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Ice Doctor

December 23, 2013

In a refrigerated room, MIT-WHOI Joint Program graduate student Alison Criscitiello saws ice cores from the Pine Island Shelf, where the Pine Island Glacier extends from West Antarctica into the Southern Ocean. The shelf is vulnerable to melting from the summer sun and from warming ocean waters. With her advisor, WHOI glaciologist Sarah Das, Criscitiello studied whether climate change is affecting sea ice formation around the continent and speeding the flow of glacial ice to the ocean (see video). She defended her thesis two weeks ago, handed in her Ph.D. thesis December 20, and is now Dr. Criscitiello.(Photo by Luke Trusel, Clark University)