Dr. Ian Joughin Receives 2012 Louis Agassiz Medal
by Angela R. Allen, Alaska Satellite Facility
ASF would like to recognize Dr. Ian Joughin (Figure 3), 2012 winner of the Louis Agassiz medal awarded by the European Geosciences Union (EGU). The Agassiz medal was established in 2005 by EGU’s Division on Cryospheric Sciences to acknowledge the pioneering work of Louis Agassiz on ice ages and glaciers. It is reserved for outstanding individual scientific contributions to the study of the cryosphere on Earth or elsewhere in the solar system. Dr. Joughin was honored for his landmark research on the dynamics and mass balance of polar ice sheets using Differential Interferometry Synthetic Aperture Radar (DInSAR), empirical data, and modeling.
Dr. Joughin is a glaciologist at the University of Washington’s Polar Science Center, with research focusing on Greenlandic and Antarctic ice sheet (e.g., Figure 4) contributions to current-and-future rates of sea-level change. Using DInSAR, Joughin has advanced polar glaciology from a field with sparse data owing to prohibitive logistics to one where satellite observations allow the study of continental-scale ice sheets. Specifically, his research involves satellite data analysis of ice-stream velocity and outlet glaciers augmented by ground- and airborne-based field work to obtain additional ice-flow measurements. By coupling these data with ice-sheet models, his work elucidates
physical mechanisms controlling ice flow. His results indicate that glacier and ice-stream dynamics occur on far shorter time scales than previously documented.
Dr. Joughin’s current research has been lauded for both its scientific and societal relevance; most prominently, Dr. Joughin’s effort to better understand the potential contribution of changes in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets to sea-level rise. His findings have filled key gaps in scientific knowledge highlighted in the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report. The IPCC conclusion that it could not accurately predict an upper bound on the rate of sea-level rise due to glaciers and ice sheets has been addressed through Dr. Joughin’s elucidation of the processes driving these changes. To that end, Dr. Joughin continues to refine his work, travelling to Greenland and Antarctica to study lake-drainage events and snowfall accumulation, and developing models to help predict how climate change will influence ice-sheet contributions to sea level. He is also widely considered as a generous collaborator and scholar who is excited to share his knowledge and insights. It is with great pleasure that ASF highlights Dr. Joughin’s receipt of the 2012 Louis Agassiz medal.