Brent Minchew promoted to Associate Professor
Minchew during fieldwork to measure the velocity of Iceland’s glaciers. Photo credit: Mark Simons.
The Executive Committee of the Corporation has approved the promotion of Brent Minchew to Associate Professor effective July 2023.
The Class of 1948 Career Development Professor, Minchew’s research looks at the interactions between climate, the cryosphere, and the solid Earth. By combining geodetic observations and physical models, he hopes to develop a better understanding of the dynamics of glaciers and their responses to environmental forcing, with an emphasis on the mechanics of glacier beds, ice-ocean interactions, and ice rheology.
Recently, Minchew has been working on two different projects that were finalists for the Climate Grand Challenges, an Institute competition that called for bold projects to address the climate crisis. Tied closely together, his projects are working to improve ice sheet monitoring through drone observations from the stratosphere and remote sensors on the ice sheets to take ground measurements. With more robust monitoring, Minchew and his team can take a closer look at the material properties in the ice that lead to fracturing and calving of icebergs, which are major contributors to sea level rise.
