Ellen Mosley-Thompson is a
glaciologist
Glaciology (; ) is the scientific study of glaciers, or more generally ice and natural phenomena that involve ice.
Glaciology is an interdisciplinary Earth science that integrates geophysics, geology, physical geography, geomorphology, clima ...
and
climatologist
Climatology (from Greek , ''klima'', "place, zone"; and , ''-logia'') or climate science is the scientific study of Earth's climate, typically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of at least 30 years. This modern field of study ...
. She is a Distinguished University Professor at
The Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publi ...
and director of their
Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center. She is known as a pioneer in the use of
ice cores from the Polar Regions for paleoclimatic research and is an influential figure in climate science.
She is an elected fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, the
American Geophysical Union
The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, space, and planetary scientists and enthusiasts that according to their website includes 130,000 people (not members). AGU's a ...
and an elected member of the
National Academy of Sciences.
Early life and education
Mosley-Thompson was raised in West Virginia.
She received a BS in Physics from
Marshall University
Marshall University is a public research university in Huntington, West Virginia. It was founded in 1837 and is named after John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States.
The university is currently composed of nine colleges: ...
, where she was the only female student in the physics department.
She went on to receive both her master's degree and her PhD in geography from The Ohio State University, where she focused on climatology and
atmospheric science.
For her PhD, she interpreted the physical and chemical characteristics of a 100-meter-long ice core drilled at the South Pole in 1974; she compared the results to other cores drilled across the continent, which showed patterns in atmospheric conditions and temperature across
Antarctica
Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...
. With this early research, she demonstrated the importance of extracting high temporally resolved records for paleoclimate studies and, along with her husband and research partner,
Lonnie Thompson
Lonnie Thompson (born July 1, 1948), is an American paleoclimatologist and university professor in the School of Earth Sciences at Ohio State University. He has achieved global recognition for his drilling and analysis of ice cores from ice caps ...
, she pioneered the study of dust (particulate matter) in polar ice cores as a way to examine Earth's climate history.
[
In 1990, Mosley-Thompson joined the faculty of the Ohio State University. She became the director of their Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center in 2009.][
]
Career and impact
Mosley-Thompson is a specialist in paleoclimatology
Paleoclimatology (American and British English spelling differences, British spelling, palaeoclimatology) is the study of climates for which direct measurements were not taken. As instrumental records only span a tiny part of Earth's history, the ...
, abrupt climate changes, glacier retreat, Holocene climate variability, and contemporary climate change.[ Her research focuses on reconstructing climate indicators such as temperature, precipitation and atmospheric composition from the analysis of the physical and chemical properties preserved in ice cores from both Polar Regions as well as from many of Earth's highest mountain glaciers and ice caps in the lower-latitudes. The various chemical constituents are either deposited directly on the glacier surface or within the snow that falls and are eventually compacted into ice where they may be preserved over many millennia. These records provide unique information about the climate and environmental conditions prevailing when the snow was formed.][ Because the ice contained in some of these cores extend back hundreds of millennia, Mosley-Thompson, Thompson and their team are able to reconstruct parts of Earth's complex climate history.][ This research also contributes to the understanding of the impact of volcanic emissions on Earth's climate,][ as well as the chemical composition of the atmosphere. Mosley-Thompson's research provides evidence for past, abrupt climatic and environmental changes, and contributes to an understanding of possible climate futures and possible effects of climate change on human civilization.][
Mosley-Thompson has led nine expeditions to Antarctica and six to Greenland to conduct this research.][ Her most recent expedition was the 6-person ice core drilling project on the Antarctic Peninsula's Bruce Plateau, for which she was field leader and Principal Investigator.][ This project was part of the larger ]National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...
sponsored LARsen Ice Shelf System Antarctica (LARISSA) Project, a multidisciplinary, international effort to study the collapse of the Larsen A & B ice shelves and to contextualize their collapse within the history of climate change.
Mosley-Thompson has published over 137 peer-reviewed journal articles, and she has been the recipient of over 53 research grants. In 2010, The Guardian described Mosley-Thompson and her husband Lonnie Thompson two of the “world's most respected climatologists and glaciologists.” The Franklin Institute describes the team as being “widely recognized as the world's preeminent experts in ice core sampling.”[
In addition to her research, Mosley-Thompson has served as president of AGU’s Atmospheric Sciences and Global Environmental Change Sections; chair of the AGU’s Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology and GEC Sections’ Fellows Committees; chair of the Geology and Geography section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; and as a member of the National Academy of Sciences’ U.S. National Committee for Quaternary Research and the Polar Research Board. She also works to increase the public's understanding of climate change and advocates for grassroots action on climate change.][
]
Awards and honors
Mosley-Thompson is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Geophysical Union
The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, space, and planetary scientists and enthusiasts that according to their website includes 130,000 people (not members). AGU's a ...
. She also is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
, and the American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
. She has received a number of awards, including the Benjamin Franklin Prize (2012),[ the ]Dan David Prize
The Dan David Prize is a major international award that recognizes and supports outstanding contributions to the study of history and other disciplines that shed light on the human past. It awards nine prizes of $300,000 each year to outstanding ...
(2008),[ the Distinguished Explorer Award of the Roy Chapman Andrews Society (2007), and the Common Wealth Award for Science and Innovation (2002).][ In 2003, she was inducted into the ]Ohio Women's Hall of Fame
The Ohio Women's Hall of Fame was a program the State of Ohio's Department of Job and Family Services ran from 1978 through 2011. The Hall has over 400 members. In 2019, the Hall's physical archives and online records were transferred to the ...
. In 2021 she was awarded the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award
The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards () are an international award programme recognizing significant contributions in the areas of scientific research and cultural creation. The categories that make up the Frontiers of Knowledge Awards ...
BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards 2021
/ref> in the category "Climate Change" jointly with her husband Lonnie Thompson
Lonnie Thompson (born July 1, 1948), is an American paleoclimatologist and university professor in the School of Earth Sciences at Ohio State University. He has achieved global recognition for his drilling and analysis of ice cores from ice caps ...
.
The Mosley-Thompson Cirques (Antarctica) located at 78º01´S; 161º28´E were named after her.
References
External links
Oral history interview transcript with Ellen Mosley-Thompson on 3 April 2018, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives
- interview conducted at the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center in Columbus, Ohio
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Ellen Mosley-Thompson's Curriculum Vitae
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Living people
Women atmospheric scientists
Women Antarctic scientists
American Antarctic scientists
Scientists from West Virginia
Scientists from Ohio
Marshall University alumni
Ohio State University alumni
Ohio State University faculty
20th-century American scientists
20th-century American women scientists
21st-century American scientists
Year of birth missing (living people)
Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
American women academics
21st-century American women scientists