Eric Rignot
Donald Bren Professor of Earth System Science, Member of the National Academy of Sciences, Chair of the Department.
erignot@uci.edu +1 949 824 3739. CV
Eric (Ph.D. Electrical Engineering, USC and Engineer from Ecole Centrale Paris, France) is an expert on polar ice sheets and the effects of global climate change on the cryosphere. He joined UCI in 2007, from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he continues to serve as a Senior Research Scientist. He uses satellites, airborne platforms, field data (oceanographic surveys) and computer models (JPL/UCI ISSM and MITgcm) to understand the dynamics of glacier ice along the coasts of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets and in Alaska and Patagonia. His research has documented acceleration of ice loss in these places as a result of climate change and the importance of ice-ocean interaction in driving these glacier systems out of balance more rapidly than previously thought possible.
Bernd Scheuchl (2008-)
Project Scientist
bscheuch@uci.edu
+1 949 824 8382
Bernd (Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of British Columbia, Canada) has many years of experience in the field of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) remote sensing. He specializes in SAR interferometry and polarimetry and worked in industrial and academic environments in Europe and North America. Bernd worked on MEASURES-1, 2 and 3, a NASA-funded project to generate ice velocity and grounding line products for Antarctica. He also leads the Polar Task Steering Group (PSTG) which regroups international agencies for tasking existing satellites with polar SAR data acquisitions.
Niccolò Maffezzoli (PostDoc 2022-Present)
nmaffezz@uci.edu
After finishing his PhD and a postdoc at the Center for Ice and Climate in Copenhagen (Denmark), he worked on a project on Artificial Intelligence techniques applied to ice core analyses with a Marie Curie Fellowship. From 2022 to 2023, he was a PI of the ICENET, a pilot project on glacier modeling using deep neural networks, at the CNR-ISP (Institute of Polar Sciences, Italian National Research Council) in collaboration with the University of California, Irvine. Since 2023, he has been working on another Marie Curie project, SKYNET, to calculate the ice volume of all the world’s glaciers using AI/ML in collaboration with UCI and NASA/JPL. He is particularly passionate about deep learning and tackling Earth System Science problems using AI/ML methodologies.
Mattia Poinelli (PostDoc 2023-Present)
mpoinell@uci.edu
Since 2017, Mattia has been a research affiliate at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. During his time at JPL, he earned an M.Sc. in Aerospace Engineering and a Ph.D. in Geoscience and Remote Sensing through a joint collaboration with the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands. In 2023, he joined our group, where he applies remote sensing techniques and numerical models to study ocean circulation beneath Antarctic ice shelves, examining how fine-scale ocean processes impact their stability in the context of global warming.
Sam Herreid (PostDoc 2024-Present)
sherreid@uci.edu
Sam earned a PhD in Glaciology from Northumbria University in 2019, where he produced a global map of supraglacial debris cover. At UCI, he works on the MEASUREs NASA project to generate ice velocity and grounding line products for Antarctica.
Hanning Chen (now a PostDoc, PhD 2024)
Graduate Student
hanninc@uci.edu
Hanning (Master in Electronic Science and Technology of China, UESTC; Bachelor of Spatial Information and Digital Technology, Chengdu University of Technology, CDUT) joined our group in 2019 and graduated from our research group in 2024. He worked on grounding line mapping with Sentinel-1 and other SAR data, combined with melt estimation from satellite data. Now, as a postdoc, he will use satellite products to estimate melt data on Antarctica after accounting for bending effects.
Jaehun Kim (PhD 2024)
Graduate Student
jaehuk2@uci.edu
Jaehun (Master in Korea) joined our group in 2019 and worked on iceberg calving mechanics using SAR interferometry (satellites and GPRI), ICESAT-2 altimetry, and ice sheet models (ISSM). He graduated from our group in 2024.
Ratnakar Gadi (To Graduate in 2025)
Graduate Student
rgadi@uci.edu , +19495396622, CV
Ratnakar Gadi (Master in Maritime Engineering) joined our group in 2021 and works on model simulations of ice-ocean interactions at grounding lines using MITgcm and compares the melt with remote sensing products and other available in-situ data. The goal is to understand the ice melt regime in tidally migrating grounding zones.
Andy Dinh (To Graduate in 2025)
Graduate Student
andy.dinh@uci.edu
Andy Dinh joined our group in 2020. He works jointly with Dr. Ian Fenty at JPL and Dr. Matthew Mazlloff, UCSD, on simulating the Southern Ocean at a high spatial resolution using MITgcm with cavities, subglacial discharge, tides, and sea ice to understand how ocean heat transfers from the edge of the continental shelf, onto the shelf, into the ice shelf cavities and toward the grounding lines. Model evaluation is pursued using remote sensing data.
Raphaelle Charrassin (PhD Student 2024-Present)
Graduate Student
rcharras@uci.edu
Raphaelle Charrassin (Master in Earth and Planetary Science, Nancy, France) joined the group in 2024. She worked as an assistant specialist in the group (January-June 2023) on gravity inversions to reconstruct bathymetry under the Antarctic ice shelves. During her PhD, she will work with observational data to better map the ice shelf cavities and understand the melting regime near the grounding line.
