Dr. Alison Criscitiello

Biography

Dr. Alison Criscitiello is the Director of the Canadian Ice Core Lab (CICL) at University of Alberta. Alison is an ice core scientist with extensive field experience in Antarctica, the Canadian high Arctic, Greenland, Alaska, and the Canadian Rockies. Her research in the Antarctic and Canadian high Arctic has focused on developing sea ice proxies in ice cores to investigate how sea ice variability affects ice cap dynamics, and how large-scale global teleconnections affect sea ice distribution and, subsequently, polar ice cap behavior. Broadly, her research utilizes new polar ice core records to address how the marine influence on coastal ice caps and ice sheets has changed over time, and how remote atmospheric dynamics impact regional and local processes and climate. Ultimately, this work helps constrain projections of future contributions of polar ice caps to global sea level, and is extremely valuable in advancing our understanding of the complex and coupled ocean-ice-atmosphere system. Dr. Criscitiello obtained her B.A. in Earth and Environmental Science from Wesleyan University (2003), her M.A. in Geology and Geophysics from Columbia University (2006), and her Ph.D. in Glaciology from the MIT/WHOI Joint Program (2014). She moved to Canada to complete a post-doctoral fellowship at University of Calgary (2014-2016) where she expanded her work in the Canadian Arctic to encompass investigations of environmental contaminants in ice cores, and subsequently began her position as Technical Director of CICA in April 2017.

Leadership Roles/ Rôles de leadership

Canadian national delegate and Steering Committee member of International Partnerships in Ice Core Science
Founder and Co-Director, Girls on Ice Canada, 2015-present
Science Advisory Board, Adventure Scientists, 2010-present

Selected Publications/ Publications sélectionnées

Marine aerosol source regions to Prince of Wales Icefield, Ellesmere Island, and influence from the tropical Pacific, 1979–2001
Criscitiello AS, S Marshall, M Evans, C Kinnard, AL Norman, & M Sharp
J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., Vol. 121. (2016)

Tropical Pacific influence on source and transport of marine aerosols to West Antarctica
Criscitiello AS, SB Das, K Karnauskas, M Evans, K Frey et al.
J. Climate, Vol. 27, No. 3. (2014)

Ice sheet record of recent sea-ice behavior and polynya variability in the Amundsen Sea, West Antarctica
Criscitiello AS, S Das, M Evans, K Frey, H Conway, et al.
J. Geophys. Res., Vol. 118. (2013)

Continuous non-marine inputs of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances to the high Arctic: A multi-decadal temporal record
Pickard HM, AS Criscitiello, C Spencer, MJ Sharp, DC Muir, et al
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. (2018)