Students

Karina Zikan received her Bachelor's degree in Physics and Mathematics from St Olaf College in 2020. Her research interests include snow and ice dynamics, remote sensing, and impacts of environmental change. Working with Dr. Ellyn Enderlin, Karina currently studies remote sensing techniques for measuring snow depths in alpine regions while pursuing a Ph.D. in geophysics. She first discovered her love of geophysics as an undergraduate when she studied remotely sensed ice surface temperatures over the Greenland Ice Sheet, as well as snow metamorphoses and albedo as part of Dr. Alden Adolph’s Impacts of Snow Evolution Research Team. In her free time Karina loves to be out in the mountains hiking, skiing, or paddling. When not in the backcountry she can often be found with a cup of tea and a good book. 

Aman received his Bachelor’s degree in Geomatics Engineering from Tribhuvan University, Nepal and is currently working towards his MS in Geoscience at Boise State. His broad research interest includes the development and modeling of the earth surfaces that are most vulnerable to climate change, the cryosphere being one of them. During his first visit to the Himalayas, he was extremely shocked to see them completely rocky and bare, even at the coldest times. This ignited his curiosity and inspired him to search for the answers to these phenomena, applying his passion for spatial data. For his research, Aman is working with Dr. Ellyn Enderlin for refining the estimates of solid ice fluxes to Greenland coastal regions by augmenting remotely-sensed ice flux estimates with detailed terminus change time series and seasonal ice flux time series. Prior to joining Boise state, he also worked as a Surveyor for the Government of Nepal and as an intern at the United Nations Environment Program. In his free time, Aman can be found playing basketball, traveling and exploring or listening to music.

Lindsay received her bachelor’s degree in geology and geophysics from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 2023. Her passion for glaciology and geophysics started during her undergraduate research, where she worked on a thesis regarding glacial seismology and basal slip in Alaska. She is currently pursuing an MS in geophysics at BSU, and her research interests include glacier dynamics, remote sensing, glacial geophysics, and how these can relate to climate change and water resources. Her master's thesis will focus on relationships between Alaska glacier velocities and meltwater generation at seasonal timescales. In her free time, she enjoys cycling, paddling, yoga, and travel.

Parker Wilkerson grew up in Walnut Creek, California. He went to the University of Portland and earned a degree in Environmental Science, and ran track and field for five years. During his time at Portland, he also participated in undergraduate research studying how the Eliot Glacier on Mount Hood was changing and the consequences for regional water resources. During his free time Parker enjoys trail running, backpacking, hiking, and road tripping. 

Rainey spent her formative years in Washington state, where she received bachelor’s degrees in Geosciences and Physics at Pacific Lutheran University. She fostered her love for glaciology during her undergraduate research experience at Mount Rainier working with Dr. Claire Todd. Her research interests include glacier and snow cover dynamics, remote sensing, and water resources. When she’s not on her PC, she loves cycling on the Boise Greenbelt, playing in the snow, home gardening, and playing with her cat. She recently finished her MS in Geophysics work assessing controls on ice dynamics at Crane Glacier, Antarctic Peninsula using a numerical ice flow model. 

Her PhD work focuses on image processing techniques for analyzing iceberg size distributions in Antarctica, snow cover in mountainous regions, and seasonal trends in mass and stress balance at Wolverine Glacier, Alaska. 

Rainey completed her PhD in Geophysics in spring 2025 and is starting a position with the US Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab in fall 2025.

Isabella is an undergraduate majoring in Geosciences with an emphasis in Geology. She was born in Lodi, California and spent her time outside exploring the San Joaquin Delta and the Sierra Nevada Mountains.She discovered her love for Earth Sciences in her 8th grade science class an an interest in remote sensing through her help within this group.  She is currently using Matlab to estimate iceberg melt rates. In her free time she likes to hike, paint, read, and cuddle with her cat Nova.

Isabella completed her Bs in Geosciences in spring 20234.

