Eric Steig is a Canadian-American scientist specializing in polar climate,

glaciology 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, clim ...

isotope geochemistry Isotope geochemistry is an aspect of geology based upon the study of natural variations in the relative abundances of isotopes of various Chemical element, elements. Variations in isotopic abundance are measured by isotope-ratio mass spectrometry, ...

, and

ice core An ice core is a core sample that is typically removed from an ice sheet or a high mountain glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier ...

science. Steig is the Ben Rabinowitz Professor of Earth and Space Sciences at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

. He is also adjunct professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences. Steig served as Chair of the University of Washington's Department of Earth and Space Sciences from 2020 to 2024 and Director of the Quaternary Research Center from 2008 to 2014. He has published more than 175 peer-reviewed scientific papers on topics including ice-core analysis, polar climate variability, and ice-sheet history. He is best known for his work on

climate change in Antarctica Despite its isolation, Antarctica has experienced warming and ice loss in recent decades, driven by greenhouse gas emissions. West Antarctica warmed by over 0.1 °C per decade from the 1950s to the 2000s, and the exposed Antarctic Peni ...

and its influence on the stability of the Antarctic ice sheet, and for research in the British Columbia Coast Range mountains. He is also known for development of novel methods in laser

spectroscopy Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets electromagnetic spectra. In narrower contexts, spectroscopy is the precise study of color as generalized from visible light to all bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. Spectro ...

, including the analysis of the rare

oxygen-17 Oxygen-17 (17O) is a low-abundance, natural, stable isotope of oxygen (0.0373% in seawater; approximately twice as abundant as deuterium). As the only stable isotope of oxygen possessing a nuclear spin (+) and a favorable characteristic of fiel ...

isotope in water. He was Senior Editor of the journal '' Quaternary Research'' from 2004 to 2008, and a member of the Board of Reviewing Editors for ''

Science (journal) ''Science'' is the peer review, peer-reviewed academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and one of the world's top academic journals. It was first published in 1880, is currently circulated weekly and h ...

'' from 2013 to 2018. Steig was one of the founding contributors to

RealClimate ''RealClimate'' is a commentary site (blog) on climatology. The site's contributors include climate scientists whose goal is to provide a response to developing stories and a context they feel is sometimes missing in mainstream commentary o ...

, the first prominent blog about climate science written by scientists, which was founded "to provide responses to and context for press coverage of climate research". He was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2019, in part for this "early innovation in science communication". He has also been recognized as a National Academy of Sciences Kavli Fellow. In 2023, he was elected a Fellow of the

American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, Atmospheric science, atmospheric, Oceanography, ocean, Hydrology, hydrologic, Astronomy, space, and Planetary science, planetary scientists and enthusiasts that ...

"for numerous fundamental contributions in ice core, paleoclimate, and climate dynamics research". He was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

in 2024.

References

External links

Faculty page
* American glaciologists Living people Fellows of the American Geophysical Union Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science University of Washington faculty University of Washington alumni American geochemists Canadian geochemists Canadian glaciologists University of Colorado faculty Academics of the University of Edinburgh Hampshire College alumni University of Pennsylvania faculty Year of birth missing (living people) {{glaciologist-stub