particular interests are in the seismology of solar system bodies, especially icy moons. At present, I am coordinating an analogue seismology experiment in Antarctica; using sensors designed for use on Mars. I am particularly interested in analogue fieldwork and modelling, and will be moving to the US to take up a fellowship in planetary sciences in September.

David is a postdoc at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado Boulder. His research uses lake and marine sediment cores to reconstruct the response of high-latitude glaciers and ecosystems to past climate variability needed to contextualize and forecast future climate scenarios. His expertise lies in the use of sediment, organic geochemistry, and ancient DNA proxies.

Hello! I'm a post doc research at the University of Colorado studying ice sheet hydrology! Currently, I am using microwave remote sensing to investigate lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet. While I have never been to Antarctica or Greenland, I really love doing field work and am always looking for opportunities to do research outside! In my free time I enjoy running, playing soccer, painting and crochet.

I received my Ph.D. in Geological Sciences at the University of Southern California in 2022. I am currently an NSF OPP Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. My research is on past climate at high latitudes spanning the Cenozoic. I utilize proxies to reconstruct temperature and precipitation. I then compare these results to model simulations to learn about the different factors that impacted climate in the past to understand how the high latitudes are changing today. In the past, I have studied past climate in the Antarctic from marine sediment cores and I am currently researching Arctic climate. I enjoy working with elementary school children to introduce them to earth science and how climate has changed in the past.

I’m a polar biogeochemist, originally from the Netherlands. Last year, I finished my PhD at Aarhus University, Denmark, where my research focused on organic carbon associated with microbial communities that inhabit Greenland Ice Sheet surfaces during the ablation season. Recently, I moved to Philadelphia to join the Biogeochemical Cycles (BiCycles) Lab at the University of Pennsylvania. The BiCycles Lab studies biogeochemical cycling in aquatic environments and Earth’s critical zone, with a special focus on polar and alpine regions. Here, my main research focus is on the export and cycling of organic carbon, nutrients and trace elements from glaciers and ice sheets to fjords and oceans.

I am an NSF postdoctoral research fellow in biology in the broadening participation of underrepresented groups in biology program in the lab of Trinity Hamilton at the University of Minnesota. My research focuses on understanding the ecosystems of Polar and alpine regions including the biotic and abiotic interactions of communities of organisms on glaciers and periglacial ecosystems. My recent work is examining the microbial and invertebrate communities of lentic and lotic habitats on the supraglacial surface of debris-covered and clean surface glaciers in Tibet and Alaska to understand which environmental variables might be influencing biological communities, even as increasing temperatures rapidly change the immediate glacier habitats. Understanding the physiological adaptations of extremophile organisms within glaciated environments will help us to reveal novel information that could aid in our understanding of life on other planets and physiological adaptations that could transfer to technological developments in science. As well, my goal is to become an advocate to increase diversity and participation of underrepresented individuals in Polar and mountain ecosystem science, especially those with hidden disabilities, individuals who live with deafness, and BIPOC individuals.

Jack began a postdoc at the University of California, Santa Cruz in March 2023. He has spent five field seasons studying the marine ecosystem west of the Antarctic Peninsula, and his research focuses on the ecology of Antarctic zooplankton. He holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from William & Mary and a Ph.D. in marine science from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. Jack worked with NOAA Ocean Exploration as a Sea Grant Knauss Fellow in 2022 and primarily supported interagency coordination of ocean science.

My name is Jason Coenen, and I am a National Science Foundation Ocean Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellow working at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I received my BS from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, and my MS and PhD from Northern Illinois University. My graduate research involved using marine diatoms to better understand the history of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and Agulhas Current. My current work focuses on marine diatoms from the Cretaceous looking into the response of siliceous microfossils to the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event and potential precursor event related to Deccan Volcanism. My long-term career goals are to become a research scientist with a tenure-track faculty position that is involved in research drilling efforts in the Southern Ocean and Antarctica. I hope to build a deeper understanding of fossil marine diatom taxonomy, paleoecology, and biostratigraphy for the Cenozoic and Cretaceous. I’m also interested in learning was to establish a research group and classroom that maintains a positive and inclusive work environment in which students can grow and develop skills to inspire and become the next generation of Antarctic researchers. In my free time, I enjoy spending time with family and friends, hiking, playing bass guitar, seeing live music, and running.

