Alumni

Justine CAILLET, PhD student (2020-2024) and Postdoc (2024)

My research is part of the ANR-EIS Project. I am particularly interested in the interactions between the Southern Ocean and the Antarctic ice shelves in the Amundsen sector (West Antarctica), which is currently the main contributor of Antarctica to global sea level rise. To better understand the interplay of processus in this region and to propose future projections of the sector’s contribution to sea level, I rely mainly on the coupling between an ocean model (NEMO) and an ice flow model (Elmer-Ice).


Gabi COLLAO-BARRIOS, Postdoc (2022-2024)

My research focuses on ice dynamics and surface mass balance of glaciers and snow using numerical models and data in different parts of the world. I am currently studying ice thickness inversion and subglacial topography techniques to improve the method used for future projection of mountain glaciers and their contribution to sea level rise. I am implementing this method with the Elmer-Ice flow model in glaciers of the Mont-Blanc massif. My PhD thesis at IGE was on surface mass balance in the Patagonian North Ice Field using numerical models. And during my first post-doc in Colorado, USA, I studied the snow cover in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and the ice pack dynamics in West Antarctica with ground and satellite data.


Antoine NASSER, Postdoc (2023-2024)

As the global climate undergoes rapid shifts, numerical climate models are essential tools for simulating the complex interactions between all climate components, providing critical insights for society and policymakers. Unlike other climate components, the world’s oceans have solid boundaries (the seafloor and floating ice shelves) that extend through the entire water column, significantly influencing ocean circulation. However, traditional methods for representing topography in ocean models face persistent challenges that hinder our ability to understand the impacts of climate change. Hailing from France, I have a diverse background that includes an engineering degree from ENSTA Paris, a master’s in applied mathematics from the University of Paris-Saclay, and a PhD in physical oceanography from Sorbonne University. My work aims to overcome current limitations in marine topography representation within climate models by exploring a novel approach called the Brinkman Volume Penalisation method.


Anuar TOGAIBEKOV, PhD student (2021-2024)

My doctoral research is part of a bigger project “SAUSSURE” whose main objective is to study the physical mechanisms that control glacier dynamics, with an emphasis on the interaction between glacier beds and subglacial hydrology. I use a combination of geodetic observations and physical models to better understand spatial and temporal variations of these complex systems.


Etienne DUCASSE, Research Engineer (2021-2024)

I am a research engineer in geographical science, with a focus on remote sensing techniques. I work with Sentinel-2 and higher spatial resolution data (uav-borne, Pléiades), to estimate glacier flow velocities in the Alps. This work is supported by the ESA (European Space Agency) AlpGlacier project.


Cruz GARCIA MOLINA, Postdoc (2020-2023)

I’m a young researcher passionate for continuous media dynamics. In particular I’m interested in numerical simulations with a strong impact on climate change. Currently, I run simulations using Elmer/Ice to study the large-scale Ice calving phenomenon. I enjoy helping to raise awareness of climate change through science communication, to which I have devoted my life.


Eliot JAGER, PhD student (2020-2023)

After an education in fluid mechanics and climate science, I joined IGE for my M2 internship. During these 6 months, I worked on a synthetic glacier case in order to evaluate the uncertainties of the reconstruction of basal conditions (stress and pressure at the base) through data assimilation. Simulations of future mass loss of the Greenland ice sheet being very sensitive to its initial state, the aim of my PhD is to improve the knowledge of the latter by using ensemble methods.


Christoph KITTEL, Postdoc (2022-2024)

As a post-doctoral researcher, my work involves contributing to the H2020 CRiceS project, which focuses on the study of the interactions between sea ice, snow, and the global climate system. Previously, I completed a PhD thesis at ULiège, where I specialized in the study of the Antarctic Ice Sheet using the MAR atmospheric regional climate model, as well as its coupling with the NEMO ocean model. In my current work, I am exploring how the ocean, atmosphere, and ice sheet interact with each other to influence the broader climate system.


