Dr. Mike MacFerrin is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Colorado’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. He received his PhD from CU Boulder’s Geography Department, having been a computer scientist and high-school math teacher before returning to graduate school. Dr. MacFerrin’s research focuses on the ways that increased meltwater is fundamentally changing the behaviors and feedback of ice on the Greenland ice sheet in today’s changing climate. Additionally, MacFerrin is using “big-data” of historical imagery over West Antarctica to provide high-resolution insights into the present-day collapses of vulnerable outlet glaciers. MacFerrin’s work has touched both the physical and societal aspects of our melting ice sheets, including the legacy of Cold War-era military bases thawing out from Greenland’s ice, and their impacts both on global geo-politics and local communities in Greenland. When Dr. MacFerrin isn’t doing his science, he teaches part-time at UC Colorado Springs and spends time with his family and young children at home.