Former Members
Jeremie Mouginot (2007-2022)
Associate Researcher, also now at Institut des Geosciences de l’Environment (IGE), Grenoble France
jmougino@uci.edu
+1 949 824 3931
Jérémie received his PhD in 2008 at the Universite Joseph Fourier, Grenoble France on analyzing radar data from the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding. As a postdoctoral fellow, he joined the Rignot’s group at UCI in 2009. He became Project Scientist in 2010 and was promoted to Researcher in 2015. He worked on the NASA MEaSUREs project to study ice flow in Antarctica using satellite radar interferometry. The Rignot group (Jérémie, Bernd, Eric) produced the first map of Antarctic velocity on display in the fish bowl of Croul Hall since 2011. Jérémie published on ice sheet mass balance, ice sheet-ocean interactions, glacier dynamics, radar sounding of Greenland and Patagonia, and many other aspects of glaciology and of the contribution of glaciers to sea level rise. He received the Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Young Researcher from the European Geophysical Union in 2015, a NASA Group Achievement Award in ice sheet mass balance in 2013, and an ESA Recognition for outstanding contribution to the Mars Express mission in 2012. In 2018, Jérémie moved back to Grenoble, France to take a researcher position at CNRS at the IGE while maintaining a joint appointment with UCI. While in Grenoble, he maintained an amazing publication record and produced breakthrough velocity products for Antarctica (2019) and the world’s glaciers and ice caps (2022). He was a Science Team member of the NASA ISRO NISAR mission to be launched in 2024 and of the ESA Harmony mission to be launched in 2029. He had 116 publications and an h-index of 53. In 2020, he was one of ten (campus-wide) UCI’s Highly Cited Researchers (i.e. top 1% researcher in the field). Jérémie was brilliant, enthusiastic, and friendly. He was deeply loved by students, postdocs, and many colleagues worldwide for his generosity, deep kindness, and exceptional talents.
Enrico Ciraci (Now Researcher at eGEOS, Italy)
NASA Postdoctoral Fellow at JPL
eciraci@uci.edu
Enrico Ciraci graduated from UCI ESS in Isabella Velicogna’s group and joined our group in 2021 as a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow. In Isabella’s group, he gained expertise in GRACE gravity sensing, ICESat-1/2 altimetry, Cryosat altimetry, and worked on glacier mass balance and land water hydrology. As a NASA postdoc, he is working on satellite radar interferometry in north Greenland and Antarctica using principally SAR data from the Cosmo SkyMed constellation and focusing on grounding line processes.
Shivani Ehrenfeucht (now a Postdoc at GFZ potsdam, PhD 2023)
Graduate Student
sehrenfe@uci.edu
Shivani joined our group in 2018 and is working on grounding line migration and variability in ice sheet/ice shelf flow in north Greenland with Sentinel-1 and other SAR data, in combination with ice sheet modeling (ISSM). She is also a member of Mathieu Morlighem’s research group (co-advisor). She graduated in 2023 and is currently doing a postdoc at GFZ potsdam.
Emily Kane (now Prof. Cuesco College, San Luis Obispo, CA)
Tenure-track Professor of Earth and ocean sciences at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo.
kanees@uci.edu
Emily (B.S. in meteorology from Plymouth State University in New Hampshire) joined our group in 2015. She is working to combine terrestrial radar and remote sensing data to explore calving dynamics of Western Greenland’s ice margins and in particular what new physics can be explored with faster repeat system not yet available from space. Got her dream job teaching at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo.
Mike Wood (now at Prof. at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, San Jose State University).
Professor at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, San Jose State University.
mhwood@uci.edu
Mike (B.S. in Mathematical Sciences from U.C. Santa Barbara) joined our group in 2014. He has been combining remotely sensed data with oceanic and atmospheric model output to investigate the role of the ocean in driving glacial retreat in northwest Greenland and, more recently, over the entire periphery of Greenland. He graduated in 2019 and pursued a NASA postdoc at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory with Dr. Ian Fenty. He currently works as a professor at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, San Jose State University.
Seongsu Jeong (now at JPL)
Assistant Project Scientist
seongsuj@uci.edu
+1 949 824 8382
Seongsu (Ph.D. in Geodetic Science and Surveying, At Ohio State University, Columbus OH), he has years of experience in remote sensing of ice motion from optical sensors and now with SAR and has expert in cluster, cloud and AI computing. At UCI, Seongsu works on the NASA MEASURES-3 project to generate ice velocity and grounding line products for Antarctica, ICESat-2 altimetry, and AI retrieval of grounding lines. Now, he is a assistant project scientist at NASA-JPL.
Lu An (now Research Prof. at Tongji Univ., China)
Research Professor at Tongji University, Shanghai, China
lan3@uci.edu , anlu2021@tongji.edu.cn
Lu joined Rignot’s research group at UC Irvine in 2011 and graduated with a Ph.D. in 2017. She has been working on using high-resolution airborne gravity data combined with other data sets to infer the bathymetry of fjords and bed topography of glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica to create data sets critical to understanding the role of ice-ocean interaction in controlling the evolution of glaciers and ice sheets. She started her tenured position at Tongji University, Shanghai, China, since Mar. 2022.