Christian VINCENT, CNRS Research Engineer (until 2023)

My research focuses on the relations between climate and the mass balance of mountain glaciers, the ice flow processes and the risks of glacial origin (water pockets, supra-glacial lakes and serac falls). Mountain glaciers are precious climatic indicators and this is the main reason for the GLACIOCLIM Observatory that Patrick Wagnon and I founded and which is now coordinated by Delphine Six. I often work with local communities or companies to try to answer questions related to the risks or fate of glaciers. This work requires both observations and modelling and is done in close collaboration with colleagues at IGE and other institutes.


Clara BURGARD, Postdoc (2020-2023)

My interests are ice-ocean interactions and climate change. I am currently studying the interactions between the Antarctic ice sheet and the ocean using numerical models. My PhD thesis was on Arctic sea ice in climate models and satellite observations. In addition to scientific research, I like to think about communicating scientific results creatively to a wider audience.


Jean Baptiste BARRÉ, Research Engineer (2020-2023)

I am a research engineer working on data visualization. I work closely with researchers in the lab to create visualizations and applications to promote a better understanding of the Earth. Within the H2020 PROTECT project, I’m in charge of the data mangement. Previously, I worked as a scientist on forest and timber research projects involving hyperspectral remote sensing on the one hand and signal processing techniques applied to mechanistic and spectroscopic data on the other.


Dorothée VALLOT, Visiting postdoc from SMHI, Sweden (2021-2023)

I am a Postdoctoral researcher based at the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), oceanographic research group and I am spending 2 years of my time in the CryoDyn group of Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement (IGE) and at St Andrews University, UK. I am funded by the Swedish research agency. The aim of my research project is to understand the processes involved at the ocean-ice interface of Thwaites glacier, West Antarctica. I am particularly interested in the interactions between basal roughness under the ice shelf and the melt/freezing processes induced by the ocean. The final goal is to reduce uncertainties in ice shelf modelling, particularly threatened by climate change and which loss could have detrimental effects on sea level rise. I use a series of models, at different time and spatial scales : the continuum ice flow model Elmer/Ice, the discrete particle model HiDEM, the ocean models NEMO (basin-scale model) and Firedrake (crevasse-scale). I am part of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (ITGC) in the DOMINOS team.


Benoît URRUTY, PhD student (2019-2023)

My PhD is on the tipping points within the TiPACCs project. I am working on the stability regimes of the ice-sheet grounding lines. I am using the Elmer/Ice model to study ice flows over the entire Antarctic ice sheet.


Marco PIANTINI, PhD student (2019-2023)

I’m a Ph.D. student for the SEISMORIV project (Seismic Monitoring of mountain Rivers). I study the use of seismology to evaluate the control of extreme climatic events on river dynamics. In particular, I’m interested in investigating the seismic noise generated by sediment transport processes. The aim of my work is to develop and validate seismo-mechanical frameworks at both the laboratory and the field scale.


Juan Pedro ROLDÁN-BLASCO, PhD student (2019-2023)

I am the PhD student for the SAUSSURE project. Although my background is mostly on the numerics side, here I am doing a little bit of everything : I’m in charge of improving current friction laws (using analytical and numerical methods) and studying the deformation data from the boreholes installed at Glacier d’Argentière. Later on I’ll do some work on the role of hydrology on glacier dynamics.


Astrid ZIMMERMANN, PhD student (2018-2022)

My research focuses on numerical modelling of ice flow. Specifically, gaining a better understanding of the behaviour of ice shelves with a viscoelastic model in Rheolef. With degrees in "Computer science in mechanical engineering" and "Geomatics", as well as an exchange semester in Svalbard ; I am excited to get to use my gained knowledge and to have the opportunity to learn more about ice. My PhD is a joined degree where I split my time between UGA (France) and Swansea University (Wales).


