McCarthy Glaciology Summer School 2026

Glaciers and ice sheets have spurred both intense scientific activity and expanding data streams from satellite remote sensing and numerical models. Yet, there is a growing gap between the societal need for robust scientific expertise and the training of available graduate students in glaciology. This proposal addresses this need by seeking support for an intensive 11-day International Summer School in Glaciology, to be held at the Wrangell Mountain Center in McCarthy, Alaska, near easily accessible glaciers. The course will bring together 28 graduate students with leading glaciologists to provide a comprehensive, research-level overview of glacier and ice-sheet physics, with strong emphasis on remote sensing and numerical modeling. The summer school directly addresses a need for highly trained glaciologists capable of observing, analyzing, and modeling components of the cryosphere. The immersive, remote setting promotes intensive interaction among students and instructors, strong mentoring, and durable professional networks. Many alumni now hold faculty, research, and industry positions in the US and abroad, multiplying the program’s impact through their own teaching, mentoring, and knowledge sharing. The summer school delivers an integrated curriculum in modern physical glaciology, covering glacier mass balance, glacier dynamics (including surging and tidewater systems), ice-ocean interactions, ice-sheet and inverse modeling, subglacial hydrology, and remote sensing in glaciology. Lectures are followed by quantitative exercises and group projects that engage students with real satellite datasets and open-source modeling tools. Each student will work on a data-based glaciology project and present results in a mini-conference at the end of the course. The program builds on seven prior summer schools (2010–2024), which have received consistently excellent evaluations and produced tangible scientific outputs, including multiple peer-reviewed publications arising from student projects. The PI and co-I have successfully organized and taught all previous iterations, and the instructional team includes additional University of Alaska faculty and external experts in glacier hydrology and remote sensing. All teaching materials are made publicly available on a dedicated website, extending the intellectual impact beyond in-person participants. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. NSF Award ID: 2622477 | Program: 0100CYXXDB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT | Principal Investigator: Regine Hock | Institution: University of Alaska Fairbanks Campus, FAIRBANKS, AK | Award Amount: $29,914 View on NSF Award Search: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award/?AWD_ID=2622477 View on Research.gov: https://www.research.gov/awardapi-service/v1/awards/2622477.html