I am a physical oceanographer, working at the University of Texas at Austin in the "Greenland Ice Sheet Ocean interaction" (GRISO) project. My regions of interest are the Arctic Ocean, where I went with the MOSAiC campaign in 2020, and the coastal regions and fjords of Greenland. My scientific focus is mostly on small-scale turbulent mixing processes, and how physical transport shapes the biogeochemical oceanic environment, and affects sea ice and glacier fronts. I am working with both observational and modeled data, to use the best of both worlds to better understand oceanic processes and connections.

I recently started a postdoc position at Berkeley Geochronology Center in the Bay Area of California. Here, my research focuses on addressing the many challenges and limitations in the applications of cosmogenic-nuclide geochemistry to ice sheet change, Cenozoic geological history, and surface process studies in Antarctica. This is done through various research tasks and experiments that involve (i) “virtual” mineral separation by exploiting variable noble gas diffusion kinetics, (ii) improving the ability to distinguish between cosmogenic and non-cosmogenic inventories of nuclides such as 3He, 21Ne, and 36Cl, and (iii) establish the feasibility and reliability of multiple-nuclide measurements in the certain Antarctic rocks. Besides my research, I enjoy the outdoors and nature and am always exploring new areas through running, biking, hiking, camping, paddle boarding, or any other activity that will take me outside in fresh air. I do also enjoy being creative and build furniture that I can’t afford to buy.

Marisa is a postdoc at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR), University of Colorado Boulder. Her research focusses in the development and implementation of molecular markers in organic fossils to reconstruct the climate of the past. Her research discusses climate linkages (e.g. ice-sheet, ocean and climate interactions) and the mechanisms responsible for climate changes. Ultimately, she aims to help predicting future climate scenarios.

As a geobiologist, I am interested in telling the stories that microbial communities leave in the rock record. As an astrobiologist, I’m interested in using this work to help us in our search for life in other planets, such as Mars. My Ph.D. work focused on studying the preservation of chemical and physical biosignatures in hot springs and how post-depositional diagenesis affected the retention of biosignatures. ¬Most of the record of life on Earth is microbial, and if we find evidence of life on other planets, it will probably be microbial. Therefore, understanding how microbial communities transition from the living to the fossil realm will allow us to better understand life on Earth and other planets. I am now a postdoctoral scholar at the University of New Mexico, working with Dr. Tyler Mackey. My work focuses on studying the sedimentary record of benthic microbial communities of ice-covered lakes in Antarctica, and how climate change influences the organic carbon budget of these lakes. I take sedimentological, mineralogic, and petrographic approaches to my research and integrate data from the outcrop to the µm-scale.

Radiance Calmer is an Associate Scientist at CIRES, University of Colorado, Boulder. She is working with drones to conduct atmospheric and sea ice measurements. She was part of the MOSAiC expedition to study climate change in the Arctic in 2020. She has been focusing on surface albedo and melt pond fraction during the Arctic summertime. Her expertise also covers aerosol-cloud interactions and atmospheric boundary layer processes. She obtained her Ph.D. in France and spent her first stay in the US with the Fulbright program at Scripps Institution of Oceanography during her thesis. She obtained her Master degrees from a French engineering school in Toulouse and from Seoul National University, South Korea.

My name Sophie Goliber and I am a Postdoc at the University of Buffalo. I earned my Ph.D. in geological sciences from the University of Texas at Austin with Dr. Ginny Catania. My thesis focused on understanding the controls on changes at marine-terminating glaciers in Greenland using the recent satellite record. My undergraduate degree was earned at the University at Buffalo in Geology, so I am very excited to be back at my alma mater as a postdoc. At UB, I work on the Ghub science gateway to enable ice sheet scientists to work more collaboratively and efficiently. I also try to understand how marine-terminating glaciers calve ice into the ocean using remote sensing to aid in understanding how best to represent them in ice sheet models. I am also an avid cook, amateur roller derby player, and cat lady.

