Deputy Director and Foundation Professor, School of Ocean Futures
Senior Global Futures Scientist, Global Futures Scientists and Scholars
School of Ocean Futures
Arizona State University
PO Box 877904
Tempe, AZ 85287-7904
Stephanie Pfirman is Deputy Director and Foundation Professor, School of Ocean Futures and Senior Sustainability Scientist in the Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation. Professor Pfirman's research focuses on understanding and responding to the changing Arctic, developing innovative approaches to formal and informal education, and exploring the intersection between diversity and interdisciplinarity. Her 30+ years of teaching include facilitating capstone/thesis projects, exploring global futures, climate systems and responding to climate change, the past, present, and future Arctic, museum exhibition design and implementation, innovation in science communication, leadership and polar exploration, environmental data analysis, energy resources, and oceanography.
Pfirman has led or co-led ca. $25 million in federal and agency grants spanning research, education and human resources. She is currently co-PI of a National Science Foundation grant on Navigating the New Arctic Track 1: Collaborative Research: ARC-NAV: Arctic Robust Communities-Navigating Adaptation to Variability (2019 - 2025).
Professor Pfirman’s Arctic research focuses on implications of changes in sea ice origin, drift, and melt patterns, including the Last Ice Area. Previous research addressed melting and surging glaciers and pollution transported by sea ice. In 2010, Pfirman was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in the Section on Atmospheric and Hydrospheric Sciences. In 2016, in honor of extraordinary service, Pfirman was designated a lifetime National Associate of the National Research Council.
As a current member of ASU's NSF-supported ADVANCE team and former co-PI of Columbia Earth Institute's ADVANCE grant, past member of the AAAS Committee on Opportunities in Science, past President of the Council of Environmental Deans and Directors, and past chair of the Earth Institute's Faculty Development Committee, Pfirman has helped to understand and foster the career trajectories of women and interdisciplinary scholars. She has also contributed to the development of innovative educational approaches in interdisciplinary, environmental, and STEM education through leading as PI the NSF-supported 7-year, $7 million Polar Learning and Responding: PoLAR Climate Change Education Partnership, co-producing the card game "EcoChains" which received a Parent's Choice award, chairing the Education Committee of the Columbia Earth Institute, and serving as a consultant for the Sherman Fairchild, Andrew W. Mellon, and Luce foundations.
Professional and leadership experience includes twice a member of NSF’s Advisory Committee for Environmental Research and Education (AC-ERE), including serving as the AC-ERE’s first chair after it was established in 2000, chair of NSF’s Advisory Committee to the Office of Polar Programs, member of the NSF Advisory Committee for evaluation of the Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability (SEES) Portfolio, member of the National Academy of Science’s Polar Research Board, co-chair of the NAS study committee on Emerging Research Questions in the Arctic, chair of the NAS study committee on the Scientific Value of the Arctic Sea Ice Imagery Derived Products, and member of the NAS study committee on the Legacy and Lessons of International Polar Year 2007-2008.
Before joining Arizona State University in 2018, for 25 years Pfirman chaired or co-chaired the Barnard College Department of Environmental Science, and Alena Wels Hirschorn '58 and Martin Hirschorn Professor of Environmental and Applied Sciences. She held a joint appointment with Columbia University where she was on the faculty of the Earth Institute and the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and an Adjunct Research Scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. While a senior scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund from 1990-1993, she was co-PI of the 1992 award-winning exhibition, "Global Warming: Understanding the Forecast," produced jointly with the American Museum of Natural History. Other prior positions include Arctic researcher at the GeoMarine Research Institution (GEOMAR) in Germany, staff scientist at the US House of Representatives, and oceanographer for the US Geological Survey.
PhD, Oceanography and Oceanographic Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1985
BA with high honors, Geology, Colgate University, 1978