Author: Matt Druckenmiller

Matthew Druckenmiller is a sea ice scientist, who is originally from northern Pennsylvania. He grew up hunting and fishing with his father and grandfather, and became sensitive to observing human influences on natural systems. After studying geo-environmental engineering at Penn State University he moved to Alaska in 2004 with an interest in glaciers and Arctic environments. In 2011, he received his doctoral degree in geophysics from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where he studied the physics of coastal sea ice. He had the opportunity to base much of his work near coastal communities, such as Barrow, which enabled him to learn the importance of the sea ice and ocean to indigenous peoples and to appreciate the richness of their local environmental knowledge. Since leaving Alaska, Druckenmiller has been a postdoctoral research fellow at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado Boulder. Much of his work, which includes several collaborations with the North Slope Borough, is still based in the Arctic and focused on marine systems.