Alex is an undergraduate student majoring in Geosciences with an emphasis in Hydrology. Alex was born and raised in Bakersfield, California, and spent most of his summertime exploring the Central Coast of California. He gained his passion for hydrology throughout high school when he took various courses that focused on water remediation and environmental sustainability, constructing prototypes such as gravity-fed filtration systems to remove silt and a two tiered-system to remove oil from water. His interest in glaciology has immensely increased during his time on the CryoGARS Glaciology team, where he is currently working with digital elevation models to estimate meltrates of icebergs through MATLAB.

In his free time, Alex enjoys listening to music, playing basketball, and exploring the outdoors.

Alex completed his BS in Geosciences in spring 2024.

Jukes Liu researches glacier dynamics and glacier responses to environmental change while pursuing a Ph.D. in Geophysics. Liu is currently supported by the Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science And Technology (FINESST) Award to research glacier surge mechanisms in the Alaska-Yukon region using cutting-edge satellite image processing techniques and data from in situ instruments. Liu is experienced with processing and visualizing a wide variety of remote sensing datasets including satellite images, digital elevation models, airborne altimetry data, and gridded data from models. In addition, Liu has experience conducting glacier fieldwork, specifically with installing and servicing seismic, ice penetrating radar, weather station, time lapse camera, and GNSS instruments on a surging glacier. Liu’s previous research has involved automation of data analysis workflows for big datasets corresponding to hundreds of glaciers around Greenland’s periphery. Liu manages large datasets produced from these workflows and the code associated with them, with emphasis on providing open-source tools and open-access data for the scientific community.

Jukes completed their PhD in Geophysics in spring 2024 and has been doing postdoctoral research as part of the broader CryoGARS group. 

Phoebs earned her Bachelor’s degree in Planetary Geosciences from Purdue University in 2020 where her research was focused on mapping aqueously altered fractures on Mars. During her senior year, she took geomorphology and remote sensing courses and completed a final project mapping terminus positions of Muir Glacier, Alaska, which sparked an intense interest in glaciology. She wasn’t quite sure what path to take after graduation, so she took a year off and worked as a youth climbing coach at Brooklyn Boulders in Chicago, using any free time she had to climb outdoors at Devil’s Lake in Wisconsin and the Red River Gorge in Kentucky. In June she had the opportunity to go into the field with the Juneau Icefield Research Program and spent her summer digging mass balance pits, rappelling into crevasses, and drinking way too much Tang. 

Phoebe completed her Masters of Earth Science in spring 2023. She doesn't have a permanent job lined-up for immediately after graduation because she is planning on spending some time exploring the world before starting her career.

Kate hails from the Colorado Front Range and earned her Bachelor’s degree in Watershed Science from Colorado State University. There, she worked predominantly with local hydrologic systems and was most interested in snow hydrology, land-use hydrology, and water law and policy in the Western U.S. Her capstone project investigated climate-driven snowpack and runoff trends across the Colorado Rockies using SNOTEL and stream gauge data. Kate participated in the Juneau Icefield Research Program in 2016 and was captivated by the complex icefield processes and was inspired by the people she met there. She has returned to JIRP as Safety Staff for the last two seasons and is now working on a Master’s at Boise State University mapping glacier termini in Greenland using Landsat imagery. Kate loves climbing, skiing, trail running, coffee, baked goods, and sunshine and is enjoying getting to know Idaho and surrounding areas. 

After completing her MS in Geophysics in summer 2021, Kate started a job in the glaciology group at the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Alaska Science Center. 

Colten is an MS candidate in Geophysics at Boise State University. He was born and raised in Indianapolis and has since worked and studied in southern California, eastern Washington, and northern Utah. He earned his BS in Management and Restoration of Aquatic Ecosystems at Utah State University while working in the Belmont Hydrology and Fine Sediment laboratory studying post-fire debris flows and fish habitat. The program at Boise State will allow him to focus more on the physical and geological processes of watersheds through the lens of remotely-sensed snowpack data using ICESat-2. When he’s not on-campus, you’ll usually find Colten running on the Boise River Greenbelt of biking on some of the hundreds of miles of singletrack nearby.