Xin Li
Orbital Insight, Inc., San Francisco Bay Area.
cilanc@uci.edu
Xin Li (M.Sc in Environmental Measurements and Assessments from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden) joined our group in 2011. She worked on the Totten Glacier mass balance using SAR interferometry and now leads a research group at Orbital Insight, Inc. in the Bay Area. Xin graduated in 2016.
Cilan Cai
Graduate Student, now NGO in China
cilanc@uci.edu
Cilan (M.Sc in Environmental Measurements and Assessments from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden) joined our group in 2012. She is currently applying modeling tools to study the impact of ocean and subglacial discharge on the melting regime of the floating ice tongue of Petermann Glacier in Greenland. Cilan graduated in 2017.
Hongju Yu
Graduate Student, now NGO in China
hongjuy@uci.edu
Hongju (B.S. from Nanjing University, China) joined our group in 2012. He is currently trying to write a model on grounding line dynamics and incorporate it into the Ice Sheet System Model. He developed a number of modeling studies of the Thwaites Glacier system in West Antarctica for projecting its evolution in the coming centuries as a function of thermal forcing from the ocean and from calving dynamics. HongJu graduated in 2017.
Toufik Chtouki
Graduate Student, now in France
ctoufik@uci.edu
Toufik joined our group in 2018 and worked on gravity inversion for ice shelves in Antarctica to earn his Master’s degree in Earth System Science.
Pietro Millilo
Tenure-Track Professor at the University of Houston, Texas.
pietro.milillo@jpl.nasa.gov
Dr. Pietro Millilo (Ph.D. Univ. Bari, Italy) joined our group in 2015 as a NASA URSA postdoctoral fellow. He is an expert in SAR interferometry for applications in geophysics. He uses Cosmo Skymed data and TanDEM-X data in Antarctica to learn about West Antarctic Glaciers. He is also a good cook. He was hired at JPL in 2018 where he works on SAR interferometry, e.g. the Surface Deformation Change mission of the Decadal Survey. Pietro moved to JPL in 2019 and continues his career as Professor at the University of Houston, Texas.
Romain Millan
Graduate Student, now CNRS Researcher at IGE, France.
millanr1@uci.edu
Romain Millan (Master in Geophysics, Strasbroug, France) is an expert in remote sensing and glaciology. He is working 3D gravity inversion in Greenland and Antarctica for the Ocean Melting Greenland Mission, mass budget of small ice caps, ice velocity mapping using historical data and Landsat time series, and has also a lot of experience in the field with GPRI, CTD, and AWS (North East Greenland). He graduated in 2018 and is now a postdoc at the Institut des Geosciences de l’Environment (IGE), Grenoble France where he works on mountain glacier remote sensing.
Anders Anker Bjork
Professor, Department of Geosciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
andersb@snm.ku.dk
Anderrs (Ph.D. University of Copenhagen, Denmark) joined our group in 2016 as a postdoctoral fellow from the Danish Research Council to work on NASA’s Ocean Melting Greenland Mission. He is an expert on historical photography and other data for Greenland and Antarctica; and has a deep and detailed knowledge of Greenland as a whole. He is exploring ways to utilize these old data to make velocity maps which help us extend the satellite record by another 40 years. Anders is pursing his career an Assistant Professor and continues to work with us in Greenland.
Yun Xu
Ph.D., now Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Bay area.
yunx@uci.edu
The title of her thesis was “Subaqueous melting of Greenland tidewater glaciers”. Yun (M.Sc. in Atmospheric Sciences from Nanjing University, China) is using numerical models to study the submarine melting and its impacts on glacial dynamics. Her work focused on Greenland tidewater glaciers. Yun Xu pioneered the use of the MITgcm ocean model to model melt water plumes in front of the vertical calving faces of Greenland glaciers in 2D and then in 3D at very high resolution (1 m).
Basile de Fleurian
Researcher Institutt for geovitenskap, UiB, Department of Earth Science, Norway.
basile.defleurian@uci.edu
Basile (Ph.D. in Geophysics from the University of Grenoble, France) has developed a subglacial hydrological model with the aim of giving a better description of the basal sliding of glaciers. His research at ESS focuses on the implementation of the hydrological code in ISSM and the application to large scale glaciers. He is now a Researcher, University of Bergen, Norway.
Helene Seroussi
Professor, Dartmouth College
Helene.Seroussi@jpl.nasa.gov
Helene (Ph.D. in ice sheet numerical modeling from Ecole Centrale Paris, France) is one of the core developers of the Ice Sheet System Model developed in partnership with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Her research focuses on improving numerical projections of the ice sheet contribution to sea level rise in a warming climate. She is on the executive board of ISMP6. Her particular focus is Antarctica. Helene has led the coupling of ISSM with MITgcm, the first fully-coupled ocean-ice high resolution model. After spending a number of years at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a researcher, she is pursuing her career as Associate Professor at Dartmouth College since 2021.
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