Midwest Glaciology

We plan to have the 2026 Midwest Glaciology meeting in West Lafayette, IN from May 11-12, 2026. This will be an informal event  with emphasis on ongoing research and discussion. Please fill out the registration form if you plan to come. 

The Midwest Glaciology meetings are early career centric. We encourage PIs to attend but encourage talks and presentations from early career researchers. Oral presentation time slots will be 20 min, so please plan for a 15 min presentation to leave 5 min for discussion and change-over. 

Talks on works in progress are encouraged.

Preliminary schedule:

Monday, May11th: 

8:45-9:00: coffee and pastries

9:00 - 11:15: talks (6 x 20 min)

• opening remarks

• Henry Loope, Indiana Geological and Water Survey: Chronology of Laurentide Ice Sheet fluctuations in Indiana during the global LGM

• Douglas MacAyeal, University of Chicago: The Ice-Shelf Rumples field study

• Sarah Wells-Moran, University of Chicago: Near-total loss of buttressing observed on Pine Island Glacier

• Kayla Willis, Ohio State University: Antarctic Ice Shelf Thickness, Structure, and Stability from Remote Sensing and Deep Learning

• Kayla Hubbard, UW Madison: Linking Taylor Glacier dynamics to seasonal hydrologic variability and episodic groundwater discharge at Blood Falls

• Olivia Doty, UW Madison: Notch Your Average Melt: Wave-Induced Erosion of Ice Cliffs

11:15 - 12:30: lunch

12:30 - 14:10: talks (5 x 20 min)

• Meghana Ranganathan, University of Chicago: Are ice streams rivers?

• Aiyana Leigh, University of Chicago: Investigating extent and drivers of Margin Migration in Antarctica 

• Xueji Shi, Purdue University: Numerical simulation of iceberg calving-induced fjord dynamics

• Abhinav Gupta, Vanderbilt University: Scalable Phase-field Implementation of Crack Evolution for Modeling Surface Crevasse Growth and Interaction In Glaciers

• Ashvin Oli, Vanderbilt University: A full-Stokes phase field fracture model for simulating creeping flow and brittle fracture of glaciers

14:10 - 15:30: coffee and 10 posters 

• Mallory Miller, Indiana University Bloomington: Ice Flow Fluctuation of Dibble Glacier

• Mya Chaille, Indiana University: Using Radar Data to Determine Fabric in Kangerlussuaq

• José Luis Antinao, Indiana University: Luminescence chronology of buried MIS 6 and older glacial deposits in northern Indiana

• Anjali Subramanian, University of Chicago: What causes ice to fracture on Pine Island Glacier?

• Emma Liu, University of Chicago: Inferring Ice Rheology Using Probabilistic Machine Learning

• Syd Brinker, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: Glacial River-blocking

• Julia Votava, UW Madison: Constraining Bedrock Fracture Orientation in a Late-Glacial Spillway Using Seismic Methods

• Zoe Loschke, UW Madison: Channelization at the Base of Antarctic Ice Streams​

• Nathan Schoedl, University of Chicago: Modeling Grain-Scale Deformation and Dislocation Density Evolution of Ice 

• Sidi Liu, University of Wisconsin-Madison: Down to ice: Satellite detection and analysis of iceberg sizes

15:30 - 16:30: talks (3 x 20 min)

• Perianne Johnson, Purdue University: Glaciers and Ice Deposits throughout the Solar System

• Krutika Appaswamy, Purdue University: Wave interaction and breaking of sea-ice

• Karan Sah, Kathmandu University (virtual): Deep Learning-based Rock Glacier Inventory and Permafrost Change Assessment in the Central Himalaya Range

16:35 - 17:00: cleaning up and leave the building by 5pm

17:20 - 18:00: lab tour - internal wave demonstration

18:00: Dinner at Delon and Elizabeth Hampton Hall of Civil Engineering (HAMP) 1st floor faculty lounge (near main office)

Tuesday, May 12th:

8:45 - 9:15:   coffee and pastries

9:15 - 11:15:  talks (6 x 20 mins)

• Luke Zoet, UW-Madison: Examine the formation of subglacial landforms 

• Dougal hansen, Washington University in St. Louis: Subglacial effective stress constrained from normal incidence active source seismics

• Jeremy Brooks, University of Wisconsin-Madison: TBD

• Natasha Morgan-Witts, UW-Madison: How Transient Effective Pressure Alters Subglacial Mechanics and Water Flow

• Mara Corum, UW-Madison: The impact of tills mechanical properties on lobe dynamics of the Lake Superior Region 

• Jaiden Zak, UW Madison: Icequakes Beneath Thwaites Glacier

11:15 - 12:30:  lunch

12:30 - 13:30: talks (3 x 20 mins) 

• Zoe Schlossnagle, Washington University in St. Louis: Passive Seismic Observations on Taku Glacier

• Noah Le Brun, UW Madison: Exploring Bubble-Ice Interactions using Cryogenic Electron Backscattered Diffraction (EBSD)

• Kathy Licht, Indiana University Indianapolis: What do featureless till plains tell us about Laurentide ice sheet behavior?