After completing his MS in Geophysics in spring 2021, Colten began a job as a lab technician at the Idaho Transportation Department.

Lynn earned her Bachelor’s of Science in Physics and Astronomy at Emory University in 2014. During her final year as an undergraduate she was involved in a study of the hydrodynamics of iceberg calving in laboratory models through experimentation and numerical modeling. Since then she has strived to apply her background in physics to problems within the Cryosphere. She currently researches the dynamics of ice shelf margins and calving fronts and their effects on ice shelf stability. This work incorporates finite-element numerical modeling and satellite remote sensing techniques in addition to extensive fieldwork in remote locations including Antarctica, Svalbard, and Greenland. She is also passionate about student outreach and finding innovative ways to engage middle, high school, and college students in the scientific research process. She has been involved in outreach activities focusing on incorporating field observations and methods into the K-12 curriculum through programs such as the Follow a Researcher Program™ at the University of Maine and PolarTREC, a program focused on fostering collaboration between teachers and polar researchers. 

After completing her PhD in Earth and Climate Sciences in fall 2021, Lynn began a postdoc position at the University of Alaska Southeast.

Will was a US National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, earning his MS in Earth Science from the University of Maine in August 2019.  Will grew up in Nashville, TN before attending Dickinson College in Pennsylvania where he earned a B.S. in Earth Sciences. Will is interested in glaciers around the world and works with remotely sensed and in situ data to answer questions about glacier dynamics and mass balance. Will’s thesis work focused on surging glacier dynamics in the St. Elias Mountains of Western Canada and Alaska. 

After completing is MS in Earth and Climate Sciences, Will began his PhD at the University of Ottawa under the supervision of Dr. Luke Copland. Will completed his PhD in 2022 and is now a Visiting Assistant Teaching Professor at the University of New England.

Mariama earned her MS in Earth Science from the University of Maine in August 2019. Mariama's interest in the environment was honed whilst growing up on a sustainable organic farm in driftless Wisconsin, and was further developed whilst studying geography at Durham University. Her dissertation fieldwork in southern Iceland peaked her interest in ice-climate interactions and prompted her to pursue this topic further. At UMaine she evaluated changes in ice-melt variability off the coast of Antarctica, relating patterns in melting of icebergs and to variations in glacier length and flow. After several years outside of academia working in environmental education, Mariama is now the Director for the Polar Science Early Career Community Office, a national-level office supporting Arctic and Antarctic scientists early in their careers hosted at the University of Colorado Boulder. In her free time, Mariama can be found pursuing type-2 fun through running, climbing up mountains, or getting muddy whilst wandering off trail or orienteering.

Jessica graduated with a PhD in Earth Sciences from the University of Maine in August 2018. She hails originally from New Jersey, where she worked in consulting for a few years before starting her PhD in Maine. Her desire to study glaciology came about while she was earning her Bachelor's degree from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. Jessica is interested in the flow of glaciers and ice sheets, how they change through time, and how humans interact with their environment. Her dissertation research focused on interactions between glaciers and the ocean ("ice-ocean interactions"), which she investigated using icebergs observed in satellite imagery. Jessica is currently a Research Assistant Professor in the University of New Hampshire Earth Systems Research Center (ESRC). Her primary job is to continue as lead developer and community manager for the icepyx Python processing tools for ICESat-2 data.

Caroline Carrigan

Caroline graduated from UMaine with a BS in Environmental Science in winter 2017. During her 3 years as a member of my research group, Caroline worked with hundreds of very high-resolution satellite images so that she could construct records of iceberg melting near seven large glaciers draining the Greenland Ice Sheet. Caroline presented a portion of her work at the University of Maine Center for Undergraduate Research Symposium. 

Caroline recently served as a Language and Culture Ambassador for the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport. She is now a Fellow for the Island Institute, working with island communities in Maine to support their community and environment.