Dr. Stanislav Saas Ksenofontov is an Indigenous Sakha social scientist from the Sakha Republic in Eastern Siberia, Russia. In his research, Stanislav focuses on the vulnerability of Arctic Indigenous social-ecological systems to global change drivers, namely climate change, industrial development, socio-political transformations. Other research interests include Arctic sustainable communities, Arctic urbanization, Indigenous identities, Russian energy megaprojects, Asian stakes in the Arctic. Dr. Ksenofontov holds a Ph.D. in Human Geography from the University of Zurich, Switzerland. Currently, he is a postdoctoral scholar at the ARCTICenter, University of Northern Iowa, USA. Besides research, Stanislav serves as a Fellowship Coordinator at the International Arctic Science Committee (Iceland). Saas loves traveling, Sakha music, indie rock, good food and wine.

Dr. Taylor Stinchcomb (she/her/hers) is an interdisciplinary social scientist with interests in community-driven conservation, knowledge co-production, and integrated geospatial analysis. She received her Ph.D. from Purdue University in 2022 as part of the Interdisciplinary Ecological Sciences & Engineering program, where she examined the social dimensions of white-tailed deer management across Indiana. From 2015-2018, she studied the impacts of aircraft noise on subsistence harvest practices in Arctic Alaska for her M.S. at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She recently returned to Fairbanks as a Science Application Specialist with the Wildlife Conservation Society's Arctic-Beringia Program. Taylor is excited to apply her skills in mixed-method social science, social-ecological systems, acoustic monitoring, ungulate ecology, and participatory research to support conservation in the changing Arctic.

Dr. Alison (Ali) Banwell is a glaciologist and Research Scientist in the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), part of the University of Colorado Boulder. Broadly, her research focuses on how the Earth’s warming climate is changing glacier, ice-sheet and ice-shelf melt, hydrology and dynamics using satellite remote-sensing, fieldwork and modeling. Dr. Banwell received her Ph.D. in Glaciology from the University of Cambridge, and her B.Sc. from the University of Edinburgh, UK. She has led may field expeditions in Antarctica and has also conducted fieldwork on the Greenland Ice Sheet, Svalbard, the European Alps, and the Himalaya. She is a Science Alliance member for Protect Our Winters (POW), a non-profit climate advocacy group. Aside from glaciology, Ali is a rock climber, skier, mountain biker and trail runner.

Dr. Ryan Cassotto (he/him) is a Research Scientist in the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado. He uses satellite and terrestrial based instruments to investigate geophysical surface changes using a suite of satellite and terrestrial remote sensing platforms. His recent projects include evaluating the impact of a granular proglacial ice mélange on tidewater glacier calving, investigating the influence of perennial firn aquifers on tidewater glacier dynamics, studying the links between climate change and cascading natural hazards, and applying synthetic aperture radar (SAR) for 3D ice flow derivations, land use change, and mapping of wildfire activity in near real time. Ryan is also co-developer and instructor of FieldSafe, a virtual workshop aimed at building including and safe teams in remote field environments. In his free time, Ryan likes to camp, hike and ski the Rockies with his wife, Megan, his kids, Logan and Julia, and dogs, Granite and Luna.

Matthew Druckenmiller is a Research Scientist with the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) within CIRES at the University of Colorado Boulder. Since 2004, Matthew has worked within the mountains and coastal regions of Alaska, first monitoring glacier volume changes before switching to research on the connections between changing sea ice conditions, marine mammal habitat, and local Indigenous community uses of sea ice for hunting and travel. Currently, he serves as Director of the Navigating the New Arctic Community Office (NNA-CO) and co-leads the Exchange for Local Observations and Knowledge of the Arctic (ELOKA). Matthew earned his PhD in geophysics from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (2011), and is originally from Trout Run, Pennsylvania. He now lives in Longmont, Colorado with his wife Hyunjin and three children, Elias, Avery, and Ela.