Achievement

IGERT Trainee Chris Polashenski, the first Dartmouth Trainee to complete a PhD, has researched Arctic sea ice, albedo, and melt dynamics, bringing together the disciplines of engineering, physics, and mathematics to better understand polar amplification and the physical feedbacks that are accelerating the loss of Arctic sea ice. His committee includes a primary advisor from the US Army Cold Regions and Research Laboratory, and faculty from Dartmouth and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He received an Outstanding Student Paper Award at the 2010 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting for his presentation on fresh meltwater in the sea ice system. He has been mentioned or featured in a number of online publications as well as Scientific American for his work on the icebreaker Healy in the Chukchi Sea with IGERT faculty Don Perovich, where they investigated how sea ice under melt ponds keeps ice water from draining into the ocean.