Samuel COOK, Postdoc (2020-2022)

My research uses numerical modelling to improve understanding of glacier behaviour, principally using the Elmer/Ice modelling suite. My doctoral thesis was on building a fully coupled model of Store Glacier, Greenland, including ice flow, hydrology, calving and plumes. Currently, I’m working on improving the data-assimilation capabilities of Elmer/Ice to improve model predictions.


Diego CUSICANQUI, PhD student (2019-2022)

Geography Engineer and currently PhD student at the Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement (IGE – Université Grenoble Alpes, CDP Risk@UGA) and Laboratoy of Environment and Dynamics of Mountain TErritories (EDYTEM – University Savoie Mont-Blanc). I work with remote sensing techniques, focus on satellite, aerial and terrestrial photogrammetry applied to mountain permafrost, debris covered glaciers and mountain glaciers. I’m particularly interested in permafrost creeping, natural hazards, and the link/consequences between those aspects and climate change in mountain regions.


Nate MAIER, Postdoc (2019-2022)

I study the physical processes that control ice motion internally and at the bed of the Greenland Ice Sheet. I am particularly interested in determining the composition of the bed which fundamentally controls how ice moves (i.e. is the ice moving over bedrock or sediment ?), and I also seek to understand the long-term impact of surface melting on ice motion. My strategy is to test and refine our theoretically and observationally derived understanding of glacier motion using remotely-sensed datasets of velocity and ice thickness to get a more accurate picture of the processes controlling the largescale behavior of the ice sheet.


Jérémie MOUGINOT, CNRS Research Scientist, 2016-2022

I study the evolution of the ice sheets (Greenland, Antarctica) over the last decades. My research mainly focuses on estimating the mass balance of the ice sheets with aim of establishing their current contribution to sea level rise, and trying to understand their interactions with other components of the climate system, with the aim of improving their description in numerical models. To do this, I use aerial or satellite observations (remote sensing) to allow me to estimate the evolution of the surface ice velocity.


Evangelos KORKOLIS, Visiting postdoc from U. Oslo (2020-2021)

I am a postdoctoral fellow at the Njord Centre at the University of Oslo, currently posted at IGE/GLACIO to perform friction experiments on ice. My work is part of the project “History-dependent friction”, funded by The Research Council of Norway. The aim of the project is to incorporate contact history in the rate & state friction formulation. My experiments will probe the effect of complex loading histories in the macroscopic frictional behavior of ice.


Anna DERKACHEVA, PhD student (2018-2021)

My thesis project focuses on the seasonal dynamics of the flow of some Greenlandic glaciers by combining satellite observation and modeling data. From the massive processing of spatial imagery, I obtained a large velocity data set that allows the exhaustive observation of the seasonal dynamics. In a second step, I use Elmer/Ice to study the factors that induce it. At the same time, we take advantage of this study to find good practices for the preparation and exploitation of such observational data as model inputs.


Ugo NANI, PhD student (2017-2020)

After a bachelor of Geosciences focused on structural geology, I came to glaciology thanks a summer school in Svalbard. I first integrated IGE during my master to work on the coupling between the subglacial hydrology and ice dynamic. I then joined in October 2017 Christian Vincent and Florent Gimbert to do my PhD with the objective to bring new constraints on the temporal and spatial dynamics on the subglacial hydrology system using passive seismology. Over the last three years I installed a series of seismometer on the glacier d’Argentière, including a one-month survey with 98 seismometers. I am involved in the RESOLVE project.

Glaces - Sciences en BD


Jordi BOLIBAR, PhD student (2017-2020)

I study the evolution of glaciers in response to climate change on a regional scale and its hydrological consequences. I use machine learning modelling approaches combined with physical-empirical models. During my PhD, I applied these methods to the study of the evolution of all the glaciers in the French Alps between 1967 and 2100, in order to better understand the reasons for these changes, the non-linear interactions between climate and glaciers and the hydrological consequences for the region.